#lylanir

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Unicorn! <3 His name is...

I lol’ed.

(And yeah, I pulled him into CAS and made him a lot hairier than he was. All unicorns ought to be hairy, IMO. But I seem to have lost my tail length slider in the transition to a new user account. Gotta go redownload it...)

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I think I’ve settled on a lighting mod for Lylanir. It’s not the one in this post, which I like better, because that one unfortunately has a longer day, with the sun not setting until 2100, which means it’s still semi-light at 2300 and then it’s already getting light at 0400 for an 0500 sunrise. I’m not fond of that. So this is an earlier version of the same mod that doesn’t have the extended day, just Maxis-standard. Unfortunately, that one doesn’t have a version with Moonlight Falls’s nice blue water. This one has Monte Vista’s green water, which I’m not as fond of, but I prefer green water over freakishly-long days year-round.

Speaking of which...It’d be nice if lighting could be based on season, with longer days in the summer and shorter in the winter. I mean, assuming that the planet the Sims live on has an axial tilt, that would be something that happens. :) I wonder if any lighting mods do that....

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*cue deep, dramatic intoning* So. It begins.

This is the redux’ed Dragon Valley that I’m going to do something fantasy-medievalish in. I have christened this realm Lylanir. It’s this world, though I’m doing some editing of it here and there, adding lots, deleting some rabbitholes and adding others, things like that. This is basically the entire playable area of it. Aside from the clustered village that you can see in the center(ish) of the pic, there are residential and community lots of various sizes scattered all over the map, including on some of the islands in the lower left. Some of them are prebuilt, but most of them are empty.

The world is unpopulated, and it’s roadless, so vehicles of any kind can’t be used anywhere in it. Its residents will need to walk or ride horses to get anywhere. So if a Sim living on one of the lots around that lake on the extreme center-right edge of the pic wants/needs to go to the village, he or she will need to walk (or ride a horse) around the ridge that projects toward the front of the pic, then back up to the bridge that goes across the river and then into the village. This takes a long time -- as it should -- so long that there’s a camp lot at about the halfway point, should any motives need replenishing. And if someone is living on those islands, they’ll need to own a boat (or take a very long swim!) to get to the mainland because I’ll be turning off water taxi routing, too. (I am thinking there needs to be an isolated colony of feral werewolves on that bigger island on the lower left edge of the pic, the one that has an additional hill on it...)

Anyway, I’m going to post some pics, sort of a tour around the place, and along the way I’ll do some musing about what I think I’m going to do with this place. Not much is set in stone with that yet, but perhaps musing will help me to decide on some things...

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A Tour of Lylanir, Part 4

Just a few of stray pics. :) The first one above is one of several little pond fishing spots scattered across the map. The second is the point where the river feeds into the ocean.

This is the main harbor. It’s pretty seedy, has some sleeping quarters, a food register, and a general store register. It also has a gangway on the longest pier, for building a houseboat. I found some galleon pieces that you use as a shell to fit around a houseboat base, so I’m going to attempt to build a houseboat, which I’ve never done before. But for now, that dock remains empty. :) 

I’m thinking that if I get ambitious and link some other historical worlds of a similar period to this one via the Traveler mod, I will probably turn this into a base camp because I think it has everything needed for that. And there is that roadless Viking world I saw in my travels, too... *headdesk* Give it a colder climate, and it’d make a great trading partner for Lylanir...

And finally, something that’s my own little addition. I decided Lylanir needed a dedicated area for a small witch coven. So, I put down a community lot in the space on the other side of the ridge from the supernatural area but before you get to the bridge that leads into the village. I plunked down the “stonehenge” rock formation on it, and added tiki torches, a bonfire, and a stone coffee table for an “altar” for their arcane rituals...and I’ll dress it up further later. Then I plunked down five 10x15 residential lots ringed around it, and I’ll move some wimmens into them. Though really, they’ll be more like just proto-hippie lesbians who want to A) grow “herbs” and B) be left alone. I mean, they WILL be witches, but the “herb-growing lesbians who want to be left alone” thing will be their bigger priority.

And this concludes our tour. Next up, some musings that you can completely ignore...

