Category: Exploring Second Life

As I work to catch up on a backlog of invitations, I pulled up one from Myrdin Sommer, inviting me to visit his Full region build of Planet M – Tula.

The invite actually came in mid-February with a note that it would likely only be around “for a few more weeks”. This being the case, my apologies to Myrdin for not having been able to visit sooner, and my hopes that this article finds its way to readers with sufficient time for them to visit the build before it vanishes.

Planet M’s Tula is a surreal red-earth valley shaped by organic forms, roaming animals, and a ceramic studio at its heart. Tula invites visitors to wander, pause, and look — offering a calm, dreamlike environment with Room to Dream, and perhaps make a picture or two. Tula welcomes you with open arms.

– A description of Planet M – Tula

As might be gleaned from the description above, this is a strange, alien environment – albeit with many touches of Earthly familiarity. The undulating landscape is marked by strange tubular-like extrusions and rising tendrils of clay ground, some of which are bent and bulb-headed, almost as if they are organic in nature whilst others end in lightbulb forms that provide local illumination together with some of the horizonal tubulars extending outwards from hillsides. In addition, flat-topped, mushroom-like islands rise on stout stalks to provide raised platforms, and honeycombed humps provide another form of illumination for their surroundings.

Amidst all of this water flows and pools and animals from Earth graze and roam: horses, cows, elephants, cats, birds, goats – even a couple of sauropods. Some of these can be found on the ground, others keep themselves to the island-like  tops of the “mushroom” islands.

Also waiting to be found are signs of human habitation. These are located in several of the caves found below the hills (and one of which sits behind a curtain, so to speak!). These are both primitive in form let cosy in nature, with human seating, furniture and so on. One of these is also the home to an artist’s studio.

The Landing Point sits towards the middle of the region, watched over by flamingos, a nearby signpost pointing the way to various attractions. These include the Octopit (find out for yourself!), and a memorial to director David Lynch. Note that the Landing Point is on a small island of its own, but the waters surrounding it are shallow enough to wade through.

Getting around the ground level is easy enough. However, exploring the “floating” islands without resorting to flying up to them is a matter of finding the rope ladder to the first and then using the interconnecting bridges and rope ladders to work your way around the rest.  Exploration of these will also allow you a view of  a group of dogs happily gathered on a white cloud complete with its own waterfall and a rope ladder to climb up to it.

With Earthly trees, grasses and lily pads making up the majority of the setting’s flora, Planet M – Tula is, as its description states, a surreal place, complete with a Moon floating just off the ground between two horns of rock, and a series of tiny floating “suns” to add to the illumination. It is also engaging in design and discovering all there is to see does cause you to travel its length and breadth, while the habitation spaces in the caves present places to rest awhile.

In all, an interesting visit with a fair amount to see and do. My apologies again to Myrdin for taking a while to make a visit.

SLurl Details

• Planet M – Tula (Planet M, rated Moderate)

I’ve had a something of a rough couple of weeks, the result of which has been very little time in-world, other than parking myself at the occasional user group meeting and trying to keep up with “routine” posts here. So, as things have decided to improve, I decided to ease back into blogging visits and bits by returning to a location that has been a recent favourite for me: Pususaari.

To be honest, I didn’t arrive at this decision all on my own, my friend Cube Republic poked me with the news that the region had once more been reworked by holders Lu and Leelou Von Perkle (Lu Carrillo and LeeLou Graves respectively), and this served to encourage me to hop over and have a look around once more.

This marks my third visit to the setting, which carries the name Pususaari – Where spring feels gentle, the others having been in April 2025 and again in December 2025. With those visits – as with this one – I could not help be feel at home within the region.

Romantic island for dates and quiet moments. Soft light and gentle nature invite you to relax, wander and connect. Discover a cosy café, hidden seating spot, open verandas, beaches, animals and a unique lighthouse landmark watching over the shore.

– Pususaari About Land Description

The cosy café and lighthouse of the About Land description face each other across the gentle, sandy sweep of a shallow bay on the south side of the region. The café forms the region’s Landing Point on the eastern side of the bay, whilst the lighthouse stands at its western extent.

The latter appears to have been decommissioned some time ago; the lantern is off and the glass of the light room is heavy with grime and dirt to the point of being opaque. Now the only illumination the lighthouse seems to provide is that of a hand-held lamp. This sits on a round table on the lighthouse gallery, a wooden chair alongside it offering a perfect look-out point, although getting up to them appears to require a bit of a jump!

The bay and is guardian lighthouse and café are in turn overlooked by an artist’s studio/ retreat sitting up on one of the island’s wooded peaks. It can be reached by walking inland from the café, passing through a gap in the fence backing the beach and then climbing the lower slopes of the peak to where a wooden stairway and deck provide access to the upper slopes and the studio.

