Otherworldly

Fantavatar & Moonstruck has several Egyptian-inspired items out at the Fallen Gods 14th Anniversary Market, as well as an item in the Duat hunt, which led to this Cleopatra-inspired look. Given that, I could not resist placing her in a Roman villa and lounging on an opulent Roman both, both courtesy of Del-ka Aedilis though only the bed is a new release, for the Narrative Event.

Until October 8th you can visit the Ice and Fire event to pick up, among other things, the Sunspear seating set from Del-ka Aedilis. The set includes a couch, a rug, a side table and a tea table, all with coordinating textures with a clear arabic/moorish inspiration and a colour palette that will remind you of a desert. I arranged the set in the Desert Villa from Lore and picked a sunset EEP setting, perfect for an invitation to evening tea…and perhaps more.

The Samira outfit from deviousMind is a little too Thousand and One Nights for Dorne, but it is certainly very lovely. Very appropriate for the Dornish theme, on the other hand, is the Serpent Choker from Schadenfreude, so simple and elegant. You can find it at the Fallen Gods Inc 14th Anniversary Market. If snakes are your thing, you will find a lot more cool stuff at the market!

One evening, a young lord walked through the gates, leading instead of riding a fine horse, with ribbons tied in its mane and tail. He went up to one of the elegant townhouses and knocked on the door. After a while, a servant opened the door and the lordling gave him a letter. Then, he retired to the nearby fountain to let his horse have a drink while he waited for a response.

Welcome to the Roman Bath from the Civitas Series by Del-ka Aedilis. Classic and elegant, it a perfect addition to a roleplay sim needing a public bath house. The two tritons bearing braziers at the front are not part of the build but a separate release from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, but I thought they fit really well in thematically and they also show how you can add more of a fantasy touch to the setup. The Tritons include left and right versions and here I have sized them down considerably; at their original size they would make great centrepieces for a temple or similar setup.

The basket with bath supplies is also from Del-ka Aedilis and can either be worn or rezzed out as a decor item. Here, the bath slave (dressed in clothing from On a Lark) is holding it to welcome visitors to the bath. I also want to mention the skin because this is a brand new release from alaskametro for the Spoonful of Sugar Festival, benefiting Doctors Without Borders. Estrella is a 100% donation item and is available in five tones for LeLutka Evo X.

Journeying alone, she keeps to the less known roads, always with her bow and arrows within easy reach on her horse. The slight, elegant mare is a little too fine to pass as a common traveller’s horse and her own garb might also arouse too much interest. On this evening, she passes near the eastern shore of the peninsula. Some distance out into the water, a pair of houses on tall stilts are visible, their lights beckoning in an inviting fashion.

Inspired by the Roman Strategy Table from Del-ka Aedilis, I created this scene of a Roman noblewoman seeing the plans laid out by her husband and then praying to their ancestors, perhaps on the eve before he goes into battle. All the decor pieces as well as the house itself are from Del-ka Aedilis Civitas series, which does a wonderful job of capturing various aspects of Roman life. Note that I did size down the house as well as the decor for this photo since my avatar is small by SL standards.

My hairstyle from F&M Oblivion is not Roman, but I thought it could pass well enough for a the style of a Roman matron, at least during some periods. And the robe from the Dreaming Thicket is more Greek than Roman, but one makes do with what one has!

The countryside inn is rustic but reasonably clean, with a more pleasant odour than its city cousins. Even so, the woman in fine linen of bright colours and with her hennaed hair elaborately dressed looks out of place. A high class meretrix, perhaps, meeting with a man where neither of them will be known?

The Civitas series of buildings and decor from Del-ka Aedilis are fantastic for creating Roman or Romanesque locations, whether just for photos or for roleplay. For these photos I have used the Tavern and the Stable, plus the Tavern Table and various decor pieces from the Culina series to fill out the first floor of the tavern further. There’s also a second floor with rooms for travellers wishing to stay. The Stable can accommodate two horses in stalls and a couple tied outside. The build includes three horse props but if you want to use your own horses you could unlink and remove these.

