Meet Our World Builders: Lokii Violet

Lokii Violet, the creator and owner of .Arcadia. is also the world builder of Kakushi Pasu. She shares her experiences on building a Faireland and on roleplaying, talks about the story of Kakushi Pasu and her favourite parts of the Faire!

This is your second year building a Faireland. Is it any easier the second time around? Has the experience changed?

They say nothing you truly want to succeed is ever easy; I almost forgot this when I got the invitation again to build. Blackmoor last year kind of set the stage on what to expect, but this year was a personal challenge. I’m normally the spoopy and darker designs, so taking a step outside of that this year on a whim was the bigger challenge to build the Faireland. I think experience wise, it’s given me a larger perspective on form and function of a layout that’s not only aesthetically pleasing but something that isn’t always swaddled in the cobwebs and the things that go bump in the night.

Kakushi Pasu – picture by Alisaundra Andel

How was Kakushi Pasu born? What is its story?

Kakushi Pasu translates as the ‘Hidden Path’ – originally.. I wanted to add some elements of a darker nature nestled within it of a hidden market alley, the neon glow of lights and signs (like Bladerunner and Ghost in the Shell crashed together on a pirate cove), and admittedly inspirations came from a roleplay community I am part of of Convergence: The Lost City. One of our most recent plot arcs heavily involved situations regarding Tokyo and I wanted to build something that resonated with me, and being the Literary Festival sim set the platform for that. Though when I saw that big blank canvas, my mind changed to something that might ‘have been’ before the later influences and dark nature that took over the land mass.

So… the little isle cove was born. One part of shipwrecked dingys and fishermen boats, and where nature still aggressively claims what belongs to it of an isle shrouded in a thick bamboo grove. Writing is a release for so many, self included, and I wanted to have that sense of serenity that not only transcends the boundaries of written word, but a place to feel closer to what nature is. It’s raw, it fights back, like so many do against this disease.

Kakushi Pasu – picture by Alisaundra Andel

What are you bringing to the Faire this year?

Another challenge! Something a bit more brighter, and the growing obsession with ombres and baliage fades that are all over the place. I’m the old school Generation X kid and cartoon loving weirdo through the 80’s so seeing the trend kind of re-emerge was something quick to gravitate to in more whimsical-colored dresses for .Arcadia.

Kakushi Pasu – picture by Caitlin Tobias.

I know you are a roleplayer. Have you considered joining into any of the Faire-roleplays, or bringing your own group over one year? What kind of roleplay do you do?

I am a weirdo of many faces and alts in roleplay, this is true. I was an addict for the old tabletop RPGs with White Wolf’s WoD series for many years (the oWoD, I’m a purist that the old was better than the reboot.)

It’s crossed my mind a couple times on both sides, I think the latter.. Papa Z might actually go batty at the idea. Or tell me to sit down. Or who knows, he’s been in my time RP’ing in SL one of the most pleasant sim owners to work with on an RP staff team. Right now, my kind.. genre-wise is post-apoc and dystopian. It’s emerged in a mix of the elements of the real world but with that liberal dose of fantasy. I’m actively playing a vampire at this place (among some other mystery character types on the side), in the past I’ve staffed and played in other style formats from Medieval to Sci-Fi and Futuristic, but the sense of a real world catalyst and suddenly breaking that dimensional wall that you’re not the only species out there, or *are* that hidden one, there’s a small thrill to it and lends greatly to the overall roleplaying experience; where plot lines and character development go. Who you encounter (or how you act around them, do you hide? Do you admit what you are, do you string them along, etc.)

Kakushi Pasu – picture by Wildstar Beaumont

What are you looking forward to most in the Faire this year?

Stealthing Alia when he isn’t paying attention. (Lookin’ at you, buddy, you got me in to all this.) Running around like a derp on DRD’s Faireland which I’ve already horribly fangirled about and excited to be next to this year. The fun is finding shops I know, and discovering new ones and seeing all these new worlds built from an idea. It’s the Dream that always keeps me coming back to this to see them come to life.

Thank you, Lokii, for taking the time to talk with us. Thank you for bringing us another Faireland!

Kakushi Pasu – picture by Alisaundra Andel

Meet Our Sponsors: Death Row Designs

Jaimy Hancroft, Eowyn Swords and Morbid Deceit, the DRD Team.

