Getting Started

1. Install & First Launch

Meridian is a Fabric mod for Minecraft 1.21.1. You need Fabric Loader 0.16.10+, Fabric API, and Java 21 — drop the jar into mods/ on both the server and every client, then launch once. The config generates at config/meridian.json on first run.

The home page has the full step-by-step install, and the config reference covers every setting. Defaults are sensible — you don't need to touch anything to start playing.

2. Your First Table

Build an enchanting table exactly like you always have: surround it with 15 vanilla bookshelves in the standard 5x5 ring. That gives you Eterna 15 — full vanilla parity. Each bookshelf contributes +1 Eterna, capped at 15, so day one feels identical to unmodded Minecraft.

The difference is what the table is measuring. Vanilla's single "power" value is gone, replaced by five independent stats contributed by the shelves around the table. Hover the table and check the enchanting screen — the tooltip preview shows your current stat totals and a peek at the enchantments you'll get, so you can rearrange shelves and watch the numbers move before spending a single level.

From here, progression is simple: better shelves push better stats, and swapping bookshelves for themed shelves is the upgrade path.

3. Understanding the Five Stats

Every shelf pushes some combination of these five axes. What each one means for your rolls:

• Eterna — your level cap. Each point grants two enchanting levels, so the 0–50 Eterna range yields enchanting levels up to 100 (vanilla stops at 30). Higher Eterna unlocks stronger enchantments and gates the table's crafting recipes. The headline number you're always pushing up.
• Quanta — variance. It raises the upper bound of the random power roll, so high Quanta means bigger swings: occasionally amazing, occasionally terrible.
• Arcana — rarity bias. Higher Arcana shifts the enchantment pool toward rarer, more obscure results, and many crafting recipes require it.
• Rectification — the tame for Quanta. It cancels Quanta's negative variance, so high Quanta + high Rectification means consistently strong rolls without the garbage outcomes.
• Clues — preview visibility. Each point reveals one more enchantment in the tooltip before you commit, turning a blind gamble into an informed choice.

The full stat primer and per-shelf numbers live on the shelves page — this guide only needs the shape of each stat.

4. Choosing Your Path: Nether vs Ocean

Your first real upgrade comes from one of two biomes, and both land around Eterna ~22 with a full ring of 15:

Hellshelves stack Quanta fast (a full ring sits around Quanta ~45), which means exciting but unpredictable results. Seashelves add zero Quanta and build Arcana instead, quietly tilting the pool toward rarer enchantments.

Either path unlocks the table's first self-upgrade: with the right stats, place a Hellshelf or Seashelf in the enchanting table itself and the third enchant slot becomes an Infused variant of that shelf. Building your shelf collection at the table is the core loop from here on — see the full recipe table for exact thresholds, and the early setups for layouts.

5. Taming the Variance

Once Quanta climbs, three utility shelves keep your rolls honest. Each occupies a shelf slot but does one job extremely well:

• Rectification Shelves — pure Rectification, nothing else. Three tiers: Seabound +10, Hellbound +15, End-Fused +25 per shelf. Mix in one or two whenever Hellshelves make your results swing wildly.
• Hellshelves of Sight — pure Clues (+1, or +2 for the Masterful variant). More of the result revealed in the tooltip before you spend levels.
• Deepshelf of Arcane Treasures — easy to miss, and important: treasure enchantments like Mending will not appear at the table at all unless a Deepshelf of Arcane Treasures is placed nearby (or you flip the allowTreasureWithoutShelf config option). If you've been wondering where Mending went — this is where.

All three are detailed under utility shelves, alongside niche tools like the Stoneshelf, Beeshelf, and Melonshelf for fine-tuning stats.

6. Mid-Game Power

Around Eterna ~30 the shelf roster opens up. Upgraded Nether shelves — Blazing Hellshelves (big Eterna + Quanta, but -1 Clue each) and Glowing Hellshelves (adds Arcana) — sit alongside upgraded Ocean shelves: Crystalline Seashelves (balanced Quanta + Arcana) and Heart-Forged Seashelves (+10 Arcana each, at the cost of -5 Rectification).

This is also when Dormant Deepshelves — which you may have collected from the Deep Dark earlier, acting as plain bookshelves — can be awakened into full Deepshelves at the table.

The table's crafting side gets serious too: Golden Apples, tome upgrades (Scrap → Improved Scrap → Extraction), 8x XP Bottles from Honey Bottles, and Budding Amethyst all unlock in this band. See the mid-game setup for a concrete 15-shelf layout and the recipe thresholds for exact stat requirements.

Tip: mid-game is where Rectification Shelves stop being optional. Blazing Hellshelves pile on Quanta fast — without Rectification, your rolls will swing hard in both directions.

7. Deep Dark & the End

8. Beyond the Table

The enchanting table is the centerpiece, but Meridian's other systems round out the loop:

• Enchantment Libraries — pooling storage that consolidates enchanted books into per-enchantment point banks, dispensed deterministically for XP. Basic Libraries cap at level 16; the Library of Alexandria doubles that to level 31.
• Salvage Tomes — extract enchantments in the anvil: Scrap (one random, destroys the item), Improved Scrap (all, destroys the item), Extraction (all, preserves the item).
• XP Tomes — a ladder of consumables that bank experience for later. Right-click to deposit one level, shift-right-click to withdraw one back to yourself; a lime durability bar shows how full each tome is. Craft each tier at the table from a Dormant XP Tome — XP Tome I holds 10 levels, II holds 30, and III holds 50, with higher tiers gated behind higher Eterna.
• Anvil upgrades — a Prismatic Web strips every curse from an item, and an Iron Block repairs a chipped or damaged anvil by one tier.
• Everfull Flask — infuse a Water Bucket at Eterna 20 for a flask that places water without ever emptying. Pure quality-of-life, earned at your first real table.
• Everfeast Rations — infuse a cooked meat, fish, Bread, Baked Potato, or Golden Carrot at Eterna 27, Quanta 15 (30 levels) into a golden ration that feeds you 128 times from one inventory slot, restoring the base food's nutrition on every bite. The bite count is server-configurable, safe from Curse of Decay, and shown as a Bites tooltip instead of a durability bar.
• Tempered Core — find a loot-only Dormant Core, ignite it at an end-tier table (Eterna 45, Arcana 50), then combine the Tempered Core with any tool or armor piece in an anvil to make it permanently unbreakable. One core per item; Mending and Unbreaking on the item simply go inert.
• Live tuning — every value lives in config/meridian.json; apply edits without a restart via /meridian reload.