Taking a walk up onto the snowy hilltop and doing some training exercises was very relaxing for her, helped clear her head. The setting sun and moonrise gave such a beautiful light to move gracefully in, the brisk wind chill, but refreshing. Although little did she know her exercise would have a more brutal ending than usual.
As she descended the slope toward the village she heard snarling and animal cries of distress. She drew her knives again wishing perhaps she should have brought something more substantial, but hadn’t expected to need it.
She followed the sounds into the undergrowth to find a pair of wolves attacking a stag, one already down. She curses, the wolves shouldn’t be getting so close to the village.
A brief scuffle left one dead wolf and the other on the run. She turns to check on the stag and is relieved to finds it gone. There’s no blood trail on the ground, so thankfully it can’t have been badly injured.
She glances at the bodies on the ground, she’d need some help shifting the deer carcass, so for now she picks up the wolf and heads back to the village. They’d have to have to gather a hunting party to track down the pack before fresh snow buried the tracks.
Golgothica is the creation of Hera, mastermind behind the Drune series of Distopian Cyberpunk cityscapes and unbeknown to me til recently, Goatswood that I wrote about briefly before.
The landing point for both Drune: Babalon and Golgothica is now in a skybox, where you choose a TP pad to either.
I usually take my pictures in a single visit but that didn’t work out this time. On my return visit however I saw a well-known figure.
Ground arrival is on a ship
When you get to the ground you arrive on a ship, but wait, who is this? The infamous Inara Pey!
I find the infamous Inara Pey at the prow
She was occupied so I went about my way, down onto the dock.
Left a tavern maybe, and windmill in the distance
and right, intruiging lights
I went right and up the steps, heading down the street opposite, which seems to a strange green light at the far end.
As I proceed through the dark streets mor becomes visible, there’s a small stream at the end of the road and the light seems to be coming from the far side.
Unfortunately no bridge,so looks like I’ll be getting wet feet.
Not deep water, but enough to be unpleasant I’m sure.
Across the stream I come onto a a path that leads to either side but not towards the lights. What kind of explorer sticks to paths anyway? I push on into the woods looking for the source of the mysterious light.
Who needs paths?
Here I find a number of beutiful little scenes, first a pool watched over by a statue of what may well be the forest deity, Pan.
A forest pool, watched over by Pan
Then another light leads me on into the undergrowth and I come across a natural stone altar covered with candes and flowers.
A rustic altar in a small clearing
From here I can also see some tall columns among the trees and investigate, where I find a much more formal and ornate altar and worship space.
A more formal, but overgrown sacred space.
Beyond the pillars a stone building and torch light can be seen, so I push on out of the woods and up onto the path.
Entrance to the castle, complete with hanging cages outside
Through the gates I go, to find an abandoned cart and only one place to go, up the ramp to the right.
The path leads up and to another gate at the top before opening into a larger open space with lots of possible choices of where to explore.
Another gate of which you will see many, leads you inside.Plenty of choice where to explore
This is somewhere you can easily get lost, so I won’t deprive you of that joy! Instead I’ll let you find your own way and show some of the places you may find.
Windmills in the distance
surrounding towers from the top of the wall
there’s something flying around out there
a small dragon aparently!
There’s a banquet hall
with nice selection
a library
quite a sizeable one
small bedrooms
with creepy paintings on the walls
a surpris coastal exit from the tower
a beutiful view
then I finally found my way out
to see something hanging
wonder what this guy did wrong
There’s a LOT to see here at Golgothica and I have just explored a part of it. You can see in the centre of the picture below the ship where arrived and the woods I came through. Maybe I’ll come back and visit the windmill and the chapel-like building on the opposite corner.
Aerial view of Golgothica from near the NW corner of the region.
In my last post about Persia – The Immortals I only briefly mentioned the harbour, featuring just a view from above. This wasn’t because there’s nothing down there, more that it didn’t seem to fit into the flow of the post. This is because there doesn’t seem to be a way to get down there on foot. I did however explore and snap it, so in the spirit of completeness, I’m sharing those now.
Obviously since this is SL and no path, I did the Lemming thing and just jumped off the wall.
I landed among some wooden barricades, so was grateful I wasn’t wearing their combat hud or that might have hurt!
