Month: July 2021

Vortex of Lust – Part 1

I came across Vortex of Lust through a post in the Cyber Alliance discord server,which included the description below.

The refugium known as the Vortex has a wide variety of geographic features, from the familiar to the fantastic.

The centre of it all, both proverbially and literally, is the Free Market, which rests on a floating platform anchored to a derelict mass of rock that floats above the surface.
Above the Free Market the Battleship Aurora rests collided with another splinter of levitating rock, hosting a portal to the Floating Islands, a place of beauty and mystery high above the Vortex.
The surface is a wild and dangerous place with frozen seas, endless mazes of tunnels, treacherous swamps and far more treacherous inhabitants. Travelers to the surface should be well prepared.

This description had me very intrigued and the images more so. The locations appear to range from steampunk through urban and into cyberpunk, dressing for this place could be a challenge!

Given the mention of battleships and ice lakes I thought a full body protective suit seemed the best option, along with a few survival accessories.

First view on arrival

I like a clear uncluttered landing point with clear signage and as little surplus stuff as possible. The Vortex has this, however it also has a lot of information to be shared prior to entering the RP area. Most of this relates to the HUD used here, which auto-attaches as soon as you accept the regions Experience permissions. There is a new players area that talks you through it all. Once you go through there you are guided to an are that tells you about the multiple locations here.

The New Player Area

The different locations

You leave this are via the Vortex at the centre.

You emerge through the Vortex into a new area that feels quite steampunkish at first glance.

A rather impressive portal
You arrive here through the Vortex

This is the area known asĀ  Central Market. Despite modern aspects like the grage door and submarine, inside things are quite antique or industrial.

Behind the garage door is a study type room with old book cases and antique desk, but with a full tech suite upstairs.

Heading over to the submarine it only seems to serve one purpose, the local jail.

Around the corner I find signposted The Jolly Harbor Tavern and The Surface, I take the Tavern first. I reminds me of Drune Diesel in atmosphere for some reason, maybe that’s due to the piano in the corner, but looks like an interesting place to roleplay.

Now to explore in the other direction towards “The Surface”, following the signs direction I see a crashed plane and crane above some kind of gantry.

There’s also a buildy to the left that I thought I’d check out first, I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the machinery is, but the other peice of hardware in the room hints at some not-so-innocent activities.

Carrying on my journey I head towards the gantry to see what awaits, a lift that descent to the surface.

At the bottom is an interesting place that looks like it’ll be fun to explore, you can see in the first snap that the place extends quite some distance before the view is obstructed by trees, which instantly makes it feel more mysterios.

Since the Central Market is essentially in the middle of the region, in terms of elevation, there’s also the airship Aurora to be explored above. There is a similar lift next to the submarine that takes you there.

I’ll show you some more of the Surface and Aurora roleplay areas in Part 2.

Click Here for Part 2!

Landing point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vortex%20of%20Lust/59/124/3017

Website: https://www.vortex-of-lust.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/6n7VmeRKtB

Outfit Credits:

This post was featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 6th August 2021.

The Cyber Alliance

The Cyber Alliance (in SecondLife, not related to the RL ones involved with cyber security) is a growing group of individuals and communities wanting to promote and create roleplay between different Sci-Fi and Cyberpunk themed groups and locations scattered throughout SecondLife. It started with a Discord server and Inworld SecondLife group started by Jadzia (Boont Baphomet) in April 2021. Jadzia is one of the founder members of Hellas Platina that I have mentioned before, born out of the closure of Helix City.
Jadzia describes the goals of the Alliance as folows:
[10:19:53] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 1. To encourage RP and help RP'ers find eachother in the cyberpunk/sci-fi genres. The group is a place to seek out RP situations with other players
[10:20:30] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 2. A place for small sims and builders/creators to advertise their spaces and events so that RP'ers can learn about things going on in these specific realms
[10:21:38] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 3. Lastly, and most ambitiously, a long term plan for creating a cross-sim 'world' that we can all engage in; finding ways to connect our lore, do missions and quests between places.
[10:22:05] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): Really it's all about sims helping sims and encouraging RP
Anyone from other Sci-fi and Cyberpunk roleplays groups are invited and welcome to join the server or inworld group and get involved. Now it has grown to have it’s own Website,Flickr gallery and an inworld location is also in the works I’m told.

So far the Alliance includes roleplayers from the following communities:

(Based on list of Worlds on the CyberAlliance website and subject to change.)

Burn2 – Burning Man Festival in SecondLife

Burn2 is the the virtual presence of Burning Man in SecondLife. While it’s been around for many years this is the first time I made it to one of their events.

The event consisted of a torchlit procession around the perimeter amog various diffent community built structures, then a fire dancing performance, followed by the “burning” of a virtual wicker effigy.

People were encouraged totake part in the procession, so I did.

The Fire Dancing..

Burning The Effigy..

With appropriately atmospheric music and dancing following the “Burn”, it was really good fun. They have quite regular events that you can read more about on their website, I’d recommend going along to one if you have the opportunity.

Website: https://www.burn2.org/

This post was shared on the SecondLife Community Blog.