[1.21.6][EU][EN] Ilu Ambar - Quenta Yára : whitelisted, coop, build & pve focussed, modded, light RP, new player friendly, difficulty progression, UNIQUE

[AlteOgre]

Hear ye, hear ye, a new Vintage Story server is looking for thee!



We at Ilu Ambar, a whitelisted, mature, high trust community rooted in LOTR modded Minecraft have a new Vintage Story server: Ilu Ambar - Quenta Yára

The server opened on monday, 2nd of June 2025.
Latest server settings changes and mod additions were implemented in late december of in-game Year 9, on tuesday, 11th of November 2025

Here's an overview of the server's starting points and main features:

• Aimed for a lasting, friendly gameplay environment for long term themed roleplay and world building efforts.
• Theme for building and roleplay is medieval and in agreement with Vintage Story lore.
• World is persistent, with planned world border expansions (incl. with new VS updates).
• Server is modded with focus on vanilla mechanics and additional flavour and QoL improvements.
• Settings and mods make for a "new player friendly" environment on launch and first few (ca. 20!) in-game years, with increased difficulty and expanded features planned.
• World started without top predators and temporal storms, but as Seraphs gain strength (diet, gear, Xskills) so does their hostile environment.
• The server is unique in the way it gradually enhances the gameplay experience through config changes and mod additions.
• The whitelist secures a high trust community of mature players, requiring minimal staff involvement and working with simple, common sense rules.
• Initial lore is set, with players and their seraphs adding their own tales to the server lore as their immersive, light roleplay evolves. As the world evolves, its lore expands.
• Not a server for speed running gamers, nor for pvp and/or 'faction' focussed gameplay.

If this triggered your curiosity, do not hesitate to join us in our Discord server, and to continue reading.

Ilu Ambar DISCORD Server

 

Opening lore

Quote

 

Seraphs enter a world that appears to be in a stasis. They find the underworld inhabited by strange, seemingly 'drifting', hostile creatures who come out in the overworld at night. When going deeper down into the underworld, they experience an increasing, ominous sensation of instability, expressed through a blur of the senses. Somehow the drifting creatures seem unaffected by this phenomenon. It even appears as if it strengthens them. The instability intensity appears to vary and in some places it even noticeably reaches the surface.
Other than that, and the ruined remnants of a humanity that once inhabited this world, the world is a relatively peaceful place that supports a simple and easy life. Only the night, provoked larger animals, and the seasons may pose some serious threat for the unprepared.
Most of the world's top animal predators are so small in numbers that they seem to have disappeared. Their presence is likely to grow though, as their prey is so abundant. The new inhabitants will have to prepare for this, but they are small in numbers and only rarely encounter likeminded of kin willing to join hands. Some have chosen to lead a nomadic life either alone or in very small groups. They live in carriages and hunt, gather and especially trade whatever they find valuable with other seraphs. Others choose to settle down permanently, either as a hermit, or in small hamlets with a few others.
As each seraph only has limited abilities, they all need to specialise their craft and eventually, only through cooperation they will succeed to cope with whatever this world and its maker have in store for them.

Meanwhile, seraphs struggle with their place and purpose in this world, and their origins. Why are they here? Who or what has brought them here?

The scales of the world may be at a tipping point. There is a superlative for ominous, it senses ...

 

 

Difficulty progression

• Difficulty starts low and gradually increases towards 'fairly tough for late game developed hermits'.
• Additional entities through mods: various predators and even outlaw NPCs will cross your path later on.
• Increasing Temporal Instability: Temporal Rifts are off initially, increasing Temporal Storm (TS) Frequency and Intensity, starting from 0.
• Settings that will be adjusted in time: player health points, hunger rate, body temperature hardiness and health regeneration rate, and creature strength and swim speed.
• Other difficulty enhancing features: bedspawn becomes TG spawn, decreasing respawn usages of TG's, immersion enhancing mods

 

Mechanisms that help the player cope

• The vanilla learning curve involving improved health (diet) and gear.
• XSkills, Pets, FleeExhaustion.
• Corpses hold careless and/or unlucky seraph drops.
• Mods that enhance various controls.
• We support mobs radar and some helpful hud enhancements.

