Category: Reviews

It’s only a month since I wrote about Hera’s Shadezar and Venesha (see: Sharing in Hera’s dreams and visions in Second Life), so returning to a build by Hera (Zee9) so soon after that might seem a little too eager, but both settings were recently closed for a time which gave rise to thoughts that as Hera had indicated they would both only be available for a limiter period, they may have permanently closed. However, nothing could be further from the truth; the period of closure was to allow Hera to take down the skyborne Venesha and replace it with a new build, Drune Gotham. This being the case I accepted an invitation Hera extended to I might hop over to have a look around and offer what is really a “part 2” for the article mentioned above.

Accessed via the Neverworld X (as Hera calls the world in which her creations reside) landing point, which has also undergone its own redesign, Drune Gotham – as is likely to have already been spotted by fans of Hera’s work – returns to her fabled and always engaging city of Drune to offer a further twist on that design, based upon a recent iteration of that city.  Back at the start of the year, Hera offered a design that – for me – stood as one of the first regions to attempt to delve into the world of dieselpunk and its sub-genre of decopunk; genres I outlined in Drune’s diesel-deco delight in Second Life:

For other unfamiliar with the genre, dieselpunk (and it’s sub-genre of decopunk) is based on the aesthetics popular in the interwar period of the 1920s/30s and extending through to the end of World War II, with some exponents also including the early 1950s.  It is broadly defined as the era in which the diesel engine replaced the steam engine as the focus of technology. Within it, decopunk centres the aesthetic of art deco and streamline moderne art styles particularly prevalent to design and architecture in the same overall period. 

Within that setting, Hera included a model of a Batmobile from the Michael Keaton era of Batman films. As she notes. it was added on a whim, but seemed to fit the overall aesthetic of that build – something Hera notes she found surprising. I’ll have to state that at the time, I was not: there has tended to be a strong decopunk aesthetic to be found within most of the Batman films such that a Batmobile should feel and look at home in a dieselpunk / decopunk setting.

Drune Diesel was, sadly, relatively short-lived; it also encompassed multiple influences – Blade Runner, hints of dieselpunk films such as Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, references to Karel Čapek’s 1921 film Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti (Rossum’s Universal Robots) and even the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation from The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. With Drune Gotham, which Hera also notes was perhaps inevitable once she had set down the Batmobile within Drune Diesel, is more focused on the Gotham City / Dark Knight vibe, including touches from both the films and the Gotham TV series – although the regions should not be taken to be purely as reflective of the Batman / Dark Knight mythos as presented on screen.

One of the first things I noticed with this build is that it includes several elements from Drune Diesel: awaiting (re)discovery are both the Shanghai Dragon restaurant and the marvellously deco Black Pussy nightclub, both of which deserve a further breath of life given how brief a time Drune Diesel sadly had to breathe. There’s also a noticeable difference between this and earlier versions of Drune in that this does not have any “outer” / “coastal” elements, instead it  is enclosed, with a backdrop of densely packed tall buildings to give the impression of being in the heart of a massive metropolis like Gotham.

But it is in the Dark Knight references in which this setting really shines. From the elevated tracks along which trams, rather than speeding trains, clank bump, to the gates of Arkham Asylum, there are multiple motifs from the films and the TV series (and touches from the comics) awaiting discovery.  These trams rumble past the tall finger of the Wayne Enterprises HQ, for example, a place you can enter through the street-level lobby  and then ride the elevator to the CEO’s office, a place that has the sense of being the workspace of Wayne Senior rather than Bruce – although the scribblings on the desk tend to suggest the sometimes distracted mind of Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne. There is also a secret to be found within this office, of which more in a moment.

The aforementioned Black Pussy can be found across the street from Wayne Enterprises, as can the lobby of Drune Diesel’s Hotel, reached via the stairs that sit between the Wayne building and the diner next door (there’s an alternate route via a far escape that overlooks Gotham Park on the other side of the Wayne Enterprises building, but I’ll leave you to discover that). The hotel appears to have been expanded  since its Drune Diesel days, now offering a deco spa as well as rooms above its lobby.

Across another road from the hotel entrance and diner is the headquarters of the GCPD. On stepping through the front doors of this, it is hard not to expect Ben McKenzie’s Jim Gordon and Donal Logue’s Harvey Bullock from the Gotham TV series turn towards the doors in response to your arrival. Elsewhere in the city, the Arkham Asylum carries within it the Gothic menace that marked its appearance in the films, whilst the Apex Chemical Plant also awaits discovery. Whilst this appeared in the comics (the Case of the Chemical Syndicate), Apex was actually combined with Ace Chemicals (from Man Behind the Red Hood!) to form Axis Chemicals in the first Keaton Batman outing, the place where Jack Napier was transformed into The Joker.