There’s various marine props about the place, as well as more barricades. This put me in mind of a “Raid Dock” found in SL Gor,but that’s where the similarity ends thankfully.
At the seaward end of the dock is a gangplank leading across to galleon.
The view toward the sea is a beautiful purple sunsetThe looming galleon is stricken on the rocks
I crossed the plank to have a brief look inside. Not a lot to see, a bed and some other homely furniture.
Don’t get any ideas about this being a nice quiet spot for a cuddle though, the bed is linked to the hull of the ship, so you can’t sit your avatar on it.
This place is beautiful shadow-draped historically styled region based on ancient Persia of 550B.C.
Arriving through some undergrowth to the bottom of a set of steps drenched in shadows of statues cast by purple moonlight, it has got to to be one of my favourite region arrivals for quite a while.
As you proceed its pleasantly free of clutter, just a few boards, but not intrusive, before you come to your ride.
Left we have staff boards
Right we have group joiner and combat system vendor
Ride a horse benefits: Fuel Efficient, Environmentally Friendly,Can drive you home when drunk!
Just click the horse and choose a name from the menu to get your own horse to ride. I picked “magic” because that’s how the place feels. You proceed by walking through a multi-layered veil into a dark but open space.
When you go through it’s such a view, dark and mysterious. To the left is the top arches of an arena, some steps ahead and to the right a small plain leading to a river.
At the top of the steps is a sign reading:
Raid Field
Arena
Shops
Rezz Zone.
Seeing the word “Raid” I decided I’d check that later and headed to the right towards the the intruiging palm trees and buildings.
The word “Raid” suggests caution is in order.
Heading towards the distant lights there are buildings and palm trees.
Down a gentle bank is a paved collanade following the path of a dry stream bed. Across the here are a few small homes, some of which are for rent.
Having seen all there was in this area I backtracked towards the steps and the arena.
Aerial view of the Arena
I headed down the steep steps and onto the cobbled path below, passing the entrance to the Arena. The next thing tou see is an imposing temple, which I’ll investigate later, there’s a more impressive view ahead.
The steps are Steep be cautious!
The cobbled path makes your direction clear
Passing the Arena
An imposing temple to investigate
What caught my attention ahead were two rather large bridges arching over an impressive harbour scene.
I took the nearest bridge and crossed to the other side where there is a row of various shops. These sell an assortment of appropriately themed weapons and RP props. I headed left towards the harbour mouth until I came to a guard (npc) blocking your way. Mainly because there’s nowhere else to go except back the way you came, or steps onto the roofs of the shops.
Row of buildings across the bridges
Large ornate archways lead onto the bridge
Back at the other end of the row there is a narrow but passable slope that used to get back down to the plains.
The bottom of this slope leads me towards the temples, so time to have a look inside. It’s rather imposing from the outside, with steps on either side of the entrance leading up to it. Inside its suitably gloomy in kind with the surroundings, lit by torches near the altar. It does have the feeling of reverence you often experience at religious sites, although I can’t really explain how that works in a virtua space.
Strangely however it’s for rent..but I couldn’t find any kind of residential accommodation thereabouts.
I stopped to meditate for a little while before leaving, because back outside there’s only one structure I’d not explored yet, the Arena and I’m not the fighting type.
A few moments editation before leaving the temple
Fortunately at this time of day there were no combatants about so it was a peaceful visit to this place of violent sport.
A torchlit archway leads into the Arena
At this time of day it is quiet as a grave fortunately for me!
This is an amazingly beautiful region to see and wander around. If you want to join in their Roleplay there is a group joiner at the landing point as well as a vendor for their free combat system called “URA Kombat”.
Update 12th Feb: Wondering about the harbour? Check out the follow-up post: Persepolis Docks
I came across Decadent Isles via the Seeking Roleplay Discord server I’ve mentioned before. Usually the words “beach” and “BDSM” in a description would put me off, not really my thing. But given the source, I thought I’d take a look. My opinon changes after a second visit, so do please read to the end so as not to get the wrong impression.
