The Shift Thistle

"...We both stared in amazment at the trully strange looking plant. It grew from both ceilings of the old building and from the mushy, moss covered ground. The Old wizard scratched his chin as we looked at the color shifting flower. Strange bulbs twirled within the stalk.  -This looks trully alien lad, mayhap its from another plane or planet, here, start digging, we are taking a sample back home".


 Sharian "The Old" to Elicio Ember, regarding Shift Thistles
 The Apprentice's Journal-  PlaneWalking

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 All Plants come in 8 color Variations: Light Green, Dark Green, Blue, Purple, Acqua, Orange, Black and White.

  Shift Thistle- Straight (14 prims, copy/mod)
  Shift Thistle- Wavy (14 prims, copy/mod)
  Shift Thistle- Spiral (12 prims, copy/mod)
  Shift Thistle- One Bud (8 prims, copy/mod)

 Pop-up menu driven, you can control particle effects, reset the spinning buds and delete the scripts.

***************************************
These are completly alien, heh.
There is nothing like these on Earth. Though plants can indeed change their pigmentation depending on the light conditions (clorophile is not the only photosinthetyic pigment available to them, and other pigments have other colors depending on the light color they capture), no earthen plant can change its colors that fast.

I wonder from what alien planet these came from.
We can imagine that in a low-light world plants could indeed develop luminesence or strong aroma (although both are indeed used by Earthen plants) to direct insects. Mayhap they would have chromatophors, animal cells present in chameleons, fish and cephalopods (squids and octopi). These speciallized cells would allow them to change their color fast, perhaps in response to external stimuli, to hide or attract specific polinizers...or prey. ;)

The Thermal Vents

"These lad might very well be where life started in some planes. Imagine, deep in the seas these spew water way beyond the boiling point, rich in minerals. Small bacteria thrive here, feeding on the heat and minerals. Strange animals feed on the bacteria, or harbor them in their tissues for noursihment. Other larger animals feed on these, and so a complete ecosystem that does not see ever, or need the warmth or light of the sun forms...amazing, aye?"


 Sharian "The Old" to Elicio Ember
 The Apprentice's Journal- Tales of Mannanán

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    The Set includes 5 different variations of Thermal Vents:
    -Mushroom (2 prims)
    -Long Chimney (2 prims)
    -Stuby Chimney (2 prims)
    -3 Cluster (5 prims)
    -5 cluster (8 prims)
 For each Type there are 5 texture variations- Brimstone, Greenstone, Limestone, Basalt and Rust
 For each of these there are 4 sizes.- stretchable, 20 mts tall, 30 mts tall and 40 mts tall.
   Also included are 5 matching texture for landscaping.
****************************************

 The deep sea thermal vents are one of the wonders of the world. What Sharian says is true. The life in the extreme depths is strange and alien. Little understood. Mostly unknown. In fact, there are hypothesis that state that icy planets with liquid water might harbor life in vents similar to these. There is one theory that states that life might have started in the Earth in such a way, in the depths of the primordial seas...but only Gaia knows the answer to that.

   More at: http://www.extremescience.com/zoom/index.php/life-in-the-deep-ocean/42-deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents

Cerridwen's Cauldron New SIM OPEN!

"We had been flying upward, using one of Sharian's spells, through clouds and cold wind for what seemed close to an hour. I kept glancing at the old sage, but he just kept staring intently upward. Finally, through a shroud of clouds I saw a glimmer of blue light. A huge structure, all glowing crystals and spiraling stone slowly emerged from the clouds. It shone mystically in the dawning light, as if somehow it had grown there, in the clouds. More than the other temples I had visited with the wizard, a palbable air of ancient mystery hang over it. I gasped in pure amazment, and at last the old wizard talked. He smilied as we settled on the ancient, moss covered stone -Welcome to the Elemental Templ of Spirit lad, welcome to the Lost Halls..."


 Quest for the Spirit Realms
  The Aprentice's Journal


At last, after so many months of work, Cerridwen's Cauldron is moving. The Floating Isles at Griffin will stay up as a place to re-direct people to the new sim only.

During Friday 12th Aug and Saturday 13th there will be a opening sale at the new Lost Halls gallery, all items disscounted, and many new items in the freebies, group freebies and disscount oldies sections. Also dont forget to get your Order of Elemental Spirit cloak and mask from the cloak stand next to the Book of Joining near the arrival point.

There is also much to see at ground level, so, once you are done at the Lost Halls go back to the landing point and touch the tp pad tand sit on the rezzed spehere to visit one of the many new locations.

