Category: Reviews

Update: Elvion closed in June 2024.

It is always a pleasure to visit Elvion, the ever-popular work of Bo Zano (BoZanoNL) and his SL/RL partner, Una Zano (UnaMayLi). From its earliest beginnings and throughout all its iterations, Elvion has always been a place of eye-catching and photogenic beauty, often ensconced within a Homestead region and occasionally within a Full region.

With its latest iteration, which I was able to drop into at the start of April 2024, Elvion retains its reputation as a place of beauty and relaxation, although it has once more switched to being founded on a Full private region, one leveraging the Land Capacity bonus available to such regions. And whilst I’ve always enjoyed Bo and Una’s designs, I have to say this one is particularly gorgeous.

Referenced as the Blackbird Edition, this version of Elvion offers everything which has over the years made Bo and Una’s work so highly regarded amongst Second Life explorers, photographers and bloggers – natural beauty, a sense of life imbued by the presence of wildlife and hints of human presence, together with far more of a sense of location and of a rich tapestry of life down through the generations.

Indulge yourself in this green land full of history and natural beauty. From stunning water views and forest trails, to the cosy harbour and city.

– Elvion Blackbird Edition, About Land

With the landing point to the south west and sitting on a rugged upland overlooking the local natural harbour and coastal walk, those arriving within the setting have the choice of either following the old cart tracks of the Mountain Trail for their explorations or of using the local teleport board to hop to one of the listed locales within the region. Of these two choices, I would obviously recommend the former, lest some of the the details present within the region.

Depending on which way you go in following the Mountain Trail, the first of the locations, as listed on the teleport board you’re likely to reach will be either the old gatehouse standing guard on one side of the local town, or the ruins of the abbey that once occupied the north-western extent of the region, flanked on two sides by open water and on the third by a deep gorge of a water channel which cuts through the setting north-to-south, fed by waterfalls and streams and crossed in several places by stone and wooden bridges.

The ruins of the abbey – an absolutely perfect use of elements from The Looking Glass Ruined Chapel, a long-standing favourite of mine – give a sense that this is a place long inhabited, even if once only as a religious retreat. The ruins look out across the waters to a rugged coastline which gives the impression that this iteration of Elvion sits as a small island which may have once been joined to that rugged coast, before the surrounding waters had forever sundered the two.

Across the gorge, and reached by the single stone bridge spanning it, the gatehouse leading to the town demonstrates a similar sense of age, together with a certain French turn in its architecture as it sits with its portcullises open to welcome visitors into the town.

The latter is a pleasing mix of buildings and styles, neatly suggesting it has grown organically over time, its two cobbled footpaths are split between elevations, offering a please walk through the town and down to the harbour. This sits within a natural bay into which the region’s water channel flows. Such is the nature of the this little port of call that it sensibly requires both a lighthouse and large marker buoys to help guide small vessels into the harbour’s arms and a safe mooring.

The lighthouse sits on a small isle which forms one side of the harbour and presents a pleasing walk in its own right, offering as it does a loop back to the town or a means to reach another of the region’s locales, the local windmill. The latter sits towards the north-eastern corner of the region, and which also sits at one end of the Mountain Trail.

But it is the natural look and feel to the setting, together with Una and Bo’s inevitable attention to detail that really bring this iteration of Elvion so memorable as a place. The ruggedness of the island perfectly matches the mountains off-region surround, giving the setting that sense of the two being properly related geologically, rather than the surround simply being a backdrop for the region’s landscape.

The detail extends to the rich mix of wild and domesticated animals found throughout the region, with the former coming in a variety which makes it hard to pin down where in the world this edition of Elvion might represent – if any at all -, further adding to its magic and attractiveness. Further attractiveness is given through the provision, again as is common and always welcome within Elvion, of multiple places to sit and pass the time.

Definitely not n iteration of Elvion to miss.

SLurl Details

• Elvion (rated Moderate)

Susann Decuir is responsible for drawing me to Memories of Dreams, a marvellously Japanese-themed Homestead region design by Yxes (Yxes Evergreen). she did so when I caught her write-up on the setting in her blog whilst I was largely outworld of SL during March 2024. As regulars to these pages know, almost anything with an Oriental theme will pique my interest, so I noted the SLurl and at the first opportunity on getting back in-world, off I toddled (or rather, my alt toddled!) so I could poke my nose in and have a look.

Spring in a Japanese styled sim….a place to sit and reflect once you’ve explored all the small nooks and crannies. Be sure to notice the Orcas migrating along the coast.

– Memories of Dreams, About Land Description

The setting is one of those which amply demonstrates the adage “Less is more”. Yxes has used a little of 50% of the region’s Land Capacity to produce a wonderfully evocative setting that does not need to be filled to the brim with objects in order to achieve its stated goal.

At least partially surrounded by off-region mountains (I’m actually not sure if it is supposed to be entirely surrounded, because for some reason the 3070 GPU on my current PC has a devil of a time rendering region surrounds where my old 970 rarely worked up a sweat in doing so), the setting is suggestive of a quiet retreat located on a (little-visited?) islet within the Japanese archipelago. The summer retreat, perhaps of a once-powerful Shogun.

The island’s rugged form is dominated by a large pagoda-like building. Perhaps once a home perhaps once a temple, it surrounded by a variety of trees – Japanese maple, Sakura, plum trees and more – which give colour and vitality to the knobbly and uneven mass of the island’s central knoll in a manner flowers and shrubs would not be able to manage. In addition, the trees obviously provide shade and a sense of coolness for those wandering this wildling garden as it sits around the main building.

Below the main structure, to the north-west and north and both sitting withing the island’s shallows, are two further structures. The each sit at the end (or start, depending on your point of view!) of a stone stairway set into the island’s slopes.

Located at the end of the potentially grander stairway – it being quite broad at its lower extent and semi-defensively boxed-in by walls on three sides – is a single-roomed building set upon stone slabs set above the coastal waters. Now a place to enjoy a quiet meal, it’s general design suggests that it may have once been where boats bringing people to the island came alongside.

The second building is also single-roomed, but sits slightly off-shore within the walls of what might be a man-made island. Torii gates and stepping stones over the shallow waters provide access to its gates, and the structure itself, located in a formal sand garden crossed by further stepping stones, has the feel of perhaps once having been a walled temple or shrine, but which is now given over the the art of the tattooist.

Close by this walled setting, and sitting on a low-lying headland, is a Japanese Zen garden offering a walk around its gravel paths and a way down to the island’s eastern beach, where visitors might to watch passing Orca as they frolic off the coast. A second arc of sand lies on the south side of the island. Located within a shallow cove, it is reached by walking down the grassy slopes from the main building.

Throughout all of this, subtle depth is added through the placement of small artistic touches – umbrellas apparently caught on a mysterious updraft so they hover above the entrance to the main building; a broken Torii gate with payer papers still pinned to it; Toro and other lamps scattered around to help hold the night at bay from the paths and steps; sculptures giving further voice to the presence of human hearts and minds on this little isle; and the gentle, watchful eyes of Buddha observing all who come and go, and the dance of Japanese Crane.

All told, a beautifully idyllic and beautifully relaxing (not to mention utterly photogenic) location, and once well worth visiting and appreciating.

SLurl Details

Memories of Dreams (Hawksong, rated Moderate)