Day: October 15, 2024

Valayra Asher (Valayra) has once again redressed her Full region of Soulstone, a region I’ve covered a number of times, and I’m always drawn back to it because Valayra tends to offer something very removed from the previous iteration, making any visit a entry into a new world and vision. This iteration is no exception, touching on Halloween to bring a theme of general horror and mystery mixed with a little post-apocalyptic or dystopian and flavoured with a very faint hint of Dark Knight stories.

Before getting into things, I will note that this is a location best viewed using a PBR-capable viewer or, if you’re still on an older viewer, then with Advanced Lighting Model (ALM: Preferences → Graphics) enabled.

If your system can handle them, then proceeding with shadows enabled is recommended; if your system cannot handle this whilst exploring the region as a whole, give it a go whilst inside the asylum, where you can also potentially reduce Draw Distance to help lighten the load the viewer is handling. Do also make sure you’re using the Shared Environment and, finally, please note that the south-west quarter of the region appears to be given over to a private residence, and is separated from the rest via a mix of hills and building shells, so avoid trespass there.

Located on the north side of the region, the Landing Point gives the first hint of the post-apocalyptic / dystopian feel to the setting as it lies on a partially destroyed road bridge. It’s not clear what caused the literal downfall of the bridge, but the local flooding to be found suggests it may have been the result of a natural disaster such as an earthquake. At the foot of the bridge the mystery of the setting continues: it appears the road once linked with one running from the east side of the region – but where they presumably once met has been turned into a caged basketball court with the appearance of having been placed there after the roads had been largely destroyed.

This basketball court with its razor wire, closed-circuit security cameras and the guard tower sitting next to it all give the setting a penitentiary feel; however, standing above them along the top of an eastern rise in the land is the foreboding bulk of an asylum. For me, it immediately brought to mind thoughts of the Elizabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Whether this is intended or not, I’ve no idea, but a hospital for the criminally insane might account for the use of a guard tower, spotlights and the like.

The asylum sits as a the major focal point of the setting. The way to it is along the east-pointing section of road, littered as it is with the well-rusted wrecks of cars as they sit as the detritus of disaster. The asylum itself appears at first glance to be deserted – the main doors are wide open (as are other leading outside) and the windows smashed and broken, with further signs of chaos inside. Exploration here is best done with shadows enabled, so as to fully absorb the environment and the sense of stumbling around in the dark and coming across the unexpected.

While it is fair to say the asylum dominates the landscape, its multiple broken eyes staring out over the devastation below the brow on which it sits; it is not alone; others sit on the flat plain it overlooks, some of which, like the asylum, have managed to retain some vestiges of electrical power despite whatever has befallen them.

Broken and empty, a forlorn and empty swimming pool sitting before one block, these high-rises bear silent, shattered witness to whatever anger was unleashed upon this land; not even the glimmering neon of an advertising hoarding can disguise the fact that civilisation here has passed, living behind only animals, birds, and the shuffling shells of those asylum inmates somehow left behind in whatever evacuation may have taken place.

Yet amidst the ruin a little tram station sits, ostensibly in one piece, also sheltering under the dormant protection of the guard tower.  Where the trams arriving and departing this station might have come from or run to makes no difference now. Indeed, going on the signs hung from the pole of a working streetlight alongside the station, it would appear whoever survived whatever happened recognises this fact, given the destinations the signs list…

And speaking of signs / signage / graffiti, attention should be paid through any explorations, as there is a certain dark humour to be found throughout in the signage and scrawl, posters and adverts. Places to sit can be found scatters around, mostly in makeshift shelters out on the broken roads or alongside the fractured walls of buildings. They offer a chance for those who want to absorb the setting’s ambience and / or allow it to conjure stories of how it has come to be so devastated to do so in a measure of small comfort. Also to be found, large and small, are touches that might bring to mind a particular film about the aftermath of one calamitous event in human history – at least to me -, and others echoing the shuffling threat of horror from assorted films and televisions series (“Braiiins….”).

Finished with a soundscape well suited to both its devastation and mystery, this iteration of Soulstone is, as with previous builds, well worth visiting.

SLurl Details

• Soulstone (Enchanted Escape, rated Adult)