I like backstories. Let's hear them.

I had none really for my first three hoods, but Oakbrook does, though half of it I'm just pulling out of my ass as I type this. My main hood, Oakbrook, was once just a seaside town for summer cottages, although a few people stuck around year-round. However, as the collection of independent villages along the San Fransimsco Bay suffered from financial pressure, they soon began the process of amalgamation.

The entire area was named after that seaside village, because it sounded nice. Soon, people began moving to that village, and a shopping center was constructed, and brought even more development, but some old-timers aren't too fond of the development, so there's that. All the subhoods are the surrounding areas, from the bay stretching to the deserts beyond the Simta Cruz Mountains. Some people love the amalgamation, particularly because of the high-quality public transportation including bus stops and bullet trains connecting the entire area. Others...not so much.

Backstories for our own custom hoods or ones created by Maxis/others (ie ones we downloaded)?

Either of them.

The only backstory I have for any of my hoods is that I've used the same story hood (on 3 different computers) since 2008...
I rarely, if ever, make backstories for my neighborhoods.

Okay, well, Four Corners was a rather quiet, sleepy little place with a birthrate low enough to be noteworthy if not distressing. The only births in the last twenty years were Madison Fortuna and Jacob Margison. It wasn't a place anyone really stayed very long, much less for generations, more a convenient place to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city and enjoy the fresh air and affordable housing before moving on to bigger and better things--because there wasn't anything at all "big" or "better" anywhere near Four Corners. Fiona Fortuna was carving out a respectable business empire for herself as she waited patiently for Waring Sinclair to retire, but no one else really seemed to care about building anything at all. Unless you counted Keats Margison and his never-ending quest to build his own intellect. Or Sharon Foss, who somehow managed to amass enough wealth simply to give an entire house to her niece Riley and buy a much larger one for herself and her sister who'd fallen on hard times.

But Bitville sprung up nearby almost overnight with it's high tech tycoons and glitz and shopping centers and bowling alleys (frequently by at least one rather eccentric count, though no one seems to know where he lives) and a ton of new single, unattached people. Including one Don Calimari (of the famed Calimari restaurateurs) who put down some very clear roots with the construction of the restaurant that bears his name. And of course Vincent Moore, with his overly modern mansion up on the hill, who brought as his entourage not only his best friend from college Sherman Boggle but also his BFF from childhood Greg Chomsky. For a place that sprung up so fast, there were definite signs that at least some of the residents of Bitville meant to stay. Old Maximillion Oglethorpe certainly wasn't going anywhere, as he'd chosen Bitville as a place to retire and maybe (finally) start a family.

The advent of Bitville really shook things in Four Corners! It wasn't just "Four Corners" anymore; it was Four Corners-Bitville. Together Four Corners-Bitville is a place with little in the way of history, but that just means everyone's getting in on the "ground floor," so to speak. They're writing the community's history together, and that's kind of exciting. Especially now that Mission Stardust drifted into Four Corners and almost immediately gave birth...which through some sort of possible fertility magic completely broke whatever spell had been lying over the area and kicked off a baby boom that's currently showing no signs of stopping.

Fiona and Vincent even got together (with a little help from Warring when he wasn't too distracted by catching his wife cheating or, well, cheating on his wife...and eventually going through a messy divorce) and organized the construction of a local airport so everyone would have easy access to exotic vacation destinations. Johnny Cullen, of course, did most of the actual work on the construction, but he never would have gotten anywhere if it weren't for the business types pulling their strings and pushing their pencils in their offices.

So somewhere along the line and with perhaps a little urging on the part of Fiona, Four Corners-Bitville is becoming a cohesive community balanced on the sometimes shaky pillars of Vincent Moore, Sherman Boggle, Sharon Foss, Mission Stardust, Don Calimari, and of course Fiona herself. Between Sharon, her new nephew-in-law Dylan, and Adrien Rhome, they might even be able begin calling the local medical establishment a real hospital. And Vincent's new wife Naomi is well on her way to being chief of the local police. It's all shaping up to be rather stable and respectable.

Next on the agenda, Vincent and Sherman might just found their own university (Moore and Boggle Tech?) in time for Maddison and Jacob to become its first students.

When I created Blue Point, my bare bones background idea was that the town population was dying. The Blue Point government was afraid of losing it's charter. So, to increase the population, they offered small grants (kachings) for incoming businesses and assistance for anyone that wanted to buy a home in town.