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A Tour of Lylanir, Part 3

Separated from the main village by a large ridge is the supernatural area of Lylanir. There’s a large lake with fishing spawners and a couple of prebuilt and some empty lots around it. That area feeds into a forest with mossy trees and fog emitters (that aren’t emitting yet :) ) and community lots that include the fortune teller wagon, the fairy arboretum, and the vault of antiquity from Supernatural, plus a supernatural hangout. Plus, of course, a couple of prebuilt residences catering to alchemy and witchiness and a few empty lots as well.

Due to the lack of roads, Sims who want their fortunes told or who want to visit the arboretum or vault of antiquity are going to have to do some traveling if they live outside the supernatural area, but that’s how it should be, I think.

One of the houses on the lake. It’s adorable. <3 It will probably be the first house I move someone into. I should’ve taken a closer-up pic to better show off its adorableness...

A cottage for an alchemist who wants to be alone, with preplanted alchemy herbs and ‘shrooms, and a bunch of planters to plant more stuff in. (I’m thinkin’ other kinds of herbs...) Inside is an alchemy station and the basic necessities for motive-filling.

(I need to figure out something to disguise the fireplace chimneys in this world. I’m sure something must exist. I know the world’s creator was keeping the CC to a minimum -- and I totally appreciate that because I want my TS3 game to be minimal on the build/buy CC -- but those brick chimneys and shiny metal chimney caps are messing with my immersion here. *laugh*)

The arboretum and vault of antiquity. I’ve added a fountain of youth from the Hidden Springs world, too. I sort of love that thing. *laugh*

The supernatural hangout. It has...

...a mechanical bull in the basement. This gives me glee. Yeah, I know it’s totally anachronistic, but that thing is like my favorite thing ever, from any Sims game. *laugh* I can watch Sims ride it for, like, hours.

This lot also has the fortune teller wagon on it, plus another broom riding arena (There’s one in the supernatural hangout, too), but this little area with ruins and the wishing well is just so pretty...

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A Tour of Lylanir, Part 2

Above are two lots more on the outskirts of the village. In the center of the first pic is a community lot fishing dock. Its situated on the river, obviously, near one of the two bridges that lead into the village. It has one of the location registers in it. I forget which one. :) The second pic is of one of two prebuilt large farms in the world. It’s a 3-bed/2-bath home with a large horse barn with four stalls in it behind the house and two large fields for planting.

This is a lot that classed as a gym, meant to be a military barracks. It has lots of living space, bathrooms, and a rudimentary kitchen, plus archery ranges, martial arts training dummies, chin-up bars, and a racetrack for race-training horses, plus two stalls to house them.

A more aerial view of the police/military complex. There’s the barracks and then I placed a lot right next to it and plopped the Dragon Valley military/police rabbithole on it. That lot needs some further decoration and stuff, but right now I’m just plopping down rabbitholes. :)

The horse facilities. There’s a “livery” that includes a door version of the equestrian center rabbithole as well as stalls and paddocks to house horses. On a separate lot is a complete training course for both jumping and racing.

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A Tour of Lylanir, Part 1

We’ll start with the “downtown” area, a cute little village centered around a seasonal festival grounds:

And I’ll put a cut on the rest, since this might go a bit long...

Since I haven’t let the town actually run yet, the festival grounds (the open area with the haystacks on it) aren’t set up yet, so I’m not sure what they’re going to end up looking like. But on the right side of the pic, there’s the city hall rabbithole and on the left are some shops, a tavern, and a residence.

In the forefront, a couple of residences. The tent structure in the back serves as a stadium rabbithole. Originally, the Dragon Valley school rabbithole was there but A) I don’t want a school in this world because, if nothing else, travel times are too long and B) the DV school is huge and its architecture is very elvish-looking, which is nice and all, but it just doesn’t fit in with this place. So, a “stadium” it is. I wish it was a little smaller, but we’ll deal. If the residents want their kids to be schooled outside of their homes, they can be sent to the playable, non-rabbithole monastery-sponsored boarding school that I’m going to set up. That was a more common strategy (for those who could afford it!) in the real middle ages anyway.

On the left, an apartment block with areas downstairs that could be used for shops and whatnot. On the right, the same tavern you can see in one of the pics above.

