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@blackthornlegacysims3
Intro Post and Links
Welcome to the Blackthorn Legacy, a sims 3 ultimate decades challenge starting in the year 1300 and spanning to the modern day. Rules are based on morbidgamer's rules for the sims 4 with tweaks for sims 3 gameplay and my own preferences.
I'm currently in the first generation of this challenge and will update this post with more links as I go.
Family Tree (Spoilers up to 1315)
By Decade:
1300s | 1300-1309 Recap | 1310s
By Generation:
Gen 1
1314 - Part 1
It’s February, and Benedict has been spending a lot of time with Elyanore this winter! They both love the cold and there’s not much farm work to be done when the ground is covered in snow, so the two get lots of bonding time.
Benedict is really starting to develop feelings for the girl from far away, he even got a special gift made for her on her birthday.
“New skates?!” She squealed.
“Well, your old ones were beat up and barely fit, I thought you could use a new pair.”
“But it must of cost a fortune.” Elyanore bit her lip nervously.
“Don’t worry about it.”
And so the two spent the rest of their winter skating together whenever they could, sometimes Benedict’s siblings would come along too, many times it was just the young lovers, who hadn’t really confessed their feelings for each other, but they didn’t really have to, they both knew they were in love.
One day, they were holding hands and looking in each other’s eyes, when Adam Fletcher showed up, he shoved Benedict away from Elyanore, and started slapping her in the face, yelling at her!
Benedict would not take anyone laying hands on his girl, so he squared up with the boy, easily beating him in a physical fight, Elyanore laughed when Adam lost.
Previous - 1313 Part 4 / Next
A/N: The ‘fight’ interaction wasn’t showing up, the only mean interaction I could do was ‘scare’ so I scared him a bunch of times lol. Also I think the reason he came up and slapped her was because they were briefly dating due to story progression though they never made it official, they were just flirting, so like, Adam’s kinda a red flag…
1313 - Part 4
It’s now been over a year since John’s death, and 3 years since Anabel has passed, and Elliot hasn’t left the house, other than to tend to the animals.
Realizing it’s been an entire year since he’s properly gone outside, he decides to visit the church graveyard, talk to his wife, apologize to her. He still feels guilty about what happened to John, the baby that had caused Anabel’s death, and he couldn’t even keep it alive.
A part of him though, knows that he’s causing more harm to his remaining family by laying in bed all day, not providing for them like a father should.
Elliot decides to finally ease back into life by accompanying the boys and Amphelise on a fishing trip, they’re glad to see him getting out of the house, but Benedict is still somewhat resentful towards him, as he’s only 13 and has had to run the household for the past year thanks to Elliot’s depression.
Amphelise gets her own little win as she’s able to catch a small fish all by herself!
Benedict might be having a rough patch with his sister right now, but he still wants her cat to be well, so he makes sure to entertain and care for Tibers when he can.
Tibers is started to hunt other things than household mice, even taking down a snake and eating it!
Bridget’s relationship with Adam is…complicated to say the least.
Previous - 1313 Part 3 / Next - 1314 Part 1
1313 - Part 3
It looks to be a rough morning for multiple members of the family today, Hawise is throwing tantrums and Bridget is irritated, seems they woke up on the wrong side of their beds.
Bridget decides to take her anger out on her twin brother, she’s sick of his indifference and ‘holier than thou’ attitude.
“What’s wrong with you? You’re not even sad about mother, you’re not sad about John, or any of our lost brothers and sisters, and you act like we’re all dumb and useless for needing to grieve them!” Bridget yelled.
“I am sad! Of course I’m sad! But I can’t let us starve to death because Elliot can’t do anything anymore! If I let myself cry about it like the rest of you then who would be the man of the house?” Benedict retorted.
“See? You think you’re better than us!”
Benedict scoffed. In a way he did think he was better, because he was the only one in the family who didn’t need to take a weeks or months long break to grieve, and as serfs, they couldn’t stop working for a moment.
