Category: Reviews

ARNICAR India has opened another region design for people to enjoy in the form of Chapel Imagination. It’s a stunning design that brings together art, architecture, water and one or two fantastical touches to present a region rich in detail, yet subtle on the eye; a place where one can wander and dream, ponder and relax – and simply be.

Simplicity of design appears to have been the watchword here, with the region sitting as a trio of islands tucked within a bay surrounded by high peaks. All three of the islands are relatively minimal in size, with the largest running east-to-west, a low finger of land marked by a shingle path looping around it to enclose the ruins of what was once a substantial structure – the chapel of the region’s title, perhaps.

This structure comprises the Looking Glass Chapel Ruins, created by Marcus Inkpen, and The Looking Glass Enchanted Ballroom Walls by Sharnee Azalee, facing each other along the island’s length, with a Gothic archway walk by Abel Dreamscape stretching part-way between them. This mix of designs works exceptionally well to present a place of ancient splendour and mystical calling, shaded by the broadly spread arms of three monkeypod trees, while the older boughs of Alex Bader’s Skye Twisted Tree intertwine with the archways of the Gothic walk.

The two smaller islands sit to the south and north of this main island – which also forms the landing point – and are reached via short causeways. One of these again uses wall sections from The Looking Glass Chapel Ruins to form  largely enclosed space marked by more of Alex Bader’s Twisted Tree, while the other again uses Abel Dreamscape’s Gothic archway, this time interspersed with Sourwood trees before giving way to more elements of TLG’s Chapel Ruins, together with some Lost Garden Columns.

It is this minimalist approach to choice of elements – The Looking Glass and Dreamscape – that gives Chapel Imagination part of its charm and appeal, offering as it does the sense of being within what was once an extensive building, which in turn gives the setting a wonderful sense of continuity as you explore.

But it is the details waiting to be found throughout that gives Chapel Imagination its unmistakable depth. Red-crowned cranes are waiting to greet arrivals at the landing point, the chapel behind them offering a fantasy garden / dressing room, a wedding dress waiting to be worn. Down through the Gothic arches are more suggestions of a wedding-in-waiting, whilst the circle at the end offers an entirely different surprise. Beyond it, a little pier extends over water rich with whimsy and fantasy as Bryn Oh’s Social Distancing canoe sits on the gentle waves.

To the north, the second chapel stands as a kind of music room, a grand piano sitting within it, together with pieces of art and more. All of this is watched over by a photographer who has found a most unusual perch – so much so, that he might easily be missed, thus adding a little twist of humour.

Despite the use of chapel parts throughout, it’s only the the south island that carries any real hints of religion within it, where pews, and a votive stand can be found, together with a curious gathering of nuns watched from a distance by a lone monk.

I’m being deliberately vague about all of this because Chapel Imagination deserves to be seen, not described – and seen directly rather than through the lens of a camera. A considerable amount of work has gone into presenting it as a place of retreat and peace, complete with a considered sound scape and a delightful sense of whimsy.

One of the most engaging region designs I’ve visited in a while, and a tour de force lesson that you don’t need to stuff a region full of bits in order to make it photogenic or worthy of people’s interest.

With thanks to Shawn Shakespeare.

SLurl Details

• Chapel Imagination (Everlong, rated Moderate)

Update: Venesha has closed. SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.

Once upon a time there was a place called Venexia. A full region, it offered a taste of Venice in something of a Gothic twist, largely built with role-play in mind – although it was a highly photogenic region – it was open to Second Life users between 2011 and 2015, when it and it’s “companion” region – as in, designed by the same people – closed (see: The passing of places in Second Life, June 2015).

In 2018, the spirit of Venexia returned when Zee9, one of the original region’s designers, created a Homestead region based on Venexia that she called Venesha. Referring to it as a “stripped down” version of Venexia, Zee9 nevertheless imbued much of what had made Venexia special within the mesh and prims of Venesha.

To be honest, I’ve no idea how long that iteration of Venesha remained in Second Life – I stopped by in something like August or September 2018, IIRC, but never wrote about it – and by the start of 2019, Zee9 had moved on to her futuristic 2019-XS city design, itself a recasting of her Drune build (which it was also to morph into over time (see Time at 2019-XS in Second Life, January 2019 and Drune IV: an Aftermath in Second Life, August 2019).

Now, with Venesha, the enchanted isle, Zee9 has brought all the magic of Venexia back to Second Life – and more. Once again occupying a Full region, Venesha, the enchanted isle has given Zee9 to completed rebuild the original and enhance it to offer a setting that is utterly captivating and rich in nuance and style.

Situated as a sky build in order to make use of the better performance people can oft experience with the viewer (no pesky Linden Water to render, which can affect viewer performance, particularly for those running EEP-capable viewers),  Venesha offers an enticing mix of classic Venice with canals, gondolas (some of which act as site-to-site teleports within the build), humpbacked bridges, waterfront houses, narrow terraces, inner courtyards and one broad square that takes its lead from the famous Piazza San Marco.

