#siworldbuilding

[royalmedani]

After a bit more worldbuilding I decided to redo my maps. I did retcon a number of things, the biggest one being that I swapped Fideli and Apricus’ land areas. After working on the historical background it just made the most sense for Fideli to be the furthest west. 

So anyway, here’s the new basic overview map of the isles and where their capital cities are located in relation to each other.  

[novapark]

What are some words that are a big part of your oc’s vocabulary? How did they pick up on them?

Heyyy, thanks for the ask, why wasn't I following you on this blog? What a crime. Sorry fixed now. >.<

ANYWAY, if we're talking my royal story I think probably the biggest thing that stands out is Sorori language doesn't have contractions so when I write any of them that grew up in the isles I purposely do not use them when "translating" their dialogue to English.

Sometimes I wish I wouldn't have done this because it kinda is limiting at times but I made a choice and the choice is now made. One benefit is I guess for my collab partners is that's a good way to make my sims sound like they do in my story as a shortcut. Just say "do not" instead of didn't and wallah!

[royalmedani]

The Other Royal Novari

Princess Estra’s younger brother Julian, his Matrona Aria, and their two sons, Caspian and Atlas. Julian serves as the leader of the legislative body of Viridis in a role called “The Dux” - an old word for Captain. It’s the closest thing Viridis has to a Prime Minister. 

[royalmedani]

Sorori Archipelago - Another Geographic Map

A general overview of the geography of the isles including the names of the little minor islands in the chain. It’s still very much a work in progress. Anyway, for some highlights: 

Largest Island: Aprica (Fideli | Apricus) Smallest Island: Vos (Meliore) Highest Peak: Mons Cali (Fideli) Longest Mt Chain: Iversian Range (Fideli | Apricus) Largest Lake: Licentia (Fideli) Longest River: Viviari (Fideli), though the Lacri in Viridis is a close second.  Widest River: Aspir (Fideli)  Lowest Point: The Lamatiri Wetlands (Viridis) 

[royalmedani]

The Comi of Apricus (part one)

Ever since the great split between Apricus and Fideli roughly 200 years ago the ruling houses of Apricus have remained some of the most stable in the isles. Or rather, lacked the infighting a lot of the other nobili families across the isles display. This is usually credited to the fact that the oldest child of the current head of the family is always legally assumed to be the heir at birth instead of the normal electoral system seen in other great Sorori families. It has its drawbacks as it can be very hard to challenge an heir that may not be suitable for the job. 

As for their actual powers, they are considered a mouthpiece and protector for their territory. They do not get a hereditary seat in their parliament, instead they have a counsel that is more of an advisory committee for the "civilian” government. They are also expected to use whatever wealth generation they get from their production deals with the temple system to support social programs within their territories (which is the same in Viridis). There’s probably more to this I’m forgetting but this is enough. Anyway, let’s meet these folks. 

Crown Prince Esai Arman Ramone Aguilar Medani, Comi of Aurori

So yeah you know this guy. The Crown Prince of Apricus is usually invested as Comi of Aurori as soon as they reach their majority. It’s supposed to help them get used to holding a ceremonial office under the close eye of the other heads of house and the monarch. At 28 years old Esai has held the position now for about 11 years and his term is considered to be generally unremarkable (partially because his grandma and older members of the counsel think his ideas are a bit extreme).  

Maxima Edassi, Comi of Silvestri

Xima came to her position as comi two years ago after the death of her father. Before that happened there were a number of rumors that she and Esai were going to eventually go under contract and her sister would end up inheriting the seat instead but that never came to pass.  Before taking her position, she studied ecology at the International School in Viridis and now spends most of her time working to strengthen the protections on her sections of the Aprici Wildlands. 

Livan “Van” Violeti, Comi of Margarilla

The hereditary “Lord of Pearls” is easily one of the most influential leaders in the country. His family not only controls the majority of the chain’s main high luxury export - pearls, but also the multimedia company known as The Deluge Network. Pretty much all news media, print, digital, or televised goes through this company in some way. Diluvio (the main newspaper), and  Diluvinunci! (a daily news program) are directly and openly funded by him but Salve Sorori receives support through back door funding. He is rumored to be the richest man in the isles but as a lot of his holdings are private no one knows for sure.  On top of all this he is very close with the Queen, his wife Cira (lovingly called “Queen of Pearls” by the media) is one of her many noble companions, and their three daughters (including Onora) grew up in Esai’s highly cultivated childhood circle. 

Since these guys have a lot going on I’m stopping here so this won’t be overwhelming. There are four more but they have less story behind them so it probably won’t be as long. 

[royalmedani]

Comi of Meliore 

The Comitira of Meliore are managed exclusively by the Royal House of Zonara, though it’s more ceremonial than economical at this point in history. The monarchies and nobili of the Little Sisters (Agora, Meliore, and Imbara) generally have the least amount of direct power over their people’s day to day lives. For example, in Viridis the Comi also get a seat in their legislature whereas here in Meliore the royals are not permitted to involve themselves in politics at all. They basically act like rubber stamps for what people vote for and are required by law to see these things are properly enforced. Anyway, now that you have some details, lets talk about the men that currently occupy these positions. 

