Friday, April 22, 2016

Fantasy Faire: Blackmoor

Sim Sponsor: .Arcadia. (Blackmoor) by Lokii Violet (Interview)
Builder: Lokii Violet

Event Sponsor: OtherSkin (Blackmoor) by Kaleidos Resident (Interview)

Blackmoor: A Light in the Darkness

Saturday, April 30 at 5:30PM SLT - LitFest  Region Tour: Blackmoor
Sunday, May 1 at 10AM SLT - LitFest  Region Tour: Blackmoor

Other Stores on Sim:
Blackmoor: Light in the Distance


Mists rise up from hot stone, sending chill fingers sliding through the Blackmoor night. It's dark, and even when light might collapse through, panting, to cast a shadow it somehow adds to the confusion rather than bringing anything into focus. Candles burn in bottles below the low-hanging branches and tucked inside of glass enclosures along the road, doing their best to fight back the gloom with tiny gold halos. Even tinier orbs of icy hues sparkle without the warmth of fire, stars brought down to earth through some eldritch power to dance attendance on those who venture into the night. The path is made of thick slabs of stone fitted together too well for the greedy grasses nearby to gain a foothold, each square of granite sunk deep into the soft earth. Darker stone makes up a mockery of walls, consuming the ends of each iron stake solidly enough that it could hold armies back and yet ending far from it's nearest neighbor - wide gaping maws offering passage from woods to road.

Blackmoor: Old Growth

Old buildings loom above the path, framed with old gold bushes and a green mist of ivy which hangs from columns and facades and feeds from the moisture in the air. The waxen glow of windows seems removed, rectangles of light which somehow fail to illuminate the gorse growing under them. Despite the cling of mist and the persistent fingers of green, each building remains impervious to the ravages of time, casting their own shadows to conceal what hides in a world where the stars have fallen. It's a surprise when the first of many sets of stairs emerge through the gloom, space high and wide enough for colossi to perch on as they watch who passes by, but it shouldn't be - the land has a curve to it, soft swampland giving way to fertile mounds under which the Fae conduct their business. The knarled fingers of their trees rise leafless into the air further into town, branches hung with thin chains of fireflies laced together and left dangling, doomed. As they are joined by their leafy sisters, the ground beneath rises higher and higher and the buildings grow until the center-most edifice dominates the sky.

Blackmoor: Descent

At the heart of town the rocks are so heavy they've pressed the ground lower below them, newer stone cut into stairs to reach them. The center of the ring is larger than a millstone, it's edges worn off by the passage of thousands of feet over the surface. The pathway up leads to the manor house, hung with creepers and concealing an oasis within, lit by a moon stolen from the sky and hung to please nobility. Flowers grow enormous under the light of this concealed satellite, fed by a spring that rises from a living darkness. Downwards leads through a tunnel lit with more ineffectual golden lamps through the living-rooms of spiders. It opens into a garden of the dead, water spilling out from a lower spring to pool under uneven boards and hidden behind walls of carved stone. Colossi rendered in miniature hold light in their mouths, flanking the way through to hanging boards covered in candles, illuminating their curved recesses and giving space to remember those who have gone on before us to prepare the way.

Blackmoor: Silent Witnesses

( More Blackmoor images here. )

Credits: 

Location: Blackmoor
Windlight Settings: Sim Default
Water Settings: Sim Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping

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