Bridget needed to get away from her brother for a while, so she decided to find and talk to Adam. Apparently Adam was also looking for her, as they ran into each other near the edge of the hill (okay I made her use her phone🙈)
Things are going well between them, and already developing into something beyond friendship.
Arthur and Amphelise have also met the twins respective love interests, Arthur seems bored by Adam and Amphelise was talking about trash with Elyanore? (Side note, but the sky is so beautiful in that second pic?)
Previous - 1313 Part 2 / Next - 1313 Part 4
A/N: Decided to write Bridget's teenage angst into the story:
Also Benedict has the ‘snob’ trait so since we’re obviously not upper class, I think it would manifest in him having a kind of ‘holier than thou’ attitude, like thinking highly of himself because he doesn’t have the same strong emotional reactions others have and stuff like that.
1313 - Part 2
Tibers is a curious kitty, but she's usually content to explore in the area surrounding the Blackthorns' cottages. Lately though, Bridget hadn't been able to find her in the daytimes, only seeing her return each night for pets, and a comfy hay bed.
One day, Bridget caught Tibers running off and she decided to chase the evasive cat. Tibers ran up and down the hills of the village of Atterbury, passing by the pond and up towards another family's home.
As Bridget reached the top of the hill, she saw her beloved pet was play-fighting with another cat, behind them, stood a boy with light brown hair, who looked a bit sick of the cat's antics. The boy grabbed his cat and had to tug it away from Tibers, who was not happy to have her playmate taken away.
Bridget picked up Tibers and pet her gently to calm her down.
“So you’re the owner of the cat that keeps coming to play with Mite?” The boy asked.
“Oh, my apologies, I didn’t know where she was running off to.” Bridget replied sheepishly.
“It’s alright, I’m glad they could make friends. What’s her name by the way? I’ve just been calling her fluffy.” The boy laughed lightly.
“Tibers!” Bridget giggled, “And I’m Bridget, if you wanted to know.”
The boy introduced himself as ‘Adam Fletcher’ and the two got to talking about themselves and their lives. Bridget found that Adam shared her love for animals of all shapes and sizes, from a tall horse to a tiny butterfly, they both found the creatures of this world fascinating.
The two were glad to have met someone new to talk to about their interests. As much as Bridget loved her family, they didn’t always understand her, and she was happy to have someone who did.
Previous - 1313 Part 1 / Next - 1313 Part 3
A/N: Okay so now you guys know all the love interests for next gen! (other than Hawise’s I guess though she’s not really a main kid?) Arthur’s is Amphelise if that wasn’t obvious, and I actually have some interesting stuff planned for them 👀 it’ll take a few years before I can start that storyline though. Plans may change depending on what happens with death rolls but I’m hoping (delusional) that no one important will die in the famine…
1313 - Part 1
Despite everything, the Blackthorns and Woodses had gotten through another new year, and they had been busy working for months, trying to make up for the bad weather.
It was only in April that Benedict finally found some time away from his usual work in the fields, deciding it would be good to try and catch some fish for dinner, knowing it was better to keep their stored foods with more shelf-life for a time when they really didn’t have anything else to eat.
Benedict expected there might be some other people there fishing, it was no secret that many were worried about the possibility of famine, but he didn’t expect to see a girl, around his age, just sitting by the water.
He introduced himself, and the girl said her name was Elyanore. Benedict asked if she was alright, seeing that she seemed to look at the water with sadness.
“Well, it’s just that it didn’t snow this year, well it did once, but only a little. The ponds never froze over…” she sighed, “I must sound quite silly to be sad over something like that…but I just love the cold, and especially skating… we used to do it every winter up in Svearike.”
Benedict noticed she had a bit of a strange voice, at least compared to most common people he encountered.
“Svearike?” He had not heard of this place before.
“It is North, past the North Sea, it’s where I was born and where my mother is from, my father is from here though, that’s why we live here now.”
“I don’t think I have ever met someone from so far away…until now of course.”
