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"But
maybe something more wonderful will take place: the world will
truly move forward, past all gods and goddesses, past all devils
and angels."
Marius, The Vampire Lestat |
| This is a theme with a difference - a permanent wintry recolour of The Palm House set in a gorgeous Verdigris texture. This was recoloured and named by AenigmaSim for her own game, and on showing some pictures at the Architect's Annexe at N99 last year, she was inundated by requests for the house - which I am extremely proud to present here once again, with just a few small alterations / additions from last time around. Please also note that unlike my normal themes, you will need to go shopping at a couple of other sites (free) to complete this house - but full details of what you need and links to where to find it will be given below. |  |
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PLEASE NOTE: This zip does not contain any objects, walls or floors. You will need to download, unzip and install all the object, wall & floor zips from below, and ensure you have all the shopping list items before playing this house, otherwise you will get the dreaded "missing objects" box and the house will be incomplete. |
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Marius is a beguiling character from the "Vampire Chronicles" series of novels by Anne Rice. Anne Rice’s first Chronicle was the now famous Interview With The Vampire, which was made into a movie in 1994. She followed the success of that book with the second Chronicle, The Vampire Lestat, where in this and in subsequent novels, introduced many more characters and history to the world of the Chronicles. The novels take place from the point-of-view of different characters, and we often see the same events viewed through the eyes of another - with all their different perceptions acting like a jigsaw revealing the whole. Her narrative style is sumptuous and her descriptions of the surroundings, people and objects in her novels so vivid that a few weeks later you may find yourself wondering what film you recently saw rather than what book you recently read. |
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| Her knowledge and use of history is wide ranging, and the timelines in the books draw authentically from Roman times until present day with the events taking place in many different countries, times and situations. |
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| Because the second floor in this greenhouse isn't being used, I have actually built it ALL up with mock window pieces, so you don't get the brown top of the normal game wall spoiling the effect. I have priced these new roof pieces a little higher, so that they do not get mixed up with the normal ones in your game catalogue - and they are clearly marked "Second Floor Roof". |
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Marius was made into a vampire during the time of the Roman Empire, and enters The Vampire Chronicles after Lestat, the anti-hero of Interview With The Vampire becomes so unhappy he tries to find other vampires to learn their history and secrets. He learns of Marius as being an ancient & knowledgeable vampire, and searches for him accordingly. However, Marius finds Lestat first, telling him the history of vampires, and even shows Lestat the mother and father of all vampires, now known as Those Who Must Be Kept. For once Lestat is happy; he loves Marius and in turn, Marius loves Lestat. However, Marius will not allow Lestat to stay with him. He tells Lestat he must leave and that he must live one mortal life, to truly know what life is about - only then he can return. |
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Two Windows, Door, mock Fence, three Wall treatments, roof tile The fence is based on the cloneable one-tiled rug from Sim Freaks, and modified from an original by STP Carly at the Sims Tattoo Parlour. Because it is a rug, your sims (and animals) will walk right through it, but it will not block the light if used indoors & other items can be placed on the same tile. Try selling one after midnight and see what surprises it brings! |
| Marius'
own story is told in "Blood and Gold" where we finally learn
the secrets of his 2000 year existence.
