Church of the Redstone Torch
Part 46 ~ 3 August 2025
Posted: 20 March 2026
There's something you should know about my playstyle. You may have noticed it by now. I'm not a builder by nature. Exploring, farming, redstone, that stuff tickles my mind and I can do it all day. But if I played this on autopilot, that's ALL I'd ever do, and my base would consist of a bed and a chest monster full of stuff.
At some point it clicked in my blocky brain that the farms, much as I love them, are a means to an end. You can't SEE a stash of farmed up loot in the world – the REAL endgame is creative construction! That's why I've been working on my architectural aptitude in this world, with builds like the Fairy Sphere, Watchtower, and Elaville House. Say, when did I build Elaville House?
Oh. Well, no time like the present!
Three episodes ago, I filled out my brewery area with clerics, and resolved to build a church-like structure around that space. And then I left you all hanging since I ran out of ideas. Well, happy days, I'm back with ideas! I've come up with a design based on a few IRL churches, specifically one that I saw in the news because it had its copper pipes stolen.¹ Inspiration can come from all sorts of places!
Speaking of copper – these colour changing blocks will be featuring in this build, so I crafted up some blocks and placed them to let them oxidise. For optimal airflow, they need a 4 block horizontal gap to the next block, which I achieved by putting them on a multiple of 5 on the X and Z coordinates.
Here's the grand entranceway! It has a vaguely castle-like turret structure, and a redstone torch/cross symbol on tinted glass. The redstone torch is deeply symbolic, at least in this world:
- Redstone is a source of power
- Torches are a source of light
- It's a reference to Herobrine or something
As I built, I took advantage of my clerics to stock up on emeralds by selling from my now boundless gold stash. Having relied on iron trades from three smiths for so long, this is a breath of fresh air – with 12 clerics, it's a 400% increase in my ingot selling ability. I was later visited by a wandering trader bearing nautilus shells, the first such trader since forever!
Over to the sides of the build, where I made this kind of H-shaped frame, with a bit of depth and a 5x5 gap in each side for glass. I crafted up some tinted glass for its real-life purpose – religious iconography in church windows! Only in this house, we worship redstone components. So here we have these lovely pieces depicting a sticky piston, target block, and powered rail.
Back on the ground, my copper has acquired a nice tarnish, so I can run it through the stonecutter and pop it on the roof. (IMPORTANT PRO TIP: Use the stonecutter for copper, NOT the crafting table! You get 4x the number of blocks! Yes, that's weird as heck and feels like duping, but that's actually how it works!) I finished the roof with glass, peeled back the end of the terracotta frame a little, and installed some redstone lamps.
At one point, I got jumpscared by a Low Battery notification that took over my screen, despite the fact that my laptop was plugged in the whole time. I closed out of Minecraft, checked the battery icon, and... sure enough, it's fully charged. WHAT THE HECK. I got a Blue Screen of Death during Elaville House, and now this? Hey, if anyone out there is still making those cursed horror ARG mods, here's a freebie for you.
Now for a self-referential decorative touch: copper pipes! I crafted up a bunch of lightning rods and popped them in each of the inside bends on the exterior, then capped each "pipe" with a full copper block which represents a rainwater hopper. As with the umbrella, I know it doesn't rain here, but it's all about the aesthetic. I just need to wax these to keep them shiny like the rest of the pipe and...
...Yeah, I need to address something. MY BEES ARE GONE. I'll go into detail another time, but long story short, I need to find my honeycomb elsewhere. So it's off to Floral Paradise with my shears and some campfires! There's half a dozen hives near the daisy farm, which nets me more than enough wax for my build. And, sure, let's knock off the lamest pair of advancements in the game while we're at it.
We're down to finishing touches now! Some ladders up to the top of the towers, and a copper facade for the entrance, and we're golden!
- I did a whole calculation of the volume of copper, based on the size of the building and the measurements of commercially available copper spouting. It came to about 8/9 of a cubic metre, or 8 "copper ingots", if you're curious. I decided not to post it in the end because I felt it was making light of events.
