Magical bloodlines is a recurring theme in some fantasy animation both anime and occasionally from the US. Sometimes the focus will be on that one family member either has no power, or is very dormant.

Others play with the opposite. A bloodline that is normally dormant. But expresses ever so often. Sometimes playing with the idea of some organization or cult, or even family, trying to breed one that expresses finally. Or expresses powerfully.

Something to consider that is a factor in Eberron is wether or not marrying/breeding outside your own bloodline is allowed or not. In Eberron it is prohibited as the offspring tends to express some corrupted form of mark.

But in other media sometimes trying to merge bloodlines is a goal as it generates even stronger powers.

A recent anime was watching had an interesting approach. That various bloodlines tend to express an affinity for one type of magic. And it is increasingly rare to have someone with an aptitude for more than one. And another that flips that and pretty much everyone expresses one power, usually small. But some rare few have nothing. Probably inspired by the Xanth series where everything has one power.

Quote from: Omega;1128696Magical bloodlines is a recurring theme in some fantasy animation both anime and occasionally from the US. Sometimes the focus will be on that one family member either has no power, or is very dormant.

Others play with the opposite. A bloodline that is normally dormant. But expresses ever so often. Sometimes playing with the idea of some organization or cult, or even family, trying to breed one that expresses finally. Or expresses powerfully.

Something to consider that is a factor in Eberron is wether or not marrying/breeding outside your own bloodline is allowed or not. In Eberron it is prohibited as the offspring tends to express some corrupted form of mark.

But in other media sometimes trying to merge bloodlines is a goal as it generates even stronger powers.

A recent anime was watching had an interesting approach. That various bloodlines tend to express an affinity for one type of magic. And it is increasingly rare to have someone with an aptitude for more than one. And another that flips that and pretty much everyone expresses one power, usually small. But some rare few have nothing. Probably inspired by the Xanth series where everything has one power.

Yeah, that is a good issue. With the inbred family, I think that they should prohibit out-breeding to maintain their purity. Other bloodlines may be more liberal about that, though the degree which they allow that will also reduce their magical potential. I'm thinking that crossing bloodlines should be exceptionally rare and frowned upon by most factions.

I think I'd like to mix and match dominant vs dormant. The demon family above almost all have powers. Other bloodlines should be more dormant.

Its more a factor to consider if a prohibition is actually needed or not. Does mixing bloodlines produce unstable freaks every time like in Eberron? Or just has a high chance? Or chance at all?

Or flips that. What is you have to marry outside your bloodline as otherwise THAT generates freaks.

Or consider this problem too. Is the bloodline getting stronger? Remaining about the same? Or getting weaker with each generation?

Or how reliable is the bloodline to carry over to the next gen? Is it only the seventh son sort of deal? Or is every kid expressing power? And so on.

I'll just throw in that a magic lineage need not be a blood lineage. It could be a soul lineage, where each mage is a reincarnation of some former mage. There might even be a finite number of mages that transmigrate through different incarnations. Similar to how Lamaism works in the real world: representatives from the wizard's college would show up at your doorstep to "test" a new baby they suspect is a wizard.

Quote from: ShieldWife;1128324Currently I'm working on a fantasy setting where magical abilities, such as being able to cast spells, are based on having ancient magical ancestry. There may be a few other minor spell casters in the setting, hedge mages perhaps, but being a powerful caster is in the blood. Through the ages, the bloodlines have become diluted and magic has become rarer and less powerful in general.

I have one idea for a noble family descended from the union of a human and demon. This group is likely the most powerful magically because they have practiced incest for centuries to preserve the purity of their demonic blood - with numerous interesting downsides to go along with their powers. I like this villainous faction and have all sorts of ideas for their history that I think are cool in a dark sort of way.

I need more ideas though about other such magical bloodlines that aren't quite so dark. Could I go with admixtures of humans and other magical beings? Does it seem silly to have various other supernatural bloodlines with ancestors other than demons? I don't want to go the inbred direction with the others, so what would be an interesting way to present them? Aside from saying that some magical bloodlines are so diluted that they don't exist as identifiable bloodlines anymore, the genes just happen to produce someone with magical potential now and then. I could do that, and maybe I will, but I think it would be neat to have a few other bloodlines that were more defined than that.

Ley lines, being conceived in a place of power, a lineage has found this is true and have the couples mate ritually in such places to have magical offspring, this allows for the constant input if fresh mundane blood without diluting their power.

Someone already pointed to fey/human offspring, to justify this Patricia Briggs postulates in her books (yes I do buy her books sue me) that the Faeries have always been slower to breed so they sometimes take human partners, such mongrels are looked down by some of the fey of course and continued dilution of the bloodline does diminish the powers, plus the offspring can just be born without any real power beyond being graceful, beautiful or something to that effect. She also makes extensive use of the glamour.

