Back to the Wylde and time in a Nightgarden in Second Life

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025 – click on any image for full size

Back on May 2022, visited The Wylde, a quarter-region design by Jazaar Silvermoon (Jazaar Heartsong) and AmiandAeon Silvermoon (AmiAndAeon), presented as a public garden for people to visit and appreciate as it sat alongside – but entirely separate from – their private home (see: A walk in The Wylde in Second Life).

Since then, Jazaar and AmiandAeon have acquired the rest of the Full region on which their home and The Wylde stand, allowing them to expand the latter whilst also offering a second public space to visit, which they’ve called The Nightgarden. The latter is both separate from The Wylde with its own Landing Point, but also connected to it – at least it is for those who are observant and willing to explore carefully! With the expansion, Jazaar kindly sent me an invitation to pay the region another visit.

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025

The landing Point for The Wilde remains on the west side of the region, immediately adjacent to one of the gates and walls marking Jazaar and Ami’s home, which occupies the south-west corner of the region and is not open to public exploration.

The public path heads north, very quickly branching into a Y to offer two choices of exploration. Which you opt to take is entirely up to you. One leads the way through the trees to where a small cuddle deck sits out over the waters of a brook (and more), the other offers a meandering path through the woods with multiple discoveries to be made along the way.

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025

As I noted when writing about The Wylde in 2022, there is a mystical look and feel about it, with the paths offering much to see – rabbits, unicorns in a hidden meadow (where people might also dance), statues, ponds, gazebos, streams – all of which allow the setting to speak for itself as it unfolds before the eyes as one wanders. Luminescence hangs in the air and graces exotics plants, teardrop lanterns hang from boughs, and the density of trees and shrubs ensure you’ll want to keep a keen eye in order to observe everything.

Depending where you wander, you explorations may be aided by the timely intervention of a bridge to span a stream or body of water – or you might find stepping stones to help keep your feet dry. Rotating rings of stone blocks, a bubbling cauldron and statues of fae folk and (perhaps) pagan deities add further mystery and magic to the setting. The centre highlands are dominated by two large structures, a mystical rotunda sitting between the stubby peak of a frosted mounted topped by an eleven garden. There are at least two routes up to the rotunda (one passing under a Fantasy Faire “gate”) – but again – I’ll leave you to find them!

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025

The Nightgarden is, as already noted, the latest addition to the setting. Occupying the south-east quarter of the region, it stands both on its own as a place to visit via its own Landing Point, and as a place which can be explored alongside of The Wylde, to which it is connected by hidden paths (one of which I found and will say only this: bridges here don’t only span a gorge, they might also heave beneath them a part hidden in plain sight and which doesn’t end at a waterfall).

Welcome to the Nightgarden, a mystical world of starlit serenity. Follow the paths, explore the phosphorescent flora, bask in the waterfalls from the floating islands, and discover the portals that lead you into even more discoveries.

– From The Nightgarden’s About Land description

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025

Surrounded by steep rock, The Nightgarden offers a deep water lake which can almost be circumnavigated, the shoreline awash with luminescent plants and rich foliage, as  blue water tumbles from islands of rock floating overhead. Some of this pools in depressions atop the cliffs prior to tumbling down one more, some falls directly into the lake. Strange plants also float above the deep waters, sharing the air with the rock islands – the largest of which has a garden of its own waiting to be visited – and lanterns.

Watching over this is a house of glass, an arboretum rich in exotic, glowing flora. It stands back against the cliffs, inaccessible save via the teleport boats, one moored on the waters of the lake, the other serenely moored against the arboretum, each with an touch-teleport ring mounted upon its deck. Nor do things end there; below the waters is a further realm, again alive with colour and filled with detail, just waiting for people to slip below the waves and explore.

The Wylde and The Nightgarden, July 2025

Throughout all of this – The Wylde and The Nightgarden alike – are many places to sit and relax, cuddle, dance and generally lose yourself. Well worth visiting and exploring.

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Club of Friends is rated Moderate.

Cica’s Among the Hills in Second Life

Cica Ghost: Among the Hills, July 2025

Cica Ghost opened her July 2025 installation at the start of the month. Entitled Among the Hills, it is another setting using a fairy tale related quote, in this case one from Hans Christian Andersen:

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.

It’s a quote carrying a number of potential messages. Best known for his fairy tales, Andersen was a prolific author of novels, poems, plays and travelogues who saw life as something to be experienced, offering the most unique of opportunities and experiences, making it as wonderful as anything that might be derived from the imagination by means of a fairy tale. At the same time, the quote reflects Andersen’s belief that fairies weren’t supernatural, but part of daily life, and we’re simply not aware of them – unless we open our eyes and minds.

Cica Ghost: Among the Hills, July 2025

Then there is the application of the quote to Cica’s builds. It perfectly sums-up her ability to offer environments that offer fun, a sense of wonder and an opportunity for escape. And with its giant turtles, dragons, frogs looking like they might be waiting for a kiss to return them to them princehood and white rabbits, together with teddy bears and walking trees, Among the Hills offers a similar reflection of the wonders of fairy tales and the magic they can weave in the imagination in a world only slightly removed from our own.

Yes, the setting perhaps lacks some of the usual quirks to be found in Cica’s builds: fun little sit-points dances, etc., but there is good reason for this. As aSL22B exhibitor, Cica likely had to balance producing this installation along with preparing for SL22B. Even so, Among the Hills is a fun visit for summer.

