Sasa of Astora

Hello and welcome to the home of my Simblr! Here you will find my Decades Challenges with the Zehr and Finch families, as well as my project to rebuild every world in the Sims 4. Here are a few links if you need them! 

Please be aware that both legacies will contain mature themes such as war, death, alcohol, drugs, sex, prejudice, mental health etc. Though they will never be presented in a graphic way, it is something to know before reading.

I am ask and WCIF friendly, but do know that despite my OCD I am actually incredibly disorganized so I may not always actually have an answer on where I found something. 

Copperdale, Ontario / Zehr Legacy

Most Recent

Chronological

Zehr Family Tree

Moodboards

Extras

Finch Legacy (Hiatus)

Chronological (1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950)

Finch Family Tree, Moodboards, Extras

Rebuild the World

Willow Creek 

Forgotten Hollow

Urbz Legacy Challenge Rules

In no time at all, the little Zehr cottage had become very chaotic and very crowded. One evening, Thomas hesitantly mentioned to his wife that perhaps her beloved art studio would have to be converted into a room for some of the children. Caroline sat in silence for a moment, and Thomas worried that she was deeply upset.

Then, to his surprise, she smiled and said “You know, I think that is a wonderful idea. Besides, I do believe we will need the space even more very soon!” They embraced, both equally excited and nervous about another addition to their rapidly growing family.

And so, the little studio was turned into a cozy bedroom for the girls to share.

Many grueling hours later, just as the storm was beginning to break, Thomas and Caroline were finally blessed with beautiful twin girls. They were simply overjoyed that their little family was growing so quickly, and Thomas could not wait to introduce Tommy to his brand new sisters.

Welcome Margaret and Harriet Zehr, born July 19, 1873.

It was a late summer evening as lightning flashed and thunder crashed outside, when Caroline went into labour for the second time. Somehow she had thought that this time it might be easier, but quickly learned that that was absolutely not the case.

They would have sent for Dr. Burges but he was held up by the storm at a patient out of town, and so instead word was sent to Mrs. McManus, who came running as quickly as she could.

Thomas, meanwhile, was tasked with comforting little Tommy, who was overwhelmed with the storm and the cries he could hear coming from his mother’s room.

As the days went by, Caroline tried her best to be patient with Tommy, but the longer the boy went without speaking, the more her frustration grew. Surely there was sometime wrong with him, and surely there was a way to fix him!

Thomas’ staunch patience, however, only served to further Caroline’s annoyance. Though for Tommy, this meant he felt much closer to his father than his cold mother, and often could only be comforted enough to fall asleep by listening to his father’s voice as he read him fairytales each night.

Though parenting was often exhausting, days in the little cottage were still full of love, and it wasn’t long before Caroline and Thomas were expecting their second child!

Tommy meanwhile grew bigger and brighter by the day, although he had not yet outgrown his fussiness, nor had he yet begun to speak, much to Caroline’s disappointment and frustration. Still, she loved the boy, and did her best to listen to Thomas’s constant reminders- “We must simply be patient with him, my love. He will speak in his own time, I’m sure of it.”

1 - How do you decide each character’s personality and goals?

2 - Is there any specific historical event you’re excited to portray?

3 - Do you plan to explore deeper themes about marriages from that era? Not that I’m especially interested in the whole dark side of marriages in the last century, but sometimes in these challenges everything can seem a bit too perfect. Even in love marriages, the weight of prejudice and gender expectations could be really exhausting — and that doesn’t necessarily make the male characters awful; they’re just men of their time doing what they think is right.

4 - Do you plan to have a larger number of children in any generation? That was very common in the early decades of the challenge, but I rarely see creators having more than four kids.

5 - Do you feel like you’re managing to make your characters unique and deep?

6 - Do you have a favorite character? If so, who?

7 - Were you inspired by other creators to write your story or at least to motivate yourself?

8 - Which historical simmers would you recommend for a Decades Challenge fan like me to follow?

