Category: Reviews

Celestial Glade transports you to enchanted forest, full of magic and exploration. Tucked away, you will find romantic spots to dance and cuddle with that special someone.

– Celestial Glade About Land

So reads the introduction to Celestial Glade, a Full private region utilising the Land Capacity bonus primarily designed by Roxy Chronotis (Roxy Christenson).

A mystical setting, the region is predominantly open to the public, although the north-east corner – separated from the rest of the region by tall curtain cliffs – is given over to a private home, and there are some rental cottages sitting within the south-west corner, so the usual warning about trespass and disturbing people’s privacy is given 🙂 .

The landing point sits to the south-east corner of the region, located within a gazebo formed from living trees. It faces the Lyrical Grove, a place for live music events (schedule on the board alongside of the steps leading up to the Grove) and the Lyrical Star Café, reached by descending a further set of steps from the landing point.

Two further exits lead away from the landing point; one passes through an open field dominated by a single large and very aged tree. Clearly a space for outdoor events, it is bordered by smaller trees, waterfalls, and gigantic crystals; while there is nothing overtly Hobbiton-like about it, a Tolkienite like myself would likely not be surprised to find Bilbo Baggins and his friends and very extended family to be celebrating his elventy-first birthday under the shade of the tree…

The second route away from the landing point provides access to a path meandering under boughs and past glades, tall walls to one side. The latter partially enclose a small commercial marketplace in which store spaces (if available) can be rented. A path from the “birthday field” also runs past the entrance to this space, passing between it and a pond to join the first path as it continues on it way through the region, branching here and there along the way.

These paths wind between ribbons of hills, tall peaks and blocky mesas, crossing streams and rivers along the way, passing under the shade of trees and through the coloured carpets of flowers. In doing so, they lead the way those romantic spots for dancing and / or sitting and cuddling. They also pass by or offer the route to, the region’s major points of interest.

The latter – which can also be reached via a network of stone teleport disks – include a glade of table-top games, ruins on a promontory, a restaurant and nearby café of distinctly elven styling, and a winding climb up the highest peak within the land to where the slender finger of a tower points a tall spire towards the sky, its teleport door guarded by a dragon.

Whilst not specifically inspired by Middle Earth, the touches throughout – the aforementioned field with its great tree, the elven-style buildings, the odd Hobbit hole – all give Celestial Glade as shading of Tolkien; one which is acknowledged in a very subtle manner, as careful explorers may note in their travels.

Also awaiting discovery is a wizard’s hideaway, the ruins of a church where weddings might be held, mystical wells and stairs winding around the trunks of trees to reach high platforms. All of this adds to the attractiveness of exploration, as do the local EEP settings, which I would advise visitors to use in order to appreciate the region fully.

Should you not feel in the mood for walking through the region and feel the teleport network risks missing some of the details tucked into valleys and under trees or within gardens, there is a horse rezzer just down the steps of the path leading away from the landing point, allowing visitors to explore from the saddle. Just keep in mind the horse will vanish if you opt to dismount 🙂 .

Relaxing, tucked into a river sound scape, Celestial Glade should come as a welcome retreat for those who needed, and an inviting place for photographers and explorers.

SLurl Details

• Celestial Glade (Chronotis Empire, rated Moderate)

Update, December 20th, 2023: Well, i seems WQNC is back.  Read here for more! Update: well, that went well. As noted by Gino Wanderer Elf in the comments, it appears that as of Sunday, January 29th, WQNC is no more, and the region has reverted to Dream Seeker Estates. As a result, SLurls have been removed from this article. It was back to  WQNC – formerly Wo Qui Non Coin -, the region held and generally designed by Maasya and which I first visited a year ago, and then again at the end of 2022. The reason for so recent a return is that the design for the region is updated every two months, and the first iteration for 2023 is available for people to enjoy. Every iteration of the region brings something new and different, and for the start of 2023 Massya presents an engaging take on the world of science fiction / fantasy with a little hint of Roswell thrown into for good measure. For purposes of my own – and as teleports are open in the region – I’ve opted to give an arrival point for visitors going there from this post which stands apart from the region’s landing point.

Instead, my choice of landing point sits on the black surface of a road stretching across a desert landscape, high mesas and mountains standing around it like sentinels. An advertising hoarding for the SL equivalent of a popular lemon-lime soft drink. However, this is not what holds the attention for those arriving here. That belongs to the scene spread across the landscape: a town-that-is-not-a-town; a place with a high-rise of stacked cargo containers and towers pointing into the sky topped by parabolic and microwave dishes and large wind turbines provide power.

And that’s just the start of things. This is a place watched over not only be the surrounding peaks, but also giant steel balls cut to form mask-like faces and marked by aged roads with equally aged road vehicles close by, huge and heavy power cables, hover cars and hover bikes. This is a place of strange residences and and businesses; a place where gigantic vents sitting above the sand have been turned into homes, where a bric-a-brac store sits sells R2 units alongside of Nintendo games consoles, old PCs and television sets, somewhat lewd arcade games and more.

Two crashed flying saucers sit within the “town’s” boundaries, one of them possibly responsible for downing one of two warp gates that once faced one another along the length of the dust-saddled main road. Now toppled and smashed into the road’s surface, the broken gate appears to retain some power running through it, but it leaves its twin at the other end of the road as the only remaining fully powered gate for suitable vehicles to use. Exactly what this place may be and where it might exist is up to your imagination. Answers might be found at the bar sitting under the tallest of the towers within the setting. Or perhaps you’ll only find cool alien or oriental beverage awaiting you, served by the bar’s interesting mix of staff.