There is another small (growing) background story for Blue Point involving an old couple I created in CAS that adopted a child, Peter and Myron Lion. The reason they waited until old age to have a family is because Peter was finally released from prison after his criminal career. The child they adopted, Carter Lion, is the town's golden boy and overachiever. He's also smart enough to know exactly where his adopted father went wrong. Carter, with help from a few friends, may be smart enough not to get caught.

And then there's Sedona... I'm just continuing the story that was laid out for me.

I play Pleasant view of course I change up things because the original maxis story line is kind of boring. I generally start with two sims I make in CAS Ole Morty Goth is old news and I hate the way his house plays. My Two CAS sims are Legacy family and the ones that will ultimately get Pleasant view back to being a great place to live. My female sim is a Romance sim and they make great Mothers without driving you nuts. while she is pregnant I then head over to the Goth House and Get Don and Cassandra Married . They have really Great Genetics. I move them to their own place. Mortimer sends his tombstones to the Gautier green cemetery and moves to a small house with Alexander.I play them until Alexander Hits his teens. meanwhile all 3 now playable families get to know each other and the legacy family has usually given birth to their child . this time it was a Girl named Yvette..they have 3 children all girls.Cassandra is currently pregnant she got that way on her honeymoon. Brandi Broke had her 3rd Child and has gotten married and is expecting her 4th and final child.Beau grew up well.I make My own nannies when possible in CAS ...I cant stand the mean tempered NPC's maxis makes also my nannies stay in the home til the children are teens. then rotate to the next home in need if there are no grandparents to move in to help. Darren Dreamer and Darlene are back together they are expecting . Dustin and Derek are in the uni bin they will become gay and marry each other and adopt a child. the Tricous have been resurrected via john Smiths son Irfan who I sent to Uni. The Picaso had twins really cute but grumpy toddlers each has only 1 nice point LOL but they are BFFs and hug when you least expect it. Angela and Lilith went to counseling and are now BFFs and through uni and working.The backstory is that old Pleasantview had become a high crime Ghetto and once prominent families no longer cared. So to save the oldest city in in Simsylvania Mary Sue Pleasant offered a Free home to a Legacy family if they would just move there and bring everyone they knew to resettle.The Passentino's took her offer up and invited every one they knew even the Barista at Starnights in Mozambique to come to Pleasant view.The Newsons got what they always wanted an adoptive family well they got a mom anyway.Life for Nina Got a little Scary when her new Hubby was struck by lightning while attempting to welcome the Newsom/Montessori family to revamped Pleasantview. He survived but now needs a Dr., a shower and some new clothes Meanwhile Brandi Broke showed up and Lectured Nina about the lightning strike.

I have Kipling, which is a military hood. Since the Mayor of Sim City is so popular and flying all around Sim world, a new radar station is (or now has been) built there. Why Kipling? Because there is a real radar station named Rudyard, right here in the mountains where I live in SA - a place where Rudyard Kipling visited often and he wrote some of his books here. I sent 12 single Sims as the soldiers, and made 8 townies and it was quite a new experience for me to play such a small hood. Kipling now has a subhood named Kipling village with 10 new CAS Sims. They are going to farm so that food does not have to be flown into Kipling by helicopter any longer

I also have Black Rock Mountain, which is where my bin Sims (and a variety of CAS Sims) live. In my mind it is a railway town, which grows because the population keeps growing. Jo then started the Community Spirit contest and she created magnificent families - so I added a subhood here and named it Jo's village. (I am actually planning a new hood with more of these families in it). Black Rock Mountain also has Gardenia, a hood where the very rich lives, Serenity, which is the retirement subhood and Bluewater Village.

Then I have Test Hood which was created as a test hood. I then fell in love with my test sim So he, a writer living all alone, has been given townie girlfriend and the Maxi townies were restored to the hood

I do have 2 older hoods that I open once in a while, one supposedly a mining town, and one a farming community.

When Pleasantview became more diverse and newer residents moved in, the town council decided to rename it to Bellefleur-meaning "Beautiful Flower", it was partly in homage to Bella Goth, whose family has dominated it since time began.

Daniel and Mary Sue Pleasant both argued against the change, but when the Town Council proposed that Mary Sue would be its' first Mayor, she quickly changed her stance. Daniel became disgusted and declared he would not support such a move. His opinion was noted for the record, but ignored officially.

Of course it became obvious that some of the ruling members of the council were the only ones who wanted it: the Mayor, and her daughter, Lillith Pleasant, who became Chief of Police upon the name change. The local Judge quickly saw that his options were limited and threw in his support at the last minute. His pay raise was guaranteed, which pleased him greatly..he has to pay his ex-wife alimony, due to an acrimonious divorce which has been displayed for all to see in public.