 

Main world and difficulty affecting settings for the winter of in-game year 9:

• Per spring of in-game year 8, the pace of time has halved, resulting in days taking 96 instead of 48 real life minutes!
• World is huge with polar-equator distance set to 192000 blocks.
• Spawn is at 45° latitude and world borders are set to 32.0k from spawn. Min and max reachable latitudes are 30.0°-60.0°. Four teleporters are available at spawn, offering fast travel approx. 25k blocks in each cardinal direction. World borders will expand!
• World is generated with Conquest Landform, Blocklayer Overhaul and BetterForest.
• World generation setings: height = 320 blocks, landcover = 80%, landcover scale = 125%, upheaval = 30%, landform scale = 160%, ore occurence = 160%.
• Months last 30 days, days last 96 minutes, time always progresses, night does not fast forward and food decay rate is set to 35%.
• Player and entity stats: health = 17 hp, hunger rate = 95%, health regeneration rate = 115%, creature swim speed = 120%.
• Crop growth rate is set to 88%.
• Pick node search radius is set to 8.
• Sneak while setting your respawn point at your bed.
• Temporal rifts are enabled. Storms are enabled, with 'rare' frequency and medium duration, and drifters spawning only in dark to badly lit areas, at some distance from seraphs. Default game settings, and worse, will eventually be adopted!
• Strongest predators are leopards, panda bears, red wolves, wild dogs, and largest prey are moose ... and the food pyramid is gradually growing, up, up!
• Players can use /starterkit and maybe grab some leftovers in chests at the inn at spawn for an enhanced start.

 

Mods (just the present ones)

• Th3essentials, WorldBorder, FairPlayGuardian, LoginProtection, PlayerlistRevived, PlayerCorpse, ClaimsRadar, ProspectTogether
• ConfigureEverything, BerryBushGrowthControl, OfflineFoodNoSpoil, WeatherTheStorm
• CarryOn, TheBasics, DanaTweaks, ChiseledBlockRetention, MechanicalBlockRetention, BullseyeContinued, OverhaulLib, XSkills, TraitAcquirerReborn, WarmGambeson
• BetterRuins, BetterRuinsLootChanges, BetterForest, RealGrapes, TraderCamps
• ACullinaryArtillery, ApeLanterns, AttributeRenderingLibrary, BillPosting, Bola, Braziers, Bricklayers, Butchering, CanoeMod, ExpandedFoods, ExpandedMatter, FoodShelves, HangingOilLamps, Heraldry, HeraldryBanners, Millwright, OneRoof, PurposefulStorage, QP's ChiselTools, Dressmakers, Quivers&Sheaths, RelightTorches, ShearLib, ShelfObsessed, StoneBakeOven, StoneQuarry, TailorsDelight, VanillaVariants, Vinconomy, Wool&More
• PetAI, Cats, CuniCulture, FoxTaming, MoreAnimals, FotSA:Caninae, FotSA:Caprolinae, FotSA:Felinae, FotSA:Pantherinae, FleeExhaustion, ScareCrow, WolfTaming

Note that there are quite a few mods planned to be added in a later stage, both for the progressive difficulty and to ensure players will keep enjoying their time on our server.

 

View of the lakeside hamlet near spawn, with a little in the back to the right, the welcoming "Inn of Ancient Tale" (Már Nathaiano Quenta Yára).

 

We hope to welcome many new like-minded players to come play Vintage Story, or LOTR modded Minecraft with us in the coming years!

Edited January 1 by AlteOgre
Update to VS v1.21.6.

[AlteOgre]

Reserved for later use.

[AlteOgre]

Reserved for later use.

[AlteOgre]

Server updated to v1.20.11.

[AlteOgre]

We've added the wonderful OneRoof mod to our server. Just one day before server opening.

[AlteOgre]

Our spawn area is ready for opening.

Edited June 1, 2025 by AlteOgre

[AlteOgre]

We found EntitiesInteract no longer working with MoreAnimals and FotSA:Caninae since v1.20.10. As we wish to surpress MoreAnimals entity spawns and gradually introduce FotSA predators (a.o. the Caninae), we decided to not use MoreAnimals and FotSA:Caninae fttb, until EntitiesInteract can again properly control entity spawns from those mods. EntitiesInteract does still manage to control vanilla mob spawns fortunately.

[AlteOgre]

Server just opened, yeey!

[AlteOgre]

Server updated to v1.20.12!

