Medieval Origins Revival – Complete Guide

Welcome to this comprehensive guide to the Medieval Origins Revival mod! This guide explores all of the unique origins available in this mod, detailing their abilities, strengths, weaknesses, and playstyles. Whether you’re looking for a fast and stealthy character, a powerful magic user, or a tanky melee fighter, this mod offers diverse options for every playstyle.

Alfieke Origin

Overview

The Alfieke is a nimble, cat-like origin with excellent unarmed combat capabilities and unique movement mechanics. While they excel at climbing and leaping, they are vulnerable in defense.

Unique Movement Abilities

The Alfieke has a toggle climbing ability that can be set in your keybinds. You can climb straight up trees and other vertical surfaces with ease. When crouching, a charge bar appears above your hunger bar. Once charged, you can jump to perform a massive leap forward. By crouching and then jumping, you execute a powerful forward leap that covers significant distance.

When landing from great heights, you will take fall damage unless you’re looking directly at the ground—in which case you’ll suffer no damage at all as an Alfieke.

Combat and Special Abilities

Alfiekes deal reduced damage with swords and axes, but significantly more damage when fighting unarmed. They prefer light armor over heavier variants, making them ideal for mobile, hit-and-run tactics.

The Meow ability can be activated with the G key, adding to the unique feline nature of this origin. Alfiekes are natural carnivores and cannot eat vegetables.

Stealth and Theft

Alfiekes move very quietly, which means that creatures like Sculk sensors will not detect them. Reapers are also scared of Alfiekes and will only explode if attacked quickly. By sneaking and right-clicking on villagers, you have a chance to pickpocket them—though they can catch you in the act. Success may reward you with Emeralds.

Time-Based Movement Modifiers

Movement speed varies depending on the time of day. At noon, Alfiekes move slightly slower. However, during dawn and dusk, they gain a noticeable speed boost.

Arachne Origin

Overview

The Arachne is a humanoid spider variant with poison attacks, wall-climbing abilities, and web-based crowd control. They require a meat-heavy diet and struggle in heavy armor.

Wall Climbing and Night Vision

Like the Alfieke, Arachnes can climb walls with ease. Additionally, pressing V activates their night vision, which provides a subtle enhancement to visibility at night without the disorienting blur of standard night vision.

Poison and Web Abilities

When attacking, Arachnes have a chance to poison their enemies. By pressing G, you can immobilize enemies in a web, though this ability has a fairly long cooldown and the web doesn’t last forever. You can also throw webs by pressing G, and there’s an additional chance to web enemies when attacking them directly.

Dietary Restrictions and Armor Limitations

Arachnes require a lot of food to sustain themselves and can only eat meat. Heavy armor above iron level is incompatible with their physiology. Additionally, Arachnes have slightly less health than other origins, making them more fragile in prolonged combat.

Banshee Origin

Overview

The Banshee is a high-impact origin offering flight and phasing abilities, but with extreme gameplay changes and significant defenses. They are an anguish spirit whose cries can shatter glass and drive people to madness—an omen of death in mythology.

Spectral Phasing

Using your act-of-ability keybind (default V), you can move through solid objects. However, this ability consumes significant energy and cannot be used at low hunger. You can literally fly through walls and terrain, though the ability produces loud, unsettling screams that fit the Banshee theme.

Shriek Ability

By pressing G, you can let out a powerful shriek that pushes back nearby entities and summons a small protective circle. Targets hit directly by the shriek become disoriented. This ability is extremely loud and creates significant chaos in the area.

Health and Food Mechanics

Banshees have significantly less health than normal players. Uniquely, they restore no hunger from food—instead, energy is only restored by direct moonlight exposure. However, you cannot starve to death, which provides some balance. Early game, this can be advantageous as you can fly and phase through obstacles, but late game it becomes a liability if your ability runs out while you’re mid-flight or in dangerous terrain.

Metal Intolerance and Special Effects

Banshees are completely unable to tolerate magically-suppressive metals such as iron or silver. Every time you are hit, there’s a small chance that the attacker will be afflicted with a slow, agonizing death effect. Banshees have exactly half the health of a normal human and deal increased damage when wielding cursed weapons—unlike most other origins. Cursed armor also provides additional damage resistance for each piece worn.