Inland, the region is split into two by an east-to-west flowing channel crossed by two bridges. The first of these is reached via an easy walk through a low-lying meadow beyond the slope leading up to the artist’s studio. On the north side of the water channel, this bridge is watched over by a working windmill.

The latter forms a part on a small homestead farm on the north side of the setting, joining with a Tuscan-style farmhouse and outbuildings bordering another sweep of meadowland, horses cattle, horses, pigs and chickens making up the livestock being tended.

The farmhouse is ideally placed to overlook the beach running along the north coast of the region, a waterside summer gazebo offering a retreat of the hard work of the day on the beach, while an outdoor dining space complete with pizza oven offers a further corner of delight for the farm owners and their family.

The western end of the north beach cuts a little more deeply into the land, and sandy walk leads inland and up to the second bridge across the region’s water channel. This provides access to the back of the wooded hill where the artist’s studio is located.

A steep grassy climb runs up over the hill, allowing explorers to make their way back to the studio. An easier walk around the shoulder of the hill offers a path to an old shack on the coast, the deck of which has long since claimed by the load seal population, whilst the interior offers a further retreat for romantics.

A couple of wrecked boats suggest the waters around the island can be a little capricious in their treatment of passing vessels while at the same time offering further points of interest to those exploring the region – and, in the case of one of the boats – for the local pelicans!

All of the above leaves a lot unsaid about this iteration of Pususaari – the level of detail to be found throughout, the mix of local waterfowl, the many places to sir and pass the time alone or in company – and, of course, plenty of opportunities for photography.

So – why not go see for yourself?

SLurl Details

• Pususaari – Where spring feels gentle (Bisous, rated Moderate)

Earlier in February, Honey Heart (H0neyHeart) – whose Sable Hound Hollow I visited towards the end of January 2026 –  dropped me a line to let me know our mutual friend / acquaintance, Stevie Morane Basevi (Stevie Basevi) would be officially re-opening her region of Sanctuary on February 19th, although it is already available for people to drop in an explore, together with the neighbouring region of Zantosa.

Stevie is something of a tour de force in Second Life. I first met her through Relay for Life of Second Life, before coming to know her a little more through both her art and her association with projects I’ve tended to follow and support in my own way: One Billion Rising, The Dickens Project and the Bradbury Project. An avid role-player, Stevie first established Sanctuary in 2008, growing it over time to a community and location covering many aspects of Second Life.

Sanctuary, long celebrated for its award-winning historical role-play, has evolved into a vibrant cultural space for art, photography, dance, music, and theatre—welcoming global gatherings and creativity without borders.

– Sanctuary About Land Description

For this latest iteration, both Sanctuary and Zantosa – each of which are Full private regions leveraging the Land Capacity bonus available to such regions – Stevie has turned to another old acquaintance to design the overall look and layout of the regions: Busta  (Busta Blakewell, previously badboyhi, whose regions designs have regularly featured throughout this blog.

Given the size of both regions, I’m not going to try to cover them both in a single post; they are richly laid out and offer much to be discovered, so will hopefully return to Zantosa at some point in the near future.

Sanctuary offers a setting suggestive of somewhere in England; a place with certain timelessness – parts of it could easily be Victorian, others carry a faint hint of the 1950s-1960.

This town is the kind of place in which it would come as no surprise to turn a corner and find Sherlock Holmes lecturing Dr. John Watson on the minutiae of various powdering of ash and a certain bird droppings will inevitably lead to the cornering of their quarry. Turn another and it would be equally unsurprising to witness find a dapper John Steed stepping down from the running board of his 1930 Bentley Speed Six, umbrella in hand as he rounds the front of the car to open the door to allow Ms. Emma Peel to gracefully alight.

In other words, it is immediately immersive and open to broad role-play opportunities.

The Landing Point sits to the east side of the region and within the town square. Splitting the townscape in two is a high wall and a tall gatehouse. The latter forms a teleport link to the neighbouring Zantosa. Simply walk towards the gates to be teleported across the region boundary.

The local lunatic asylum offers its own opportunity for potential role-play, having been turned into a bar – although who is to say some of the former residents aren’t lurking in the upper floors? The asylum is one of a number of locations within the town which can be explored. Others include the local church, a pair of pavilions offering a kind of two-part music conservatory, the theatre  and the Sanctuary art gallery, featuring Stevie’s art on the ground floor.

It is outside the church that visitors can obtain further information on the region, including a delightful back-story to its development and a teleport HUD to help reach points of interest – simply add it from inventory to use it.

The majority of the locations on the teleport HUD can be found on the ground level of the setting and so can be reached on foot. Two, however, are sky-based and will require the HUD to reach them.

I’m not going to give a blow-by-blow description of the region, it really does speak for itself in terms of design, atmosphere and details. I will however note that there is a further art display – dedicated to Sue Elaine Winkler to the rear of the main gallery building.