Jaimy Hancroft, Eowyn Swords and Morbid Deceit form the DRD Team behind the Faireland San Mora, and the creation production factory that is Death Row Designs. They share their reasons to sponsor the Faire and talk of the story behind San Mora, and how it worked together with the roleplay that took place in there. They also reveal their wishes for the Faire, and their Auction Plans!

You have been both a world builder and a Faire-sponsor for many years now. What makes you return and do it all over again, year after year?

Jaimy:  One of the things that makes me return I think is the people surrounding Fantasy Faire. I know I am not the most social person in SL nor is Eowyn and each year at Fantasy Faire it seems like I actually talk with people (lol) , everyone involved is just crazy nice here!! It’s like the people at Fantasy Faire live inside their own little (or big) bubble, but it’s a fun bubble. The other big reason we return is the cause itself which is RFL, which means a lot to me and every year I hope we reach high number to contribute raising as many lindens as we can for it!

Eowyn: For me it’s about expressing my creativity to the fullest, I come from a very artistic family. My dad was a really good painter and created awesome wood art, he died of cancer at the age of 56. The Fantasy faire sim that I build, I dedicate to him each year. The Fantasy Faire event itself is also a wonderful time with wonderful people that come together for a good cause, I just love to be here.

Picture by Jaimy Hancroft

Tell us about your team. Who does what, how does the collaboration work?

Jaimy: This year the team changed. DRD was in dire need of some structure. My brain is chaos and you can imagine what DRD’s inventory was like lol

The process all begins in a skype meeting, Gathering ideas, we keep in touch for important SL events and make sure we all give our creative input for almost all our releases. Morbid is running the store behind the scenes, she is  designing the future for DRD and manages everything so that we do not miss a deadline, which was something I really sucked at…

Eowyn is always building the big meshes and is DRD’s meshmachine, and then everything is handed to me for UV sorting and texturing, I prefer to mesh smaller releases accessories/furniture and things like the human spirit monument 🙂

Then that mesh will be handed over to Morbid for animating/scripting, pricing, giving it a name, packing and setup, while Morbid is doing that we are almost finished building the next item… So it’s kind of like a factory almost, but a creative one I guess lol

Then we have two extra people helping out, Charlotte Bailey is DRD’s CSR and blogger manager and Cecegy Resident (my other RL sister) takes care of the MP, and creates custom logos for a lot of things, Like this years EBDA logo for example ^^

Picture by CeCeGy

How was San Mora born? What inspired it, what is its story?

Morbid: This year we wanted to host our own roleplay team that was in line with the theme of the sim. The roleplay sim Outbreak offered the perfect opportunity to blend the build with an existing RP lore in Second Life. San Mora is another city that exists in the timeline of Outbreak and facing the same challenges. The roleplay began a week before Fantasy Faire opened with a strange transmission calling the roleplayers from Outbreak to come and find San Mora in hopes of discovering a cure. This great team of people worked together for weeks to plan a unique roleplay experience that players at Outbreak will be able to weave story out of for months to come. I think we really made the most of Fantasy Faire this year and the legend of San Mora will stay alive in SL long after Fantasy Faire closes.

Eowyn: A post-apocalyptic sim is just something we always wanted to do, I just love the theme.

Jaimy: for me personally I LOVE anything post apocalyptic and it has been a dream to build a post apocalyptic sim. You may wonder why at Fantasy Faire, and does it even fit in? I say YES , it’s just contemporary fantasy 😀

What inspired it? Well, every post apoc game ever LOL, I’m somewhat an avid gamer and yeahh…. playing games like 7 Days to Die, Borderlands, The Division and The Last of Us, it will get your mind brewing… also watching shows like The Walking Dead and movies like Mad Max… yeah… Did I mention I love post apoc?

My own story behind it is when building the sim, we wanted to have a desert area and a city area, so during that process it came clear that the desert area was more a ‘bandit’ type area and the pier would be your safest bet. There’s lots of grafitti around the town with family messaging each other that “the dock /pier is safe” that just came automatically for some reason ^^

Picture by Eowyn Swords

What are you bringing to the Faire this year?

