Category: Exploring Second Life

I recently received a personal note from Hera (zee 9) Informing me that she has once more brought back her famous Goatswood build to Second Life and inviting me to drop in. It’s a place I first visited roughly a decade ago, and to which I most recently returned during its last iteration in-world in April 2022. It’s a place which Hera has always updated in some manner with each appearance, whilst also retaining the core of this very English rural township with strong vibes of medieval origins in its looks.

The latest iteration of Goatswood, which opened earlier in August (and which Hera informs me will remain available for about a month), continues this tradition in offering the familiar setting with some new elements. It share the region in which it is located with a new build, Houndstead Abbey, which very much carries on – in a manner of speaking – from where Whitby Abbey left off, having previously shared the region with Goatswood back in April 2022 (see: Revisiting Hera’s Whitby in Second Life), as well as enjoying a number of iterations at Hera’s hands.

Throughout all of its iterations, Goatswood has offered one of the most naturally immersive environments for casual role-play available in Second Life, bringing together a rich mix of fantasy, Victorian-era elements (notably the railway station and stream train), the aforementioned medieval look and feel and a strong infusion of magic (be it dark or light).

Some of this history is celebrated within the short stories scattered throughout the setting (and thus encouraging carful exploration in order that they might be found and read) and which may help those interesting in doing so to enter the region’s photographic competition, which runs through until September 2nd, 2023 with a total prize pool of L$12,000 – of which L$8,000 will go to the first prize winner. Details of the competition can be obtained from the region’s landing point.

Retaining the sense of a Cotswolds origin, this version of Goatswood brings with it the familiar windmill, the Roebuck Coach House and the church, together with hints of daily life from work at the smithy through to an abandoned attempt at cricket on a green which has perhaps seen better days (and which is set before The Shunters Social Club, which some of us from the UK might seen as a little nod to both railway social clubs and a certain television series of a few decades ago).

One building I don’t recall from previous iterations is the circular keep sitting to the north-west of the town. This appears to have once been outside of the main walls of the town, reached via the road beyond via the road beyond the stream following along that side of Goatswood and using a solidly-built stone bridge to span the stream’s steep banks to reach the curtain walls of the tower’s courtyard. However, given more peaceful times now prevail, some of these curtain walls appear to have been dismantled, allowing the tower to more directly join with the town, little more than a low wooden gate sitting between the well-tended gardens which now occupy a good part of the tower’s courtyard and the street leading back to the Roebuck.

The tower is one of several furnishing buildings within the setting, and it offers a curiously attractive blending of fantasy with classical romanticism (such as the painting within the boudoir-come-bedroom on the middle floor, with its suggestions of Guinevere and Lancelot – or perhaps Tristan and Isolde, as both fit), medieval practicalities (the tapestries draped on the walls) and genteel English afternoons of the landed (afternoon tea and a spot of painting). All with just a flavouring of the magical essence that permeates Goatswood.

There is much that I could write about this corner of mythological / imagined England, notwithstanding my previous writings on Goatswood in these pages. However, it remains a place that should be best seen and experienced than written about – so I will leave you to catch the train from the landing point (touch the Goatswood sign over the platform, rather than  – as with past iterations – touching the open door of the carriage). Instead, I’ll turn my attention to Houndstead Abbey, the second part of the setting, and reached via the sign on the other side of the landing point’s railway platform to that for Goatswood.

As noted above, Houndstead is something of a spiritual successor to Hera’s previous Whitby build, inasmuch as it shares the region with Goatswood and has, as its focal point, the ruins of a large abbey. However, this model – once again an original by Hera, as is the case with the majority of her buildings and structures – is modelled after Abaty Tyndyrn (Tintern Abbey), situated on the Welsh bank of the river Wye as it forms the border between Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire.

Whilst the  Dissolution of the Monasteries brought about Tintern’s fall into ruin, the abbey was, and remains of historic importance, being the first  Cistercian abbey founded in Wales (1131) and only the second such abbey to be founded in Britain, founded just three years earlier in Waverley, Worcestershire. As they stand today, the ruins at Tintern represent the much larger, Gothic abbey structures which were constructed over the original buildings, starting in around 1269 and which almost completely replaced them, although hints still remain in the ruins available to visitors today.

