Otherworldly

Need props for Medieval scenes? Then Del-ka Aedilis should be among your first stops. The latest addition to their range of Medieval decor is a dovecote set that includes both a wall-mounted and a free-standing dovecote as well as palisade fencing if you were to build it up outside. The pieces also include versions with snow on. But I opted for using just the two dovecote versions and placing them on the top level of Fanatik’s Chillon Tower, which conveniently has openings all around for birds to fly out and in.

The Del-ka Aedilis set is available at the current round of We Love Role-Play and so is the outfit I am wearing, Rakshasa’s Callan set and the matching boots. It has a bit of an elvish feel to it, though done up in red and black (the fatpack has quite the spread of textures to choose from) I suppose it feels rather Targaryen. Especially since I have a habit of giving myself pale hair when using a male body.

A long-forgotten throne, hidden away in a secret chamber. And its guardian, waiting for someone to rediscover the treasures of an ancient empire.

Lore has a fabulous set of Egyptian-inspired pieces out at We Love Role-Play, as well as some matching vases available at the mainstore. The throne includes single and couple poses, though I have to repeat my little niggle from the MoonSha throne: I would love some more throne-appropriate sits. Otherwise, I love the look of this gaudy, over-the-top throne. The large ankh floats mysteriously in the air and the smaller versions attach to your hand and float above your palm.  You have several options for metal and gem textures via a hud, for both the throne and the ankhs.

For my outfit I wanted something a bit Sword & Sorcery, which the Amarylis set from Petrichor and Ersch provided. It comes, as always, with a ton of texture options. My hair is another Wasabi & Truth collaboration, a very long and sleek style called Spirit.

The latest release from Fanatik is called the Azores and includes two large rockformations with mirrors of each and both summer and winter textures. The smaller of the two features a passage through and I thought it would look particularly good at sea.  Here I have it setup (together with both versions of second rock formation) on the Solid Sky Landscape “Kingdom of Islands” from Landscapes Unlimited. The beautiful ship I have featured many times before, but it has a permanent home on this sky landscape; its “Neptune’s Revenge” from Rustica.

There are amazing treats on offer at the current round of Midnight Order for those with a taste for knights and armor. And who doesn’t have a taste for that? Static completes their gorgeous Order series with the Crowned Coif, adding to the previous releases of Chainmail Cuirass, Sabatons and Gauntlets, all with both male and female fits included. And as a perfect match for that set, Teegle has released a fantastic new armour set for all their Teeglepets. I had a hard time deciding which horse to get it for, but the Pegasus won out in the end as it makes for such a great baroque horse when you remove or hide the wings. I then opted for the darkest version of the Static set and a black and red mix for the horse armour, so that I could appear at the gates of my winter village as a foreboding black knight.

Out now at FaMESHed is the Waterland House from Dutchie, a 17th century wooden residence with an L-shaped and open floor plan. Based on the kind of architecture that the Dutch village of Broek in Waterland is known for, this house was originally a combined store and residence. This remodelled version has taken out the wall between the front and the back of the house, leaving it open and airy. Even so, there is a private room suitable as a bedroom or office on the ground floor. Additionally, there is an open attic, accessed via a beautiful iron spiral staircase (walkable and also with click to teleport), with plenty of space. A wooden house like this can be used in a variety of scenarios and suits many different furnishing styles. It has a footprint of about 17 by 17 meters and a land impact of 103 prims.

The demonic steed, eyes glowing, raced along the narrow gorge, past thick, thorny brambles that seemed to reach for both it and the carriage that it pulled. Suddenly, it reared up, neighing shrilly, as it found the path blocked by a massive tangle of brambles.

Seydr and En Pointe welcome you aboard a collaboration truly fit for the spookiest of all months.  The Midnight Ride carriage, available at the Engine Room, and the matching Midnight Rider harness from the Dog & Pony Show, will let you hitch up a Teeglepet and go for a wild ride. Add in the Theia Eye System from Seydr to make your steed look demonic enough for the role and pick up a suitable coat, such as the Draconic from Nocturne Skies, and your wild ride will be ready.

With the current offer from The Shops to buy one of their bodies for 50% off if you’re wearing a qualifying body from another brand, I went ahead and picked up the Legacy Athletic male body to have more options for blogging male outfits.  And then I jumped right into the Ubbe set from Rakshasa for We Love Role-Play. The set consists of tunic, pants and belt, all with a distinctly Viking-inspired look. As usual, the fatpack is a fantastic option for customisation, as the HUD allows so much mixing and matching of colours. The texturing is really top-notch on these pieces, both in terms of evoking a fabric and in the hues of the colours.

LR Weapons has two pieces at WLRP and for these photos I opted for the Andel Bow, making my character into a wandering hunter who comes across a strange altar in the woods. The altar, or rather the Stone of Knowledge, is one of Angelicus’s releases for WLRP. Fundati and Fanatik provided some of the other decor elements while my hair is by Magika who has been including male sizes for her releases of late.

Once again, a dragon avatar turns out to be the perfect way of showcasing a new release from Fanatik. Last time, it was a cave. This time? A volcano. And being creatures of fire, of course dragons love volcanos.

The Fanatik volcano includes 11 material/texture versions, changeable via a HUD. It can be dormant like the version shown but also have lava running down its sides. And for your winters and arctic settings, it can be snow-covered. The maximum size is approximately 64 x 60 x 19 m and at that size the land impact is 51 prims.

I’ve used the ramps from the Land Shapes package from Fanatik to elevate the volcano somewhat; one could of course go even further with this. I’d love to see some additional pieces for creating a landscape around the volcano which has the same textures, especially the lava.