Here’s the description given:
Decadent Isles is more then just another island, an elite resort with thousands of miles of irresistibly blue waters, secret sandbars and secluded beaches, crowned with the perfect blend of luxury and heritage where BDSM is more then just a taboo. Want to join our story? Feel free to come and explore the island and begin your life on the Isles. We are open to how you want to roleplay your story, who your character is and to develop story lines amongst the islanders In short, this is worlds most idyllic setting for relaxation and pleasure. Buy your ticket today and fly away to Decadent Isles Check out our website: https://decadentisles.weebly.com/ Come Fly Away…. The Isles awaits you…
The arrival point is styled like an aerplane, which is a novel change. The premise of the place being a luxury resort island, it makes sense you’d arrrive by plane.
Arrival is in an Aeroplane
Left: Staff boards
Right: Group and Discord links
There’s also a real-world topical passenger up here:
Bernie!
When you reach the ground you arrive at a harbour which is nicely done with nice detail put into the place.
What you’re immediately faced with though is lots of houses.
Very evident rental boxes isnt encouraging
Inside that rental
These are pretty much all up for rent. There’s not just the main street, off to the left there are other types of homes and properties too.
A warehouse
A cafe
Some development in progress
Some more luxurious homes down here
After wandering around this area I headed back to the main street and walked up to the far end.
Further down the main street
Here you will find a luxury hotel offering all the facilities and services you’d expect from such an establishment.
I found one of the employees out front who told me a bit about the place, what services the hotel offered etc.
I met “Mei” out front.
I then went and took a quick look inside the lobby of the hotel, which looks suitably posh.
Mei informed me that the region had changed hands approximately 2 weeks ago, maybe that explains the amount of rentals everywhere, the new owners might have a lot of cash to recover.
Ignoring the rental aspect, the place is quite pleasant, but given the prominence of houses, public areas to sit and just spend time felt limited, or maybe that’s where “secluded” comes in. The hotel would probably make a very nice setting for a couple to spend some quality time with it’s various facilities, just not to stay, as the upstairs is mostly empty at the time of visiting. However from what I saw, from a new arrivals perspective, the description doesn’t hold up. I’m not sure “BDSM” fits in anywhere.
Or so I thought on my first visit, I was wrong.
“I’m sure there’s stuff I missed, maybe the beaches are there, but the build herds you towards the houses. Usually the Seeking Roleplay ads are very promising, so I’m a little disappointed to find just another beachfront (even if it does have a nice aerplane arrival point). Perhaps once the new owners have implememted changes it will be differnet.”
Is what I wrote. Which was also wrong. ( Any idea how hard it is for a Leo to admit that? So don’t take it lightly.)
Certainly the secluded beaches are in short supply(see below) but if there’s a major taboo you want to act out, best done indoors!
No space left for beach, with all the houses.
After my first visit the words “beyond taboo” in the description nagged at me, which is what made me take another look. I used the Firestorm Viewers “Area Search” feature and did two searches, for “bed” and “bdsm”.
This is when you find out what really goes on behind closed doors! Certainly there are lots of rentals, but all the ones taken had all the naughty furniture you might expect or could imagine. (As a certain friend of mine would say “all their kinky shit”).
On this subsequent visit I also had a chat with one of the owners, Summer. This revealed that the BDSM aspect was intended more as an undercurrent to whatever roleplay you want to do there.
While this kind of setting wouldn’t be my cup of tea, if role-playing someone rich on a luxury resort island appeals to you or any storyline in that type of setting, you’ll find a welcoming group here.
A beautiful Viking/Scandinavian theme location that has a wonderfully cold wintery atmosphere to it. It looked great when I arrived and started taking my snapshots, then I remembered to turn on Shared Environment setting and wow, the place took on a whole new feel.
Midday setting
Shared Environment setting
I find it’s always good to look behind you when you arrive at places, you never know what you’ll find. This is why most of my posts have a rear-facing shot near the beginning.
Behind you on arrival
To the right
To the Left
Most of the time it’s a blank wall, this is one of those times that it’s not, there’s a set of steps leading up the hill from the beach.
There’s a few houses and meeting hall which all look great and fun to explore. You can see from up here all across the bay, the waters seem to go on forever, but there is also a far shore that needs exploring!
