Each year at the Faire, we like to invite well-known fantasy authors to visit the Faire and share their stories with us.
The first of our guests this year will be the British writer, Tom Lloyd, who is joining us at 12 noon today, to be interviewed by the Grand Vizier himself, David Abbot, in the Halls of Story.
Jeanette Doobie, the creator and owner of ~Jeanette’s Joint~, the sponsor of Athenaeum Arcana.
Jeanette Doobie, the creator and owner of ~Jeanette’s Joint~ and the collector behind the Unofficial Fantasy Faire Museum sponsors the Faireland of Athenaeum Arcana. She tells us her reasons to join the Fairelanders, shares many of her favourite Faire memories and reveals some sneak peeks of her upcoming Faire Wares!
Rox Arten, the creator and owner of Secrets of Gaia, the sim sponsor for The Bazaar Dungeon.
Rox Arten, the creator and owner of Secrets of Gaia, sponsors the Faireland of The Bazaar Dungeon. She shares with us her reasons to Relay, talks of how her SLife started and turned from education to creating, and reveals some sneak peeks of her upcoming Faire Wares!
Julala Demina, the creator and owner of Jinx, frolicking in The Hill during the Faire of 2017.
Julala Demina, the creator and owner of Jinx, has become more involved with Fantasy Faire every year. She is sponsoring Tiny Town this year, and shares with us her love for the Faire and fantasy, and offers a sneak peek of her upcoming Faire wares!
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!
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!
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!
