Category: Reviews

Lake Ruby is a Full region held by Donna Helendale (Donna Pavlova) and Rakir Helendale, leveraging the Land Capacity bonus available to Full private regions and which is currently the home of Lake Ruby WinterLand 2025.

This is a richly engaging and very visual setting which – as the name implies – is currently dressed for winter and which has, for those willing to seek them out, some surprises that might be missed by the casual visitor.

The Landing Point sits along the northern edge of the region, on a cobbled street running between a parade of shops and the platform of a railway station and caught under gently falling snow.

Two billboards sit between the cobbles and the station’s platform. One of which will provide two notecards: the first will provide a list (extending across two further notecards) of winter-themed regions across Second Life and the other (obtained by clicking the little gift sock on the same billboard) providing a hint to finding a gift forming a part of a hunt. Most of the shops, meanwhile, appear innocent enough – although one does contain a secret of its own (albeit it clearly signed, which I felt somewhat spoilt things, even if I understand why it is so labelled).

And it is at the station that the first touch of the magic imbued in the region might be seen: a steam locomotive is departing the station, hauling carriages behind it as it rises into the sky along magical tracks that fade into the twilight – perhaps as the train will as it goes on its way.  Directly under the train and tracks sits a frozen extent of water where visitors can enjoy the ice skating referenced in the region’s About Land and Destination Guide descriptions.

To the south, behind the little row shops, the land climbs sharply, stepping its way up to where the towers and Gothic spires of a tall castle rise. A fast-flowing stream tumbles from these highlands to form a partial barrier between the castle and the Landing Point.

Crossing this stream without actually entering it demands visitors follow paths, steps and bridges, all of which lead them on a journey of exploration of the rest of the setting; an exploration in which they will discover some – but not necessarily all – of the other secrets sitting within the snowy and rugged landscape.

Some of the latter include a little model village; a cosy cottage carved into the bole of a great tree and another occupying a fallen tree trunk; wooden carvings and stone statues; lantern-draped trees; gazebos hiding in plain sight; what might be a Viking’s tomb; and places to dance and places to sit.

There is no singular path by which the region can be discovered; instead it branches here and there, sometimes clearly, sometimes perhaps less so. Stone steps rise and fall, bridges cross streams, sometimes sturdy in form, other times less so. But whichever path you take, there is something waiting to be seen, and when you’ve done with one route – particularly should you reach the castle – does not mean your explorations are at an end; backtracking to a fork or to where a set of steps might rise or fall could well be in order if you are to discover everything.

The castle itself offers a large cobbled courtyard before its doors, the ruins of a chapel to one side within which stone-carved chess pieces appear to be engaged in a battle royal. Between castle walls and chapel ruins one of those many paths snakes around the southern side of the island, presenting a way to reach the Wizards tower and stone-built lighthouse, the latter occupying the region’s south-eastern headland.

Within the castle there are rooms to be explored, from the grand entrance hall to the library with its flying books and banquet room with its floating candles, while a fire warms a comfortable lounge as rabbits play on cloud-like islands outside.

It is also with – or rather, below – the castle that the deeper secrets of the setting await discovery.  To find them one must pass through the gates to one side of the castle’s cobbled courtyard to where an ice dragon reigns supreme. Here, to one side, the darkened maw of a tunnel entrance awaits the opportunity to swallow you (complete with stalactites and stalagmites sitting tooth-like as once commences once descent within).

I don’t want to give too much away about what lies blow the castle, as this would spoil the surprises. Suffice it to say, go deep enough, and you’ll pass beyond the ice and cold and reach a point where three further routes of exploration wait within the walls of a great crypt.

Depending on the door picked, these involve a circle of chambers where hot pools and crystals and more might be found, together, perhaps with in some Riddles in the Dark (Tolkien fans will understand when they see); a path to a hidden retreat of a wine cellar and the way back to the Landing Point (by way of that “secret” within one of the shops I mentioned earlier) or tunnels (complete with a literal mouth at their far end!) leading to a cove sitting below the castle’s walls.

Rugged and beautiful with a definite twist of mystery-magic and full of places to sit and / or dance, Lake Ruby WinterLand 2025 is engaging visit.

SLurl Details

• Lake Ruby WinterLand 2025 (Lake Ruby, rated Moderate)

Sakura Islands is a richly detailed Japanese-inspired space with three immersive zones: a funky rooftop cityscape, a dreamy night skybox nestled among cherry trees beneath starry skies, and lush, pastoral islands blanketed with cherry blossoms. Enjoy contemplation and quiet reflection or a peaceful balloon ride. You may even spot a forest troll!