The winery. It’s a really pretty little lot, with some fancy guestrooms on the upper floor (that I’m going to refurnish to be a bit more modest), retail space on the ground floor and, of course, wine-making and wine-tasting facilities in the cellar. (Sorry, I refuse to call it “nectar.” *laugh*) I imagine farmers living in the boonies traveling here at the end of the growing season and staying for a while in order to turn their excess produce into wine and then let it age a bit, after which they can sell it at the winery register on the lot.

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Rambling about Lylanir

Just contemplating rules and culture and, y’know, world-building stuff. Also to-do lists. It’s mostly meant for me because I find that “writing” helps me to clarify things in my own head, but if you want to read along, feel free. :) I’ll warn you that it’s really long, and I’ll probably edit it over time to make it longer still. Or maybe shorter, if I delete things I’ve gotten done. WHO KNOWS WHAT I’LL DO???!!

Right now, I’m just working in Edit Town mode. I’ve moved in a placeholder Sim (who will be annihilated when I start adding the real population; I love that you can do that in TS3) so that I can let the world run a bit so that it generates service Sims. Currently, I’m deleting some rabbitholes I don’t want and adding some that I do. Also, some lots for some of the Ambitions functions. Like, do not want school but do want stadium, police, and military, so I’ve deleted/put those down. 

Also do want:

A spa. Partly rabbithole, partly playable. I want it to be a hot springs. Gonna use one of the world’s empty 64x64 lots for it, I think. Maybe a little smaller, but still a big lot. The DV spa rabbithole is pretty elvish-looking, so I might use a rug instead...or I might decide elvish-looking is OK for a spa. Mostly, I just want it to be pretty and relaxing.

A junkyard. I wish there were more period-appropriate junk piles, but I’ll make do with the “normal” ones. I also want to look at the “Inventing Overhaul” mod I have. I think I remember that you can replace the inventable objects with other things. I’d like some more slightly-advanced but closer to period-appropriate things than the advanced tech that mod uses. Like, inventing telescopes, for instance. Not sure I’ll be able to do that because I have zero TS3-modding skills, and if I can’t, I’ll settle for them inventing anachronistic stuff, mostly because I just love inventor Sims and the blacksmith’s house in the village is already furnished with an inventing station.

Business, criminal, theater, and science rabbitholes.

An art gallery that’s really more of a studio, with easels and sculpting stations and that Store glass-blowing/jewelry-making thing. maybe the toy-making thing from the Store and stuff like that. I’m going back and forth as to whether this stuff should be part of a residential home for a Da Vinci-like Sim or if it should be a community lot so that everyone of an artistic bent can use the stuff. I’m currently leaning more toward the latter.

A non-rabbithole, playable boarding school for the less-agrarian kids. Not sure what I need to do in TS3 to make that work. Need to do some reading/thinking about it.

Something for vampires, but definitely not a typical “Vampire Lounge.” I’m thinking....Well, the town has a monastery. It has a big, explorable, and very gothy tomb under it. Kinda thinking the “brothers” will all be vampires.

Maybe want:

A hospital rabbithole. I can’t decide if I want the medical careers (including custom ones I have, like nursing) in this world. I know I won’t be sending people there to birth babies -- mostly because of travel time -- so otherwise its only function would be careers, so....I don’t know. The world’s alchemy-heavy, and I have some custom elixirs for curing illness and such, so maybe a hospital is unnecessary.

A salon. Makeovers might be nice. A super-gay medieval stylist would be hilarious. Tattoos...maybe. In the real world, tattooing goes back to at least ancient Egypt, but I’d need to download some more appropriate designs than what the game comes with. I’m not sure this is important enough to me to go to that effort.

Wish I could have: A fire station. But that requires the fire truck and that’s pushing anachronism tolerance waaaaaay beyond my threshold. :)

Then, I need to go into all the prebuilt lots and edit them as needed. Like, I know because I looked that some of them have all modern kitchen appliances. Do not want.

Once all that’s done, all the service Sims ought to have been generated. So the next step will be making them over so they look right. Because they generate like this:

Yeah, that’s not gonna work. *laugh* But, I’ll only need to change hairs and everyday outfits, so it shouldn’t take long. What will take a long time will be making the playables, given the CAS lag I have. Which hopefully won’t be as bad since this Mods folder will be much lighter on the hair than my “normal” folder...

