Otherworldly

Szystrum Synod is the fascinating creation of Walton Wainwright of [ContraptioN], an alien world inhabited by sentient machines that continue to exist long after the demise of their creators. Not only has he built a stunning sim, he has also conceived of a backstory for the world and details about its inhabitants which you can read here. A worldbuilder in all senses of the word.

I am wearing a full avatar from Somnium representing one of the seven houses of Szystrum Synod. I picked the House of Testament, the house of remembrance and history.  The avatars have four arms, two that work as regular arms and two that can be posed using presets or the pose creator in the Black Dragon viewer. In addition to the avatar I am wearing the Astrocartograph Aura by Seydr and using a pose from Astalianda’s Intrigue set. The Astrocartograph Aura is animated, cycling through different hues and showing an astrological map from the perspective of Earth with orbiting comets.

Do not miss the chance to explore Szystrum Synod while the Faire lasts.

The Fantasy Faire is open and I’d like to invite you to join me in little bit of exploring of Nysaris, one of the sixteen shopping regions of the Faire. Accompanying me on my walk around Nysaris are my two companions, a wise owl and a fierce wolf.

As usual, you will find credits at the end of the post, including direct slurls to the stores at the Fantasy Faire.

The mists are parting and the Fairelands are almost with us again…. From the Press Release:

“Celebrating its fifteenth year, Fantasy Faire 2023 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world. From Thursday, April 20 to Sunday May 7, treat yourself to shopping, dance and theater performances, DJ parties, auctions, questing, our Literary Festival, fantasy art, events and roleplaying as thousands of Second Life residents and creators bring their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.”

I will be bringing you as many photos and videos from the Fantasy Faire as I can manage to squeeze in and I am starting with a little sneak peek featuring Petrichor, KMH and Dreadfully Dark. A spell is being cast to summon the Fairelands back to us.

Just waiting at the castle’s forge for her father to return home from the tavern, where he has been spending too much time of late.

The Brokk Blacksmith set from Del-ka Aedilis is a nice set of non-animated props for creating a norse/medieval forge. I did find the lack of an anvil curious, so I added one from another set. The fires can be doused or lit and each piece comes in either plain wood or with a norse-inspired pattern.

I am wearing three new releases from We Love Role-Play. First we have the Atlas Gorget from Kreep, a very fancy piece of smithing which includes male and female fits and several texture options. The tunic is by Senzafine and I love the asymmetric cut. Finally, we have the Gudrun boots from Rakshasa. These are available for several male and female bodies and include a HUD for texture changes. Very nice and useful boots.

My hair is also a new release, the latest Truth & Wasabi collaboration called Seri. It comes in two versions, like this or with bangs, and is available at Kustom9.

The tavern was lit by flickering torches and candles, adding a play of light and shadow to the performance of the graceful dancer. The man seated at the table watched her every undulating move.

We return to the Hot Pot Inn by Cosmos, this time for some of the evening entertainment. I love the Estrelle set from deviousMind, sexy and sparkly with minimal coverage and lots of gemstones. It leaves plenty of skin bare, which makes it perfect for showing off the Flourish tattoo from Nefekalum. To this I added a brand new hair style from Analog Dog called Fanta, a beautiful set of wild curls.  The poses are from Nantra, a set called Kismet, and the idea for the dancing girl on the table was all Ran’s, I was stumped for a good way of showing this set.

When I was given the opportunity to show off the new Khara body from Inithium, that also proved an excellent reason for revisiting the Iron Bed from Dutchie (nsfw images in linked post) since both the body and the bed called for a video. In it, I demonstrate the animations in the “Friends” menu of the bed and give you a closer look at Khara, the Inithium hud and the contents of the Khara Starter Pack. You’ll find a couple of additional images as well as the credits below the video.

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.

The April round of We Love Role-Play opens today and you can whet your appetite with the Shopping Guide as well as with the blog posts that are starting to crop up. Such as this one!

For this post, I am mixing up the releases from lassitude & ennui, Moth & Moon and Misteria, the result being a fae who rides in the Wild Hunt, here on the prowl on her on with her black steed. The soft green skin from Moth & Moon blends nicely with the Dryad gloves from Misteria (BOM layers and appliers included), and the Wild Hunt shoulder piece from lassitude & ennui adds a touch of menace. This is not a fae you want to meet in the woods on the wrong night.

I am also using a new release that isn’t from WLRP but which deserves a special mention because I find it so neat. RVN Store is a new-to-me store which I came across at the Level event and they have several different add-on deformers for mesh heads. Now, I have seen deformers for mesh bodies before, which allow you to achieve shape variations that the sliders can’t do. But with such body alterations you run the risk of clothing not fitting, so I haven’t found them that interesting. But face deformers? I had not seen those before and I am excited. The set that I am using pieces from here is called Chic Cheeks and it alters your upper and lower cheekbones. Perfect if you like sharper cheekbones. I am also really intrigued by their nose deformers since I am a sucker for strong noses, so I may have to give those a try too.