Of course time changes everything-with the most damaging scandal to ever hit it becoming news, the council has agreed to hold local elections 'sometime in the future', and Mary Sue's position is less firm than it had been. She now has rivals looking to unseat her-and her once-feared daughter is now locked up under house arrest.

The newest generation hopes to change the name back to something more benign, but their influence hasn't begun to be felt yet. Perhaps in a few more years they'll clean out the corruption that has seeped into the town.

I made Desiderata Valley into a medieval-themed hood and the back story for it is that a woman of royal blood from a different neighbourhood (or country) escaped a revolution and ended up there. She starts a matriarchy, marrying a local man of standing, employing servants and slowly establishing her "queendom". The current monarch is the fourth generation.

My medieval-modern mix neighboorhood (they use things like PCs, Phones, TVs etc. but dress like back in the days and have a strict social class system) has quite a back story.
The main hood is plainly called Royal Village. The rulers are the Swansons. They are self-declared kings who have settled in the region for many centuries with their loyal followers and subjects. But in the last twenty years the countries around Royal Village have not been easy to work with.
On the Shikoru Islands, there was a coup. Only two members of their royal family survived. The sisters were children and took refugee with their loyal nobles in Royal Village. But as they grew older, they became a danger to the Swansons. What is a queen without a country? Some nobles had fled to RV before the coup and were quite integrated into the society of their new homes. But with the return of their queen they had to choose. Some stayed loyal to the Swansons and some switched back to the Shikoru Queen. Some lower nobles with the hope for a raise in station declared their loyalty to her too.
To prevent a civil war, the Swanson King and the Shikoru Queen decided on a treaty which promised that the heirs of their houses would marry the oldest daughter of the other. But the oldest daughter of the Shikoru Queen is an ambitious young woman. She never excepted that - even though she was the oldest sibling - her brother was the heir to the throne. I doubt the marriage to the future King of Royal Village make her a loyal wife but rather a powerful and even more dangerous woman to her brothers and her new sister-in-law.
At the same time on the Shikoru Islands, the Shiwunas have seized power but their new self-declared emperor is old and will die soon. His daughter and granddaughter have both died young in childbirth. The only one left to take the throne is his great-granddaughter but she is only an infant. With the emperor and empress close to death, they have given the baby girl to their most loyal noble family whose name I just forgot. They do not care about politics as long as noone bothers them. A very long time ago they fled from Royal Village to the Islands because the Swansons no longer tolerated their "Targaryen life style" (if you do not watch Game of Thrones, you probably don't know what I mean. They marry only within their own family.)
With the only heir to the throne being an infant and in the care of the most unpolitical family in the country, it is the perfect opportunity to seize back the power for the Shikorus. But who will sit on the throne in the end?
The male heir or his ambitious older sister who cares for noone but herself? Or maybe neither?
On the other border, behind the high mountains in the desert there is another country. The Sultanate al-Charif. Sultan Karim is a peaceful man who tried to build bridges with the foreign royals and nobles to help his country flourish. But many young women use the new friendship between the countries to flee from their shame and/or their families into the Harem of the Sultan. Some are even so ambitious to hope to become one of his mistresses and become the next Valide Sultan (mother of the Sultan and the most powerful woman in the country).

I hardly ever do backstories for neighborhoods I create. though came close once; killed a number of families and left Toddler sims and some Child sims to be taken.

pre-made neighborhoods; I generally go by what Maxis/EA set up.

My neighborhood is so old it created it's own backstory through the different families during regular play and how they evolved and interacted to create points my present gameplay.

I've mentioned this before a few times throughout the years on this forum but I had a high amount of suburban mothers in the criminal career track. I don't know why, a mix of fulfilling wants or taking the jobs as they came in the years before I expanded my game with EPs that had more opportunities for jobs. Anyhow all these female criminals I determined were working in a criminal syndicate. There were male criminals too, just not as much so I decided they were in a rival syndicate though the all-female syndicate did have a get away driver named Aaron who they all adored.

Eventually, I got more law enforcement sims, and eventually a captain hero and the syndicates died away but currently I'm building them up again because the captain hero and his wife that was a judge have retired so there's a vacuum for this law and order despite at least two sims that are gunning for the next captain hero title.

One family is basically a political dynasty for the four generations that have been playing. Each patriarch before the other has become the mayor and they've lived a cushy life. There is another very wealthy family that's kind of becoming the essence of the monopoly man and buying up businesses and this family has long been allies of the political family - being older families in the hood and elite. Recently the current Mayor of my hood didn't veto a bill (Mayors are like governors in Sims to me) to put some land in protections so the head of the wealthy business family is trying to buy a candidate in the new election so he can get his way.

