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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:
DDBloodlines_BloodlineView.png

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.
DDBloodlines_Patrilineal.png


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.
DDBloodlines_MatriTransfer.png


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:
DDBloodlines_List.png


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.
DDBloodlines_Ledger.png


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:
DDBloodlines_Examples.png


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.
 
Is Sayyid trait now a bloodline too?

That’s a very good question, as is whether all bloodlines will be passable for both genders.
 
Going from the PDXCON stream in the new UI the martial skill and combat skill looks like it has been decoupled, or at least even moreso. The ruler of Croatia has martial 8 i believe and -40 combat skill.
 
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This is an excellent addition. I'm glad to see a much loved community mod being integrated and iterated on by the devs. It seems to me like there should be a lot of artifacts related to famous historical bloodlines. There are some other mods which should get the same treatment I think.
 
Sexism mechanics in the rules to be enabled on demand*, to make a full sentence out of that.

And yes you get personal combat skill out of nowhere, which imho is as mentioned ridiculous.
"Excuse me , good sir, before we fight, might you maybe quickly lift your visor and tell me if you descend from either Attila, Charlemagne or Alexios Komnenos if it pleases thee, I a particularly wary fighting their descendents, you need to know".

Just to clarify I love the idea of bloodlines too, but why personal combat skill everywhere, it makes no sense, according to the current game design and logic Charles the bewitched would still have been formidable in combat because his descent from Maximilian the last knight would give him more bonus on personal combat skill than being a drooling inbred freak substracts
 
Will more bloodlines be created as the game progresses, or are they all present at the start? If new bloodlines can be created, what determines their bonuses/descriptions?
 
Notice the new French portrait there ;) also... BRIAN BORU! YAY! Now you just need to put him into the title history as high king... Also with Nial of the nine hostages, the Scots didn't exist when he was around, they were the Picts.
Any chance I am the only one who read Brian Boru and immediately thought of Brian Blessed instead? I want his bloodline for my king pls. :D