The two young teenagers seemed to find comfort in each other's presence, soon relaxing their postures and enjoying the nice day by the water together. For a moment, Benedict forgot about all the stresses of life, about feeding his family, about working every day from dawn to dusk, sometimes well past dusk, to keep their lord happy and willing to continue letting them live on his land, about making sure his younger siblings were happy and healthy and cared for and didn't worry too much about things.
It was a lot for a 12 year old to handle, but Benedict felt it was his duty, as the oldest living male in his bloodline, to provide for his loved ones at whatever cost.
Benedict did forget about all of that for a moment, but it's hard to talk about yourself without your life's troubles coming up pretty quickly.
“Somehow...I hadn’t noticed how the cold didn’t come this year, and I love winter too…I’ve just been so busy with work, some days my stepfather can’t even get out of bed, I’ve kind of had to step up as the man of the house…”
“Is your stepfather crippled?” The girl inquired.
“No….he’s just sad…very sad…” Benedict sighed, “My mother is gone, and he only has one child left, one that is his own blood I mean. My siblings and I take care of her more than he does now, he just can’t be motivated to do anything…”
“That sounds quite terrible…for everyone. I do not understand The Watcher sometimes, why he kills so many good people, makes their families suffer…” Elyanore trailed off.
"He truly works in mysterious ways..." Was all Benedict could say to that. While his younger brother had more of a hatred towards The Watcher, Benedict truly believed what the church had told him, that The Watcher loved every one of his followers and that he knew what was best for humanity, any criticism towards him was blasphemy!
Benedict realised what he had originally come down here to do, and he thought he would ask his new friend to join him.
“Have you ever tried fishing?” He inquired.
"No, I'm usually busy helping my mother keep house whenever my father takes my brother to fish." Benedict could sense that the girl wished she could spend more time outdoors.
"Well, you should try it, it's something you can do at the pond when it's too warm to skate...which is most of the year, I guess." Benedict chuckled.
Elyanore agreed to give it a go, at first she was impatient, not being able to wait for a bite, but Benedict told her the point is that it's relaxing, and they could just talk about whatever while they waited.
So the two got to know each other, and though they had been born in quite far apart places (relative to medieval peasants), they found that they had a lot in common!
Previous - 1312 Part 5 / Next - 1313 Part 2
A/N: 'Svearike' is what Sweden was called in the 14th century. When I was making love interests for the twins in CAS, I ended up making a really pretty Scandinavian looking girl, and I really wanted to have her as Benedict's wife, and it ends up working well because a lot of the medieval names I've found online that I liked are Swedish and this gives a story reason why they would use those names!
1312 - Part 5
(TW - Mild Blood/Gore)
1312 - Part 4
The air is finally starting to warm up come June, bringing nights that aren't freezing cold and covering the stars with clouds, and instead quite a nice medium temperature with a beautiful view of the constellations. Mornings are now pleasantly warm, and the soil is finally soft enough to replant the fields.
By July, the fields are covered in crops once again, but the weather does not stay pleasant all the time, heavy rain storms, cold bouts, and pest infestations all threaten the already late planted harvest, and many serfs discuss worries about having enough food for everybody once their stores run out.
One grey, cloudy day, the Blackthorns and Woodses are doing their usual labour, Hawise isn't quite old enough to help just yet, so she's taken to wandering between the crop rows and bothering her older siblings with questions. John is similarily curious, but more in an exploring way, rooting around the bushes at the edge of the fields and wondering what can be found beyond them.
As rain starts to fall, the young toddler wanders out near the cliffsides, trying to stay on his toddling feet, but ultimately slipping quite a few times in the mud.
As he reaches a steep hill, he trips and starts rolling down. At first it seems fun for a child, but soon he picks up pace, barreling down the hill at a frightening speed...
Previous - 1312 Part 3 / Next - 1312 Part 5
1312 - Part 3
Tibers may be a mischevious kitty, but she does her job well, keeping the rodents at bay and protecting the family's food stores.
The twins love to play with their baby siblings, and help Elliot take care of them too. They know it's been really hard for him ever since Anabel passed, so they're happy to do whatever they can to help.