Dwarf Origin

Overview

The Dwarf is a short, stocky origin perfectly suited for underground exploration and mining. They are excellent miners but struggle with daylight and cannot swim effectively.

Size and Physical Traits

At just 3 feet 7 inches tall, Dwarves are among the smallest origins. Their diminutive stature allows them to fit through 1-meter-high tunnels and small gaps that other players cannot access. This makes mining through small passages extremely efficient.

Mining Abilities

Dwarves can mine stone without a pickaxe and mine any block faster than other origins. While mining through stone is still somewhat slow without tools, mining dirt is exceptionally fast.

Underground Vision and Daylight Sensitivity

Underground, Dwarves see exceptionally well without any light source. Pressing V activates a focused vision mode that allows crystal-clear sight in absolute darkness without needing a light source. However, direct sunlight burns Dwarven eyes and blinds them. This limitation is easily preventable by wearing a gold helmet or applying enchantments.

Water Weakness

Dwarves are extremely heavy for their size and sink rapidly in water, making them poor swimmers.

Potent Brew Ability

By pressing G, you can activate Potent Brew—a legendary dwarven ability that fully restores your health with a cooldown of approximately one minute. Dwarves are notorious for their powerful drinks capable of knocking out someone twice their size.

Goblin Origin

Overview

Goblins are treasure-obsessed, small, and incredibly fast. They gain bonuses when using gold gear and have superior luck, but suffer from low health and reduced defense.

Gold Gear Bonuses

When wearing or using gold gear, you gain the Luck effect. This bonus scales with loot enchantments, making it extremely valuable in adventure packs. Gold tools and equipment in a Goblin’s hands also last much longer than they do for other players, providing superior durability.

Speed and Agility

Goblins are exceptionally fast and can easily outrun threats like creepers. They can also jump up single-block heights without any issues, making them excellent for early-game exploration.

Health and Defense

Goblins are short with significantly less health than humans. However, their speed and luck make them ideal for early-game exploration, especially if you want to save iron resources for other crafting needs.

Gorgon Origin

Overview

Gorgons are cursed creatures bound to dark caves and dungeons with numerous weaknesses. They are immune to poison and can petrify enemies, but are extremely difficult to play.

Major Weaknesses

Gorgons are hydrophobes and take damage when entering water. They are doomed to stay bound in dark caves and old dungeons—being outside in daylight causes them to become petrified until night. This limitation can be negated by wearing a helmet. Gorgons are also weak to silver and cannot wear it without taking damage. Iron is also counted as silver, so be careful with iron armor.

Poison Immunity and Toxic Blood

Gorgons are immune to poison. When hit, they have a chance to spill their toxic blood onto nearby enemies, poisoning them as a defensive counter-effect.

Petrifying Gaze

By pressing G, you can activate Petrifying Gaze, turning enemies to stone briefly and immobilizing them. This ability does not work on bosses and has a moderate cooldown.

Combat Mechanics

Gorgons deal massively increased damage when at low health, making them glass cannons that are extremely risky to play. Combined with their numerous restrictions, Gorgons are one of the most difficult origins to play effectively.

High Elf Origin

Overview

High Elves are talented elemental magic users with unique magical abilities. They are arrogant and weaker with weaponry, taking more physical damage while dealing increased magic damage.

Braw Essence and Elemental Spells

By holding coal or blaze powder and pressing G, you can shoot elemental spells. Coal produces a weak fire spell, while blaze powder creates a more powerful explosion. These spells have very short cooldowns, making them available for near-unlimited use once you find coal early in the game.

Advanced Magical Abilities

By holding a block of ice and pressing right-click, you can walk on water. Holding a cauldron and using similar mechanics allows you to walk freely on lava. Right-clicking a villager with a golden apple directly channels its healing properties, curing them of disease without needing to weaken them first.

Void Warp Teleportation

Press G while holding an Ender Pearl to activate Void Warp, ripping through the fabric of reality and teleporting up to 50 blocks away in the direction you’re looking. This ability has a cooldown of only 5-10 seconds, making it excellent for mobility.

