The Lucane Family in the Sims

(I would suggest to anyone who hasn't read the chapters and excerpts I've posted of my 2013 NaNoWriMo novel, Tales of Lerathian, to go and at least skim through the prologue to familiarize yourself with the characters you'll see in this post.)

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, and I've finally gotten around to doing it! This post is centered around the main family in my most recent NaNoWriMo novel who I decided to make Sim versions of. At first, I only wanted to create the house. However, I couldn't make the house and not have the ones who were supposed to reside there. So Alar, Mareiel, Jân, Elle, and Nika were Sim-ified!

Just a little note, I have not mentioned the surname of the family in the story yet. As you might be able to deduce from the title, the surname is Lucane.

First up is daddy Lucane- Alar! I created his name randomly in my head, and only afterwards found out it was an actual word. "Alar" means to have wings or to be winglike in shape. I was very pleased at how well the meaning of his name relates to him as a character. Firstly, his meeting Mareiel allowed her to find her freedom to fly away from the world that constricted her and discover her true happiness. "To have wings" also brings to my mind the image of Alar himself having wings, and thus I occasionally take it one step further and personify him as an angel. Angels are known to be protectors and be unfailingly good- which pretty much sums Alar right up.

In terms of his appearance as a Sim, he and Jân are the ones I'm most pleased with.

Next, naturally, is Mareiel- who sports the light skin and amber eyes of the Elvas. I like her Sim appearance, but she doesn't look anything like what I see in my head for the actual character. She does have the pointed ears of the Elvas, but her hair hides them.

Mareiel's name was inspired from the word "mare", which refers to a female horse. From "mare" I think of the image of a graceful, elegant, normally docile creature who can turn fiercely protective when her loved ones are threatened. That thought is what lead to the creation of the character Mareiel.

I love Alar and Mareiel as a couple, and I wish there could've been more opportunities to write about their time together. Alas, as Mareiel dies withing the first several pages of the prologue that clearly shows there was no chance for me to show the two together.

What I loved most about their pairing is that Mareiel was raised to be so proper and polite, but Alar is an absolute goofball at heart who loves nothing more than breaking down that air of nobility around his wife to help bring out who she really is.

Then we have Jân. He is the son of Mareiel and her deceased previous husband, Desython. He is just as big of a goofball as Alar, which means they get along fabulously. You'll see that personality come out later in the post. As big a child at heart as Jân is though, he is a ridiculously great fighter who can become a powerful leader the second he needs to be one. It's all thanks to his noble heritage.

I tried to get a better picture of him, but I realized I'm severely lacking in poses for males and Jân simply didn't want to do anything interesting for me.

Next is the main main character, Elle. I'm actually the most disappointed with her Sim appearance because she looks nothing like what she is supposed to look like. There also wasn't a lot of good teen clothing choices for the style I was going for. What I do like though is her cute, slightly pointed ears that you can see somewhat in this picture.

Needless to say though, I love the character herself. The word "elle" comes from various languages and has different meanings, but for her name I went with the French origin that means "girl" or "female." Like Alar, the reasoning for the name didn't come until long after I picked it. "Elle" merely popped into my head when I was thinking of names, and it stuck. Now I think it was just something that was supposed to be. Especially towards the first half of The Puppet, Elle deals with a lot of insecurity and self-doubt. She spent the majority of her life being hunted by Elvas who would kill her because they consider her blood dirty and tainted, and Jân and Nika's natural magical talents overshadow her own. For quite some time, Elle does not consider herself special in any way. She's just a "girl", another person in the crowd. Nothing more.

The last of the brood is Nika. She is supposed to take a lot after Mareiel, which is why I gave her the same hair as her mother. Nika does have Alar's freckles though.

Her name is Slavic in origin, and means "bringer of victory." While her name does not relate to her with the same depth that Alar and Elle's name relate to them, Nika does play a solid support in the story. Her age ultimately becomes only a number, and she proves herself a great assist in helping victory and justice come about.

And now we're to the house, which is supposed to be more of a cabin. It came out pretty close to the image of what I had in my head. The biggest difference is that this house's decoration and furniture is much fancier than the simple, homely style it's supposed to have. That's what happens when you have to work with set objects. Still, I'm really happy to have a physical (sort of) representation of an important place in my novel. I built the house in Aurora Skies.