The dress is from the Dreaming Thicket and the hair from F&M Oblivion. It is actually a Game of Thrones-inspired hairstyle but looks remarkably close to some Roman styles; I had never really reflected over the fact that some of the styles featured in GoT drew inspiration from what a Roman woman might wear. But given their (odd) decision to make King’s Landing Mediterranean, I suppose it fits.

The ornate chamber basin from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, with two different washing animations, was the starting point for this scene showing a somewhat voyeuristic glimpse of a lady in her chambers. The “fire eater” fireplace is another great decor item from Fantavatar & Moonstruck. I sized it down somewhat to fit in this room in the Townhouse Cosimo from Del-ka Aedilis and I think it makes for a fantastic centerpiece for the room. The rather sheer gown is an older release from Junbug which sells the idea of a thin undergown very well I think.

A new round of Redeux is opening today and running from June 14th to June 20th. Remember the full Laketown build from Del-ka Aedilis that I showed off a few weeks ago? Now they are starting to release the individual builds from this set and the first one out is the Laketown Tavern and Inn. Available together with it at the event is the Tavern Table Set and the Medieval Dishes Rezzer and all three releases are at 25% off for the duration of this round.

Also shown in this post is the Sam hair from Wasabi, a unisex style that can be worn with and without a cap and that is available at the current round of Anthem.

Night has fallen over the desert. By the fruit trees and date palms of the oasis, a large, striped tent has been erected. There’s no sign of activity outside of the tent, but inside someone waits…

Synergy Lab is currently running an Ice & Fire event, which naturally meant I was over there to check things out as soon as possible. Creators are allowed to use both the books and the show as inspiration. I would have liked to see a few more items that were clearly inspired by either (without infringing on any copyright) rather than being more generic fantasy/medieval, though that is always welcome as well!

Two creators that brought some very nice decor items were Del-ka Aedilis and Fantavatar & Moonstruck. The former has created a set inspired by the furnishings seen in Stannis Baratheon’s study on Dragonstone whereas the latter has made a safe that might even suit the Iron Bank of Braavos!

After the Fantasy Faire, one thing stuck in my head: the dragon (or, more specifically, the wyvern, since we wanted to be able to portray a Targaryen dragon properly) from Prehistorica would be a very neat avatar to have for fantasy photos. But should I wait to see if it would be released as an animesh instead of a bento avatar? I did start with the bento avatar horse from Teegle and I still think it is fantastic, but the animesh horses are easier to use for photos since they do not require me to have an alt on playing the horse. But after inquiring and learning it could be quite a while before any animesh dragons see the light of day, I decided to take the plunge and sent one of Ran’s alts shopping.

For the first outing with our new wyvern, we went to Del-ka Aedilis Laketown build, a whole town in a rezzbox. It is currently available at an introductory promo price for the whole build but the buildings will also be on sale separately soon. I definitely recommend visiting the display build, its beautifully setup. And despite what my pictures might suggest, it escaped the visit by the dragon without any fire damage or crushed roofs.

Tomorrow is your very last chance for this year to visit the wondrous realms of the Fantasy Faire. This may be my last post for the year, unless I manage to squeeze out another one tomorrow, but don’t count on it. For this one, I opted for focusing on a couple of builds available at the Faire to create a Viking homestead.

A fire burns in the middle of the longhall and pots of porridge and stew are cooking above it. Taking advantage of both the warmth and the illumination from the fire, a young woman works at binding baskets from thin reeds.

Roawenwood’s Basketweaver set is out at We Love Role-Play and offers both nice decor pieces in the shape of reeds and finished baskets as well as the chair shown here and mat with poses for doing the actual basketweaving or just sitting around. The style of the set means that it will fit into a variety of settings.

The Longhall Firepit Asgard is from Del-ka Aedilis for the new round of Redeux that opens today. It offers several different looks to the firepit via a menu, such as an empty firepit, a clean setup of a new fire, a burning fire and a variety of different dishes being cooked over the fire. Great for both roleplay and decor.

I had high hopes for the latest Enchantment round with the theme of “Viking Saga”, but I must admit that I found it a little slim on really interesting releases. Probably a good thing for my virtual wallet, all considered. ;) And there definitely were some things that inspired me, such as Roawenwood’s “Runecasters Table”. Decor items/props that also tell a story and can be used for role-play always draw my eye and this was no exception.