Houndstead shares much of a history similar to that of Tintern. Like the latter, it sits within a river valley – in this case the mythical Wyvern – and thrived up until Henry VIII stomped on things. Thereafter, and as Hera notes:

It was fair game for anyone who needed stone for building, and eventually it was reduced to just a shell of its former glory. In the early 1800’s a well-known artist of the period installed a statue of the Elven Queen at its centre. And soon after, a local theatre group performed Shakespeare’s A Mid Summer Nights Dream amongst the ruins [and] the ruin began to acquire a reputation as a place of strange happenings and fae magic.

– Hera’s notes accompanying the Houndstead Abbey build

This reputation as a place of mystery and magic was probably due in part to the standing stones standing guard around a low mound not entirely out-of-place among the surrounding hills. However, whilst its form match match the gently rounded slopes of the hills, likely caused by the passage of ice in ages past, the mound is anything but a natural feature. As Hera again notes, it was found to be the burial mound of Saxon chieftain – thought to have perhaps been the original founder of the settlement of GatWode not far distant, and which in time became Goatswood.

Exactly where the town lies in relation to the Abbey ruins is hard to say. The presence of the stream suggests it is not too far from Goatswood, and the path running north from one of the bridges over the stream might well offer a route between the two – even if it does peter out after following the stream for a short distance. However, the sense of separation from the town gives the abbey a further edge of mystery – one greatly enhanced by the onset of night, when the light of candles (maintained by whom?) and lanterns illuminate the otherwise darkened abbey, and flames of naked torches guard the path to the burial chamber.

As always with Hera’s builds, both Goatswood and Houndstead Abbey offer a lot to see and appreciate – and the photo competition may well make a visit quite rewarding!

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• Goatswood / Houndstead Landing Point (Themysciya, rated Adult)

In continuing my mainland meanderings, which of late have tended to lean toward Heterocera (more by coincidence than design), I found myself on the north side of the continent and atop the peaks and plateaux of the continent’s mountain range as it seeks to encircle the inner sea and its atoll.

It is here, 200 metres above the highway that traces its way around the foot of the mountains, that a mesa-like plateau towers upwards, entirely cut off from the world around it by the sheer cliffs that fall away on all sides, offering not path or foot-borne means of reaching the steplike terraces of its upper reaches and top. Yet despite its seemingly inaccessible nature, this lonely plateau is nevertheless occupied and built upon, being home to a build by Don Setzer (with the aid of Albane Claray and Dante DeVulgaris (Gian Fetuccio)) entitled Meditation Mountain, and offered to the public as a quiet retreat and place of reflection.

This is a curiously fascinating setting, covering roughly a half full region in area, raising multiple questions for those who like to contextualise the places they visit in Second Life – as is often my wont -, whilst also being a place which might be enjoyed purely for its design and setting. Visits begin at the landing point, located at the uppermost terrace of the plateau and directly before the largest building within the location: a massive medieval / gothic style cathedral; a structure responsible (to me at least) for raising the first of the questions concerning this setting.

The landing point sits as a crossroads of paths, one arm of which leads to the doors of the building while its opposite number points away from it and to a terrace looking out over the lowest step of the plateau. The two remaining paths lead visitors to the gardens running along either side of the cathedral. One of these reaches as far as the north arm of the cathedral’s transept, where the mesa abruptly narrows and a cliff drops away, leaving a precarious-looking set of trestle-mounted wooden steps descending to a man-made terrace and seating area as it extends outwards from the cliffs as a high perch.

The path on the southern side of the cathedral parallels a second (and gravel-topped) path marking the edge of a cliff prior to the two roughly meeting. The gravel path then switchbacks its way down the cliff to where a second broad tabletop of rock sits as the home to a further garden. This is dominated by a a Romanesque temple-style building face a copse of trees across a rock incline, grassy paths rising on either side to border (and run under) the trees to jointly and separately offer the way to where the turn towards one another and meet, a fenced meadow to one side, complete with horses quietly grazing, and a walled garden on the other; the latter has its walls and gates so heavily covered in ivy and vines it is almost possible to miss it.

