What Were Minecraft Trail Ruins? 

I did a whole excavation of one in my survival world and took notes in a book (im a historian irl so LMFAO). Its clear to me that the "Platforms" are altars. To me, some of these trail ruins are set up like modern villages: same job blocks, but different structural design. It is apparent based on the ones i found that these trail ruins are geared towards battle. Grindstones, smithing tables. The towers have a very citadel-like vibe to them, which is what i call them. The towers have half-slab windows in them, perhaps for shooting arrows, and the bottom of the tower is often connected to some structure that feels like a safe-room. At the very least, the towers are very defense oriented and the rest of the buildings are more often than not there to back up the tower. This implies that the people who inhabited the trail ruins (presumably villagers based on the job blocks and similar setup) were once a very aggressive and combative race. Perhaps this points to a time when modern villagers were just aggressive as their neighboring pillagers. Just food for thought. Nice video!

Unfortunately, Bedrock's trail ruins aren't very easy to navigate due to the fact that the tower is split in two.

a common mistake i see with a lot of recreations of ruins: people forget that wood and hay withers, they probably had roofs and various other structures constructed of those things alone. also ofc the random pottery scattered around is a little confusing, maybe they had a form of library back when that showed their history through pottery.

Wifies as a archeologist predicting buildings is what i never expected, but loves

The blast furnances could just be implying they were aware of metal and used it for something. That should put the timelines somewhere around the Bronze Age if I'm not mistaken

I wish villages were built more like the ruins, they are all just wood house with some stone within a 10x10 area (exception being desert not using wood except for jungle doors) whereas these trail ruins are built by brick, mud, stones, and other unique. Like if it was repaired, it would probably look better than a village.

Something I'd like to point out: "Host" might not refer to a role in their society, but instead to their *gods.* "Host" is a term used in Minecraft Legends to refer to the beings that created the Overworld- The Hosts, Knowledge, Foresight, and Action. The armor may have a religious purpose, a way of paying tribute to the gods or to denote a priest or something.

Large room 5 looks suspiciously like a pillager outpost. Mabye the villagers and pillagers were one faction at one point before a war? Maybe thats why the architecture is so unique.

My theory is that the host trim refers to the 3 hosts in minecraft legends, Action, foresight and knowledge. Since there are no structures in minecraft legends other than villages, piglin bases and the ones you build, it'd be safe to say that they were around the same time and the trail ruins were the builders' first true settlement after the war. The technology difference between trail ruins and MCL can be explained by the hosts leaving at the end, leaving the player almost knowledgeless of their world, and with the power of the allays diminished in the host's abscence, they have no help getting resources anymore. They have to resort to manual labor. This would also explain the blast furnace, because they've seen as much as giant catapulting redstone launchers in wartime, so it wouldn't be too far-fetched to say that it was their first complex machine they built on their own, having prior knowlege of that. Looking at your reconstructed version as well isn't all too dissimilar to the MCL villages. Also side note, the ancient city portal looks very akin to Action.

“To you 2000 years from now” Well played sir, well played

I think that the "Host" armor trim is a reference to the Hosts in Minecraft Legends, which released around the same time as Trails and Tales. The fact that the Orb of dominance is shown in the cutscenes in MCL proves it to be Canon in the MC timeline, and it shows the birth of the Illagers, who would later own the Orb. The Well of Fate also may be the "Original" Ocean Monument, tying it into MC even further. I don't know why I went on that tangent.

I cannot stress enough how well done this is, this is exactly what I wanted to see when clicking this video, exactly what I was hoping for after reading the thumbnail and just the process and steps I would’ve taken to discover the secrets of the ruins. Thank you for this very enjoyable video.

To me, the trail ruins always looked like just ancient villages. With all the villager work stations and the villager face, it doesn't have to be an ancient forgotten civilization.

The bit where you looked at what the structures actually were and the age range was pretty good. Randomly choosing 2 of the 1000s of ancient civilizations that used bricks, stone, pottery and farming and citing the absence of wood (Which rots) disproving others was a bit sillier. But overall a good vid, I like the idea of pulling together a story of what happened to the people who previously inhabited the minecraft world. I wonder if they were us, villager/testificates or some 3rd group? The presence of zombie villagers as distinct from regular zombies implies other players did/do exist.

Whoever lived in the trail ruins also had some pretty cool tunes considering that you find the Relic disc there

I've been to that national park that you used for an example of ancient pueblo towns, and I can say with certainty that it is a similar experience to that in minecraft. Although the pueblos used much less vibrant and varied colors, the scale and overall experience of discovering these structures matches Minecraft very well

‘To you. 2000 years from now’ Was that a fucking attack on Titan refrence?

