Line #122 Main/HereditaryCurse


1	->''"However, the giants of the Sul’at League studied the Gyrderi and found a way to counter the {{druid}}s—the giants enacted a terrible {{curse}} that forever bound them in the wild shapes they were wearing, trapping them and their descendants in the forms of animals."''
2	-->-- ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', "Secrets of Xen'drik, Chapter 3"
3
4	A Hereditary Curse is a particular type of supernatural {{curse}}, that is passed from parent to offspring, usually until the entire family line(s) die out (and the curse with it) or unless they find some way to [[CurseEscapeClause break the curse]].
5
6	Usually, it was specifically placed upon the family by someone else, but sometimes it can be the result of {{Karma}} received or BlackMagic performed by an originating family member. In some cases, it can even be the price paid for making a particular vow.
7
8	The existence of a Hereditary Curse usually makes breaking it one of the primary motivators for a character carrying that curse. Sometimes the way to break the curse is already known; other times the character must discover it for themselves. Often the character who appears in a work of fiction with the curse is the last surviving member of their family, and therefore the only one who has any hope of breaking the curse. This need not always be the case, however.
9
10	Not to be confused with InTheBlood, which is when there is a fear that having evil ancestors might make you evil; ItRunsInTheFamily, which describes a family of eccentric and sometimes crazy relatives; and SinsOfOurFathers, which involves any example of a character or group taking revenge on a long dead person's descendants.
11
12	A SubTrope of {{Curse}}. If a curse turns one into a monster, then the first ancestor to suffer it is the MonsterProgenitor. If the curse causes one to die early, it can be a case of YourDaysAreNumbered.
13	----
14	!!Examples:
15	[[foldercontrol]]
16
17	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
18	* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'': Kagaya's is said to be a curse caused by his family pursuing Muzan, every male is cursed to die young in great pain.
19	* The Niwa and Hikari families in ''Manga/DNAngel'' each have a hereditary curse created by what essentially amounts to an magical accident. The Hikari seems to have gotten the worst of it, as their curse creates a SuperpoweredEvilSide who tends to act without much regard to his "host", causing members of the Hikari family to all die young.
20	* The Inugoya family from the Creator/RumikoTakahashi oneshot ''Excuse Me For Being a Dog!'' suffer a familial curse that only affects the male members of the lineage. If they suffer a NoseBleed, they turn into dogs. The plot revolves around protagonist Shiro Inugoya trying to defend a girl he secretly likes from a bullying martial artist without exposing his curse to her.
21	* ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' has the Sohma family, which is under a curse that changes thirteen members of the family into animals of the EasternZodiac ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg plus the Cat]], an animal that would have been part of the Zodiac had the Rat not tricked it) when they are either hugged by someone of the opposite sex who isn't cursed themselves, or when their bodies are under a lot of physical stress. The curse has been affecting the family for generations, with the Zodiac spirits being reborn in new family members after whoever they previously possessed dies. It's later revealed that there's another part to the curse: [[spoiler: each cursed member finds it impossible to act in any way that isn't subservient to the family member cursed to be the reincarnation of the God of the Zodiac when in their presence.]]
22	* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Miroku's family was cursed by Naraku with the Wind Tunnel: a black hole in the palm of the right hand that's passed down through each generation. The Wind Tunnel absorbs everything in front of it unless sealed by enchanted prayer beads. While it [[CursedWithAwesome it can be used as a powerful weapon]], the Wind Tunnel's constant expansion makes it a ticking time bomb. Eventually, it will grow too large for the beads to contain it and [[SuperPowerMeltdown consume its bearer and all that surrounds him as it collapses in on itself]]. Miroku's father and grandfather before him both died young when their Wind Tunnels consumed them. While the rate of expansion can be slowed to a point, it is impossible to stop. The time until the expansion reaches critical mass can only be given very rough estimates. The only way for Miroku to free himself and his descendants from this fate is to [[NoOntologicalInertia kill Naraku]] before his time is up.
23	* Subverted in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', where the fate of Joestar family was to die young to protect the world from evil. [[spoiler:Such fates befell both Jonathan Joestar and his father, who died at the hands of Dio Brando, and Joseph's father, who was killed by a vampire. Joseph subverts the curse when he appears to die in an erupting volcano, but managed to survive and recuperated in Italy while everyone thought he was dead. He would go on to live into his 90s. Jotaro Kujo lived to his forties before dying at the hands of Enrico Pucci, along with his nineteen-year-old daughter Jolyne, when Pucci hit the universal ResetButton.]]
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26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' comic ''ComicBook/GhoulGoblin'' the Talbot family is cursed to always be the priority target of any hostile supernatural creature to cross their path, and has been since WWI when Major Archibald Talbot [[DisproportionateRetribution decided that being white allowed him to evict a supernatural creature from a cafe so that he could be served]]. After two Talbots die in suspicious circumstances in rapid succession, Harry Dresden is hired to find out what's going on and stop the curse.
