Juju and I hard at work in the office of the ANWR prim rig, located in the sea between Sansara and the Heterocera DualAtoll
A couple of posts ago, as promised, we began breaking down the geography of Second Life. I was becoming a bit frustrated teleporting blindly around SL, and could never make any sense of the rare maps I would stumble across. So I began doing some research, which I wanted to share with you. My first geography guide was a brief sketch of the first continent of Second Life, Sansara.
This is a map of the Second Life continents. The Continents are numbered in order of their creation. Sansara is the large continent on the left. It has a big number 1 on it. The continent above it, has a big number 2.
And now, my dears, let us take a second to commence with the second chapter of my geography series, which will deal with the second continent of Second life.
CHAPTER 2: HETEROCERA, AND HOMES OF THE RAILROAD EARTH
That´s right. the Heterocera Atoll is named for Moths. Don´t worry, it eventually sort of makes sense.
So, it is 2oo5 and Sansera has been up and running for a while. The first pioneer residents have dug in, communities are formed, there is a financial structure, and everyone is building like crazy. Then a second wave of residents begins arriving. These are people who have heard of Second Life from real world media. They are perhaps not the movers and shakers of the first wave, but they have their own ideas to implement, and it is starting to get a little tight on Sansara.
Fictional explorer Magellan Linden, in his diving suit
A fictional Linden named Magellen, begins blogging on the SL website about his expedition to a new continent north of Sansara. His collected blogs are known as the The Magellan Linden Chronicles. I didn’t find them interesting enough to read completely, but did manage to shed some light on the Moth thing. The expedition finds evidence of a civilization that lived in stilt houses (explains the “Atoll” bits in your inventory library) and had a civilization centered around moth worship. They believed that A Giant Moth Mother was the creator, and they built temples for her before they conveniently disappeared.
The Moth Temple of Iris. The info hub here was my home location for a long time. Always wondered about the moth reference. Now I know! This is one of the oldest Linden built structures in Second Life.
Magellan´s character was discontinued, but Linden Labs constructed several things to jibe with the chronicles- The Moth Temple in the Iris sim, and this:
The crash site of the HMS Malamute, Magellan´s ship, located in the Columbia sim.
There may be others. As I said the whole Magellan thing didn´t really grab me. This did.
Map 1) Second Life Railroad system, commonly abbreviated as SLRR. Use the abbreviation to run inworld searches.
Map 2) I found this map to be the most helpful for general orientation. All these stations are rezz areas, meaning you can rez up whatever mode of transportation you like. A great many stations have free vehicles and clothing( train engineers outfits, sailor suits..) Run an inworld search with SLRR, one of the names in the green circles, Tuliptree, just for example, Station -"SLRR Tuliptree Station" and teleport!
Get your head around this idea- Heterocera was built BEFORE TELEPORTATION. This is the continent of locomotion! So there is a complete railroad and road system ALL ON PROTECTED
MAP 3) A complete road system. Remember, SLRR means the rail sytem. You can use map 2 for orientation with the roads as well. Vehicles are constantly on offer, at the top of Route 2 a bus rolled down a hill ( on it´s side, no wheels involved), and offered me a ride.
LAND. The term protected land means that it is owned by Linden labs, and is kept as a kind of preserve. So although you may be surrounded by yellow restriction fences on both sides, the road or rail always continues. Some roads also seem to include bridle paths, with stations where you can rez horses. I saw a guy with a tank on route six, so it would seem you can bring your own vehicles as well. Personally, I just enjoy flying along the roads and tracks without suddenly being cut off. Although I do have a couple of animals, and a broomstick I would like to try out.
Juju and I on my Zelsh, a freebie I think I got in a box of animals from Yadni´s Junkyard. We are all on Route 2, at the top of the continent. Zelshie is 19 prims, so he tends to get sent back to my inventory pretty quickly if I leave the protected road. And I have to rez him in a rez area,which are spaced every few miles. He moves at a trot, so things on the roadside have more of a chance to rez than if I fly.
..and look what we found trotting along!
Freebie Street also had this free arcade, and some under 5L$ stuff in the shops. It is all located in a smart retro beach town called Ranunculus, off of Route 2. Didn´t get off Zeshie and play anything as I was afaid he would get booted off the sim. He,clucks, follows me on command, and cries and sends me emails if I don´t engage him in some kind of activity, or if he is between my inventory and cyber limbo. A sweet ride in every sense. But if you prefer a something more conventional......
This is the Second Life Railroad (SLRR) Station at Lunalis, located at the top of the main line. See map 2!
Freebies! Trains, cars, boats, click, rez and start travelling!!! ( I doubt if the trains cry)
This is the Tuliptree Station, at the bottom of the main line. You can see it is equipped for water travel as well as rail. The platform with the green roof is a freebie area, vehicles, clothing,etc. Now, fly over the clock tower on the left, straight on past the Goodman Design building, over the river...
To the the SLmRR, Second Life Miniature Railroad! A great place to go with your kids, teeming with cars trucks,planes of all sorts taking off......
...Zeppelins, all kinds of boats, and everything except Kong and the city in motion!
You can find the numbered guides to Map 1 and 3 on Heterocera Atoll, a Japanese website that translates into 5 languages. It is simple, extremely informative, and beautifully illustrated. There is a Virtual Railway Consortium , with a big fat real world website ,
and of course thier own inworld station!
But this was absolutely the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. This is the Great Wall. It runs continuously through Athetis, Spini, Pyri, Ziczac, Drepana, Cabera, Jubata, Idia, Gilvaria, Aplasta, Jodis,Epirroe, Tyta and Horisme.I am standing the biggest entrance behind SLRR Jubata Station. I found it the easiest way to get to the wall, as an inworld search on "Great Wall" comes up with exactly nothing, and it is often surrounded by restricted areas, so just flying around looking for it is tricky. Remember, it is freaking huge, and can take a while to rez!
The small platform behing me is the Jubabta station. Fly past it, up the hill, past a few rentals, slowly, so the Wall has time to rez.
The Jubata entrance takes you inside the wall. Notice the farthest part hasn´t rezzed.
Or you can just fly up and travel the top. Don´t forget to have a peek over the edge once in a while.
Thus concludes virtualchristine´s second little geography missive. I hope it was helpful. I truly enjoyed writing it, I hope you had fun too. My son and I are planning a train tour for a real world rainy day, but I really wish I had known all this stuff when he was 10! Thank you so much for joining me. All my sweetest dreams and wishes of happiness and contentment for you all! Your company means so much to me.
Thanks!, it’s very funny. ok sweet dreams…….
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Soman