Goodbye Tanglia

Last night my friend Therese sent me a TP to the sim "Tanglia" and asked if I would like to come. This revoked quite a lot of feelings, since in my early days of SL I considered the Tanglia sim my home for quite a while. Not only had it one of the most beautiful designed landscapes, it was also the place where I met some of my friends, most notably Cake Kidd, Caterin Semyorka and Pika Pera. It was there where I made my first experiences in roleplay and combat, and where I showed Cat how to use projectile weapons (photo to the right, taken April 2007).

But it was also the place were I first encountered the unfriendly side of SL, and the first (and so far only) sim I got banned from. The person who banned me left the sim in - as I was told - disagreement some time later, and in due course I got reinstated again, but ever since then I have never visited Tanglia again.

So last night Therese invited me, and with some reluctance I accepted the TP. It was an eerie feeling. At first sight, the sim has not changed a bit. Reappearing at the place I left so many months before sent a chill down my spine. The buldings have not changed, the decorations have not changed. It seemed the place had frozen in time.
But then I started to see changes. The southwest corner has been completely rebuilt, as well as the northeast corner. The graveyard has vanished, as well as the sparring arena. The wide open landscape with its countless places to ambush and to flee seemed untouched, but when I started to walk around a bit, I saw that the once beautifully and subtly sculpted hills and passes have been replaced by rough, crude and jagged landscaping. In one word, the magic of the place was gone. Feeling sad I left about half an hour later.