Part of the region is cut through with a storm drain linking two low-lying parts of the setting. This carries a suggestion a degree of land reclamation has taken place, resulting in an inland body of water complete with multiple places to sit and appreciate the setting, together with a recovered area of coastline forming both a walk and further places to sit and pass the time.

Whether or not you are into role-play, structured or casual, sanctuary makes for an engaging and photogenic visit.

Slurl Details

Sanctuary (rated: Moderate)

Benny Voxtex, whom I last wrote about in covering his (now closed) club, [Refuge]  – see: A [Refuge], a Deep Box, and a splash of absinthe in Second Life – recently invited me to preview his latest creation, The Great Mother. And all I can say is, “Wow!”

Fans of the Avatar franchise may recognise the term, given it is one of two “common names” (so to speak) by which Ewya, the globally distributed consciousness of Pandora is known; the other being the All-Mother. As such, it should come as no surprise that this is something of a personal homage to the Avatar movies whilst also being entirely unique as a setting in its own right; a place of infinite beauty; one that is utterly immersive.

Dive into the deep primordial forest, an ongoing passion project for Benny Vortex. Discover a lush, bioluminescent dreamscape of sights and sounds nestled below breath-taking floating islands under the silent gaze of a gas giant. May the spirits guide you.

– The Great Mother’s Destination Guide description

Occupying a Full region called – appropriately enough – Eywa, the setting captivates from the start. But before getting into specifics, there are some recommendations for enjoying a visit:

• Preferably, visit using a PBR-enabled viewer.
• Make sure you enable the local music stream to enjoy a soundtrack fully in keeping with the setting.
• Use the shared region environment settings.

Also, make sure you have local sounds enabled – this is an absolute must, as Benny has created an immersive soundscape, covering everything from the deep, echoing sounds of Pandora’s forests and creatures through to the sound of your own footsteps rustling the moss and grass. That said, don’t expect to encounter any of Pandora’s beasts – or ioang – whilst you may hear them in the distance, this is a place of sanctuary and spiritual awakening. However, if you opt to visit in a Na’vi avatar, that would be both appropriate and welcome.

Finally, do be aware that The Great Mother is very much a work in progress: whilst now open at the ground level, Benny has plans for vertical expansion and more. In fact, the Landing Point itself is in the air and presents the first of the setting’s unique elements.

Forming a small island, the landing Point is marked by a number of rope slides. Each of these bares a symbol scratched into its wooden frame, indicating the area of the biome below in which you will arrive. Pick the one you fancy and ride it down to a smaller floating island, where a dive mat awaits.

Sit on the dive mat, select your preferred dive (and style, if offered), and take the leap! Whichever area of the biome you selected, you will land in water. As you do so, a dialogue box will be displayed with a couple of options – one being a return to the diving mat and going again, if you wish.

However, to explore, ignore the dialogue – but do not stand up. You are still running an animation tied to the dive mat, and you can use it to swim through the water and / or to shore, where upon the animation will release you and allow you to walk.

Whichever rope slide you take, it likely won’t be the last, within the forest and waterways below are ropes to climb and rope traverses pass through the higher boughs, and trails over land and across water to be explored, together with discoveries to be made.  Keep an eye out for seeds marking potential points of interest as you explore. Overhead, further off-region islands hang in the night sky whilst a massive Jupiter-like gas giant watches over the comings and goings of this living world.

Extensive use is made of Elicio Ember’s fabulous plants, their bioluminescent fronds and petals well suited to representing Pandora’s own rich mixture of plant life, and this further brings the setting to life. As with the ideals of Eywa as well, there is a balance of lands and water throughout the region, with water channels as much as dry land trails offering routes of exploration – indeed, as Benny noted to me, the entire region is navigable by canoe.

As to what drew him to create such an environment, ad his future plans for expansion, Benny had this to say:

I really love the concept of the film and as a biologist/mycologist RL I can’t get enough of bioluminescent organisms. The next mission will be above 1000m with floating islands and waterfalls, and as I’ve also put a deep channel running through the region, I will eventually make it mer-friendly, and such.

– Benny Vortex on developing The Great Mother

Merfolk per se might not be a formal part of the Pandora ecosystem – although the Na’vi clearly have a relationship with the seas of their world – providing such a merfolk environment within The Great Mother does, to me, fit, and further extends the inclusiveness of the setting as a whole.

While I could write far more on the region, the truth is, it doesn’t need explanation – it deserves exploration and time spent with in it. As such, I’m going to wrap this up with a thank you to Benny for the invitation and the chance to explore for myself, and to strongly urge all Second Life explorers to visit Eywa and The Great Mother.

Slurl Details

• The Great Mother (Eywa, rated Moderate)