[AlteOgre]

After a very smooth start we faced some tough headwinds with problems at our server back-end and possibly also from EntitiesInteract/EntitiesConfig giving us major downtime. We took out mentioned mods and also had our host correct possible causes at their end and are now back up again, with more seraphs, sponsors and slots, and more mods as well!

[AlteOgre]

Community is steadily growing and very active. We've just expanded the player slots for a second time since launch.

Come join in while the world is still friendly to all new seraphs (see forum post), and as we're approaching our second spring (and some planned additions).

[frostwick]

This is the server I settled on after browsing through a good few, and here's honestly why:

• The map is very open and has a good amount of variety, and although there's plenty of landmass, people have stayed largely <2k blocks of spawn, rather then on many other server where they be 10-20K.
• The community is actually active, inviting, and starting to cover a range of time-zones. 
• Things and people are being allowed to actually play-out and structure the world organically over time, without all the tedious "towny-esque" rules, recruitment, drama.
• Owner is actually around and very responsive. So if a problem does pop up, you'll know/see on the discord what's going on surprisingly fast.

So yeah, if you too are tired of bouncing from cheating ops, to generic repeat "insert feudal kingdom" slop as I was, this one might be worth actually checking out for that comfy survival community server feels.  

[AlteOgre]

Year 0 was a good year for newly arriving seraphs. A 'walk in the park' some might say. The world is gradually changing, and Year 1 has just started on our VS server.

Word has spread that some industrious seraphs have mastered and improved ways to quarry large chunks of rock, allowing for more effective and efficient quarrying methods ... (added StoneQuarry mod)

Last year and early spring still gave a berry boom ... but somehow the growth rate of this easy food resource has slowed significantly ... (added BerryBushGrowthControl)

The abundance of small prey seems to have boosted the development of stronger predators and we're getting multiple reports of hunters encountering stronger foxes and even newer, stockier breeds of canines ... (enabled spawns of stronger foxes, raccoon dogs and some jackals)

[SubtleOrc]

Hello Everyone..

Our town is looking for an experienced builder who can join us and have free reign building the medieval town of their dreams. We are well progressed technology wise and can assist you where neccessary. Looking for someone to build out our town with a common consistent look and feel. Housing, tools and food provided. Join our town and help make it your own.

discord link is in this thread - join up and message SubtleOrc for details.

[Kai_Guy]

are there oceans turned on? Looking for a rp server where sailing is fun/usefull

[AlteOgre]

3 hours ago, Kai_Guy said:

are there oceans turned on? Looking for a rp server where sailing is fun/usefull

We have no huge oceans, but there are large bodies of water. We use Conquest Landform Overhaul with LandCover 80%, LandCoverScale 125%, Upheaval 30% and LandFormScale 160%.

Btw, welcome to Ilu Ambar!

[AlteOgre]

Year 1 has come to and end for our @Seraphs and they rejoice in another spring, full of life and excitement! 

The new year is coming with some ominous changes. Strange distortions of reality appear in apparently random locations at random times. The few who dare share their experiences report that entering them, on purpose or accidentally, is said to be quite scary and comparable to the effect of a long stay deep in the underhome. They are referred to as rifts and they can at times come in huge numbers, resulting in many spawns of the creatures that once would remain deep in the underhome or who would only come out of the many caves and crevices after dark ... (enabled rifts)

The changes appear to have a remarkable effect on the seraphs and animals of our world whose appetite seems to grow bigger and whose perseverance to cross bodies of water has grown stronger respectively ... (seraph hunger rate and creature swimming speed increased)

The arrival of stronger canines may have sped up the selection of bulkier, more agile and more illusive species of deer ... (added FotSA:Capreolinae - deer stronger than 6t1 won't spawn yet)

Finally, the skillset of our seraphs has grown and they are now able to close off many smaller holes in rooms that would otherwise cause draught and unintended cooling or heating. A new product called oakum, craftable from flax fibres, does the trick ... (added HeatRetention mod)

[AlteOgre]

Added two new mods for the purpose of general convenience:
* SeaLevelFix: The base game does not correct the 'near surface ore spawn levels' for worlds with non-default height. Our world has a height of 320 instead of the default 256 blocks and therefore those ores are typically found some tens of blocks deeper underground. This mod corrects for that. This may be a 'late addition', but still very useful as our world expands. Mod will only be effective with new terrain generation: terrain generated before this addition will have 'near surface ores' generated at deeper levels. Most have got used to that by now.
* OfflineFoodNoSpoil: This mod enables reduced food spoil of items held in the player inventory while the player is not logged in. We will work with a setting that makes the player inventory while not logged in be similar to a 'cellar'.

