Earlier in the week, I dropped in to LEA13 and Xineohp Guisse’s The {Lost} Garden of Sundarya Lahari, his mythology-in-the-making, and the first part of which I visited on February 9th.

At the time I dropped in, the second chapter of the tale was being installed – most notably, a huge creature rising from the sea, but the book had not been updated, so I tiptoed away to wait to see what transpired.

I didn’t have long to wait, as a couple of days later, Honour McMillan and I bumped into one another exploring Cica Ghost’s Little Village, and Honour dropped me a note card containing chapter 2 of story. Even so, it wasn’t until this weekend that I managed to hop back over to see what else had been added.

In the first part of the story, we learned how the Ancients discovered a kind of reed capable of resonating a sound frequency when touched. Harvesting the reeds, the Ancients used them in a meditative and spiritual garden. When the Ancients discovered a symbiote, which they called the Pentapuss, and which fed off the sound waves made by the reeds, they created biospheres in which to nurture juvenile Pentapuss, helping them to reach maturity.

And so the story was told; that many moons had passed, and the Ancients had built their garden of tranquility – a place of musical beauty providing solace and much enjoyment.

So opens the second chapter of The {Lost} Garden, which continues:

A wondrous creature rose from the waters one day. With fear in their hearts and in haste, the Ancients captured and killed the “beast”.

The Ancients realised, that in their foolish haste, they had killed the mother to the creatures they had so lovingly nurtured, and that Mother had only arisen from the depth of the blue waters to the call of her younglings.

So the Ancients built the Mechanicum – to keep mother alive so that her species live on …

It is the Mechanicum that forms the great sea-beast rising from the waters near the Garden’s arrival point. Beneath it lies a wondrous underwater garden, which can be reached either by stepping off the side of the walkways leading from the arrival point, or by falling up to the headless maw of the creature and then walking down through it.

This latter route will see you fall through an organ which appears to be laying eggs. More of these eggs are cradled in shell-like cups. Rolling around the seabed beneath these are young Pentapuss, while swimming around them are one-eyes larvae which occasionally penetrate the eggs, causing them to glow. Around all, nutritional spores fall from the mother-beast and rise from the eggs.

The symbolism evident in the eggs and the swimming creatures is clear – and quite visual, given the nature of the texturing on the eggs themselves. It’s also entirely intentional, given that this represents the birthplace of the symbiotic Pentapuss. Photos alone actually don’t do the Mechanicum or the undersea scenes justice; there is far too much movement and changes of colour for a still image to capture; rather, it is best witnessed and experienced.

More chapters of the story are due to be added in the coming months. In the meantime, if you have not already done so, I do urge that you visit The {Lost} Garden; it really is visually stunning.

Related Links