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Minecraft heads to Lord of the Rings’ Mines of Moria

Minecraft is an excellent way to pay homage to many things including the beautiful door to LOTR’s Mines of Moria, and that's what's happening here

Minecraft has seen its fair share of recreations. Whether it’s a YouTuber making their twisted take on Tetris, or just a fan creating their very own Dark Souls game, there’s no shortage of blocky takes on other bits of media. It’s only natural then, to know that there’s a whole host of people out there creating Lord of the Rings-inspired Minecraft builds.

While many of the builds we write about tend to be massive in scale and intricacy, this one from DesignMinion is all about the tiny details. DesignMinion posted a clip on Reddit of a new door they’d created, which is a stunning recreation of the magical door that leads to the Mines of Moria. Some scoff at the idea that it leads to a mine, while others are fairly certain it’s actually a tomb. All we know for sure is that this is a stunning door.

If you’re looking at it and wondering how DesignMinion did it, they offer a detailed explanation, which almost makes it sound like you’re browsing the IKEA catalogue. “The line art is white concrete blocks. The stone texture was made with stone, deepslate, cyan terracotta and stone ‘staircases’ that escalate towards the south to make the stone grey slightly brighter.”

DesignMinion did this by creating a canvas in Photoshop, copying the original Tolkien artwork, and then turning it into four maps.

A fancy new door to my mine from Minecraft

Another excellent detail is The Watcher, which is just a little squid dude in this version, but a horrifying Hobbit-eating Kraken in the normal version of the world. It’s glowing because of a side effect of a shader DesignMinion is using called Sildur’s Vibrant Shaders v1.32 Medium. It’s only a small thing, but it’s a funny nod to the Lord of the Rings that fans will appreciate.

If you’re interested in other Minecraft bits and bobs, then you’ll definitely want to check out the new game that Mojang is making in the universe called Minecraft Legends.