Jaimy: WAY TOO MUCH OK… lol well each year we basically build so much content (a total of 58 products this year)  we end up selling most of it, just very few exclusive items will go up for the Live Auction ^^

What are you looking forward to most this year in the Fairelands?

Jaimy: Well every year I look forward to so many things, this year I HAD TO BE ON THE BUS, and I was, so my Fantasy Faire is complete. #lifegoals #ffbusisthebestbusever #Aliasdriving #omgithadmusic #hoverbuslikenoother #NoFFwithoutbus #crossingsimswasOP

So I’m pretty happy right now lol, this year so far I had to catch up on sleep, I think this Fantasy Faire I have had the least sleep out of all of them >.> , I usually read a lot on the website as far as rp stories go and catch up with all that afterwards ….  I am hoping to do the hunt still and every year I look forward to the auction #Thisbuswillbemybus #donteventhingkaboutit #candycrash #hashtagseverywhere

Eowyn: I always look forward to walk around on the Faire and look at all the awesome creations of other designers, talk to the friendly people and also the auction is something I dont want to miss out each year, looking forward to bid!

Thank you, Jaimy, Eowyn and Morbid, for taking the time to talk with us! Thank you for bringing us yet another story-filled Faireland!

Picture by Jaimy Hancroft

Meet Our Sponsors: Titans & Solarium

Kilik Lekvoda, the creator and owner of Titans, the world builder and sponsor of The Hill.

Encaitaron Korobase, the creator and owner of Solarium, the sponsor of The Hill.

Kilik Lekvoda of Titans and Encaitaron Korobase of Solarium sponsor this year The Hill, the Faireland Kilik built as a homage to Tolkien’s The Shire. Encaitaron has also been our resident scripter for our Fairelands Quests for years, providing the Faire Folk with immersive HUDs to adventure with. They share their reasons to return to the Fairelands every spring, talk of their creative processes and reminisce about their favourite Faire-memories.

You joined forces in sponsoring this year, but you have both been involved with the Faire for many years. What makes you return year after year?

Kilik: Besides the obvious of being able to help raise money for a cause that’s close to mine and practically everyone’s heart… I love being given the opportunity to bring people joy with the worlds we create for the Fairelands.

Encait: We’re dumb as rocks and we don’t know how to say no.
Secretly, we’re also a bit narcissistic and having people depending on us for critical stuff, despite stressful, touches us in all the right places.

In all seriousness, even though the attention is nice, the message and goals of the Faire strongly resonate with us either directly or indirectly. More than being an event where we can meet new people, stores, and stories, it’s a positive way of fighting something so dark, while receiving your yearly dose of inspiration.

Encaitaron and Kilik in their more Faire-familiar forms as tookies!

Kilik, how was The Hill born? What inspired it, what is its story?

Kilik: The Hill was born through blood, sweat and tears and a few hobbit tantrums.. the mesh terrain over the stores was a pain to create but it all worked out nicely in the end I like to think. If it’s not clear enough The Hill was hugely inspired by The Shire from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit books/movies.

I’ve not laid down any particular story as I’m hoping during the week with the Literary Festival that people will create their own stories for others and myself to read.

What are you bringing to the Faire this year?

Kilik: This year I’m bringing The Floofie to the Faire… a weird mix between a cotton ball and a chicken, but adorable.

Encait: From my end I’m bringing ‘The First Druid HUD’.
Long story short, it is a HUD that allows you to cast elemental-based magic spells, by drawing runes in the air…  Simple things like fireballs, wood vines,… or comets that make your magical life so much better.

How did you begin building in Second Life? What inspires you, what is your creation process like?

Kilik: I dont really remember how I began to build in SL, I think like most creators it just starts happening. But it’s an enjoyable thing for me, anything I see, dream or read can inspire me, but as for the creation process, well, that’s a long journey of getting an idea, then eventually hating it as I struggle to get it out of my head and into maya, hating it a bit more cause maya constantly crashes… eventually beginning to like it and then suddenly hating it again and wanting to give up… to finally liking it… that’s just the process for meshing, it’s very much the same process for texturing it too. I wish it a glamorous easy process but it’s really not, not for me at least XD

Encait:
THE ORIGIN STORY:
For me it started out by curiosity… I was starting to learn how to program at the university and thought I could use the boost to learn how to script on SL too. Eventually, a friend of mine asks me to make her a small HUD, since I supposedly could do better than what she had bought over the marketplace… Thankfully she wasn’t wrong.
Around the same time, Rynn convinced me to continue working on these HUDs and, eventually, to open a store, one which we would end up naming Solarium.

