Fantasy Faire 2024 – Plankbarrow Harbor

On By altathiemenIn Second Life, SL Events
At the left of the image, a large iron anchor hangs from an unseen point of suspension against a dark sky. The tip of a wooden post can just be seen at bottom-center. At the right edge is a woman with long white hair wearing a transparent plastic raincoat and heavy knee high boots. She is looking toward the anchor.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Plankbarrow%20Harbor/136/115/99
Sponsor: Static
Designer: Nama Gearz

Shops

  • Antaya
  • Eclectica
  • Fantasy Pixels
  • Senzafine
  • Annex Boutique
  • Love
  • ERG
  • Sigil
  • Static
  • Constraint
  • My View
  • Thrive
  • The Space Between
  • Jazabelle Boutique
  • Ichor
  • Madrat
  • The Crosstime Garage
  • Krature
  • Mer Made
  • Misteria
  • Choppai
  • Te Moana Auro
  • Zen Child Designs
  • Skellybones

As I find as I wander into Plankbarrow Harbor, Lolliacolypse is not the only nexus of darkness in this year’s Faire. This darkness though is of a different flavour entirely. In fact, it may be merely physical darkness. There are a number of scary looking things here, but the mood is different. It’s almost as though the pirate residents of Plankbarrow are welcoming visitors, for now, in their own unpracticed way.

A rough boardwalk recedes from the lower center of the image into the middle distance, passing through a timber gate. Sharp spikes are planted around the uprights on either side of the gate. Skulls, ladders with rungs made from bones, and stumps with dimly glowing candles also adorn the entrance. On either side of the gate is a wall made from slapdash weathered planks. In the distance, above the gateway, a large wooden shipwreck is perched a rise, its tattered sails visible only in silhouette. An anchor dangles from its prow. Above all, a moon with a sinister skull like appearance hangs in a dark sky.

Entering from Sievea. Pass a few more mushrooms and I’m on a sort of pier winding its way above the ocean. (I presume ocean becuase of the character of the shipwrecks I can see in the distance, but it is very calm, though there is a swell that speaks of ocean.) The water is hard to see. It’s perpetually shrouded in mist. But it can be heard.

Coming to the entry gate, things look far from welcoming, at first. Spikes, skulls, suspended bones, and a low fog hovering just above the water. Even the moon looks and feels distinctly sinister. Yet, there’s no bar to entry. The path is wide open. And the gate is invitingly, if dimly lit.

A rough boardwalk curves high above dark water. A woman can be seen looking down from the walk at a collection of giant tentacles emerging from the water.

However the entrance makes you feel, I’d recommend staying on the boardwalk and not going for an evening swim. Sharks, eels, and whatever may be attached to the giant waving tentacles I saw from a high spot on the boardwalk all make for doubtful aquatic safety.

Pier, shops, um, dwellings, nearly everything appears to be made from pieces of wrecked ships. This is sensible as they seem to be in good supply. There is a wrecked vessel around almost every corner.

Lights can be seen in doors and windows, but nobody can be seen using them. A pub stands by the boardwalk and sounds can be heard from within, but the door will not open to the likes of us.

A dwelling of several stores appears to have been constructed from pieces of several shipwrecks. Windows from at leas three large stern lights glow from light within. The dwelling is perched precariously on top of a haphazard construction of weathered planks. Repurposed main shrouds look like they provide access to the balcony that just from the lowest story.

Plankbarrow was inspired by Brigadoon, only instead of protecting a small village of happy-go-lucky Scots highlanders from the pressures of the world around them, Plankbarrow is a pirate haven. The designer asks why not a Brigadoon for every culture.

So, once a century, Plankbarrow heaves to in its travels through the mists and is accessible to visitors, for a short while. During that time they are welcomed. But the visitor is warned not to overstay, or they may be there for the next century.

A dimly lit shop interior. Assorted bottles, flasks, a candle and at least one skull sit on a few shelves in the right background. An earthenware pot sits in the foreground. Behind it is a small casque on its side. A blue pixie is perched on the barrel, beckoning the visitor into the shop.

Aside from the Fantasy Faire shops, retail is a risky business for the visitor. In one small shop, apparently committed to the care of a blue pixie, the wares on offer appear to be mostly intoxicants and poisons.

Plankbarrow Harbor is another excellent example of the combination of amazing lighting and superb textures. The two work together to create the mood of the centennial pirate haven. I’m sure if I looked at a plan of the whole build, a sensible, manageable pattern would be visible. But the way the components are laid out, the eye is dazzled and the mind tricked into seeing the whole thing as an impossible tangle of constructions.

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