Our Visit to Ravandal

Ravandal

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Stats:

Traffic: 6330

Sims on Land at time of visit:6

Sim owned by a Free Man

Place Description: 

The Rock in the Stormy Seas, 1st stop just North of the Torvaldsmark.

BTB Torvaldsland

Detailed Para-RP welcome, create your own story!

BTB, Torvie, Torvaldsland, Viking, Gorean, Freeman, Marauder, Bondmaid, BTB Gor, BTB Gorean

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The Ravandal sim is owned by a Free Man. It seems to be a predominantly roleplay-based sim, although we've been visiting several times thus far and have not had the fortune of taking part in much roleplay. Everyone seems to be too engaged to approach these newcomers in the village. From the short bit of roleplay we did get with the First Axe of the village, we spent a pleasant bit of time doing paragraph roleplay.

In terms of looking at how appropriately the roles are defined and represented in Ravandal, due to a lack of roleplay opportunities, we cannot give this a full score. We've had the opportunity to roleplay with a single individual, a Free Man of the village. He did represent the sim well, playing his role properly. However, the roleplay ended when he came into our IMs, telling us that if we wanted a place to stay for the visit, we'd need to talk with his slave, who handles all of the housing concerns. Based on what we have seen, we're giving Ravandal a 4 out of 10 for this.

The sim is decorated beautifully for a northern Torvaldsland sim and we give the sim a 7 out of 10 for their interpretation of a Gorean environment. They lost a point or two for shiny blue mushrooms scattered about that reminded us more of Avatar the movie than Gor. They also have ziplines running throughout the area, which detracts from the overall feel of a Gorean environment.

For the avatar dress on sim, we have to give Ravandal a 4 out of 10 for this. The reason being is that the fellow we roleplayed with had a quite nice avatar, though the shirtless look in Torvaldsland means quite perky nipples. And we did take the liberty of camming about, looking at the avatars also on the sim, though hidden away in their homes. And stopped when we found the bond-maid. One look at her had us sadly having to drop our rating as we examined the lovely knife she wore on her belt. The pierced nipples also had us tilting our head a bit. We'd have loved to see the dress worn by Free Women on the sim, except there never seemed to be one on sim. Perhaps if we revisit, we'll see a bit more...or less, depending on your viewpoint.

In character, the same fellow who owns the sim also seems to be the Jarl of the village. In an ironic twist, his in-character is Loki. Yep, the Viking God of Mischief. And he seems to be in charge, both ICly and OOCly. While this tends to lead to issues on most sims, we'll settle back and see what happens.

We cannot give an accurate assessment of the overall arcing storyline, as we were never able to get into roleplay on the sim long enough to see any sort of theme flow. Again, perhaps a revisit of another week later on will show us something different.

Another area of assessment we cannot truly judge is the level of godmodding on the sim as we've not had the pleasure of finding ourselves in the role play. However, on one hand, you can say it's an A plus, because we've not seen any godmodding. Or you can say....we haven't seen anything at all, so jury's out to lunch right now.

For thought emoting on sim, see the above paragraph.

Now the appropriateness of how well avatars on sim hold to Gorean customs/traditions, and etiquette is something that we can talk about because we had quite the interesting experience when we landed. We asked for lodging for the week and we were met with the offer of an alcove in the longhall, knowing that we are Free Companions. The offer of an alcove would not fly for us as we did not want a free woman staying there. The First Axe, who was giving us a look around, resorted to IM'ing the couple, breaking the roleplay, and telling us that we shouldn't really complain ICly because Loki, the Jarl of the Village, keeps his own mother in an alcove. We were less than impressed. After we tried to push again for a house or some sort of other lodging, he told us to talk to his slave, who handles all of the housing needs on the sim. We lost interest in any sort of housing and made the roleplay reflect our decision to make the serpent our lodging for the duration of our visit. We also still have to consider the pierced nipples and dagger-wielding slave :) So all in all, we're rating this one a 5 out of 10.

Our overall impression of Ravandal was of a very silent village, quiet and peaceful. While they do have a higher traffic, and we must assume there are avatars that come out of their houses and meet once in awhile, we were not able to see that. We did spend a week on the sim, several hours at a time on multiple occasions, and were left very much to our own devices. Even on a night where multiple men of the village entered the sim, we recieved no visit or interaction by them, which we view as strange considering it's a roleplay village and as far as they are aware, we are outsiders. Out of 10, we are giving Ravandal a 5. It's a lovely place to visit if you want a very peaceful, quiet existence. We really can't say whether we'd recommend people visit, nor can we really say stay away, so at this point, it's a flat neutral. Perhaps in the future, we'll return and see how things turn out to be.