Dragon Breath Attack

While holding dragon’s breath, you can hear a dragon roar and throw out a dragon breath attack. These spells scale with fire, arcane, and ender spell power from mods like spell books, allowing them to integrate well with magic-focused modpacks.

Defensive Stats

High Elves deal more magic damage and take less magic damage than other races. However, they take more physical damage and have slightly less health. They are taller than average humans, which makes navigation slightly more annoying but isn’t a major issue. Heavy armor slows them down, though this can be prevented with enchantments.

Incubus Origin

Overview

Incubi reside in the Nether and are fire-based beings. They are weakened in the Overworld but gain immense power in their native realm. They have given up their souls for dark power.

Natural Fire Attacks

Unlike High Elves who need to hold items, Incubi can shoot fire directly without requiring any equipment, with a very short cooldown. This makes them excellent for sustained fire damage in combat.

Fire Immunity and Dietary Needs

Fire feels like home to Incubi and deals no damage to them. However, they are an insatiable bloodlust and can only consume meat—other food is worthless to them.

Unholy Deal Ability

By pressing G at full health, you can exchange some of your life force for increased power for a short time, dealing more damage. This ability allows for high-risk, high-reward combat strategies.

Weaknesses and Environment

Water damages Incubi on contact, and they take extra damage from Smite enchantments. They receive inverted effects from healing and harming potions. Incubi are not accustomed to dimensions where the sun shines and are therefore weaker in the Overworld, but considerably stronger in the Nether. Their natural spawn location is the Nether.

Moon Elf Origin

Overview

Moon Elves have blue skin and are semi-transparent. They excel with daggers and stealth, but cannot sleep and have reduced defense.

Dagger Combat and Invisibility

Moon Elves deal more damage with daggers and knives. In darkness, they can sneak to become invisible and approach enemies undetected. When striking from invisibility, they deal increased damage on the first attack. The invisibility has a duration and requires recharge time while standing in daylight.

Sleep Restriction

Moon Elves cannot sleep in the Overworld, which can be problematic in early-game survival where shelter during the night is important.

Combat Disadvantages

Moon Elves have a chance to dodge incoming attacks, but this is offset by their increased vulnerability to physical damage and reduced health. They cannot wear heavy armor effectively or suffer significant slowness. Being taller than other origins makes navigation through standard-height spaces more difficult, limiting accessibility compared to other origins.

Ogre Origin

Overview

Ogres are massive, lumbering beings standing nearly 3 blocks tall. They excel with axes and have exceptional health, but are extremely slow, ravenous eaters, and suffer from significant movement penalties.

Size and Physical Power

Ogres are absolutely massive—about 3 blocks tall. They do more damage with axes and cannot fit through standard-height passages. Despite their size, they’re unable to step up into certain areas easily.

Bloodlust Ability

By pressing G, you can activate Bloodlust, flying into a blinding rage where you can stomp through hoards of foes quickly. However, your vision becomes severely impaired during this state. Using this ability costs half your health.

Exceptional Health and Food Mechanics

Ogres have an insane amount of health compared to other origins, making them extremely tanky. They can eat any type of food without restriction and do not experience poison or hunger effects. However, Ogres are absolutely ravenous and must eat constantly just to maintain their massive energy reserves—even standing idle causes noticeable hunger drain.

Movement Penalties

Ogres are sluggish and move much slower than other origins due to their massive size. They also cannot jump very high despite their enormous frame, as gravity seems to work against them heavily.

Pixie Origin

Overview

Pixies are among the smallest origins and exceptionally fast. They have multiple flight mechanics, good luck, and can cause mischief, but lack defense and have a poor reputation with villagers.

Size and Speed

Pixies are incredibly small and very fast—possibly the fastest origin in the mod. Their diminutive size makes them excellent for navigating tight spaces.

Flight and Movement Mechanics

Pixies have multiple unique flight options: They can jump 2 blocks high naturally. They can fly, which drains flight power that only regenerates when standing on the ground. They can hover by pressing space twice for a slower, creative-mode-like flight that also drains flight power. They can glide by pressing space while in the air, which uses no flight power. They can dash forward by pressing B twice, costing 50 flight power while gliding or 25 otherwise. They can dash upward by pressing B then space.

Restoration Mechanics

Flight power can be restored by consuming dragon’s breath or dragon’s egg, allowing extended flight during exploration.

