#zan ace clan

[equinoxts2]

Kulo Sena Intros: Caleb's Household

Time to meet the first family! Led by Caleb zan-Ace, this all-male (not counting their three cantankerous dogs) household is a close-knit one at the moment, but with the aftermath of Caleb's sister's death still hanging over them, will they manage to pull through?

Caleb zan-Ace (top left pic) is the eldest of the family at 56 starbands or thereabouts. He is kind-hearted and empathetic to young sims going through a rough time, as he himself has overcome family drama and an elixir addiction. He currently acts as a father figure to his three nephews, with plenty of help from his own brother.

Dill zan-Ace (top right) is Caleb's younger brother, in his late thirties and one-third of a former trio of teen shamans. The last one of that group still living, Dill has matured a lot since then, and is looking to settle down soon - as much to give the boys a maternal figure in their lives as to find love for himself.

Akali zan-Ace (bottom left) is 19, the eldest son of Lark zan-Ace, and the only one who actually remembers his mother. Sometimes he wishes he didn't; she was a ruthless matriarch who didn't particularly value sons. He is betrothed to the headwoman's cousin, Kira mi-Avira, but would rather not go through with it - so far, though, he hasn't managed to get up the courage to tell Uncle Caleb he doesn't like her much. He's been going a bit wild lately, though his uncles are still oblivious to his shenanigans.

Ribuvam zan-Ace (bottom centre) is six bands old. So far, he's been quiet but playful, and very close to his older and younger half-brothers. He is aware that the mother he barely remembers was horrible, but he neither longs for maternal love nor fears it - he just isn't sure what it's like yet.

Lutimave zan-Ace (bottom right) is two bands old, and blissfully unaware of how his birth led to his mother's downfall. He is a very shy toddler who is mostly content to play, learn and start every sentence with "why?"

[wordsandrobots]

There's a wonderful image on pixiv somewhere that has Flauros' cockpit absolutely covered in sticky notes Yamagi left for Shino to tell him what all the controls do. Post-its might not be canon but I am pretty sure this is on the money for how Shino's technical education in that thing went.

And I forgot the paints were priced that way. Actually, hold on. How does that work out?

Gundams -- mostly white, makes sense, wartime and all that. We've got a few full coats of reds and darker colours in there too, but that doesn't appear to be the norm and I assume Gremory being black is more due to the nano-laminate coat than paint?

Gjallarhorn -- expensive colours, various blues and greens though generally not that dark unless we're talking older Geirail models. The Venus branch got maroon, which indicates the amount of investment Gjallarhorn puts into that place (e.g. not much).

The Turbines -- Amida's pink suddenly makes a lot of sense if those colours are cheaper, because she was using them long before she was part of a big group. Similar rationale to Shino, wanting to be distinctive on a budget. By contrast, Lafter and Azee fly expensively coloured mobile suits; indeed, the Teiwaz default is blue, which reads like a bit of a power move. Especially since --

JPT Trust -- blacks and purples. Jasley swinging his wallet around, but not *too* much.

Tanto Tempo -- blacks and blues. Being from the Earth-sphere, they're clearly better off than most.

The Dawn Horizon Corps -- surprisingly economical for their ace models, favouring white and bright colours. Seems the money went on the mooks and their duller colours.

The Brewers -- again, kind of flexing with the greens.

Zan Clan -- absolutely not going for subtle with whites, pinks and yellows.

Rakou Pirates -- likewise with their oranges. I'm kind of sensing a pattern where the criminals and pirates want to be seen coming.

Tekkadan -- Mainly seem to take what they can get, but it does seem like all the colours are on the cheaper side. They repaint the Rodis in orange and white, which would be lower cost than the original green, and I think the blue on Barbatos would be their biggest expenditure (and there isn't even much of it). The Shidens match too well to the Isaribi for me to think that could have been down to anything other than there being a lot of purple hanging around the CGS!

