Andrew has created, nurtured, and destroyed many glittering kingdoms, but nowadays just tinkers with code, occasionally yelling like a madman at his scruffy NPC minions.
Tamita State
Tamita State is the central group of simulators on the Kingdom of Irukandji, a virtual continent that has existed from 2007 to the present day.
The Tamita tribal nation is the main hub and ‘capital’ of the continent. It has existed in all versions of Irukandji in Second Life, InWorldz, and DigiWorldz.
Tamita is the only state in Irukandji to have also existed on (the long defunct) SpotOn3D and You3D grids, and TAG Grid (formerly The Adult Grid).
That’s the real-life info out of the way. Let’s head in-world. 😁
Note: if you are trying to visit the current Irukandji world, the landing sim is Arius on the DigiWorldz grid. The region is hypergrid enabled for easy teleportation from other Open Simulator virtual worlds. If you have the Firestorm viewer, use this link to teleport to Arius.
History and culture
Like their ancient cousins in Aboyo and Weta, the native Tamita people are of Polynesian origin dating back around 3000 years.
The Irukandji islands were colonised by the British in 1853. At first, the capital was established at Old Fort Island in the south, however Tamita Island proved more central and became the capital in 1879.
Since independence, Tamita Island remains the capital city. It is also the main business district and home to monolithic sandstone mansion, Government House. Save for a floor of private residences, the building has been opened to the public and renamed Princes’ Palace.
Tamita and Tiamo
Tribal records detail how the south central region, Tiamo Reef was already occupied by a race of people who had been in the Irukandji islands for millenia. The Tiamo natives were friendly and welcoming, which proved to their detriment.
This historical marker stone has been placed on the site where the massacre and enslavement of the Tiamo people took place.
Tamita and Alantay Island
Other Polynesian peoples arrived by boat over the centuries, as well as Melanesians, and settled on the lands and seas of what is now called Tamita State. Alantay Island in particular gained a sudden influx of well over a hundred people.
A warrior race, the Tamita elders watched warily at first but the newcomers were merely fishermen. Tamita easily had the numbers to drive out the invaders, but equally, the ancient events on Tiamo Reef still cast a long shadow.
The elders met with the newcomers and delivered an ultimatum. Leave, or fight, or integrate. The latter entailed becoming a subordinate clan bound to Tamita. Alantay would adopt and obey the laws of the elders. Further, a percentage of their catch would be paid in tribute. Finally, one child in ten would be provided to the elders to be trained in the ways of war. If asked, these future Alantay warriors would raise arms to defend the islands.
The settlers agreed to Tamita’s terms. Thus began the first complex multiracial society in the South Pacific, 2000 years before the first Europeans arrived.
Tamita and Nouvelle Kiribas
Directly northwest of Tamita Island lies the annexed island of Nouvelle Kiribas. Its former native population died out in the 1600s.
Historians believe their extinction due to influenza, smallpox, or some other European disease. Local islanders however, know the truth.
It was punishment from the gods; one god in particular – Hiahungi.
Recent Tamita Chief Elders
The fifty-year reign of Tamita as Irukandji’s ruling House commenced in 1979 and will end in 2029. The reigning princes thus far have been:
- Savu de Tamita, 1960 – 2006 (reign over Irukandji commenced in 1979)
- Xay de Tamita, 2006 – 2014 (grandson of Savu)
- Karu Tamita, 2015 to present (nephew of Xay)
Islands and seas of Tamita
- Adonis Beach
- Adonis Lagoon
- Alantay Island
- Avion Beach
- Baie de l’Amore
- Blue Lagoon
- Iruka Bay
- Irukandji Straits
- Lagune d’Or
- Minoan Atolls
- Nouvelle Kiribas
- Papeete Island
- Tamita Bay
- Tamita Island
- Tiamo Reef
- Xanadu Island
Adonis Beach
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D 2011
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: adonis-beach110328
Adonis Beach is a region in central Irukandji that existed on the SpotOn3D grid during 2011. It adjoined the western shore of Tamita Bay, occupying the grid square previously held by Alantay Island in Second Life the previous year.
Adonis Beach takes its name from the northern beachfront suburb on Alantay Island of the same name.
With a small population, SpotOn3D was not particularly successful or busy. This proved challenging for me to keep the estate afloat for as long as I did, but the upside was that I had plenty of time to build.
Most of that building took place on Adonis Beach and I made several videos at the time teaching people how to use prims.
The Noumea, Toraboyo, Tuvalu, and Honiara houses were all developed from scratch here on this region.
They remain a popular product range on every version of the Irukandji Continent since, as well as in my shop on Kitely Market.
Adonis Lagoon
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2014
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: adonis-lagoon141103 | adonis-lagoon141116
Adonis Lagoon is a simulator on the InWorldz virtual world, located in Tamita State in the Kingdom of Irukandji.
Previously called Tamita Bay, the name Adonis Lagoon was already in use but only as a subdivision of the bay.
After the name change in early 2014, Adonis Lagoon was re-terraformed to fill in the central lagoon area and make it a flat parkland. The previous through-road was rerouted around the atoll’s perimeter.
The layout of Adonis Lagoon was that of a central low island surrounded by sea. A low range rose in the south of the island providing a privacy screen from Pinjarra Island, and built into the side of the hill were old temple ruins reclaimed by nature.