[AlteOgre]

On Ilu Ambar - Quenta Yára, year 2 has almost passed as our @Seraphs learn to master their trades. The development of adequate tools now enables them to chisel the most soft and brittle materials. (enabled 'micoblockChiselling all' and added QP's ChiselTools mod)

The world continues to evolve and life's struggle is slowly getting harder as stronger canines with more pack-like behaviour emerge and the coming of the rifts in last year has seemingly slowed the growth rate of crops. (enabled spawning of 4t1 canines like coyotes, dingos and smaller wolf types + reduced crop growth rate with 4%)

Note that we had a very serious back-end caused roll-back of 6 days and a long wait for back-end maintenance, pushing us all back for almost 2 weeks. Server hasn't had even a single crash since then and we haven't experienced any lag issues either. Running smoother than ever, even when fully populated.

[AlteOgre]

Our seraphs are enjoying their fourth summer (July Y3). While adapting to the gradual changes in the availability of food sources, they have expanded their capabilities to process foods and are now able to produce a much wider range of prepared meals. (added ExpandedFoods and ACulinaryArtillery)

With the arrival of larger prey and predators, the hunters have developed their techniques for ranged attacks and shared their insights with everyone. (added BullseyeContinued and OverhaulLib)

Their ingenuity proves all the more useful as the ever more present temporal disturbances erode their constitution. (reduced seraph base health form 20 to 19 hp)

[frostwick]

Quote

Journal of Mero Ralas, Early Autumn, year four of my exile.

 

When I first awoke on this coast, under an unfamiliar sky, the bite of the wind on my skin, I cursed and dreaded every new day. Scrapping the meager scraps of life from every tree, rock, and animal I could find, only to crawl into a squalid bed of filth and grass. My eyes sunken into a placid face, staring at a belly bloated from hunger. Memories of finely dressed courtiers, halls decorate with every ordainment of civilization, the scents of endless feasts, all wreathing in my mud covered skull. How I longed for it all…. For but smallest of crumbs of the world I remembered, the world of my distant dreams.

 

Each coming season I expected to succumb to this inescapable fate. Weak, withered arms readily outreached to welcome my own passing each night, instead only to find myself awakening to a new sunrise. The arduous, became anticipated. The world may have forgotten, but my hands remembered, becoming ever more refined in recreating those dreams with each passing moon. Nor was I alone: the cook in the hills with his warmly prepared meals and jugs of wine. The dwarf, in the mountains shadow with glimmering towers of iron and steel. The skyward reaching towers of the Bay across the sea. All longing towards the same dreams.

 

So now; from my cushioned seat, warmed by the fire, with a full belly covered by finest linens, I worry not of my cold lonely end, but those same visions still, but set in this land. We will create that world here, one all our own, and I will be the one to stitch each button on those fine robes.

 

Edited August 4, 2025 by frostwick

[AlteOgre]

The winter of in-game Year 3 is nearing its end and while our seraphs rejoice in meeting another spring in Y4, the world will meet them with some new challenges.

It senses the ominous signs of a first major temporal disruption, causing the now named drifters of the deep to approach ever closer to the surface and the light. (Enabled Temporal Storms at lowest frequency and duration. Added WeatherTheStorms mod, restricting drifter spawns during storms to min 32 blocks from player and max light levels of 3.)

This change in the world's temporal behaviour has an immediate effect on plants, animals and seraphs. (Food Decay rate increased to 30%, Creature Swim Speed increased to 110%, Player Hunger Rate increased to 85%, Player Health Recovery Rate decreased to 120%.) 

Meanwhile, the world's fauna keeps evolving. While canines grow bigger and specialize in pack hunting, felines pursue specialisation in a different predatory technique: ambush hunting. This has lead to the emergence of stronger cat species that can not be tamed as easily. (Added mod FotSA:Felinae. Enabled all caracal and lynx spawns: all 4t1 strength species.)