Weekly Yuru-tetsu~ This one was a ‘special edition,’ and IIRC it was published on Valentines Day! Y: This time I would like to introduce you to Flauros. Y: This mobile suit was discovered by chance at the exploration site of the Mars Half Metal Mine. It was in sleep mode when we first discovered it. S: That’s my gundam! The Ryusei-Go! Y: It was white when we found it, but when we refurbished it on Saisei, we went to the trouble of changing it to the color that Shino wanted. S: I paid for that out of my own pocket tho! It cost quite a bit!* Y: You need to study harder, Shino. Y: It is also equipped with a railgun that can fire special bullets. S: The Galaxy Cannon!! I didn’t know how to use it, so I had Yamagi teach me! Y: You need to study harder, Shino. Y: ……Its most significant feature is transformation to shelling mode. By anchoring the fuselage to the ground it allows to improve stability during bombardment… S: I seriously didn’t even know that! I was just using it out of the blue! Y: You need to study harder, Shino!

*This ties to the mini drama which was read on stage during the Last Flag fan event. I believe it was later recorded for the official CD drama release, but I’m not sure. The story is about Ride hoarding money to buy sweets for the younger kids, because Orga praised him for that. Shino complains that he’s broke and if Ride has some extra he could lend him. Atra accuses Shino he must have spent all of his money on girls, to which Shino reacts with some hurt feelings that she would judge him like that when he’s not even doing that often anymore, and that he’s actually sent all of his money to Yamagi for the paint for his new gundam!

[equinoxts2]

Sparrow has a want to flirt with sort-of new arrival Tia Sabre, and Tia just happens to have accompanied a late foraging party to Honeyberry Fields. So that’s where Sparrow heads to as soon as two of the kittens are rehomed. However, interests-wise it looks like Sparrow and Tia are a case of “opposites attract”. They’re always disagreeing and it’s making relationship building really hard.

There’s also a lot of fighting going on here! I saw at least five dust clouds before Sparrow returned home, either involving Busuteta and Rivadya or Kuvato and Serani. The tribe is plagued by infighting at the moment - I’m thinking Headwoman Etan needs to do something about this, but not sure what. However, I did see my first ever autonomous apology - see the last pic. Busuteta received an apology from his uncle Jethro, who he’s also been arguing with out of nowhere lately. I thiught that was quite sweet, especially since the zan-Ku brothers aren’t known for their softer sides.

Note to self: never try to take pics of an unlit lot at night in a thunderstorm again.

[equinoxts2]

Zita comes across the leader of the pack sniffing around. When she offers the wolf a treat, the actual family pets notice and a queue forms. As is fairly typical for the aggressive cat, Flame isn’t impressed.

(Yes, they have a dog as well as two cats. Her name is Ursa.)

[equinoxts2]

I was just about to send everyone to bed for the night when this happened. Branch got struck by lightning and, sadly and rather unexpectedly, died. I’d say he’s gone to join his best pal Dayvid, but there’s a Nuidya superstition that says that if a sim dies from lightning, they are immediately reincarnated and don’t get to kick back in the spirit world for a while first. Zita is devastated.

Branch seems to be a magnet for death from above. When I played him in TS3, he was hit by a meteor while gardening, but came back to life. When I played him in a Study or Die challenge (that ended with everyone dead), he was the last one to go, but was struck by lightning and died in semester 4 or 5. I retconned that bit out, but now here he is again... struck by lightning. Lucky trait? I’d hate to see bad luck.

And here’s a bit of lore from my game that no one asked for: the fae of the Seeriverse were originally given life by the three River Fortunes: Fate, Chance and Choice. One side effect of this direct tie to one of the four pantheons is that if they bond too closely with anyone and that sim dies, the little strands of Fate and Chance inside the fae will throw a hissy fit and draw really bad luck to them for a while. As a result of this, most fae are poster children for ACR and avoid forming strong friendships. My headcanon for Branch is that he has a strong streak of human blood in him, but is just fae enough to have the wings and magic... and probably the tie to Fate and Chance, which is now reacting to his best friend’s death.

Bye, Branch. I’ll miss you. And I really need to come up with some more strong bonuses to having fae heritage.

[equinoxts2]

I forgot to take a family pic with the zan-Aces at the start of this rotation, but the family consists of Zita (EF, second pic), her husband Branch (EM fairy, first pic), and three of their grown children: Caleb (AM), Sparrow (AF fairy) and Dill (AM). Sparrow’s twin Lark has moved out with her son Akali, but you can see her in pic 5. Also, Branch and Zita were in a polyamorous relationship with a third sim, Dayvid Musgrave, until he died in I think the second or third rotation. I miss him.