Inside the ruins, two springs trickled down into a marble-and-gold lined pool, with platforms around the side with various animations for visitors to enjoy.
On the eastern shore of Adonis Lagoon, knee-deep shallows surrounded by rocks, formed a lagoon, before rising to join the beach and grassy lawns of the palace on Tamita Island.
The effect was very regal and elegant, and the overall concept well received with many visitors frequenting the lagoon and its relaxation areas.
On a functional level, Adonis Lagoon was an important transport terminus for the kingdom.
The Inter Island Causeway entered from Tamita Island in the east then traced the outer northern perimeter of the island before continuing on to Alantay Island as a submerged causeway in the west. A fork of the underwater road also deviated north into Nouvelle Kiribas.
A branch of the Aboyo River terminated in Adonis Lagoon, entering from Pinjarra Island in the south, while the Maskari River flowed in from Nouvelle Kiribas in the north before entering Alantay Island.
Alantay Island
Alantay Island is a residential island in Tamita State in Central Irukandji. It has existed on two virtual world grids, Second Life and InWorldz. On the SpotOn3D grid, the space normally allocated to Alantay Island was only used for building and making video content. I named the sim Adonis Beach as a nod to one of the beaches on Alantay Island.
Alantay Island v1 (Second Life 2007-2009)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: alantay-island071019 | alantay-island080810
Alantay Island is located west of Tamita Bay and south of Baie de Citron, in Tamita State in Central Irukandji.
The sixth sim I built on the Irukandji continent in Second Life, Alantay Island was terraformed by hand. It stayed online on that grid for just nearly three years between 2007 and 2009.
Its design is a low lying atoll, criss-crossed with canals, which made the parcels appear to be small islands unto themselves. Alantay Island also featured a marina and waterfall playground.
Alantay Island was the second sim on which I offered land for sale. Its existence came about primarily because I wanted to relocate a tenant from Tamita Island for redevelopment.
I subdivided Alantay Island and sold the parcels for 22L per square metre PLUS rent. 22 Linden $ was an obscenely high price for land but I wanted to test market demand. The Irukandji Continent was a new type of product. Nothing remotely similar existed in Second Life at the time.
A raging success
Reality exceeded my wildest hopes, and Alantay Island sold out in two weeks. At the time, this was an SL record – only beaten by Grand Irukandji six months later. Alantay’s popularity spawned several new islands afterward which enjoyed similar success.
At its peak, Alantay Island supported a population of around 60 people from USA, England, France, Turkey, Italy, Germany, and New Zealand. Properties rarely changed hands on Alantay Island and when they did, land sold for a premium.
In early 2008, one 4096 sqm parcel changed hands between residents for $1250 USD – not game dollars but US Dollars. That was the type of money being thrown around for quality virtual land before the GFC.
Alantay Island proved extremely popular and few islands – perhaps Tamita Island, Grand Irukandji and Hephaestion – would ever match its cult following. The majority of Alantay’s residents remained there throughout the region’s entire life.
During Alantay Island‘s next incarnation on the InWorldz grid four years later, it would again prove popular with residents, but nothing like these magical times in 2007/08 when virtual worlds were new.
Alantay Island v2 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: alantay-island141103 | alantay-island141116
Located west across Tamita Bay (later Adonis Lagoon) from Irukandji’s capital, Tamita Island, Alantay Island is a busy and popular island.
This is the second version of Alantay Island, and when I created it, I wanted to remain entirely faithful to the feel and culture of its previous incarnation in Second Life.
That said, I opted to hand-terraform the sim rather than use its old .raw file. The result was very successful. If anything, this version of Alantay Island was more beautiful and definitely better laid out.
From the east, Alantay Island connected with Tamita Bay via the Inter Island Causeway, which ended at a terminus mid-island.
The Maskari River also passed through the island from Kalua Bay in the north to Tamita Bay in the east. A second branch of the river also flowed south into Pinjarra Shoals.
During its eighteen month life on the InWorldz virtual world, Alantay Island enjoyed near full occupancy. Around ten landowners from USA, UK, Germany, and Australia called the island home.
Avion Beach
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013
- Use: Mixed
- Terrain: avion-beach130415
Avion Beach was my first sim on the InWorldz grid. Initially, the idea was NOT to produce another Irukandji continent, but rather to continue an angel-based mythic theme which I had been experimenting with on Boobero sim in Second Life just days earlier.
The only problem was that the more I tried to escape Irukandji, the more it came back to haunt me. This was compounded by the fact that everyone around me was from ‘old Irukandji’ so really I had no chance.
So, after about a week, I gave up on the new theme. I changed Avion’s name to Tamita Island, and Irukandji v2 began (or v4 really but that’s a long story).
Only one photograph survives from that first week in InWorldz of me and Andi stuffing about while we set up the island.
That was the life span of Avion Beach, so alas it fades into ethereal obscurity.
Baie de l’Amore
The simulator, Baie de l’Amore is a region in Tamita State in central Irukandji. It has existed in one form or another in every version of the Irukandji Continent and on every grid.
Baie de l’Amore v1 (Second Life 2007-2010)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: baie-de-lamore071012 | baie-de-lamore080810
Baie de l’Amore directly abuts Romeo Beach on the northern shore of the capital, Tamita Island. The fourth sim I developed on the Irukandji continent, I designed and terraformed it by hand.
Baie de l’Amore is an unpopulated deepwater bay with a central volcanic crater called Ragnarok Island.
