Tales from the SMP/The Town That Never Was

"The wood and cobble, black stone too. Ancient totems are coming through and Gregory we never forget Gregory. He’s our mayor, our pride and joy. He loves and love him back. Our beautiful Gogtopia. Gogy never lets us down. Church prime and the center of this town. Gogtopia." The Town That Never Was, formerly known as Gogtopia, was a nation formed by Karl Jacobs, GeorgeNotFound, Fundy, BadBoyHalo, and Awesamdude on December 26, 2020. It was destroyed on the same day an hour after its initial formation by Karl on his stream.

In the country were several different builds, including the home of the mayor, a central pavilion, a smaller version of Church Prime, and several smaller homes.

The Town That Never Was is the first installment in the one-shot episodic series, "Tales from the SMP", currently headed by Karl.

Poster
The poster depicts a large 60-minute timer, referencing the one hour the characters had to build Gogtopia before its destruction. Above it, a title card saying The Legend of Gogtopia - the Town That Never Was. Below, Karl has his finger over his mouth, seemingly shushing the viewer. This is likely in reference to the fact that the nation of Gogtopia, as well as its origins, remains a secret. At the sides are George, Bad, Fundy, and Awesamdude. At the bottom of the poster is a quote from the show: what started as nothing is nothing once more.

History
Karl, George, Fundy, Bad, and Sam ventured out into the wilderness of the Dream SMP with the express purpose of building a town in under an hour. Karl announced that something would immediately happen after the timer, but kept exactly what would happen as a secret.

The five started by building the central pavilion. From there, they expanded outwards, building the mayor's home, several smaller homes, a mobile Church Prime, and a snowman statue. During this building process, the five also found a zombie villager and cured it. The group named the now-cured villager "Gregory V" and crowned them as mayor of the country.

Lore
Throughout the building process, "lore" was added to the country through various actions such as forming building supports and George adding "ancient totems", the latter being constructed from obsidian, crying obsidian, and oak wood stairs. In addition, George threw an egg directly into the air, which landed and hatched four chickens, which has a 1/256 chance of occurring. These chicks were then hung under Gregory's house.

A raid was started roughly a minute before the timer would end, caused by George walking near Gregory with the Bad Omen effect. Karl claimed it was the "first war". It lasted for 3 waves, and was easily defeated by the citizens. The banners looted from the raiders were hung on the tower of rich as a sign of victory. Sam would later die to a zombie under one of these flags, and was revived through a ritual.

Gogtopia's destruction
After the timer ended, Karl asked everyone to stand on top of the platform overlooking the country as he put in some finishing "lore" touches. Karl took nearly half a stack of TNT from his ender chest and began placing it around Gogtopia. He then detonated the TNT, destroying all buildings that were constructed. After it was destroyed, he renamed it "The Town That Never Was".

Karl then stated that he had planned to destroy the country before its creation because he wanted the moment to forever stay a beautiful memory within its creators instead of it being used as leverage.

Rediscovery
On January 23, 2021, while collecting logs near the remains of L'Manberg, Tommy discovered The Town That Never Was. He identified it by its former name of “Gogtopia” by reading the sign which remained on the ruins of Mayor Gregory’s home. Tommy expressed confusion and anger at the “stans” that were let on the server to build the town. In his frustration, he blew up the Gogtopian flag which had remained unharmed during the initial destruction.