At the western end of the gardens surrounding the Romanesque temple there sits another of the wooden stairways rising back up the eastern end of the cathedral’s bulk. A place connects this to a third such stairway offers the way down to the western  end of the setting. This sits as a promontory extending outside from below the cathedral, home to a helipad and waiting helicopter, thus revealing how visitors might otherwise visit this high retreat. This sits before – of all things – a spa pool of distinctly modern design and which itself sits before the gigantic maw of a long cavern running directly under the cathedral.

Open at both ends, the cavern is filled with vegetation, ponds, trails, places to sit and – for those willing to seek it out – the way down to an hidden cave. As open at its western end as at its eastern, the cavern provides access to another broad step of rock, this one covered in wild grass and flowers and reached via a stone bridge spanning a swift flowing stream cutting across the rock between two sets of falls. Stepping stones offer a path across this meadow garden, lading visitors to a rock pool sitting as a home for waterfowl, fish and birds.

Alongside the falls giving rising to the stream sits a path zigzagging its way back up the rocks to another path. This connects back to those at the walled garden and its neighbouring meadow, thus forming something of a complete loop around the setting for visitors to follow.

The fascination with this sitting comes in the question: just how did the cathedral – now given over as a place of introspection and music rather than as a religious centre – come to be here? There are no obvious paths up the high cliffs to reach it; so was its masonry hewn can shaped from the very rocks on the high table on which its stands?

Or is it perhaps only neo-gothic in style and of a far younger age than its design might suggest? Young enough to allow the materials used in its construction to arrive in the same manner as some of its visitors: by air? Certainly, the thoroughly regular cut of its facing stonework and that of the Romanesque temple (itself a salon rather than place of deity worship) suggest modern tools may have played a part. But then why build since a monumental structure in so inaccessible place? How these questions are answered lies within the realm of individual imaginations, so I’ll leave you to visit and create your own back-story to the setting.

There are one or two rough edges to the setting, particularly in terms of texturing and overlaps, and I admit that to may eyes, the wooden stairways detract from the overall design; give the nature of the setting, I’d have thought stone stairways set into / onto the rocks would have been more fitting. But this is just a personal opinion; when taken as a whole, there is no denying Meditation Mountain is an interesting and unique design, one with many opportunities for photography.

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Meditation Mountain (Phasma, rated Moderate)

Malta stands as a small but proud island nation within the Mediterranean Sea. For much of Human history, it’s location roughly in the middle of that sea has made it hugely strategically important across successive civilisations. From the Phoenicians and Carthaginians through the likes of the  Romans and Greeks through to French and British to name but a few, it has been claimed by many and inhabited since around 6000 BCE. Indeed, until 1963, it was home to what were regarded as the oldest free-standing structures on Earth: the Megalithic Temples of Malta, although the title was taken by the structures at Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – a location also featured in SL courtesy of Konrad (Kaiju Kohime) and Saskia Rieko – see A Night Sky with a touch of history in Second Life.

As well as being steeped in history, Malta is also an archipelago of stunning natural beauty and uniqueness – including having its own endemic sub-species of bee (from which its current name name might be in part derived). The coastlines of Malta’s two major islands have a number of captivating bays, cliffs and more – but potentially one of the most engaging (particularly in terms of tourism) lies on Gozo, Malta’s second largest island. It is that of Dwejra, and it is this location Moonstone (Hecatolite) has chosen to reproduce as a public space in Second Life.

Moonstone’s Dwejra, however, is not one that portrays the bay as it is, but rather as it was up until March 8th, 2017: the place famous for the the massive and impressive Azure Window, a huge natural arch 28 metres tall, carved into a limestone promontory extending outwards from the island’s coast.

Sadly, both arch and promontory were lost as a result of a particularly violent storm which struck the island in 2017. However, through her work, Moonstone has ensured we can for a time appreciate it in-world in a manner very similar in appearance to how it stood for most of it’s roughly 200-year history, if minus the spray and foam almost always present as a result of the ebb and surge of the tide breaking over remnants of the cave to which it is believed the Window once provided access prior to the entire cave collapsing into the sea to leave the arch standing alone.

However, the Azure Window is not the only natural formation for which Dwejra is famous. There is also Qawra, the Inland Sea and its associated Blue Hole dive site just offshore, said to have been one of Jacques Cousteau’s favourite places to dive.

