Recently I've been fascinated by any kind of lore in the Sims 4. Though it doesn't always make it into gameplay, I have noticed so much with descriptions of sims/families, BB items, and little Easter eggs thrown in with how packs are connected.
I saw a tiktok video the other day that pieced together Princess Cordelia's story and it was so in depth and fascinating that I've found myself thinking about Sims 4 lore and how it might be fun to explore this more in gameplay ever since.
So what's your piece of sims lore? From Johnny Zest to Roberto Crinkletop, there's so many little hidden stories to be explored, some well known among the sims community and others more obscure. And a follow up question - how much attention do you pay to lore in the game and do you often use it to drive your stories?
I have to agree with @Lenny_Ogg, the story of Moonwood Mill is one of my personal favorite bit of lore. I, too, use it as the foundation for my SimLit stories and I really enjoy building on it.
I know there is a ton of lore that I just don't know. Sometimes I try to find it and use it. Other times I just run with my own ideas. At the very least, I try to read the little blurbs for each household and see how I can use them in my storytelling.
Thanks @Lenny_Ogg! I don't have the Werewolves pack (but things like this keep tempting me haha, probably will get it on the next sale) but I have heard a lot but the lore but never actually saw it all pieced together, I'm looking forward to reading through all that!
I actually find Sims lore intrusive and wish they'd keep it more sketchy. For example "Greg is a feral werewolf", not the whole Myshopotamia backstory. Coming up with history and metaphysics for my setting is so much fun that I react badly to canon lore. I did use the name Avelina in connection to Greg, but as his mother, not his love. I also kept Lily's connection to Vlad in one save, only now she is the descendant of the sawmill guard dog that Vlad once bit. All Moonwood Mill werewolves (plus Celene) are part of that pack. In the second Oregon challenge I kept their canon family relations, but they were only a single pack with two rivals for leadership.
Probably as an act of rebellion I latch onto pieces of obscure lore that the devs themselves forgot or cast aside: The two missing Renegades from the trailer, the fact that Jacques Villareal was presented as a womanizer instead of childish in a trailer, the forgotten Goth baby (Paige) from the Butlers lifestream, Lori Keye's name being Mia McNally in the Parenthood lifestream and the Goths getting localized as Julia and Winfried in Sims 1.
I'm happy to see you around the forums again @permanentrose!
I'm curious about others thoughts on Sims lore, because I don't pay attention to it much at all. I try to ignore or delete all pre-made Sims in my game. I don't want them in my stories, but sometimes, I don't remove them because I forgot or I misidentified them as townies and it's too late to change things.
I incorporate more subtle bits of lore if I notice it such as object descriptions and general Sims history, but I dislike Sims with set backstories in my own game even though I don't mind them at all in others'.
@EnkiSchmidt That is valid, that too much confirmed lore can take some of the creativity out of letting us use our imagination to fill in the gaps.
I feel like there's so many trailers that don't quite match what we're ultimately given haha. Love that you've taken some of the forgotten/misrepresented stuff in the trailers and kept it alive and actually developed it haha. Speaking of the Villareals, that reminds me of the one time I decided to give Max a villainous backstory. (In spoiler tags because of Strangerville spoilers, I think it's still pretty normal to keep things a surprise in case people still haven't it played it through)
Basically I decided to use the bit of Max's bio where he is described as a "terrifying force of nature" and how his mother disappeared under "mysterious circumstances" and is not found anywhere in the game. I decided to make him an evil alien who infiltrated the Villareal family and modified their memories to make them think he was actually part of their family. Then using their wealth and resources, he established a base in Strangerville in which to grow a motherplant (which required a sacrifice aka his poor mom), which the evil aliens had been doing in civilizations all across the galaxy in order to gain mind control over entire planets and complete universal domination. So yes, I made Max the evil mastermind behind the entire Strangerville mystery and he used his poor childish dad's wealth and wife to achieve all this :D I never did much with the story, used it a bit in another challenge, but it was fun to concoct all the same
@haneul Whoops, saw you commented right as I was typing up my own reply. I used to delete all premades too and fill my households with as many interconnected sims and stories as I could come up with on my own, so I totally get that. Then I got too many packs and too many worlds and it was too hard to fill them with all my own sims so I started using premades for my stories sometimes or making more connections and relatives for premades when I got ideas for sims (Like giving Penny Pizzazz a sister named Polly Pizzazz haha). But I totally respect both (or any!) way of playing and I do think it's very cool to have the option to both and to have more than one save going too to explore all the options.
One of my reasons for starting this thread too is that I've been playing errands in Henford-on-Bagley recently, and if you take the time to read all the pop ups that come with those mini quests, they really are so thought out and all the residents are so connected that you could have a whole story just with all the information and backstory given with those. It made me curious to see places that other people find lore in the game (like that Princess Cordelia backstory mainly told in item descriptions). It just all fascinates me so much!
1. Princess Cordelia 2. The Von Haunt Estate Ghosts 3. The disappearance of Jacques Villarreal's wife
@permanentrose I found the Cordelia lore a few days after I got the game, and it's still one of my favorite things! Also, I like the story you came up with for the Villarreal family too! I wouldn't have thought of doing that!
@Lenny_Ogg I too have given an explanation for Jeb's bag in my own story. I'm glad Maxis gives us interesting characters like him to play with.
I think it's so much fun to try and "solve the mystery" of what happened. Like with the Von Haunt ghosts, or Jacques and his wife, or Jeb, or Cordelia.
More in the spoiler so I don't spoil the lore for anyone.
One thing that I think is interesting is that the Thebe/Laurent family in Tartosa are apparently the descendants of Princess Cordelia. Both Arnessa Thebe and Greta Laurent have purple eyes, the same as the Princess Cordelia available on the gallery. If you look at Arnessa and Cordelia, they actually look a lot alike. One interesting thing I saw in a video I watched was that in the item description for the plates with the parrots on them, it says Cordelia had one for each pirate boyfriend.
According to the lore, she had three boyfriends. If that's the case, why are there four plates? Who is the fourth, and is he the one from whom Arnessa Thebe is descended from?
I've actually considered playing (and possibly posting) a story that explains what happened to Cordelia. There's just so much to do with her. She also helped design Britechester University. I've yet to play much in Henford on Bagley, but I've heard there's a lot of lore with her there as well. More than just her cottage and the waterfall.
As for Jacques, I know the theory most people have, with him being a criminal, but I actually have a different theory (and it's a crazy one) of what happened. If I say any more, it'll spoil it should I ever decide to write about it.
I've actually brought the Von Haunt ghosts back to life using a spellcaster sim. I used a mod that let them live in their estate. Unfortunately, the tourists still walked through the gardens, so they had to move lol.
Okay, so I am going to incorporate some lore into my newest idea since I will be playing with Max Villareal. I'm not using the story I previously came up with for their family, as it doesn't fit into what I want to accomplish with this challenge, but I was wondering if any of you would be interested in sharing your favorite Villareal theories (and I see some of you have already), especially in regards to what happened to Mrs. Villareal, as I'd love to fully flesh out a backstory for them :)
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