A Senator in Imperial Rome, Marius is kidnapped and made a "blood god" by the Druids, becoming the reluctant protector of Akasha & Enkil - Those Who Must Be Kept. Through his eyes we see the fall of pagan Rome to the Emperor Constantine, and later, the sack of Rome at the hands of the Visigoths. Moving to Constantinople, he ultimately returns to his beloved Italy, where following the horrors of witnessing the Black Death, he is restored by the glories of the Renaissance. He becomes an artist living among mortals, giving his heart to the great Botticelli and to the mysterious young apprentice Armand. Moving from great cities of the world such as Rome, Florence, Venice & Dresden, then to the English castle of the secret order of the Talamasca scholars, the story reaches its dramatic climax in the 20th century deep in the jungle where Marius, having told his life story, now seeks justice from the oldest vampires in the world. |
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Four
piece sectional roof - regular version
If you are using this in another house (or an extension to this House) this set needs to be placed on the second floor, on top of the transparent floor from Caro (included in the Brunel and Palm House sets) The sectional glass roof was recoloured with kind permission from Koromo, at Persimmon Grove without the patient teaching of whom you would have very few original objects here. This kit is priced very slightly lower than the second floor kit to keep the pieces together but separate in your catalogue. |
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Unleashed Fountain, icicles, twinkle lights The fountain was recoloured by Aenigma Sim in this lovely darker green. You may need the "Christmas Lights" from Sims Plus for the twinkle lights & icicles to work, and as they kindly gave me permission some time ago now to include the original with the zip as the site was so frequently down at the time, I continue to include it now. The icicles, twinkling lights and Sims Plus lights can be placed anywhere, and if placing on a second floor do not even need a floor tile. The icicles are animated to give the appearance of gently twinkling in the moonlight, and the twinkle lights flash on and off. The lights will not prevent you putting other items on the walls or windows, such as pictures, burglar alarms etc. |
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You may need the Party Lights from the official site for the tree to work, and you will find these items under build mode / wall. Last time around, permission was kindly granted by the Deadliest Simmer Of Them All, Claw, at 7 & 8 Deadly Sims to include his Snow Rug in the download. This time around, and I now have pleasure in being able to include an amended version - this one will not appreciate in value overnight so the amusing sight of the burglar stealing your snow will be gone, but this does give the advantage of the house not being overinflated in value. It is priced slightly higher to distinguish it in your catalogue from the normal 7DS Snow Rug. I have also made a one tiled version of the rug to match using the cloneable one-tiled rug base from Sim Freaks. Please note that both these rugs are slightly wider than normal to allow them to tile authentically - however, they may bleed through walls so some judicious placing of objects inside the house may be needed. The Pluto Arch was recoloured in this sumptuous verdigris texture by Aenigma Sim. |
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A
wealth of further information, photos and links about Anne Rice,
her works and the movies based on her books await you at "The
Vampire Chronicles" - click the link on the right.
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The BIGZIP is just a normal zip file with all 26 items of the Marius Theme
inside one large zip, I just call it that to distinguish it from the normal
sized zips.
This one zip contains the house, all the objects, the walls, the floor and the roof - everything pictured above that does not have the NEW! symbol next to it or that you have to download from another site. Unzip to a temporary storage folder, and you must move the files accordingly as below:
- House65.iff to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\UserDataXX\Houses - where XX is the number of the neighborhood. For example, if you want it in Neighborhood 3, it goes to: C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\UserData3\Houses\House65.iff
- All other files ending in .iff to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\UserObjects
- .wll to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Walls
- asea_grSnow3.bmp to C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\GameData\Roofs
Items linked to from this page are NOT cloneable unless the site policy states otherwise. If you would like to redesign or recolor objects from the Marius set downloadable from here, you will need to ask the same permissions as I did from the original designer - these are as follows:
- Snow Rug from 7DeadlySims http://www.7deadlysims.com
- Verdigris fountain, Pluto Arch by ©´¯`·-· AenigmaSim Studio of the Eclectic Artifacts ·-·´¯`© http://hosted.planetthesims.gamespy.com/aenigma/index2.shtml
All links to the original site where I have made the recolour from are given where possible. See home page for more details.
The Vampire Chronicles, Marius and all related indices are © Anne Rice
For more information, visit the official sites:
The
Vampire Chronicles; New Tales of the Vampires
© Anne O'Brien Rice
The
Vampire Companion
© Katherine M. Ramsland
Interview
with the Vampire (1994)
© The Geffen Film Company. Distributed by Warner Bros.
This page is not authorised by Anne Rice, Katherine M. Ramsland, The Geffen Film Company, Warner Bros., Village Roadshow, or their affiliates.