Prince Reagent Aries Zonara, Comi of Aquili

Starting with him because we’ve met him already somewhat. Meliore is a strict matriarchy for their royal house so despite the fact the previous queen had five children, none of them were girls and could not follow their mother onto the throne. There was a lot of discussion about changing the laws but before anyone made a move on that front Prince Aries’ wife gave birth to the current monarch. As it is taboo in the isles for minors to have a public life she is known to her people as “Our Child Queen.” Her name is Calista, she is fifteen now and very tired of her father’s regency. 

Prince Florian Zonara, Comi of Oriens

A gloomy soul from the start, love seemed to be hard to find for poor Prince Florian. As the oldest of his mother’s sons he had many prospects but always found some reason to avoid the final plunge and thus never produced any children. Despite this he is very popular with the people of Meliore as he is well known for his mental health advocacy and compassionate nature. 

Prince Cosimo Zonara, Comi of Auster

Our final Prince Comi for today is Cosimo. He is best known for being one of the hosts of a popular morning talk show called “Bani Mani.” He comes under scrutiny sometimes for not focusing enough of on his public responsibilities in favor of “frivolous celebrity” so often considers stepping down to let one of his younger brothers take his title. 

Bonus Note about this family: Estra’s mother is their aunt, so they are first cousins with the Princess of Viridis. In addition Aries married one of Estra’s second cousins from the other side of the family so these two nations are VERY linked.

[royalmedani]

Sorori Comitira 

Hey look it’s another map. This one covers the Sorori Noble States, or Comitira. Basically the tracts of land held by individual noble families. Fideli does not have nobles so their political divisions have a different function.

[royalmedani]

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Author’s Notes below the cut  TW: Terrorism, bigotry (LGBTQ specific), societal violence, death, and grief.  Also a little rambly as often my worldbuilding notes are... 

Since I didn’t make room to have a full fake article about this event I thought I’d expand on it a bit here. I’ve mentioned the Bombing At the Decks event a few times in passing but this is a very important moment in the history of the isles because of the sheer scale of how many people were killed in the incident. 

The Decks is the name of the former building that housed the Viridi Parliament. There are three representatives from each Comiterra. Viridis has 15 of these administrative districts and since there was a mandatory session on that day at MINIMUM the building contained these 45 people and their necessary staff.  However as this vote was incredibly important - they were doing a massive overhaul of the inheritance laws to allow adopted and “unclaimed” (bastards) children from families to be legally recognized by their families as heirs - there were a lot of media, spectators, and dignitaries (like Princess Sancha of Apricus) in attendance to voice their support for these changes. Honestly Viridis is kind of the last island to do anything progressive most of the time so there was a lot of positive energy around the event.  That being said, this ruling was particularly relevant to the Viridi royal family at the time because their proclaimed heir, Thea was/is gay and the despite the fact that she gave birth to her daughter, the state didn’t recognize her as an heir because her birth was not “natural.” 

Anyway, the vote went off fine because the organization that orchestrated the attack did want this to happen. We’ll talk more about their goals when we meet their members down the road but the short is they timed the attack so the bombs went off just after the changes were confirmed because they benefited directly. The thought was that since it was clear they were supportive of the changes they wouldn’t be the focus of the follow up investigations but we’ll just say they misjudged some elements of their plan and were caught. 

In the meantime though the resulting bloodbath is considered one of the darkest times in Viridi history. The few Comi that survived the attack were pegged as accomplices and hunted down and ceremonially drowned in the ocean by angry members of families that lost their loved ones. The royal family itself was impacted quite dramatically since whole branches of the family were present to support their heir and her child. Only five major members of the core royal house survived: 

Prince Bastian, who was very unwell at the time and bed ridden. News of the event crushed him and he didn’t recover from his illness dying just a few days after the event. To be fair, he was VERY, VERY old. He’d been on the throne for like 70 years.  

Doma Thea, who upon hearing that the ruling would not go into effect until the generation after her daughter, was furious and boycotted the vote with her wife. Unfortunately her daughter, who wanted it to go through for her own personal reasons, did attend and died in the event. Her guilt and rage over this led to her eventual abdication in favor of her niece Estra. She blamed the noble class as a whole for not being more accepting and “Would not be able to effectively guide people who do not respect me or my family.” 

High Sister Neva, Estra’s older sister (seen singing the mourning song in this shot). She had taken Temple a couple years before and was serving as a Singing Sister at the Sky Spire on the border of Fideli and Apricus at the time. 

Doma Estara, (aka Estra, the current Princess) she had wanted to attend but her father talked her out of it saying that she should be with her children that night since she had only really recently given birth to Zarina and had a difficult relationship already with her oldest child Poppy. 

Dom Julian, Estra and Neva’s younger brother. He was attending uni abroad, which is pretty common for the family, and was discouraged from coming home for the vote cause “we have enough support, you focus on your studies.” 

A handful of children from Bastian’s “unclaimed lines” also survived but they are not in the pool of succession and do not get a lot of attention from the press. 

So anyway to wrap up this whole thing, processions and parades are a BIG cultural thing in the isles. So every year for the last 15 years or so (once things calmed down after the attack), Princess Estra has led a memorial walk from the New House (the royal palace in the capitol) to the former location of The Decks. Once they arrive she lights a big bonfire and they have a special communal mourning song together led by a high ranking member of the priesthood.