Inside the crater is the Xavier T Gallery, which houses my paintings and drawings. Visitors can walk around the boardwalks inside the crater and view them like a real art gallery. This represented my first attempt at seamlessly integrating the traditional 2D web with virtual worlds.*
*That ambition never quite succeeded and sixteen years later in 2023 as I update this page, the tech nerds of the world still haven’t done so.*
Partly due to the real-life emotions contained in my art gallery, and also because of the region’s strategic location between three other significant sims, Baie de l’Amore holds a special place in the local myths and legends of the islands.
Explorer’s paradise
Baie de l’Amore is a popular technical sailing bay due to its submerged causeways and reefs, and a crashed airliner in one of the deep troughs is a delight for divers to explore over 100 breeds of tropical fish and sharks.
Baie de l’Amore is also a major terminus along the Trans Irukandji Causeway, which exits the region west into Grand Irukandji, north into Convict Island, and west into Nouvelle Kiribas.
Much of the roadway is permanently underwater throughout the sim, making it traversable only by 4WD or amphib.
The Maskari River passes through the western edge of Baie de l’Amore and in the north forks to join with the Odin River that travels through Valkyrie Shoals and the north of Irukandji.
Regions neighbouring Baie de l’Amore, clockwise from south, are Tamita Island, Tamita Bay, Nouvelle Kiribas, Valkyrie Shoals, Convict Island, Tongabuti Bay, Grand Irukandji, and Minoan Atolls.
The concept and layout of Baie de l’Amore proved very popular and I would go on to use its terrain file as the template for more than 50 future sims.
Towards the end of the life of Irukandji v1 on Second Life, I began to downsize the estate. Briefly towards the end, I relocated the Kalamat Naval Base to the lee of the central mountain.
In 2013, when I created Irukandji v2 on the InWorldz virtual world, I also created a new version of Baie de l’Amore. Except for the art gallery, the neve version was very much based on the old.
Baie de l’Amore v2 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: Baie de l’Amore .raw
Baie de l’Amore is a deep water sailing bay with a central island, Ragnarok Crater, the remnants of a long extinct volcano. The region is part of Tamita State in Central Irukandji.
The Maskari River passes through Baie de l’Amore from Tamita Island in the south into Nouvelle Kiribas in the west.
Baie de l’Amore is a particularly photogenic region. I used the sim frequently for modelling women’s swimwear for my various stores.
A long bamboo walking bridge links the mainland Tamita Island to the summit of Ragnarok Crater. At night, the 100 metre tall lighthouse can be seen from every corner of the kingdom.
Terraforming on Baie de l’Amore used the SL .raw file of the same name as a foundation, however where the previous version had a hollow crater and pool in the middle, the this iteration had a solid mountain.
Baie de l’Amore adjoined Tamita Bay to the southwest (later Adonis Lagoon), Lagune d’Or to the southeast (later Irukandji Straits), and Grand Irukandji to the east.
In the final months of this region’s life in InWorldz, I changed the layout and name to Blue Lagoon.
Blue Lagoon
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2014
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: blue-lagoon141116
Originally named Baie de l’Amore, Blue Lagoon is a sim on the InWorldz grid, located in Tamita State in Central Irukandji.
The name change came about towards the end of my stay in InWorldz. The previous sim had a lot of history attached to it, both on this grid and in its earlier form in Second Life. I wanted to draw a line beneath that past and move on.
I terraformed the large central caldera down to a tidal shoal. The deep channels surrounding it became a waist-deep lagoon. Visually, it appeared to be a large northern beach of Tamita Island, just as Adonis Lagoon was in the west.
I added extra regions to the east to create a new ocean and land mass beyond.
During its brief life, Blue Lagoon proved popular with visitors and locals as a hangout and meeting place; an alternative to the gay-themed Adonis Lagoon a few sims away. The region did look quite spectacular and I achieved what I’d set out to do.
In part, Blue Lagoon’s success made me realise I was on the wrong grid. Trying to build contiguous regions with beaches in the next sim was not well-supported by InWorldz tech of the day.
I realised that I needed to start dabbling with var-regions to eliminate the sim stitching and border crossing issues. Given IWs dwindling grid population, coupled with the aforementioned problems convinced me to give up on InWorldz and start my own grid, Reef VR, which I did the following year.
Iruka Bay
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D 2011
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: iruka-bay110328 | iruka-bay111213
The simulator, Iruka Bay was a scenic region on the SpotOn3D grid during 2011.
Iruka Bay was located south of Tamita Island and west of Kanua Island, in the grid square previously occupied by Tiamo Reef in Second Life.
This grid was a ‘bridging’ virtual world where I experimented with an early version of OpenSim to test its viability. For that reason, I chose the name Iruka Bay so it wouldn’t impact the traditional Irukandji history of the islands.
Irukandji Straits
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2014
- Use: Deepwater scenic
- Terrain: irukandji-straits141116
Located in Central Irukandji, Irukandji Straits was an open sea on the InWorldz virtual world grid during 2014.
A deep-water sea and thoroughfare between Aboyo Island and Old Fort Island, its western shore abutted Irukandji’s capital, Tamita Island.
Consisting entirely of water, its visual appearance was unremarkable, however the view from the sea of the surrounding sims was quite breathtaking.