In her books witches are genetic, several bloodlines existed you can sidestep the inbreed problem by having the families keep a record and to marry across families and with mundanes. This of course needs to be monitored or the families could go extinct as far as being magical.

If Demons exist do divine beings exist too? If so would such beings breed with humans? This could be the source of fresh magical blood for some lineages, have the more powerful breed with a divine being. or with the direct offspring of such a being.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1129123Ley lines, being conceived in a place of power, a lineage has found this is true and have the couples mate ritually in such places to have magical offspring, this allows for the constant input if fresh mundane blood without diluting their power. . .


If Demons exist do divine beings exist too? If so would such beings breed with humans? This could be the source of fresh magical blood for some lineages, have the more powerful breed with a divine being. or with the direct offspring of such a being.

You don't even need to necessarily breed with the celestial being. I believe PF1 states proximity can result in such power taking root.

Quick and dirty fictional example: During the siege of Malibar City, the arcane defenders summoned and called numerous extraplanar reinforcements to supplement their conventional forces against the undead hordes. Some were banished, but others were destroyed -- but the celestial energies that made up their existence could not be easily snuffed out. More than one surviving guardsman would later sire a child with strange talents if they had been standing too close to an archon or angel that had been slain.

It's like radiation, if high rad counts made you sire/give birth to X-Men instead of giving you cancer and fucking up your DNA

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1129264You don't even need to necessarily breed with the celestial being. I believe PF1 states proximity can result in such power taking root.

Quick and dirty fictional example: During the siege of Malibar City, the arcane defenders summoned and called numerous extraplanar reinforcements to supplement their conventional forces against the undead hordes. Some were banished, but others were destroyed -- but the celestial energies that made up their existence could not be easily snuffed out. More than one surviving guardsman would later sire a child with strange talents if they had been standing too close to an archon or angel that had been slain.

It's like radiation, if high rad counts made you sire/give birth to X-Men instead of giving you cancer and fucking up your DNA

I like it

Quote from: Omega;1129032Its more a factor to consider if a prohibition is actually needed or not. Does mixing bloodlines produce unstable freaks every time like in Eberron? Or just has a high chance? Or chance at all?

Or flips that. What is you have to marry outside your bloodline as otherwise THAT generates freaks.

Or consider this problem too. Is the bloodline getting stronger? Remaining about the same? Or getting weaker with each generation?

Or how reliable is the bloodline to carry over to the next gen? Is it only the seventh son sort of deal? Or is every kid expressing power? And so on.

I think that there should be a tendency to get weaker with each generation, at least with outbreeding. With inbreeding and primitive eugenics, like that practiced by the Sycorax, magical talent can be preserved but with the cost of other problems arising.

The 7th son idea would make sense for a family which doesn't practice inbreeding, where magic is an either/or situation and a fully powered magic user arises every son often even if the bloodline isn't pure. That could also lead to the issue of 7th sons with ancestry from that family popping up in random places if they can trace their lineage back to a member of that family and an affair with a commoner.

Prohibitions on reproducing with normal humans would exist to prevent weakening of bloodlines and perhaps prohibitions on children with other magical bloodlines might exist either because abominations result or merely people who don't fall under the control of the families.

Quote from: Zalman;1129109I'll just throw in that a magic lineage need not be a blood lineage. It could be a soul lineage, where each mage is a reincarnation of some former mage. There might even be a finite number of mages that transmigrate through different incarnations. Similar to how Lamaism works in the real world: representatives from the wizard's college would show up at your doorstep to "test" a new baby they suspect is a wizard.

That could be cool too. I'm not quite sure how that might work in combination with the lineage idea, maybe in combination with the 7th son concept. If random bastards or their descendants start manifesting 7th son powers, the family could go investigate those people. Maybe the reincarnation is tied to the 7th sons.

I keep saying 7th sons, but it doesn't have to be tied to birth order or being a son.

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1129123Ley lines, being conceived in a place of power, a lineage has found this is true and have the couples mate ritually in such places to have magical offspring, this allows for the constant input if fresh mundane blood without diluting their power.

Someone already pointed to fey/human offspring, to justify this Patricia Briggs postulates in her books (yes I do buy her books sue me) that the Faeries have always been slower to breed so they sometimes take human partners, such mongrels are looked down by some of the fey of course and continued dilution of the bloodline does diminish the powers, plus the offspring can just be born without any real power beyond being graceful, beautiful or something to that effect. She also makes extensive use of the glamour.

In her books witches are genetic, several bloodlines existed you can sidestep the inbreed problem by having the families keep a record and to marry across families and with mundanes. This of course needs to be monitored or the families could go extinct as far as being magical.