INSPIRATIONS:
Nearly everything can work out as an inspiration – a video game, a character from a book, a myth, a random collection of images and concepts put together by your brain after waking up.

CREATION PROCESS:
Errm… it depends a lot on the project; however, and not going into full details I’d say that the overall steps are something like:

– Thinking if it is something I would like to have or make (if not, just drop the idea).
– Research about the topic (images, stories, songs, etc…)
– Identification of features (e.g., what type of spells…)
– Creation of assets (object builds, particles, animations)
– Interface design
– Sprinkle with various test phases
– Write the instructions knowing that 90% of the people won’t read them
– Pictures -> Box
– Decide on the price -> reduce it by half
– Release and pray for people to enjoy your work

Do you have a favourite Faire memory? What are you looking forward to most this year in the Faire?

Kilik: I’m looking forward to listening in on the RP that will be happening on The Hill, I’m sure there’s a lot more I’m looking forward to but I don’t know cause there’s so much that happens.
Favourite Faire memory though, for me is a REALLY easy one, it’s meeting Kayle Matzerath in Wiggenstead Mooring, who is now my RL fiancé.

Encait: 
Memory: a tie between my first jail bait event, and the first Fantasy Faire Quest I made. Looking foward: how the various sims will look like.

Thank you, Kilik and Encaitaron, for taking the time to talk with us, and for having all the pictures taken by our resident paparazzi Alisaundra Andel. Thank you for bringing us life in the Fairelands: as worlds and quests, year after year!

Meet Our World Builders: Haveit Neox & Lilia Artis

Haveit Neox and Lilia Artis, the world-builders of Opal Flight.

Haveit Neox and Lilia Artis, the world builders of Opal Flight, share with us their reasons to return and create worlds for the Faire, the Story of Opal Flight, and their favourite Faire-memories!

You two have grown to become a part of the Fairelands with your realms that are perfect for arts and entertainment, as a stage for performances and as inspiring exhibitions in their own right. Do the realms you’ve brought to life connect to each other in any fashion, is there any lore or story or theme that they share, or are they all their own separate worlds?

Haveit: Our use of the mythological centaurs once again return to Fantasy Faire this year. By revisiting previous themes, it gives a sense of ongoing history to the sim. We also like to expand the mythological cast in the sim’s story, and this year, Lilia has introduced her harpies who have their own tale.

Lilia: With the expansion we try to achieve a working balance of the known, like meeting an old friend who makes you feel comfortable, yet also bring in new aspects, the unknown, like a new acquaintance that makes you feel excited and curious. Somehow we feel you need both, in life it might be the reliability and the challenge.

Opal Flight – picture by Caitlin Tobias

What is new in your Second Life, what have you been up to the last year?

Lilia: My SL life changed quite a bit since last year and I needed to cut down my time in the virtual world. I am still trying to figure out what to focus on here and what changes to make but the road to take is beginning to show itself. Somehow Fantasy Faire was an eye opener in many ways. It felt wonderful to work for a good cause and with likeminded people who give their best to make the Faire a special, unique event. And, life presenting its strange twists, shortly after the Faire a family member got diagnosed with cancer which came like a shock, as to everyone. I guess I don’t have to describe what it means for the family and how it affects our lives. So this year I am not just working for a good cause, I also do relay and the work for Fantasy Faire definitely has become my priority in SL.

Haveit: For the past year, I have been very busy working on two RL art projects and creating exhibits in Second Life. Presently, I am showing my exhibit “Bleeding Books” at the Split Screen Installation Space. Ironically Bleeding Books will come down at the same time as Fantasy Faire, so I will have to say farewell twice.

Opal Flight – picture by Alisaundra Andel

How was Opal Flight born? What inspired it, what is its story?

