Is Minecraft Getting a 4th Dimension?

In the centre of Minecraft Ancient Cities is a strange new 'portal' frame. Will this lead to the game's 4th dimension or does Reinforced Deepslate have some other purpose?

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[Paint_The_Future]

I think it's going to be a new boss. After all, a "warden" is someone who guards someone to prevent them from escaping.

[xisumavoid]

I think the recovery compass is an item you keep where you respawn, as opposed to on you when you die :-)

[mcnoodle]

It’s totally possible for it to be an exit portal, because the mob that guards it is named the warden. The ancient cities could be abandoned because of this monster that the warden is trying to contain, and it is hostile to you because it doesn’t want you to let the monster out. Side note: the monster probs has some magic powers that turned the residents of the ancient cities into sculk but also the warden. just my take.

[tomhill]

Minecraft has a very abandonned theme throughout the whole game:
-Ocean ruins and temples that used to populate the ocean
-Nether fortresses in the nether
-End cities in the end
And now of course the ancient cities in the overworld caves

With the exception of villages that are still inhabited (but fairly primitive), there are a lot of structures reminiscent of some older civilisation. Maybe, as a lot of people suggest, this portal is an exit only portal and was some kind of fail point: something destroyed the world when it was built.

To me the two mobs that stand out a bot from the game are shulkers and skulks. Could they be the inhabitants of this dimension? Maybe along with other mobs/boss as well. And I've seen a lot of people mention the warden is some sort of guard trying to stop this seemingly dangerous dimension from being opened.

[Goldrobin]

There are so many theories about the portal, I can't wait to see what we get!! Mojang puts a lot of effort into the Warden and Ancient Cities, I'm sure there is a good reason for that!!

[canadiangopnik]

the thought of a different plane, essentially the minecraft feywild, is really interesting, I just imagine going through a world I've played in for ages, but everything is ever so slightly off, and there are pixies and nymphs and sylph and such wandering through the places I've spent so much time in, my base, the cave I frequent, the nearby village, and just the thought that they had always been there from the very beginning, just out of sight, that would be so indescribably awesome

[soniasquishy]

As of the most recent snapshot, I'm willing to bet the portal will be opened using the new music disc and a jukebox. It would play really well into the theme of 'sound.' I wouldn't be surprised if this started a sort of boss wave while you wait for the CD to finish playing.

[wloofyvertex]

I would say that it would unleash some kind of boss, as in the newest disk you can hear what seems to be someone lighting a portal and something massive coming out of it, worse than the warden.

[EchoingVision]

Something that I found while I streamed a few tests with the Ancient city, The warden seems to REALLY like either Reinforced Deepslate, or the center structure itself. Whenever I spawned Wardens, they tended to move towards the center structure when they burrow underground. If they were high enough, they would only burrow inside the deepslate frame.

[Solesteam]

4:28 Sneaking keeps you from slipping off ledges regardless of your speed, even with the max possible swiftness level using commands you stick to the ledge like glue.
Thus it makes speed bridging faster

[erikm]

I've heard one idea for a dimension that I really like, and it's some sort of deeper dark, made up of structures and terrain hanging off a bedrock ceiling over the void. This would serve as the final environment type after bedrock below (overworld), bedrock above and below (nether), and no bedrock, just void (end).

[RealChillbillies]

It's a cell door. The warden is trying to keep you from releasing whatever is inside. That's why it's called the warden

[EVILBUNNY]

There’s a few more points to make that could justify it being a portal to another dimension:
1. If you look at the change logs for the past 3 major updates, there has been a huge overhaul to the way dimensions work, including custom dimensions, and customs world generation

2. Over the past couple years Mojang has hired 2 developers of dimension mods: Cojomax99 who created the Tropicraft mod, and Kingbdogz who created The Aether. From tweets from the devs and dev interviews, Cojomax was responsible for leading the Village and Pillage update. Where’s Kingbdogz is said to be leading the development of Ancient cities.

3. Like you said, In the experimental snapshot the reinforced deepslate was movable, and this was unintentional behaviour. What other reason than for a portal could it be?

[atomicmonocle]

Honestly, I’m all for the “spirit world” idea, but it could instead function similar to terraria’s hard mode when defeating the wall of flesh. The world would get repopulated with greater threats and a new end goal, to avoid new players from accidentally activating this “portal” or “shrine” it can only be activated after defeating the ender dragon.

