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.

 

[El-Daddy]

All of those descended from Niall would be descended from Conn too.

... silly me. Thanks!

 

[hail kaiser sir]

We need a bloodline related to Solomonids

We also need custom bloodlines in case your custom player made the impossible or many great things

 

[Woifee]

We need a bloodline related to Solomonids

We also need custom bloodlines in case your custom player made the impossible or many great things

I can imagine some amount of prestige beeing necessary. 20.000 or something.

 

[Slayen]

We need a bloodline related to Solomonids

We also need custom bloodlines in case your custom player made the impossible or many great things

In regards to the Solomonids, I did see in the screen shot of the bloodline list the name "King Degna I Mikael of Abyssinia", and he is in the games history files as a member of the Solomonids. So it looks like that bloodline will be in the game in some form at the very least.

 

[LeSingeAffame]

In regards to the Solomonids, I did see in the screen shot of the bloodline list the name "King Degna I Mikael of Abyssinia", and he is in the games history files as a member of the Solomonids. So it looks like that bloodline will be in the game in some form at the very least.

Yep, it's the first King of Abyssinia in the game files, some we'll most definitely have a bloodline about Solomon

 

[Metz]

What about adopting orphaned distant relatives if you are childless?

 

[Arclath2]

Are the Danes (Cnut the Great & Valdemar the Great) and the Welsh (Cunnedda & Rhodri Mawr) represented? Especially the Danes, knowing you Swedes

 

[eastcoastceojam]

If you use Ruler Designer on a character with Legendary Bloodlines, with that deactivate the Bloodline features?

 

[Woifee]

If you use Ruler Designer on a character with Legendary Bloodlines, with that deactivate the Bloodline features?

It’s a few years ago I used Ruler Designer, but back then the original character you replaced with your designed one became your courtier.

 

[Zingzing Jr.]

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?

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

Both of these. We need these.

 

[Andrelvis]

Yep, it's the first King of Abyssinia in the game files, some we'll most definitely have a bloodline about Solomon

I wish we could have negative dates for this sort of thing, to have a comprehensive genealogy up to BC years for special cases

 

[astartes906]

will the trait for the muslim who descent from mahomet disapear ?

 

[mauzel]

Will the chinese emperors also have bloodlines?

 

[tuareg109]

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.

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

Stop spreading disinformation. The viking age started because of the medieval warm period, vikings attacked Frankish lands because of their relative nearness, wealth, and opulence, and vikings attacked churches and monasteries and convents because they're weak, poorly-defended targets full of fine cloths and golden chalices and bowls and large stores of quality food and virgin nuns.

 

[Sanny]

I'm totally confused by how this actually works in practice.

 

[TheDungen]

Stop spreading disinformation. The viking age started because of the medieval warm period, vikings attacked Frankish lands because of their relative nearness, wealth, and opulence, and vikings attacked churches and monasteries and convents because they're weak, poorly-defended targets full of fine cloths and golden chalices and bowls and large stores of quality food and virgin nuns.

A narrative written by christian monks. "The barbarians attacks us because they have too many children and want our wealth". Sounds familiar?

 

[tuareg109]

A narrative written by christian monks. "The barbarians attacks us because they have too many children and want our wealth". Sounds familiar?

Classy, bringing irrelevant current politics into a discussion about history. It's pathetic and insulting that you use the misfortune of refugees fleeing war and genocide, and the misplaced discrimination against them, to try to make a point on a historical video game forum.

The truth is that when the medieval warm period started, Scandinavia's population increased at a rate outstripping the land's growth of carrying capacity. To survive and propagate their own children, less fortunate men would go raiding and settling overseas. The best choices for raiding were Frankish and British (geographically British) monasteries and seaside settlements: easy access and poorly defended. In places where the rulers were small, weak, and disorganized (Ireland, northern Scotland, England) the vikings were even able to become rulers themselves.

 

[Artaios Greybark]

Classy, bringing irrelevant current politics into a discussion about history. It's pathetic and insulting that you use the misfortune of refugees fleeing war and genocide, and the misplaced discrimination against them, to try to make a point on a historical video game forum.

The truth is that when the medieval warm period started, Scandinavia's population increased at a rate outstripping the land's growth of carrying capacity. To survive and propagate their own children, less fortunate men would go raiding and settling overseas. The best choices for raiding were Frankish and British (geographically British) monasteries and seaside settlements: easy access and poorly defended. In places where the rulers were small, weak, and disorganized (Ireland, northern Scotland, England) the vikings were even able to become rulers themselves.

Not going to get in the argument why the vikings did what but why would he not use current politics and events to compare to history? Seems perfectly valid to me in general. History repeats itself and the current time is part of that. People back then suffered just as much as they do today if not worse. Are we not allowed to compare them to anything either?

 

[Atalvyr]

I think the point was that the current migrant/refugee crisis and the response to it is not applicable to why the vikings would attack monasteries. As far I am aware none of the current migrants/refugees are looting churches, so I also do not see the connection.

Part of the reason the vikings raided where they did was also that they traded a fair bit with many of the same areas. When the vikings had wealth and the locals had decent defenses, they would trade. When times were tougher back home, the vikings had less wealth to trade with a raided many of the places they knew had wealth instead. It was not unheard of for places along the Volga river to both trade and fight vikings in the same season, sometimes even they exact same vikings they had traded with earlier. The vikings were pragmatic if nothing else.

 

[tuareg109]

Not going to get in the argument why the vikings did what but why would he not use current politics and event to compare to history? Seems perfectly valid to me in general. History repeats itself and the current time is part of that. People back then suffered just as much as they do today if not worse. Are we not allowed to compare them to anything either?

The two situations are incomparable. No large scale event that happens today can be compared adequately with anything that happened before the 1850's, before the beginning of the age of rail. Life and society are so radically different that there are no parallels, no sane analogy. @Atalvyr puts it eloquently too.