Haveit: Shortly after Fantasy Faire ended last year, and we’d received a warm invite to return the following year, Lilia had an idea almost immediately and most enthusiastically. She told me her idea of huge garden plants dominating a mostly white surface world, and drew out a simple plan to show me. I gravitated to her idea right away. She knows how I love to build under water, and suggested we make it a fun place for the Second Life Mer community to explore, and that I bring back my centaurs into the sunken civilization. Having the story clearly laid out, the next step was to share in the building and creation of textures, which we both shared above and below the ocean. Lilia would describe the story best, as it is hers.

Lilia: The long version of the story is already published on the Fantasy Faire website, on the Opal Flight page. The short version is that this is a story about mourning a loss, craving what you never had and how to come to terms with both. It includes the various ways of help we get on our journey, the good and the not so good. All this is clad in scales and feathers as the main protagonists are fish and harpies.

Opal Flight – picture by Justen Tyme

Do you have favourite Faire memories? What are you looking forward to most this year in the Fairelands?

Haveit: Last year, a group of fantasy avatars as well as centaurs, surprised Lilia and I at the sim we built. Our story was about the lost centaurs of the ancients, but through the magic of the virtual world, and many real hearts, the sight of a group of marvelous creatures flooding into the sim brought both Lilia and I to tears – no exaggeration. She and I were on Skype at that moment, and shared our deep delight with each other. There are many fine memories from the past, Fantasy Faire’s community is ripe with all kinds of wonders. As this year’s Faire begins, I’m already having lots of fun. Our neighbors have been great! While the sim builders were setting up, at about the half way mark, I noticed a rather amazing colossus on Fallen Sands. This is a mechanical bird, craning its house-sized head well into Opal Flight, displaying its grandeur in many subtle tones of rust. This metallic visitor needed sustenance, for its belly was plainly empty. I transformed one of my little birds into a like sized giant, as it offers a tasty rusted cog, large enough to satisfy the hugest appetite. On the other side of Opal Flight, is the border with Mudrana. Their green cliffs open into a mysterious path, with fine landscaping tempting the eye just paces ahead. I love working on sim borders, blending them in, especially when my neighbors have such original ideas! The Fairelands is full of creativity no matter where you venture. Certainly this is true of the performances as well. From plays, dances, story readings, fine art in the galleries, sim tours, particle shows, and on and on, the Fairelands provide visitors with ample fine entertainment and education. Once a year we all have this opportunity to enjoy the rich content of Fantasy Faire, knowing well that it’s impossible to see it all, yet anything you catch will be superb.

Opal Flight – picture by Wildstar Beaumont

Lilia: I guess my most favourite memory is that of the centaur stampede too. But actually I have so many fine memories of the past event that they weave a colourful picture, almost like a unique quilt with its own history. I miss last year’s builds and wish I could dwell there one more time and I welcome this years’ new treasures which I will keep in my heart together with the old ones. And I love the performances. Of course we also watch them as sim builders to see if the stage we designed works and what needs change or improvement were we to do another event. But I am always totally floored by the passionate creativity of the shows. And I guess being a sheep in one of them might become one of our favourite memories. After all we stick to the animal tradition: from centaur to sheep… To finish my collection of wonderful memories I have to mention one encounter this year that was very special to me. When I entered Faireland Junction, I felt flung back into childhood. I grew up in a forest and to me as a child it was full of magic, life and beauty. Its serenity filled me with awe no human build ever since could. Seeing the Junction, it suddenly was right back and in front of my eyes, that special atmosphere only huge forests possess. I am very grateful for the time jump I experienced and felt reconnected, as much as I feel grateful for the numerous positive experiences Fantasy Faire offers each year.

Thank you, Haveit and Lilia, for taking the time to talk with us. Thank you for bringing your worlds to the Fairelands and sharing their stories with us, year after year!

Opal Flight – picture by Wildstar Beaumont

Meet Our Sponsors: meadowWorks

Garvie Garzo, the creator and owner of meadowWorks.

Garvie Garzo, the creator and owner of meadowWorks, has returned to sponsor the Faire and has also created the statues decorating The Rose. She speaks of her work, her creations for the Faire and her own spectacular Faire-transformations. 

This is your second year sponsoring Fantasy Faire. What made you decide to return and do it again?

Not doing so was unthinkable!

Do you have favourites among your creations or do you love them all equally? Are there themes that you’re more fond of than others, themes that you keep adding to?