  Virtual Reality will greatly expand humanity’s possibilities on the near future, if we manage to not destroy ourselves (and most life forms that coexist with us) and this incredible world brain that is starting to bloom.  Second Life is just one of the venues, one of the expanding possibilities of “other-worldness”. Not the simple one where you only have the option of experiencing the world created by others. But one where, with purpose, patience and hard work, you can transform into almost anything, if so you wish. The possibilities that the virtual realm offer to the creative mind are endless.  The possibility for more people to experience other visions, other worlds, other realities increases exponentially. And will continue doing so. If not in SL, elsewhere. But even so, the new realm and possibilities the Net offers seem endless. Never in human history has so much information, knowledge; so much connectedness has steeped the world. Never before have we realized how true it is that we create our own world. And with a certain dread we now realize how big and extensive is our effect on the world we inhabit.

And thus, the big question arises:

“What world we decide to create?”

It’s very likely that in very few occasions since humanity’s appearance in Earth’s history has this question been so critical, so important.  Make no error, we are facing already a world mass extinction.  It has happened many times before. It’s cyclic.  We exist because of the last one. But this time it’s our fault. We have made life miserable or impossible in this planet, that is not our own but we treat as such, for so many living creatures, not the least of them is us.  Maybe we were not conscious of the incredible reaches of our creative powers. Maybe we were not mature enough as a species to take responsibility of stuardship. Maybe we were kept in the dark purposefully by some. But all of that is not important anymore. Becasue there is no more time.

Because we must awaken:

“What world we decide to create?”
 
If you are so enclined I will greatly appreciate your donations, patronage, or support of YOUR favorite non-profit. Donate to artists, to nature conservation and rescue non-profits, to humanitary causes. Turn of a light, help a stranger. Forego for one time that cheeseburger.  Save that one plastic bag.

 We can create a beautifull world.  One tree, one decision, one heart at a time.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cerridwens%20Cauldron/127/69/984/

My sincere and deep thanks to everyone's support and patronage for finaly being able to achieve this, and continue bringing you all what my muse inspires me.

Belo Monte Damn being built "at all costs"

Greetings everyone.

I will soon have two new sets for you all, one sea based: Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents for the much needed SL underwater landscaping, and a cool set of Giant Ivy Vines.

Now, for something much more serious, and, unfortunately, sad:

Maybe you have heard along the years of the Brazilian Belo Monte Dam proyect, maybe you have seen some of the many documentaries done about how much will be lost with these proyect, or seen the Forest People dance in defense of their rainforests.

 Well, this proyect will take place, destroying more than 400 km2 of tropical jungle forest, displacing more than 20,000 people, flooding one of the last standing lungs of our ailing planet.

Besides having a bachelor’s in art, I am a licensed oceanographer, with specialization in aquaculture and fisheries, and I decided to leave the scientific environment precisely because I found an aching lack of consciousness in the scientific environment back when I was in school. This has changed slowly over the years, and is starting to seem that, at last, spirituality and science are joining paths. I tell you this little known fact about myself for a reason; I have enough experience and scientific knowledge to tell you this: let us be clear about something my friends: A Dam is NOT NECESARLY “clean energy”. 

 Dam projects, specially when as big as this, often kill the life flow of a river, they flood a living ecosystem, they impede the natural navigation of all the beings related to it, they destroy breeding habitats, create environments propitious to the breeding of harmful species, like algal blooms or malaria mosquitoes. And, as is often the case, displace the native cultures.

 It is true that we are a energy-hungry society. But the profit and energy created by these projects rarely, if ever, benefit the communities that have literally been destroyed to satisfy the energy needs of the rich.

This has happened again and again in these mega projects; there are a lot of examples around the world, and there is even a budding attempt to destroy dams to allow rivers to become alive again. If you are fortunate enough to be reading this then you are amongst the privileged. We must cut our energy needs , we must save energy in all ways we can. It’s not my intention to tell you how to protest against these kind of things. We will each have to decide how to react to these things.

But we must be aware of the prize to the whole planet, and the whole humanity, decisions like this have.

I hope with all my heart humankind will survive and mature to remember these kind of things, and a thousand others, as the great ignorant and terrible mistakes of the XX and XXI centuries, when the greed and powerlust of the political class blinded them to the true needs of the people and the planet.

I mourn for the the Raoni, for the people of other forest tribes, and the thousands of lives, human and otherwise, that will be destroyed.

We know now that the change we so dearly need and seek will not come from a megalomaniac government, regardless of the country. They, the rulling class, seems crazed by greed and desire for inmdediate gain, inmediate profit and their own personal agendas.

