Have you ever noticed how magic seems to work just like magic? Often in games they don't even tell you why magic is a thing or where the power comes from. You just know it works and it's better than doing it all by hand. Well, in this pack, you'll begin your journey in the magical arts by knowing absolutely nothing about magic and work your way up to being a powerful wizard (who probably wears evilium robes and is haunted by daedric whispers in your ear).
The core of this modpack is Thaumcraft 5, which allows you to do many wondrous things (by vanilla standards), including ore doubling, automation, magic item creation, and much much more.
The real kicker is: you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs ... The omelette of course being the cool stuff, and the eggs being your sanity ... It's not ideal, no, but it's worth it.
The story of Thaumcraft is one of an aspiring wizard's downward spiral into insanity as he desperately and recklessly does whatever it takes to reach his next breakthrough. Eventually, you'll be an unstoppable arcane force of nature, but looking in a mirror, you probably wouldn't even recognize yourself anymore.
You've driven everyone away already ... No matter, they were just in your way anyway. Maybe one day you'll find a way to bring them back into your life ... As advanced automaton servants, perhaps ... You're still working out the finer details of biothaumic golemancy, but you could really use some smarter golems to sort out a few inventory issues you've been having lately ...
Features
Adds magic to the Minecraft world, featuring thaumaturgy (exploiting the ocean-like aura all throughout the world), alchemy (extracting and imbuing magical properties from/into items), golemancy (allowing you to create obedient magical servants), and more. Functions as the central mod of this modpack, to which all the others are balanced. Additionally, features kawaii random events for delving into sunshine* knowledge such as making cakes** appear beneath your feet occasionally when you walk
* - Euphemism for forbidden
** - Euphemism for concentrated puddles of pure, corrupted magic that will whittle at your sanity until you can't tell friend from foe. Trust no one.
Required by Thaumcraft. Adds additional clothing slots for various magical items.
Makes the "darkness" of night and caves actually dark. With this mod, there's no longer a minimum light level for blocks, meaning at night or underground, it's pitch black unless you have a source of light. If you're afraid of the dark for some reason ... deal with it, I guess. This is the perfect chance to embrace your fears.
Realistic Torches by ChaosTheDude
Makes torches burn out after a set amount of time and have to be relit via flint and steel or a matchbox. Everburing (vanilla) torches can still be created, but are much more difficult to acquire. I know what you're thinking ... "Glorious Lord Modpack Creator, why do you give us Hardcore Darkness and take away torches!?"* Well, (Timmy / Annie)**, I like to think a little challenge is a good thing (translation: "deal with it").
* - All quotes taken from a realistic representation of your peers
** - Pick one
IronChests by cpw
Adds various upgrades for chests that expand their inventory substantially (additionally, they can be placed side-by-side). Absolutely essential if you have a totally rational fear of throwing your draconic hoard of cobblestone into lava (aka the enabler mod).
Allows users to add or remove any minecraft recipe with a simple scripting language. In this pack, its primary use is for balancing features among various other mods and the vanilla game (e.g. changing the recipe for everburning (vanilla) torches from Realistic Torches).
Waila by ProfMobius
Displays the name and mod whatever you're looking at is from. Useful for identifying what a block is before you break it and something explodes.
Bringing the modern convenience* of Google Maps to Minecraft. No longer will you have to remember where you put that lighthouse with your brainamajig, simply place an enormous floating L in the sky with a matching beam of light to remind you.
* - Laziness