I had some issues with a couple of them lol, so yes, I do have favorites. The Leaping Faun sculpture was a pretty joyous occasion from start to finish, (even the UV mapping). I have been wanting to make a dancing faun motif for awhile, so the excuse to have a pair wielding aloft Fantasy Faire emblazoned orbs was the perfect occasion. And the Lions, which were Alia’s idea/request were also a pretty sweet chore.

What are you bringing to the Faire this year? 

Lots of classical sculptures this time to go with The Rose’s Venetian theme… (and because he made me).

Some of these began as 3d scans, captured using photogrammetry which is just the coolest thing! That process, some brilliant software and a few very generous activist type geeks determined to make digital records of the world’s great art pieces allow people like me to truly borrow from the masters. There is a Centaur, Three Pretty Girls, Neptune and of course something to do with swans.

Last year in the Faire you galloped around as a fantastic golden centaur. That is very much what the Faire is all about, when such things become the new normal for all of us. How did the transformation take place? Do you have similar plans for this year?

The centaur idea was a complete steal from 2 fabulously pretty half horse half geishas who galloped past me at the start of the Faire. I really pay little attention to avatars generally, but sometimes you see these great, glorious gestures even. This year so far I have only had time to try some faun legs and some ballet dancing. I am hoping to attract the attention of those cute faun boys I guess.

Other morphologies may present themselves as I get more serious about shopping the Faire.

What are you looking forward to most this year in the Faire?

I’d like to go to more parties and events and meet more people than I usually do. Hell, I would like to go to allllll the parties and events and meet alllll the people

Thank you, Garvie, for taking the time to talk with us! Thank you for bringing life to the Fairelands in the form of your magical statues!

The Rose – picture by Caitlin Tobias

Meet Our Sponsors: Faida, Kei Spot, Poliak’s Emporium & Velvet Whip

Titania Halasy, the creator and owner of Faida.

Keiko Zoon, the creator and owner of Kei Spot.

Titania Halasy of Faida, Keiko Zoon of Kei Spot, Robbyn Poliak of Poliak’s Emporium and Reeva Hax and Madmacit of Velvet Whip are friends who sponsor the Faire together this year. They share their reasons to support the Faire, their growth as creators, their love for fantasy and their favourite Faire memories.

This is your first year sponsoring Fantasy Faire. What made you decide to become a sponsor?

Titania: I just love the idea of being more involved in such an amazing event. I could name a few people I lost, but I prefer remembering the ones I am lucky to still have on my side because cancer research is doing giant steps. If we are contributing even to an infinitesimal part of that, I can only be happy.

Keiko: One of the things I truly enjoy about creating is the amazing group of artists I have become close to over the years. The Fantasy Faire gives me the opportunity to collaborate and co-sponsor with some of my most favorite people!

Robbyn: Being part of such a large gathering is so much fun and to be able to do it with my family and friends this year makes it all that more exciting. Cancer has affected too many of my loved ones, both 2 legged and 4 legged, so to help raise awareness and funds in my virtual community is an opportunity i couldn’t miss.

Reeva & Madmacit: This is a great event for a much greater cause. After a couple of year as standard participant, it was time to step up a bit and give more.

How did you begin building in Second Life? What inspires you to create?

Titania: It was the far 2008, which in SL it’s like saying it was the 80’s, when I started torturing prims and marveling at how they looked like objects I could use. Ideas and inspiration are easily found all around me, especially since I am surrounded by many creative people, and being able to actually make what I want is a wonderful feeling.

Keiko: I actually came to Second Life for a business meeting and my very first build was a model of one of NASA’s great observatories all in prims. Talk about geek! Three years ago I began learning 3D modeling which is an ever ongoing process. It is my artistic release. I can share the crazy stuff in my head and put it out here in this world for others to use and enjoy.

Robbyn: Wanting to create my own role play wearables and accessories… then furniture and clothing… i found using premade full Perm items wasn’t enough because I still couldn’t make exactly what was in my brain so I began the mind bending process of 3D modeling and fell in love with it. Inspiration comes from my role play environment and often times from real life treasures found while exploring.

Reeva & Madmacit: When it began difficult find things of our liking, related to roleplay & medieval fantasy, we thought to start making them by ourselves. It was so much fun, that after 4 years we’re still here creating stuff 😀 And inspiration comes from everywhere: from a roleplay situation in need of a dedicated prop, to a person searching something particular, to a sudden idea while watching a movie or reading a book.