If Demons exist do divine beings exist too? If so would such beings breed with humans? This could be the source of fresh magical blood for some lineages, have the more powerful breed with a divine being. or with the direct offspring of such a being.

Ley line conceptions would be in interesting way of gaining magical blood as well. I wouldn't want something that could be reproduced too easily or formulaically though. Maybe the location where conception occurs has to involve some danger, a certain time of year, or maybe only enhances ancestry which is already present. I was thinking of having a faerie blooded group which are tied to an enchanted forest where faeries dwell. Maybe when they conceive too far from this forest their power can't be fully passed down.

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1129264You don't even need to necessarily breed with the celestial being. I believe PF1 states proximity can result in such power taking root.

Quick and dirty fictional example: During the siege of Malibar City, the arcane defenders summoned and called numerous extraplanar reinforcements to supplement their conventional forces against the undead hordes. Some were banished, but others were destroyed -- but the celestial energies that made up their existence could not be easily snuffed out. More than one surviving guardsman would later sire a child with strange talents if they had been standing too close to an archon or angel that had been slain.

It's like radiation, if high rad counts made you sire/give birth to X-Men instead of giving you cancer and fucking up your DNA

That sounds cool. I imagine that if demons exist that angels or something like them might exist too. I have trouble seeing them reproducing with humans enough to create such magical bloodlines, but it happens in the Bible so I guess it's canon

Tying the origin of such bloodlines to deaths of magical creatures or really some other kind of magical event where mystical energy is released could allow for these bloodlines to arise without sex between a human and whatever.

Quote from: ShieldWife;1129460That sounds cool. I imagine that if demons exist that angels or something like them might exist too. I have trouble seeing them reproducing with humans enough to create such magical bloodlines, but it happens in the Bible so I guess it's canon

Tying the origin of such bloodlines to deaths of magical creatures or really some other kind of magical event where mystical energy is released could allow for these bloodlines to arise without sex between a human and whatever.

Recall the shenanigans Zeus got up to whenever he went on mortal booty calls.

But yeah, good-aligned celestials (save for azata) might be hesitant about 'doing the deed' with mortals no matter what the situation. This allows for celestial bloodlines to take root.

Azatas get a pass for being chaotic good -- so long as all parties are consenting, they'd happily join in.  Even azatas aren't going to just -abandon- any offspring though, and would certainly look in on them from time to time.

Which leads into another fun story hook: what does a sorcerer do if his still-existing ancestor comes a-calling? An elemental-bloodline sorcerer whose power derives from a fling with a genie might find himself caught up in said genie's machinations and plans. A celestial-bloodline sorcerer might find a ghaele or lilliend on his doorstep one day, encouraging them to help battle the forces of darkness.

Quote from: ShieldWife;1129460snip

Ley line conceptions would be in interesting way of gaining magical blood as well. I wouldn't want something that could be reproduced too easily or formulaically though. Maybe the location where conception occurs has to involve some danger, a certain time of year, or maybe only enhances ancestry which is already present. I was thinking of having a faerie blooded group which are tied to an enchanted forest where faeries dwell. Maybe when they conceive too far from this forest their power can't be fully passed down.

snip.

Which is why I said ritually, it's the combination of the ritual and the ley lines, of course a couple with magical ancestry (either or both) could very well conceive a magic user even if they themselves don't know (because they lack powers) of their ancestry by conceiving in a ley line in the appropriate time or inadvertently fulfilling (kinda/sorta) the ritual during conception in said places.

Maybe it's only on certain point of the ley lines, maybe those points need to be found and enhanced and protected.

Maybe it's only those powerless but with magical ancestry.

In many hermetic traditions sex/conception has a powerful place in their rituals.

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1129553Recall the shenanigans Zeus got up to whenever he went on mortal booty calls.

But yeah, good-aligned celestials (save for azata) might be hesitant about 'doing the deed' with mortals no matter what the situation. This allows for celestial bloodlines to take root.

Azatas get a pass for being chaotic good -- so long as all parties are consenting, they'd happily join in.  Even azatas aren't going to just -abandon- any offspring though, and would certainly look in on them from time to time.

Which leads into another fun story hook: what does a sorcerer do if his still-existing ancestor comes a-calling? An elemental-bloodline sorcerer whose power derives from a fling with a genie might find himself caught up in said genie's machinations and plans. A celestial-bloodline sorcerer might find a ghaele or lilliend on his doorstep one day, encouraging them to help battle the forces of darkness.

Or the ancestry makes them more likely to accidentally find themselves in such situations, either by making them trouble magnets or by making them attracted (not in the sexual way) to people/places that their ancestor would either help or destroy.

As for sources of said ancestry the world is full of mythologies that provide interesting choices: Only descendants of Coyote/Spider (Or their equivalent in other lore) can be chaotic/choose your other option), etc.