Belladonna Cove: Watervista Place = Baba Yaga's Hut

[strangetomato]

I've always been fascinated with the odd little witch cabin on the "hidden" (it is if you don't have a camera mod, anyway) Watervista Palace lot on the edge of Belladonna Cove. It really begs for more development, and gets me thinking about the witches and their mythology. I've been planning to build up more of a hidden town for the witches out there, where the Cordial's actually live, when they're not blending in with the rest of society as normal sims.








Do you see them? Perhaps if we pull the camera away a little...




Look at the base of the stairs! :D

I always thought this pair of staircases seemed like they were meant to look like feet, but this confirms it. Those darker patches of terrain are obviously references to the clawed chicken feet of Baba Yaga's hut.

Here are some artistic interpretations that I dug up through google image search:




Now that this has brought it back to my memory, I remember this little bit of folklore from some computer games of my childhood (the King's Quest series, maybe? They were full of myths and fairytale stuff from different sources). There's something extremely terrifying about a house with legs, not to mention the skulls. It's strangely familiar, even the first time you hear about it. I think it must be part of our collective landscape of nightmares that we have as children. 

Now I'm going to need to find some cc skulls to try to bring out this look a little more. Have anyone extracted the skull from the Resurrect-O-Nomitron, I wonder?

Don't you love finding things like this in the game? I'm always impressed at all the small details the designers have worked in there. ^_^


ETA: I just did a search on this, and there's also a very small entry (it's actually in fine print) on it in the Sims Wiki.

... and the Baba Yaga connection was already mentioned on MATY, MTS2, and a bunch of other places, so this isn't really breaking news.











Comments

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Oh, cute. I think I saw those tracks when investigating the lot myself, but I forgot about it.

I do love the tiny little half-hidden details like that, like the jokes in descriptions, little fun things in some sims' homes, etc. I understand the scarecrow can actually scare your sims, for example, but I've never seen it happen in my game, only in others' pictures (could be because my SO doesn't like the scarecrow, and absolutely hates the pictures of it moving, so he doesn't like me using it much - he's gonna be mad at me for sharing that with you, too :D).

[simsinthecity.livejournal.com]

I actually noticed a patch of road out on the other side of the sea while I was in my Survivor neighborhood (which has the Belladonna Cove base) and I wondered if there was a house there in the real neighborhood. Now I really want to check it out!

[aledstrange.livejournal.com]

OMFGs! XD I never even saw that before (and I do have the camera mod lol), so just checked on it in the game. Really odd lot, but very interesting.

I wonder how do sims even get there! train or brooms!? lol (I can see a witch living there, for sure)

And, btw, don't know about extracted skulls, but xanathon has a skull lamp at mts
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=156834

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

OMG awesome!!!

How is it, that after so many years of playing this game, that it can still surprise us? I think that's so cool. :)

[fantasyrogue.livejournal.com]

Baba Yaga and her chicken hut were actually in Quest for Glory 1 and also.. 4, if I remember correctly. Great games those. As were the King's Quest games, actually (I have the entire collection, a newer one as I stupidly gave my old one away to some neighbour kids on urging of my mom...)

I love old mythology, folkore and tales. Great stuff.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I never noticed the "toes" before. Hee hee!

I think this house was mentioned as contender for the MATY House of Phail makeovers (but I think it was shot down because it's an intentional "phail" house, unlike, say, the Curious abode which is just plain old maxis wtf-ery).

[pixelcurious.livejournal.com]

I saw the hut on MATY's House of Phail, but I don't think any of the makeovers played up on its witchy origins. I'd love to see what you do with it! The Sims 2 Wiki content list has a lot of Halloween stuff which might be a place to start looking for skulls.

I had a book of fairy tales when I was a kid with a story about Baba Yaga. I remember the house picture fascinated me, as did her flying cauldron. The art you found is very cool too, I especially like that first one.

[simsforaranya.livejournal.com]

ZOMG BABA YAGA'S HOUSE. O_O

That house scared me so bad. I think because of the connection to chickens. Yes, I am slightly scared by chickens. Especially roosters. Childhood trauma. XD

[naughtydolphin.livejournal.com]

Oh I haven't seen that before. I don't play in the premade hoods that much. I'll have to check this out!

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

It's news to me! I can't get the camera over there to check it out . . I'm such a wimp on downloading camera mods. :p

[honorkid54.livejournal.com]

The third picture looks like something from one of my storybooks from when I was a kid. Baba Yaga is from the fairytale called Vassilissa the Great, which is like the Russian version of Cinderella. It's my favorite fairytale :)

I never knew about this house until now. I can't wait to try it out.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

Wow. I was always disappointed in the lack of an easter egg in AL. I had no idea this property existed (I don't have the gunmod, because I'm a chicken). The chicken feet are obvious though in your first picture. how brilliant!!!

Baba Yaga always scared me as a kid. What a great find, thanks for sharing!

[muslemura.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! I haven't played much i BDC and haven't even seen this lot :) Gotta love the Easter eggs in this game!