Silence in the Forest

" Almost every species in the universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they're wrong, because it's not irrational. It's Vashta Nerada." — The Doctor

What is this mod?

What happens when you stop being able to trust the most fundamental and widely used block? 

Silence in the Forest is a mob and atmosphere addition for Fabric. It introduces a self-contained threat inspired by the Vashta Nerada: microscopic predators that live in the shadows of deep forests.

This mod does not overhaul progression, change world generation, or add new dimensions. It adds two hostile entities, a handful of infected wood block variants, and a set of escalating visual and audio effects tied to infection. It is a clean drop-in alongside other horror or survival packs, layering on top without competing with them.

Vanilla compatible. No shaders required. The second-shadow effect renders as a flat blob under vanilla lighting and automatically upgrades to a real depth-casting shadow when Iris Shaders is installed and a shaderpack is active, with no extra configuration.

While this mod is inspired by a creature from the Doctor Who show, it is in no way a lore heavy mod. The creature exists, you can't trust wood, if you noticed you have two shadows… it is probably too late.

How It Works

The Forest Threat

Spending time near active Vashta infected trees in forest biomes starts an invisible countdown. Once a player is marked:

• A darkness closes in from the edges of the screen, narrowing your vision as time runs out.
• A second shadow appears at your feet — slightly offset, slightly wrong — that follows behind your every move.
• Eerie whispers begin to emanate from the trees around you.
• Sprint continuously for 10 seconds to escape the mark before you die (even in creative).

When the Vashta strike you dead, your inventory is stripped and carried by a Vashta Shadow, a hostile mob that looks like your skeleton and spawns at your death location, patrolling the area. A grave marker is placed, coordinates are sent to chat, and you respawn with a Soul Compass, leading you to your body. You must find and kill it to recover your gear.

The Village Threat 

Villages are no longer safe. When chunks load, some village structures are quietly seeded with infected oak. Over in-game days the infected wood hatches, spreading to nearby blocks, and consuming any villagers within range. A Village Shadow Mob spawns in each consumed villager's place: hostile and patrolling. Iron golems will not come to your rescue, there are no villagers left to protect.

Requirements

Iris Shaders is optional on both versions (enhances the second shadow effect only).

Features

• Natural Vashta spawning across forest biome oak trees — rare, persistent, saved with the world
• Proximity infection with randomized threshold and night multiplier (2× faster after dark)
• Infection and countdown persist through quit and reload
• Second shadow that follows marked players
• Sprint escape mechanic — 10 continuous seconds to break free
• Inventory contamination — picking up infected wood spreads the infection to all matching items you carry
• Infected oak variants — logs, stripped logs, planks, stairs, slabs, fences, and fence gates; infection survives the crafting table
• Infection spread — marking a player can activate nearby uninfected trees and cascade infection through structures
• Ambient audio — directional whispers emanate from active infected trees
• Village infection — villages silently seed with infected wood on chunk load and hatch over days
• Village Shadow — replaces consumed villagers; patrols the area, hostile to players
• Vashta Shadow — spawns at player death wearing their skin, carrying their inventory
• Vanilla or Iris Shader compatible — tested with Complementary Unbound/Reimagined
• Config file — countdown duration, patrol radius, sprint escape time, proximity window, village infection rate, and more

You are welcome to add this mod to any modpack.

This is a WIP

• Only oak trees in forest biomes are affected — more tree types and biomes are planned.
• Multiplayer is mostly untested. Feedback and bug reports are very welcome.
• Backpack / Inventory mod compatibility is untested.

Roadmap

• Multiplayer polish — the shadow and infection system function in multiplayer but have not been formally tested for edge cases.
• Biome weighting — limit or increase infection pressure by biome type; dark forests could be far more dangerous than sparse plains.
• Lore item — a findable in-world journal hinting at the nature of the threat.

Version Notes

Both versions are actively maintained. New features land in 0.5.0 (26.1.2) first.

Inspired by the Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who (Series 4 — Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead). Fan creation, not affiliated with the BBC.