The day starts with the family deciding to clear some more space in their crowded tents. Their two cats, Bee and Flame, are  now the proud parents of three kittens, and the family spends the day inviting friends round in the hopes of adopting out one or two.

Alfred Swift (3rd & 4th pics) seems to be getting on well with the kittens. However, Flame doesn’t seem to think Alfred - or anyone else - is good enough to adopt one of his babies, not even Lark (last pic), who used to live there and knows the parents well. Flame, you’re lucky cats are sacred in Kulo Seeri, because you are a feline he-wolf.

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Lark zan-Ace and her son Akali simultaneously spot a shooting star.

...and that’s the only pic I have of this household really, but I really like it. I’m off to the main zan-Ace tents next!

[equinoxts2]

I had nearly finished playing the second rotation of Kulo Seeri, but then I had a setback and had to restore a backup. Now it’s back to just after I finished playing Lydia and Keru - I’m frustrated, but you do get to see more actual gameplay from that rotation now, so yay? :) Allow me to introduce the next batch of sims:

Miranda mi-Ace (blonde female voidling) is the older sister of Tegan of the Vedraloga, and the first illegitimate sim (defined as mpreg offspring in KS) to be appointed as a core clan matriarch. She doesn’t actually have any zan-Ace blood - the clan sort of adopted her - but she honours the three principles of nature, balance and respect probably more than most of the Nuidya-born sims.

Shansam zan-Carmela (the elder on the far left) is the oldest man in the tribe, and recently married to Caleb, Miranda’s foster father. He studied abroad in his youth, and is the last surviving veteran of the now-legendary battle against zombies a generation ago. He also had a random unexplained harem of admirers while he was a student - I still wonder why sometimes.

Caleb zan-Ace (the long-haired elder in the middle) is the son of the late Branch and Zita of BDZ. He also studied at one of the northern universities as a younger man, brought his boyfriend Calvin - father of three voidlings - back to KS, and raised those voidlings after Calvin died. He’s well-liked by the rest of the tribe, but there’s no denying he seems to have aged fast... he looks about Shansam’s age, and Shansam is a little older than Zita was...

Hudana zan-Avira (the man in the white tunic on the far right) is Miranda’s husband and Headwoman Etan’s brother. He’s also a repeat he-wolf (aggressive or troublesome male) who was matched with the more restrained Miranda to hopefully keep him out of trouble. It clearly didn’t work, since he spent the first quartermoon of autumn picking fights with all the non-he-wolf men in the tribe.

Kani sho-Ace (the kid in front) is Miranda’s son (not Hudana’s, but fatherhood isn’t really a thing in KS, so it doesn’t matter much) and is about a moon away from going through the rites of manhood. I don’t actually know that much about him yet, maybe as he grows up we’ll get to see a bit more of him?

And that’s all of them. Now I’m off to re-play the lot! Oh, and there might be a dramatic, he-wolfish ROS upcoming for these sims... ;)

[equinoxts2]

Meanwhile, back home, Keru notices Demetrius hanging around. He’s still angry about those fights last quartermoon, and hoping to get his own back. Luckily, Caleb - one of the elders - also happens to be walking by, and it usually falls to the elders to settle disputes. Although I have no idea how that speech balloon is supposed to be resolving the bad blood between the two younger men... but that could just be the squeamish ace in me talking. :)

Caleb hangs around for a while after Demetrius leaves, and Keru prepares some stew for the two of them to share. He winds up eating alone though, as Caleb spends most of his visit at the household shrine, talking to the ancestors.

[equinoxts2]

I have to admit that Zera (of “absent-mindedly hacking down a tree in the village centre four or five iterations ago and getting kicked out of the Vedraloga for it” fame) is not the wisest of clan matriarchs, but she does know how to keep a headstrong teenager not long past the rites of manhood occupied: it’s time for a hunting trip! Zyulo, Zera and several other adults of the tribe head into the nearby forest and make camp at Hunter’s Pond.

But then ACR takes the reins again, this time for Zera herself... she appears to have set her sights on Pup zan-Ace, but he’s having none of it. Or so it seems. Clearly Pup was just playing hard to get in that top pic, at least if the second and third ones are anything to go by! (Note to self: get those burial grounds finished so I can have a few weddings!)