Irukandji Straits was an unintentional sim, or I guess a reactionary sim, in that it had existed in a previous form, Lagune d’Or for quite some time before its inception, but I was forced to change it.
In mid 2014, with Tamita Island becoming densely commercial, coupled with the addition of a new residential sim, Aboyo Island, directly south of it, Lagune d’Or needed to be changed.
The effort was largely in vain though and the life span of Irukandji Straits relatively short as my time in InWorldz was coming to an end. I am glad, however, that I changed its name in order to underline the past and preserve its previous history.
As a result, while many people enjoyed using the bay to the east of Irukandji’s capital, most will remember it as the pretty sandbar-strewn bay, Lagune d’Or, rather than the deep-water sea-lane, Irukandji Straits.
Lagune d’Or
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Recreational
- Terrain: lagune-dor140411
While many of the Irukandji sims, such as Tamita Island, Alantay Island etc retained the names I had used in SL, I decided to call this region something new as I had never been comfortable with the ill-fitting Greek reference of the old name, Minoan Atolls. I also wanted to continue playing with the theme that the Kingdom of Irukandji was incredibly wealthy, hence its sometimes-ridiculously grandiose gold and marble architecture – which I love btw 🙂 The mythology behind the kingdom’s vast riches was that somewhere in the realm lay a secret seafloor made of gold.
Back in SL, I had started this theme with the sim, Palace Lagoon. This time, and again drawing on French colonial influences in the Pacific, I went with a French name, Lagune d’Or, or ‘lagoon of gold’. On the surface of the bay, the terrain looked standard fare, but if you dived down amongst the fish, you could catch the occasional glimpse of gold poking up through a thin layer of sand. Its existence wasn’t advertised, but nor was it a secret. It was just one of those nice little surprises for people who took the time to explore, and part of the reason that Irukandji had – and continues to have – such a cult following.
Lagune d’Or in InWorldz 2013-2014
One of my favourite regions of all time, Lagune d’Or is located in Central Irukandji. It was an active and popular recreational sim on the InWorldz virtual world grid during 2013 and 2014.
A shallow sea, its western shore abutted Irukandji’s capital, Tamita Island, providing a beautiful quiet beach on the east coast of the busy island.
During Irukandji’s earlier incarnation in Second Life, I had always enjoyed the peaceful bay to the east of Tamita Island, then named Minoan Atolls. When it came time to rebuild the continent on the InWorldz grid, I decided to use exactly the same terrain for Lagune d’Or, and again it worked very well.
In mid 2014, with Tamita Island becoming densely commercial, I changed the eastern beachfront of Tamita Island in order to accommodate more shops and to broaden the royal canal. This meant removing the beach it shared with Lagune d’Or and changing its layout as well.
Lagune d’Or became a deep sailing sea. I deliberately changed its name to the generic sounding Irukandji Straits in order to preserve Lagune d’Or‘s history.
Minoan Atolls
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Light Residential
- Terrain: minoan-atolls080703
Located in Tamita State in central Irukandji , Minoan Atolls was the fifth sim that I built in Second Life, coming online in early 2007. Like all the early Irukandji sims, it was designed and terraformed by hand.
Hugging the east coast of the capital, Tamita Island, Minoan Atolls was intended as a recreational bay to escape the hustle and bustle. It consisted of beaches on all sides with a small flat island at its centre.
Popular for snorkelling and swimming, I thought that a small landing strip for light aircraft might make a nice addition. The idea worked well, with several residents buying planes and helicopters to tour around the islands.
Around the same time, cars and 4x4s were really starting to take off in SL. Pre-empting its effect in Irukandji, I began building a rustic ‘bush highway’, with Minoan Atolls at its centre, providing a handy intersection for residents of the surrounding islands.
Birth of the Trans Irukandji Causeway
The network of roads spread quickly into Tamita Island in the west, Grand Irukandji in the north, and Mount Aboyo Island in the south.
Unknown to me then, these early roads would become the forerunners to a 31 kilometre-long road network connecting all 55 islands, called the Trans Irukandji Causeway.
When the combined ground and air traffic began to prove too much to manage, the airstrip was moved to Hephaestion, which could accommodate much larger aircraft.
The central island of Minoan Atolls was then re-terraformed to create a larger atoll, which housed the Irukandji Public Works depot for southern Irukandji.
Once all the surrounding road construction was finished, the island was offered up for residential use. A couple of lovely German guys built a magnificent homestead on the island and remained there forever.
The adjoining shore with Tamita Island never changed throughout the life of Irukandji and remained a popular playground beach for locals.
Throughout its life, Minoan Atolls remained a vital section of the Trans Irukandji Causeway. Yet despite all of its grand functionality, the sim retained its ‘banana republic’ charm, and everything blended in surprisingly well.
Geographically and functionally, Minoan Atolls was an extremely integral part of Irukandji in Second Life, and I look back on the sim with great affection.
With all of the above said, I was never happy with the name of this sim. The Greek reference in the South Pacific made no sense. Years later, when I rebuilt Irukandji on the InWorldz grid, I successfully reproduced the look and feel of Minoan Atolls as the sim, Lagune d’Or.
Nouvelle Kiribas
Nouvelle Kiribas is an simulated region in Tamita State in central Irukandji. It has existed on the Second Life and InWorldz virtual worlds.
