The Chronicles of Albion
is an ongoing Machinomic illustrated with The Sims 2. The series began in October 2009, when the author was trying to read another story on Wordpress and Wordpress refused to let her view the page without a Wordpress account. Since said author already had a Royal Kingdom Challenge going, she decided to open an account and create a blog. Its genre is perhaps best described as Medieval European Fantasy.
The story opens approximately fifteen years after the founding of the kingdom, and the reader is quickly introduced to a cast of characters from all walks of life. Multiple storylines are ongoing at all times, allowing for Rotating Protagonists. However, major storylines often revolve around the nobility and royal family.
This series has no planned ending, but it hasn't been updated since December, 2013, and Word of God says it's on a long hiatus[1] — and the author seems to have moved to another fandom.
Tropes
- Aerith and Bob - All over the place. For instance, one family has Lancelot, Guinevere, Galahad, Leona ... and William. It doesn't help that the Arthurian legend, which this story parodies, has a bit of an Aerith-and-Bob-y quality itself.
- Altar Diplomacy: Princess Lucilla's arrnaged marriage to Prince Uther, in order to extinguish any rival claims to the throne.
- Arranged Marriage - Quite a few.
- Mordred and Dindrane (née Gwynedd) Orkney.
- Frederick Ferreira and Clarice de Ganis
- Bors and Claire de Ganis.
- Morgause and Lot Orkney.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Constantine's plans to remove Vortimer and then become King of Glasonland eventually succeed
- Mordred's plans of vengeance against the Gwynedds were successful and have yet to be discovered
- Bastard Bastard: Francis of Lothario, Emilia
- Big, Screwed-Up Family - The Orkneys.
- Calling the Old Man Out - Berach gets a chance to do this to his father; Tommy also does it to Sir Bors.
- Cool Old Lady - Maude Parkinson! Kata Thatcher too, as well as a few others.
- Crystal Dragon Jesus - The Wrightian faith of the characters.
- Death by Childbirth - Isabel Wesleyan, and much later, Ella Pelles.
- Double In-Law Marriage - Mordred Orkney is married to Dindrane Gwynedd. Mordred's sister Garnet is betrothed to Dindrane's brother Lamorak.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Morgause seemed to genuinely care for Lot and Mordred
- Mordred truly loves Rosette and their children
- Vortigern is said to have doted over Vortimer as a child.
- Evil Uncle - Morgause is the Evil Aunt to Tommy, Jessie, Kay, and Ravenna.
- Mordred to Percival, apparently from the minute Percival was born and quite possibly before he even left the womb.
- Fantastic Racism - In the immortal words of Terry Pratchett, "Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green." Skintone isn't an issue in Albion, but woe betide you if you are a Plantsim, Zombie or witch (in countries other than Albion).
- Freudian Excuse: The reason Morgause hates Morgan is implied to be because King Uther and Lady Igraine showered Morgan with love and affection, while ignoring/disapproving of her.
- Of course,
Word of God states that Uther tried to love her as his own daughter, but even as a child, she had a cold personalty and so he stopped trying. - Emilia's ambition derives partially from the fact her stepfather ignored her and her real father not even acknowledging her as his child.
- Word of God says Bors' sexism is a combination of being raised in a sexist monastery, having a bad relationship with his strong-willed mother and having little to no experience with women until he was married.
- Of course,
- Heir Club for Men - Used throughout Albionese society, where the eldest male son traditionally inherits. However, it is seen most strongly with Sir Bors (his first four children are very close in age, because the first three were daughters). He also forced his wife into a late-in-life pregnancy so that he could have a spare. This results in Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born.
- Subverted with the throne of Albion itself, since the female royals are in line, though only after the men.
- Played for Drama with the throne of Glasonland; King Vortimer having a daughter rather than a son only adds fuel to the fire of instability in the country and eventually leads to a civil war
- Heroic Bastard: Arthur, Morgan, Ravenna, Milo, Gino, and Beau
- High-Class Call Girl: What Wei Li was training to become before her homeland was destroyed.