 What are you bringing to the Faire this year? 

Titania: I am offering two gowns, and I hope they will contribute to the Faire or I will be forced to shred them. (Please buy them, they are 100% donations, save the gowns from a sad destiny)

Keiko: Our sim is based on a Baroque Venetian masked ball. I play violin (well more fiddle!) and decided to do a violin/flute duet with original music.

Reeva & Madmacit: Something magic and something black 🙂

What calls you to fantasy? When was the first time you encountered the genre and realized you enjoyed it?

Titania: The very first book I read was a fantasy novel, my father is a collector of fantasy and sci-fi books so I was lucky to be raised in a house full with treasures.

Keiko: I’m a fairy tale kind of girl. These kinds of books became my best friends as a child, and the attachment to this kind of magic has never left me.

Robbyn: Some of the most beautiful art I have seen is from the genre and I have enjoyed it all my life. It opens the portal to limitless imagination and the wildest of storylines… I think it’s the unknown that calls me to fantasy.

Reeva & Madmacit: We love fantasy, because there is no limit to your creativity! But regarding the first time… well, that was waay too much time ago to talk about it 😉

Do you have a favourite Faire memory? What are you looking forward to most this year?

Titania: I will never forget the emotion of being accepted as a creator the very first time. I was so overwhelmed by the efforts and the generosity of all the participants! I am already reveling in the same feeling this year, it’s incredible to see so many people selflessly involved! And of course, my hope is to see our past record broken!

Keiko: I cannot wait to see the designs of the sim builders and take a peek inside their imaginations. The sims are always gorgeous and creative and I am sure this year will be the same.

Robbyn: Of course my first year will always hold a special place in my heart, but I already know this year will be the icing on the cake 🙂 I look forward to bonding with current friends and making new ones, and of course, I look forward to all the shopping and art installations.

Reeva & Madmacit: No favorites, as every Faire is special, unique and different. This year we would like it to be even more special, with donations up to the roof!

Thank you, Titania, Keiko, Robbyn, Reeva and Madmacit, for taking the time to talk with us! Thank you for joining us and sharing your creativity with the Faire Folk!

Meet Our World-Builders: Beq Janus & Elizabeth Jarvinen

Beq Janus & Elizabeth Jarvinen – the world-builders of Anansi.

Beq Janus and Elizabeth Jarvinen (polysail) are the world-builders of Anansi, our worldling cradle. Anansi also hosts the roleplay of The NeoVictoria Project and has a set of stores, making it our nearly-eleventh shopping sim. Beq shares with us her reasons to return to Faire-building, the story of Anansi and the worldlings, news from her life and her wishes for the Faire.

You took a break from world-building last year. Did it affect how you approached the task this year? Did it feel different?

Not directly, but I think the reasons I took a break are still there. so that changed my approach, I had not even planned to be here this year really. In early 2015 I lost my father to Cancer, which made my Faireland Aurora and my RFL build that year all the more poignant. So by July I was burned out emotionally and creatively. I pretty much left SL alone, with other RL pressures too there was no way I had the creative energy to build anything. It wasn’t really until April 2016 that I returned properly, in large part cos of the Faire. I came to the Faire as a visitor and recharged. I still had not planned to return to the Faire this year, but Asil (the sim sponsor) asked me to return and I quickly failed to say no.

However, all the RL pressures remain, with a family, career and a part time degree I had no idea how I would squeeze in the time it takes me to form an idea and move that to a Faireland. I don’t work with others well, I’m horridly fussy and awkward, but luckily Liz somehow operates at my same resonance most of the time and just gets my ideas. She agreed to help out. Liz is an outstanding creator, and while probably 2/3 of the custom mesh in Anansi is mine, it is her texturing skills that made them look awesome. She also made the massive spider/boat/caravans that helped shape how we ended up looking and of course, the sinister grinning figurehead of Boaty mcClownface…

Anansi – picture by Justen Tyme.

What have you been up to in Second Life lately?

