#nh kulo seeri

[equinoxts2]

The trip to the Heart of the Village was pretty uneventful, as I would expect for a Day 1 before the relationships between my sims get going again. However, I did spot Demetrius - Etan’s current heir - turning down a compliment from a god, then getting shocked by his uncle Hudana.

Rivadya, who’s the closest to elderhood here, took the opportunity to lecture Hudana about it. Guess they won’t be flirting much after that?

[equinoxts2]

While I type up the story posts from the first household of new KS, have this... interesting Story Progression reset moment! Dom doesn’t look too happy about suddenly warping into squiggly lines when all he wanted to do was wave his daughters off on the Anachronism Express.

[equinoxts2]

Anyu sat in the sleeping tent not long after midnight, quietly playing with the toy horse Branch had carved for him. That had been one of his stepfather’s strengths, crafting things; he’d been a carpenter in Port Alma, and brought those skills to Kulo Seeri with him. But he’d never taken on an apprentice. Someone was going to have to learn fast.

His stomach was still growling at him. They’d disposed of the rotten meat, observing all the rituals to avoid angering the turkey’s spirit, and then Nita had gone straight back to bed. By then it was too late to ask anyone else to share some of their food stores.

It was then that Anyu had a thought. He’d seen a couple of birds’ nests that morning, in the trees around the village well. Children weren’t supposed to leave the village alone, but he wasn’t that far from the rites of manhood, and anyway the well was right in the middle of the village... ****** Ky was not impressed. Of all the nights to be on watch, it would be the one his nephew picked to sneak out. Still, he couldn’t be angry at the boy. Word of Branch’s death had already spread around the tribe, and Ky couldn’t help remembering his own wife and stepson, lost in a time rage. Anyu might not be ready to pick up a sword or a spear yet, but his intentions were good.

Sighing and yawning, Ky went to check his own food supplies for anything he could share with his sister’s family.

[equinoxts2]

Nita's wants not long after being suddenly widowed: buy a game, be saved from the Grim Reaper and go on a date. I really need to develop some more of the Kulo Seeri mourning customs - this may or may not turn out to be a good idea, Nita...

[equinoxts2]

Introducing the new Kulo Seeri (and its subhood Credence) - both using different terrains to the last iteration, and both currently consisting of a sprinkling of hood deco and a pile of empty lots. Sena Yuleng, I hate buildiiiiiiiiing...

This iteration will pick up a couple of starbands after the old one left off, opening round about the Juvash equivalent of New Year’s Day. While I slog through building (did I ever mention I hate building?) there will be story posts from the last KS - I have a backlog of screenshots, so the next posts will continue the story of Kulo Seeri’s lorekeepers - starting with Yoshan testing his theory about who’s the spy...

[equinoxts2]

The herbalist and her apprentice had barely arrived when Melchol gave birth to two beautiful, healthy daughters. According to Nuidya tradition, they would not be named until they were a full starband old, hopefully preventing demons from sensing the girls’ presence while they were still infants.

(In other words, I hate naming sims I don’t know yet and prefer to have a few toddler traits to work with first. For now, the babies are 1 and 2, so I won’t be tagging them by name until they’re toddlers.)

[equinoxts2]

I’m still here and I haven’t forgotten about blogging Kulo Seeri! I’ve just been putting off furnishing the homes in Credence by playing a lot of Sims Medieval. The saga of KS’ resident lorekeepers will continue soon though!

I’m not going to be blogging about the settlers in Credence until next rotation, I want time to get to know these new faces and let them start a few storylines. While I play through their Rotation 1 (and also some TSM) I’ll also try to post about Kulo Seeri proper and what the tribe got up to during their first rotation.

As an aside, I’m using TSM to develop some of the history of the first Nuidya, Sena Yuleng (whose name I regularly yell when I get frustrated) - she was a goofy legacy founder with no personality and a whole pile of crummy CC when I created her, and her backstory of being a shard of the Earth Dragon didn’t even come into play until thirteen years of simmer time later, by which time she was long since pushing up the pixel daisies. So I have her as my save’s monarch, and I’m starting to get a feel for who she actually was and what her life was like before she was the mother of the Nuidya tribe.

