Otherworldly

The Fantasy Gacha Carnival has opened up a new round. The theme has the potential to be more than a little iffy concerning IP rights, since it is billed as “Game of Thrones vs Star Wars”, but fortunately there are quite a few original and unproblematic gachas available at the event. Granted, these do tend to be the ones with the least direct connection to the theme, but in this case that doesn’t bother me since they are quite fabulous fantasy items. For my first post, I am taking a closer look at the very impressive entries by Aisling and Alchemy.

It was a bit uncomfortably hot here today, so when it came to photoing, I headed off to the corner of our sim where winter always reigns. But I did bring something hot and fiery with me, in the shape of a new dragon mount from Alchemy. Also featured in this post is a new dress by Luminary and a new hair by Exile.

This post combines the talents of two of the foremost brands within fantasy accessories—aisling and Alchemy—and their contributions to the Fantasy Gacha Carnival.

I’ve been a very absent blogger these last two weeks, apologies! It has been quite a hectic month and somewhere along the line, my photo ideas seem to have been misplaced. But for the last week or so, I’ve been toying with a themed series of shots and after a few false starts (trying to find appropriate prefabs proved to be a bust) I think I know how to do them. The basic idea? Portraits of various characters that appear in The World of Ice and Fire, the book that Ran and I released together with George R.R. Martin exactly a month ago.

So, this is the first such portrait, showing Rhaenyra Targaryen, one of the two siblings who fought over the Iron Throne in the Dance of the Dragons. This portrait is showing her towards the end of her life, not long before she will be devoured by her half-brother’s dragon, Sunfyre. She wears a rich, but more modest gown and several pregnancies has left her plumper than in her youth.

We Love Role-Play opens its August round today and it looks like a very strong collection. I’ve gone for an all-out fantasy look for my first post from this round, featuring new items from Lumae, Trap and Alchemy as well as a new hair from Wasabi Pills and horns from an earlier round by the Plastik. There are so many great accessories at the event this time that

Adam n Eve has recently released two new skins with appliers for Slink Visage - Taliya and Shona. The latter is a darker skin and while none of the current heads are made explicitly for a black skin, Shona can still be used on both Emma and Becky with good results. In this case, I am using Shona on the Emma head and I paired the skin with this amazing outfit from Alchemy from the Fantasy Gacha Carnival.

Gatchas are wicked things. I continue to try an exercise restraint (but that doesn’t mean I haven’t ended up with a bunch of duplicates for sale), because for the most part I really would prefer paying more and knowing what I get, but sometimes you end up fooled into thinking you are an extra lucky person who of course will get just what you want… But don’t believe that feeling, it is always a lie.

Case in point? The Alchemy gatcha at the Secret Affair. I just wanted one of the common iron crowns. By the time I had used up my self-imposed limit for that machine, I had ended up with one common (but not the one I wanted, of course), the rare and the ultra rare. So, lucky indeed, but not what I had originally been after! However, since the rare and the ultra rare are incredible works of art, I do have to show them to you, even if it feels like a terrible tease.

The Secret Affair opened yesterday, featuring both brand new gatchas and brand new non-gatcha products. I have some concerns about an event themed around a copyrighted property and about some of the merchandise on sale, but I’ll stress that it is largely a matter of personal preference and of holding to the same rules that we apply on Westeros.org about not allowing any unlicensed A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones products to be advertised. Actually determining what would be considered a product based on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones is a tricky matter (is it appearance, names - and if so which names - or a combination of elements?) and it is very possible that I am erring on the side of caution.

But, enough about that. I did go to the event and fortunately I found that the one item I just had to have wasn’t a gatcha! The Wyrmling from Alchemy is my new favourite item in Second Life and I don’t ever want to detach him. Alchemy has put out some really cool-looking attachable, animated pets before such as ravens and wolves (now kicking myself that I missed the latter at the Red Riding Hood event), but the Wyrmling definitely takes the cake.

Also in this post, also from the Secret Affair, a stunning gatcha gown from Junbug and a lovely braid from Calico.