I have a feeling that the trail ruins were made by villagers, not the ancient builders. Almost all the buildings contain a villager job site

"To you, 2000 years from now" Nice AoT reference lmao

This was awesome! I love having a time frame estimate, rough as it is. You should cover some of the other structures, maybe dungeons or trial chambers?

13:25 snk/aot reference

There was one room which i’ve seen before which i didn’t see when you were talking about the different parts of the structure, it’s like a massive castle looking thing with 2 towers on each side and are really cool

This is a great video and I have to say thank you so much for the captions. I have a hard time hearing sometimes and concentration can be hard when you either can’t hear or you have to make the video really loud. Thank you for the captions.

this has got to be my favorite video on the trail ruins because ive been wondering since they came out which civilization they could be based on, and i think you hit the nail on the head! granted im not a historian or archeologist, but i definitely think its a good educated guess

I’m Thankful that someone as smart and funny as Wifies is able to upload so much with high quality content as well! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! 🦃

Wifies, blink twice if you're being held at gunpoint by your world history professor

I always love your video diving deeper into this stuff!

Bro I was REWATCHING old Wifies videos yesterday and today I see this masterpeice. 🤩✨

One thing I noticed about Trail Ruins is that they look remarkably similar to the Villages in Minecraft Legends. Perhaps that’s something to consider and look into.

Mojang is a Swedish company and "hosta" is the Swedish word for "cough". Maybe the fourth armour trim is hinting at how the civilization died out? Clutching at straws, I know.

I have my own world and I've dug out the ruins and rebuilt them slightly, and I figured that the part of the tower with the campfires is a cooking room, probably to cook meat for royalty or for just the entire city in general. (Most likely used for cooking all food in the city). (P.S, I'm a huge fan and ever since I started watching your Wifies' Theory videos, I've been making some of my own. Huge inspiration for a favorite passion of mine. Keep up the good videos!)

nice AOT reference Wifies. thanks for making a great video!

Do you have any ideas for lore about trial chambers? I think those spawner variants are quite interesting.

I like how much effort he put in to this Wifies never fails to impress us!

Wifies just becoming an anthropologist isn’t exactly what I expected to show up in my feed today, but I’ll take it. Very nice, I love the vid. Minecraft lore is really interesting. Keep it up, Wifies!

A lot of this is really cool, and I like your ideas a lot. The pottery shards being proof that they 'dicovered', 'invented', or 'were the first to' anything is a pretty big stretch however. No matter how much cooler it makes the video sound.

Wifies never fails to entertain us with his content.

New lore idea: when the ancient builders where makeing the wither they first made the breeze (there are many similarities such as when the wither first spawns in it has the same white rings as the breeze, the way they fly is also very similar and if you /summon a wither skull it looks very similar to a breezes head)

This actually made me like trail ruins because before this I had never had any luck with them, always thinking they’re just random bunches of blocks

IDK if anyone has pointed this out yet but Platforms seem to be religious rooms, the Campfires are a pire, the Throne could be for a priest or king, and the empty ones could have had Talismen or other sacred items in them that dont preserve

I always think that the Trail Ruins were just ancient villages because of some buildings having specific jobs and it seeming similar. Villagers could just have evolved from builders because they had houses, jobs, and a currency, so they had no reason to build and villagers eventually just forgot to build.

Old villages are my idea. As soon as you mentioned the structure that resembles a blacksmith, it clicked. Besides, the final structure looks like a really old village. This would also make sense as to why villagers existed back then too.

Hella cool video. Me and my friend found one of these and had no idea what it was so we ended up digging everything up and we were still lost. Thanks.

The sea level doesn't consistently rise and can also drop so what i think happened is that a cataclysmic event happened flooding them mud brick ruins that were built at lower altitude (also mud bricks degrade underwater very fast compared to stone bricks) The flood is hinted at by various elements :the moskstraumen achievement, the prismariene(which can be found as individual buried blocks in the sandstone ruins), and other things. And after the flood the stone ruins were build underwater intentionally which is hinted at by the fact that the ruins have prismariene blocks and sea lanters which work better underwater also other thing that work better underwater Also i think that prismariene is made out of enchanted quartzbecause the (green/turquoise color change) and because chiseled quarts has an an eye carved into it and eyes kinda means guardians and guardians are obviously made out of prismariene (and copper (the spikes)) (guardians are obviously golems so if we find a way to enchant chiseled quartz we might be able to craft guardians)

One of the devs once said that the Minecraft games are all connected and take place in the same universe, and I'm sure you mentioned that in a video before. I would love to see a video where you do a timeline of the Minecraft universe, taking information from all the games and highlighting major events that happened.

Wifies is the only guy that can make an entertaining video from a lump of clay and gravel

Don’t stop making the unsolved mysteries and Minecraft explained videos. They’re really entertaining, honestly

These remind me a lot, of End Citys in some way, big room with chests, towers which you had to climb, all of it does remind me of well, End citys.

