Aerfren's Decorating Secrets: Revealed!

By: Aimee "Ashlanne" Rekoske

EverQuest II is celebrating its 10th anniversary, so for this SOE Player Spotlight, we’re celebrating one of the imaginative EQ2 players who has made her mark on the world on Norrath. Today we introduce you to Aefren, a prominent figure in the illustrious decorating circles of EverQuest II.

Q: Do you have inspirations or themes for your homes? What are they?
A: Several! My favorites are Aerfren’s Quellious Retreat and also Jfai’s Safefall Training Grounds. Then there’s also Popie’s Fishing Lodge, Fyuri’s Westlin Wind, and The Cat’s Meow. The main theme is serenity, as shown in Aefrin’s Quellious Retreat. At Popies, I wanted to make a fishing retreat and I built a couple of buildings there. When I am working on a place, I tend to look around and find what’s most attractive to me. Then, I work in little pockets. A place may have several themes connected by location, but just as in real life, we find that each place has more than one theme. I try hard to reflect that in my houses. When you’re touring, my favorite part is when you find an unusual surprise each time you enter a new area.

Q: Can you also show us your unfinished homes?
A: Well… I have a couple that I’m working on. First there’s The Halfling Vale, then there’s the Court of the Master. These are both owned by Fyuri. The Court of the Master is where I’m building my museum. Of course I only have one room finished there so far. Oh! There’s also my guild hall on the Butcherblock server in Freeport (Tier 2 – Rings within the Circle).

Q: Do you have a favorite item on display in one of your homes? What makes it so special to you?
A: Each house that I decorate has something special in it. It’s the combination of items that give it true meaning. Like in Aefren’s Quellious Retreat, I have two items that are really special to me – the guild hall door and the rainbow bridge. I love making special entrances to the guild hall. I created the rainbow bridge with the evening sun coming into the house and a rainbow and fae dancing. What makes them special? The effect I can create with them – especially around the guild hall door. It looked so plain initially and I wanted it to look mysterious, yet inviting. Combining those definitely did the trick.

Q: What server do you currently play on? In your opinion, what makes your server unique?
A: I play on Butcherblock. I’ve met a lot of totally nice people there. They’re awesome and helpful and, if you ask, you’ll always get more than one person showing up to help you. The community on this server is what makes it special; the way everyone is so nice and helpful and they really try to be good neighbors.

Q: Are you involved in a guild or a close group of in-game friends? Share the story of how you came to be involved with them!
A: When I first started playing EverQuest II, I didn’t know anyone. There was a guild called Relentless that took me in and taught me a lot. Later on, I decided I wanted my own guild. So, I started one! The first name was Mysfits, though, because I couldn’t think of a better name. I thought I was going to make it a simple alt guild but then people began sending me tells and in-game mail asking to join. So I opened it up to everyone.
Through that fateful opening, I met a lot of really nice people Together, we’ve taken the guild to level 77. With the influence of some of the people in the guild, we later chose a new name: Rings within the Circle. It has a very special meaning. There are small groups of people who make up the whole. No one is everything and everyone has a special place in the guild. We try to reward effort and encourage everyone to play the game the way they want. We respect their play styles and their status as an individual. After all, a guild isn’t just one single person, it’s not a house, or even an institution – it’s a circle of people – all in small rings (groups) within the circle.

Q: Do you have any decorating tips?
A: When decorating, it helps to think it through all the way. I usually start with a theme or a group of objects or a purpose for my house. Then I move everything I want to put in it to one location – not the house I’m working on. That way I have everything I need where I can get to it easily but I don’t crowd my space, either. Then, if I need a looted item to make the theme or scene work out, I just go get it. I’m a hoarder, so I have stuff in several houses and dungeons for creating with.

I find it best not to confine myself to one theme, either. I start out with one, but then I just let it flow. If something seems to fit, I work it in. But I believe in flexibility, both in my decorating and my role as a guild leader. It also helps to go visit other houses and get ideas. I also keep a folder on my computer with pictures I’ve gathered from around the Internet for inspiration. I especially love outdoor scenes and gardens. I try to bring the outdoors into everything I make. After all, we’re not in nature, we are nature – and I try to reflect that, along with a few other concepts in my work.

