Otherworldly

Yesterday, I turned myself into a man for the day and took a walk around the SL Renaissance Festival. Across the sims dedicated to the event, there are some beautifully atmospheric areas. This one uses custom builds by Harshlands which also are available for purchase in their store at the festival. The one I’ve focused on in the second image is called Baron and is a donation item where the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society.

The top half of my outfit is also from the festival, a very elegant long coat from Noble Creations. A shirt peeks out from under it as well and it fitted very nicely over the trousers from ContraptioN.

We Love Role-Play meets the Dog & Pony Show in today’s post, which dresses up the Teeglepet Akhal Teke with the brand-new Regalia tack set from Cheval D’or (which includes both PBR and fallback textures) and the Akhal Teke Gold applier from the Texture Barn. On this handsome eastern steed, a rogue rides into a medieval city, wearing a PBR-textured outfit from Project and a very fancy bejewelled eyepatch from Pendulum, both from WLRP.

The Teeglepet we’ve already looked at in a prior post, though I think I forgot to mention that the default texture is a PBR-texture, just like on the Marwari.  The Regalia set, like the Dune Lord set, draws inspiration from traditional Marwari tack, but it has been made available for the Akhal Teke as well and looks fabulous on it. And of course it offers a number of texturing options for all the different pieces. The applier from the Texture Barn is a classic Akhal Teke colour, a burnished gold, which also shows off how lean and thin-skinned these horses tend to be, by including detailed muscles and veining.

The outfit from Project includes shirt, breeches and boots and very extensive texturing options for all pieces, including the ability to separate out buttons and different parts of the boots. The PBR textures look amazing on the boots in particular, but it is tougher to get non-shiny surfaces like the shirt to be completely realistic. However, this is definitely a brand to keep an eye on if they plan to keep making such nicely texture role-play outfits for men. Finally, we have the eyepatch from Pendulum, which comes in a left eye and a right eye version and includes both PBR and fallback textures on the HUD. I would have liked the design to include how it is supposed to be fastened, I admit, even if it is obviously designed for the visual impact rather than being at all functional.

Oh, and I lied, I did have one more thing to mention. The Courney hair from Magika is a new release that is out at Access and I do love that she keeps including male sizes on all her hairs.

Adventure calls at Plankbarrow Harbor, where many broken ships have come to rest and a twisted array of ropes and planks shaped into a town of sorts. A hideout for pirates and treasure seekers, with dangers lurking both on the rickety wooden piers and below the waves. If you plan on visiting, you had better keep your wits about you and a trusty dagger at hand. Not all encounters will be friendly, especially after dusk.

The Muses Wanderer outfit almost looks made for the Atriane Gloves from Senzafine, or vice versa. A great base for a pirate look, with the ostentatious hat by Attitude is an Artform adding a lot of flair (and sitting nicely on the curly hairstyle by Analog Dog). The necklace from Portal is rather understated but has an interesting design and the obsidian dagger from Oblivis Solem looks appropriately menacing.

I am late to report this, but LL has allowed the Faire two extra days before the Fairelands fade away, which means you will be able to explore, shop and raise money for RLF until the 7th of May!

Need props for Medieval scenes? Then Del-ka Aedilis should be among your first stops. The latest addition to their range of Medieval decor is a dovecote set that includes both a wall-mounted and a free-standing dovecote as well as palisade fencing if you were to build it up outside. The pieces also include versions with snow on. But I opted for using just the two dovecote versions and placing them on the top level of Fanatik’s Chillon Tower, which conveniently has openings all around for birds to fly out and in.

The Del-ka Aedilis set is available at the current round of We Love Role-Play and so is the outfit I am wearing, Rakshasa’s Callan set and the matching boots. It has a bit of an elvish feel to it, though done up in red and black (the fatpack has quite the spread of textures to choose from) I suppose it feels rather Targaryen. Especially since I have a habit of giving myself pale hair when using a male body.

There are amazing treats on offer at the current round of Midnight Order for those with a taste for knights and armor. And who doesn’t have a taste for that? Static completes their gorgeous Order series with the Crowned Coif, adding to the previous releases of Chainmail Cuirass, Sabatons and Gauntlets, all with both male and female fits included. And as a perfect match for that set, Teegle has released a fantastic new armour set for all their Teeglepets. I had a hard time deciding which horse to get it for, but the Pegasus won out in the end as it makes for such a great baroque horse when you remove or hide the wings. I then opted for the darkest version of the Static set and a black and red mix for the horse armour, so that I could appear at the gates of my winter village as a foreboding black knight.

It would not be the Dog & Pony Show without new releases from Teegle and this year they’ve got a massive lineup of news: two new horses, three new dogs, resized versions of the first three dogs released and also dog collars and leashes. And that is not even all, there’s more to come in a few days!

The new horses are a “Jewel” the Percheron and “Spice” the draft foal. The Percheron is a draft breed from France which descends from the medieval warhorses. It is not generally as tall as Belgians or Clydesdales, but it is quite solidly built while still being agile. In France, only black and grey Percherons can be registered, but the US registry allows additional colours. The default coat for the Teegle Percheron is a beautiful grey, but I have some new coats from the Dog & Pony Show to share with you as well so I applied the lovely dappled Poe coat from Royal’s Customs. As you can see, it includes some very nice materials as well. Royal’s Customs has several more gorgeous coats at the event.