Issues I have with this: 1. The sea level rises due to climate change. The ocean level didn't always rise 0.14 inches per year. Over the last century, the ocean level has risen by 7 inches. Therefore over the last decade, the ocean level has risen an average of 0.07 inches per year, and probably even less before that. 0.14 inches simply isn't a valid measurement. 2. How does the fact that there is the image of a fire on a pottery shard at all indicate that this civilization used the campfires as a means of communication, it simply means they were aware of its existence and that it was somewhat important to their culture. 3. HOW DOES THE FACT THEY HAVE AN IMAGE OF SOMETHING ON A POTTERY SHARD SIGNIFY THEY WERE THE FIRST TO DO SOMETHING. I think this was just a mistake because it's not central to any of your arguments but . . . why? 4. The face pottery shard could also signify that the trail ruin creators were villagers . . . I mean we know the villagers lore wise can place blocks because they can build villages. 5. You said it yourself "This is a perfect look into the types of civilizations in the Minecraft world. Forest-dwelling and beach-dwelling." The age of the underwater ruins does not correlate to the age of the trail ruins. It makes no sense to estimate the age of the trail ruins based on the age of the ocean ruins. 6. probably some other stuff I missed. If you have any additional corrections or corrections to my corrections feel free to reply to this comment.

He's back

Love the vid Wifies always keeps me entrtained

Love these fun theorie videos they realy make you think!

Working on the hardest escape room in Minecraft… It’ll come out soon.

I think this is what happened. There we're Three Cultures that arose from a new Era The Mainlanders The Greekish Roman Sea/River people And the Gothic Sea/River people The Mainlanders because they are far from the cost most likely didn't have transportation which means no boats and less advanced thats why they are living in this Primitive yet abtract houses The Greekish Roman Sea/River peoples however had the ocean for travel ehich means influence and culture spread quick and mostly got influenced by the Villagers that are living on the coasts The Gothic Sea/River peoples just like the Greekish Roman Sea peoples had the luxury of living near the coast but rather than villagers influecing them it was Illagers or some early for of pillagers which turned them most likely barbaric pirates I think The reason why there are no other builder apart from the olayer is that the gothics wage a war against the other two cultures and completely ignoring the villagers Wage a Generational war which led to the summoning of the wither and extinction of the three cultures *Minecraft Bronze Age Collapse" But I have a question? Why arent the other ruins as Ruined as The Trail and Ocean Ruins? The pyramids are Hardly ruined buried yet unruined uncrubled or the jungle temple mossy yet all of its redstone and the it looks like it hasn't even started crumbling still intact or the Ancient City yes the ancient cities have cracks but its ruins are still tamed unlike the Builder ruins,it hasn't been berried by deepslate and again its Restone is still intact.Which means all of these Ruins (except the theories Builder Ruins)were built recently

Love the lore man! And you made me a believer! Lol.

Haven't even started the video and I know this is gon be a banger

Wifies is theorizing when MatPat doesn't anymore

Wifies never fails to disappoint!

Hey Wifies!! You should make a video on the pvp legacy puzzle I think it would make a great video

Wifies makes the new updates taste good, and makes minecraft more interesting

if you think fire was invented 2000 years ago there's a few high school history classes I think you would like

Last hehe

I love the attack on titan reference😂 Great video man always happy to see sth from you

This is so full of assumptions and misconceptions, but I like the effort!

Sorry Have a wonderful day ❤🎉😢

First pls pin😢😢😢 Dad said it’s my turn to get pinned Roses are red Violets are blue I liked my own comment Cuz I wanted too

There are plenty of intentional airpockets in hidden in the rubble. Likely left behind from rotten wood, which is generally overlooked by many who do these kinds of recreations It may also be useful to consider the position of archeology loot

Based on the fact that they also made candles, we can assume that they farmed bees or collected honey and wax from wild bees. We can also find hanging signs (which says that they knew carpentry and might have doors too) and emeralds, which may indicate that they also traded goods a lot. Also you can find various stained glass panels in the loot.

I liked my own comment.