Nouvelle Kiribas v1 (SL 2007-2009)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: nouvelle-kiribas080810 | nouvelle-kiribas090711
Nouvelle Kiribas was the seventh region that I built on the Irukandji Continent in Second Life.
It was designed by hand, initially as a tiered mastaba-shaped steppe island to cater for residents who wanted an elevated view. This didn’t garner much interest, so I smoothed out the steppes and took the mountain’s elevation to 120 metres.
Around the base of the monolithic tor, which I named Mount Kiribati, I subdivided the entire island’s permimeter into parcels for sale.
I knew that Nouvelle Kiribas wasn’t going to be a fast seller like mainstream islands such as Alantay Island had been, but I wanted some unique landscapes on the estate and I was happy to play the long game.
Unusual is cool!
Nouvelle Kiribas was the first of its kind, and beyond doubt, the most recognisable island in the kingdom. It set a precedent and showed the outside world that Irukandji was different to other estates.
Other unusual islands like Mount Aboyo Island and Grand Irukandji would follow in the footsteps of Nouvelle Kiribas and they too would prove to be very successful regions.
Nouvelle Kiribas remained largely unchanged over the years except to fill in the pool at the island’s centre, and to forge a channel through the mountain for the Maskari River to flow.
Initially, the Maskari travelled west from Baie de l’Amore then turned north to outflow into Valkyrie Shoals.
Mid 2008, I dredged the river and sealed its banks in marble-and-gold to match the regal redesign of neighbouring Boyfriend Beach, and extended this royal waterway south to Tamita Bay.
The name, Nouvelle Kiribas means New Kiribati. Natives of Kiribati in the real world, pronounce it ‘Kiribas’ which is pidgin for ‘Gilberts’, i.e. when Kiribati was called Gilbert Island.
Nouvelle Kiribas was well supported throughout its life, and naturally, when the time came to build Irukandji v2 on the InWorldz grid some years later, Nouvelle Kiribas was part of that incarnation, very much as it had been before.
Nouvelle Kiribas v2 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: nouvelle-kiribas130910 | nouvelle-kiribas141116
This is the second incarnation of Nouvelle Kiribas, following on the history and traditions of the previous sim from 2007 in Second Life.
I used the earlier version as the terrain template, then morphed it considerably to suit the new grid, however the central mountain remained.
Nouvelle Kiribas was connected to the rest of the Irukandji islands via the Inter Island Causeway, which ran underwater from Tamita Bay.
The Maskari River ran through the Nouvelle Kiribas from Baie de l’Amore in the east to Tamita Bay in the south. A junction forked off to the west to Kalua Bay.
During its eighteen months on the InWorldz grid, Nouvelle Kiribas was very popular and well tenanted throughout by Australian and US residents.
Papeete Island
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D 2011
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: papeete-island110330
I spent a lot of time working on Papeete Island. It was hand terraformed and didn’t use any concepts previously employed in Second Life.
Papeete Island is not part of the traditional Irukandji story. It was located directly northwest of Tamita Island, in the space occupied by Nouvelle Kiribas in all other renditions of the estate.
Also different was the landscape. Instead of an island with a dominant central peak, Papeete Island was flat with canals between each parcel.
Six parcels of varying sizes made up the island and three were occupied during the island’s life.
When I rebuilt the Irukandji Continent in InWorldz two years later, I returned to the original name, Nouvelle Kiribas, and also its design concept, i.e. Mount Kiribati, the tall central mountain.
Tamita Bay
Tamita Bay is a recreational region in Tamita State in central Irukandji. It has existed on all versions of the Irukandji Continent in Second Life, SpotOn3D, You3D, and InWorldz.
Tamita Bay v1 (Second Life 2007-2009)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: tamita-island071009 (edit: link is possibly incorrect)
Abutting the western beach of Tamita Island, Tamita Bay was the second sim on the Irukandji Continent.
Tamita Bay was initially a broad shallow bay dotted with islets, and the most famous of those was Seahorse Atoll, named for its shape. A knee-deep stroll from Tamita Island or Alantay Island, deck chairs and umbrellas dotted the sandbar.
At night I would set up slow dance animations and piped old romantic classics through the estate radio station.
Locals from across Irukandji would migrate there at days end to meet up and just chat the night away.
Tamita Bay was also incredibly popular with new couples. Many inworld romances took root on the majestic little atoll at the centre of the bay. Tamita Bay truly was a magical playground.
Like Baie de l’Amore, which was thankfully never altered, Tamita Bay represented the true essence of Irukandji.
Over the next few years, the bay was deepened for sailing and eventually the little atoll had to go. Boating and water sports became so popular that a sailing club was inevitable, and in late 2008, the Royal Irukandji Yacht Club was constructed on Tamita Island facing Tamita Bay.
Underwater also came alive with the relocation of the Irukandji Fish Farm from Manatu Island to Tamita Bay.
Tamita Bay v2 (SpotOn3D/You3D 2011)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D/You3D 2011
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: tamita-bay110328
Tamita Bay on the SpotOn3D virtual world is located in central Irukandji, occupying the same grid square that it did in Second Life two years earlier.
My time on the SpotOn3D grid was short so perhaps few people apart from the estate team remember many of the islands there, however a lot of content in use today, as well as terraforming concepts, began their life there.
Tamita Bay was pivotal to that.
Significantly, the Tamita Surf Club building design began life on Tamita Bay. Essentially, a heavily modified cut-down version of the massive ten storey palace on neighbouring Tamita Island, the interior was then hollowed out to form a staircase, pool, and rooftop club area.
