Fantasy Faire 2024 – Wistlyn Shallows

On By altathiemenIn Second Life, SL Events
A ruined temple with headless, leaning columns fills the center of the image. Dense forest can be seen behind a rock bluff in the background. At the right edge of the image, a woman with long white hair looks thoughtfully in to the distance toward the left. She holds both hands loosely to her head just below her ears.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wistlyn%20Shallows/62/106/93
Sponsor: Star Mesh Body
Designer: Lrriven

Shops

  • Lulu
  • r+nr
  • archduchess
  • Ari-Pari
  • Tanaka
  • Postive Wavelength
  • Raindale
  • Unstable
  • Dawn Kingdoms
  • FantaSea
  • Star Mesh Body
  • Rivendale
  • Grumble
  • Sounds Great
  • So Silly
  • RVi Design
  • Harvest Moon
  • Chouko Rosa
  • Mystic Fox
  • Mors Ad Normalem
  • FAS
  • Titans

I went through the Fairlands Junction gate to get to Harvest Home. It popped me in at about 4000m! That first step was a doozy. So, to explore Wistlyn Shallows, I took the SLURL from the website! From the landing point, I jumped down to just inside the Flamenca entrance.

A Jupiter like planet rises behind two giant flower bud like shop buildings. Massive plant stalks rise in the foreground and background. One curls around a glowing orb.
Jupiter? rises over Wistlyn Shallows

The first thing you notice on entering Wistlyn Shallows is that scale is different here. Either you’ve become very small, or everything else has grown very large. Lotuses rise a hundred feet overhead. Blades of grass soar over the path like trees. If you explore off the path, you’ll find more and more indicators that you are no longer the giant striding amongst the tiny creatures below, quite the opposite.

You also notice that we’re not in Kansas anymore, or even on earth. A huge Jupiter like planet rises in the east, illuminated by a star that has set. We’re on a moon of this giant planet? (It was hinted that this planet provides ‘dust’ crucial to the region.)

The designer, who brought us WooHoo! Bay last year, clearly wants a change of perspective (and gets it!) “You are tiny, insignificant, and possibly lost.”

Beautiful paths inset with coloured mosaics, made (I’m told) from glass recycled from the occasional bottle the big people have discarded in the shallows, guide the visitor through the tamer parts of the region. Follow the paved route and you’ll find all the shops! In fact the route the paths take through the shop buildings brings your almost into each one.

The low angle, cool light from the planet casts dramatic shadows across the path and brings out the relief in the mosaic covered path and lotus flower like structures that house the shops.

Almost lost in the middle foreground, a woman with long white hair wearing a brown belly dancer's costume stands looking at floating steaks of luminescence and levitating eggs containing tadpoles, each the size of a football. Behind and around her, lotus flowers and seed heads rise dozens of feet above. Just behind and in front of her, a blade of grass soars to unguessed height.
The Hatchery

Near the entrance from The Last Stop, you can take a turning off the main path down to The Hatchery. This is the heart of the region, where new life comes from. Hints have been dropped that this special place will be an important part of a region quest to be released Monday the 22nd. Look for notices to appear in the region announcing the quest.

A view below the water's surface, a giant film canister and discarded trainer rest on the muddy bottom of the shallows.
Discarded items rest on the bottom of the shallows

More than in most Fantasy Faire regions, there’s much more to see if you step off the main route. If you dive into the water surrounding The Hatchery, or just fail to stay on the path, you’ll find yourself in an underwater world of frogs, turtles, and objects carelessly discarded by the big people. A giant film canister, an old trainer, a lost golf ball “decorate” the bottom along with other lost and thrown away items. I’m told that these accidental inputs are important to the region as well.

A plaza sized spider web spreads from a high branch. In the midst of its luminous threads sits a spider that's easily 30 feet across. Standing on a slender thread before the spider is the tiny figure of a lone woman. In the distance, a Jupiter like planet rises above the sea.

And don’t just dive into the water, fly well above the paved way. Up in the high branches you can find cow sized tree frogs and birds twice your own height. A spider, tens of feet from leg to leg, lurks in a web spun from the tip of one of the highest branches. Fortunately, they all seem well fed and uninterested in bothering visitors.

There’s a great deal of mystery here to explore and explain. I gather that much will be revealed to those who complete the region quest which starts on Monday. We’ll see if I can fit that into my busy faire schedule!

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