The demonic steed, eyes glowing, raced along the narrow gorge, past thick, thorny brambles that seemed to reach for both it and the carriage that it pulled. Suddenly, it reared up, neighing shrilly, as it found the path blocked by a massive tangle of brambles.

Seydr and En Pointe welcome you aboard a collaboration truly fit for the spookiest of all months.  The Midnight Ride carriage, available at the Engine Room, and the matching Midnight Rider harness from the Dog & Pony Show, will let you hitch up a Teeglepet and go for a wild ride. Add in the Theia Eye System from Seydr to make your steed look demonic enough for the role and pick up a suitable coat, such as the Draconic from Nocturne Skies, and your wild ride will be ready.

The Dog & Pony Show is now open, so if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? There are some great new pets from Teegle—both horses and dogs—which I will take a look at soon, but in this post I am continuing with a mix of landscaping and some new coats. I am thinking I might setup a permanent horse farm on one of my sky landscapes. It is a bit tricky doing trails when you’re working with just mesh landscapes, but we’ll see where it lands.

Ever since the Teeglepets were introduced, I have wanted a nice-looking riding outfit in Second Life.  There have been some out there, but nothing has quite caught my eye. Now, however, there’s a very nice casual riding set out from Cheval D’or. Alana is a full outfit with a sun shirt, shirt, breeches (boot cut and regular), socks and jodphurs. The set comes fitted for Maitreya, Legacy and Reborn and includes a texture hud for lots of different colour combinations. It is perfect both for chores around the barn and for riding in.  As such, it was just the right thing for showing off some more PLAZA goodies, this time centered around Teegle and also Splintered Creations, the creators of the lovely welcome sign shown in the first image.

The Fantasy Faire closed yesterday, but thankfully bloggers had a chance to wander the sims a final time today. I took the opportunity to ride through some of the sims on one of my trusty Teegle steeds and take a few last photos. I hope everyone has enjoyed the Faire and done lots of shopping and exploring. Until next year!

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.

Today is the last day of the 12th SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair and I’ve let the mustangs out to run wild in the snow. These horses were made with the Teeglepet Fjord Horse and then I applied the new Mustang shape deformer from Mythril. It is available at the Breedables Fair as a donation item for the American Cancer Society and I am really happy with the resulting shape. It gives you a sturdy little horse that looks strong and rugged.

The two horses in front also have coats from the Breedables Fair, from Run for the Roses, and both Santa’s Cookies & Cream and Rustic Pinto are limited editions and donation items. I am afraid I don’t recall what the other three coats are, I didn’t note it down when I set the horses up. (That is probably my number one wish for the Teeglepets, a way to see what applier is being worn.) But I’ll let that slip for this time, since the focusing is on the Expo anyway.

I did warn that there would be more videos for the 2022 Horse Show and here we go. With cool new idles for the horses and a fancy new cloak for myself, a video was definitely needed. Plus, it made it easier to offer a good look at the three different Dragonkin tack/mod sets from Idunn’s Clutch. I go through all the new items in the video, but for a quick and easy overview of the credits, scroll to the end of this post. On the way, you’ll pass a few photos; I am particularly pleased with the first one but the rest are pretty cool looks at the horses too.

It is much easier to shop for a female avatar than a male one, but now and then something shows up for just male avatars that I just have to have even if it means slipping on a male shape for a while. The Montague Doublet from Old Treasures is one such item; I’d love to see it for female avatars too, but I am perfectly happy to admire it on myself in male form as well. ;) But while I have a lot of great hairs for male avatars (meaning longer styles that work on men, since that’s my preference) such as this Ash style from Wasabi, I’ll definitely have to expand my collection of heads and skins if I am going to make this a habit.

He laboured long and hard, employing both muscle and magic to forge a wondrous horse like no one had ever seen before. When he finally finished, wheels turned within it and a strange flow of red energy flowed amongst its iron limbs, bringing it to life.

One of the best parts of Fantasy Faire for the last few years has been the reveal of the new Teeglepet. I love my “mortal” pixel horses, but the fantastical ones are extra special. This year is no exception as Teegle brings us Aurum, the Mech horse. I love the way this one is put together, with glowing tubes and spinning cog wheels. Depending on the texture and accent colours you pick, you can capture Steampunk, Cyberpunk, etc. The skin I am showing is not the default but a really cool aged metal skin from Mythril which also happens to be an RFL donation item. The poses I am using for the horse are also by Mythril.

Aurum is also equipped with a new beta Teeglepet update that contains quite a few fixes and addons, two of which I really like the sound of:

—Horses can now have a hovertext name shorter than their object name by using “double quotes”: for example, a horse named “Tapple Gao” Patchy Blue (Shetland Stripped 2.6.69) will have name hovertext of “Tapple Gao”.

—Added driver permission mode “Group”. Only allows people wearing the right group tag to ride the horse.