Luck and Mining

Pixies are associated with good fortune. When mining, they occasionally receive ore drops from plain stone, giving them superior mining luck. By pressing X while sneaking, you can disable particle effects from your flight and movement abilities.

Unique Abilities

Pixies never take fall damage regardless of height. They can sit on other players’ heads by right-clicking them, which is a fun social feature. Pixies are natural troublemakers and can activate Mischief-Maker ability to create various disturbances—including explosions—by pressing G.

Reputation Issue

Villagers know Pixies by legends of the trouble they cause and refuse to trade with them. If you’re in a modpack where villager trading is important, this is a significant limitation.

Plague Victim Origin

Overview

Plague Victims are disease-ridden, half-dead creatures cursed with a magical illness. They are extremely difficult to play with numerous restrictions and drawbacks, making this one of the hardest origins.

Foul Aura

Plague Victims emit a horrifying foul aura that slowly damages anything nearby, even without player interaction. Nearby creatures take constant damage simply from being in your presence.

Immunity and Contagion

Plague Victims are immune to poison and wither effects because they already have them. They have a Contagious Hex ability where striking enemies gives a chance to spread the infection, potentially poisoning them for additional damage.

Reputation and Sleep Issues

Due to their horrifying appearance, religious NPCs and villagers refuse to trade with you. Sleep is impossible because you are literally in endless agony, preventing you from using beds to skip the night.

Armor and Movement Restrictions

Plague Victims have sensitive skin covered in welts and lesions and cannot wear armor at all. This is a massive negative that eliminates all defensive equipment options. Movement speed is reduced, making escape difficult, and health is also reduced.

Eternal Suffering

Once every five minutes, instead of dying, Plague Victims are forcefully kept alive to prolong their torment. While this prevents permanent death, it extends the suffering indefinitely.

Revenant Origin

Overview

Revenants are misfortunate souls who suffered painful deaths but returned to life. They manipulate life and death, summoning undead minions and draining life force from enemies. They are complex but powerful.

Summoning Undead

By pressing G while holding specific items, you can summon undead creatures: Skeletons require 4 bones in your main hand. Skeleton Horses require a saddle and bones. Zombies and Zombie Horses follow similar patterns. You can have up to 5 combat summons active at once, each lasting 10 minutes.

Summoning Mechanics and Equipment

Your undead minions will follow you and can be equipped with weapons and armor. Zombies cannot use bows. These summoned creatures can be commanded to sit, follow, or teleport to you by pressing B to cycle through commands.

Resource Management

You accumulate bone and blood resources primarily from bones and rotten flesh. Eating certain mob heads can quickly charge these resources. By consuming the flesh and bones of the undead, you can empower your next summon of the same type, extending their duration or making them permanent at maximum power.

Reaper’s Ward

By pressing your act-of-ability keybind, you can raise a circle of inert skeletons that act as a temporary shield. This is an incredibly cool visual ability that provides defensive support.

Essence Extraction

Hit living creatures to drain their life force, with damage scaling based on accumulated soul and blood power. When Revenants are hit, they build up power that allows them to siphon life from their enemies, providing a sustain mechanic in combat.

Undead Nature

Like all undead, Revenants are immune to wither and poison. They take extra damage from Smite and receive inverted effects from healing and harming potions. Iron Golems will attack you on sight, but Pillagers will tolerate you (though they can still retaliate if attacked).

Limitations

Villagers refuse to trade with Revenants. You have a black thumb and cannot harvest crops—they wilt at your touch. You cannot sleep, as you’re too afraid to dream of what you wish you didn’t know. Mobs deal more damage to you than they do to other origins due to your open connection to the spirit realm.

Siren Origin

Overview

Sirens are aquatic beings who excel in water but struggle on land and in fire. They gain utility in water-based environments and can charm villagers for better trades.

Aquatic Adaptations

In water, Sirens can see perfectly and swim at increased speeds. They can breathe underwater indefinitely, with superior visuals in water compared to air, especially in rain. While underwater, Sirens do not sink to the ground unless they choose to, allowing them to hover freely.