– Sakura Islands Destination Guide and About Land description

I’m always drawn to evocative Oriental-themed settings in Second Life – as I’ve oft mentioned, I spent a fair amount of time in the Far East at one point in my life (and still like to return when the opportunity presents itself), and it left a lasting impression on me. So when I came across the Destination Guide entry for Sakura Islands, I had to hop over and take a look.

Occupying just over one-sixth of a Full private region leveraging the Land Capacity bonus available to such regions, Sakura Islands is the work of Nic Belmonte-Voxel (Nic Voxel). As its description notes, it is vertically split into three parts, with the rooftop setting serving as the main Landing Point (although this is not enforced).

The latter is a small setting that is not without its quirks, such as the chairs held aloft by little balloons and available for the intrepid looking for somewhere to it. It’s also a place clearly under the control of our feline overlords (you know what they say: dogs have owners, cats have – staff).

Visitors arrive on the “central” rooftop, a place where a figure of Totoro, the first of several references to the acclaimed 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film, My Neighbour Totoro, stands under an umbrella, presumably waiting to greet new arrivals. Another reference to the film is also hidden in plain sight, but I’ll leave you to find it (clue: mouseover things, and assuming no-one else has left it running!).

A little penthouse-like room sits to one side of the roof, offering places to sit (and a third reference to the film 🙂 ) while soot sprites bounce around in a corner. Outside, bridges span the alleyways between buildings, presenting access to three more rooftops. One of these looks like a flying saucer out of the 1950s or 1960s, a steel-and-concrete frame with stairs climbing up to it giving the impression it is hovering above the roof over which it sits.

Facing the flying saucer / UFO on the opposite side of the Landing Point rooftop is a shipping container reached by a makeshift bridge and which has been converted into a little cabin, presumably for a painter. The remaining accessible roof has a lean towards the industrial. Watched over by a Japanese ghost floating over it, it also has a shower tub sitting on it – possibly for use by the cabin owner? The other visible rooftops are not directly accessible, but are home to blossoming sakura.

Moving between the three main locations is via teleport boards and the use of a local Experience (with the ground level offering two destinations – one on the higher reaches of the setting (which I would recommend as a good arrival point during a first-time visit), and one at the foot of high waterfalls.

Meanwhile, the second skybox in the region is located at a higher altitude, and presented within a sky sphere giving it the Oblivion-like impression of being set high in the sky, looking down on surrounding peaks, with rocky lands rich in more sakura below it. It’s a quiet place offering places to sit, the skybox itself one of Cory Edo’s designs.

However, it is the ground level which really caught my attention. Rugged, it is lined on two sides by high curtain walls of rock separating it nicely from the rest of the region, leaving the remain two sides looking out over water to off-region islands, the tall tower of a lighthouse rising from a nub of rock to stand as a sentinel between the setting and the islands to the south.

If you follow my suggestion vis. ground level teleporting, you’ll find yourself standing on a flat-topped table of rock forming an attract wildling garden crossed by two main footpaths. One of these, running east-to-west connects the garden with bridges providing access to two of the other highland areas, whilst the north-south path provides access to the shoreline on the southern side of the setting and to the shingles of the gorge separating the larger islands from the more northern parts of the setting.

Within this garden, and reached by a separate path, is a dry landscape / rock /Zen garden (pick your preferred name!), and also a hot spring with seating for those wanting to relax in the water. Meanwhile, the main garden continues westward on the far side of the bridge, where the second of the table-topped islands resides.

Roughly the same size as the first island, this is home to the summer / tea house and again offers indoor and outdoor seating, together with more sakura sprinkling blossoms over paths, grass and flowers. A bridge has been slung across the cleft between this island and the smallest of the three (which can also be reached via a further bridge reaching out to it from the landing point rock), where sits a small shrine.

Eastwards from the landing point rock, the land juts out from the surrounding cliffs to form a promontory alongside the high waterfall feeding the main gorge. This again forms a garden space with room to sit down under the watchful eyes of a goat. Stone steps curve down from here to arrive at the foot of the falls, presenting a further means to reach the main gorge and explore its length, with a little bridge and stepping stones helping you to keep your feet dry as you head for the waterside tea house or the steps leading up to the north side of the setting.

Throughout all of this there is much to discover – such as the hot air balloon rezzer (which is not the only means to taking to the air by balloon and drafting around the setting; again, mouseover things! 🙂 – plus, a third balloon is also present, but it is static in nature); the raft and rowing boat out on the waters offering their own little retreats; the prone Totoro tucked away and perhaps not too obvious to at first spot, but nevertheless offering another place to sit.

