Risen — Undead Army

Build a self-organizing undead village and raise an army of Risen minions to defend it. A NeoForge 1.21.1 modpack centered on necromancy, autonomy, and the slow rise of a fortified undead settlement.

You are a necromancer with two problems: you need shelter, and you need followers. In Risen — Undead Army, you solve both by planting a Soul Well and letting your undead villagers build a fortified home around you. Meanwhile, you gather reagents to craft wands, learn 57 spells, and summon a horde of Risen minions to fight alongside you.

The core loop

• Plant a Soul Well — your zombie villagers anchor here and start building the village around it, one block at a time from real hand-authored templates
• Choose your terrain — surface villages open under the sky, or dig into a mountain or cave and let the villagers carve a fortified catacomb below
• Craft a wand — gather reagents, learn spells, and start casting from a colored radial menu
• Summon your Risen army — zombies, skeletons, spiders, endermen, and wither skeletons fight alongside you
• Defend at night — villagers patrol the perimeter; you and your Risen handle the deeper threats
• Grow the empire — Soul Gates let you dispatch garrison squads to remote outposts

Featured mods

• Zombie Village — your autonomous undead village system (17 villager roles, working professions, salvage economy, Soul Gate outposts, catacombs)
• Spells & Spellcrafting — the wand + spell + Risen army system (57 spells across 6 levels, Devourer digging swarm, Reagent Merchant, army stasis)
• Freedom Lib — the self-rescue library that keeps every mob (yours and vanilla) from getting permanently stuck
• ZV-Houses — the building content pack — varied cottages, shops, and multi-level catacomb rooms

Plus a curated set of supporting mods: L_Ender's Cataclysm bosses, Farmer's Delight food and farming, Quark vanilla-friendly polish, Sophisticated Backpacks storage, Supplementaries decor and utility, Waystones travel network, and more.

What makes it different

• Autonomy over grind — your villagers do the tedious work (mining, farming, salvaging, building) so you focus on spells and combat
• Cross-mod integration — Zombie Village, Spells & Spellcrafting, and Freedom Lib were built for each other. Villagers respect your spells; Risen minions respect village protection zones; wand sacrifice permanently upgrades your village's power multiplier
• Long-game friendly — village persistence, Soul Well relocation, and complete state capture mean you can experiment and rebuild without starting over
• Difficulty tuned for medium play — not a challenge pack, not easy mode; a deliberately-paced power fantasy where your empire grows across dozens of hours

Requires

• Minecraft 1.21.1
• NeoForge 21.1.231 or newer
• Java 21
• 6 GB minimum RAM allocated (8 GB recommended for large villages)

Author

Modpack by jdb_hkf — same author as the four featured mods above.