Bridget is very happy to wear her mother's clothes, but they are a little bland for her tastes, so she decides to learn how to dye fabrics so she can make them a little more her.
The boys (and Amphelise) on the other hand, are learning to fish at the pond. They end up catching a nice sized carp and bring it back up to the cottage. Elliot, with the help of Bridget, prepare a nice fish and vegetable dish for dinner, as they still have a decent store of produce from last year (Thanks to Tibers of course!)
Things are going pretty well for the family lately, but we'll see how long that can last...
Previous - 1312 Part 2 / Next - 1312 Part 4
Settings for Historical Gameplay
This is a tuning mod that turns off autonomy for a range of activities that are annoying in historical gameplay
Just shared this tuning mod on Mod the Sims. It turns off autonomy for the following activities:
No autonomous answer phone
No autonomous smart phone browsing, texting, streaming.
No autonomous selfies.
No autonomous use laptop from inventory.
No autonomous play keyboard from inventory.
No autonomous play drums from inventory.
No autonomous practice school cheer.
No autonomous build igloo.
No autonomous kids go for joyride or be king or queen for a day.
I personally use a version that also turns off autonomy on fairy tricks and on the love charm spell, so I uploaded that version too.
Hope this is useful!
Sharing this with other historical players!
Hey sims 3 community!
I'm looking for praying/church poses for my UDC and I found a few, but this one doesn't seem to have a working download link?
I'm not expecting anyone who has this file to see this but if you somehow do, please let me know, it's so sad to have so much custom content for the older sims games be lost to time :(
Edit: FOUND!!! Thank you to @sometimesafruit
1312 - Part 2
One morning, Bridget seemed to be woken up much earlier than she normally would, yet she didn't feel like leaving her bed, as their was an intense pain in her abdomen, and moving any bit hurt her a little every time.
As she gained more of a clear consciousness, she realised that pain like this could potentially mean something horrible, something that could lead to death!
She slowly got herself down the ladder of her loft, trying to ignore the pain. When she stood up straight at the bottom, she felt something drip down her leg.
She hurried to the chamber pot to clean up whatever was occuring, her heart skipping a beat when she saw the blood.
She collapsed to the floor, sobbing loudly, begging the watcher for forgiveness, even though she didn't know what she had done wrong.
Elliot heard her cries, and rushed into the room, gently comforting the young girl. Though he wasn't knowledgeable in the details, he knew the very basics of what was going on.
"You're not dying honey" He attempted to reassure her.
"Then what is this???" She asked desperately.
Elliot awkwardly tried to explain, but the topic was heavily taboo, and not something he quite had the language for.
"EVERY MOON????" The girl looked at her father with a shocked and horrified expression.
Though he would never know the experience himself, he could empathise with the fear she displayed, he could only imagine how painful it must be to be a woman.
"I'll fetch Etheldred, she knows a lot more than I do about this kind of thing, and probably a lot more than most women know either."
Elliot was right about that, Etheldred knew a lot about the female body compared to most in the middle ages. Midwivery, said to be the oldest profession, had centuries, even millennia of knowledge passed down about how to conduct a safe birth, and with that, a midwife was bound to know about things like the menstrual cycle as well.
Etheldred explained to Bridget that she was entering womanhood, as this new monthly occurrence was a sign that her body was able to bear children.
"I don't think I feel like a woman yet...and I don’t know that I'm ready to bear a child…" The girl admitted sheepishly.
"Oh, that's alright dear, you're not the daughter of anyone powerful, and I'm sure Elliot will let you marry whenever you feel ready, and to whomever you please."
Elliot was a bit excited about Bridget's entry into womanhood, not because he wanted to marry her off or anything of the sort. No, he was excited because he could now pass down his late wife's clothing to her eldest daughter.
The few dresses she had owned had been sitting in a small chest under their bed since the day they had buried her, waiting to be worn again. Eliiot couldn't help but tear up seeing Bridget wear them, it made him see the little resemblances to Anabel in her daughter's face.
