Tag: Exploring SL Archives

I finally made time to drop into Endless: Permafrost, the latest design by Sombre Nyx that occupies her Full region in Second Life – my thanks to all who have been poking me to go over the course of the last week or so.

Sombre has a talent for capturing the essence of physical world environments from fenlands to the rugged beauty of Scottish / northern hemisphere islands and more. I’ve followed her work since she opened the first iteration of Endless – La Camargue – in 2019, and have always enjoyed the sense of place she incorporates within her designs – and Endless: Permafrost is no exception to this.

The setting offers a take on the sub-arctic permafrost that stretches beneath 65% of the Russian landmass and under nearly a quarter of the northern hemisphere. It is a layer of soil up to several hundred metres deep that has been frozen for two or more years (most of it having been in a frozen state for hundreds of thousands of years). Only now it is changing – and it is this change that Endless: Permafrost uses as its focus.

In short, the permafrost is thawing as a result of global warming, and it is doing so at an increasing rate year-on-year – on average, temperatures with arctic and sub-arctic areas of the world are warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. This is both revealing a new landscape within the permafrost regions, and having serious implications for the planet as a whole.

By coincidence, I’ve recently been reading about the effects of permafrost thawing in the Chersky region in the far north-eastern tip of Russia. Around two decades ago, the main town in the region was referenced in western media as being “buried under ice and snow for eight months of the year” with temperatures averaging around -6ºC. Today, the periods of snow-bound isolation are less long-lasting and  the average winter temperature sits at -3ºC. Current estimates suggest that in the course of the next two decades this average will rise to around 0ºC – all of which is a stunning change in climate.

As a result, the once-solid permafrost around Chersky has been degrading: the few roads within the region that were once passable (in summer at least) by any type of vehicle are now the preserve of 4×4 drive vehicles, the thaw having caused the ground under them to collapse, breaking their surfaces. Similarly, buildings have been exposed to subsidence and severe structural damage and / or collapse – and not just houses and other structures that may not have deeply solid foundations.

Chersky was once home to the largest building in north-east Asia, a water treatment plant that had been built upon steel piles driven into the permafrost, held in place by the frozen soil. But with the thaw had come a melting of the ice and softening of the ground, opening sinkholes and craters that robbed the piles of support, causing them to sag and / or fall over, bringing down parts of the building such that it looks to have been struck by a massive earthquake.

I’ve no idea if Sombre has in any way used Chersky and its surroundings as a basis for her Permafrost design, but I was drawn to thinking about it, because Sombre’s landscape bring elements of it to mind. For example, close the the landing point is the Arimat-Lubyn Research Station. Leaving aside the slightly Russian sounding name, its presence brought to mind the climate and permafrost research facilities also located in Chersky – facilities noted for being among the first to raise concerns over permafrost thaw back in the 1990s.

Sombre’s research station sits at the western end of the setting’s upland are. This curves around the southern extent of the region, centring on high peak tall enough to rise above the tree line, its upper reaches bare of vegetation but still the home of paths that climb to its summit, where one the region’s sitting spots can be found.

To the north of these hills, the region offers a lowland setting reflective of more of the changes being wrought in northern latitudes by the thawing permafrost: the grass is potted by flooded sinkholes, while the broken remains of buildings and structures brought low by ground-level subsidence as the ice has melted. It’s an enticing setting, made all the more rich and photogenic by the presence of a sound scape and suitable wildlife – foxes, reindeer, geese, rock ptarmigan, all are awaiting discovery – while there are numerous sit-points for those who wish to make use of them.

Those who check the landing point should spot the information giver. This provides a note card with Sombre’s comments on the permafrost and the risks involved in its thaw. In them she comments on the fact that the permafrost is perhaps the largest carbon sink on the planet – an estimated 1,400 gigatonnes of carbon is believed to be locked in the frozen soil. This is a worry because as the soil thaws, so organic processes within it resume. These consume the carbon and produce the greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide and methane. and the consumption of the carbon alone could produce 1.5 times more carbon dioxide than is currently present in the atmosphere.

Also to be found within the information note card are a pair of additional LMs that give access to other locations in the region: the Light House and the Endless: Islands. The first of these is a gentle, dream-like setting created by Sombre, offering a long boardwalk over water, places to sit scattered along it, the surrounding waters home to ice floes and a lone green island. The second is another fantastical setting of from the imagination of Jackson Cruyff: series of floating islands visitors can lose themselves within, and populated with their own delights.

