I'm having fun building a castle! In this series of 6-8 weekly blog posts, you can follow the progress as well as getting a first introduction to the royal House of Luxe-Hamper.
In case you missed the previous article, if you see some CC of interest, just drop me a comment and I'll look up credits and link. I have too much CC to give links as we go.
So, this is Chateau Peak, located at The Pinnacles in Del Sol Valley. This far the exterior is just a base, and will be adjusted later. I find the indoors more interesting because that is where the household and staff will live their lives. I think my strength as a builder is to plan thoroughly, though, not necessarily to decorate appropriately. I'm used to smaller households and it feels a bit off to add as much gold and stash as possible - so, all details might change in the future anyway. I like to think that each Monarch might cause a few changes over the generations.
When I call it a castle, I'm fully aware that it is lacking many of the features (including size) that a castle should have. Besides, I'm not playing medieval, but modern times, so I gladly skip most of those old features. To be playable everything needs to be scaled down. The sims living there never refer to it as a castle either. In formal terms they use The Royal Estate, Chateau Peak. I might still use the castle word every now and then in this series.
Last blog post focused on the right side of the 1st floor. Rooms are grouped by purpose, and I tagged each floor ROYAL (1st fl.), NOBLE (2nd fl.), PRIVATE (3rd fl.) and SERVANTS (basement). Today we're focusing on the left side of the first floor, it all has a flare of the official formality that comes with a monarchy, being business or pleasure. While right side has the Throne Room (& Banquet Room) and a few party facilities, left side (especially H+I+J) focus a bit more on administrative matters.
The rooms' names are subject to change, and so are swatches, décor and clutter. But it is a good start. On this floor rooms are spacious and I imagine furniture can be added as needed, so what you see is the basic. Repeating this floor map with an updated image:
A. Grand Mazaloom Hall (entrance, heart of building, big enough for events with mingling)
B. Anna Drawing room (smaller gatherings)
C. King Tybe Dining room (smaller dinners, serves up to 20)
D. Throne Room (most formal big room suitable for all kinds gala/banquets/large groups)
E. Orangery
F. Small kitchen (a practical staff station between the basement kitchen and dining facilities)
G. The Gallery (portraits of current and past adult House members)
H. Monarch's office
I. Conference room
J. Press room
K. Chapel
L. Grand Salon Queen Evez
X. Staircase towers used by staff only. They connect underground.
I'm not focusing on toilets while playing a castle, but there will be 2-3 quite small rooms for those needs.
With such large rooms, I rarely know what to put in them. Along the road I often drop random items into various floors, just to have indicators of a room's purpose. Below is the Monarch's Office right after I started working on it - still a bit chaotic :)
First stop is the group of rooms meant for daily administration. So below is the heart of running not only this huge estate, but also the Mazaloom kingdom. Let's imagine there exist an office with employees elsewhere in Del Sol Valley or San Myshuno. This administration section would be way bigger in RL, but I can't employ more than one person , so...
1H. Monarch's Office
This is our first stop today - an important room, where the Monarch will spend a few hours most days. It is rather big even for a Monarch, there could have been a secretary office too, but instead I'll give the Chief Chamberlain Quartermaster Attendant* an office on 2nd floor (* not decided on that poor employee's title yet, LOL).
Her Royal Majesty Queen Evez mostly sits at her desk, but when tasks require it, she might join visitors in those red armchairs, debating the map of the Mazaloom kingdom. The kingdom is in peace at the moment, but the queen herself is not a very peaceful soul, so I would not be surprised if she decides to expand her territory.
The Monarch might work with Business Management up to coronation, but will normally not have a regular career aside of being Sovereign and Head of the nation. HRH Prince Consort Clempus is another story though, he can freely build a career, and depending on age when they were crowned, most of the hard work might already be done. Prince Clempus leads a Military career, formerly in the Navy but later he was a land based Officer. He is not very ambitious, but I guess his income is a nice contribution.
Queen Evez collected lots of medieval swords over the years. Her collection is widely recognized and admired, and would deserve a better display - some day. It's one of few collections that she likes to admire every day. Other collections are stored in the basement vault and only put on display periodically, either here in the Chateau Peak or in some Museum.
1I. Conference Room
Moving on to the Conference room. It's not very big, in fact just a meeting room, but suitable for a "less-than-400-rooms-castle". I named it "conference room" to indicate that it's connected to the Press Room - and it sounds bigger.
