Diomita Maurer’s Blog

I came across New Babbage following Inara Pey’s blog post “Exploring Lapprock Lighthouse in Second Life“.
“Built on a massive volcanic plug out in the Vernian Sea, Lappock Rock Lighthouse protects the shipping sealanes against the treacherous Lappock Rocks. Open to visitors!” is the landmark’s description of Lapprock Lighthouse.

Impressions of Lapprock Lighthouse (1)

The lighthouse is was buildt by Vic Mornington (victor1st.mornington) and I went visiting it. It is a quite large ligthouse and inside it is used for living. Each floor has it’s own purpose: Living room, Bedroom, Office, Library and Laboratory. In particular the inside is worth a visit. The rooms are fully furnitured up into the very last detail and I enjoyed a lot exploring and discovering it. You can’t get on the top of the lighthouse though although I’d love to go there to get a view from there.

Impressions of Lapprock Lighthouse (2)

Right on the ground level you can take an elevator that leads down into a maze of tubes and rooms underwater. I found a bar down there and another laboratory and after some exploring I came to another elevator that leads upwards and brought me to Port Babbage.

Pictures from the underwater world of Vernian Sea and Port Babbage

Lapprock Lighthouse is a part of 11 connected sims which build the Steampunk city of New Babbage. It exsists more than 10 years now. The eleven sims are: Babbage Canals, Wheatstone Waterways, New Babbage, Babbage Square, Port Babbage, Clockhaven, Quarry Hill, Babbage Palisade, Acedemy of Industry, The Fells and Vernian Sea (that’s where you find the Lapprock Lighthouse).
I visited other Steampunk places in Second Life before but I never visited New Babbage, which is in fact impressive not only because of it’s size but also because of it’s architecture and the many details you can discover. Actually New Babbage is a roleplace community. Visiting it brought up the question to me “What is Steampunk?” I looked it up in wikipedia and found a lot about it – including the source for the name “Babbage”.

Impressions of Port Babbage

“Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction or science fantasy that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the 19th century’s British Victorian era or American “Wild West”, in a future during which steam power has maintained mainstream usage, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power. Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retro-futuristic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them, and is likewise rooted in the era’s perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. Such technology may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-air airships, analogue computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine.
Steampunk may also incorporate additional elements from the genres of fantasy, horror, historical fiction, alternate history, or other branches of speculative fiction, making it often a hybrid genre.
The first known appearance of the term steampunk was in 1987, though it now retroactively refers to many works of fiction created as far back as the 1950s or 1960s.
Steampunk also refers to any of the artistic styles, clothing fashions, or subcultures that have developed from the aesthetics of steampunk fiction, Victorian-era fiction, art nouveau design, and films from the mid-20th century. Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.” (source Wikipedia)

Impressions of Brunel Hall Hotel and Restaurant

I made a quick tour through all 11 sims to get at least a first impression. At Acedemy of Industry I found the Brunel Hall Hotel and Restaurant. Brunel Hall Hotel is ran by Vic Mornington (victor1st.mornington) and Lia Venuto (venra.aries), and is the first of the major Second Life restaurants to be added to the Destination Guide. It was founded back in 2008. Besides dinning Brunel Hall is also a working hotel. With 10 rooms upstairs rented out on a weekly basis, its a great place for a temporary homebase while you explore the other 10 regions which make up the City State. The restaurant looked familiar to me and I think that I was there before when I was looking for a restaurant as a background for a scene for a picture I wanted to make. It’s just beautiful.

Those involved in running New Babbage and the roleplay community do that with passion and you can sense that when you visit. I like that you’re invited to visit and explore regardless of whether you want to roleplay or not. I rather won’t roleplay there myself as my Second Life is focussed on my family and friends and within the bdsm community but New Babbage did really impress me.
Of course there’s also a homepage for the city of New Babbage for further information.

Impressions of the City State of New Babbage

There’s so much to discover and explore in Second Life, I think I’ll need a third and fourth life!
Thanks to all who keep this city alive and accessible to us all.

Landmark to Lapprock Lighthouse
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vernian%20Sea/183/184/106
Landmark to Port Babbage
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Port%20Babbage/120/174/103
Landmark to Brunel Hall Hotel and Restaurant
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Academy%20of%20Industry/52/78/108
City of New Babbage homepage
http://www.cityofnewbabbage.net
Inara Pey’s blog entry “Exploring Lapprock Lighthouse in Second Life”
https://modemworld.me/2017/11/14/exploring-lapprock-lighthouse-in-second-life/