It is said that on All Hallows Eve the barrier between the realms of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. Who’s to say that other such barriers become thin, perhaps between the realms of Angels and Demons?
Maybe the Angels go and play in Hell, or the Demons in Heaven? Do younger Angels dare each other to go take a selfie in Hell without getting caught? They’d need to dress the part so they don’t stand out. They also have to dim their natural aura so they don’t light the whole place up, which was a skill difficult to master for some.
The Demons really don’t like this game the Angels play, but there’s not much they can do about it. The touch or any physical contact of an Angel will turn most demons to dust like a vampire in the midday sun, even just their aura is painful. All a demon can hope to do is chase them away, or have human slaves attempt to capture and drag them to a crossing point. They did try an assortment of projectile weapons against the Angels, but generally this turned out to be pretty futile.
So while the Angels play their games, the Demons just go torment the Living instead.
I was recently exploring the a patch of Mainland I was considering purchasing, when a tour pod went past, I’d not been on one of these for years, so thought I’d see where it took me. I found I was on the “Historic SecondLife” tour, so I rode it for a little while until the pod car turned into a boat and took me out across the water to an island in the distance. As my boat got closer to the shore it announced “To our right is the beautiful Linden owned island of Mnemosyne. I’ll stop here for two minutes, for you to have a look around if you wish.” I certainly did wish, it looked very intriguing.
The isalnd had been there since the very early years of SecondLife, the About Land details reporting 2004. I had a little look around, the building seeming like somce kind of observatory with something akin to a projector displaying images of SL locations inside. On the opposite side of the island there’s a platform and a ladder back down to water level.
Once you’ve had a look around,you can either wait for a tour boat to come along, or rez your own water craft in the water next to the jetty on the West side.
Now that Halloween is past it’s time to continue exploring other places in SL and first on my list is the latest build by Camila Runo. This one is called Amon Duin and is described as an Elven Realm,which it certainly lives up to.
You arrive on a sea dock with a sunset lighting the sky (if you are using Shared Environment) which gives the place a beautifully mystical atmosphere.
As we’ve come to expect from Camila, the location is the right mix of areas to explore or hangout, without being too spread out, although this one does have quite a lot of stairs, the climb is worth it!
There is a little seating area on the way up that gives you a view of the landscape below.
When you reach the top of the stairs you come to a large area with a number of buildings to be explored with locations to relax, or perhaps even a little roleplay in the throne room or dining hall.
Elsewhere you might like the library with its staircase of books, can you climb it without falling?
Update: Shortly after publishing, Camilla informed me that the region will be available for at least the next four weeks. So you have plenty of time to explore this lovely location!
Outfit Credits:
Outfit inc headband: [JANGKA] ESMERALDA Outfit SHADOW – We 3> Role Play Event (only the Limited Edition Shadow outfit includes the headband)
The We Love RolePlay event usually opens on the 4th of each month, so you may not be able to get there until then. I say “may” because somehow I was able to access the region on Halloween and I’m not an official WLRP blogger. (Which also means items I featured I did actually pay for.)
Having collected a few outfits over the Shop n Hop and other events for Halloween, I thought I’d explore the Halloween Haunted Nieghbourhood for locations to photograph them, so this is the first.
Remember the Shop n Hop finishes on the 1st of November, so some of the items may not be available after that, so be quick!
Flipping the switch by the front door and no lights come on, she sighs and picks up the lamp sat on the reception counter and ascends the dark stairwell. She’s been told the room she has to attend the midnight Vigil is at the top of the stairs to the right, so she makes her way there. Presuming the room with bars and padded walls wasn’t her destination, she takes the *other* right into a bedroom that looks like it’s not seen a duster in decades. Taking a quick look around at the dirty room, she dusts off the least dirty chair, which happened to be a wheelchair, and sits to await the family or any others that might be attending.
The rest of the place was just as creepy on the way upstairs..
Outfit Credits:
Outfit & Boots: [JANGKA] SAMANTHA Outfit HALLOWEEN – Jangka S&H (frankly far too expensive at 700L$ for this pattern)
The Dryad wakes slowly like a flowers petals opening. When her eyes open she suddenly becomes aware of the temperature. It’s too cold, it’s too dark, she shouldn’t be awake yet. Being bound to the cycle of nature and the Seasons, she shouldn’t awake until Spring when the first green shoots appear. Something is wrong, she must find out what’s going on. Sticking her head out of the entrance to her underground sanctuary, she looks around to see white everywhere.
She finds some boots to protect her feet, usually she’d be barefoot but dare not walk on the freezing snow, frost is as dangerous to her as it is to plants. As she walks through the Human settlement she sees green grass poking through the snow, this is what’s woken her but how?
There’s no sign of industry that she’d heard of further south that made the climate warmer, just the usual primitive wooden homes. She visits a few of the buildings to see if there was anything amiss but found nothing unusual.