But mixed with this is much more – the aforementioned Gothic element for example, together with something of a steampunkian edge, like the clockwork elevator that will take you up the inside of the clock tower, and the street lamps that look like they might be gas-powered. The docks, meanwhile are strong Renaissance period in styles (and shipping). Meanwhile, the taverns and tea houses look as if they’d fit into any period from the Renaissance through to the present day, whilst the preferred (but not enforced) dress-code is Victorian / Edwardian.

If all this sounds a bit of a hodge-podge, rest assured, it isn’t. Thanks to the architecture of the region, everything naturally flows together from waterfront to streets, to island gardens, going by way of theatre, churches, clubs, taverns. Rather, Venesha the enchanted isle is a genuinely immersive setting that suggests a place cut-off from time, and where role-play opportunities abound throughout. Those with a Gothic / supernatural bent will find places like the Tomb Garden and the great basilica to their liking; the interior of the latter is certainly not what you might expect from a house of God – but who said churches have to be places of worship in one particular direction?  Across the region, the dungeons may similar offer opportunities for some role-play scenarios, whilst the island gardens and the library sit as quieter retreats.

Those with an interest in magic can always enrol in the local magic school, tucked away behind the Basilica and occupying a little island of its own. For the adventurous there is the ride to the top of the clock tower and a zip line ride down to a nearby tower, where a treat of wine and cheese awaits those who dare – just down drink too much, as the way back t the ground is via a pair of ladders!

As noted above, some of the gondolas found along the canals offer the means to teleport around Venesha, but I really recommend talking your time and walking around; there a lots of little corners and terraces that might be missed otherwise, as well as one or two secrets. Can you find the hidden entrance to the catacombs, for example?

Currently there are no plans to re-introduce formalised role-play into Venesha, Zee9 preferring to leave things open to visitors who wish to do so to engage in free-form RP. She does note, however, that any of the old Venexia RP groups that might still be active are welcome to hop over and try the region on for size.

Zee9 describes Venesha as her best build to date – and while I have always enjoyed her region designs, I’m not going to dispute her on that point: Venesha is fabulously designed and executed, and perfectly recaptures everything that made Venexia so popular. The default environment settings are recommended for maximum enjoyment, but with care, others also work well with the design.

I’m totally up to my ears in a variety of things at the moment, which has had something of an impact on my ability to blog with the usual frequency. Hopefully, I’ll be all caught up over the next couple of days, but I didn’t want to mission the opportunity to write a few words about Swan, the Homestead region held by Keely Mistwood as her personal space, but which she has opened to the public to visit.

The landscaping for the region is by Tab Tatham, whose design work is always worth seeing as she has an considered eye for creating natural environments – as can instantly be seen with Swan.

The region is largely given over to a mountainous off-sim surround that joins with the island to present a low-lying tongue of land extending out into the waters of a bay, several other peaked islands rising from the waters to suggest a coastal archipelago, while the the trees of the lowlands suggest this is somewhere in the northern latitudes.

Rocky in nature and split by a stream that issues from one of the landscape’s rocky faces, the landscape is rich in fir and oak and climbs back to a high table close to the mountain backdrop, a finger of rock connecting the two, a screen of trees helping to curtain the join between region landscape and surround.

This high bluff has prevented the sea complete separating the headland from the mountain, and thus turning it into an island. To one side is a channel that has eaten its way between headland and mountains; on the other is a sheltered arc of beach reached by wooden steps that descend from the flat top of the rock and watched over by a wooden deck.

The top of the plateau is largely given over to Keely’s house, which like the rest of the region, is open to the public. It has a delightfully bohemian feel to it, the indoor spaces open and breezy, seamlessly with the decks around it, and a cool looking rocky pool alongside in place of a more traditional swimming pool.

Packed with detail, the house looks down on a further curved bay, this one with shingle rather than sand, this one arcing to another, lower table of rock, home to a more traditional swimming pool. It can be reached via the wooden steps leading up to the house from the landing point or via one of two zip lines.

The second zip line descends to the north-east and the tip of the headline, where an old cabin, now converted into a hidden summer house – although be warned that the trip down the line will take you through the local fir trees, so you could end up getting a few slaps from the boughs!

Between the cabin / summer house and the landing point, the land is again rich in detail beneath the canopy of trees. Here might be found an open-air theatre, old terraces, open walks, decks and more, all making for a richly photogenic setting – although you’ll need you own pose HUD for avatar photography, as Keely hasn’t opened rezzing the region to avoid littering.

Superbly made, packed with opportunities to wander and / or relax (including the little island off-shore, although you’ll have to fly to it), Swan is a perfect destination for the SL traveller. I’m not sure if Keely intends to keep it open to visitors or if it may be a limited time opportunity to make a visit;  so if you’re interested, hopping over sooner rather than later might be the way to avoid disappointment.

SLurl Details

• Swan (rated: Moderate)