Universal Graves

Universal Graves is a Fabric and Quilt mod for Minecraft Java Edition 1.17 and above that spawns a configurable grave block at the exact coordinates where you die, holding every item in your inventory and your XP until you return to collect it. The mod uses the Polymer library for server-side rendering, which means it runs entirely on the server and players on vanilla or lightly modded clients can see and interact with their graves without installing anything. It ships with four selectable visual styles and a server config that controls protection duration, XP storage, and grave expiry.

How to Install Universal Graves

Universal Graves requires two mods installed in your server's mods folder: the mod itself and its required dependency, Polymer. Both are available on Modrinth. Players connecting to the server do not need to install either mod on their own client.

1. 1.Install Fabric Loader for your Minecraft version.
2. 2.Download Universal Graves from Modrinth and place the JAR in your server's mods folder.
3. 3.Download Polymer from Modrinth and add it to the same mods folder.
4. 4.Start the server. A config file is created at config/universal-graves.json on first launch.
5. 5.Graves are immediately active for all players. No client-side install is needed.

Grave Styles

Universal Graves ships with four visual styles you can set in the server config. The Player Head style shows the dead player's head mounted on a post, making it immediately clear whose grave is whose. The Soul style renders the grave with a glow effect that signals active protection to nearby players. The Corpse style displays the full player model, including any armor they were wearing when they died. The Old Grave style recreates the classic tombstone appearance from version 2.x of the mod for servers that prefer a traditional look.

• Player Head: a grave post topped with the dead player's head (default style).
• Soul: a glowing grave that visually marks active owner protection.
• Corpse: the full player model with equipped armor slumped against the grave block.
• Old Grave (2.x): the classic stone tombstone from earlier versions of the mod.

The server config also controls how long the grave remains under owner-only protection, whether collected XP is stored inside, and whether other players may loot an unprotected grave. Graves can be configured to expire and drop their contents to the ground after a set time.