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Sprottenham's avatar
Sprottenham
New Vanguard
3 hours ago

The People of Simbria: Sunset Valley

Well, hi there. This is a story (of sorts) that has been going on for a while, so it won't be starting with the first chapter, but it doesn't matter to much, because it didn't start with the beginning even when I first started sharing it on the old forum. 😛

The Concept

In general, the story takes place in several towns spread across a country called "The United Kingdom of Simbria", and now that the concept is a little more clear than when I first started out on the old forum, I will not lump everything together in one thread, but instead create one thread per. town. So, this thread will focus on the inhabitants of Sunset Valley - the small town that everybody knows, and which in my world is located on the southwestern tip of this country.

Map of the kingdom, with Sunset Valleys location marked with yellow text on the southwestern corner.
Prologue: The Original Families. Moving into town.

The story of Sunset Valley began in 1977 sim time, when a young couple, Asgeir and Lucie Karlsen moved into town. They had moved all the way south from their hometown of Pamtere far, far to the north, hoping to settle in the city of Wad Nahadau, b ut the housing market in the city had proved to be much to expensive for them....

Asgeir aspired to be a world famous painter and writer and Lucie wanted to reach the top of the medical career. Since they used almost all of their money buying their first home at Water Lily Road 58 and as Asgeir's career as a painter and writer was a long way from taking off, they both started a job at the bottom ranks of the medical career. Camera technology was still very expensive and unaccessible to the general public back then. Only licensed photographers and the wealthiest of families usually owned one. Everyone else would either have to rent or borrow a camera, or go to the photograper to have their picture taken. Hence to tell this story, actors with pretty much identical looks and personalities were hired to reenact them moving into town....

Reconstructed photos of Asgeir and Lucie entering their new home for the first time. This is only what it might have looked like.

Asgeir often woke up feeling grumpy and irritable in the mornings, but this worked well enough for a while, largely due to Lucies kind and friendly nature.

Another couple, Ingmar and Eirin Motorsen, had moved to town just a month after Asgeir and Lucie. Ingmar wanted to move to town as he had read about the chess triumphs of H.K.H. Høigaffel and had early on felt compelled to become a world famous chess player as well. Ingmar was quite the slouch, but they needed food on the table, so he got himself a job in the medical career. His wife Eirin was a lucky and charismatic person, but often found herself struggling with forgetfulness and sometimes lapsing into periods of insanity randomly running off talking to herself. In spite of this, she got a job in the police force, where she is to this day doing quite well as a forensics specialist.



A reconstruction of Eirin and Ingmar engaging in flirtatious conversation in front of their new home. It's not that it's a trailer... it's just very long and narrow. ;)

Not quite one month after the Motorsen couple had moved to town, the young couple Egil and Frida Kråkesen moved in right next door to the Karlsens. Egil, a highly ambitious individual, quickly got himself a job in the business career, whereas Frida got a job in the medical career. Houses were much cheaper out here, compared to the capital city of Wad Nahadau, even in the suburbs. And who knows, they might just like it enough to make it their permanent residence.


Reconstructed photo of Egil Kråkesen admiring his looks in his new home at Water Lily Road 72.


Reconstructed photo of Frida Kråkesen reading the local newspaper in her new home.

  • Now after that introduction I'll give you two choices that I think makes the most sense...

    You can start with the prologue (Chapter 0) that follows after the prologue explaining how I started this game/story...

    Chapter 0: What are memories but snapshots in time?


    ..where we follow Ranveig Motorsen where she has a dream about some strange person called Aaron* who, as it would seem, has invented some machine that for whatever reason forces her to look back at her own childhood...

    ..or you can skip everything in between then and now, and continue with the latest chapter posted.

    Chapter 18.1 - January 2024 - Family, lessons and a staircase

    In medias res has always been my favourite way of starting stories anyway.. don't worry, you'll probably learn what you need to know anyway.. 😉


    In this chapter we are at Ranveigs house - in the real sims world - where her oldest son Oliver Freddy along with his girlfriend Inge is going back for their 6th semester at university.

    Robert Bråge as a teenager is still undecided about his future. Does he want to go to university and study science like his brother, or does he want to live a more free lifestyle and become and author? And perhaps maybe he is ever so slightly jealous about his two year older girfriend Margrethe getting start taking drivers lessons soon this upcoming summer. ;)


    Inge makes sure to spend her last day in Sunset Valley for now wisely, hanging out in the park with her youngest sister and father. 

    The relationship between Oliver Freddy and Inge is as strong as ever, and Inge definately has their future mapped out... Maybe their relationship is going a little bit to strong for Ranveig still, but she has no choice but to settle with it...

    ..and then the kids are off again to start another semester of long hours of studying, partying and silliness..

    ------

    * The character known as Aaron was at first invented solely to have a reason to look back into the past as another foundation for the story, and to bridge the gap between the original sims moving into town and the more present day sims... but then again, maybe Aaron got his own story of sorts somewhere... if you can find it... 😉.. but before you try to find it, a word of caution. That story is of a sometimes darker nature than this one, hence it is also more hidden away and won't be mentioned much here from this point onwards... (it's also not at all up to date, but I am slowly working on it.... and maybe one day I will finish it...)