Beautifully conceived and executed, Endless: Permafrost is once again an engaged visit.

SLurl Details

• Endless: Permafrost (Heraiki Bat, rated Adult)

Back in May 2020, Num Bing-Howlett (Num Bing) and her partner Clifton Howlett) invited me to visit The Empire of Dreaming Books, an environment to honour the Zamonia series of books by German comic creator and author, Walter Moers (see: An empire of books in Second Life). The setting quickly – and rightly – became very popular among Second Life travellers, who now once again have the opportunity to travel to Zamonia, as Num and Clifton present The Path to Buchhaim.

The couple were kind enough to extend a personal invitation for me to visit this latest installation of their vision of Moer’s mystical land over the weekend, which I was delighted to accept – although offering a write-up has taken a while for me to get to. 

With Empire of Dreaming Books, Num and Clifton set a scene fairly focused on the city of Buchhaim, with its myriad bookshops, printers, and publishers. Now, in The Path to Buchhaim, the focus switches the focus a little away from the city to expand on the landscape of the Dull Plateau that was to be found in part the previous design, and which here offers some of the many trails that cross the plateau to converge of Buchhaim whilst also offer some of the steppe-like feel of the Dull landscape (a name that while taken from the Zamonia books, is a contradiction in terms here, given the richness to be found as one wanders the undulating landscape, whether keeping to the trails or walking through the long grass and seas of flowers).

A portion of the city is still to be found tucked into a corner of the region. It offers what appears to the end-knot of the winding alley of Schwarzmanngaße, and shop number 333, the home of Phistomefel Smeik and his bookimistic laboratory. Here – should you decide to accept it – an Experience awaits with the opportunity to be teleported to three further destinations.

I had hoped one of these destinations might be the the catacombs, as presented in the previous Zamonia build. However, two of the listed options will carry visitors to Hidden Bottle, another region design by Num and Clifton, and which I wrote about in May 2021, while the third goes to The Digital Apperture, a skybound gallery Clifton and Num present. At the time of my visit, the latter featured an  exhibition by the couple entitled A Day at Elvion (a destination also on my list for a return visit, as I understand it has expanded to  Full region).  

Whilst not a part of the theme of The Path to Buchhaim, both of these destinations are very much worth dropping into, with Hidden Bottle offering a further bewitching visit for those who have not previously seen it, with the portals there obviously offering a gateway to reach this setting, those coming through them – and returning from the gallery – being delivered to the cobbles in front of the good professor’s shop. 

Of course, I may have missed an entrance to the catacombs if they are still present – in which case, silly me – but even without them, this is still a setting where the central character is that of the book. Across the region books offer places to sit or stand as walls or stepping stones or rise rise in piles – they even form a kind of landslide as they fall away down a slope and into the waters of the island’s coast. 

Also to be found throughout the setting are numerous places to sit, both for individuals and for couples or groups of friends. Most of these are outdoors, although a couple of the bookshops in the little corner of Buchhaim offer quiet retreats as well. And needless to say, the entire setting is beautifully photogenic, the region’s environment settings making for an ideal backdrop for images.

All of which makes for a richly engaging visit, and rather than prattle on here, I’m going to urge those of you who have not done so already, to jump across an immerse yourself in this introduction to Zamonia and explore the Paths to Buchhaim.

SLurl Details

• The Path to Buchhaim (Zamonia, rated Adult)

– with apologies to the estate of Samuel Taylor Coleridge!

Hera (Zee9) is a region creator whose imagination is in many ways unparalleled in Second Life; over the years she has consistently produced immersive environments built around themes that have richly and deservedly captured the hearts and minds of all who have visited them.

Perhaps best known for her ever-evolving Drune builds, many of which I’ve covered in these pages, she had also been the creator of places such as the medieval-like Golgothica and the captivating Venesha. Now, after what she describes as a “hectic and unpleasant four months”, she has opened another build for people to enjoy – and it is another marvel.

Shangri-La, modelled in part on an earlier Drune Raider design, was originally going to be a private place Hera could retreat to and spend time; however, she has generously opted to open it to the public as a place to be enjoyed and explored.