I mourn for the forest.

For Starters:

http://www.dearchaos.net/2011/05/damn-dam.html

http://amazonwatch.org/work/belo-monte-dam

http://www.survivalinternational.org/about/belo-monte-dam

New Release! The Swamp Eldar Tree Set

"The Swamp Eldar is one of the true titans of the the forests. The origin of their name is lost in legend: The Eldar are one of the Elven People, literally the Star People. Legend has it that when the Eldar were travelling, heeding the Summons to the Ever Lands by the Valar after the Sundering, they crossed a forest swamp that extended as far as the sharp elven eyes could see. These giant trees reminded The People of their ancient forest cities, and sheltered them during storm and sun during their travel through the jungle. Thus their name..."

-Botanicum Arcana
Sharian "The Old"

Greetings Everyone!
At last, I finished the Eldar Tree Set, the huge trees I made for the Fantasy Faire 2011, Eoxtic Worlds sim. I expanded the set with more...sensible tree variations and a couple of cool extras. I hope you will enjoy it, these are the contents:
Take advantage of the 24 hours release sale at the main gallery!


All Contents are Copy/Mod *
*(But the Bonus Tree-Creack Sound Engine Script, that is Copy Only)   

 Swamp Eldar Tree Pigmy- 43 prims
 Swamp Eldar Tree Pigmy, no epiphytes (withouth bracket fungi and vines)- 29 prims
 Swamp Eldar Tree young- 46 prims
 Swamp Eldar Tree young, no epiphytes-28
 Swamp Eldar Tree young adult- 61 prims
 Swamp Eldar Tree young, no epiphytes- 41
 Swamp Eldar Tree (Solid)*- 132 prims
        *There is a surprise on this one, but if I tell it would be no surprise, right?
 Swamp Eldar Tree (phantom)**- 119 prims
    ** Withouth solid base, but with giant bracket fungi and vines.
  Swamp Eldar Tree, no epiphyites-96 prims

  Bracket Fungi-(1 prim) Sculpted and custom skinned bracket fungi, copy mod, so you can decorate your, well...anything.

  BONUS: Bracket Fungi Tree-Creak Sound Engine. This neat little script will add some creacking sounds to your woods, add a couple near the greatest concentration of trees. Use the bracket fungi or just add the script to any prim. This will work great great to enrich the sound atmosphere with other enviromental sound engines.

Note: Yes, I know The Eldar tree is slightly more primy than my usual plants, although it can be very much adapted to your specific needs. I sacrificed on this one prim number for over-all effect. And I am personally well pleased with the results, I hope you are too.

Some interesting facts: The Eldar Trees are based on two very specific characteristics of real life trees,  the jungle soil is shallow and weak, very rich in the frist inches, and under constant barrage of rain (thus its vulnerability to erosion when deprived of vegetation). The jungel trees have evolved very specific shapes to take advantge of this; huge shallow root systems to give support and take advantage of the soil, and pylon, tower like trunk bases to support the gigant tree trunks. The Eldar trees might seem tall to you, but there are jungle giants easily as tall as these in our endangered tropical jungles.

             

    The other reference is the mythical Baobab. The Baobabs, trees native to Madagascar (6 of the 8 known species) and Africa are adapted to the savage dry season the regions it inhabit usually has. Its broad trunks store massive quantities of water, and its fruit is important to many animals and human cultures. In fact, the Baobab is often sacred or featured in myths and legends of the human communities that develop near it.




*These last two photographs I found on the web, I dont know their authors and take no credit for them, and use them just for divulgation purposes

Post about the Skeech on Little Messy Closet

Greetings Everyone!
Read this beautifull little post about the Skeech on The Messy Little Closet
http://themessylittlecloset.blogspot.com/

During the Fantasy Faire I met Adara Cascarino,  she was my blogger and has been really friendly. Thanks for the beautifull post Adara, even though they were released way after the faire.

P.S. I know, I know many are waiting for the Swamp Eldar tree. I will release it within the next couple of days, promised! I am starting work on some of the elements for the future full SIM (yaaaaaaay) so, expect new releases to be a bit slower until we go full SIM, I will be having to work many paralel proyects and ... stuff... simultaneously.

