8. Death & Life

Last chapter…

Queen Bastet mustered her (liquid) courage and took the sacrificial breeding slave for a ride on the woohoo bush.

Everyone felt really awkward/insecure about everything but tried to act cool about it.

Aten and Pili aged up and were cute; Emil and Kadhi also aged up, but it’s irrelevant to the plot so we didn’t show it. :p

Onward!

Another beautiful morning in Al Simhara sees the Village of Sima-Mighdall slowly blossoming; between the garden and Bastet’s paintings, there is now enough money to indulge in a few more decorous items.

It is important to display the growing wealth of the Tribe for others to see, whenever possible, and the young queen is proud of the progress her settlement has made in so short a time.

Young Prince Pili, now a toddler, enjoys spending time wandering about the village seeking his own amusement, and greatly resents the interference of well meaning adults who desire to do such things as bathe, feed, and educate him…as if he needs instruction on how to operate a potty!

Temulun has begun to record the goings on of the Tribe, and carefully crafts a genealogical archive for posterity.

Young as she is, there is still much to learn…

…but Queen Bastet is supportive of Temulun’s efforts on behalf of their People, and agrees to allow the girl to serve in a scholarly capacity, and also to build for them a great library.

Being a bright and idealistic woman herself, the leader of Sima-Mighdall sees the value in literature and study…

…but also she is feeling particularly magnanimous these days!

At long last the Queen of Amazons in Al Simhara is certain that the Blessing of Athena is upon her, as she senses the first stirrings of life in her belly once more.

And so Bastet feels no reservations whatsoever as she commits Toro of Hispania to the Sacred Water.

Toro goes willingly to his fate…

…a prayer of gratitude to the Goddess, and a smile, on his lips.

(Farewell you handsome devil, you!)

The muscular slave lasts until the first rays of the morning sun touch the horizon, before succumbing to the waters.

The small Tribe honours Toro’s martyrdom by committing his body to a sacred crypt beneath the center of the village, where he can forever be remembered for generations to come as the First Sire of Amazon Al Simhara.

Emil is relieved that he lives to see another day, but in his heart he begins to resent the fact that he will not be remembered in his Tribe’s histories.

When he passes from the world, and his body is reduced to ash, he will be tucked away in some forgotten room, or cast to the wind…his memory lost for all time, though he worked hard to raise Sima-Mighdall from nothing, and sired Her firstborn son.

Kadhi, too, is relieved be alive, but does not resent the lack of notoriety his life will merit; he finds himself greatly saddened in the aftermath of Toro’s demise.

The Themysimran slave had been such a kind, positive soul, and Kadhi had grown very fond of him during their short acquaintance.

Pili found himself out of sorts when the nice man with the big smile went away; his father explained to him that Toro had gone to be with the Goddess, and that he was at peace, but the young princeling didn’t really understand what that meant, and wandered about for days afterwards, looking for his large friend.

Like his father, Aten felt anger boiling in his belly after the death of the Themysimran man.  Now that he had left behind the innocent days of toddlerhood, the little prince was becoming keenly aware of the world around him…and he wasn’t liking it one little bit!

Why did he have to grow up to be a slave?  He was the son of a Queen!  He should grow up to be…a…a…a Man-Queen!  Slaves had to work hard and sometimes get sacrificed to the Goddes…but a Man-Queen could be the boss and tell everybody what to do!

It just wasn’t fair.

Emotions ran high among the slaves for a few days, but Bastet hardly noticed; she was living in blissful anticipation of the upcoming birth.

Soon the time came when she found herself rummaging around in the kitchen arbour for leftover salads, and with that came the satisfaction that soon her Princess would be born.

It was early morning when the labour began; the time of day when Toro had breathed his last…the young queen took this as a promising sign from the Goddess…

…and was rewarded for her faith!

At last the waiting and hoping had passed, and Queen Bastet held the promise of the future in her arms; a tiny Princess that she named Maat.

Temulun exulted in the birth of Princess Maat; somewhere in the back of her mind she’d been worried the child would be a boy, and that the Queen would cast her out of the Tribe for leading them down the wrong path…but Athena had Blessed them all, and now the young Scholar’s place was secure within Sima-Mighdall.

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Footnotes:

I’m going to be SUPER creative here and name the Princesses after Egyptian Goddesses; Maat is the goddess and personification of truth and justice…we shall see if this holds form when we roll her traits!

The “very sad” moodlet thing was weird; only Emil and Aten were awake when Toro bit it, but of all the asleep sims, only Kadhi and Pili got sad?  Everyone else carried on, business as usual; it used to be that if my sims didn’t “witness death”, they didn’t get the moodlet…but apparently not anymore

Toro texts Kadhi 2-3 times a day; he doesn’t know how to dead properly I guess.