Previous - 1312 Part 1 / Next - 1312 Part 3
A/N: If you're wondering, yes this is partially inspired by that one 'Anne with an E' episode. Let me know if there's other tw tags I should add or if I should put a trigger warning at the top of this post? I don't typically do that but if people think I should I will.
1312 - Part 1
The cold seemed to be determined to stay as long as possible this year, staying strong into the month of March. The family was lucky for their excess of food stores, since they really weren’t sure when they could start planting crops again.
At least they had a bit of reason to celebrate, as John had grown a lot in the past few months, enough that he no longer fit quite right in his cradle.
The boy was very active for his age, at only 16 months old, he was already on his two feet most of the time, and even finding ways to get his little body up onto furniture.
Elliot knew there was no point in keeping walls on John’s new crib, so he decided to fashion some small beds that the toddlers could easily get out of whenever they need. He put the old cradle and crib in storage, hoping they could be used for grandchildren one day.
It wasn’t just John who had grown a lot since the new year, the twins were hitting growth spurts before you could blink! The two were almost 12 now, and only had a few more years of proper childhood before they’d be expected to look for someone to marry.
The Lord Anselm of Atterbury was somewhat of a generous lord, but he did expect every young man and woman (who was able) to find a suitable match and start a family. He did need a steady flow of new serfs after all.
Elliot knew that Bridget would need to have certain skills if she expected to marry, and that included being able to prepare meals for her family. So he started to have her help with cooking, teaching her what he hoped would be enough to impress the father of whichever boy she may choose.
Bridget didn’t mind it, as she found that she enjoyed cooking well enough, and she definitely liked the feeling that came with making something for her loved ones to enjoy!
Benedict had been visiting his mother’s grave quite a lot lately, he felt some kind of comfort talking to her, even if he had no true sign that she could actually hear him, it was nice to just believe that she was in the sky watching over him and the rest of the family. It gave him a sense that maybe things would be okay going forward…
Previous - 1311 Part 3 / Next - 1312 Part 2
1311 - Part 3
Snow continued to fall quite heavily onto the village of Atterbury through December. Those who worked in the fields for most of the year had little labour to carry out, even the livestock weren’t much of a chore by this time, the cows had mostly stopped producing milk for last spring’s calves, and the chickens weren’t laying eggs either.
This left the Blackthorns/Woodses with quite a lack of things to do, other than the typical domestic chores of keeping house and preparing meals.
One day, Bridget was bored in her room, when she spotted something rustling around in the stored goods.
The fluffy cat was shy at first, but warmed up to Bridget when she held out her hand gently. The cat sniffed her carefully, deciding she was not a threat.
“Oh you’re just precious aren’t you?” Bridget gushed. The girl seemed to have a natural affinity towards animals.
“I’ll go find you something to eat alright?” She assured it, though it obviously didn’t understand what she was saying.
While Bridget was gone, Elliot entered the room to gather the laundry, and heard scratching behind the hamper.
“What’s this?” He muttered, dropping the sack of clothes into the basket.
He wasn’t sure how a cat had gotten into their side room, but he had a pretty strong feeling Bridget had something to do with it.
“Pleaseeeee can we keep her?” The girl pleaded to her stepfather, “Just look how cute she is!”
Elliot sighed. “I suppose she will help deal with the rodents, that’s probably what led her inside in the first place.
Bridget lit up, “Oh thank you father!”
The words slipped out of her mouth before she could realise what they meant, but when she looked up at Elliot, he had a genuine smile on his face.
He had long considered Anabel’s previous children his own, but he never asked them to see him as their father, Arthur did, but the twins usually just used his name, and he was okay with that, but he’d be lying if he said hearing it from Bridget didn’t melt his heart a little…
The new cat was named ‘Tibers’ and she was a welcome addition to the family, bringing some excitement into their dull winter days.
Previous - 1311 Part 2 / Next - 1312 Part 1
1311 - Part 2
Bridget had noticed her twin's change in behaviour, how could she not? They'd been side by side since birth, she knew when something wasn't right with him. He was always moping around, He'd be rough with his chores, like he had a personal vendetta against the household objects, and she was pretty sure she hadn't seen him smile once since last November.
