Lopayzanilaya: The Fox's Den in Second Life

I've always loved the idea of being able to take a computer and render into a 3D world some of the images I saw in my head while writing my various stories. I'd already discovered Neverwinter Nights and had been using the community-added Rokugan and Asian-influenced content to create some vision of Aizvarya when my son told me about Second Life. Wondering what he was going on and on about, I signed up for an account myself--and found yet another medium in which to bring to some semblance of reality stuff I could only see in my head and describe on paper.

As a result of some of my wanderings early on, I found a location that "spoke" to me, strongly suggesting a great spot for water to flow out of a small cliff-side and pool on the ground. From that flash of inspiration, I expanded that idea and decided I'd set up some version of the hot springs written about in the story about Aruna, Kara's mother. But as my inspiration grew, I ended up with something far grander and more "perfect" than you'd truly see at the Swordsmaster's estate in Aizvarya. It occured to me then that what I was creating wasn't the Swordsmaster's estate, nor was it the earthly Lopayzanilaya. Instead, my Second Life land became an echo of the palace of Lopayzu himself within the realms of the Celestial Court.

I have my snapshots arranged by date for a very good reason. Second Life, by its very nature, is extremely fluid. What someone has on their land may change at any moment--as well as the owner of the land itself. Even the Den itself has undergone changes, though it's been quite stable compared to the usual in Second Life. Most of the changes have been as I've gotten more ambitious and acquired more land, but there's also been stylistic changes here and there. Not only does this page show off what I've accomplished in bringing to life Lopayzu's Heavenly palace, it also chronicles how I've refined my vision.

The sidebar attached to the navigation menu to the left shows off the lastest snapshots I've personally sent in to Snapzilla. All of them right now feature Lopayzanilaya as it is presently; the snapshots are dated, so again it will chronicle how things are changed or refined. One such example is the dark brown torii by the Forest Teahouse. In the older pictures, you'll see it has my picture of Lopayzu there. Since I've now set up a shrine to him personally (rather than the more generic Kitsune Shrine by the roadway), I've changed the picture in the torii to kanji that reads "Forest of the Fox"--a graphic that I manipulated to look like the kanji are carved in wood.

September 15, 2005

The Den at night, main entrance: Sept 15, 2005 Open-air sword-art dojo: Sept 15, 2005 Kitsune shrine: Sept 15, 2005 Den hot springs: Sept 15, 2005 Main gate of the den at night: Sept 15, 2005 River's End: Sept 15, 2005 Along the moat: Sept 15, 2005 Open-air dojo at dawn: Sept 15, 2005
Main gate Dojo Kitsune shrine Hot springs Main gate River's End Along the moat Dojo at dawn
The largest torii on the estate: Sept 15, 2005 The kitchen in the ground floor of the keep: April 9, 2006 Second floor, Lopayzanilaya Keep: April 9, 2006 Fourth floor (master bedroom), Lopayzanilaya Keep: April 9, 2006
Torii Keep kitchen* Second floor* Master bedroom*

* This snapshot was not taken on the stated date but rather at a later time. However, it is included here because the interior of the keep remains much the same as it did back when my first snapshots were taken.

These are the earliest snapshots I have of the Fox's Den. Still very new to the ways of Second Life (my "rez-day" is August 31), I didn't take very many because it seemed like I was saving over the last one every time I took a new snapshot. If you take a look at the ones showing the main gate, you can see that in the middle of September, the cobblestone road didn't yet exist.

April 9, 2006

Kitsune Cave entrance View from the top of the falls covering the Kitsune Cave The kenjutsu dojo again Dojo interior Side view of the dojo The easternmost teahouse on the estate The largest torii again Northwest corner of the forest, looking east
Cave entrance Atop the falls Dojo again Dojo interior Side view, dojo Eastern teahouse Torii again Northwest corner
Northwest corner again, looking south this time Backside of eastern roadside area of the forest Looking from the forest to the Kitsune Shrine across the roadway. The falls covering the Kitsune Cave Looking from the Kitsune Cave falls toward the Forest Teahouse The Pink Pavilion, the intended merchant shop of the estate Fox statue on an island in the forest pond View from the Forest Pavilion
Northwest corner again Roadside forest Toward the shrine Forest falls Toward teahouse Pink Pavilion Pond statue Pond statue again
View of the forest pond from the south Where the stream from the forest crosses under the roadway View of the forest stream near the roadside The other side of the road, where the forest stream emerges The Forest Teahouse The torii at the Forest Teahouse The Zen rock garden by the Forest Pavilion Looking out from the Forest Teahouse
Forest pond Going under Forest stream Coming back out Forest Teahouse Forest Teahouse torii Forest Zen garden Teahouse view
View from the Kitsune Shrine View from the Redwood Pavilion Looking along the roadway westward toward Hecta View along the roadway toward River's End Looking eastward along the road toward Sibine Looking westward from the fifth floor of the keep Looking eastward from the fifth floor of the keep View from the top of the hot springs
From the shrine From Redwood Pavilion Walking westward Into Hecta Walking eastward Keep top: Westward Keep top: Eastward Atop the hot springs
View of the eastern side of the castle garden The estate's guest house Relaxing in the hot springs Chillin' out at the hot springs View from the hot springs The hot springs of Lopayzanilaya The end of the Lopayzanilaya river Another view of the river's end
Eastern garden Guest house Relax! I'm chillin' out From hot springs Hot springs River's End River's End again
Southwest forest looking north Southwest corner looking east Looking into the forest along the western border The koi pond in the Fox's Forest The waterfall that starts the lower stream that runs through the Fox's Forest The bridge that leads to the Kitsune Cave The fruit orchard in the castle garden Another view of the apple and orange trees that make up the garden orchard
Southwest corner: Northward Southwest corner: Eastward Walking along pond Koi pond Lesser forest falls Kitsune Cave bridge Orchard Orchard again
The dirt and rock Zen garden with a double Happiness kanji by the orchard The view from the bridge linking the roadway to my neighbor's land in Bhima Looking at the roadway bridge from my neighbor's land in Bhima The round Zen stone garden in the eastern, roadside area of the Fox's Forest The Hong Bao money tree on Sacred Isle The good-luck scarecrow in the eastern, roadside area of the Fox's Forest The rectangular Zen stone garden by the Kitsune Shrine The bridge leading into the main part of the Fox's Forest
Double Happiness Bridge view Roadway bridge Round Zen garden Money tree Lucky scarecrow Shrine Zen garden Forest bridge
Eastern Teahouse Japanese stone lantern overhanging the south edge of the Fox's Forest pond
Eastern Teahouse Water lantern

I went on a snapshot-taking spree, not only because I realized that if anything ever happened and I could no longer afford the monthly fee to maintain the Fox's Den, I'd have little record of what I had, but I also wanted to show my writing partner what I'd cobbled together from stuff I'd bought. I'd mentioned to her before that I had created a version of the Fox's Den, but it's one thing to be told about it and quite another to see it. The above is my first major slew of recording how Lopayzanilaya looked at the time.