Corruption is coming back to Kashmire in the way of politics and crime.

For more info on the hood and families, I have a thread I've been working on and some of this bleeds into my current sims 2 story

Originally Aldero Riverside was:
A bus broke down, the guy driving the bus ended up calling for some one to pick them up, miscalculated the size, and left 6 of the residents there, waiting for to be picked up. The seventh founder, Osborne, grew up with plant sims, wandered away from his family in the woods, somehow got lost, and wound up finding them. A random guy in a small car passed by with the last name of Aldero (which was made with random letters of the all the founders names), talked to them, realised no one had picked them up, gave them some camping gear just in case and went to find out what was happening. They all bonded pretty fast, found out the first mayor of the 'hood, Diego, had knowledge of how to do city stuff as he was the run away next in line heir of a family that inherited his hometown for many years. As they were about to be picked up they decided: We've got the right guy, why not do something strange and build a new home?

The Aldero guy in the car was able and happy to help, got Diego a position in the politics career, and from then on they got to work. Never saw Aldero guy again after that so they ended up putting Aldero in the name and Riverside as the campsite they started on was right next to the riverside.

(Oh and if anyone's curious, my founders where: Anya, Niel, Diego, Joanne, Sandra, Osborne.)

My Sheffield hood is approximately historical, taking as its background the real economic collapse of 1981, when the steel mills (the city's major industry) shut down, throwing thousands out of work. I've made it difficult for Sims to get jobs and easy for them to lose their jobs, though unemployed Sims do get Income Support and, if they're renting, Housing Benefit, which add up to just about enough to live on if they're careful. On the bright side, university tuition is free, as it was back then. The hood has a military subhood, SMB (Sims Military Base) Stamford Bridge, which I've tried to model on the RAF bases I grew up on.

The backstory for Belladonna Cove is that many Sims were made homeless by a fire back in the motherland, and were sent out to the new colony to start over. Each family begins with a tiny grant (the amount a Sheffield family of the same size would get as a week's benefits), and a loan jar, as the grant alone won't pay their rent and furnish their apartment. All teen and adult Sims not responsible for childcare must take the job assigned to them from the three that appear in the paper on their first day; elders don't have jobs but are provided with furniture free of charge and, if they don't have a pension, are allowed one money tree each. The Newsons' rent is covered by the government until Gavin becomes an adult. Some families have been assigned to the Belladonna River subhood to grow food on heavily mortgaged farms. Sims must live where they're told and take the job they're assigned until they are able to buy a house without any kind of loan; once they are freeholders, they can please themselves. (Basically, I like Belladonna Cove as the most aesthetically pleasing Maxis hood, but always felt the Sims there were way too wealthy to live in apartments - so I made them broke.)

My new modern hood:
The founders were friends at university when one of them was told she'd been given responsibility for administering part of a large remote territory that her extended family has had for generations. Until recently, the land was seen as having little value, as it's hard to get to and mostly uninhabited. The land consists of a stretch of shoreline with coastal mountains and a nice valley farther inland; it's largely cut off from other communities. The discovery of valuable ores in the mountains has started to draw people to the area, and the distant family wants to see a local government set up as a new town grows. Sarah will be responsible for doing that as the family sells some of the land to new settlers, and she'll fund the town's services by collecting taxes. Eventually, the town will grow and build a highway to an inland city. For now, Sarah's nature loving friends have taken her offer of cheap land and are living rough while they try to get the resources they need to build houses - they either have to make everything, earn it (by doing some task that can simulate making something), or order things in by ferry (expensive and they can only get a small volume of goods each season).

My medieval hood:
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom that for generations had been ruled by a series of kind and powerful monarchs. They were aided in their rule by the magical plumbob, which only the king and his heirs could use, and their subjects were prosperous and happy. A neighbouring land was ruled by a wizard who had long desired to become an emperor, and he also wanted to control the magical plumbob. Having used dark magic to live for a generations, the wizard had corrupted some of the nobles of the good king's council and he moved to assassinate the adults of the royal family and claim the land for himself. Though mortally wounded, the king was able to wrap up the plumbob, placing it and his twin toddlers in the care of one of his knights with instructions to take them into exile. The knight, along with a few other loyal nobles and peasants, escaped to the coast and took a ship to a remote island. There, the twins and other noble orphans were raised in hiding as farmers by a trusted tutor, while the knight began to build a fortified castle to guard the magical plumbob. The royal family will remain in hiding until one of the twins or their heirs are ready to claim the throne of the new island kingdom and face the evil wizard who still searches for them.