Sure, it's reasonable to be unhappy when you lose a loved one, but it wasn't like Benedict had been crying either. Bridget thought maybe boys processed grief differently, but Arthur had cried quite a bit, and she'd caught Elliot in tears a couple times, despite him trying to stay strong around people.
One day, she found Benedict sulking by the fence, and knew she had to do something to cheer him up.
At first she was getting nowhere, but then she realised that the ponds must have frozen over by now, and remembered how Benedict used to skate on them during past winters.
"Can you teach me to skate?"
"Huh?"
"Pleassssseeee?" Bridget did her best pleading face.
"I guess so." He conceded.
"Great!" The girl lit up, "Oh and we can ask Arthur and Amphelise if they'd like to join too!"
So Bridget asked Elliot for a few hours off of chores, which was easy enough to get in winter, and Elliot wasn't opposed to the children having bonding time.
They all headed down to the pond at the bottom of the hill, and as Bridget expected, it was nice and frozen. They started out clinging onto each other, but soon enough they were skating around with ease! Benedict was really starting to enjoy himself, and Bridget caught him smiling, which she made sure to tease him about.
Even after getting the hang of things, Arthur and Amphelise found themselves staying close together, they even made a game of seeing how fast the pair of them could spin in a circle.
Maybe predictably, this resulted in a great tumble onto the ice, causing Arthur to hit his head quite badly...
The older two quickly rushed over to help them up, and bring them off of the lake, where they comforted Arthur until he felt he could walk back up the hill.
Luckily, after a warm bath and a good night's sleep, the young boy was feeling much better, and only had some minor lingering pain to deal with by the next morning.
Previous - 1311 Part 1 / Next - 1311 Part 3
1311 - Part 1
It had been almost a year since Anabel's death, and the family was slowly recovering emotionally. They'd luckily been able to somewhat keep their minds off of things, as the summer and early autumn had brought bountiful crops, meaning lots of labour to carry out and little time to sit and think about other things.
John was growing fast, almost a year old, he had started crawling, standing up, and even toddling sometimes!
The twins were growing up too, they were 11 years old now, and both of them (but especially Bridget) had noticed some strange things were happening to their bodies. They also seemed less interested in playing pretend, preferring to hangout and watch the little ones play instead.
Benedict was often found keeping to himself, seemingly staring at nothing but always having an expression that said he was thinking about something.
As for Elliot, with the woman of the house gone, he now took on the brunt of the domestic chores, along with Bridget's help of course.
He also tried to spend a lot of time giving the children, especially the youngest two, lots of love and attention, hoping he could somewhat fill the hole that was left by their mother's passing...
With winter's frost creeping in once again, the family made sure to stock the larder with meats and vegetables, and fill up burlap sacks and barrels to store in the side room. It should be enough to tide them over until spring, especially with the bountiful harvest meaning they got to keep more of the crop than they would most years. What this family doesn't know, is that this might be their last good farming year for quite a while...
Previous - 1310 Part 5 / Next - 1311 Part 2
1310 - Part 5
The days following Anabel's death were suffocating. Elliot did all he could to stay strong and comfort the children, but sometimes he would just start crying in the middle of a task, wondering why The Watcher would do this to her.
His bed was now cold and empty without her, falling asleep was hard even after a long day of labour, how could he feel at peace when his other half was gone?
Luckily though, baby John was doing quite well. Several mothers in the village had offered to nurse him after hearing the news of Anabel's death, Elliot was very grateful and made sure to promise that he would return the favour whenever one of their families needed something.
Anabel's Funeral came in December, usually a month of celebration and feasts, it was all but joyful for this family and their friends. She was buried behind the village church. her headstone carved with a cross and nothing else (not the over the top grave the game gave me...)
Young Hawise was just shy of two, she really didn't understand why her mother had just gone away, and everyone was crying, and she cried too, because she wanted mummy to come back home.
Previous - 1310 Part 4 / Next - 1311 Part 1