Cica Ghost: Among the Hills, July 2025

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2025 week #27: SL SUG meeting

Les Secrets d’Albane, April 2025 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, July 1st, 2025 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed, and are not intended to be a full transcript. The notes were taken from my chat log of the meeting. No video this week.

Meeting Overview

  • The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
  • These meetings are conducted (as a rule):
  • Meetings are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
  • Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.

Simulator Deployments

  • There are no planned deployments to any channels this week, only restarts (RC channels subject to confirmation at the time of the meeting).
  • The back-end work which had stalled simulator updates over the last few weeks is now largely completed, and Rider Linden is hoping to get a cut of the simulator release to QA for week #28. The backend migration was about storing of build pipeline assets (libraries, docker images, etc) from one cloud service to another. While this was in progress, the opportunity was taken to do “a lot of clean-up and fresh implementation” of using Github workflow jobs.

SL Viewer Updates

In Brief

  • SLua:
    • Rider Linden hopes to return to a half-finished project of speeding up some permissions calculations that happen when changing primitive parameters via LSL/Slua. This is a hot spot that Harold Linden noticed when benchmarking SLua scripts.
    • The overall memory limit for SLua scripts has not yet been settled. However, as the bytecode is smaller, even if the current Mono limit is kept, SLua programs will have more room to work.
    • Rider Linden indicated he would nudge Harold and Signal Linden about updating the current SLua servers on Aditi.
    • It has not yet been decided how require, include, etc., will work with SLua, and a determination will likely be made during the beta – although there is no time frame when the latter will commence.
    • One of the things Harold Linden has done is move the definition of the LSL API to a config file, allowing some of the Mono boilerplate to be autogenerated from it.
  • A general discussion on coding and how SLua might be handled, caveated with reminders that LL is trying to maintain LSL compatibility; and in LSL once a prototype is set and published changing it becomes breaking.
  • Linden Lab is considering setting up a public repo (or similar) which could be used to publish the XML used to define the LSL commands.
  • [Feature Request] llLinksetDataWriteWithValidation() has been filed, and is see as an “outstanding proposal”.
  • A discussion on experiences and the KVP database (e.g. experience permissions, allowing “purchasable” access to larger amounts of KVP storage, use of external storage and LSL access to it. This was largely driven by users.
  • A general discussion on a modal generating capability via LSL for HUDS, etc., together with approaches and pros and cons.

† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.

Natthimmel’s Vira Cocha in Second Life

Nathhimmel: Vira Cocha, July 2025, July 2025

Konrad (kaiju.kohime) and Saskia Rieko are back with another iteration of their Nathhimmel Homestead region. It’s a place I always enjoy visiting as Konrad and Reiko offer imaginative takes on places, myths and events from the physical world, and I’ve covered it on numerous occasions in these pages.

For the latest iteration of the region, Rieko and Konrad have turned to mythology of South America – specifically that of Viracocha (aka Huiracocha), a creator deity originally worshiped by the pre-Inca inhabitants of Peru, and later appropriated by the Inca.

Nathhimmel: Vira Cocha, July 2025

The stories and legends surrounding Viracocha highlight his role in the creation of the universe, the Sun and the Moon, and humanity itself. According to tradition, after forming the rest of the heavens and the earth, Viracocha wandered through the world teaching men the arts of civilisation. As such his character is complex, blending elements of a god of creation with those of a wandering deity who brings knowledge to the people – and while he came late to the Inca Patheon, the cult of Viracocha is regarded by some as having been more important than the cult of the Sun god.

Given the complexity of his role in various mythos, Viracocha had a long list of titles, such as the Old Man of the Sky, Lord Instructor of the World and the Ancient One, and went through multiple transmogrifications. Legend claims he created peoples then destroyed them before recreating them and educating them before dispersing them across the land. As a wanderer, he journeyed widely teaching and instructing before departing across the Pacific Ocean – and as Kon-Tiki, Viracocha was said to have brought Inca culture to Polynesia.

Nathhimmel: Vira Cocha, July 2025

With Vira Cocha, Konrad and Saskia present a personal take on the legend, complete with their own telling of the tale, which can be obtained at the Landing Point (click the Info sign).

The setting presents a landscape surrounded by mountains and water, suggesting a lake island – perhaps one on Lake Titicaca, where Viracocha is said to have created the the Sun and Moon – and indeed, a huge Moon, as if freshly-made, sits low in the sky. Carrying a sub-tropical jungle feel, the land forms a U to enclose the water that also surrounds it. Paths offer a route around the land, carrying visitors to various points of interest.

Nathhimmel: Vira Cocha, July 2025, July 2025

The latter are many and varied and offer a series of unique elements to the build. Statue-like rocks stand as echoes of the legend of Viracocha creating people from stone. Then there are pod-like structures raised on stilts; they are not of an Inca design and their smooth surfaces and looks give them an other-worldly – or at least a futuristic – look. Mixed with these are very contemporary elements – surf boards, the wreck of a truck converted into a beach shack, modern-looking wooden decks offered as hang-out spaces; all of which combine to give the setting a sense of mystery and welcome.

Hints that this is South America are provided in various little touches of detail  – Capybara, snakes, flora, all of which contribute to the depth of the setting. A real sense of mystery can be found to the north-west side of the island, where the path around the headland is marked by small bonfires, as if lighting the way to a place of night-time rites. They encourage one onwards and around the headland.

Nathhimmel: Vira Cocha, July 2025
An engaging setting, well worth exploring.

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