Vedrafe zan-Ave was born in the summer of 119, the youngest of the first - and so far only - set of quads born into Kulo Seeri. She was the daughter of Lilac zan-Ave and Anyu zan-Avira, and cousin to three eventual headwomen, Kitira, Abina and Kenda mi-Avira.
I think she is the baby in the red wrap in the front right corner. The other three are Ganyalis (who might be the baby in the front left corner), and their sister Karatla and brother Kifsina, who are in the back with Lilac and Anyu. I can't tell them apart.
This was around the point where I began to keep track of each Sim's health using a method inspired by the Warwickshire Renaissance Challenge, and right from birth Vedrafe had the highest total health score in the tribe, which was taken as a good omen. She managed to keep that distinction for the rest of her life.
Vedrafe also seemed to be completely fearless, or at least completely unflappable. Even as a toddler, she was the only one of the quads who did not go into aspiration failure as a result of their aunt Turi's death. Lilac and Anyu found that a little worrying at the time.
Her childhood was marked by two things: boundless energy and a lack of screenshots. She did have a fascination with healing - probably due to the constant scrapes and bruises from running around and climbing trees all the time - and was apprenticed to village herbalist Serendipity at the relatively young age of seven moons. Studying the medicinal effects of various plants turned out to be the only way to get her to sit still for any length of time.
Not long after going through the rites of adulthood, Vedrafe and her siblings and cousins became the first group of teens to spend time outside the village in Teal Camp. (Ignore the glitchy sky in the following screenshots. This was the time before skyfixes.)
She'd also got into hunting by this time, as had her cousin Aralata (pictured sparring with her here.) If I remember correctly, Aralata had an unrequited crush on Vedrafe at the time.
For most of the Teal Campers, it was a time of goofing off while pretending to be responsible adults. For Vedrafe, there was a lot of physical activity and a lot of getting wet.
And a lot of sparring with Aralata, who had developed an aversion to cleaning. I think he hoped the stink would put Vedrafe off so he could finally beat her. It didn't work.
If you ask any Nuidya, they'll tell you that places with lots of mess and decay attract not only ordinary vermin, but also rot demons. When sickness inevitably came to Teal Camp, it was mostly blamed on the vermin, but when Karatla started acting out of character - alternating between flirting and fighting with everyone, mostly - that was thought to be a sign of possession. Vedrafe eventually managed to use her knowledge of healing to cure the sickness...
...but by then it was too late for Karatla and Kifsina.
Still feeling responsible for the loss a moon later, with younger triplet siblings underfoot and her mother pregnant again, things just seemed to get too much for Vedrafe. She was 14 by this time, and while teen angst is probably a luxury most Nuidya can't afford... well, Vedrafe has never been most Nuidya.
So, in what still stands out as the quintessential Vedrafe moment, she stomped up to the Shaman's Forge - strictly off limits to everyone but the shaman - to yell at the spirits for making her life so unfair, fully expecting to be struck down with lightning or some similar expression of ancestral fury.
Nothing happened. Until that night.
She was spirited away to the realms of the ancestors, and returned the next morning with the ability to use magic to heal and comfort. All she remembered about the experience was a warning that she must never use it for selfish or trivial purposes.
It also seemed like the spirits were determined to test her willpower there - not long afterwards, Lilac died giving birth to twins, leaving Vedrafe and her dad to raise five babies. Anyu also died within the moon. The temptation to use her mood boosting spells to make life easier was extreme. Fortunately, willpower is something Vedrafe never lacked, and she managed to stay on top of everything...
...until Claire Ursine, recent immigrant and Lilac's best friend, was granted three wishes, and used two to wish for Lilac and Kifsina to return from the dead. And they did return. As zombies. Which I do not have screenshots of.
The two zombies infected half the adult population of Kulo Seeri before being chased out by the other half. One zombie who retained her original intelligence started to organise attacks on Sims fetching water at the riverbank. The undead population grew. Something had to be done - and Nate Gorski, another recent immigrant and the only living inhabitant of Kulo Seeri who'd ever seen a zombie movie, suddenly rose from laughing stock of the hunting parties to war hero by leading the survivors against the zombies.
Although she was conflicted about fighting her mother and brother, or at least things that used to be Lilac and Kifsina, Vedrafe and her magic joined the battle, and she was the only one on either side who emerged completely unharmed by the whole ordeal. That too was taken as an omen.
Eventually (after her brother Ganyalis lost his own shamanic powers showing off, and then became possessed by a storm demon driving him to get revenge) Vedrafe became the shaman of the tribe - and, ironically, the only Sim allowed into the sacred forge. She took on Pel zan-Nate, only surviving child of Nate Gorski, as an apprentice
and hoped that using magic to keep Pel from getting constantly picked on wasn't selfish or trivial.
At 26, she realised that she was the only woman left in her clan. She needed to have at least one daughter to carry on the zan-Ave name. And, given that her three "littermates" had all been possessed by demons at some point, she was starting to wonder if any evil forces had their eyes on her.
She had no idea that her best friend Melchol was planning on asking her to marry him, so she packed up and headed for Windenburg, in SimNation, hoping to attract the Wanderer's Curse (in other words, every time I send someone from KS into TS3 or 4 there's at least one pregnancy.) While visiting San Myshuno's Romance Festival, she asked the elderly Romance Guru, Sai Banerjee, what her future had in store. He predicted a tall dark stranger in her near future.
Here comes Quintessential Vedrafe Moment #2. Her response? "Right - you're coming home with me tonight, just in case you mean the Grim Reaper."
Before long, Sai and Vedrafe were living together as a steady couple, and had a baby girl named Shazia zan-Ave. Although Sai had a fear of commitment, both of them were considering marriage - but when Vedrafe proposed to Sai, he panicked and batted the ring away, and it landed in the garbage.
Most Nuidya would say here that a rot demon took advantage of the sudden kick in the ego to cause Vedrafe to start acting out of character. Her reaction was to go off and hide under the bedcovers, but she didn't get that far before dropping dead of embarrassment - the least appropriate end for her I could imagine.
Naturally, Sai felt terrible for not telling her that, actually, he did mean the Grim Reaper. He and Shazia moved to Kulo Seeri afterwards, and Vedrafe was given a hero's funeral despite the inappropriate cause of death.
And here ends the post. Farewell, Vedrafe. I'll miss you, but I know you'd want me to carry on playing (and make you the focus of the anniversary post.)
Wow, what a full life. Thanks so much for this post ans sharing her history
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, thanks for your comment! Vedrafe certainly managed to pack a lot into her 26 moons. :)
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