Outside, the building was slightly raised above the surrounding landscape, with lots of space around it. This isolation made it stand out like a monument which gave off a very regal aura.
I recycled the building many times over in the future; Korumburra and Boobero in 2012, Tamita Island in InWorldz in 2013, Starfish Reef in 2015, Aratura City in 2017, and Arius in 2021.
Tamita Bay v3 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Recreational
- Terrain: Tamita Bay .raw
Tamita Bay on the InWorldz grid continues the Irukandji story faithfully. It fills the exact same grid space as it occupied in Second Life and SpotOn3D.
The design of Tamita Bay in InWorldz draws its layout concept from its very worthy predecessor on SpotOn3D two years before, i.e. a central social area servicing the palace district on Tamita Island, connected by a land bridge.
In the earlier version, this was achieved with an elevating walk way, giving off a very regal and formal air, while in this new version of Tamita Bay, I opted to make the link via a less formal finger of land.
At the centre of Tamita Bay, a large lagoon is surrounded by low grass dunes. The effect I aimed for was one of nature reclaiming a lost temple ruin from long ago, and to that end, the bottom of the lagoon had a luxurious black marble floor.
This area was subdivided from the surrounding bay and called Adonis Lagoon to give the parcel a sense of seclusion and romance. The effect was really quite beautiful and the area well utilised by locals and visitors.
That magic made Tamita Bay an ideal backdrop for photo shoots as well. Many of my product boxes and land promo posters featured the pretty lagoon, and many avatar, both local and tourists, took their profile photos there.
Inter Island Causeway
Tamita Bay was also a major hub for getting around the islands.
Irukandji’s bush highway, the Inter Island Causeway crossed through the edge of the lagoon, connecting Tamita Island in the east with Alantay Island in the west.
The waters of Tamita Bay arrived via the Maskari River from Nouvelle Kiribas in the north and Alantay Island, and the Aboyo River in the south via Pinjarra Island and Tiamo Reef.
Around half way through my time in InWorldz, I re-themed parts of the estate to attract new visitors, and the affected sims were renamed in order to protect their previous heritage.
Tamita Bay was one of those sims, which in early 2014 assumed the name of its prior subdivision, Adonis Lagoon.
Tamita Island
The unrivalled sim that is Tamita Island, is the capital of the Kingdom of Irukandji. It began as a stand-alone region before Irukandji was even conceived. Tamita Island became very popular very quickly. As a result, more regions were added, and thus Irukandji was born.
Tamita Island has existed in every version of Irukandji, in Second Life (twice), SpotOn3D, You3D, InWorldz, and even briefly – though not listed here – in TAG (a.k.a. The Adult Grid) and DigiWorldz.
Tamita Island is central to everything culturally and has an enormous amount of in-game traditions. Exotic – and some would argue, needlessly erotic – roleplay outfits are the norm on Tamita Island, which is home to the Princes of Irukandji, the Royal Tamita Marines, and the Tamita 42nd Royal Irukandji Navy.
It is also the central business district. This has caused problems in the past given that all of the businesses can no longer fit on one region, or even two for that matter.
As I write this intro in 2023, I acknowledge freely that it will be a struggle to keep this section of the page concise.
The name Tamita is taken from ‘Tamita Shoals’ an uninhabited island haven in my as-yet-unpublished Khataria series of novels.
Tamita Island v1 (Second Life 2007-2010)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2010
- Use: Dense Mixed
- Terrain: tamita-island071009 | tamita-island080813
Tamita Island is the capital of Tamita State and also the capital of Irukandji.
After a month or two learning the basics on Amelia Island, my first home in Second Life, I set out to build my own estate.
Tamita Island in Second Life was where Irukandji physically began. It was the very first sim I made.
For my first year in SL, Tamita Island consumed me completely, literally every waking hour as I honed my skills at construction and fashion design.
The towering Tamita Mall build on Sunset Beach was my first major construction on the island in early 2007.
In hindsight, though basic, it was quite impressive for the time with its slow spinning billboards on the roof and a boardwalk that led to rental houses on Barramundi Beach.
I added an outdoor dance club called Lava and forest walks across the island, and soon I had dozens of people flittering about the place and making new friendships. Tamita Island soon took on a resort feel. I was happy with that and aptly named it the Chez Xay Tropical Island Resort.
Transition to kingdom
The early days were great fun as I learned to manipulate textures and objects, while meeting people from all around the world as they dropped in to check out my little sanctuary and to shop at the mall.
People began staying at the resort and soon it became too full to take any more. So I started selling land and the rest as they say, is history.
Personally though, I never set out to become a land baron. In fact, it was the last thing I wanted. I came into SL to explore a new medium, to build, to create. And on Tamita Island, I did. During my time on Tamita, I created thousands and thousands of things, and sold them in massive numbers.
Throughout Tamita Island’s history, it remained the centre of the Irukandji Continent, even when the Princes (the estate staff) moved to the faraway Boyfriend Beach sim.
A palace always featured on Tamita Island and there were fifteen variations over the three years of its online life.
Cawarral Mansion was the first and then the larger version Rockhampton House. Both were designed in the colonial style to represent Irukandji’s history of British occupation before it gained independence.
As better graphics arrived, the resolution improved dramatically rendering every pre-2008 build obsolete, even grass and trees.
