Secrets Within - Behind the Scenes (WIP)

Sometimes, it's fun to watch a decorating project unfold. Each time i decorate, I learn something new and sometimes I become inspired in the oddest of ways. This is a project I have been planning for around a year. I've been waiting and waiting for the right moment, to find just the right items to do this with. Some ideas have come and gone, others have stuck around.

In the beginning, I was going to do this project with the idea that one would be able to walk on the actual island, so I knew that was going to be tough, but I had the image in my head of three towers standing tall connected in a triangle by long hallways. Once I got to decorating, I found that doing that was going to make the towers extremely small, so I replanned!

I was originally going to build the towers out of adamantine building blocks, so that took some waiting. During that time, I participated in a little Thelus RP event that Tenebrae ran. Ten describe the towers in the Elondra wastes of tall, black obsidian towers. The image stuck in my head and I decided that I had to bring that image to life in the only way I could--my wizard towers. That of course meant waiting for the Freeport city festival to come around again. I tend to farm out anywhere between 200 to 400 black tiles because I use them A LOT. What? I like black!

Right now the black building blocks don't look all that great, but I hear there's a fix in the works and these will soon be a very dark black. I can't wait to see that and how it will affect this place. It should bring everything together and give it that creepy, evil look I am going for.

Building the towers was a feat in itself, but once I had one tower done, I simply copied it and moved it, which was quite easy to do!

There are a total of three towers on the island. After I built the first one and copied the others, I added telepads to each one for easy travel while I worked on the final part of the complex.

Each tower consists of 3 floors with hallways leading up to the next floor.

It's not perfect. In fact, it's far from perfect! I used the circle tool of the layout editor to create a circle for the walls. Each tower is about 24+ Tall dividers and 27+ black tiles. I didn't bother twisting the floors or using the circle tool on them.

I was going to use the circle tool and figure out a way to make stairways going up to each floor, but that wasn't working so well. I was at this point still going to build this so that you could walk outside the towers and run around the island, but i eventually had to face it: I could not build these towers without anything poking out of them. So, I did what any decorators would do, blocked the fucking island off!

The doorways were tricky to do, but I managed to do something easy, fitting and that didn't take up a lot of item count.

Each tower has some slight differences as I made changes, but nothing too terribly different. I ended up turning the towers slightly once each was where I wanted it, in order to connect them all to the 4th building - A giant large floating triangle room!

I thought I'd show some of the outside of the building, to show just what it takes and how it looks. It's terrible looking, but the inside is great! So here's some shots of what you won't see in the home at all.

I might have been able to cover the towers, but once I got them the size I wanted, they were rather large and the item count was already up there, so I figured blocking the towers off was the best plan!

The Triangle Room

The idea for this room was to connect all the towers and have a sort of central room. I knew I wanted a triangle, but the idea of building it utterly baffled me for a little while. I started the project on the ground, beginning with the floor.

I had some trouble trying to figure out how to make a triangle out of squares until I finally remembered that the place didn't need to be seen from the outside, so what shape the floor was didn't really matter! Slightly brassiness to admit, but it did happen! And I bashed my head on the desk thinking about what an idiot I was. Duh.

Determining just how big to make the triangle room was another feat. The first versions were very small and I eventually made it about three times the size of the original.

Looking at it tonight, I might have gone too big, but oh well! I'm not rebuilding it, yet.

Positioning the triangle was yet another feat. that took awhile to do. Every time I positioned it, the triangle either poked into one of the towers or just didn't want to line up right, but eventually I found something that worked out pretty well. Looking at the outside of it is pretty cool. It kinda looks like some sort of monstrous stealth bomber!

Some of the most fun parts of decorating a home like this, are those moments when you are standing on absolutely nothing. I have to say, it's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights, because it is kinda scary, for a virtual world.

Well, that's the basic layout, which I posted earlier today as a purchasable layout. I'll be posting more and blogging this home as Layla and I work on building it up!





So, I have decided that for each tower I am going to be doing a theme.

Tower 1 will become a Fire and Ice themed tower, using a lot of reds and blues and fire and ice objects.

Tower 2, which is the closest one to the pond on the island, will have a theme of Earth and Air. This will use a lot of green and yellow objects, things that float, tons of grass and greenery. And somehow I'll figure out how to imply the Air part of it, somehow.

Tower 3 will be a theme of life and death, using black, white and maybe gold objects and items. I'm not positive how I will go about getting that idea out there, but I am sure I will come up with something, I usually do. besides Layla is a great inspiration.

The Triangle Room, I have decided will be two things. First, it will act as an observatory. Second it will carry a theme of Light and Dark, Sun and Moon, Day and Night. I know some things that I will be adding to it. I felt this was a good way to tie all the towers together in the end.

Tonight, I was debating going to bed, but instead, I ended up smacked in the face with an idea. That idea was this:

Who would have thought? A clock on the floor! Not just any floor though. that's the floor to the Tower of Life and Death. I think I have created a rather good beginning. but it's not done yet.

After thinking about it, I added in some misty tiles. Slightly disappointed these turned green on the black, but it doesn't look half bad!

I used White marble Columns, a black marble column for the center and two black dividers, all flipped over. the circle tool was great for creating the pegs of the clock and i centered everything on a tile that is the center of the tower! I wasn't sure where to put my telepad, but then I decided the center of the clock was the best place. Before I go to bed, I'm adding one more detail to this room. Oh yeah.

What? You didn't think I wouldn't have ghosty floaty things in this tower? More to come soon!