Otherworldly

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.

When I spotted the Violette shirt from Rosier, I knew I had to send Ran shopping. One quick jaunt over to the Warehouse Sale later and a bit of inventory hunting and he was ready, having paired the shirt with the very handy BOM leather leggings from Toksik and a pair of boots from Hotdog.

I then setup the Renaissance Canopy Bed from Fantavatar & Moonstruck in the Cosimo Townhouse from Del-ka Aedilis and told him to hop on. The animations are all intended for couples, but quite a few of them work just fine with a single avatar as well.

The sumptuous bed comes with a HUD that offers texture options for the wood and all the various fabrics.

Given the upcoming ban on gachas, I decided to revisit another deviousMind gacha for this post; Chandra Meehan’s gachas will definitely be sorely missed as they have always been designed so that ever item is perfectly useable on its own. For this post, however, I am showing off the full Sylvari set, complete with the rares such as the headdress and the petal skirt.

The pose, which comes with the glowing orb, is another Be My Mannequin? creation. It has a very mystical feel, which is why I went full on fantasy with the look and the surroundings.

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.

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!

I love well-researched period clothing and accessories and with this hennin Old Treasures has really hit the mark. A hennin is the classic “princess” headdress, a cone or steeple, often with a veil attached. They are associated with the late Middle Ages, particularly with Burgundy and France, which is why I opted for a Burgundian-style gown from the Muses to go with it. This is an older release, so it has two general fitmesh sizes rather than fitmesh for specific bodies, but that works fine for gowns.

This time around, Enchantment offers us a look at the magical and whimsical world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To create a portal into this realm, I setup the Oberon’s Gift statue from Fantavatar & Moonstruck as a guardian by the Dolmen Experience Portal from Fanatik. For my outfit, I opted for Dreaming Thicket’s Fairy Ring dress and added some flowery antlers from Acios.

What is an “Experience Portal”, you might wonder? It is a new line of products from Fanatik that you can use to setup automatic teleports on your sim. You need to be able to enable an experience on your sim and then you load in one or more landmarks in a portal. If there is just one landmark, walking into the portal will trigger the teleport. If there are multiple, it will trigger a menu with options. The portals come in several different styles to suit different environments.

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.

J’adoube, sponsored by The Looking Glass, is a fascinating build filled of both whimsy and beauty. Giant chesspieces, chessboard-patterned flowers and butterflies, boats with trees sprouting from them. It feels like walking into a different reality, a sidestep away from the world as we know it. I could not resist the opportunity to blog some of the beautiful pieces that make up J’adoube, though I knew I could not possibly capture a similar feeling to the full sim. Instead, I opted for showing off some beautiful period clothing from Old Treasures and Portal (including a couple of great gifts/cheapies at the birthday round of We Love Role-Play) over a game of chess in a garden.

As the first entry in a clothing line, Old Treasures has released the Gentilhomme set for the Fantasy Faire. As soon as the Faire opened, I sent Ran over there to get the doublet (he felt the pants looked a little too muscular in the shading for his tastes) and he opted for the very well-priced mixed colour pack in the RFL vendor. This kind of well-made medieval clothing for men is not exactly common in Second Life, so we were both happy to see Old Treasures move into this market. And since he dressed up so prettily, he gained himself an invitation to my private chambers (mild nudity at the end of the post).

Somewhere deep in the woods stands a tall tower, where a man wearing a mask has arranged for a secret meeting with a lady. Who is the man who will not reveal his face? And why has the lady agreed to meet with him in such a secluded location? Is there a scandal in the making, perhaps? Or does he know some dark secret that he is using to blackmail her with?

At the edge of the woods, amidst lush grass and beneath a tall tree, Esmeralda had setup camp a long time ago and somehow never left. The horses wandered nearby, grazing and growing fat, and beside the colourful wagon a stonemason had helped her build a fine firepit. Perhaps she would feel like wandering again some day, but for now she was content.

A Fantasy Faire vignette, featuring items from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, Evie’s Closet and the Looking Glass. As always, remember that the items in the RFL vendors donate to the American Cancer Society, so you will be shopping and doing a good deed at the same time.

Time for another look at some of the great items available at the Ice and Fire event, which is open until the 13th of April. Today, I have some brands that I have not blogged before, like Bee Designs, Simply Shelby and *SK*, as well as F&M Oblivion and the Plastik (though the latter is not from that event). For these scene, I setup a bedroom in one of my castles, with an opulent bed and a large, sturdy chest.

Right now, I seem to be moving from room to room in the Dungan Castle by Fanatik, setting up different scenes in different locations. This one started with the excellent Gothic Bench & Chair set by Fantavatar & Moonstruck for We Love Role-Play. Those pieces just had to be shown off in a castle, but I needed a bit more decor to make the scene come together. That’s when I turn to Paper Moon, especially the sets of tapestries. Those are superb for hanging on your castle walls and making rooms feel a bit more inhabited. You also see a glimpse of a piece from the gacha set “The Songs Ephemera” which are excellent little table settings for different characters.

I promised you would be seeing more of the new castle from Fanatik, so here is a view by one of the windows. I really like the wistfulness created by someone gazing out a window like this and I thought it made for a nice contrast with the fiery textures of the new gown from Senzafine for We Love Role-Play. I also added in a further light source in the shape of a brazier from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, also from We Love Role-Play. Which reminds me, there’s a few things I would love to see in terms of decor for medieval houses and castles. Number one on that list? Rushes for covering the floors, that would give a great, rustic look. Storage chests are another nice decor item that is great for filling out a room a bit with.