Tamita Island and its palaces and landscapes – everything – were levelled and rebuilt to suit the new viewer resolution.
But that’s all I’m going to say of Tamita Island for now. I could write a million words about this sim alone. It pops up many times on other pages on the site so I won’t overdo it here, except to say that it remains truly special in my heart.
Tamita Island v2 (SpotOn3D/You3D 2011)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D/You3D 2011
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: tamita-island12011
This version of Tamita Island existed on the SpotOn3D virtual world in 2011, and then later that year on the You3D grid.
This wasn’t a popular mainstream version of Tamita Island as SpotOn3D was a low density grid. A slow train wreck really, but I digress.
This period of time between Second Life and InWorldz was more about building content than gaining residents, and this iteration of Tamita Island was extremely important.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that Irukandji in InWorldz would not have been the success that it was, if not for the time I spent crafting Tamita Island and the adjoining Tamita Bay on this grid.
Lessons learned
I had made a lot of teething mistakes in Second Life. Fifteen times I re-terraformed and rebuilt Tamita Island, and in the end, I would up wrecking it. The exercise left me pained and I needed two years off from virtual worlds just to clear my mind.
When I came back, I looked for a quiet home. A relatively new grid with big dreams, SpotOn3D seemed to tick all the boxes. I worked out what land features I wanted and I terraformed them, then I worked out what buildings I wanted and I built them.
I deliberately made Tamita Island and Tamita Bay interdependent. Tamita Bay would be the main island’s playground, and Tamita Island would be over-the-top opulence on an unimagined scale. And I must say, I succeeded.
Out in Tamita Bay, the surf club was a monument to ridiculous wealth. A marble bridge joined it to the mainland where one walked past a pool fed by waterfalls. Tall columns with potted ferns and Roman candles surrounded the pool and at its centre, stood a gold and marble lifeguard tower for the protection of its wealthy bathers.
This was all just window dressing. Beyond the pool, central to the island and rising impossibly from the tropical jungle stood the massive ten-storey Princes’ Palace.
Jumping ship
Around this time, mid 2011, SpotOn3D started to go a bit wonky. People were talking about patents and law suits against the owners etc. I made the decision to build my own offline virtual world. I saved my landscape .raw file, and then I packed up my unfinished builds as .xml files to my hard drive. With fingers crossed and having never started a grid, I said goodbye to SpotOn3D.
I named my new grid You3D. After a week I’d ironed out most of the bugs and it was ready to play with.
I uploaded my .raw files and .xml files. I had lost all my textures which was an immense pain but another two days saw that fixed. We were back to where we left off.
Behind the palace, I built a broad columned skywalk. This led down to a private beach and apartments that faced the sunset. At 1700 prims – at a time when we still had a maximum prim size limit of ten metres – the palace was a terribly impractical building but dang it was beautiful to behold.
Beside all this regal magnificence, I then built a submarine base, a bath house, soldiers’ barracks, and another swimming pool. Over the next six months, I tweaked and re-tweaked until I had the version of Tamita Island that I wanted. The pictures speak for themselves.
A measured meltdown
I had a few months off – writing articles for Wikipedia of all things – and then returned to Second Life in 2012.
Twelve months later when I migrated to InWorldz, the You3D version of Tamita Island and Tamita Bay were the builds and landscapes I began with.
I did end up knocking a few floors off the palace, but really, not much else. And I have to say, over the two years I spent in InWorldz, I hardly terraformed the island at all.
Tamita Island v3 (Second Life 2012)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2012
- Use: Mixed
- Terrain: Tamita Island
Probably best remembered as Valhalla Gold due to the enormous resort on the island, this version of Tamita Island was a standalone region and always intended to be temporary. Its was just a place to hide and think while I worked out what I wanted to do next.
After Valhalla Gold, I bought a handful of mainland sims in SL while I continued my journey of personal renewal. A few months after that, I built the new Irukandji Continent v2 in InWorldz.
There isn’t much more that I can say about Valhalla Gold. It holds no special place in my heart and was never really part of the Irukandji story. Few would remember it apart from the estate team.
Nonetheless, Valhalla Gold is part of the history, so it has a place on this page.
Tamita Island v4 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Dense Mixed
- Terrain: tamita-island141101
This version of Tamita Island, created on the InWorldz virtual world in 2013, is a faithful continuation of the traditions and history of its predecessor in SL six years earlier.
It is probably sacrilegious to say this, but I think this version of Tamita Island and its surrounding bays and seas was the best rendition of them all.
The terrain of Tamita Island was based on the original 2007 template of its previous self in Second Life, then later tweaked in SpotOn3D in 2011. Over time, minor changes were made but the overall feel stayed much the same.
Drawing on architectural concepts I first devised on Boyfriend Beach in SL back in 2008, Tamita Island became a majestic jewel, rivalling the original in virtually every way.
Princes’ Palace
Naturally, the Princes’ Palace was the focus of Tamita Island.
In its initial form, I recreated the steppe palace and grounds that I designed in Tamita Island on the SpotOn3D grid in 2011.
Over the months, I swapped back and forth between the ten-storey megalithic palace and the smaller bath house, which I had further tweaked earlier that year on Boobero. Both buildings looked suitably fantastic but the palace was too big and the bath house lacked privacy.