In continuing a walk around Drune Gotham’s streets, visitors might also come across the Gotham City College (from the TV series), with interior spaces to explore, the Gotham City bank (complete with vault) and a new burlesque club (which I have no idea as to whether it is tied to the Batman mythos) and which again offers interior spaces. These, with the likes of the plant, Wayne Enterprises, the hotel, etc., serve to give Drune Gotham a greater depth than perhaps has been present in other Drune iterations. Also, as a Brit I couldn’t help but smile at the English lean towards things: adverts for Cadbury’s chocolate, Fry’s Chocolate Cream (which had me wanting to rush up to the local shop and buy a bar or two, it’s been so long wince I’ve enjoyed it!) and more, all of why give this Gotham an slightly anglophile feel to it which simply didn’t feel out-of-place.

Nor is this all: look hard enough and you’ll find Bane’s office and, perhaps more interestingly, the Batcave, that sits with the Batmobile parked at the ready on its turntable (despite also being parked outside the Wayne Enterprises offices!) and various consoles providing assorted information as well as the expected bats circling around it. However, the closet for the batsuit is empty, suggesting Bruce is out and about as his alter ego! While this can be found by camming, the “proper” way into it might be a little harder to discover; all I’ll say is that it is to be found back within the Wayne office, and that bookcases may not always simply be for books (or posing).

Offered under an environment setting which really should be used when visiting (as I have for the pictures here), and finished with a truly fitting sound scape, Drune Gotham really does make for a an engaging visit, one that carries within it a wonderful noir-esque feel that also carries over from Drune Diesel, and which is even more suited to the core theme of this build. In this respect, Hera additional offers a noir-style story in the setting’s introductory note card for those who grab it.

In closing, I would add that a major part of the magic of Hera’s builds  – along with her imagination – is that Hera creates many of the elements and textures found in her builds herself, rather than using available kits, etc., available through the Marketplace. This adds up to an incredible amount of work on her part, all for our benefit; so if you could offer the bat bears to be found within the setting some Linden Dollar love to further Hera’s efforts, they would very much be appreciated.

SLurl Details

• NeverworldX main landing point (The Attic) (Cloud Lake, rated Adult)
• Hera’s (Zee9) builds in this blog

It was back to Nelipot for me this week, after Shawn Shakespeare (SkinnyNilla) informed me he and Lien (Lien Lowe) had redressed their region for autumn.

This time forming a cluster of islands of varying sizes, the region continues to offer a delightfully rural setting, the islands linked by bridges to make moving between them easier.

Once again Lien and Shawn have created a uniquely attractive setting, offering much to see. However, it also contains elements that help link it to past iterations of Nelipot and builds Shawn has created, giving it that thread of continuity that I do like finding within regions as they develop and change.

In this case, Nelipot once again features a windmill, one that carried me back to 2016, and The Mill, the first setting by Shawn I ever visited, and which offered me an opportunity to test one of the 360° panoramic camera HUDs that have been available on the SL Marketplace. Also to be found is the little “home-made” racing car that has been a frequent touch for Shawn’s region settings; and while a tram now sits on the lengths of railways lines, it nevertheless presented echoes of a past iteration of Nelipot itself that had a train sitting on the rails.

The landing point sits to the west of the region, on one of the smaller of the islands, a place that is little more than a table of rock poking its head above waters laden with fallen leaves. A single bridge reaches the nearest neighbouring island to the south, starting an anti-clockwise route around the outer islands, and a way to reach the centre isle.

Along the way, this route around the outer islands will take visitors through a little farm-like setting with fenced meadow, cabin and a little thatched barn, then onwards to where the windmill.

The latter sits on a spur of land that forms part of the largest island, open water to one side and a fast-flowing stream that falls from the island’s hills to reach the open sea, the headland beyond the windmill offering a place for sheep to graze. A choice of routes for exploration open from the windmill and its little wine cellar like setting with its gazebo and outdoor café.

One of these paths leads up and over the hills, the second along a board walk raised on stilts reaching around the rocky foot of one of the hills to winds its way onwards to where it re-joins the landward path as it continues over the island. A high deck awaits those who follow the board walk, again built out over the water, a smaller deck for mooring boast below it, home to the terminus of a zipline that reaches across the channel of water diving the large island from the the central isle.

Forming a low hump, this middle island is home to a large forest cabin – well, a cabin that is large in comparison to the cabin and barn to the south. Cosily furnished, it straddles the brow of the hill to offer a welcoming retreat, the zipline sitting alongside it. To the west, the island is low-lying, a tongue of land that points to the smallest island in the group, and presents a rough bridge by which to reach it. This little isle, little more than circle of rock and grass that may have at one time been subject to flooding given the tumbledown hut that sits on its own rough wooden platform that has seen better days.

