Sunday, January 25, 2009

Opar - The Beginning

Opar
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Its about time I begin telling everyone about Opar, my personal estate in Second Life. Opar is a homestead sim (formerly an open sim) which I acquired last August and began developing. A homestead sim has 65,536 sq meters of land and 3750 prims, the basic building units in virtual worlds. Last summer, I was shown a marvelous Italianate style villa discovered by my friend Leesa called the Southpoint Yacht Club, copies of which were being offered by its builder. It was an award winning design. I fell in love with its impressive courtyard, with its fountains and covered arches, and with the many patios and lounge areas. The villa was a virtual garden filled with hanging and potted plants. I could see possiblities as a club for entertaining friends, as well as a personal residence.

Selina and Me (in red hair) - Girl Talk on the Villa Patio
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The villa is huge and sprawling, and its footprint alone would require almost 1/4 sim. If I wanted this villa, I would have to become a major landowner. About this time, I was given a tour of Kajaland, an open sim owned by Kaja Lurra of Sweden. I never spent a more delightful time in Second Life. Kajaland was modeled on the Swedish countryside with wonderously textured green meadows, rolling hills and highlands, ancient trees, and a surprising wheatfield. Kajaland was a visual delight and a joy to walk or explore on horseback. I was inspired.

Natural Splendor at Opar
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I was now determined to have my own sim. Being from Hawaii, I could have easily planned a tropical landscape, as it was a motif with which I am most familiar. But I decided that the sim must be temperate with birches, pines, and oaks being the dominant trees. I wanted high steep mountains overlooking the sea and interior waterways. I would have a cold fiord with a towering waterfall, forests, and fields of wild flowers. There would be walking and riding paths and, around every bend, something delightful. Most of all I wanted to achieve grand panoramic views of nature.

Earliest picture: with Erin Kinkade on a barren Opar

I made arrangements with a real estate company to have an open sim created for me. It would be named Opar. In our family library, my father had a collection of adventure novels written by Edgar Rice Burroughs which he had read as a boy. And, as a young 12 year old girl, I buried myself in these books and, through their magic, trod the martian plains of Barsoom, faced prehistoric monsters at the earth's core, and explored lost cities in the jungles of Africa with Tarzan of the Apes. Strange as it may seem, my love of great literature was ignited by those juvenile pulp novels. First among the lost African cities was Opar, a forgotten outpost of the sunken empire of Atlantis. Opar was inhabited by frightful men and beautiful women and ruled by a high priestess queen, La. La was dark, savage, and regal. Her great love was the Lord of the Jungle; but it was a tragic unrequited love. I identified with Queen La and not with the blonde from Baltimore, Jane. So my kingdom in Second Life must be named Opar.

The Villa at Sunset
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I purchased a copy of the villa, and my dear friend Naiya erected it on Opar and greatly expanded its building. I was also aided in setting up the villa by two of the best master builders in all Second Life, Annabelle Babii and Adrian Harbinger. To achieve the topography that I wanted for Opar, I obtained the terraforming services of Kaja of Kajaland. But first, I had to evict two tenants. Jaysun and Erin Kinkaid, my best friend at the time, erected beach houses at the far end of Opar in an area that became known as Squatter's Point. There they held wild parties and would set out in a monster power boat on pirating expeditions.

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Dark, Savage, and Regal Queen of Opar

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Today, Opar is pretty much complete, and I have largely achieved my vision for it (but I wish that I had more prims). Visitors to Opar arrive at the magnificient Italianate Villa where they can dance and dine under the stars. Sweeping natural vistas serve as backdrops to meetings of friends in the villa's patios, verandas, courtyards and formal rose garden. Visitors relaxing and conversing around the villa's fireplace will be delighted with a grand view of Opar's fiord and towering waterfall. Beyond the villa, visitors can explore Opar's scenic splendors - a wild flower meadow, a wild shore where the ocean churns and waves crash, a Hidden Forest of fairy oaks, and foggy paths leading up into the mountains. Future posts on Opar will highlight a different area of Opar. I think you will see that this is a very special place.

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Opar: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Opar/30/140/26
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