[equinoxts2]

And we’re back!

Everyone’s been moved into their newly rebuilt lots, and the first rotation is over. Gameplay posts will start with Rotation 2, in autumn of year 2 NSR. Here’s a summary of the storylines that got started in Rotation 1:

Arafa zan-Carmela, chief elder and best friend of the headwoman, randomly kissed her son-in-law Dill at the village centre in front of half the tribe.

Given her age and status, she can get away with it, but her twin grandchildren were utterly embarrassed about Revered Grandmother acting like a Teal Camper.

This random dude (who prompted me to add a no garden club mod) has been seen wandering around the territory. No one is quite sure why he’s hanging around, myself included. His name is South Luck (long story) and I feel like I need to write him into the story, but he hasn’t done much yet.

Zera sho-Ku of the Vedraloga went out to gather branches for firewood, and somehow managed to break the Nuidya tree-chopping taboo in the process. That’s one less perfectly good tree standing in the village centre. Note to self: check which option you’re clicking.

Her commanding officer/high priestess, Briar zan-Tia, really chewed her out over it. Between this and last build’s fling with Chase sho-Carmela, Zera is facing expulsion from the Vedraloga this rotation.

She was so unimpressed that her teeth poked through her chin like a toddler crying to be let out of a crib.

Hudana zan-Avira, Headwoman Etan’s half-brother, has been starting a lot of fights - always with the more mild-mannered guys of the tribe, none of whom would start fights of their own accord. The council is discussing punishments.

Lark zan-Ace was declared arkal (servant status) and sent to work for the new zan-Ave matriarch, Tetali, as punishment for causing the death of her own mother in hopes of leading her clan. Her first day on the job, she started an affair with her employer’s husband Demetrius.

Finally, we have a first kiss between Busuteta zan-Ku and Tabiltamyuli mi-Avira, who is the headwoman’s daughter, five moons younger than Busuteta, and, unlike him, hasn’t gone through the rites of adulthood yet.

Busuteta then decideed it was a great idea to tell his betrothed Tiozura all about it. I’m not sure if it was a boast or a confession, but Tiozura really needs to put her foot down either way. :)

[equinoxts2]

My beloved main hood is back again! Or will be, once I’ve done more than the bare bones of one lot... and as I’m not the most enthusiastic builder and will also be spending the next month working on a gift for the PBK Secret Santa, that may take some time. :P

But! I have new ideas: you may notice that the home lots are now scattered all over the map, instead of clustered together in a central village. I’ve decided to split said village into four groups - three plain ol’ regular encampments, each led by one of the three main clans (mi-Avira in the centre, zan-Ace on the plains to the east, and zan-Carmela near the northern forest) and one by the coast for the “specialty lots” - the shaman, lorekeepers, Vedraloga (newly formed warrior sisterhood) and Teal Camp, all of which are for the benefit of the tribe as a whole, not any one clan.

I’m looking forward to being assigned my Santee and making their gift, but until then I’ll be passing the time by building. Maybe I’ll actually have gameplay to share next year? I hope it’ll be sooner than that though! :D

[equinoxts2]

Update on Kulo Seeri: Halfway through recreating the first lot AGAIN after multiple restarts and I’m sick to birding death of building and setup. :(

However, I’ve decided that I will be scrapping the clan name system and using dual matronyms as last names (for example: Lark, daughter of Zita and Branch, as opposed to Lark zan-Ace) and I need to work out a way of combining parents’ names that isn’t word salad. That’s some progress, at any rate. But I just want to play already...

[equinoxts2]

The first household of rotation 2 (well, the second, but the Vedraloga playthrough was pretty uneventful this time, aside from Zera being kicked out) is Lydia and Keru. As there are fewer clan names than households in KS, I have households named for their matriarchs. Might need to change it to something more consistent for tagging purposes - not sure.

Lydia zan-Avira (the red-haired woman) is Headwoman Etan’s adoptive daughter. She and her twin brother Demetrius were adopted by Etan before she returned to Kulo Seeri; it’s a matter of debate whether she qualifies as a mi-Avira (a female twin who is a descendant of Sena Yuleng purely through the female line) but she's never been bothered about it either way. Now that Etan’s moved away from mi-Avira succession and decided that headwomen can appoint their own heirs, Lydia doesn’t see why it’s an issue, and just gets on with her art projects.