Coming Soon: The Swamp Eldar Set

 "..Of all the exotic life I had witnessed on my travels few were more impressive, up to now, than the fully grown Swamp Eldar. The young specimens, even when towering 30 mts into the air, seemed tinny under its spread. Even the "bearded elder" gum trees could fit nicely under its canopy. A small sized house could easily fit into one of its bracket fungi.  In a groove of these towering giants we had met the Skeechen shaman and had many long talks with the little goblins' albino warlock, and learned some of the creature’s mysteries. There was something we had missed though. Something they were not telling. Something important the old grouch said later under a mumbled grumble. Of course, we had to be courteous about our visit, and so we returned to Sharian's  floating tower without whatever information the old sage was looking for. So I made my backpack and oiled about everything we were going to take into the swamp again. (one of my new "privileges" as a "formal apprentice", Sharian said with a snicker). I should be excited about the prospect of returning to the strange swamp. I had a dull foreboding though...there was something the old sage was not telling me, something we would find inside the ancient trees he said..."

- Chapter I-  The Forest Voice

The Crux Saga

 Greetings everyone! I hope to have the Swamp Eldar Tree ready in a few days, latest sometime next week. Many people have been asking about when these will be released. Thanks to everyone’s interest. The set will include as of now (likely to change as I work more on it) 4 copy/mod trees, 3 "sensible" size versions and the true Eldar tree with a trunk of around 30 mts diameter and a canopy shadow of around 90 mts, with, oh I don’t know...80 mts tall? These are the giant trees used for the center piece of Exotic Worlds Fantasy Faire 2011, which I had the pleasure of landscaping (pics about the wonderful SIMs on CC gallery, widget to the right). Have fun and bright paths!

Regarding the Fungi Skeech

  "It had been an arduous and wondrous trip into the Skeechen Swamp. I had previously met the Skeech, but not this particular tribe, with its rich culture and gaudy colors. The trip into the swamp had been incredibly fruitful, both Sharian and I met wondrous beings and delved deep into the Fungi Skeechen culture. It was not easy of course, the swamps are filled with dangerous creatures, both those whose entirely natural behavior is dangerous to us (that means, we can be their food), and those who consciously and willingly will prey on other sentients. The first you understand their ways to avoid. The second must be confronted. But alas... about the Skeech:

     We discovered there are at least 6 color variations, though Sharian mentioned that he sees no reason for there not to be more. I noticed many combinations of frills and antlers, usually in contrasting tones to the skin, though there seems to be no hard rule here either. The many body adornments the Skeech have seem to be akin to human fingerprints, that is, unique to each individual. They have a glowing forehead "glow-gem" that can change color and emit light. This seems to be some kind of species-only communication means, though the Skeech never spoke clearly of it.

 Skeechen culture is horizontal. They have no clear leader or ruling class, and have a somewhat chaotic (to non skeechen eyes anyway) structure based on skills and current social needs. If the need arises for a leader (in war, migrations, alliances and other mayor events that involve the whole tribe), a council of elders is established and they choose a temporal leader from anywhere on the tribe depending on the skills required by the situation.

 The Skeech are goblinoid physical elemental fae, (that is, they reside more on this side of the veil than on the other), they are magical beings with a strong connection to the living side of the Earth element; living soil you could say. As all fae their motives and behavior can be seen as fickle and even dangerous by non-fae sentients...."
   -The Fungi Skeech 
    The Apprentice's Journal

Greetings everyone! Of course, the first post had to be about the recently released Skeech. I was a D&D master for many years, and have always loved telling stories, in fact, for every project or painting I make, there is a story behind.  I do them for me, to give solidity and body to the project while I am working on it, but seldom tell them. So, if you like them, besides the small snippets I always make as an introduction for each, I will expand on them here. It’s a fun way of introducing new builds. If you like to know about any aspect of the tale behind anything let me know. If  you want the hard facts you can always go to the marketplace description, right? 

This is my first blog (oh the shame, I know) so, please, if you have any suggestions to make feel free to do so.
I hope you enjoy these posts, and the story we will all write.

"Neither of us had a fun time recognizing it, but, aye, after all this time,  I suppose I was one: A sage and sorcerer apprentice to the old grouch. As if I were not getting enough lectures on the nature of rotten glowfruit sap or the prickle hairs of what-not-weed..."
An Apprentice's Journal
Elicio Ember


 Welcome to Cerridwen's Cauldron Blog!
Still Under construction of course, but I hope it will be fun and usefull for all of you who support and/or have an interest in Cerridwen's Cauldron. I know its already being fun for me.

The blog will follow the format of notes and fragments of my journal notes and other texts as I follow  Sharian's, "The Old" on his explorations and adventures.

Here, as well as in Second Life in-world Cerridwen's Brew group, you will be able to find news on the latest proyects, builds, plants and everything related to Cerridwen's Cauldron Virtual Art Gallery.

 Thank you for your support through all this time, and for the exciting journey ahead.