I actually first got to hear about it as she and I shared a brief conversation – as we have on occasion recently, the result of bumping into one another a couple of times quite by chance – just ahead of the weekend, and she kindly offered to provide me with a tour. Sadly, circumstances dictated that I was unable to take the offer then, so Hera dropped the LM to me, and as soon as my schedule allowed, I jumped over to pay a visit.

Quite how you might describe Shangri-La is a matter of personal choice. There is a marvellous fusion of Asian elements that reaches from India through to Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. At the same time, the very name of the setting – Shangri-La offers echoes of Shangdu, Kublai Khan’s “upper capital”, as well as echoing Hilton’s mystical place within the Kunlun Mountains, whilst climbing the steps and walking around the temple-like structures in places brings with it a faint sense of Mayan history out of South America.

It was the Shangri-La / Shangdu “connection” that brought to my mind Coleridge’s Kubla Khan – hence the opening lines to this piece, based as they are on his work – a poem about a fantastical palace, formed within the imagination; a place of dance, music, pleasure. But where Coleridge’s palace was the product of an opium-addled mind, Hera’s the result of her richness of creativity and imagination – although like Coleridge’s poem, there is a hidden edge to the setting, but where he writes of demon lovers and cries for war, the “shadow” here is much more classical, folding a touch of Grecian mythology into the build, as hinted at in my re-working of the poem’s lines.

From the moment of arrival, it is clear this is place welcoming to those wishing to escape: blankets and cushions are spread cardinal-like around the landing point, with more to be found on the various terraces, along with curtain-draped pergolas, whilst the tree tops and the surrounding beach offer yet more places to sit and relax.

For the explorers, there are halls large and small awaiting discovery – including the lower cavern / hall and its waiting statue, whilst the upper reaches of the main structure bring forth thoughts of  Angkor Wat, thanks to the great carved faces mounted on the stone walls. These also highlight another unique aspect of Hera’s region builds: rather than relying purely on commercial kits and building obtain through the Marketplace or in-world, Hera is truly the architect of her settings, designing and creating many of the meshes she uses.

To the south, the temple stretches out over the sea to grasp a rocky outcrop. The back of this stone arm sits a simply gorgeous bar, its roof open to the sky, its narrow length split into three cosy areas whilst a canopied balcony at its far end offers a further retreat.

Whilst in places completely modern in design (the bar and the central lighting), it nevertheless sits perfectly within the “ancient” walls, a place crying out to become a gathering point for like minds and imaginations, masterfully completed by the Vallejo-like paintings Hera has created for the walls, paintings that for me again added a twist of South America to the setting, given their apparent inspiration.

A ship – one of Lia Woodget’s marvellous Blackpsot builds – anchored off the northern coast adds a different sense of era to the setting, its presence suggesting the island has just been the subject of discovery by 18th century explorers from the west. Thus, between bar and ship, Shangri-La encompasses  a sense of existing outside the normal passage of time, much like its namesake.

When visiting, I do strongly recommend using the shared EEP settings for the region (admittedly, I’ve post-processed the images here to give a slightly different look to the setting, as I wanted to offer a sense of age to them that might be in keeping with that of the region, and without falling back on purely monochrome / sepia finishes).

Also, do make sure to have Advanced Lighting Model (Preferences Graphics make sure the ALM setting is enabled) as well as local sounds enabled. And as a final side notes, please be aware that while the building set upon its own in the south-west corner of the region might appear to a continuance of the main structures, it is actually a private residence and not part of the public spaces.

Captivating, photogenic and laden with tales awaiting telling, Shangri-La is exactly what its name and About Land description state: a tropical paradise and retreat.

SLurl Details

• Shangri-La. Tropical Paradis Island (Island of Jahesa, rated Adult)

I received a special invitation from Nessa Nova and Natalie Starlight to pay a visit to the latest iterations of their Lost Unicorn estate, which officially open at 12:00 noon SLT on Saturday, August 7th. As a long-term admirer of their work, which I’ve blogged about numerous times in these pages, it was an invitation I was only too happy to accept.

As this is a preview piece, this article is going to be a little different to my usual travelogues, as rather than offer something of a walk through of the settings, I want to talk about the atmosphere that Ness and Natalie create within their region designs, and why I find their work so attractive and memorable. I’ll also note that that while both regions offer dedicated EEP settings, the images you see here have been taken with one of my personal EEP Fixed Sky settings, as I wanted to offer more of a personal take on the regions and their mysticism – so please make sure you have your viewer set to Use Shared Environment (World → Environment) when you visit.