They have ships in the harbour so perhaps they have brought something here, or learnt of something that’s causing the problem.
Then she glances up and sees the temple up on the mountain, perhaps that has the answers.
She wishes she’d brought a cloak as she begins the ascent, touching the trees on the way up for reassurance, they are still slumbering as she should be.
Inside the temple she finds evidence of rituals and sacrifice, but these are not the usual practices of worshiping nature and beings such as herself, as could be found at the stones further down the mountain.
The locals still worship her kin it seems
These were darker works, the fools had evidently heard of crops being raised artificially out of season to the South and thought this was how it was done.Â
Inside the temple
With her bow she knock everything off the Altar in anger at their foolishness. Picking up a collection of scrolls featuring illustrations similar to the altar goods she glances at them in surprise. These are old, so very old but she recognised them. The fae races had worked hard to destroy all copies of this arcane knowledge, in order to preserve the balance of nature. She knows what she must do.
Waiting at the doorway of the temple, to get some warmth from their fires, she is impatient until dawn. She was going to need all the help from nature she could get for what she had in mind. As the sun rises she takes a bud from the vines encirling her body and places it into a shallow hole she was able to make in the frozen earth with the end of her bow. Standing back she raises her arms and chants quietly calling on the dormant natural world around her.
Directing the energy into the barely buried bud she encourages it to grow and expand until the building is encased in leaves, the shoots running up between the stones of the building like roots through foundations of a house and pries them apart.
It takes time and a lot of effort but eventually the roots demolish the building entirely into rubble. The shoots recede and combine into a single living thing…a blossoming tree. They wanted out-of-season plants, this is what they shall get.
Exhausted and barely able to stand she returns to the forest to hibernate until Spring actually comes.
When I had been told by Camilla Runo the builder of Vargsangen that it had returned I was excited and just had to go explore! I thought I would wear something warm and furry like my previous post. But once I collect this New Year’s special skin from Fallen Gods that completely changed, a Dryad post was in order. I had earlier been out for a walk (in the odd world of Real Life) and I saw daffodils sprouting, which doesn’t usually happen for another couple of months and that gave me an idea, to which I added a fantasy twist.
The build is expected to close at the end of January 2022 so get over and check it out. Here’s a few extra snaps that didn’t fit into the story:
Another Drune installation is here and what a difference it is! A mix of Steampunk but with some newer tech thrown in. Just looking at the vehicles parked on the streets it’s quite a range from the Batmobile to worn out hovercars. It feels like your walking through multiple genres and time periods at once, but it really works.
The landing point is very appropriately located in an airship, I had an explore of the docking area building before takig the elevator down to the ground level.
Arrival in Airship bar
A very grand arrival
Photographers await you
Explore this little stairwell before taking the Elevator
You’ll get your firt view of the city from above
Like other Drune builds there are lots of lights everywhere, but not this time the neon of the cyberpunk styles of the past incarnations. There’s lots of shiny metal everywhere that reflects the light and making the place feel brighter, but then darker in the shadowy areas. Lots of the buildings are accessible and not just facades, as we’ve come to expect form a Drune build, attention to detail.
When you step out the tunnel from the elevator, you come to the first of many vehicles lining the streets. I did my usual routine of making a circuit of the streets to get my bearings and found some surprises.
First of many vehicles
What’s this unusual one here?
The Batmobile?!
I guess all these vehicles need looking after
Extremely optimistic..
By the time I reached the garae I was only about a quarter of the way around the block. I see some steps and explore and it’s here that I find there appears to be two levels of roads, since I found myself back on tarmac at the top.
A nice but rather foggy sea view
Drune street
Then I started seeing how many doors would actually open, as expected of Drune build, plenty.
Radio station – City Radio
Cinema
Private investigator – Deckard & Associates
Pub – The Garrison
Club – Old Calabar
Drune Diesel Club
Hotel – Cortez
Nice lobby
Seating area
um..hotel room movies..
Ordinary room
One thing I did notice was absence of an aerial walkway area that have been included in the last two cyberpunk builds. Maybe simply because it wouldn’t have been appropriate in 1940’s era, but then neither would hovercars. Overall another fantastic build that anyone should visit and explore, whatever genre you’re into.
One last note a quiet little waterfront spot I found for those that enjoy misty sunsets, if you can find your way there (when using Region Shared Environment).
Usually I like to wear something in-theme when exploring places, I really wasn’t sure what would class as DieselPunk. So it’s even more of a mix and match than normal this time!
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.
As Ava cracks the last digit of the security code on the door of the facility, she hears footsteps and a voice behind her. “Stop! Raise your hands and turn around!” says the secuity guard. Ava complies slowly with a startled look on her face, convinced that the guards shouldn’t have been passing here for another few minutes.