Qawra is a saltwater lagoon marked by a gently shelving shale beach to one side and high limestone cliffs on the other, through which another archway provides passage for seawater, fish and marine life  – and small fishing boats, the lagoon offering a safe harbour from the latter, its beachside area now the home to a small village.

The Inland Sea is very much in evidence within Moonstone’s Homestead design, complete with arched tunnel winding through the cliffs to reach the open waters. In addition to these natural sights (and sites!), it includes some of those built by human hands which have become associated with the location. There is the little fishing enclave huddled on the protected shoreline of the Inland Sea whilst behind them on a grassy rise sits a small chapel, perhaps representative of St. Anne’s Chapel – itself famous for being located close to cart tracks connecting Dwejra to Il-Mixta, one of several locations scattered across Gozo which are believed to be the sites of the island’s earliest settlers.

Across the landscape from the church and sitting on another low hill is a house which is perhaps representative of the house from which the area takes its current name (others of which include Doviera and Dueira). Between the house and the village and the chapel the land forms open fields and grazing typical for the region in the – physical world, and  Moonstone has clearly used a line of cliffs to the east and false road tunnel through them to give the impression that were one to pass through the tunnel, they’d find themselves within the greater landscape of Gozo island as a whole.

The village is mostly empty building shells (hardly surprising, given this is a homestead region), but for those willing to explore the foot of the cliffs curling away from the Inland Sea and around the house on its west side might find a route up to their flat tops. If you do, and continue your explorations along the rugged back of the cliffs, you’ll doubtless find a couple of adventure activities awaiting in the form of hang-gliding and cliff diving (off the promontory beyond the Azure Window). Also awaiting discovery back down at sea level is a small rock pool typical of many to be found around the islands of Malta. This one is set out for a little quiet sunbathing whilst those fancying a swim ca do so via a buoy bobbing a few metres offshore from the pool’s surrounding ring of rock.

It would have been nice to see the Dwejra Tower featured in this build. Constructed in 1652, it is one of several coastal watchtowers built to keep an eye out for (and warn against) the arrival of raiding corsairs, and it sits atop the cliffs within observation distance of the Inland Sea and the former Azure Window. However, these towers were of a particular design (and Homesteads do have limited Land Capacity to play with as already noted), so finding a design which fits the look and doesn’t gobble LI isn’t going to be easy, so its absence is both easy to forgive and doesn’t, push come to shove, detract in any way from the finished build.

In all, Dwejra in Second Life is beautifully realised given the constraints of region size in SL, and more than captures the look and feel of its namesake. Rich in photographic opportunities and offering opportunities for the aforementioned activities, it is a place which should be visited and appreciated by all Second Life explorers.

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• Dwejra (Love Temptations, rated Moderate)

‘Twas off to explore a quarter full region build recently, after SunShine Kukulcan passed a tip suggesting a multi-level setting I’d enjoy exploring – and she was right!

Designed and built by Katie (Katie Luckstone), The Waterfall Café is an engaging setting which, whilst predominantly occupying the sky, captures the richness and beauty of undersea realms, combining them with a sense of fantasy (and a twist of sci-fi in places) to present a location alive with colour and with an engaging sense of life and wonder, all intended to offer a retreat-come-hangout for all those wishing to escape from the “norm” and relax with friends.

At the time of my visit, The Waterfall Café offered five locations open to the public: The Kraken (which is a very good place to start explorations),  Waterfall Café itself, Mystic Café, a a ground level coastal setting, and the Night Train. These are all connected via a teleport system (which also provides access to a non-public – I presume – work area), although it is possible to move between The Kraken and the Waterfall Café on foot, which I’d suggest is worthwhile.

As you step into this café, you will be transported to a world of whimsy and wonder. The aquatic theme infuses every aspect of the space, creating a visually stunning and immersive experience. Whether you prefer to sit in the main dining area or explore our secret underwater dining area, you will be surrounded by a mystical atmosphere that is both calming and captivating. As the sun sets, the mood shifts to a more intimate and romantic vibe, perfect for a cosy dinner for two on the night train which adds an extra touch of mystery and adventure.