There are a couple of oddities that perhaps need correcting – a floating tree, water tumbling out of mid-air (unless a part of the landscape was simply refusing to load in my viewer!) – but these in no way detract from the setting’s beauty and sense of calm. In all, Sakura Islands is perfectly conceived and executed, and – needless to say – very photogenic.

SLurl Details

• Sakura Islands (Isle of Currents, rated Adult)

Sakrisoya is the name given to the latest region setting from the combination of Dandelion Rabbit (formerly Tolla Crisp) and Dandy Warhlol Terry Fothrington), and presented under Tolla’s Frogmore estate brand.

I’ll note up front that it is a setting with access restricted to members of the Frogmore Land Management Group, which requires a payment of L$500 – but this does include rezzing rights and unfettered access to all of the estate’s public locations, many of which I’ve covered in these pages. In this case, my own attraction to the setting is that it is inspired by Lofoten, a dramatic archipelago extending into the Norwegian Sea from Norway, lying within the Arctic Circle.

Lofoten is not a place I’ve visited, but I have seen photographs of several of the islands and as a result have often wondered about visiting. They are marked bay dramatic mountains as well as stunning bays and sheltered beaches and largely untouched beauty, despite attracting up to a million visitors a year. The link between the region and Lofoten is stated in the region’s About Land description:

Lofoten:
Picasso’s brush strokes reflect
 onto the fjord’s arctic mirrored surface
ethereal landscape expanding
where mountains meet the sea

It’s a perfect description of both locations, with Sakrisoya beautifully encapsulating much of Lofoten’s renown: towering mountains and peaks, a rugged landscape carpeted by hardy grass and the presence / passage of water have had a particular role to play in shaping the land.

This is a place showing limited signed of human habitation – a wooden chapel, an dry stone barn and a couple of cosy cabins (one of which is furnished) sitting above a stretch of coast. These in particular added a touch of familiarity for me personally, having visited similar turf-roofed homes in Iceland.

The setting is surrounded by water, allowing it to have a rocky coast complete with shallows and deep waters coming directly up to the shoreline, much as might be found in a landscape formed by fault-derived ridges and graben. The Landing Point sits towards the centre of the region, close to the junction of two highways rushing through the region to split it into three parts.

The Landing Point faces north over the longer of the two streams and towards rocky uplands marked by two square peaks and from which wall falls to fill a large body of water split by a smaller fall, before dropping down to the surrounding water. A broad shoulder of grassland lies between the stream and the peaks, on which the local chapel can be found. This shoulder of land extends out into a lower-lying finger of land extended out to the west and offering a couple of places to sit and look back at the rest of the island.

The portion of the island on which the Landing Point sits forms the lowlands of one half of a high horseshoe of rock with its back to the southern waters. Falls drop on the inland side of this horseshoe to where it has formed a deep, open-ended bowl  largely walled by basalt columns, suggesting something of a volcanic past to the island. It is on this portion of the island that the cabins mentioned above sit, dry stone walls marking their property, with outdoor seating for people to enjoy. Close to these is one of the two bridges connecting the north sides of the setting to the southern.

The remaining portion of the setting, lying to the south-west, offers a further semi-rugged area, backed to the south by the remaining half of the rocky horseshoe, the lower portion of the land given over to rough grazing for a local herd of horses, the dry stone barn offering them some shelter for them against harsher weather.

There are two ways to reach this side of the island: take a plunge into the waters of the stream separating the north side of the island from the rest and then crossing back over the stream via the bridge sitting below the chapel,  or by walking up to the bridge mentioned above and then along the northern island and down to the second bridge. Doing so is worthwhile for explorers, as there is a walk to be taken out to the setting’s lighthouse, and another that is neatly tucked away among the rocks that leads up to the flattened heights of the southern horseshoe.

The one small regret I have with the setting – and it is purely personal – is that it doesn’t directly abutting the off-region mountain surround. Had it done so, I feel that it would give the location greater depth, allowing it to feel a part of something much larger in terms of a mountainous, rugged island in the manner of those forming Lofoten. Doing so might not be easy, hence why I call this a very minor quibble.

That thought put to one side, Sakrisoya is an engaging and highly photogenic region that sits well on the eye and easy on the viewer. Yes, there is a fee to access it, but as noted, that does allow rezzing and unfettered access to all of the public settings within the Frogmore estate.

SLurl Detail

• Sakrisoya (Dulcis, rated general)