- Hooker with a Heart of Gold - Wei-Li, Marigold, Erin, and Tambu all fit this trope to varying extents.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Thanks to a head injury, Vortimer was this to his father.
- I Want Grandkids - Cerise Chevaux. She hectors one son into marrying, and the other into patching up his marriage so that she can get more grandkids.
- Limited Wardrobe - Despite the good efforts of the many artists at Plumb Bob Keep and other medieval Sims 2 sites, many of the characters still suffer from this.
- Love Potion - Morgause uses one to seduce Lamorak.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: Subverted with Emilia and Lucinius. He knows perfectly well Emilia is his daughter; he just won't acknowledge her as such.
- Manchild: Played for Drama with Vortimer; he's child-like due to a traumatic head injury and because of this, he is an easy target for political intrigue.
- Multigenerational Household - Common, as it is typical in Albion for the eldest son to remain in his parents' house even after he gets married and has children.
- Our Zombies Are Different - Accolon le Fay arguably falls into this trope. He doesn't eat brains, is rather intelligent, and mostly seems to use his decaying body as a source of jokes rather than any existential angst.
- Parental Favoritism - Mordred dotes over his kids with Rosette, but has yet to show much interest at all in his kids with Dindrane unless he wants to use them against their mother.
- If you're a girl and your father is Bors, you're not going to have a happy childhood.
- Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Clarice and Freddy, though not at first
- Prince Charmless - Although he isn't actually a prince, Mordred to Dindrane.
- Politically Correct History: Zigzagged. While it does have many of trappings of a medieval story, such as gender inequality, class inequality, a overly powerful church, etc., there are also some things which would have been progressive in that time period, such as women attending university, Clarice being able to earn a medical degree and be a practicing doctor, and laws against marrying and other sexual things at a young age.
- Really Gets Around - Helena Wesleyan. Even referred to, albeit crossed out, as Town Bicycle under occupation.
- Regent for Life: Francis of Lothario planned to become this. The Brothers Tarquinii would have been this if Vortimer had survived.
- Rich Bitch: Morgause. Babette after her marriage.
- Ruling Couple: Constantine and Emilia. Arthur and Alison show this at times as well.
- Shotgun Wedding: Babette and Aglovale's marriage. Finley and Lile's marriage is this as well.
- Sibling Triangle - Inverted in the sense that Garnet is in love with Lamorak... who is also being pursued and was once seduced by Garnet's mother.
- Sinister Minister - Brother Tuck seems to be well on his way to becoming this.
- The Mistress - Rosette, for Mordred.Later on, Wei Li for Mark
- The Un-Favourite - In a rare instance of this turning out to actually be beneficial, Clarice to her father, resident sexist Bors. Bors's favorite, eldest son Elyan, has grown up entitled, obtuse, and so far incapable of respecting women (though he is young enough that an epiphany isn't impossible at this point). Eldest daughter Lynn was always expected to make the best match, ended up marrying the crown prince, and... feels insufficient in regards to "doing her duty" of providing Tommy with heirs, especially after her first child turns out to be a girl and even after she does have a son. Clarice's other adult sister, Angelique, was marked by Bors at birth to be Locked Away in a Monastery despite being the least suited of the girls for such a life. Clarice got the least of Bors's attention, and while she was still scarred by her father's treatment of the family, she's the only adult sibling who seems to have mostly overcome her childhood.
- Also, Dindrane's children to Mordred, big time. Possibly Nimue in particular, as Gawaine is the heir and Gareth is the baby.
- Tsundere - Clarice to Freddy initially. Luckily, she's pretty much out of her shell by now.
- Vain Sorceress - Morgause Orkney.
- Victorious Childhood Friend - Implied in Will and Jessie's backstory.
- Wizarding School - George Ferreira and Ravenna le Fay attend one of these.
- Would Hurt a Child - Morgause.
