Greetings!

Today I’d like to present a feature that is specifically tailored towards the ones among you who truly enjoy breeding potent dynasties - Legendary Bloodlines!

Legendary Bloodlines are modifiers that are passed down the generations from one specific character, the Founder - they work much like a dynasty, but with several more rules and caveats. They symbolize the widespread renown a certain character might have, and the staying power stories surrounding their feats are. Having a Legendary Bloodline in your character will convey a bonus based on who founded it, and there are many different Bloodlines to be found (and Founded). Bloodlines are accessed from the Character View:

Unlike traits such as Genius or Strong, Bloodlines are not genetical - Bloodlines gain their power from perception and belief; if you were a superstitious medieval warrior, would you rather fight the big burly fighter who you knew were related to Charles the Hammer, or the one you knew were not?

That very same superstition, combined with the prejudices that were common in those times, causes Bloodlines to be either Agnatic or Enatic - to breed Bloodlines into your dynasty will require you to get clever, and plan ahead if you want more than one line to run within your direct line of heirs. If a Bloodline is agnatic, for example, a man will still pass it to his daughters - but they will not pass it on to their children, that will be exclusively reserved for his sons.

Certain bloodlines, or certain effects of certain bloodlines, will only be active for characters who fulfill certain triggers - for example, Christian knights will only seek to serve a descendant of Charles the Hammer if he happens to be Christian.

It's also worth noting that Bloodlines do not give direct stat boosts like how artifacts do.

To facilitate the merging of several different Bloodlines into one direct line of characters, we’ve made it so that Matrilineal marriages transfer bloodlines that the parents wouldn’t normally be able to transfer - symbolizing that it’s less explicitly about gender, and more about who’s the dominant part in a marriage.

To see who’s a part of any given bloodline, you can view a list of the current holders by clicking a button next to the Founder in the Bloodlines View:

Though the easiest way by far is to enter the Bloodlines Ledger Page to see which bloodlines exist, how many members there are and, by clicking the entries, view who holds them.

Bloodlines stem from many different sources, but the ones I’ll touch upon today are the Historical Bloodlines. As you might have already figured out, certain famous historical characters start with bloodlines, or found them at a certain point in their life. For example, if William succeeds in his invasion of England he’ll found a bloodline. As bloodlines come and go, you’ll have a different setup depending on what bookmark you choose to start in. Here’s a few examples of bloodlines you can expect to want to breed into your own line:

Note that there will be ways to get bloodlines apart from breeding them into your dynasty, but that will be the subject of a future DevDiary.

 

[Grave461]

Looks like these bloodlines (so far) offer positive modifers, but will there be bloodlines that provide negative modifers? For example, being the decendant of an excommunicated ruler, a witch, a treasonous traitor, etc?

 

[Atalvyr]

I don't fully understand the whole inheritance aspect. How would I get an agnatic bloodline on to characters of my dynasty? If I marry a Karling, the children will not be my dynasty and if matri-marry a Karling male, I will not get the agnatic bloodline but only the enatic bloodline from the male? Or do I get both the agnatic and enacic bloodlines from a Karling male whom I matri-marry to one of my daughters?

Am I missing something here?

 

[crowdemon]

Is this part of a patch or DLC?

 

[Meneth]

I don't fully understand the whole inheritance aspect. How would I get an agnatic bloodline on to characters of my dynasty? If I marry a Karling, the children will not be my dynasty and if matri-marry a Karling male, I will not get the agnatic bloodline but only the enatic bloodline from the male? Or do I get both the agnatic and enacic bloodlines from a Karling male whom I matri-marry to one of my daughters?

Am I missing something here?

Using matrilineal marriage, you'll get the Agnatic bloodline since the woman is then the dominant part of the marriage. The Enatic bloodline will still get passed on; the matrilineal stuff IIRC is in addition to regular inheritance.

 

[Enriador]

Will the current bloodline traits (Sayyid, Saoshyant and Samrat Chakravartin) be converted to the new system?

 

[thinking_waffle]

Forging inheritance would be great too. There is a document claiming that Julius Caesar himself granted to the the archdukes of Austria the priviledge of staying on his horse in the presence of the Roman emperor...and it worked and reinforced the position of the Habsburgs on their way to secure the imperial throne for centuries.
In the same order of ideas lots of muslim rulers claimed to be of the Quraysh tribe, including very recently the founder of the Islamic state. Through relics and claimed inheritance, a victorious leader can claim a filliation that would not be contested after a few generations.

 

[vicbus]

Can you have multiple bloodline effects or just one? Also, can you lose the bloodline somehow upon sucession?

 

[fredrikslicer]

So will this replace Sayyid and Mizra?

 

[bigman178]

If we have our own dynasty, can we make our historical bloodline?

 

[Aurelio123]

Thank you sir!
Do I spot a new player screen interface?

I see nothing what are you talking about,must have been the wind.

 

[Chnapy]

Will Aaronites get a bloodline that allows them, as cohens, to hold the temple of jerusalem?

 

[TheDungen]

Oh the founder of a bloodline should have one free death, like you get when you play chess with death. The first time you die you don't die but instead it just burns that charge of and next time you'll die as usual. It'll keep people like Charlemagne Seljuk and so on from kicking the bucket so often totally derailing their event chains.

