Almost all of you reading this will know Elicio Ember’s work. If you don’t own several pieces yourselves, then you will have seen it around the grid, sometimes in fantasy areas, sometimes adding a touch of mystery and romance to other locations as well. We’ve shown his work many times on Designing Worlds – a couple of times in shows about him, but many more times as we film other places that use his items.
Elicio has designed some of the most beautiful regions in Second Life – his own Cerridwen’s Cauldron (which we used in filming Season 1 Episode 4 of The Blackened Mirror), but also stunning regions for Fantasy Faire – the glorious glass lanterns of Titan’s Hollow, the mysterious decaying Ruins of Nu Orne, returning to the jungle – and so many others. He created the wonderful Otherworld where the Fantasy Faire Literary Festival was held last year.
And his store is filled with beautiful items – water lilies and surprising plants, glowing obelisks and intricate temples. To everything he brings a touch of fantasy that is grounded in reality; his background in the dual worlds of biology and graphic design make even his wildest creations completely plausible.
On top of all this, Elicio is one of the sweetest and kindest people I know, whether in Second Life or the real world. He is warm and deeply supportive of friends – and he has many, and gives unsparingly to causes that he believes in.
So, that made it all the more sad to receive the news today that his father has had a very serious stroke, and that Elicio and his sisters, who are all in Mexico, are faced with very serious medical bills.
On Facebook he writes:
My father had a stroke yesterday that was not seen to until today. There is no clear prognosis yet but things are serious and some kind of neural damage is confirmed. How serious is yet unknown, as his brain is still swollen and blood obscures the true size of the damage. …
Public health security in Mexico is insufficient and often of very low quality. And often even government institutions seek ways for skirting or ignoring health insurance or not subscribing their workers to the public health program. My father is a 72 year 5 idiom speaker that gave language classes during the whole day at the Senior Citizens University in Mexico. A government institution. Such institution does not subscribe their teachers to any kind of health protection program. Through a really shady 1 month contract-recontract practice that insures no teachers get health protection or antiquity bonuses. Even though most of them are senior citizens. So, my father has no health protection whatsover. Which I found about just 4 days ago. Private health insurance is usually out of reach for people like me, several of my sisters and my father. Basically the non existent middle class and below. Mexican public hospitals; although they admit people not subscribed to the public health program, they will often treat people not subscribed as low priority in an already overloaded and poor health system. It’s a Russian roulette. People can be treated well and recover. People die waiting to be treated. People die by malpractice. And if not subscribed to public health, uncertainty is always higher. So we took him to a private hospital before risking a long wait. I have 5 sisters, but not even between all of us we will be able to pay for the hospital charges without severely straining all our economies, not even considering all the expenses of rehab and care that will follow if…well. If he makes it. Which might be actually more terrifying than if he does not as its yet uncertain what the rehab possibilities are.
That’s why, even though I have asked you for support by buying my work during my last months upheld, I will have to ask you for it yet again …
So I am making a rare appeal. I am asking you to go to Elicio’s store today. I am asking you to buy what you can. You won’t regret owning his beautiful objects. But more – I’m asking you to tell people about this. Share this post. Share the address of the store. If you can’t get inworld, buy something from his marketplace store. Tell your friends to go and buy everything they can.
Elicio has given so much to Second Life. Let’s show him what Second Life can give back to him.
Prim Perfect 
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