Luna

The last words Luna Lunaria wrote to me were: 'Yes, it's for the community'. 

She was a delicate, almost fairylike apparition with long flowing hair, the longest and whitest hair in the Metaverse, with that gentle swirling movement that stood out in any group photo or video. And there are so many of those group shots. 

Ataraxia, Craft-world grid

Here she is perfectly perched, with Cherry Manga, on one of the roman wall paintings on Ataraxia region on Craft, a place of calm and serenity. 

To lose a friend like Luna, for the Opensim community to lose such a significant contributor and supporter of all we do, is a terrible blow, but of course nothing to compare to the sadness and devastation of the real life family that is coping with this sudden bereavement. Our hearts go out to them, with tears in our eyes.

As ladylike as the avatar was, the 'soul' of Luna was not feminine. The typist behind her elfin-girl looks was a man, a charming, funny gentleman, a husband, father and all that; a writer of sci fi, a texture fiend and blenderista, a teacher and seeker who embraced being called 'she' inworld as part of that harmonious dissonance we all have between the outer self and the inworld persona. It made for those glorious genderless friendships that virtual worlds gift us, where you speak mind to mind in pure equity of spirit, with no thought of she-said-he-said. 

That said, Luna appeared on Inworld Review a  couple of years ago, and brought her alter ego called Arius who did the talking for purely aesthetic reasons.

 

We joked about Arius being there to do the mansplaining. It may seem funny in our genderfluid world, but it was a courageous move to appear live and with real voice. Luna wasn't so convinced at first that it would be a good idea. More recently, when we were talking about a return visit by her for a special show about PBR on the new Inworld Review, the voice question came up again...

Luna Lunaria: I don't like speaking with a male voice through Luna unless I'm with friends who know me well. This one female friend was so disappointed when she first heard me. She was like "I always had this image of Luna as the picture of feminism." We're still friends but I never got over that. I respect Luna and all that she represents. She's as much me as my RL self is but she has her own life

Thirza Ember: you're unique, most people embrace that and don't worry about the timbre of the voice... the things you have to say are more important than how they're said... and PBR  is such a great topic, and nobody can showcase it like you

Luna Lunaria: I agree about PBR. Could talk for ages on it lol

We never got to do that show, and that's such a shame, but don't miss the PBR tutorials on Discord, they are wonderfully helpful, and a piece of the legacy of Luna.

Like most of us, a post-SL Luna did the rounds of different grids, moving on sometimes because the grid died, or because other options became more advantageous. I say post-SL but of course the Lunaria brand continues on the SL marketplace as well as the Kitely one.  

HIE, HG Safari Grid

In the end, after many travels, Wolf Territories was Luna's homeplace, and that meant being there for the community of the grid - but also being involved in organizing, promoting, moderating and generally supporting lots of other projects across the HG. Like moderating OSfest, or holding parties at Luxor, being part of The Wrong Biennial on Kitely, participating with a special booth at HIE, or making a bunch of PBR tutorials on the aforementioned Discord Server called Lunaria.

Here we are in November 2022, the HG Safari crowd going old-school by browsing the inworld showrooms of Lunaria Emporium, on Wolf Territories Grid.

Lunaria Emporium, WTG

A few months later, in April 2023 the owner of Mobius grid Royale invited us to visit and to see Luna's region there called Lunaria. Luna's love of writing spilt into every creation, and the mixture of futuristic and ancient civilizations, all reimagined in intriguing ways, was phenomenal.

Royale Mobian: Luna's creativity was something amazing. from her builds to her sense of style and the environments she made. She helped make Green Hill Zones vibrant day time sky in our day night cycle and made the breathtaking out of this world sky in our theme park known as twinkle park. I valued her opinion on many things and she will be missed as both a friend and fellow content maker.

Lunaria, Mobius grid

By far the best known region by Luna is Luxor, on Wolf Territories Grid, which is a play on Egyptian style, in a Stargate theme - so appropriate for the hypergrid where the stargate is so often used as a portal. 

Luxor, WTG

Over the past few years, Luna has worked up the textures on this sim using PBR to make the gold shine and the marble mirror-like in its reflections. It's a cathedral to rendering, and won Luna hundreds of admirers and fans including some of the biggest names in Opensim art and building.

All this while working in RL at a day job, and finding time to keep up many other projects, including a writers circle, lots of support for people working in Blender, a non-opensim game called Starlite Galaxies, and a new sim on Wolf Territories with an Atlantis/Roman Empire called Eleutheria that she was just getting going on. 

Eleutheria. WTG

It's symbolic of her creativity... so poignant.

When the Safari visited Luxor, Luna had a new look, just for the occasion - shoulder length dark hair instead of those traditional tresses... now that's commitment to the part! She showed us around the sim in dramatic style and everyone fell in love with her version of the Stargate lore and Egyptian myth, all with these amazing textures, and this is long before the PBR friendly viewer became commonplace. 

 On Kitely Market Luna had more than three hundred items for sale, and took a lot of flak for selling things in Opensim. We spoke more than once about the frustration of being criticized on a platform that likes to pride itself on its tolerance for other people's life choices. 

Thankfully that negative vibe didn't really hurt sales though, and very many people are proud of their Luna Lunaria scenes, assets, and furniture and respectful of the creator's rights - I've never seen Luna's stuff with the permissions broken, which is a tribute to the quality of the content, and the loyalty of her clients, something that she was quick to recognize.

A Safari regular, Luna would be there at 12 noon SLT on a Wednesday, having organized the day's work schedule to try to keep the two hours of our tour free. That fabulous look got her the coveted spot as cover girl on the 2024 HG Safari calendar. So much to absorb in that picture!

Many inworld artists and creators don't have a lot of time to go visiting other people's grids and sims. Whenever possible Luna was there, engaged, interested, ready with a compliment or question, and considering the status of the Lunaria brand, this was enormously flattering to the hosts of Safari to get such positive feedback from a pro.

Memorial events are planned here in Opensim in the near future, so be sure to keep your eyes on social media so you can attend. People will say lots of nice things, wise words, and heartfelt recollections of our friend and fellow creator, but perhaps the quote Luna posted on her Opensimworld profile already says it all...

Luna Lunaria: As you learn to truly see the companions who travel this life with you, you begin to realize that there is no journey, but only an awakening. There is no road to travel on and no time to travel through.