9 - Is there any DLC you think is essential for this challenge? Like, you REALLY couldn’t play without it.

10 - Which mods have you been using the most lately?

Tag other creators to answer too 😉

Wow, such awesome questions!! Thanks so much for asking!!

1 - How do you decide each character’s personality and goals?

So the way I’m doing this is I look at basically a breakdown of each character’s lifespan and through what years will they be a child, a teenager, etc and then comparing that with a list of things happening in each period, things that were popular, etc. Then it becomes a decision of what aspects of each era I want to embrace, and think about how much that character would go with or against the grain. Hopefully that all made sense- basically it’s a lot of lists lol.

2 - Is there any specific historical event you’re excited to portray?

This is a tricky one- part of me wants to say ww1 because I already have chunks of that written, but the thing is, I’m really excited for all of it. Mostly I’m just so hyped to be able to reference and portray some of the unique elements of Canadian culture and history, showing that we’re more than just American/British-lite.

3 - Do you plan to explore deeper themes about marriages from that era?

To be honest, probably not much, if at all. It’s just not something I’m super comfortable with writing or thinking about, even though I know it’s certainly historically accurate. That said, I may include some of the struggles faced by more unconventional couples, and don’t worry, I will certainly be injecting drama in other places.

4 - Do you plan to have a larger number of children in any generation?

Yes! Spoiler here, but in gameplay Caroline and Thomas already have quite a few kids- and I’m thinking at least one other generation later may have lots of kids too. I don’t want to do it for every gen though- I do find that in gameplay I get very overwhelmed by super full households.

5 - Do you feel like you’re managing to make your characters unique and deep?

God I kind of hope so, but I also don’t know that I’m fully there yet. I do have more ideas for our characters so far that haven’t come into play just yet though, so eventually I’m hoping they become the rounded characters they are in my head.

6 - Do you have a favorite character? If so, who?

So the actual answer to this is a character who hasn’t even appeared on the blog yet, but she’s recently been born in game, and will one day arrive to wreak havoc. But really I do love them all. To pick a character who has appeared already- probably Tommy. I’m just obsessed with watching my little guy grow up.

7 - Were you inspired by other creators to write your story or at least to motivate yourself?

Oh my lord yes!!! This story would absolutely not exist if not for the support of @aheathen-conceivably, @antiquatedplumbobs, @surely-sims, @historybunnny, @applesaucesims, and god, probably many more lovely souls I’m forgetting at the moment. Love all of you amazing cheerleaders.

8 - Which historical simmers would you recommend for a Decades Challenge fan like me to follow?

Oh man, well all of the people above to start, but also @antiquatedsimmer, @alainas-sims, @twentiethcenturysims, and also @thebramblewood sometimes has some very cool historical moments in her largely modern story. Also of course must always give a shout out to the great @pixelnrd.

9 - Is there any DLC you think is essential for this challenge? Like, you REALLY couldn’t play without it.

For my particular challenge it’s High School Years, because where would I be without Copperdale lol. Realistically though I think Cottage Living is probably the most useful especially for those early generations.

10 - Which mods have you been using the most lately?

Motherhood did not come naturally to Caroline. Tommy was an incredibly fussy child, who cried almost constantly. He was particular about textures, scents, tastes, and about when and how he wanted to be held.

All of this was increasingly frustrating and exhausting for Caroline, who wished nothing more for her little boy to just be “normal”.

Thomas, meanwhile, seemed to have much more of a knack for soothing their son, much to Caroline’s chagrin.

Many stressful hours later, Thomas was finally allowed back in the room. At last, he and Caroline were able to greet their new baby- a beautiful, healthy little boy who they named after his father.

Welcome, Thomas (Tommy) Zehr Jr. born May 28, 1871.

Happy Canada Day from the Zehr's!

Dr Burges arrived at the house very quickly, and immediately began to help Esther to care for Caroline. Thomas meanwhile was extremely nervous, and so was promptly ushered out of the room to keep Caroline as calm as possible.