I liked my own comment

Gotta love that AOT reference at the end

i remember someone talking about how the mojang developers are the “ancient builders”, and with each update they are just building extra stuff back in time so when the player spawned they would have more structures to explore

Good Vid man keep it up!

bro this is crazy you figured this out through these ruins

This is a great video, and I can really tell that time and thought was put into it. So, as we do with all things we enjoy, I'm going to gripe about the specifics: 7:15 It's a big leap to assume that: a) the sea level rise in Minecraft is equal to that of Earth, especailly given how reliant that is on systems specific to Earth, e.g. techtonic activity (which is less on Mars) and climate change (as in the natural cycles-- humans are causing the change in climate to change, not the climate to begin changing: acceleration more so than velocity. That said, it's still a problem caused by humans that needs to be solved by humans). b) the sea level rise is roughly constant over that timescale. Considering geological timescales, the sea level actually seems to have decreassed, since there was a time when Earth had exactly Zero continents, meaning no land at all. 9:26 I take up issue with the technological aspect as well, on two fronts: a) same as the a from before: Minecraft is a fantasy game (e.g. totems of undying, soul sand), and knowing magic is sure to speed up any research that you would do into technology. It's safe to assume that a society with more ways to experiment into these complicated and nuanced topics as science would be better able to make discoveries about it. We don't even know for sure if the Blast Furnace in Minecraft is the same as those in real life, as it could be aided by magical systems. (I've allways loved imagining quantum effects on magic fields) b) It assumes that the Minecraft world has a parallel timeline to Earth, ending in the modern day. I believe it's clear that it doesn't. There is no world in which Ancient Cities and Ocean Monuments could exist in the modern day, and you can't build a spaceship in Minecraft (insert joke about infinity snapshot). The technology isn't parallel, and I don't see why the time should be either, especially when it comes to scientific discoveries, which aren't parallel to begin with.

What about the music disc you can find in the trail ruins? Great video by the way!

*nod of acknowledgement* actual archaeologist here. both these and 'real' ruins are artifacts of human volition. valid. nice video.

I have a feeling in the next 10 years this man is gonna find lore off of Minecraft trees

Hey wifies. The host trim refers to the hosts, somewhat godlike entities that were from minecraft legends. While legends are only loosely considered cannon, the trims were made as a reference.

I never even knew these existed, this is very interesting.

I belive the sniffers were in those stables, and they kept their eggs incubated in the cauldrons (possibly), and that might be why we see sniffer eggs in the trail ruins.

8:39 Bricks now equal stone, thanks for the information!

for some reason i can't stop thinking about the fact that this could be an ancient roman structure

This is really fun and educational! I liked it! :)

I would love for you to put together a video that covers every thing that you've coverd in wifeory put all together gou could even add the years that it all happend, and it would be like a movie❤

I thought that these were the Legends Ruins due to the similarities between the structures and a part of the Relic disc containing parts of the Music featured in MC Legends as well. Maybe some of the village changed due to destruction and repair over time…

not the aot ref at the end "to you, 2000 years from now"

I’m pretty sure that mojang, didn’t intend for someone to cover the lore, and most likely didn’t know about the lore, so that explains some stuff

It’s a good day when wifies posts

Going back to your enderman video what if the End was supposed to be like some sort of prison, that might also go along to mat Pat theory on how Enderman were formed and why it’s so far away.

I have a different theory about which civilisation lives in the trail ruins being the Indus civilisation, because the cities they built also look pretty similar to the trail ruins. Additionally, the patterns on the armor trims found in trail ruins probably each resemble a letter from the undeciphered Indus writing system. Especially the wayfinder armor trim item is an obvious resemblance of a sign commonly seen on harappan seal impressions, just flipped. I don’t really see a connection between the images on the pottery sherds, But they could (especially howl) resemble harappan pottery figures.

I like to imagine that Mojang watches these videos and go "Hm, I never thought abut that before 🤔"

At some point can you do a video that explains every part of the Minecraft lore so we can see how it all fits together?

please make a video like this about the sniffer and the ocean ruins. and remember to put minecraft legends and minecraft dungeons in to this because i discovered they are the same universe

I think your next video should be - what is the history of Monster Spawners that we can find in dungeons. It is strange for me that these cages can spawn enemies - what is the lore behind them?

*I think the host armor trim is based off of the host from Minecraft legends.* ** And you should do series on Minecraft, legends and dungeons.

The Stables buildings make a lot more sense when you consider that in cooler climates, for centuries, common folk used to let their few livestock stay in their dwellings with them in the winter. It was for shared body heat, so they could all survive the winter. It would get annoying and smelly, but it beat freezing to death.

I found trail ruins under a village. The pot shards i found went like this: wheat, heartbreak, fire. Nearby there is a pillager outpost. The story writes itself

Dude now that you mention ruins, I don’t think I ever seen one in game. I don’t remember discovering one at all

Very good video, however, sea level doesn't rise consistently each year. In a stable system, it wouldn't rise at all. Since 1900, it has risen up to 20 centimetres, but before that it was fairly consistent for millennia. I believe the last time sea level was significantly lower was about 10,000 years ago, after the most recent glacial maximum, and when things like Doggerland and Beringia sank into the sea. So I'd say that's a more realistic time frame (assuming the Minecraft world is analogous to Earth).