Keru zan-Tia (the dark-haired dude with the beard) is the ex-husband of Lark zan-Ace, and divorced her when she was found to have caused former zan-Ace matriarch Zita’s death. (The only time a man can ask for a divorce in KS is if his wife has broken one of the tribe’s seven great taboos. Poisoning your own mother definitely qualifies.) He’s an organised, hard-working man, so was matched with Lydia afterwards in the hopes that they would balance each other’s traits. For some reason, the match caused a massive falling out between Keru and his brother-in-law Demetrius zan-Avira - they got in two fights in rotation 1.

I was expecting a fairly humdrum day for these two, them being a two-sim household in the early rotations, but I didn’t get one... I blame the zan-Aces. :)

[equinoxts2]

After that eventful night with the zan-Aces, we now move on to the zan-Shola clan... all one of them, plus a handful of not-technically-cousins with nowhere else to go. Vidora zan-Shola (AF, back row, far right, furious thought bubble) is the matriarch of this loosely “related” family, which consists of her, her father late mother’s husband Jethro zan-Ku (AM, back row, second left), Jethro’s sister Mahali’s son Busuteta zan-Ku (TM, back row, second right) and brother Kenan’s daughter Zera sho-Ku (TF, back row, far left), and Kenan’s wife Serena’s children Keresa zan-Nutama (CM, front row, far right) and Sela zan-Nutama (CF, front row, far left). Everyone I mentioned whose name isn’t bolded has died in a previous save. Got that? Good. Let’s go.

(And no, the Nuidya tribe doesn’t recognise fatherhood or paternal relatives as things. The closest they get is “you can’t be romantically involved with anyone who’s ever been married to a direct ancestor”.)

[equinoxts2]

Guess what... I’m rebuilding... of my own volition! (I know, who is this simmer and what have they done with VT?!) And I shall now ramble about why and what I’m planning on doing for this rebuild and stuff. (OK, yup, it really is me.)

There are two reasons behind this: first, I wanted to remove some of my custom skins, and I also started the last Kulo Seeri build with just the (defaulted) Maxis skins and eyes to save space and I’ve since regretted that decision. I also don’t trust myself to alter genetics in SimPE in case I bork something.

The other reason: I felt like play was getting a bit repetitive, so the new Kulo Seeri will have each clan living in its own territory (on the same map). I’ll set up apartment lots so I don’t have to do too much building before I can play, and I’ve divided the Desiderata Valley map into six regions: coastal, wetlands, forest, plains and borderlands - each of which will be the home of one of the five clans and will have its own set of resources - and a central town-like thing for gatherings of the clans, trade, and also the households that are outside the clan system, but still integral to the Nuidya lifestyle.

Those households - currently also five - are the headwoman’s household, the shaman’s household, the schoolhouse type thing, Teal Camp (the coming-of-age not-quite-university household), and the Vedraloga (an order of warrior-nuns and protectors of the Nuidya lands).

Aside from that, my five clans are zan-Avira (the former ruling clan of Kulo Seeri), zan-Ave (the smallest clan, all four of them), zan-Ace (on the other end of the spectrum, the largest clan), zan-Carmela (the only non-core clan that has much of a strong identity) and zan-Tia (or, three loosely related clans somewhat united under the leadership of one of my two elders). I’m not sure which region each clan will wind up in, but I do know that it should make my families feel less uniform, let me develop different customs and outlooks for each, and give me the opportunity to have trade and territory disputes and stuff. (Making everyone too nice is one lingering habit from my micromanager days that I’m trying to break.)

Now that I’ve ditched the idea of succession being through the mi-Avira line only and I’m allowing headwomen to choose their own successors, I’m also going to see if I can develop Etan’s Code - the tribal law system the current headwoman has been working on - and figure out what’s actually in it. I’m thinking that when a headwoman leaves the position, she can’t be replaced by someone of her own clan - otherwise one clan could end up with too much power, and now they all have their own turf instead of one single village... :)

PS: Would anyone be interested in my ramblings about the rebuild process? Because I could type all day about this, but my fingertips won’t let me...