I started out with a few big one-piece CC tables that looked good, but they worked poorly when sims were seated. I don't mind some clipping, but not as the default. It's a pity the game does not have a dining table that is 2 tiles wide. Combining smaller tables like this looks a tad weird, but I imagine it's done on purpose. The staff can arrange tables in various ways depending on occasion. I like to think they have a bunch of matching items stored in the basement ;)
This particular meeting is actually members of House of Luxe -Hamper. Right after Queen Evez' coronation they gathered over a weekend to debate certain changes. The Queen will of course firstly serve Mazaloom, but she is also Head of House of Luxe-Hamper. She was raised to avoid conflicting interests, but the other central members of the House might be less focused on playing it clean.
Pictured (left to right) are Princess Whilma L-H. Floretti, Prince Millam the Baron de Tredony, Queen Evez, Prince Barris, and finally Dowager Baroness Eliza de Tredony. Prince Millam and the Dowager (widow of his late uncle Bernadine) both lives in Tartosa. I'm using their title with their civil names here, just to make it easier to see their connection, but normally they will be just Princess Whilma, and so on.
In the corner of this room is the stairs tower (not pictured) that staff members use to access the business section. It also connects to the mentioned office on 2nd floor. The door that *is* pictured, leads into the Press Room:
1J. Press Room
The Press Room is used mainly when the Monarch has important news, but also for announcements by the House of Luxe-Hamper. There is also a TV camera that is operated on demand by Plumbob Pictures.
In addition the Monarch's children might use the press room facilities as part of their education.
Along the back wall there is a few office facilities as well as refreshments provided.
So, that concludes the business area (H+I+J) and it's time to move on.
The remaining facilities are the Gallery (G), the Chapel (K), and Grand Salon Queen Evez.
1G. The Gallery
The Gallery is simply a wide corridor leading to Grand Salon Queen Evez. On these walls hang portraits of previous Monarchs, as well as of most members of House of Luxe-Hamper. I think it's only members who are found worthy of becoming a central member, which means your voice actually counts and you will be invited for the kind of meetings we just saw. Head of House (Monarch) decides these things, so the selection might even be a bit personal. I've created CC to have all those portraits on the wall.
The right side wall seems a bit empty, that is to blame the stairs/platform behind that wall. I rarely use bb.moveobjecs cheat, so I might just cover it up a bit better with tall statues etc.
1K. Chapel
And now - the Chapel!
It's not big, but still provide seating for 20 persons downstairs, and 10 more on the balcony that is only accessed from 2nd floor. It's a Jacobian chapel, if you watched my Medieval Mazaloom video series you might recall King Baltazar converting from Peteran to Jacoban. The Monarchs have supported the Jacoban faith ever since. It probably suited them better, as it helped scaring their residents to build power to themselves.
Queen Evez visits the chapel regularly, although the staff hints that instead of praying she goes there to claim and command the Watcher. She was married in this chapel, and so will her two teen sons be in the future.
There is of course a pipe organ back there in the corner. I can't wait to play a ceremony here :)
1J. Grand Salon Queen Evez
Final stop on this 1st floor tour is the Grand Salon Queen Evez.
It was previously named just Grand Salon and mostly used as a ball room, but Queen Evez renovated it to match her personal taste, and also decided to have it renamed in her own name. The old floor is intact, but walls, the green furniture groups and the curtains were all new. The old pink groups are a bit daring, but the salon is originally created to honor romance. That's why the latest Monarchs and their Consorts have their official paintings in this room.
One main attraction is the very old painting of the medieval Mazaloom village as seen from the old Hedgewood Castle (now just some ruins at Gibbs Hill, Britechester), possibly painted in Year 22. It's a bit dark, but I love adding CC details like this connecting lore and various eras/locations. There is also a painting of the medieval Hedgewood Castle in Anna Drawing Room (it was not pictured in previous blog post).
Grand Salon Queen Evez provides seating for about 20, but the room is spacious and salons can be added as needed. There can be dancing and live orchestra, also, but those facilities are no longer the standard.
You might have spotted two painted couples on the walls - the current Monarch and the previous - King Tybe was Queen Evez' father, and she hates that they chose a yellow background for their official painting - it's a horrible mismatch to Evez' color scheme and she probably dreams of the day when her own son takes over the Throne, and that yellow thing on the wall will be rotated out from this room. The only catch will be that the rotating of paintings will happen because Queen Evez is dead.
What about all those smaller portraits on the main wall?
House of Luxe-Hamper has a tradition of highlighting their young and upcoming members. The eight latest teens meeting certain requirements skill wise, will get their teen portrait on this wall. I will save those portraying details for a future blog post as this article is already quite lengthy.
So, that was all from the 1st floor - tagged Royalty. The next two articles will cover 2nd floor, which is less publicly formal, but with fine and varied facilities intended for treating smaller groups of noble guests.
That completes the 1st floor, but there is 3 more floors to go (phew!). Part 3 will be up in one week.
Stay cool!
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