The Lost Unicorn estate has long been the home of the Lost Unicorn Gallery. Traditionally housed within a great castle watched over by the gigantic form of a dragon and seated upon its own island, the gallery has been home to some of the finest fantasy art, both mixed media and produced from images captured entirely in-world, that Second Life has to offer by some of the platform’s greatest talents.

With this iteration, the gallery retains its castle setting, but with a new building design that conjoins the main region thanks to a narrow stone causeway. The off-region surround that cups the the main Lost Unicorn region and which blends with it to the west and north, also extends south and west, giving the impression that the gallery and castle sit along the sweeping curve of a distant land’s mountainous stretch of coast.

The castle is a stunning structure, one of the most unique in terms of the blending of styles that I’ve seen in-world. Great elven arches combine with burnished minarets as water tumbles from high platforms to form curtains along straight and curved walls of stone within which galleried halls rise one another the other, and doorways unexpectedly open onto open-roofed courtyards and gardens or rooms where skylights allow sunlight to wash walls and floors.

Crowned by a building that combines the looks of a medieval cathedral with a distinctly elven tone as it sits on a saddle of rock, the entire gallery structure is  utterly enchanting for its sheer beauty, the art it contains, and the unexpected little spaces that await discovery – such as the jazz venue and the Storybook Nook.

The Jazz venue is something I didn’t expect to come across. Presided over by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself, it is not a place one might readily associate with a fantasy realm – and yet it works, presents another unique tale to the gallery’s ever-growing story. Soimilarly, the Storybook Nook presents a cascade of memories for those who visited Nessa and Natalie’s former region of Storybook Forest.

Down the steps from the landing point, the causeway to the main region – now called Finian’s Foraois (Celtic for “forest”) – adds a touch of Tolkien to the mix, guarded as it is by the Argonath,  the great carven statues of  Isildur and Anárion. Here, rather than guard the passage of the Great River Anduin as it flows into Gondor, they bracket the entrance to the forest.

Passing through the arch – and crossing into the estate’s Full region – was for me akin to stepping into Middle Earth. Not just because of the presence of the Argonath, but because the forest beyond the rocky veil that sits between the two regions brought to mind thought so Greenwood the Great before darkness fell across it, and a time when the paths beneath its great canopy echoed to to happy laughter of Sindarin elves and men and dwarves could find safe passage through the wood. A time long before it became the brooding shadow known as Mirkwood – although look closely in places, an you will see possible portents of the darkness to come, as baleful eyes here and there appear from within the foliage, glare for a moment and then fade away.

Here, under the shade of the giant trees, paths meander and streams bubble. Deer and rabbit, otter and bear are to be found roaming, and the very air seems heady and light as mist curls and sunlight filters across paths or fills glades with light.

But it is not only a sense of Second Age Middle Earth to be found here, and many influences await those who wander.

There is the little market on the hilltop for example – might it be found in Middle Earth or Middle England at the time of the Knights of the Round Table or of Robin Hood? And then there is the brooding bulk of the second castle, cold stone and heavy walls a world away from those of the gallery castle, and within it more touches of Arthurian legend and the romanticism brought forth by the likes of Thomas Mallory and his Le Morte d’Arthur.

Then there are the garden spots and glades with their own settings. places watched by unicorns and set of afternoon tea. But who are to be the guests? Inhabitants of Lewis Carroll’s world, perhaps, so some others?

This is the magic of Lost Unicorn, a magic that filters through each and every design Natalie and Nessa present. It encourages the imagination to soar unfettered, nudged by all that we see, large and small – as with the eyes noted above. Within it, those who have visited past designs will find threads of their presence – from story books to Celtic tales and medieval myths, all of which cast the mind by to lost Unicorns of the past. At the same time, the settings offer something entirely new place with stories as yet unwritten, where the echoes of elves and knights comfortably rub shoulders with the spirit of the Great American Songbook whilst looking into the eyes of Marilyn Monroe without any hint of jarring juxtaposition or misplaced design.