Q: Are visitors welcome to your homes? How can other players find your homes in-game?
A: All of my houses are open and set to visitor. Yes, even the unfinished ones. The ones I did for Caela all say “by Aefren.” The rest are listed under various toons’ names: Fyuri, Wahoh, Popie, and Ruuatha. I have several published so those are fairly easy to find on the Housing System. The ones not published can usually be found at the Qeynos portal.


Aefren was nominated by Avahlynn and Uwkete. Here’s why they nominated her:

From Avahlynn
Q: What is it about Aefren’s designs that inspired you to nominate her?
A: Her designs always have a freshness about them, and the way she is able to take ordinary, everyday objects and re-purpose them is fantastic!

Q: Do you have a favorite among Aefren’s homes?
A: No way I could choose just one! But I would say that her kitchens and outdoor areas tend to be where I linger the longest.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about Aefren?
A: She’s kind and generous, and I’ve seen her welcome everyone and anyone. She’s always helping and offering sound advice on getting started. She really is a one-woman welcome wagon!

From Uwkete
Q: Why do you think Aefren should be featured?
A: She does phenomenal work with decorating! She finds intriguing, different things to do with objects that one might not expect. Yet she still combines them in artistic, very interior-decorating-ly ways. There’s never been a house of hers I didn’t like! She’s one of the best decorators! And she’s a great person - very helpful to everyone on the forums.

If you’d like to see more of Aerfren’s work check out the following links:
From the EQ2 Forums:
• My contest house
• Popie's Fishing Lodge
• Snowilla
• Caela's house which won dev's pick
From Photobucket:
• Most Recent (the newest)
• Library

We hope you enjoyed meeting Aefren and hearing about her journey. Now, get out there and make your own dream homes in EverQuest II!

Do you miss the EverQuest 2 Norrathian Homeshow feature? You are in luck, because it’s making a comeback - and your amazing home could be included. Announcements and details will be coming soon to the Norrathian Homeshow forum.

Congratulations, Aefren!

I'm heading out the door to class, so I may have missed it, but what server is this? I want to come drool over these houses! I promise I'll keep the drool off the furniture. ^_~ I LOVE the rainbow bridge as sunbeams!!!

Too bad this is probably this is the last of Suka we'll see.

This is on Butcherblock, Griffonlady. I've gotten to see some of her work...the creativity amazes me

Why can't we ever have one of these on Freeport? I have always supported out designers, but it seems that every thing remotely interesting happens on other servers. Sadly I don't log enough RL hours to be available to set one up myself, especially this time of year, but if someone out there does I have a few that are worth looking at, as of this pic all those little lights are housing trophies.
I have added a few since I took this one, all time favorite alt, Falliens' Thurgadain Grand Hall, House of flowers :


I have other pics but I don't want to eat up too much room on these posts. As to my decorating tips, that little number that tells you how many items you can hold in the house lies. I advise you to take off 10 items from that total or buying the housing expander key, and still taking the 10 items off, for some reason when I did this one I ended up crashing several times before I published. As to guild houses, I was involved in Pulses' guild hall a while back, since I started buying up the SC houses for my alts I have not been back into that area as much as I used to although if RL changes that might too.

Sigh, looks like I'll have to post these on Face book instead. Eventually, RL calls again...

Freeport = Skyfire, along with Nagafen (though they've never been known for their decorating, overall) and Permafrost, who had pretty decent decorators once upon a time, and hopefully a bunch are still there.

I've got Gold toons on Skyfire now, so I can poke around and check out stuff there, and everyone is eligible to participate in this nowadays!

New link: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...-start-a-norrathian-homeshow-showcase.568411/

Uwk

grrrr I am in a guild that came from Nagafen and our guild was and still is into crafting harvesting and decorating
always with a wepon at the ready in case of PvP
so don't say PvP does not have decorators THEY DO.