Our Visit to Kjaerstavik

 

Kjaerstavik

Stats:

Traffic: 5383

Sims on Land at time of visit: 4

Sim owned by a Free Man

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Place Description:

A small logging village just north of the Northern forests along the coastline. Open for trade. Panthers welcome.

See combat rules for raid info. Recruiting all positions. Established clans wanted!

Gor, BTB, Panther, Viking, Torvaldsland, Torvie, Gorean

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The sim is geared towards Role-play. ICly, we were able to determine the leader of the village was a Free Man.

With the exclusion of a couple of outlier one-liners, role-players on the sim tend to be between semi-paragraph and paragraph role players. However, when we tried to interact ICly, we were cut off. This is at odds with the description of the village, which is titled Kjaerstavik- BTB- PARA RP, which openly invites paragraph role players.

We gave Kjaerstavik a 4 out of 10 for appropriateness of roles because the leader ICly made a pretty strong claim of what each villager’s role is in the village, but did not back it up. We got a strong sense from the role play of who the leader was, and the others did seem to follow his role play as supporting characters, but we could not determine anyone else’s role. Additionally, the leader stated openly that the free women of the village would tear a visiting free woman’s hair out, which is more the act of slaves than of free women. There were no slaves on the sim when we visited, so cannot comment on their interaction.

Kjaerstavik earned a 7 out of 10 for how well the sim reflects a Gorean environment. The builder did a decent job on the village layout, though the build is a bit outdated by 2016 standards. There were also a bevy of signs lining the path. Seeing all of those signs was confusing.

Kjaerstavik earned an 8 out of 10 for appropriate dress during our visit. One Free Man was dressed in correct attire for a northern sim, though another was wearing a kilt, which would not have been appropriate for a northern Gorean village. The Free Women both were covered, though neither wore veils or covered their hair, which is completely appropriate for a northern sim. An uncompanioned woman had her hair up in the style of a companioned woman. The companioned woman did not have a comb signifying her status. So overall, minor things that gives the sim an 8 out of 10.

We cannot give an accurate score determining the detection of an overall storyline because of our short time on the sim. Though it was clear the leader wanted another Free Man, their treatment of the Free Woman visitor would not allow the travelers to stay. During our visit, which lasted about two hours, we were able to determine who the leader was and little else. Everyone stood about, watching the leader and the visitors, though one woman called the visiting Free Woman a bond-maid due to not being able to accurately see her and the leader’s companion chimed in with a calculated air to make the visiting Free Woman uncomfortable.

We cannot give an accurate score on god-modding as we were only in the sim for two hours. However, during that two hour stay, the travelers did not see any god-modding occur.

Looking at thought-emoting, Kjaerstavik earned a 3 out of 10 for moderately high use of thought emoting. From identifying who is companioned to who through thought emotes to hostility towards other individuals without any apparent physical change, there was quite a bit of thought-emoting going on. Even the leader took part, thought emoting how women were only good if gagged and on their knees, though nothing was said in local chat to that effect.

Kjaerstavik earned 8 out of 10 for upholding Gorean law, customs, and language. We were greeted with “Hails” and “Tals”. No “Heilsas” were involved. Kjaerstavik lost points because they didn’t exercise hospitality; a common trait in Torvaldsland. No drinks were offered. No seats were offered. They were too speculative and that led to hostility rather than hospitality.

For our overall impression of Kjaerstavik, we give them a 5 out of 10. Overall, there is a Gorean environment. The characters are mostly Gorean. However, hostility was a prevalent theme over hospitality and for that reason, combined with the heavy use of thought emoting, based on the experience we had, we would not recommend staying there.

Gorean Travelers?

Who We Are: 

You’re probably wondering, who are these “Gorean Travelers”? We are two people who have played Second Life extensively and are wandering about, seeking a home in SL Gor. We have been Gorean role players for most of our Second Life experience and are returning after quite a long absence, looking for a good place to call home. But as we wander about and explore, we've decided to make things a bit interesting! 

Between the two of us, we have around 18 years of Gorean experience role playing in Second Life Gor. In Character, we both hail from Torvaldsland, but in the past, have explored and role played in most of SL-Gor. We are wandering companions, taking a journey across Gorean lands and enjoying the different flavors of Gorean role play.

Why We're Doing This: 

We decided to create this blog to keep track of what sims we visited and document our experiences at each of them, then share them with you all what we've found, with the purpose of providing information and insight as to how Gorean the sims are these days in Second Life.

 Our Plan: 

 Our plan is to visit a sim and try to stay about a week there, and then answer the questions we crafted in our checklist page, then share the post with our blog visitors before going on to the next sim. We're open to visiting any sim, though will be perusing the northern sims a first, as that is where our hearts lie. However, depending on how much fun we find this journey with with a purpose, once we find home, we may still decide to continue on and visit to see how SL-Gor is shaping up these days.