Thus, the Lost Unicorn estate remains, as always, a place to be savoured as much as explored – and needless to say, rich with opportunities for photography as well as for creating stories abound throughout. Yes, there is a lot for the viewer to handle if you run with shadows enabled, but the effort is more than worthwhile, as you will be rewarded by an immersive trip into a realm of fantasy and legend that is genuinely unique.

SLurl Details

• Lost Unicorn Gallery main landing point (rated: Moderate)
• Finian’s Foraois (Lost Unicorn, rated Moderate)

Biné Rodenberger has once again been busy with her home region of Binemust, building a new space for people to explore. Whilst the ground level retains the layout based on the Bungenäs region of Gotland, Sweden’s largest island – and which I visited last September – the winter sky platform that was present at the end of 2020 (see here for more) has been replaced by a setting that offers a mix of of dystopia, sci-fi and fantasy, all sitting with a landscape that has a touch of an alien feel to it.

A strange and barren place where no plant can grow, but where people of all shapes and sizes can enjoy art, culture and good take-away.

Biné Rodenberger, describing her new Binemust sky platform

Enclosed within a mountainous surround that in places blends with the region to give an almost Grand Canyon-ish feel, the setting can be divided into a number of areas that are both separate to one another and flow together as a complete scene. The largest two of these is the ruins of a town perched on the edge of the canyon’s wall to the south of the setting. Beyond this to the north lies a raised table of rock encrusted with black crystal-like rocks that form an uneven blanket.

Casting a shadow over part of the latter is the strangest of structures: a large platform that appears to be resting on the plateau courtesy of a massive column-like foot. “Appears” because multiple motors arrayed along its underside turn four-bladed propellers look like they are giving the platform stability and actually supporting some of its mass. Perhaps they might be intended to even lift it up into the air…

The landing point for the setting sits between the crystal field and the slope that drops down to the ruined township, a set of open gates set into the long wall that divides town from plateau inviting arrivals to descend the slope and explore what lays beyond the wall. Similarly, a narrow path free of crystals runs along the top of the slope to reach the foot of the strange platform.

Looking like it has been cobbled together over time, the platform offers a conglomeration of living space, commercial area, and what might be working spaces. A chain of floating crystals surround it in three sides, rising step-like around it. A bright arc of energy passes from one to the next to reach one floating directly over the platform’s highest roof, as if it is drawing power from the plain of dark crystals below. A buggy and wreck of a car sit on a deck to one side of the platform, with no discernible way of being removed, whilst on another deck sits a literal flying boat.

Below the platform, the remnants of the city clearly point to it have suffered some kind of apocalypse, but whether this is natural or the result of something like a war is impossible to tell. The wall that divides it from the rest of the landscape looks to be somewhat more recent that parts of the town, suggesting it is a more recent and possibly defensive addition.

Similarly, the relationship between the platform and the city is unclear, although the commonality of languages (English and Japanese) visible in both suggests they might be related. Perhaps the platform has been built by the inhabitants of the town; but if so, what is its ultimate purpose? If not, is it a wandering visitor, here to replenish supplies and gather energy? The story behind both is left entirely up to visitors to write.

Beyond both of these locations to the north of the crystal field is another modern structure in the form of what looks to be communications centre that like the town has weathered hard times, Also to the north is an ancient henge that gives a further fantasy twist to the setting. Oval in shape, the latter is dominated by the living skeleton of a great dragon. Possibly becalmed by a ghostly voice that sings quietly, the dragon sits within the stone arches like Viserion raised by the Night King, but with his flesh and sinews, organs and muscles, all long lost to the passage of time to leave only his great bones as he flexes his wings and periodically rises from his haunches to survey the landscape around him.

Pet, guardian or predator, the role of the dragon is also unclear, its story again left to visitors to tell for themselves. Perhaps it is simply part of the artistic element to the setting – more art (notably by Bryn Oh) can also be found at various points in the town. However, the presence of the henge in which it sits does nicely brackets the rest of the setting with a sense of history, being mirrored to the south and within the water of the canyon by another ancient element: the wreck of a Viking long ship, the familiar signature piece Biné always includes in her builds as a mark of her heritage.

As always with Biné’s designs, the setting is rich in detail, the sound scape offer additional, at times almost haunting, depth, with numerous opportunities for photography waiting to be found.

SLurl Details

• Binemust: The Platform (Binemust, rated Adult)