 

[Voy]

Superstition or not, if the person before you is a wimp it doesn't matter if he's of some bloodline.

Also wouldn't culture difference negate this? A Scandinavian viking wouldn't think twice about cutting down a Karling since they haven't even heard of the guy. Why would the combat bonus apply then? Names and blood means nothing unless you're from the same cultural background. So this should be a conditional bonus.

 

[El-Daddy]

Wooo! Great stuff. Great to see Braveheart make an appearance. There's so much potential for this, and I can't wait to see others. The Karling symbol is a great touch.

Edit:

Great to see that Brian Boru has a bloodline - the history files could be updated, and include him in the list of holders of the k_ireland title. A lot of the earlier high kings were either mythological or their rule particularly tenuous, but Brian in particular has to be included, he's that much of a famous figure.

 

[riadach]

Great idea and I assume forging bloodlines by having tomes written about ancestors could be a thing too.

Say for instance, one wanted to make one a saint and compose a hagriography

 

[riadach]

Wooo! Great stuff. Great to see Braveheart make an appearance. There's so much potential for this, and I can't wait to see others. The Karling symbol is a great touch.

Brian Boru totally has to have a bloodline, and it would deserve a +5 Irish opinion - and sure while it's being done, the history files could be updated, and include him in the list of holders of the k_ireland title. A lot of the earlier high kings were either mythological or their rule particularly tenuous, but Brian in particular has to be included, he's that much of a famous figure.

He does. Brian mac Cennétig is on the list.

 

[Parafoudre]

Awesome

 

[Nyrael]

Superstition or not, if the person before you is a wimp it doesn't matter if he's of some bloodline.

Also wouldn't culture difference negate this? A Scandinavian viking wouldn't think twice about cutting down a Karling since they haven't even heard of the guy. Why would the combat bonus apply then? Names and blood means nothing unless you're from the same cultural background. So this should be a conditional bonus.

How the hell wouldn't he heard about him? The Viking Raids partially started because of what Karlings did to their Saxon brethren, and the fear that they might come after them next.
And in general, any enemy will learn about it. Nobody goes into wars blind, and thus are bound to hear about someone's legendary ancestors.

 

[TheDungen]

Will there be mythical bloodlines? "Descended from the Gods" for Ynglings or some such?
Do Bloodlines stack?
Are they culture dependent?
Can my character found a bloodline and then his grandson also found one if both have enough achievements? Or does one dynasty get only one bloodline?

I would love to see stuff like that.

Psychological impact. They're making your opponent worse, not you better.

Would you want to fight the direct descendant of Ragnar Lodbrok in single combat?

Because it would make me a legend? But I guess that is also part of it, when you have legendary ancestor you may be more likely to practice the skills your ancestor was famous for.

Though a feat system would be cool too, Like you character could become famous for ending the Line of Lodbroke or the Karlings or some such thing. Now that you have a kill screen. And then the feats your dynasty have carried out could be modularly giving the bonuses to that bloodline.

Looks like these bloodlines (so far) offer positive modifers, but will there be bloodlines that provide negative modifers? For example, being the decendant of an excommunicated ruler, a witch, a treasonous traitor, etc?

Yeah it would be really cool to be like the blood of Cain or the blood of Judas something like that, or if you have supernatural descent then the blood of Loki. And struggling to redeem your bloodline. And also with a feat system like I mentioned earlier if you do some pretty messed up stuff it could taint your bloodline and everyone (or specific people, like say you throw out the jews and have the trait cruel then you could do it in a very ruthless way and all jews would receive a negative modifier with you) would hate your descendants for the stuff you did.
heck you could have bloodline feud, the blood of Widukind gets the modifier hates the blood of Karling and vice versa.

Forging inheritance would be great too. There is a document claiming that Julius Caesar himself granted to the the archdukes of Austria the priviledge of staying on his horse in the presence of the Roman emperor...and it worked and reinforced the position of the Habsburgs on their way to secure the imperial throne for centuries.
In the same order of ideas lots of muslim rulers claimed to be of the Quraysh tribe, including very recently the founder of the Islamic state. Through relics and claimed inheritance, a victorious leader can claim a filliation that would not be contested after a few generations.

Yeah I'd love to play a game a s agreek count who claims descent from the Ptolmy and decides to reconquer egypt. Or maybee the other way around I conquer some piece of land and then afterward claim to be descended from some legendary ruler of that land to legitimise my rule.

Superstition or not, if the person before you is a wimp it doesn't matter if he's of some bloodline.

Also wouldn't culture difference negate this? A Scandinavian viking wouldn't think twice about cutting down a Karling since they haven't even heard of the guy. Why would the combat bonus apply then? Names and blood means nothing unless you're from the same cultural background. So this should be a conditional bonus.

Eh they should get a combat bonus against the Karlings the viking age started because of the blood courts of Verden and the Burning of the irminsul. Well it may have happened otherwise too but the viking love to go after churches is related to that. Norse pagans hate the Karlings

 

[Ksiendzu]

New CoA for Poland or Piast dynasty if I see correctly.