Back down the steps there is a log bridge that takes you into a dense woodland. But this is no walk in the park! There’s an assortment of animals in here, not all of them friendly.
A couple of bears are far enough to not be a worry, but the wolf pack (you’ll hear it before you see it) deserve a wide berth, so as not disturb their catch. This small scene is actually really effective with animated deer and wolf snarling sounds, makes it feel real.
Further along the path widens into a small clearing containing someone’s home. There are a number of these dotted around, their simplicity compared to the houses suggests outcasts or solitary individuals keeping away from the main local community.
This place is on the end of a land peninsular so has water in 3 sides, I went across to the beach to get a closer look at something I saw in the distance from the landing point. A rather large creature circling in the water, definitely a place for a paddle!
Retracing my steps through the woods there is a steep set of steps leading up the mountain (by SL proportions). It’s quite a walk up to the top, with some great views as you go up and from the top.
There are signs of some old structures half buried in the ground as you approach the summit. When you reach the top (giving the solitary howling wolf plenty of space) there appears to be an area of worship, with standing stones and a sacrificial altar. You can also see from here another little home, on the beach below a large statue. In the opposite direction is a barren clifftop view over the sea, which can be quite calming to enjoy with the sounds of whistling wind.
Up here I met with the regions creator and we had a nice chat. I said I kept expecting to find an NPC of Floki (a crazy little guy from the Amazon series Vikings) in one of the huts. I asked her about RP in the region and she told me there was none organised, but people were welcome to come and use it for that, she just wanted to create a beautiful place.
Which in my opinion she has achieved and surpassed. If you’re a fan of the series or anything like Viking culture, you will love this place.
To get the best experience I would suggest you enable Shared Environment setting, so it looks how the creator intended it.
If you’ve not got this turned on, in a Firestorm goto the World menu select Environment then “Shared Environment”.
I found Sindaria via a Scoop.it article that led me through to a Blog post about the Cyberpunk area of Sindaria. At the time of writing my previous post on Sindaria, I hadn’t fully read the said blog post, for which I owe the author an apology for seeming rather dismissive of it,when that wasn’t my intention. Anyway onto my visit to this city. Obviously this time I took the other teleport doorway, the one lit with neon.
The teleporter to New Runner City
This brings me to a large circular platform surrounded by skyscrapers with giant ad boards on them (not actual advertising for inworld stores or services, RP related). The one that stood out the most was one for a place called “Galaxy Glub”, so clearly a place I’d have to look at. Nearby is a shuttle landing platform that I headed for.
The shuttle landing platform
Before I left however I thought I’d mention the eco-dome type structure containing a few trees. A nod to the other theme on the region, like the police car in the Elven Woodland area below. At the shuttle platform I hit the big green call button and a shuttle could be heard approaching and landed next to me and I boarded.
The shuttle system is fairly impressive with quite a number of locations it will take you. I picked a location at random and the shuttle tok off and flew me down to a lower level, rather smoothly.
At the bottom I found myself a short distance from the Galaxy Club so I went to investigate. As Secondlife clubs go this was fairly mediocre, but given the region is meant for RP not parties, this is understandable, much more effort has been spent elsewhere.
Back outside I found a teleport station, again with a reasonable number of destinations. This is good, because as I explored I kept finding more to see, similar to Hangars Liquides, but on a smaller scale. I ended up at what appeard to be the rear of the club, near the entrance to another unidentified building. No signage and a locked door. What was beyond this place however I found more interesting.
Rain. Yes I know sounds weird, but when most people try to add weather to a place in SL, it looks dreadful. Not that it’s something you deliberately look for, but it stood out to me because it was so atmospherically accurate and appropriate to the setting.
Rain, that actualy felt like rain.
To my left I saw what appeared to be pink crosses so went to investigate, I guess even cyberpunks need religion, but this seemed more of the Vegas variety.
Crosses?
Religion, of the neon Vegas variety
Good job I’m wearing gloves, or I’d probably burn my hands
I headed out in the opposite direction to see how far the rain went and where the road led. The rain didn’t extend far, but the road does, lots of winding bends, leading downhill. The further down you go, the scruffier it gets, more proligic garffiti and the like abound.