[joho]

There was something on reddit about this.
Dimension Hanging from a Bedrock Roof - A dimension unlike the other 3 still following their established patterns
With the new structure in the Deep Dark's Ancient Cities that looks a lot like a portal, speculation about a new dimension in the works for a later update has started to ramp up more. It makes sense that Mojang would want to establish a dimension's lore well before adding the actual dimension to the game so as to make the expansion feel natural, and another issue that comes up regarding that is making a new dimension itself feel completely unlike the other ones while still fitting into vanilla. I believe the best way to go about this is to use an already established difference among the current dimensions and expand upon it for a possible new one, and that brings me to the following: a dimension where everything hangs from the ceiling, and there is no ground. Here are my reasons why and ideas regarding it:

#1 - Consistency:

Every other combination already exists in the game. The Overworld has a bedrock floor with no roof; the Nether has a bedrock floor and roof; and the End has neither a bedrock roof nor floor. A dimension that has a bedrock roof but no floor is able to perfectly contrast with every other dimension's most defining feature in regards to layout while not only staying within but actually completing a defined pattern.

#2 - Implications of the Dimension's Structure:

With a bedrock roof, it is unlikely to find floating islands, but also without a bedrock floor, that means that everything that does exist in the dimension has to hang from the ceiling. This provides an opportunity for a very unique type of terrain. Be they upside-down mushrooms, trees, or something else entirely, a large stalk hanging from the ceiling, expanding out into large, island-like (upside-down) canopies makes the most sense. These could support their own plants, animals, and possibly even structures.

Traversal could be done by by bridging, but one could also build up into the "ground" of the roof and mine place to place. It's a perfect place for rare ores to hide, and it reverses the idea of digging down to mine. Trees etc. would be found on the canopies whilst mining would take place above that in the ground, and movement from high places becomes more attractive than from low ones. The hanging canopies could have large roots supporting them too, making mining unique since an axe would be needed in these cases. Finally, elytra flight would allow the quickest traversal, but it would require the player to decide between flying below the canopies or between them and the roof. The former would be like flying under the End islands while the latter would be like flying in the Nether.

#3 - Mobs and why the Deep Dark especially could benefit from this:

The game already has mobs that can climb walls, but this could open up mobs that actually spawn on the ceiling and hang down. Projectiles could make them still reach the player too.

As for the Deep Dark biome, it seems its main thing is sound over light, and it could be made that instead of just an upside-down sun, there could be absolutely no light at all in this dimension, possibly even with a level darker than our current light level 0 or even using the darkness effect.

#4 - Originality:

I've seen "Minecraft but everything is upside down" or adding a new biome to the End that just has upside down plants, but I've not seen a single suggestion or mod (and I did search here the best I could) regarding a dimension revolving around traversing hanging islands. New dimensions structured like the old ones have been suggested to death, and this could subvert expectations while still delivering what people want. It seems Mojang tries to always add their own spin to granting community wishes for major additions, so I think this could fit well into that pattern.

Here is a crudely drawn interpretation of how it could look (hopefully embedded; I usually use old reddit). I have zero art skills and nothing here is meant to be "exactly how it should be, " but I think it makes things easier to visualize:



EDIT 2: And IK a lot of suggestions get deleted for no reason, so feel free to suggest something similar yourself too, mainly the whole "dimension with only a bedrock ceiling" thing just so there's a higher chance of the idea ticking whatever boxes they require.
here's even more.

[leonsmith]

When you listen to the music disc, there's a place where you hear the armored feet of an army(?) seeming to march into or out of the area... Seems to me that the size of the portal is key here. I get the feeling that it was made as such to accommodate an invasion force, either into or out of another dimension. Add in the fortified walls and soldier barracks and it feels like they were trying hard to contain something.

[mrcalligraphy]

My suspicion is that it could be a portal enemies come from for a raid style event. Sarc addresses this. I’d add it is a bit unusual that the sculk catalyst exists in an area where they’d see almost no natural action. A raid event where you’re actively spreading sculk could be interesting.

[at_]

you see an "echo" layer on top of the overworld unlocked trough this gateway using perhaps the echo shards would be really interesting

[terrariaskeletonpre..]

i think the final ""theory"" is correct completely, i cant remember the exact interview but i recall one of the developers saying that instead of adding new things, they enjoy re-contextualizing older mechanics to make the world feel more integrated within itself (things like wool blocks blocking sound, leather boots allowing you to walk on powdered snow), but you can only do this so many times, for me, this feels like a new chapter, in which we're going to get a lot of brand new things, so later down the line we can have new features and mechanics added to them, the portal of course, being the cherry on top.

[yourmother]

I came up with an concept idea for the 'Deep Dark Dimension', if there will be one.

Maybe the 'Deep Dark Dimension' is a version of your current world where everything has been overtaken by sculk, and the only mobs are the Wardens that trap the souls of the dead in their ribs.

Also, maybe the main goal of the dimension is to get to the some center point. Maybe sculk bubbles lead the way to the center, where there is some other final boss. Recovery Compasses should point to the center, too, so they have some added functionality.

I think maybe "Otherside" is a nice name for this other dimension, because it's 'another side' to your world.