– The Waterfall Café About Land description

The Kraken is a small lounge area offered in vibrant greens and with turquoise walls suggestive of a cavern below the waves. In keeping with its name, the lounge has a distinct octopi theme – although one not in any way menacing -, although the leaf-like seats set out before the bar offer an interesting elven-like counterpoint. The bar itself is a novel affair: those serving drinks are able to do so whilst relaxing on pool loungers floating on the water flowing outwards from where it falls from the rocks behind the bar (doubtless helping to keep the bottled beverages on the shelves there nicely cool), the bar itself holding said water in check, preventing it from soaking the feet of those occupying the leaf chairs.

Just through the doors of this curiously inviting lounge is a teleport disk connecting with the rest of the location, and a tunnel with water flowing outwards over its stone floor directing feet down to where The Waterfall Café awaits.

The end of his tunnel takes the form of a L-shaped passageway, the waters descending from above spreading to form a pool over the paved floor to a depth of a few centimetres, allowing vines and plants to form a floating carpet. Windows line the passageway’s walls, mixing views out to a coral reef with wall-mounted tanks to one side, whilst windows and doorways look inwards toward the rest of Café on the other as tables and chairs – some suspended from the ceiling – long both arms of the passageway present places to sit pass the time.

At the far end of the longer arm of this passageway is a huge watertight door. Swung back against its big hinge, it suggests a secret lying beyond, thus beckoning visitors to step through. But while it does indeed hide a secret, it should not be the immediate focus for explorers. Rather, that lies around halfway along the passage’s length, and the open rectangle of a stone doorway as it provides access to what had at one time been a large vaulted hall.

Lit by the phosphoresce of sea plants and the light of aquariums, the chamber has been split into two levels through the addition of a wooden floor. This leaves the lower level as something of a large entrance hall serving four small rooms and passages leading deeper into the Café. Each of the smaller rooms offers an intimate, private space, lit by water from tanks (or possibly windows to the world outside – you decide!), whilst one of the passages leading the way deeper into the Café passes over a glass panel through which the ocean floor can be seen, together with dolphins swimming by, unconcerned by whatever might be going on above their heads.

Aged wooden stairs climb to the added floor above where, under the vaulted ceiling a more open and decidedly sci-fi looking seating area awaits, comfortable armchairs floating serenely under their own power. Aquariums and animated digital murals set into the archways around the room’s side give the impression of it being exposed within the oceans depths, while alongside the stairs climbing up to it, a further doorway provides access to a large viewing area, modelled to look like a cave with one wall again apparently open to the sea – or at least separated from it by an near invisible transparent wall.

Beyond this first hall with its two floors, the Waterfall Café offers more visual delights in the form of multiple chambers of varying sizes and styles. I could potentially wibble on at length about these, but I’ll save you the pain because, frankly, the entire complex really should be witnessed first-hand. Just be sure to take your time in exploring, as these are spaces where careful camming is required in the larger space in order to appreciate the amount of detail they contain, and where there is a wealth of artistic expression on Katie’s part deserving of discovery.

One of these inner halls of the Café forms the “official” landing point for the location, providing another of the teleport disks. There are the only (in the case of the Night Train and Mystic Café) or most obvious (in the case of the ground level locations) for getting to see the rest of the location’s public offerings.

Both the Night Train and Mystic Café are much smaller that The Waterfall Café. The former offers an intimate ride through a night-time setting aboard a train carriage comprising its own private dining area and lounge / bedroom, whilst the latter presents a pavilion-like café-bar sitting within an otherworldly garden. It’s a dreamy setting, perhaps only lacking a dance system for those so inclined but which does offer an interesting selection of music (local sounds, not the audio stream), featuring extracts from the soundtrack of Beetlejuice.

Finally – almost – there is the ground-level coastal area. Sitting under a turquoise night sky, it is home to a number of tiki-style cabins with solid walls, all open to the public and the largest of which sits out over the waters, proudly raised on stilts which anchor it to a small rocky outcrop. It’s a romantically-inclined setting suggestive of tropic island paradises – and one that hides a secret. It find it through discovery, you’ll need to backtrack to the big watertight door at The Waterfall Café; but I’ll leave you to discover it in piece.

All told, a deeply satisfying visit – and my thanks to SunShine for the pointer!

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(Loveless Unity is rated Moderate)

• The Waterfall Café
• The Kraken