Vanessa-
I know we've already talked a little about Mura and what I thought about when I was working on it. I'll throw some more of my thoughts at you, but I also want to make it plain that in taking on Mura and Konti Island, its YOUR BABY now, so feel free to pick and choose or discard everything I suggest at will. I will neither be offended nor delighted. I just want to help you when thinking about things.
I always pictured Mura as a pastel paradise. I loved the picture you found for the Inn because it was gorgeous, artistically pleasing, and right in line with the color scheme. I see them using a lot of inlaid abalone/pearl/molusk shell in their decorating so that their city sparkles above and below the water line. I see muted beauty everywhere, with a lot of carving and mosaic work. Every surface is painted/decorated... Mura = Mural. I see curved lines on otherwise plain buildings - meaning they are much better at painting and facing than they are at architecture.
I see sweeping stairways leading into the sea that continue on below the surface. I see a clothing style that dries quickly and is not cumbersome in the water - woven of natural materials and decorated with lots of shells and pearls. One of mura's exports is pearls. I see schools of tame fish, dolphins, and underwater gardens sculpted to match the gardens above. Someone once showed me a gorgeous garden on Sunset Magazine's website of a garden above ground that looked just like a
sea garden. I wanted one immediately. That could be above and below so easily. I see the waters of the Silver Lake... the Vision Waters... infusing all the plant and animal life on Mura, which is why so much of it is pale or white. The drinking water of the entire island of Konti is tainted, so that people that stay there for prolonged periods of time or get an infusion of it can really gain insight or even develop a gift.
I see pathways through wild white forests with a thoguhtful bench placed here or a mysterious sculpture there. Homes are not close together. Mura is a very safe peaceful place to live, so folks can have lots of space between their place and the next. Beaches have white sand and incredibly blue oceans, and the whole of the wildlife of the island is made up of peaceful but fantastical creatures. I thought deer with long sweeping horns, graceful cranes and gulls, and flowers that bloom no where else that all have sacred names and meanings.
And of course, Time moves slowly there, because its like living in a different world.
Or footbridges? Maybe it would be nice if the style of sea gardens are also designed upon poetry or song just like how the Chinese style their gardens.