Within a few months, I upcycled the four storey palace I had built on Boyfriend Beach in 2008. I gutted the ground floor, leaving it open-plan, which took design queues from the 2011 lifesaving club on Tamita Bay in SpotOn3D.
The end result in the picture below is the Tamita Island that most people would remember. The palace with its manicured foregrounds became the centre-point of the island and the entire kingdom.
Tamita Island was exceptionally busy. During its peak in 2014, 48,000 unique visitors, out of a total grid population of 100,000 avatars, visited Tamita Island. With a huge marina and dozens of shops of all varieties, Tamita Island really was a gem.
The Maskari River was a particular masterpiece, with its gold-lined marble banks and arched footbridges leading from one manicured park to the next. The river itself ran east-west from Lagune d’Or to Tamita Bay, and north-south from Baie de l’Amore to Tiamo Reef.
The Inter Island Causeway also traversed the island with several local streets linking it to all corners of the island.
I could write an entire book on this island, but I won’t. Suffice to say, I look back on this perfect region with great affection and thousands of memories.
Tiamo Reef
The simulator, Tiamo Reef has existed on two virtual worlds, Second Life and InWorldz as detailed below.
Tiamo Reef v1 (Second Life 2007-2009)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: Second Life 2007-2009
- Use: Light Residential
- Terrain: tiamo-reef080810
Tiamo Reef was the third sim built on the Irukandji continent in Second Life. But it was more than just another simulator. It was a lesson in psychology. By this point, something deep, and a little dark, was happening.
So, charged with all this artistic angst, Tiamo Reef sent me on a very personal journey, and essentially, created the Irukandji story.
At some point, I realised that virtual worlds were no longer just an artistic distraction but had become part of my real life. It was a leap at first but eventually I stopped trying to justify my weird feelings to others and just accepted it.
I’d invested so much of my artistic and spiritual self into Tamita Island, and then Tamita Bay, and my deep emotional attachment felt very real. A sudden philosophical realisation struck me. In creating so much content and manipulating the (virtual) land, I had in fact wrought destruction by building a pristine island then morphing it merely to serve my personal ends.
The WHITE INVADER
I felt like the ‘white invader’ forcing himself on nature like the colonialists of old. I knew I was being hard on myself as 85% of Tamita Island remained virgin forest and there was no actual native population, but still.
When it came time to make Tiamo Reef, I saw it as a canvas to express my self-disappointment. I imagined it to have once been the home of a local tribe who were driven to extinction by an invading neighbour who plundered their resources and bonded them into slavery. I wrote the story and erected a monument, Tiamo Reef Memorial.
Feeling immensely satisfied, I realised there was a much bigger story inside me. My brain started popping. By appeasing my purely-imagined white guilt, I had stimulated my inner fiction writer.
I began looking at Irukandji in a new light, as a cluster of tribal regions with different yet intermingled histories and cultures. The concept of a post-colonial kingdom took form – a kingdom with no king – and my estate team became the Princes of Irukandji.
It all began with Tiamo Reef. The memory of my deep introspection of the time, and of the support I received from my land owners as the continent morphed from just a collection of sims into a living roleplay novel, still touches me fifteen years on.
Tiamo Reef v2 (InWorldz 2013-2014)
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: InWorldz 2013-2014
- Use: Scenic
- Terrain: tiamo-reef141112
The simulator, Tiamo Reef is a scenic region on the InWorldz grid, located in Tamita State in central Irukandji. It occupies its previous position from the continent in Second Life.
Tiamo Reef is predominantly open sea with a small islet near its northern shore with Irukandji’s capital, Tamita Island.
The most noticeable differences between Tiamo Reef in InWorldz versus its predecessor in Second Life is that this version has no central island and is not connected to the national road system. There is also a distinct lack of history, monuments and so forth.
Maintaining the mythology and histories of Irukandji that I nurtured in SL, proved difficult in IW due to my focus on building content, and as such I figured that it was better to preserve the past and not taint it with a half-hearted copy.
To that end, I made Tiamo Reef an open sea but did preserve some of the blue coral underwater features as a nod to its former self. I considered putting the monument on the sea bed but that seemed just a bit too sentimental and cheesy – even for Irukandji. 😁
Tiamo Reef was a truly beautiful sim, and complimented all the other regions that lapped its shores. It was a popular bay for photo shoots and boating throughout its eighteen months in InWorldz.
Regions that adjoined Tiamo Reef, clockwise from south, where Manatu Island, Savage Bay, Pinjarra Island, Tamita Bay (later Adonis Lagoon), Tamita Island, Lagune d’Or (later Irukandji Straits), Mount Aboyo (later Aboyo Island), and South Irukandji Sea.
Xanadu Island
- Size: 6.5536 hectares
- Grid: SpotOn3D 2011
- Use: Residential
- Terrain: xanadu-island110328
Xanadu Island was a residential island on the SpotOn3D grid for three months during 2011. It is not part of the traditional Irukandji story.
It was located directly northeast of Tamita Island, in the space occupied by Grand Irukandji in all other versions of Irukandji estate.
The landscape however was quite similar to GI, with long flat beaches on the western shore and hills behind.
Parcels of land were offered for sale on Xanadu Island, and the western beach in particular enjoyed quite decent occupancy.
I rebuilt the Irukandji estate in 2013 in InWorldz and returned to the Grand Irukandji concepts. The name Xanadu Island was never used again.
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