Otherworldly

A final look at this month’s round of We Love Role-Play, featuring an intrepid explorer who has come across an enigmatic statue in a cave. But what magic guides our adventurer here, especially as her milky eyes suggest that she does not see in the normal fashion?

Combining items from Harshlands (the statue, which comes in 3 versions and with and without PBR), Senzafine (the Brielle tunic, available in eight colours) and Poema (eye appliers with various eye conditions), with poses from Uzme.

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.

Under a red sky cut through by lightning, the dark priestess sought to learn the future, calling up eldritch magic to do her bidding.

I love this EEP setting (Daves HD Thunderstorms 9), it is just the kind of dark drama that this scene needed. The centerpiece is the Silver Scrying Bowl from HEXtraordinary, with the magic effects coming from Dreaming Thicket. The hair from F&M Oblivion was first out at the Hair Fair and is now available at the Fantasy Room. And my outfit? Who else could it be from but Chandra Meehan of deviousMind. Its dark, sexy and full of attitude.

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.

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.

It is not every day that you find a unicorn grazing outside your house, though chances are certainly better if you live in an enchanted forest cottage. Be sure to always greet the unicorn in a kindly manner, for although friendly at heart their horns are sharp and they will defend themselves if need be. Carrots and lumps of sugar are very welcome.

Dreaming Thicket has a wonderful set of Venetian carnival masks available in a NextUp vendor at the Secret Garden event, in a variety of styles and colours and all for a very low price. I opted for a classic Columbina from my blogger set and managed to grab a Volto off the vendor for Ran. A bit of digging into our inventories produced some suitable Renaissance-inspired pieces from the Muses and Stitched, as well as hair for me by F&M Oblivion and boots for Ran by lassitude & ennui. The couple poses come from Nanta and Be My Mannequin and represent a couple of rare entries into the category of couple poses suitable for scenes of courtly love. More of these, please.

Fancy an evening stroll through a crowded market, perusing the wares and enjoying the atmosphere? With the Souk Building Kit from Del-ka Aedilis, you can create your own Middle Eastern-inspired marketplace. The kit includes the outer walls (wall, pillar and gate), the market stalls (walls, awnings, roof) and various additional pieces such as shelves, racks of shawls, display tables and jars and bags of products. While you might need more variety of products for building a larger market area, the kit would make an excellent base for adding additional decor elements to, for example from the Roman and Medieval series from Del-ka Aedilis. You’ll find the kit at 25% off at the Fantasy Room event until December 20th.

It is high time for some seasonally appropriate witchery. The Come, Behold Me! pose from Be My Mannequin? is suitably dramatic and here it is embellished with little flames in each hand and a magical aura swirling up from the ground. The altar behind me is from ContraptioN and was acquired for a mere L$50 last Friday, quite the bargain, and it features several texture options for the altar cloth as well as on/off switches for the lights. The build is from a previous Nomad gacha, a stone building with tall windows that works great as a small chapel.

The striking Morticia hair from Magika got even better when I realised it offers the option of a separate colour on a small section of the hair. By picking the multitone white and black texture for that section I was able to get this effect of white streaks at the front of the hair, which I absolutely love and really wish that more styles had. In this particular case, it also sets off the Herne Crown from Bliensen + MaiTai beautifully. You will find this lovely piece at the Narrative even and it offers several metal options via a HUD.

I picked up this couple pose from Serendipity some weeks ago, but I didn’t have a clear idea in mind for it. Then Ran went shopping for hair and came back with No.Sand from No.Match while I got my hands on the Dynasty avatar set from Fallen Gods, this year’s Fortune Teller prize. I dressed up in part of the Dynasty outfit, though instead of wearing the (very cool) skin included I added the Temptation tattoo that is a free gift at Fallen Gods booth at the Halloween Shop & Hop. For the rest of Ran’s outfit, we looked to Stitched, and for the decor I used Dreaming Thicket and Paper Moon.

It is that time of the year again, when it is time to get in touch with your darker side. I am easing into it with a moody evening shot which features a flamenco-inspired dress and a distinctly gothic jewellery set together with a skin pale enough to suit a vampire. Two elegant poses from Be My Mannequin are used to show off this intriguing blend of influences. Mon Cher and Cara Mia release today at the Dark Style Fair where they are sold in an event-exclusive fatpack called Gothic Romance. After the event, they will only be sold individually and the fatpack exclusive couple pose En Garde will not be available.

When you blog events it sometimes leads to you discovering creators you have never come across before. My personal find at the SL Renaissance Festival is Wythburn Fine Furniture. The two pieces I am showing here are both nicely modelled, with good choices of textures (and you get a lot of options, too) that look extra nice with advanced lighting on and, on top of that, a selection of animations that for the most part fit historical or fantasy roleplay very well. The sits for women, for example, work well with gowns and skirts. Such as the lovely Carnation gown from the Dreaming Thicket, another release for the SL Renaissance Festival. The building is Fanatik’s imposing Stalker Castle, which has a great grand hall lined with torches on the first floor.

Remember that the SL Renaissance Festival is a charity event, raising money for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. All proceeds from the furniture is donated and the gown varies between 50% and 100% depending on colour.

With new and old items from the Dreaming Thicket, a tattoo from Fallen Gods and a pose from Be My Mannequin? I created this scene of a guardian of an enchanted wood. The gown as well as the tattoo are from the Age of Avalon event, which inspired me to think of a secret haven which not everyone could reach. The amulet—available in sun and moon versions—went well with the priestess/enchantress image and the forbidding stance of the pose makes her seem like she’s not going to let just anyone pass. The landscaping consists of items from Fanatik and Studio Skye.

Eos, the sister of Helios, was cursed by Aphrodite to fall in love with mortals, something she did several times. As always, immortal and mortal made for a poor match, ending in tragedy one way or another.

The “Worlds Apart” couple pose from Be My Mannequin? was conceived of as an underwater pose (it comes in a human and a merpeople version) but I wanted to reinterpret it. When trying the poses out, the idea of Eos descending on a mortal that had caught her eye was the one that stood out.

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!