How to establish ancestry / parentage?

[Tears_of_Blood]

Is there any way in the rules to establish the ancestry or parentage of a character? Considering the medieval type of setting, this would seem to be important to keep the "royal lines" free of controversy. Of course, there could always be challenges anyway.

In our hypothetical situation, a character "might" be related to a local noble. The noble would not want something like that found out (he has his reasons) and his detractors would shout with joy if they could prove this connection.

BTW, Blood Biography does not do it.

Thank you.

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[tonyz]

Ask the gods. A commune spell should provide an unambiguous answer.

Depending on how you word the question, of course. "Is Horatia the legitimate heir of Emma and Horatio?" "NO." (But maybe she's Horatio's daughter by some other woman, or Emma's by some other man, or maybe the two of them had an earlier child who is actually alive and thus the legitimate heir -- or maybe the god believes in ultimogeniture instead of primogeniture and Horatia's youngest sister is the heir.)

[Tears_of_Blood]

Yes, Commune would work I suppose. Although it is a 5th level spell (requiring a 9th level Cleric, 10th level Oracle or a 13th level Inquisitor) and would likely be available only to the more important nobility. The adventuring party would eventually have a cleric capable of doing it, but who will believe that cleric over the local lord and his people?

I can see lots of intrigue developing over this one...

Thanks!

[iLaifire]

I'm not exactly sure how that becomes important. If a person is closely related enough that being related causes problems for the noble, that fact is probably well known enough (sibling, parent, child, aunt or uncle of the noble in question). If the two people in question are not that closely related then, considering a medieval type setting, the character is most likely equally related to a majority of other nobles, including the "black mailer"*.

*I'm assuming the black mailer is a noble as any commoner would be quickly silenced before this became enough of a problem.

[Tears_of_Blood]

Ahh, but the big noble in this case is not aware of the child. It was the result of an affair, and the mother and the nobleman she was married to are both now dead (well, sort of..). The big noble thinks the child was her husband's, and also thinks it died in childbirth anyway.

The rub comes from the fact that this noble has gone out of his way to convince everyone that he is not a vampire, even to the extreme of silencing certain people. This child is a Dhamphir, something that supposedly can only happen with a human and a vampire. The child was abandoned at birth, something that was never revealed to the big noble. Everyone knows the mother wasn't a vampire. Sooo... If this child is exposed as the progeny of this particular noble, there is sure to be trouble.