I’m enjoying it right now, but as always TS2 is my first love gaming-wise, so I will be back soon!

[equinoxts2]

It had been only four days since Melchol's passing, and the village rumour mill was working overtime. Everyone had a theory about who the Beguiler’s spy was; admittedly, most of them thought it was Keru zan-Tia, who, within the last few starbands, had suddenly gone from being a relatively responsible man to starting fights with everyone. Yoshan zan-Li had another theory, though - one he hadn’t told anyone.

Yoshan made sure his daughters were completely engrossed in their play before approaching Hudana. Until recently, it was Hudana who’d been starting all the fights - things had changed towards the end of autumn, when he’d got into a brawl with Keru. That incident had seemingly passed the mantle of village troublemaker.

It wasn’t going to be obvious whether Yoshan’s theory was correct. The Beguiler, if the lorebooks were anything to go by, didn’t do obvious.

But maybe it would give him a clue.

[equinoxts2]

We’re now moving on to the household of resident lorekeepers Yoshan zan-Li and Dominick Irving! Enjoy this rambly recap post (my game LOVES throwing these two curveballs) complete with a pic from late in Zera’s round of two sims with the Hydrophobic trait about to get ACR-y in the most awkward place for them both...

Yoshan: I will never understand how merfolk manage to live in this stuff.

Right. Recap (of stuff that mostly didn’t get blogged about because I lost my last save) coming up:

Dom and Yoshan have been the most adorkable couple in KS since they met. However, Yoshan’s Nuidya upbringing left him struggling to stick to the stable, monogamous relationship he knows his partner needs. He’s so far had a fling with former head warlock Hyde, kissed some random townie guest at Etan and Melchol’s wedding after having too much to drink, and most recently, met with the town council of the neighbouring mining settlement of Credence, spent too much time in the Wolf’s Tail Tavern, and woke up married to one of the Credence elders.

Returning to KS with the older man, Yoshan hoped to clear up the misunderstanding and reconcile with Dominick, but both of them were in for a surprise: Yoshan came home to find that Dom had been abducted while stargazing and returned as a vampire, while Dom was shocked when Yoshan’s accidental spouse walked in, took one look at Dom and said “...Son?” Yup, Yoshan went and got hitched to none other than hs lover’s long-lost father Alistair. Then Dominick got abducted again and came back as a vampire ghost.

Yoshan then somehow lost his memory of who Dom was, as well as forgetting about their two aetherling daughters, but somehow still remembered marrying Alistair... that was my first sign that I was going to lose the save. Between rebuilds, things seemed to clear up: both hoods’ councils agreed to annul the accidental marriage, Yoshan now remembers his family, Dom is back to his usual not-undead-twice-over self. and Alistair decided to stay in KS and try to make things right with his son and granddaughters.

Fresh start? I hoped so, and so did they... but what does this rotation have in store for this household?

[equinoxts2]

Previously on Kulo Seeri, Melchol gave birth to twin voidlings, revealed that the vengeful Beguiler had a mole in the village and died. His grave will be moved to the burial grounds next rotation - in KS, you don’t anger a spirit by turfing it out of its home straight away!

The rest of the rotation passed uneventfully, but here are some highlights of the last couple of days:

Immediately after Melchol’s death, ACR kicked back in with a first kiss between Zyulo and Wild Kiss. Is Sophos crying for his brother, or is it because his love interest has just got romantic with someone else?

The twins had to be adopted out, since there are only three nursing mothers in KS. Since one is Melchol’s ex and another is a Vedraloga, Lark zan-Ace was the only choice. She came by with her brother Caleb to take the babies back to her tents.

A litter of skuncoons are on the way...

...and Melchol is not taking kindly to the fact that the kitchen has become a mess in his absence.

[equinoxts2]

I’ve decided not to rebuild this iteration of Kulo Seeri - I’m just starting over at a point before I played any of my households. However, I am giving my sims one rotation without ROS or blogging - unless something major happens in my game that I can’t not share. And something did.