To the right is the family's garden where they grows their food. Jân does hunt what animals he can find, but for the most part the garden really is where most of the meals come from.

This is the view from directly in front of the main door. I tried to make everything wood-based as Alar's profession was a carpenter and it would have been the only easy-to-get resource available when trying to build the cabin in secret. It was hard to make things look nice though since using so much wood meant there was a lot of brown. You'll see a bunch of splashes of blue around. I like to think blue is Mareiel's favorite color, which is why Alar made it the complimentary color.

The door on the very left leads to Elle and Nika's room. Jan's room is in the middle, and the door against the opposite wall leads to Alar and Mareiel's room.

Looking into the house from the left angle where you can see more of the kitchen.

Now we're stationed near the door to Jân's room so you can see the front of the house properly. Since the family lives in this cabin that's supposed to be hidden deep within the woods, I didn't put much in the way of entertainment. Pretty much the bookcases and easel is all there is. I did decide to put a phonograph in the corner there so there could be some music. I wanted to put a piano, but the neither the keyboard nor large grand piano really fit with the theme or flow of the house.

Here's a closer view of the kitchen. I went with a wood oven rather than a normal stove to keep constant with the overall look of the place.

The entrance to the bathroom is across from the kitchen. Nothing too fancy in here, naturally.

This is Elle and Nika's room. The room would have been Jân's for quite some time, but after Nika was born and started to grow the larger room would have had to go to the two girls instead. Elle's bed is on the right and Nika's is on the left. This is mostly since Elle is left-handed, and so her nightstand could be on the more convenient side for her.

A view from the opposite angle.

Here is Jân's room, which used to be Elle's. I didn't decorate it as much because, well, Jân's a guy- and a guy who really doesn't know much about interior decoration.

The view from the opposite angle.

And here we go, the master bedroom! Forgive any repeat paintings you might see. I only had so many to work with.

Obligatory view from opposite corner.

So that's the house!

Obviously, I would want the family to get the chance to move about it for a while. I gave them complete  Free Will, save for Alar and Elle. I made them go take care of the garden first.

Jân loved the place. He walked around with a wide grin on his face being excited at everything there was to view.

Technically, Mareiel is supposed to be dead. I didn't have the heart to kill her though, so I treated the little playing session I had with them like a "what if" situation. As in, "what if" Mareiel hadn't been killed and got to live peacefully with her husband and children with the Elvas remaining in the dark as to what had happened to her and Jân. It was nice to have her there, and it was especially nice since she automatically spent so much time talking with Nika.

Jan found the phonograph, and turned it on. And left it on even though he instantly went somewhere else.

That place was his parents' bedroom. This was when his personality began to show. Jân stood in front of that mirror for a long time making funny faces at himself.

It made me happy and sad when Mareiel kept initiating hugs with Nika, since in the story Nika never got to know her mother because she was killed so soon after her birth.

 Jân stopped making faces at himself, and joined in the conversation his mother and sister were having.

Then they all simultaneously decided to read a book. Poor Nika had it tough when Jân chose to sit down just in time for their legs to phase through the other's. Having siblings isn't fun sometimes.

While Elle went to the restaurant to take a cooking class, Alar started on the arduous task of fertilizing the entire garden by himself.

Elle returned home. She made a nice salad from the vegetables she and Alar had picked.

I was watching her cook when I noticed sudden movement moving fast past one of the windows. I thought it was a deer at first. I looked to discover Jân and Nika had grown bored with reading and were playing tag instead.

Alar finished his fertilizing, but was left in a rather stinky state.

I don't know why you're making that face, Jân. You were the one who interrupted Alar's action of taking a bath...

 So you could make silly faces with him instead.

Elle tried her hand at making some bread, but it unfortunately it came out completely horrible. Elle must not have wanted anyone else to see her failure, for she instantly threw the burnt bread away without me having to prompt her to do so.

Mareiel apparently did not notice the bad smell, and continued to read.

Alar eventually got to take his bath.

Nika had managed to distract Jân with some pillow-fighting. She got a really good hit on him.

Mareiel and Elle got some talking in after Mareiel finally put her book down. Poor Elle. She just wanted some attention.

The family sat down for dinner around 7pm, and I'll admit that it was nice getting to see all of these characters come together in at least a sort of reality. I might make another update or two with them. I think it might be fun to give the family some more opportunities to let their personalities shine through.