Uhm but…this is a family show right?….
Seriously, build wise not much. I am very lazy when it comes to doing stuff for myself. I spent a chunk of time last summer writing up various detailed blogs on mesh creation on my non-fiction blog. All kinds of things get covered, from good practice and design proper LOD shapes, to answering weird questions about mesh physics. At some point, I decided that the tooling for Mesh creators using blender is awful and so I’ve been working on a Blender addon that will hopefully make things a lot easier.

As part of all the Mesh stuff, I focussed on a long outstanding bug in SL and submitted a patch to the Firestorm team. Over the rest of the year, I got more involved in the viewer code and somehow got myself on to the Firestorm development team. That’s been amazing actually, the Firestorm team are incredible. I think people assume there are lots of developers working on Firestorm and all the other viewers for that matter. The truth is that there’s really not that many and they do an amazing job. Same goes with the support teams and testers etc. without their voluntary effort there would be a very different experience here. Of course, I had to put all that on hold to be here, but I will be getting back to helping out there and learning my way around the vast code base. I also plan to get more building blogs done and more progress on my blender tools, I just need to find an extra 12 hours a day really.

Anansi – picture by Caitlin Tobias.

What is a worldling cradle?

The worldlings were news to me too. They were trialled last year and considered successful so this year the project was scaled up a little.

What is a worlding cradle, and what is a worlding? That depends on who you ask. They are glimpses of future Fairelands, perhaps of Fairelands to come or of Fairelands that may never be. Baby worlds being nurtured. So when our glorious leader (Fantasy) came to speak to me about hosting those worlds it was clear that they’d need care and attention and so the worlding cradles became real.

Originally these were to be regular stores like on the other regions, so when I realized I was to house nascent worlds I pivoted the design and swung towards the incubator/vivarium design, each tent having air and water and “sunlight” to support it. Then as the whole Anansi idea came to fullness and through Liz’s spiders etc we settled into the bug theme that you see today giving us the glowworm/dragonfly hybrid cradle carriers.

Anansi’s worldling cradles – picture by Wildstar Beaumont.

How was Anansi born? What inspired it, what is its story?

Anansi came rather late to the design. Rather too late in a way, I had not intended to spend as much effort or tie up Liz as much as I did in bringing Anansi to fruition.

I tend to work from stories, for both my previous Faire builds Asperatus and Aurora, I had a story that guided my creation. Anansi was called something else entirely at first. Asil had come to me with her plan for a circus based RP. As fun and rich as the circus may be, I really could not get myself into the story. I had lots of ideas of how it would look. I knew right from the start that the centerpiece airship would have this giant creepy clown face but that was about it. I thrashed around on ideas and some of them stuck. the boat shaped hull of the “spider caravans” for example. My original design had shorter stubbier legs, more lizard-like with claw-like toes for gripping the rocks, but Liz was feeling lazy (*giggles*) and steadfastly refused to make toes. It was around that time that we were asked to accommodate worldlings, so after batting ideas back and forth my thoughts began to coalesce around the Anansi creation myths and making it core to the large store design. We had always had this notion that the tents were held aloft my arms from the large stores and so the spiders helping give birth to new worlds all suddenly began to come together into a cohesive theme… Well hopefully.

The story of Anansi is therefore really a reinvention of the African story of Anansi the spider. In my version Anansi stole or tricked his way into stealing the seeds of creation from the god and now he fleas through time and space busily encouraging new Fairelands to grow and thrive before casting them out into the voids to become standalone realities of their own.

Anansi – picture by Wildstar Beaumont.

What are you looking forward to most this year in the Fairelands?

Same as I always do, the same thing that I think brings us all back year on year…..

The Faireland people; the brilliant extended family, from the wonderful creators who fill the Fairelands with goodies to the bloggers and photographers who communicate it to the masses, to the storytellers and readers to the dancers and singers and entertainers, from the execs who think they run the show, to the pawlice, who really do.

I love the silly stressed out banter of the world makers as we struggle through 48 hour shifts to push the standards to new levels each year, I mean the other worldmakers of course….

It is a privilege and an endless source of pride that I get to build with and for all of you, so most of all I just enjoy seeing people exploring and having fun. Cancer is not a fun subject, but we show that fighting it through fundraising as we do, can and should be a lot of fun.

Thank you, Beq, for taking the time to talk with us. Thank you both for bringing us a Faireland!

Beq’s previous interview: 2015

Anansi – picture by Wildstar Beaumont