This palace is part of the world when you download it. It is based on the Tongan royal palace, and it looks very much like it, too.
I wanted to make it just a little bit larger, so I extended it four tiles on either side and redid the roof. Most of this space will be taken up by some extra sitting rooms...
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At the moment, the royal family consists of King Henry I and his wife, Queen Elesabeti, and their three children. This is a portrait taken when they were adults (in the base game).
Both Henry I and his wife have the 'eye candy' award. They're royalty, so they need some extra sparkle to dazzle (and annoy) the general population.
Their youngest son is Prince Filepi. He's actually the nicest of the bunch, and many islanders think he'd make the best king.
We'll probably never know.
Filepi fell in love with an immigrant called Mae Chin. Mae came to the island with her brother, and they were going to start a hotel - but with all the recent upheaval they ran out of money.
Here's an unflattering picture of Mae, visiting the local museum.
Their marriage created a dilemma for the royal family, as Mae already had an illegitimate child, fathered by Robert-Michel Gao. Filepi has no problems with the child, but King Henry expressly forbade him to adopt him. (Just in case there ever are succession issues, I guess...)
Marvin Chin-Gao is a toddler now, and his father grudingly pays child support sometimes, but doesn't really want anything to do with him.
Filepi and Mae now have another son, Jarret. For the time being, Jarret is third in line to the throne, but I don't think he's aware of his special status...
The proverbial 'difficult middle child' is Princess Elesabeti. She's a spoiled brat, who has always been allowed to get her own way. As a teenager, she started to wear loud outfits and as she got fatter, the clothes seemed to get skimpier. Her parents figured she'd 'outgrow' it - but although she 'grew' considerably, she only got worse. She started bleaching her hair and hanging out with the wrong crowd.
Until she met Zepher Stevenson, that is. He's a mild-mannered man, who accepts her just the way she is - which means Elesabeti doesn't really have to be so loud to get attention any longer.
The two recently got married, and her mother hopes she will now settle down to a respectable life. Her father and brother are less than happy with her choice of husband, though. He is indeed 'respectable', but they're not so sure about his parents. His biological father is gay (which is not generally accepted in this rather conservative community) - but what's worse, his 'other father' is a policeman. Not the type of person Henry I and II want to have nosing around in their private affairs...
Which brings us to the eldest son, Prince Henry, commonly (and erroneously) known locally as Henry II.
He is notorious womanizer. Most of his relationships have been with married women or 'professional' lovers, but at one point there was a real danger of his marrying Muriel Potpourri, a much older, divorced woman with a teenage son. A woman, moreover, with a reputation to rival his own when it comes to short-term relationships.
Of course, this will not do!!
So Henry II was told in no uncertain terms that he'd better find a respectable bride. It didn't matter where, as long as she had no dirty secrets in her past and if possible, no questionable relatives either.
Henry II went to China and looked up an old business associate of his father, by the name of Zhi.
Zhi's younger daughter Lu immediately struck Henry's fancy, but she didn't like him one bit. However, Zhi offered him a very large dowry if he married his older daughter Sima. A very, very large dowry!
Henry was not very impressed with his prospective bride, but after he talked to her a few times, and she showed him the sights of Shang Simla, he found that she was actually a very agreeable person to have around... Probably nicer than her beautiful but overbearing sister. And certainly easier to control. (Or so Henry thought, anyway!) And then there's that dowry...
Sima is actually at least as strong-willed as her sister. However, she's just more subtle, and more intelligent than Lu. For one thing, she did an internet search for 'Henry Tapuwhai' and found out he was royalty (which Lu didn't realise). Also, Lu recently had an affair with Sima's fiancé, Lee Yao, so Sima is not only on the rebound, but probably looking for revenge. And what better way to revenge herself on her skinnier, prettier sister than to marry a prince, and become the future queen of an island nation.
In any case, Sima visited the royal family, got the seal of approval from Queen Elesabeti, and was given a complete make-over by her new family.
And after a make-over and a visit to a good clothing designer, Sima doesn't look so bad, really... (Besides which, of course Henry isn't going to be faithful - that's just not in his nature. If his wife isn't pretty, he'll just have to find a mistress who is. Right?)
The royal wedding will take place in a few weeks, feverish preparations are being made...
(Sima is an EA Sim that I edited so she doesn't look like every other Sima in every other China in my other games...)
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