I didn’t explore much more of the region beyond this, it would take quite some time with the city being so large. Lots of RP locations everywhere and multiple transport methods to find and get to them. If you like your Cyberpunk RP this is a place to definitely check out. Usually I keep my writing about SL, because making comparisons to PC games is usually like comparing chalk and cheese. However while I was writing this peice I saw a video that mentions the much hyped Cyberpunk 2077 game. I haven’t played the game on any platform so I watched it with inerest to hear a critical analysis. It was mentioned a few times that the linear nature of the game didn’t allow for much aesthetic character customisation or Roleplay in what was meant to be an Roleplaying Game. But to me that’s like trying to hammer a nail with the handle of a screwdriver, it’ll work, but isn’t the right tool. You want to aesthetically customise you character to your hearts desire with few constraints and have freeform RP? Sign up to SecondLife and spend the game price on Lindens (at time of writing that’s about $L 16,400) to customize your avie to your hearts desire. Then visit the cyberpunk location of your choice and RP away. Obviously if you want to go round shooting folk and NPC’s as part of a structured plot, it’s not for you, but if your focus is the “RP” in RPG give it a go. Landing Point: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sindaria/58/91/1089 Website: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/sindaria-scarlet-fey The Cyberpunk 2077 video mentioned: Youtube
Outfit:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
Sindaria – New Runner City as written on a blog post header image that led me here, is a rather misleading title, but not incorrect as I found out. I arrived at the landing point dressed in the sci-fi costume that I wore when exploring The Varune Project, but that didn’t really fit where I ended up.
The arrival point
The landing point is a large uncluttered circular space, just a couple of boards showing suggested attire, brief background and rental info.
Fantasy attire is mandatory, no urban clothing.Out this way
Head through the only exit and you’ll find two teleporters to begin your exploration.
Pick your path
There are two departure teleport doors from the arrival area, a stone arch and a neon-lit, steam surrounded metal door, which really was a rather obvious clue it goes to the cyberpunk location. Anyway I took the stone archway and landed in an medieval style village.
A cottage one way
Village the other way
I headed towards the village, to explore, having a look at a few of the houses, it’s basically a small fishing village.
I went up into the little watchtower to have a better look around the area and was prompted to accept an inworld experie permission to sit my avatar. Upon accepting it, I was teleported to a similar lookout building in a much larger village around a lake. This is where it starts to get impressive, the area is very large, covering multiple regions. Beyond the village there is a beautiful forested area with an orchard then some ruins and rock terrain leading up caves. I started waking around the lakeshore, it’s beautiful from every angle, with lots to see up above.
I then came to the first of the etheral structures to be found here.
In the distance a stone arch with green light on the far side beckons me. This led me into the forested area with so many visual wonders to see.
The first forest clearing
This reminded me so much of the Isle of Shadows Region of Fantasy Faire 2020 I felt I had to include a photo from my Fantasy Faire post here.
Isle of Shadows, Fantasy Faire 2020.
The woodland here however doesn’t develop into a daker tone as you move through it. It reminded me a little bit of Waterfalls and Dreams, (which I must admit I was rather overly critical of the place) but with more forest than water here. I took so many snapshots as I explored this region, so to save overload/boring you like an old holiday slideshow, I’ve just included some of my favourite shots from this area of the forest before I moved on.
I came to another archway and a set of stairs. obviously they both needed exploring. Since there was likely more through the arch, I took the stairs first.
There is an NPC at the top that asks if my soul is pure enough to go through thegats..it would seem not!
Continuing through the arch take me into the orchard I mentione, I would say it’s possibly intended to be harvested by hobbits, since each tree has a little ladder!
An orchard for Hobbits
In the background you can see a ladder going up into a cave, I just had to explore. At the top of the ladder (sit on it to go up) you enter a windy series of caves winding a very long way up. There are some open parts that give you a good view of the region, this my favourite:
Nearly at the top…
When you move on up the steps you come to the gates of a house built on a floating island.
Glad for the waterproff outfit
Then comes the inevitable incident that happens at least once when I’m exploring a place, I fell off something. Into a pond, a pretty pond, but still thigh deep water.
