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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.
 
edited my comment too... it makes no sense now ;)
(but not the part about the defence retinues)
I searched through the localization files and apparently it's a big mess: in some files American English is dominant, in others it's British English but generally it seems that the American spelling is dominant. So in order to really preserve the consistency, you'd need go through all 121 files and "correct" all the various words (and you cannot automate this because you'd most likely break the strings in the process). I guess it'll have to stay this way because I'm definitely NOT going through all that text.
 
I searched through the localization files and apparently it's a big mess: in some files American English is dominant, in others it's British English but generally it seems that the American spelling is dominant. I guess that in order to really preserve the consistency, you'd need go through all 121 files and "correct" all the various words (and you cannot automate this because you'd most likely break the strings in the process). I guess it'll have to stay this way.
Good thing it's an extremely minor quirk, with no impact on the gameplay whatsoever, eh?
 
Like someone said before we'll probably not see bloodlines who's progenitors lived before the year 1 because the game does not handle negative years.

Look at the Blood of Attila example. It's probably not unlikely you'll get an ancestor who died a few hundred years before the start date with a blood of Abraham legacy. You'll then inherit that legacy as a result of being his descendant so no need for there to be a character page for Abraham.
 
Will Baibars have a bloodline? Saladin has one, but from what I've read Saladin was far more revered in Europe. In the Arab/Muslim world, Baibars was where it's at. Baibars defeated the freakin' Mongols and drove out a lot of the last Crusaders, clearly winning the 7th and 9th Crusades.
Saladin kind of lost the Third Crusade.
 
2 cents.
1st: I cringed when I read about more matrilineal-patrilineal mechanics, ck2 has plenty of sexism to enable historical correctness halfway, and this way it's for example pointless to rob someone's daughter so your kids are descendants of famous guy XY too.
Brings me to the other point.
2nd, that a psychological effect now gives as much battle bonus as the new tier 4 armors do is a bit ridiculous, dear developers.
 
Good thing it's an extremely minor quirk, with no impact on the gameplay whatsoever, eh?
True. Maybe, if CK3 comes out one day, we'll have everything written in 1 variation of English. But I guess I can live with it until then - it's not that big of a deal after all.
 
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.

The Scots came from Ireland
 
But you are fine with a fancy sword making someone a better commnander?

Fancy magical swords (and other artefacts, e.g. the Ark of the Covenant) giving a stat boost to Martial is fine with me. Artefact books giving stat boosts is fine with me (as we can assume that the owner has read the book and learned to be better at X). Fancy non-magical swords giving non-personal combat (reasonable, if you've got a better weapon than your opponent), non-prestige (fancy/legendary/etc.), non-piety (for holy items), and non-opinion boosts (fancy/legendary/etc.) is rather silly, as far as I'm concerned (unless we assume that all artefacts are magical, in which case it is reasonable to have an Axe of Martial or a Sceptre of Diplomacy created by a common smith).

The same goes for bloodlines, so e.g. being the descendant of Odin (if we assume that this is posible with supernatural stuff turned on) and getting a Martial boost would be fine with me, while being the descendant of William the Conqueror wouldn't give you more than some monthly prestige and Norman/English opinion (and possibly negative Anglo-Saxon opinion).
 
No descendant of Subutai?
Subutai is the name which always comes to minds when it come to Mongol generals, but Jebe has as much credits as his companion-in-arms. (#publicawarenessforJebe)
But an event spawning Jebe and/or Subutai in the founder of the Mongol Empire's court would be very nice. (spawning both of them may be a tad bit overpowered... but hey... it would be nice no?).
This would allow for such bloodline to be added in the game.
 
Niall of the nine hostages. I heard about him recently but I'm not sure where. I think an actor on some talk show mentioned being defended from Niall of the nine hostages. I can't remember who though.

Is there an Scott or Irishman currently making the rounds promoting a movie?
 
Sorry if this has been asked but don’t have time to read the whole thread right now but can there be negatives from a bloodline or only positives?
 
After years of heroic acts leading your armies, will a particularly good commander be able to become the founder of a bloodline?