There’s a brand new release from Dutchie at FaMESHed and this is my favourite kind, a fabulous bed with plenty of naughty options. I’ve focused on those in this review, but rest assured that there are many other great animations as well if PG or plain Adult are your preferences rather than BDSM.

The Antique Iron Bed features a beautiful frame that definitely lends itself very well to tying someone up, which is what you will be able to do if you opt for the Maledom BDSM version of the bed. In total, this version has 210 couple animations, with 70 of them being specific to it. I found the animations using props particularly nice, such as the wax play (the candle even functions as a light source) and the feather teasing.  There are also many great choices among the other sex menus as well as the PG menus, such as some very sweet resting together animations and a sleeping animation where the bed rezzes the covers on top of you. Very cosy!  All versions of the bed are AVsitter experience enabled, so props will auto-attach, and the adult versions have automatic tilting for Aeros and the Physics Cock. The BDSM version also adds RLV options.

Of course, it isn’t just about the animations, even if they are very important! The bed is also beautifully made and offers 9 colour combinations for the blanket and spread and 3 metal options for the frame.  The style is a classic that will fit a variety of homes. And to help furnish your bedroom, there are a few additional items released alongside the bed: a lovely wooden chest, a lamp that comes in a floor version and a table version and some smaller decor items.

Below you’ll find eight images showing just a fraction of the animations. And yes, there’s NSFW content.

How fortunate that I sent Ran to shop the Salt & Pepper retirement sale, because a few days later it turned out that a naughty priest was just what I needed for the couple pose “the Noose” from Be My Mannequin.  Clearly, the temptation of the beautiful concubine was too much for this man of the cloth. 

I am wearing the very revealing Keraves dress from Petrichor & Ersch, a one-piece outfit with plenty of texture options for the fabric and the gems. Here I went with gold and red to match the utterly stunning Theodora Circlet from Old Treasures. That has to be my new favourite piece of jewellery in SL. And it fits very well with the beautiful new Morgana hair from Magika, a must-have style.

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.

A pinch of magic, a pinch of engineering. That’s what you get when you mix the Potion Crafter’s Cauldron from Contraption with the outfit from Petrichor & Ersch for the Engine Room. 

The cauldron is a fun scripted prop which includes a few animations (the second image shows one of them, the others use poses from chanimations) and options for the look of the cauldron and whether it is setup to boil or not. The potion bottles it hands out also have a few scripted special effects for either throwing the bottle or drinking it.

The Verayne outfit consists of several items with HUDs for further customisation of both textures and what pieces are shown. The belt, for example, comes with several different attachments that can be shown or hidden.  The earrings are not part of the set, I picked them up at Dark Mouse at one of the weekend sales. Very pretty and fits both modern and fantasy looks. And the pretty lace gloves are from lassitude & ennui for Chronicles & Legends.

Finally, the braided hairstyle is from Wasabi and comes with an optional shamrock accessory.

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.

Mixing it up with a bit of We Love Role-Play and a bit of Skin Fair. The impressive horns by Vae Victis and the altar by the Eschaton belong to the former and create a nice Sword & Sorcery feel for the scene.  The horns can be extensively customized, here I am not showing the drape or the pendulum accessories.  The altar set also includes a dais that isn’t visible in this closer shot.

From Skin Fair comes the beautiful skin from Petrichor. Amatheia Summer, here in the Korianal version, includes both a full skin and a tattoo overlay to use with other skins. It also has options for either a regular BOM face or an EvoX face, something which I very much appreciate given that I still have some non-EvoX heads that I like to use. That said, this is the EvoX face and it is very pretty! The skin includes a female as well as a male version.

I featured the Prima body a while back, but for Skin Fair it has been updated to 1.2 and if you already had the Elite version that means you get the two new breast shapes for free if you redeliver.

Finally, we have a sleek new hairstyle from Wasabi for Access, with four different style options to how it frames the face.

Musa has a lovely set of five poses (plus mirrors) at We Love Role-Play and these served as the inspiration for this setup. A beautiful young girl, vaguely Grecian in her garb, dancing for unknown—perhaps imagined—audience. The Hypatia dress from Belle Epoque features an ornate metal harness and a short skirt and goes well with the Astrid foot wraps from Sass, especially in this kind of scenario. The texture HUDs for both pieces allowed me to match them up nicely.

The skin I am using is a brand-new Skin Fair release from alaskametro called Elle, for LeLutka EvoX. The alaskametro “Fit” body skin has also received updated shading for the Fair, so if you own that since before make sure to redeliver it. Also new, but a mainstore release, is Magika’s Cordelia style, a simple updo with an optional leaf accessory on one side that can be textured in natural colours or as metallic. For the decor I used Nomad’s Aqua Spadanae set, which was out for this weekend at a sale price.