Throughout all of this is a wealth of detail awaiting discovery, from the wildlife to the the vehicles and passing by way of the campsite at the landing point (with its art-appreciating cat!), to the swings and decks and more. All of this – quite obviously – makes this latest iteration of Nelipot highly photogenic, as well as offering a quiet, gentle retreat for people to take a little rest within.

But rather than wibble on about this, I’ll leave you with images and encourage you to pay a visit for yourself.

SLurl Details

• Nelipot (Safe Haven, rated Moderate)

Update, January 3rd: Wo Qui Non Coin has a new home.

Shawn Shakespeare recently passed on a landmark to me for a Homestead region design by Maasya entitled Wo Qui Non Coin. Given my interest in the orient (and parts of Asia!), the region’s About Land description – simply “Japan” – had me intrigued enough to hop over and take a look to get a start to the week – although admittedly, I was already curious about the name given to the setting.

While I’m very far from an expert in should matters, I gather the name Wo Qui Non Coin belongs to song from Cowboy Bebop, an animated Japanese franchise covering television, movies and assorted media cantered on the adventures of a gang of bounty hunters in space. In particular, the song is sung by Radical Edward (aka Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV as she likes to call herself), originally from Earth and who hacked her way aboard the show’s titular spaceship, the Bebop.

Whether or not the setting is designed as a reflection of the song or Edward’s earthbound origins or because Maasya is a fan of the series or simply likes the term, I have no idea – but the name is certainly catches one’s attention!

Although it sits within its own Homestead region, the setting actually takes up perhaps half of the available landmass, forming a central island separated from a surrounding ring of off-region mountains by water. Caught under a default night-time sky, the island forms a long finger pointing west to east, with the landing point – although not enforced – sitting at the western end.

Two routes across the island extend outwards from the landing point. The first runs pretty much due east along a busy street lit by lamps and signs; the second arcs around the northern coast, a paved footpath that follows the line of the land under lights that float in the air like drifting pollen, its waterside edge marked by vertical light posts formed from hollow bamboo.

The latter ends in a small shrine – although reaching it to light incense might need a little care, as a small field of katana has been planets on the path and just to either side of it, and a couple of stone cats look like they might make an objection or two should you try to move the blades!

The path though the rows of shops and businesses, however, has no such obstacle blocking it as it proceeds eastward, lit by more of the bamboo posts as well as the lanterns strung overhead and the neon signs on walls and over doorways. Most of the buildings are simple façades, but they do carry a sense of place: seats stand or are folded outside of some, suggesting that when business is slack during the day, the owners might take to sitting outdoors. Others remain tightly shuttered or gated – which is not surprising, given the setting is caught under a night-time sky, suggesting business hours are over for the day.

Towards the eastern end of the street the path rises by way of steps to pass between two businesses one might reasonably expect to be open at night. The first of these is a small open-air bar which faces the, second, the local cinema. Going by the posters outside and the wording on the awning over the entrance, the latter is showing a series of films showcasing action movie stars, although the most notable film on offer (or at least featured on a poster) is 1983’s Blow the Night! (more fully: Blow the Night! Let’s Spend the Night Together), a docu-drama exploring the youth street gang culture of Japan in the late 1970s / early 1980s.

Beyond the bar and cinema, further steps lead up to a walled garden, the way barred by a gate (touch the left side to slide it open).  The garden is caught in the colours of autumn (colours that can be found beyond the garden walls as well), the ground carpeted in fallen leaves. A small, lightly-furnished house sits within this garden to offer a reasonably comfortable living space, although the cats in residence might have a say in where you sit and what you do when visiting :). Behind the house, the garden drops quickly to a small beach.

The island is a cosy, inviting setting that encourages exploration, and while it is by default sitting under a night sky, it does allow itself to be imaged under different environment settings – as I hope one of the images here shows. There is also a a local sound scape, but it is not the usual sounds of birds, waves and the like. Rather, it is a low hum mixed with a repeatedly whistling sound that fades in and out of hearing. It’s an unnatural sound that sits at odds with the rest of the setting. Whether it is intended to represent power humming along the overhead power lines or give a sense of alienness to the setting (or indeed has something to do with Cowboy Bebop, I’ve no idea; what I will say is that for me, it was the one distraction in a setting I enjoyed visiting – but one easily solved by turning off local sounds, and not something that should deter a visit.

SLurl Details

• Wo Qui Non Coin (Bohemian Rhapsody, rated: Moderate)