So, some ideas about this place’s environment and culture and all that:

Its climate will be temperate with all four seasons but on the cooler side. Longer autumn/winter/spring, shorter summer. Mostly to make farming a little harder. Lifespans will be longer to match because I like to take my time with things. Horses, of course, will be integral to this world.

Traveling won’t be allowed, so it’ll be an isolated culture with no one immigrating or emigrating once I’ve got the population set. UNLESS I decide to “network” in one or two other historical worlds of a similar era using the Traveler mod. I don’t know that I’m up for setting up more than this world, though. *laugh*

I’ve been putting in some thought about this place’s culture and while I don’t have much figured out yet, I DO know that this place is definitely going to be fantasy with only a medieval-esque veneer. But I also want it to have an unusual culture, not an LOTR-like sort of epic fantasy. This means it’s going to diverge a lot from the real Middle Ages, and I’m not gonna care. Given that, I’ve decided to go all out on some fantasy things.

Like, I’m going to use the dragons that came with Dragon Valley. I’m not quite sure how yet. I might limit them to supernatural Sims having them, maybe only one kind of supernatural having them. Maybe as a sort of witch familiar? Not that I don’t want witches to have cats, of course! *laugh* Maybe dragons can be fairy companions...

That said, obviously supernaturals will be integral here. :) But there won’t be superstition or stigma about them. No witch trials/burnings or anything like that. They’ll just be...people. Well, OK, if I do a feral werewolf colony, they’ll probably be feared, but otherwise? People will be cool with the supernatural, even embracing them and seeking to become one, i.e., those monastic vampires. Even though the vampires are probably gonna kill people. For population control, if nothing else.

For the supernaturals....I’ve downloaded a bunch of skin color ramps, I think they’re called. The things with ranges of unnatural colors on one slider. I’ve never used them. I think I’m going to use them for at least some of the supernaturals, designating a color family for each type of supernatural. I also have a mess of unnatural hair color presets, and I’ll do unnatural eye colors, too. I want to do this partly because I think it’ll be visually interesting and very different from what I’ve done in all my Simming before, but mostly because I’m curious to see how the Advanced Genetics that are part of NRAAS’s Story Progression (as well as a mod I have that blends parental hair colors) will handle such things. I’m hoping for some interesting results, especially with supernatural hybrids. 

Speaking of witch burnings...Religion. If there is one at all in this world, I’m definitely not doing anything from the real-world West. Probably won’t even do anything like the Sims Medieval style of religion. I’m not sure if the “monastery” will be related to religion at all, in fact. Currently, I’m leaning toward it being the vampires themselves who are worshipped by everyone else or at least by all the humans. Like, people could send them sacrifices to be drained in exchange for...something. :) I have no idea what right now. But I’m toying with a “backstory” about vampires that they are perhaps technologically advanced and not even former humans. Maybe they’re aliens, maybe they’re time travelers. Maybe they’re stranded in Lylanir, maybe they came deliberately as observers or something. Mostly, I’m thinking this because I want to be able to use the science station to make forbidden fruit seeds because I want to use Plantsims. *laugh* I can utilize that big-ass tomb under the monastery to hide some more advanced tech. 

But one cultural thing that I am certain of: It’s going to be an egalitarian society. None of this female oppression bullshit. I don’t want it to be female-dominated, either, but just....equal. So, women don’t have to be married and push out a dozen babies if they don’t want to. And they can wear comfortable, practical clothing, including pants. And they don’t have to cover their hair. And they can be badass warriors if they want to be. All that stuff. 

A bit of culture I’ve invented, following on from women not having to cover their hair, is that women above child-age will wear braided hairstyles, and the more elaborate the braiding, the higher the status she has. Because only those with status would have time to sit for hours and braid (or have someone else braid) their hair. I’ve downloaded a bunch of elaborately-braided hairstyles, and I’m looking forward to using them. 

And I want to think of something similar for men, but I’m having a hard time coming up with something. I’d be fine with complex braids for them, too, but alas such hairstyles don’t seem to exist for males. At least, not very many of them. Maybe tattoos, if I make them more expensive than the game charges for them? If that, then I need to move a salon up to the “Do Want” list.

And that’s enough, I think....FOR NOW!