About two weeks ago, the island of Matriarch hit the Second Life grid. Matriarch, my new home, the home of the Dictatorshop, and home of many friends! While I knew the general direction of what I wanted to do with an island, at first, I wasn’t sure just how to go about it…… because, once a project of that magnitude begins, it’s not easily turned from the course upon which it is set. I wanted Matriarch to be “different”, not just another lag-filled, vendor warehouse, play space that most D/s sims tend to become. That’s not to say these sims are “bad”, of course not, I visit them quite often, and many are run by friends of mine whom I adore….. I just didn’t want to go that route. I wanted to “define” myself, and define Matriarch as something different.
So, the first order of business in Matriarch was building myself and my lovely Emmalyn a place to hang out….. a place to live, and talk, and work. I’ve never really needed a home, and up until a short while ago…. I lived in a sim named Humuli, at the bottom of a 64 sqm hole dug in the ocean floor, covered and camouflaged with a couple rock. Yes…. despite the success of the Dictatorshop and the land it occupied in the course of a year…. I had never bothered to have a place to live in. I didn’t need one, I was capable of scripting underneath the ocean floor, hidden away by rocks, with at least 60m of sea between me and the nearest shore. So, anyway….. I visit Damania, and bought the gorgeous Gothik mansion offered by Damani which now serves as my home in Matriarch…. and of course, the home of Emmalyn.
The second order of business was re-establishing the Dictatorshop (yet again, but the final move)….. a very important thing to do, of course. Especially considering the Dictatorshop is what paid for the island. So, the Dictatorshop Mainstore was relocated to Matriarch, and well….. I’m still maintaining my store large store in Damsel, and as long as it pays for itself there, it will stay there. The new Matriarch location proved to be a boon to the Dictatorshop, the lack of lag, and the sim’s fast response makes shopping at the Dictatorshop in Matriarch an easy and unfrustating experience.
The third order of business was to decide what to do with the rest of the island, how to divide it up, and how to make it stand out. So, as I said, right off the bat….. I knew I didn’t want it to be any sort of play space, and I didn’t want it to have anything resembling a mall or club or offer any kind of vendor space….. because, well, that’s what *everyone* does. And while that works, and it’s probably profitable, it reduces the overall usability of the island. So, I decreed that the rest of the island would become a FemDom community…. a residential/commercial entity, a place to call home for the Dominas who choose to reside there. And oh, by commercial, I don’t mean vendors…. I mean, quality retail outlets with actual walk-in stores….. so, the land was divided up…. and the residents and businesses began moving in.
I laid down a few roads, a small park to add character, a Community Center…. and I decided that instead of allowing general purchase of the land…. I would only allow friendly, social, and intelligent Dominas to rent the parcels in Matriarch. I wrote out a fair, but enforced Covenant which ensures that people who live in Matriarch not only meet the above criteria, but will also give the sense that Matriarch is a social community, a rural haven away from the hustle and bustle of the busy sims, but not to the point where nobody ever talks to anybody. And to say, that in less than two weeks, only three plots are remaining to be rented by Dominas, speaks a lot about the quality of the Matriarch community. Much of our time in Matriarch, is actually spent talking, socializing, and networking…. rather than holing ourselves up in little private boxes never knowing who lives directly next door, and never knowing who is passing through our neighborhood. Four quality stores scatter around the Dictatorshop, sharing in its success: Red Queen, Shard’s Sadistic Creations, Netsui, and Vanilla Sux. All have said that Matriarch has been good for their businesses….. and that’s fantastic. Of course, that’s as far as I will go with allowing commercial stores to enter Matriarch, the rest is reserved for residential use. So, with the social success Matriarch has become…. I’ve decided that I will continue the FemDom residential theme and in short time create a second island, and should that one be successful, a third, a fourth, etc. While the profit margins of such islands may be smaller, the contributions they make to forming a quality community is immense.
Of course…. given that Matriarch is a Domina community, I’ve been asked if there’s a place for men in Matriarch. Well….. men are certainly allowed to visit Matriarch, and many of my good friends are men, and I’m definitely no man hater, not by any stretch of the imagination. However, Matriarch *is* a Domina community, so men are not permitted to purchase land there, or live in Matriarch unless he is living in a shadow of a Domina who will be living there as his Domme. For single, submissive men…. we’ve decided to section off “Tribute Plots” which offer these men a way to support Matriarch and our community. These plots are far more expensive than your average land space in Second Life, but we feel it will help filter out those who would just want to live around us because we’re Dominas, and they think by living in Matriarch they’ll get something in return. Of course, it doesn’t work that way. Someone who rents a “Tribute Plot” is paying Matriarch tribute, supporting our growing community, and the only thing they will get in return is to be a small, appreciated part of the community….. it doesn’t mean we’ll dominate them or collar them, or do anything more than offer a smile and a thank you for the added support. So, I don’t expect these plots to go quickly…. or soon.
Okay, that’s a bit of typing, and I’ve been up all night…. I’m going to take a nap! 
