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.

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.

I have shown off several builds from the Medici series by Del-ka Aedilis already (and you can see a couple at the edges of these shots, making up the little renaissance town I’ve built up), but the Palazzo Leonardo is definitely the grandest of the set. Here you are treated to three opulent floors, three different balconies and a beautiful bell tower. This is undoubtedly the seat of someone wealthy and influential, used to hosting fabulous masquerades for nobles from far and away.  This could function as a stand-alone build in the center of a garden or as the ruling lord’s residence in a city.

The Fantasy Faire closed yesterday, but thankfully bloggers had a chance to wander the sims a final time today. I took the opportunity to ride through some of the sims on one of my trusty Teegle steeds and take a few last photos. I hope everyone has enjoyed the Faire and done lots of shopping and exploring. Until next year!

I did warn that there would be more videos for the 2022 Horse Show and here we go. With cool new idles for the horses and a fancy new cloak for myself, a video was definitely needed. Plus, it made it easier to offer a good look at the three different Dragonkin tack/mod sets from Idunn’s Clutch. I go through all the new items in the video, but for a quick and easy overview of the credits, scroll to the end of this post. On the way, you’ll pass a few photos; I am particularly pleased with the first one but the rest are pretty cool looks at the horses too.

This dynamic pose from Be My Mannequin called for cool outfit and a cool location. I think I found it in deviousMind’s Yuna outfit and in Dystopian Nights, a small Blade Runner-inspired build.

The pose, called All My Rage, is available at Tokyo Zero together with two other new poses. They are sold as singles or in a fatpack with a 10% discount. The gun prop is included with the pose.

Yuna is sold in a NextUP vendor (or as a fatpack) at the NextUP event. There are two types of commons, the Silk Dress and the Top & Glove set, and three rares: Leather Corset, Silk Fan and Parasol. The dresses are gorgeous and elaborate, so you don’t need to spend tons to get a great outfit, and the rares are really cool additions.

Yesterday, Ran and I took part in the Literary Festival to talk about Roleplaying the Canon and our experiences with playing on and running roleplaying games based on pre-existing sources, especially literary ones. Of course I had to show off the outfit I put together for the talk and it seemed very fitting to do so at the wonderful Carnelian Archive, built by Nix Marabana of the Dreaming Thicket and sponsored by Petrichor. Talk about a Faireland I would like to take home with me and make my permanent residence, it is heaven for a book lover.

With an older pose set by Picture This! that features some spellcasting from a book, I put myself in a few different spots in the library, including in front of a door guarded by a powerful enchantment. What might lie behind it? At least one of the guards seems to have been lulled to sleep by the spell.

Spring has sprung and the time has come to do homage at Ostara’s Altar. The event which celebrates the softer side of dark styles in Second Life opens on April 15th and runs until April 30th.

Perhaps it is the goddess Ostara herself we see stepping through this stone portal in the midst of the woodlands, spreading the renewal and growth of the season wherever she walks?

Meet Noah and Noa, Vista Animations latest AO which comes in a male (Noah) and female (Noa) version. If your preferences run to an elegant AO for women which is neither overly sexy, girly or fidgety, I think Noa would fit the bill very well. The female AO includes two versions, regular and curvy. If you have a male avatar, Noah would fit the somewhat more feminine man, perhaps a stylish dandy in a suit. I’ve done a video to show both versions which I hope will give a good sense of their vibe. Details on both outfits can be found below. The poses shown in the two photos are not from the AO but instead from Mythril’s Elegant Pose Pack, available at the Engine Room. Very classy male poses that also work well for a lady in a suit/coat.

Sunset in the desert and you are invited to the Harem Qismat by Del-ka Aedilis, to see its gardens and the precious flowers within them.

This beautiful build is modelled on a traditional riad style palace with a spacious interior courtyard onto which all rooms open. The walls are richly textured in Islamic style, with geometric patterns and beautiful colours. The build includes potted trees, plants and flowers for the central atrium and for a covered roof-top garden. In the baths (not shown in these images) there are seating pillows with various animations (sitting, bathing), including some adult ones. There are a number of open rooms on the first floor and rooms with doors on the second floor.

I went for more of a fantasy look with the outfit, as I realised I had not actually blogged the beautiful Pandora set from Enfant Terrible. I used it in a contest photo but it is so lovely that of course it deserved to be highlighted on the blog as well. Enfant Terrible is really back in full force and producing some striking designs with gorgeous texturing. The hair is one of several I picked up at Raven Bells recent sale.

Tall buildings strive towards the sky, light filters through colourful stained glass windows and ominous robed figures stand watch. In the middle of the city lies a great, fallen figure, entombed in stone. Somniatoris Arx, sponsored by ContraptioN, is one of the wonders of this year’s Fantasy Faire. Others have done wonderful work capturing images of the build, I opted for something more modest and tried to put together an outfit that echoed the mood of the sim.

For that, I went to the hood by Raven Bell, pairing that with a mask from Air and a gown from Kotolier, creating a mysterious figure in black and gold.

Portal has a new gown out at We Love Role-Play and I am delighted to see that this relatively new brand continues to develop. Well-researches historical gowns are a major SL weakness of mine and the beautiful Isouda dress hits the right spot with a high-waisted and full-skirted model. The texturing is very nice and the choices of colours excellent. While you cannot demo all the colours, I feel that you can buy the fatpack (which is the only option available) with confidence, especially at the excellent price at the event (L$700).

October is upon us and Second Life is filling up with all things spooky. From the trio of witches in my earlier post, the time has now come for a dark queen. After winning a skin from one of the gachas from Fallen Gods at the Halloween Shop & Hop, I was inspired to give the annual Fallen God & Goddess contest a try. In my caves from Fanatik, I installed the Evil Throne from Kalopsia, and I dressed myself in the latest release from Senzafine for We Love Role-Play, a seductive piece perfect for a queen of necromancy.

I love it when an idea comes together and the result is a scene where you can feel that there is a story behind the picture. In my mind, I drew some very loose inspiration from the Wheel of Time as it could conceivably accommodate the two outfits we wanted to show off within the range of cultures and clothing styles described for the world. That would make my character an Aes Sedai, perhaps from one of the Borderlands given the style of dress, and Ran could probably pass as a nobleman of Andor. And yes, we used to roleplay on a pair of Wheel of Time MU*s, before A Song of Ice and Fire took over our lives, so for a while we were very immersed in that setting. In fact, the first characters I tried to create a look for in Second Life were my WoT-characters.