Seraphs are poised to further explore the world and help each other find opportunities to improve their prospects. (Expanded World Border to 22.4 k blocks in all directions. Added mods BillPosting and TraitAcquirer.)

[AlteOgre]

During the cold winter months @Seraph are spending a lot of their time pondering possibilities to improve their lives. The winter of Year 4 has proven very fruitful in terms of novel nifty means for precision woodworking. This allows for various new applications making their lives easier, and safer. (Added mods WoodenShuttersAndMore, MechanicalBlockRetention and Millwright.)

Meanwhile, the less crafty seraphs who spend much of their time outdoors, have come up with ways to tame red and arctic foxes. Nobody knows whether mastering these small canines will prove them any good though. (Added FoxTaming.) 

In the course of the year, the new major temporal disruptions, now called "Temporal Storms", have gradually lengthened and cause drifters to appear closer by, and in lighter areas. (Temporal Storm duration increased from 25 to 30%, while during storms drifters spawn at min 28 blocks from seraphs where light level is below 5.) 

Final noteworthy news flash may be an account of a hunter who says they had some extraordinary sightings in the far south, of possibly a yet unknown animal species. These are quite large four legged furry beasts, with heads that have similarities with canines. And they are apparently also capable to stand on 2 legs and seem to be omnivorous. (Enabled spawning of sun bears.)

[Elgee]

Moving into the 5th in-game year the chaos has started to settle down, the fight for survival fading into the background for those that have built up settlements.
Roads and shipping lanes are now being carved into the earth, connecting the world inhabitents as trade has started to flow.

I joined on the 2nd year (mid winter) and can happily say this server is very friendly and new player welcoming. 
The first couple of nights I was given shelter by strangers, offered food and tools in exchange for helping around their start-up and once I built up enough supplies I headed
out to find and start my new home which has now turned into a settlement of 5 people all living close by, helping each other out.

THE BAY

Player Base + Server 

The player base is very active on discord and in-game, on avarage "during the day EU times" there's a minimum of 5 people online and later on in the evening around 9-11.
We're always looking for new players to join and build up this world, whether you're looking to homestead by yourself, start a settlement or join one of the current ones!

With the Xskills mod installed specializing in a profession really helps with the games economy / trade as people specialize in a given profession increasing the quaility and output of their goods.

The server overall has a progression system, almost like a progressing civilisation, each year new technologies are discovered such as, this year :
(Millwright) was added which helps increase the power of our windmills.

Along with those new technologies which help us to survive and prosper, the world also becomes more dangerous, animal/creature damange/spawn tweaks.
New animals/creatures are discovered "Sun-bears" are now spawning from this year onwards. 

All in all, the gradual difficulty increase and new mods really helps keep the server active and "fun" as things are constantly changing as each year passes. 

 

If you're looking for a relaxing, friendly and active server with a progression system and difficulty increase each in-game year, I'd highly recomend giving this one a chance.
I look forward to seeing you in-game.

-Elgee

 

 

[AlteOgre]

The storms are lengthening they said.
Our explorers have gone farther they said.
Our means have improved they said.
Their bodies grow weaker they felt.

Longer storms, drifters appear more close-by and at higher light levels, and crop growth is slowing down.
The world we know has grown larger, with more varied forests, larger prey and larger predators.
We scare the crows from the crops, we bake a cake and store the more, and can cripple whichever we target.
Seraphs constitution and metabolism have weakened.

Oh it senses ...

 

Implemented Y5-Y6 changes:

• TS duration increased from 30 to 35%.
• Drifter spawning during TS closer to players and in lighter areas (resp. 24 blocks and light level 5).
• Crop growth rate reduced from 96 to 92%.
• World border expanded with another 100 chunks (to 800 chunks / 25.6k blocks).
• Added: FotSA:Pantherinae and BetterForest.
• Enabled spawning of Pantherinae with a strength of up to 5 (Leopards enter the world, at 50% of default rates).
• Enabled spawning of all deer from both vanilla and FotSA:Capreolinae with a strength of up to 8 (Marsh, White-tailed and similar, at 50% of default rates).
• Creature swim speed increased from 110 to 115%.
• Player health reduced from 19 to 18 hp, and hunger rate increased from 85 to 90%.
• Added: Scarecrow, StoneBakeOven, ShelfObsessed and FleeExhaustion.