“Interesting” is probably the best term to define the fusion of ideas and influences apparent here. As well as elements from Star Wars, the Roswell-like aliens, and the oriental touches, visitors might again a hint of Ernest Cline in the shipping containers in their “high rise” and an echo of Ghostbusters in the presence of Mr. Stay-Puft, and so on. All of which made careful eyeballing of the small details within the region worthwhile.  

Clifton Howlett, often working in collaboration with friends, is a region designer who always produces something very special to visit and appreciate. Over the years, I’ve written about the various regions designs he has produced / co-produced, from those celebrating Walter Moers’ Zamonia series, which I wrote about in 2020 and again in 2021, and his “hidden” regions (Hidden Lake and Hidden Bottle, which I covered in May and October 2021) and onward. So it was a good deal of delight that I headed off to visit his latest Homestead region design, Highland Retreat.

Built with the support of Coralile Resident, the region is described as:

An idyllic Scottish island perfect for relaxation. With picturesque landscapes, cosy cottage and hidden secrets, it offers a peaceful escape from daily life. Ideal for nature lovers and tranquillity seekers.

– Highland Retreat About Land

Which is actually saying the very least about this rural, almost pastoral setting; a place rich in inspiration and with a rugged and natural beauty which draws visitor in and invites them to stay.

Visits start on a small isle to the north-west of the region, linked to the larger isle by a small bridge as it spans the narrow channel between the two. A track meanders gently over the undulations of the main island from this bridge, pointing the way generally south-east and passing between and open-air events space using what might the flagstones of an otherwise demolished building or the stones taken from the older walls of the building across the track from it or for the dance floor area.

The building from which these stones may have come sits on a shoulder of rock, looking over the track and event space to the island’s eastern coastline. The track itself twists around the rocky side of this bluff-like hill to reach the entrance to the building, branching a couple of times as it does so.

To say this it is quite magnificent in design would be an understatement; it is one of the more unique structures I’ve come across in Second Life just for its mix of architectural sensibilities and clear sense of age and semi-organic growth. Called the No Cottage Bizar CM Build, it is by Marcthur Goosson, and while I’ve seen several of his buildings used in public regions across SL, this is the first time I’ve encountered this particular design. It suggests a fortified manor house of the kind common to the north of England and to Scotland, which had been naturally extended during its long occupation, prior to falling into ruin and abandoned (leading to the re-use of old stone for the dance area mentioned above?), only to be given a new lease of life courtesy of modern building materials and engineering techniques.

Sitting on the island’s highest point and overlooking the channel separating the landing point from the rest of the region, this building has a lot to offer visitors and is highly photogenic in its own right, indoors and out – more, in fact, than might first be apparent. A boardwalk runs outward from the small garden on its west side, connecting it with a large deck built out over the cliffs of the channel. Also on this side of the building, and a little further south from the garden, is a smaller ruin. Built from bricks and mortar, it appears to have been constructed much more recently in the island’s history – but not so recent that it also fell into disuse at some point, the single surviving window suggesting it might once have been a little chapel.

These chapel remnants overlook the sweeping curve of one arm of the track as it passes around a rocky outcrop to reach a small meadow. This is home to a series of standing stones, suggesting the island has been occupied from the earliest times, the stones roughly hewn and lacking the more regular finish associated with more famous henges. A long, altar-like slab of rock sits within them, its top carved, its base wrapped in a low-lying mist. a swirl of wind sweeping a spiral of blackened petals up into the air, sparking the imagination to think of sacrifice and burning…

To the east of this, the land slopes gently down to the south-eastern coastline, the grass connected to another arm of the island’s track by a further boardwalk. From this headland, complete with bench seat, it is possible to look back along the curving eastern shore and the shallow arc of its bay to where a dock sits out over the water, a motor launch tied-up alongside. The southern coastline can also be partially seen from here, birch trees obscuring some of the view, as it sweeps back west and then north, a little camp site and fishing raft just visible, encouraging visitors to walk to them.

Just as this part of the coast starts to turn northwards, so to does the land rise, forming a grass-covered shoulder to protect the standing stones from sea-spray. Rocky, sloping cliffs drop to the water from here, partially masking the island’s secret: a set of drowned steps sitting above a great archway carved from the living rock, a shimmering blue portal within its span forming a gateway to a hidden cavern – which I will leave to you to visit.

Set under a suitably dour sky mindful of the weather in Scotland, Highland Retreat offers itself to many EEP settings (I took the liberty of taking some of the photos here under my preferred “travelling” EEP settings), and offers multiple places to sit for those who wish to tarry within its borders either on their own or with someone close to them. Needless to say, opportunities for photography abound, and the entire setting is rich with a sense of place which makes visiting a joy.

In this latter regard, wandering across the grass, poking at the ruins and standing stones, I felt mindful of places along the north coast of Scotland, notably close to the coastlands of Caithness and also, conversely, parts of England’s Northumberland coast (a part of the country I deeply love and have spent a lot of time exploring). In this, Highland Retreat continues the tradition of all of Clifton’s designs in setting free the imagination and letting it roam through the landscapes he and his creative collaborators provide.

Definitely one to catch while it is available.

SLurl Details

• Highland Retreat (Mundo virtual, rated Moderate)