Nobility project: History, Coat of arms, High Orders and Jewelry

Oh my! I'm abroad at the time, far away from my game. But what do you do when you can't access your save? Planning ahead of course!

Or back. This Winter I started creating a detailed background for my community. I already have a couple noble families, mainly Duke de Cavalier and Lady de Sür-Blyth, but I wanted to know their background. Not just one geration, but five! Or ten, even! And my oh my - one thing can certainly lead to another!

I used a spread sheet to get the history right for the entire noble system of my region ++, this includes titles and who were sovereigns at what time. It includes names and DNA on all babies born, as family lines are important when it comes to heritage. And it also includes when there was a war or a peaceful period, as well as bigger events to each household like big house fires, failed produce and who were bestowed a new order title. It's notes for a full fleshed history book, that I might post more about later, as I think many simmers would enjoy writing their own game's history book.

I started at year 0 intending to reach my current save year 222, AND the plan was of course to have some of the many peerages expire because of politics or lack of heirs - when I started I had no idea who would make it all the way up to my current time. I use both DNA and a dice to decide development. Some houses are fortunate, others are less lucky and one already expired due to bankruptcy. There was a huge revolution along the way, limiting the nobility's privileges, and I'm currently at year 150 and this far only 2 or 3 houses are gone, so my noble community is still quite massive. At the most active period there were about 30 noble houses. My goal is to have only 5-10 noble houses in the end, including several low nobility Lords with hardly any power. A couple Dukes and some Barons with a little higher status.

I mentioned that one thing leads to another. Because I also had to create each house's coat of arms, this also sets their signature color. On some occasions they were even adjusted when a new head reached top of the house. But that's not all. All high nobility houses have their own Orders, meaning they can bestow knights and ladies of their order. Some orders have 2 or 3 classes, including sashes and brooches to wear for gala ceremonies. All this is still only in my spreadsheet, but I'll soon create the stuff for CAS.

Last night I went on a downloading spree for jewelry! In the past I hardly cared about jewelry in my sim games. Some top of the community would wear some necklace or a few extra rings, but I hardly downloaded any custom content for this. But this time around it's different! The old houses do of course have some old heirlooms, jewelry that only this house have access to, and that comes with a long tradition and perhaps even rules for usage. I'm mostly looking for old and historical creations, but my oh my - there exist so many great jewelry designs out there! The above picture is a screen dump displaying some work by NataliS on TSR, well worth to check out! Also MSSIMS is a great source for upper class accessories.

I'll post more about this project at soon as I get back home. I'm pretty sure you like to know more about their orders, coat of arms and jewelry, right?