A more shady area of woodland
I took a rather sloshy walk to the shore then followed it through another area of woodland. This place was far more sheltered, the kind of place that would be lovely to walk through on a hot day. Also down here I found something that made me feel less guilty for walking around an Elven Forest region in a spacesuit. A crashed Police hovercar in the river.
This eased my feeling of desecrating a beautiful forest by walking around in a Sci-Fi outfit!
A short walk further along the river brings me to the entrance to a town, which for some reason (perhaps it was the two npc guards), made me think of Ankh-Morpork.
Cpl Nobbs & Sgt Colon perhaps
I really enjoyed exploring this part of Sindaria, it was very relaxing wandering through the pretty landscape on a rainy weekend in the physical world. Anyone liking your Elvish and medieval places should definitely check it out. I’ll probably come back myself to explore the neighbouring region,but properly attired next time. However as the title of the post suggests I’ll be blogging the Sci-Fi cyberpunk part of Sindaria very soon. Landing Point: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sindaria/58/91/1089 Website: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/sindaria-scarlet-fey
Outfit:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
Last Chance City is a post-apocolyptic style urban roleplay region. The storyline that you can read on their website (link below) tells of a computer virus spreading through everything electronic, taking out all services,communications etc. bringing civilization and humanity to it’s basest survival instincts.
The arrival point is in an abandoned underground station… (De-ja-vus?)
but much lighter environment and larger than the Drune station, as you can see from the pictures.
In fact the whole place feels massive due to a good use different height locations. You’ll notice this as soon as you exit the station up the stairs and arrive at ground level.
There’s a bus waiting outside the station, but given tech is out, so we can ignore it
I headed right out the station towards a diner in the distance
Unsurprisingly empty and cleared out of stocks, so I carried on along the road til I came to an intersection that had a run down church on one corner
Opposite was an abandoned house so I thought I’d have a look inside.
Outside the road turns uphill and at the top I saw a police station and went to investigate.
“POLICE” in sketchy white writing is visible on the building in the distance
The police station has plenty of rooms to explore and provides lots of opportunities, including cells and an outside fenced area.
“You’re on camera..not anymore
Spacious cells
Target range
The reaining squad car has ben scavenged for parts
As well as a police station there’s a Courthouse in the area, so you could roleplay capture through to sentence, if there were still police around. I suspect the gallows may still see occasional use however.
The Courthouse
broken benches
scattered papers
These may well be still used though
Continuing along the road I came to a collapsed flyover that someone had decided to call home.
From up on the bridge you can see quite a lot of the ruined city
Past the flyover I found the stations of other emergency services, before reaching the imposing doors of what, based on the hazard signs, appeared to be a nuclear facility.
Huge imposing gates..who could refuse?
Walking through the gates it’s rather creepy on the other side.
The gates TP you to a different height, so there’s plenty more to explore in this area.
I went back out and continued my way along the road, to investigate what I’d seen from the flyover.
There seems to be a collection of tables like an abandoned garage sale
Someone with a sense of humour has renamed the pizzeria..
Someone has a sense of humor
Just past here I’m back at the rundown church, having made a circuit of the roadway. This time I stuck my head inside to have a quick look.
There’s lots to see and explore at Last Chance City, with plenty of RP venues. I just made a circuit of one roadway, there may well be lots more TP doors taking you to other locations. But if you want to RP regularly there, I’d recommend you read up on their Lore and rules.
As I mention Death Row Designs (DRD) as maker of my backpack, I thought I’d add that several of the buildings,large parts of scenery as well as little details come from that store. To name just a few parts: The Diner, abandoned house, Courthouse,Flyover bridge…go look for yourself, its impressive.
I read this morning on Twitter that one of the Time Portal locations in SL, a WW1 simulation was to be closing, so I thought I’d do as the message suggeste. Go have a look before it’s gone!
The arrival point is train station
I explored some of the ruined building first
Directions, with a Warning
Looking down on the trenches
You really feel the sense of confed space
Especiallly when exploring the living quarters
Tiny little spaces to sleep
live
and work
Notes and letters on the wall next to the ladder
Lots of little details
Up and “Over the Top”
A glancee back the way I had come
Before heading into the light
The location is due to be gone “by years end”, so go check it out. Turn up your sounds and lights down for best experience.