The older guy in this pic is Abraxius Platinum, NPC head warlock turned senior husband of Headwoman Etan mi-Avira. The younger woman who’s flirting with him is Kuona, Etan’s daughter. No, Kuona and Abraxius are not biologically related. However, there is a law in the tribe, written by Etan, that any spouses of your mother, grandmother etc. are off-limits - usually I use Found Family to set that, but I forgot in this case.

Now, if they’d just stayed flirting in the bush, they might have been able to cover it up. But no...

Abraxius had to put some ACR moves on a couple of other visitors to the Heart of the Village... who also happen to be gods. The one in the red robe, hugging Abraxius in the above pic, is the Seeker - god of self-awareness, intuition and the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment (and is also sort of my simself). The blonde dragon god in the corner there is Air - god of creativity, agility, inspiration and freedom - who Abraxius also flirted with in front of Kuona. I don’t have a picture of that...

...but as you can see, Kuona took it badly. It actually degenerated into her slapping and poking both Air and the Seeker repeatedly before the sim I was controlling went home. All that has to have consequences (for Kuona in particular) but I’m not sure what.

To add insult to injury, Abraxius is not my type. :P

[equinoxts2]

Rotation 1, Household 1: ROS = unexpected pregnancy (it was a death ROS, but I don’t allow those in the first rotation so I rerolled)

As their first order of business, Rivadya and Sivu make their way to the Heart of the Village to flirt with apartment neighbours and play some treeball. Oh, and maybe fetch water, that might be important?

Dill has an even better idea: stay home and spy on Headwoman Etan. What could possibly go wrong?

[equinoxts2]

Back to Kulo Seeri gameplay now! And since I’ve fixed the apartment landlord issue (and I’m planning to build for each household as I get to them) the first household I’ll be playing will be one of the apartment-dwelling ones.

Say hi to these three roomies! On the right is Dill zan-Zita (I’ve changed the clan naming convention and will probably make a rambly lorepost about it later) and in the middle is Rivadya sho-Serendipity. The voidling on the left is Dill’s adoptive nephew, Sivu. All three of them - and all other residents of the apartment - are single adults, either childless or with children who have flown the nest. Basically, it’s Teal Camp for grown-ups.

My game: Good luck with that...

[equinoxts2]

ACR continues unabated through the first day...

Game: *chimes*

YOU TWO. NOT AGAIN.

[equinoxts2]

Off to the next family now, and my d12 tells me it’s the household of Zera sho-Ku. Just let me load their lot...

Looks like I have a decapitastic case of the invisible soup! To make things weirder, it’s actually a family of seven....

[equinoxts2]

Kulo Seeri returns to simblr with a new iteration that I’ll be building as I go - and I really need to stop complaining about first rotations being slow, because when I do, things like THIS happen:

I mean, seriously? We never even got to meet this guy in the story! But since he’s gone and got himself hit by a falling sky rock on day one, and I forgot to get a screenshot of him before that... time to ramble.

Voidling Branch Anderer, around middle age, was the husband of the significantly younger Nita zan-Avira, a seer living in Kulo Seeri. They met in Port Alma about a thirband (seasonal year) ago, when Nita and her siblings were travelling back to KS, and agreed to marry her and join the Nuidya tribe.

Since then, many of the Nuidya have mentioned his uncanny similarities to the late Branch Timbley, one of two husbands of former zan-Ace matriarch Zita. They didn’t look much alike, but the personality traits were almost identical, to say nothing of the name. Branch Timbley was also known for death from above, himself shuffling off from a falling sky rock once and lightning twice, and Nuidya lore says that if you’re struck by lightning and die, you’re immediately reincarnated and don’t get to kick back in the ancestors’ realm first. I think this incident proves my suspicions that the two of them were the same dude.

Branch leaves his wife Nita and her voidling son Anyu (not actually Branch’s son; Nita was abducted before she met him) as well as Nala and Mike, two of the three cats they adopted in Port Alma (Taz, the third, lives with Nita’s siblings Ky and Alana). Per Nuidya tradition, the family will observe two starbands of mourning, and Branch will be laid to rest in the burial grounds next rotation once I’ve built the dang lot.

Moral of the story: do NOT complain about first rotations being slow, boring or anything of the sort. I learned from several experiences like this that the game WILL strike someone down for it. :P