My dragon avatar is, of course, from Prehistorica, the fantastic Valorian Dragon released for the Fantasy Faire. You can the dragon avatar from the Prehistorica mainstore or at the Marketplace

Grasshopper St has a great release for male roleplayers at this round of We Love Role-Play. A medieval tunic with a matching cyclas, both with extensive particolour options through the HUD. There is also an embroidery overlay for the cyclas, just as for the earlier Eleanor gown and surcote. For this post, I did not use the embroidery, but I did play around with the colours, including the tinting option to get deeper tones. I’ll note that while I am wearing it over the Slink body, since that is the male body I own, it is not fitted for this body but does cover six other male bodies.

Another release at the event that is available for male as well as female avatars is Sigil’s the Bard’s Lute. This beautiful lute comes with a playable version for male or female avatars with holding and playing animation, a version worn over the shoulder and a version that can be worn on the back or rezzed as a prop. Time to woo the lady in your life with a romantic ballad, perhaps?

The large inn lay furthest out on the peninsula and served travellers coming both by land and sea. The dusky interior was cheerfully lit by torches and by the smile of the tavernkeep’s daughter.

There are so many new releases that I absolutely adore in this post. First, make certain not to miss the Spring Edition of the Asha hair from Wasabi, out for 50 Linden Friday. This is my favourite braid in Second Life and it is so pretty with the flowers. I had already decided on wearing Asha for this post and then the special edition came out and made the look even better, its so sweet together with the lovely Emma gown by Les Encantades, a new release for We Love Role-Play. The dress can be worn with or without the embroidered corset and the fullpack you can mix and match the colours.

Spring may be just around the corner, but the weather we’re having lately makes it feel much further away. Fortunately, with the lovely new trees from Fanatik I am able to enjoy some lush greenery in Second Life instead.  Fanatik has released two sets of trees, the poplars I am using in this post and also a Nordic pine set. The poplars include six different shapes and come in Winter, Autumn and Summer variants, with texture differences even within the ranges.  The sizes are easily modified, but of course the land impact will change if you do so. At sizes up to 10 meters, they are 1 prim each. You may also notice that the leaves do not cause alpha issues with the background even though that is a common issue when using a mesh surround.

The Monk Outfit from Cosmos is one of several releases for male avatars at the current round of We Love Role-Play and while I don’t own any of the male bodies it is rigged for, the covering nature out of the outfit meant I could get away with using my Slink Physique Male body to show it off for you. This is a nicely meshed and textured outfit which is made very useful by the texture HUD that offers three different colours (brown, red and white/grey) and also options for different symbols on the chest (or none, as here).  That means you can use it to portray monks of different varieties.

This particular monk is of the sneaky kind, out to explore a secret passage in an occult library. This is a release from Fantavatar & Moonstruck for Chronicles & Legends: “Creatures of the Night” and as you can see the middle section of the shelf set can be clicked so it slides sideways. For best effect, of course, you need a door or a passage behind the opening. Here I am using one of the lower levels of Fanatik’s Arkaig Castle.

We Love Role-Play has opened its February round. The sim has changed from Riverhunt to We Love RolePlay, so make sure to use the new address!

Del-ka Aedilis has released the At the Lupanar - Chelidonis set, centered around a large daybed with additional accessories in the form of a paravent, a sidetable, an oil lamp, a set of flacons, a washbowl and an amphora. It is a set designed for a Roman brothel, also called a “Lupanar”. The animations in the daybed are selected for this purpose and feature one menu of single poses and the rest are either for couples or threesomes. 

I decided to set it up in one of the Roman houses released by Fanatik a while back, imagining it as the “front parlour” of the brothel, with an upstairs available as well. Not historically accurate, but then neither is what I am wearing. ;) But for a fantasy take on a Romanesque setting, this Petrichor & Ersch collaboration makes for a pretty fetching outfit for our “Lupa”. I did forego some parts of it, which was easy because it comes with a HUD that allows you to full control over what to hide and show. Very handy!

I love the combination of the revealing gown (which can be switched between long and short with the HUD) and the mask for hiding your face in this collaboration between Petrichor and Ersch for Midnight Order. Wear just the gown and the shoes (and alright, maybe a panty) and you are set for a glamorous evening. Add on the mask and you’re going to the meeting of a secret society. Finally, wear the various floating crystals and you look like a seductive enchantress. The various HUD packs also allow for varying your look and affecting the chosen textures with your choice of materials. With seven supported body options, the odds are good that the outfit will work for you.

The tied-off pigtails style is from Wasab for Uber and comes with the option of a whole collection of little hair ornaments. These can be turned on and off in batches and coloured per batch. The style also includes optional bangs and options for having the pigtails over your shoulder or brushed back.

A taste of what will be on offer in the upcoming round of We Love Role-Play, which I have gotten a chance to become a blogger for. Since it has been my favourite regular event for years, I am thrilled and hope to have lots of fun with it. Trying more new-to-me roleplay-oriented creators is always a delight!

The massive Multi Map War Table from Cosmos features three different maps options: Westeros, Gor and Witcher. The illumination of the table and the candles can be turned on and off and former has a nice effect where it slowly fades in or out when toggled.

My outfit is, believe it or not, an applier layer. It reminds me of the great work that Chaospire used to do, but this is by Reviver, a brand I have not noticed before. It has baked on or painted on lighting and while I would not have minded a materials add-on, it works quite well as it is. The applier also works for both male and female avatars.

The final piece from WLRP is the Isolde Crown from Sacrilege.  Despite the name it is unisex and the included HUD offers six metal textures, three accent colours and five jewel textures.

We Love Role-Play opens on the 4th of February and there will be a new SLURL, so keep your eyes open for that.