Fantasy Faire 2024 – Thunnus Bay

On By altathiemenIn Second Life, SL Events
A woman with long white hair in pigtails with shiny skin and wearing a black bikini stands at the left looking toward the right. The view is filled with odd looking lab equipment in a steampunk style. There is a door just left of middle which leads outside. A wooden pier can be seen through it.

Sponsor: Contraption
Designer: Victor Eton & Walton F. Wainright

Shops

  • The Muses
  • Safe Waters Foundation
  • ridi-ludi-fool
  • Evil Baby
  • Poseidon
  • Oblivis Solem
  • Ghoul Waifu
  • Cole’s Corner
  • aII
  • Aerth
  • Hotdog
  • Raven Bell
  • Contraption
  • Bespoke Caravan
  • The Forge
  • Tardfish
  • Nefekalum Tattoos
  • LX
  • Naminoke
  • Paesia
  • Tir Na Nog
  • cCc
  • Old Treasures
  • Barracuda
  • Portal

My memorial candle was returned last night. It showed up in my Lost and Found just after I finished my post about Flamenca. So, it looks like we can assume the Fairelands are in the process of vanishing from sight for another year. This, of course, means the shop list above is useless now. But there it is anyway.

A blue green underwater view of a rock ledge in the foreground and submerged stone buildings in the distance. A couple bunches of kelp rise to and trail along the surface above about the center and just to the right. Bright sun rays shine down from above right to lower left. At left, a woman with long white hair wearing a black bikini rides a six or seven foot long orange and yellow seahorse.

The next to last region I explored this year was Thunnus Bay. This region is almost entirely underwater. Underwater builds are hard to get right in Second Life, but this one seems to nail it. The overall look, the mood it creates, the lighting and the textures of the buildings and undersea rock formations, the sandy bottom and the occasional sea flora and fauna all contribute to a very convincing undersea experience.

Thunnus Bay could be a mer-region, but it does not appear to be. The locals I met during the LitFest tour were more like fish people than mer-people. Though there is a human population doing research out of the small collection of surface buildings near the dock and parked submarine.

A swirling portal sits in a free-standing, richly carved stone doorway. Carved stone fish with their heads on the top of the arch, facing each other, and tails aching up on either side surmount the portal doorway. Sponges and coral dot the ocean bottom around the doorway. A many arched gallery surrounds the portal.

There’s a lot of friction between factions here. The human researchers appear to be at just daggers drawn with another group of humans who revere, and seem to want to protect, the fish people. The fish people themselves seem to be split into factions but don’t seem to care about either group of humans one way or the other. A great deal of drama to be found here if you look for it. (Particularly if you attended the tour.)

There was apparently a somewhat tricky region quest here this year. (I’m guessing it wasn’t easy by the relatively high population Thunnus Bay sustained throughout the last week of the faire. A lot of people were probably stuck on part of it.) One piece was a mysterious portal that I spent a lot of time hovering around. I never found out how it was activated, but did notice it swirling away on occasion.

A street of large stone buildings in a vaguely south-east Asian style sits deep under water. The entrance to the near building is surmounted by two elegantly carved fish. The fish have their heads resting on the top of the doorway lintel, facing each other, while their tails arch upward.

The detail in the textures and lighting is really nicely done. The stone buildings are very realistic looking, as you can see from a glance at the decorative carved fish above one of the doorways and the shifting light patterns on the sea bottom. All in all, Thunnus Bay was a delightful departure from the above water builds. I had a great time exploring it.

Leave a comment