Siren Song Ability

By pressing your act-of-ability keybind, you can activate Siren Song to overwhelm enemies in your area, preventing them from harming you for a short time. All affected creatures develop love hearts above their heads, indicating they’re friendly. This ability also plays a beautiful song, adding immersion.

Holy Water and Regeneration

Sirens have much more quickly regenerating bodies, but only while fully submerged underwater. On land, they can only heal using potions, making sustained land combat difficult.

Fire Weakness

Flammable Sirens have a critical weakness: any contact with flame results in near-instant death. This makes fire-heavy modpacks and nether exploration extremely dangerous.

Captivating Ability

Sirens gain favor with villagers and receive better trades from them. This provides an economic advantage compared to origins with negative reputation.

Valkyrie Origin

Overview

Valkyries are fearless winged warriors with massive white feathered wings. They excel at healing and dealing with undead, serving as excellent support characters.

Flight Abilities

Valkyries have massive feathered wings and can fly freely. While not quite creative flight, this is significantly better than Elytra travel, providing excellent mobility throughout the world.

Divine Smite

Every third attack, you Smite nearby foes with damage scaling from healing and holy spell power. Nearby undead mobs are weakened and slowed, though they deal more damage to you in return. When slaying an undead mob, you trigger Divine Smite and slightly reduce corruption effects for each slain creature. You lose half these stacks on death.

Leap and Slam Ability

By pressing G, you leap up into the air. If already flying, you can dash forward instead. Landing grants fall immunity and massive damage output. Upon landing, you strike the ground with holy energy, cleansing negative effects from nearby allies and healing them. This makes Valkyries excellent healers in group settings.

Spell Scaling

Valkyries have increased healing and holy spell power, and are more potent with lances and spears, making them excellent support characters in magic-focused modpacks.

Wood Elf Origin

Overview

Wood Elves are fast, stealthy archers with good ranged damage. They are vegetarians and struggle with melee combat and defense.

Archery and Ranged Combat

Wood Elves are natural archers, dealing more damage with bows. Their Focus ability allows you to charge for a few seconds and release an arrow at increased velocity that pierces enemies, travels further, and deals more damage.

Stealth and Tracking

While crouched in tall shrubbery or leaves, Wood Elves gain night vision and become undetectable to nearby mobs. Eagle Hide allows you to track an enemy for a short time, highlighting them even when they aren’t in view. This makes them excellent scouts.

Physical Traits

Wood Elves are slightly taller than average humans, but only by a small margin. They are not powerful in melee but are quick, making them ideal for kiting and range-based combat.

Dietary Restrictions

Wood Elves cannot digest meat and are herbivores. They are slowed when wearing heavy armor, so light armor like leather is recommended. They take reduced damage overall but are slightly faster to compensate.

Yeti Origin

Overview

Yetis are massive, tanky ice-based origins at home in cold, snowy biomes. They can freeze enemies but are heat-sensitive and struggle in warm environments.

Frigid Pulse Ability

By pressing your act-of-ability keybind, you can in-tune nearby foes with ice on command, freezing them temporarily. This ability doesn’t work in the Nether or on bosses.

Biome Adaptation

In icy biomes, Yetis move faster and negate all fall damage, making them excellent for exploration in snowy regions. The Breath of the Yeti slows opponents when they get close to you, providing automatic crowd control.

Titanic Stature

Yetis have significantly more health than other origins, making them excellent tanks. They’re marginally taller than regular humans but significantly wider, giving them a large, imposing silhouette.

Cold Immunity and Fire Weakness

Yetis are immune to slowness effects and have a winter body that allows them to thrive in cold. However, they are sensitive to fire damage due to their icy nature. In deserts and hot biomes, the thick fire becomes a curse that lowers movement and reduces health.

Conclusion

The Medieval Origins Revival mod offers an incredible variety of playstyles, each with unique mechanics and trade-offs. Whether you prefer melee combat with the Ogre, stealthy archery with the Wood Elf, elemental magic with the High Elf, or summoning undead minions as the Revenant, there’s an origin to suit every preference. Some origins like the Dwarf and Pixie are forgiving for new players, while others like the Plague Victim and Gorgon offer extreme challenges for experienced players. Experiment with different origins to discover which playstyle resonates with you, and remember that each origin fundamentally changes how you interact with the Minecraft world.

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