Bloodline Progenitors
It’s all well and good to know that somewhere in your family history is a dragon, demon, or similar, but knowing exactly who it was, and why, can bring so much more depth to a character, as well as plot hooks, goals, and so much more. Plus, in some cases, the how of a character’s unusual ancestor is at least as interesting and pressing a question as the who and the why. Today’s Top Ten provides ten different ancestors (patterned off the core bloodlines, but easily applicable to characters beyond sorcerers and bloodragers) that might just be relatives of your character.
1. Uybux the Inscrutable (Aberrant Bloodline). This infamous aboleth has devoted itself to the study of humanoid genetics, and labors to find mutations and alterations that would allow the aboleths to create a superior servant race to skum and gillmen. For decades, Uybux would travel from one port city to another, creating horrific laboratories and using its minions to kidnap locals and inject them with strange and terrible aboleth chemicals, many of which either altered the subject’s anatomy immediately, or, more insidiously, had no effect until the subject procreated, passing the effects down to the offspring. Uybux was eventually discovered by a band of adventurers, who failed to slay the creature, but did drive it away… at least for the time being.
2. Thumaax the Defiler (Abyssal Bloodline). This particularly vile hezrou is known for his rapacious carnal appetites, and while he engages in many of the same delights as others of his kind, there is little that attracts his attention as much as a young humanoid woman to impregnate. The victims of Thumaax’s lusts are often allowed to live in order to bear his demonic child, although this does not necessarily render them any luckier than the victims he slays and eats, as these children often have particularly violent births, or poison their mothers’ bodies while in the womb.
3. Fiona Doirend (Arcane Bloodline). An adventurer-mage in her youth, whose many thrilling adventures are detailed at length in a series of memoirs that have proven vastly more popular than her numerous books about magical theory and practice, Fiona eventually settled down and founded the Doirend Arcane Academy when she grew weary of adventuring. How she made time for everything in her busy life is anyone’s guess, but her one flaw was a somewhat insatiable appetite for passionate encounters, and she is believed to have had several children by a variety of different fathers, many of which inherited her knack for spellcasting.
4. Zethaniah (Celestial Bloodline). This ghaele azata is a strong believer in courtly love, and spends much of his time on one quest or another in order to win the affections of some beautiful creature that has caught his eye. While Zethaniah’s passions are strong, they are short-lived, and he rarely has the chance to express his feelings physically (nor does he restrict his passions to women, for that matter), and so despite his many love interests, he has relatively few children. That said, when one is as long-lived as a ghaele, even one child every twenty years can quickly add up, and Zethaniah long ago lost count of his many progeny, although those that track him down find that he is happy to bond with them—for a time, at least.
5. Aloric the Conqueror (Destined Bloodline). This legendary barbarian is infamous for having united several different warring states under his banner, and leading a grand conquest that redefined the map for generations to come. He is widely believed to have fathered a great many children during his exploits, although most scholars believe that only a small fraction of those who claim to be his descendants truly are. Still, some estimate that by now, he likely has in excess of 5,000 descendants, many of which might hold some small spark of his glorious destiny within their veins.
6. Llewellarenitrys (Draconic Bloodline). This fearsome dragon has lived for millennia, and her schemes are known for spanning thousands of years, or sometimes even longer. Some of these schemes, for reasons that likely remain a mystery to all but Llewellarenitrys herself, involve birthing humanoid offspring, who then go on to serve as her pawns. She rarely raises these children herself, instead leaving them in the care of some carefully selected foster parents, and only arriving to claim the child when she has need of him.
7. Husniya Alis (Elemental Bloodline). This efreeti matriarch restored her family from relative obscurity in a remote outpost on the hinterlands of the Elemental Plane of Fire, bringing House Alis into prominence. For a brief time, many in the City of Brass believed that she would make a bid for becoming the next Grand Sultan, but instead she decided to retire, passing on her various political duties to her children. Now, she spe1nds her time pursuing whatever diversions most suit her interests, and one of her most frequent distractions is a trip to the local slave markets to find paramours of every type and description.
8. Lady Neasa (Fey Bloodline). This powerful fey lord is known for her delight in taking humanoid children as servants to attend her in her fey court. Once the children come of age, they are no longer of use to her, and are returned to the mortal world, although they are invariably changed by the experience, and carry some small bit of fey magic with them for the rest of their lives, and often pass such traits down to their children.
9. Dzuuqak the Tiller (Infernal Bloodline). This contract devil (Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 3) specializes in offering barren men and women the chance to have children, typically in exchange for the soul of one or both parents. While the children of these unions are generally born more-or-less normal, and almost always devoid of major physical signs of infernal taint, some lingering devilish magic remains in the child, and continues to pass on through them to their offspring.
10. Bernardo Rosaire (Undead Bloodline). This vampire was a notorious ladies’ man in life, and saw no reason to allow his death to change that. Done in when the tables were turned on him and he was seduced, and later killed, by a vampiress, Bernardo eventually broke out of his mistress’s shadow when she was slain by vampire hunters. Bernardo’s limited magical talent is sufficient to allow him to restore enough life to his body to father children, something that he does nearly as often as he feeds. In a bizarre twist, Bernardo has acquired a strong taste for his own blood, and so prefers to hunt down and feed off his own children, once they have reached adulthood.