28	* ''ComicBook/CliveBarkersTheHarrowers'': In the "Raiders of the Abyss" series, the Johnsons were a family who was cursed by the cenobites from the Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} franchise. In 1620, the Johnson patriarch tried to save his son by cheating the cenobites and failed. Since then every Johnson descendant is claimed by the cenobites when they turn age 25, where they are tortured with bee stings for eternity. Eventually, one of the harrowers, Vera Wyshak, rescues the Johnson clan from their cenobite hell in a story named "Death where is thy sting".
29	* Jack Russell a.k.a. ''ComicBook/WerewolfByNight'' inherited his werewolf curse from his father, who in turn got it from one of his ancestors who was bitten by a werewolf. However, because said ancestor was bitten after he had already fathered his children the curse remained dormant for a long time: though it was passed along none of his descendants actually became werewolves. This changed when Jack's father read the Darkhold, a TomeOfEldritchLore, which triggered the curse to become active.
30	* In ''Comicbook/{{Invincible}}'', the BloodKnight nature of Thokk, aka Battle Beast, is revealed to be a hereditary curse in the final issue. When Battle Beast died, his curse was passed on to his daughter. She is seen vowing to fight Viltrumites like her father did, since it was a Viltrumite who killed (and thus freed) him.
31	* ''ComicBook/ScooterGirl'': Ashton's grandpa tells him that in Elizabethan times, their ancestor was cursed by a coven of witches, making women of the Sheldon line their FamilialFoe. [[spoiler:Subverted later when Ashton realizes it was just the ramblings of a senile old man.]]
32	[[/folder]]
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34	[[folder:Fan Works]]
35	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12788847/4/The-Bond-of-Love The Bond of Love]]'' all Greengrass daughters are cursed to die an untimely death.
36	* In ''Fanfic/LostTogether'', Lotion suggests the Hibiki NoSenseOfDirection might be that, a possibility that horrifies Ryoga since he might infect Ranko if they stay together long enough.
37	* ''Fanfic/MarisStella'': Due to an incident with the Miraculous, every Akimoto's first love -- the first person who confesses to them, or that they confess to -- is doomed to die tragically. [[spoiler:Yukari's girlfriend Lita is currently dying of this curse, which is why she stole the Butterfly Miraculous to become Riodinidae.]]
38	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12786941/3/Return-of-the-Thornwood-Family Return of the Thornwood Family]]'' a vampire cursed the Thornwoods to seek out the unknown. While this might seem like a more benign curse than most at first, when you factor in things which are [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow better left unknown]]...
39	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13147319/1/A-Time-Of-My-Choosing A Time of My Choosing]]'' the Greengrasses are subject to a blood curse which sometimes skips generations. Those who contract it die early.
40	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13661038/1/Unseen Unseen]]'' the Greengrasses are cursed to be unnoticable to everyone but a few select people. Poor Daphne isn't even noticed by her ''parents''.
41	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13278911/5/Who-d-Believe-It-Anyway Who'd Believe It Anyway]]'' all male Greengrasses are cursed to lose their connection to magic by the time they reach their majority.
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43
44	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
45	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'': Sort of — the reason that the Riveras hate music is because, due to Miguel's great-great-grandfather leaving his family to become a performer and that Riveras have suffered since then, they believe that they've been "cursed" by it. In truth, while Héctor and Ernesto were on their first music tour together, Héctor grew disillusioned and homesick, that he quickly decided that he was ready to return home to them but was murdered by Ernesto before he could.
46	* The curse of the Haddocks in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Adventures of Tintin\|2011}}''. Red Rackham curses Sir Francis Haddock with his last breath, vowing to meet him again in another life. The following generations of the Haddock family are plagued with bad luck until Haddock and Rackham's descendants - Captain Haddock and the villain of the movie - fight it out.
47	* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': Meilin Lee's distant ancestor Sun Yee [[DownplayedTrope prayed to the gods for a way to protect her family and village from hostile forces during one of the more tumultuous periods of Chinese history]] and received the ability to become a supernaturally powerful red panda of monstrous size under the influence of intense emotion... along with her daughters... and their daughters... and ''their'' daughters... and so forth across centuries and continents until (as Ming Lee (belatedly) explained to her teenage daughter in 2002 UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}):
48	-->"''... what was a blessing became...an inconvenience.''"
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
52	* ''Film/Penelope2006'' has the titular Penelope receive a hundred plus year old curse on her family that their first born daughter would be ugly until she was accepted by "one of her own." This is why her parents went about trying to get her married, but it turns out [[spoiler: the curse can be interpreted as "when she accepts herself." As soon as she becomes okay with the idea she's going to be ugly forever, and it's not a cause for angst, the curse lifts.]]
53	* In ''Film/PracticalMagic'', all the witches in the family are cursed in that any man they fall in love with is doomed to die an untimely death.
54	* ''Film/TeenWolf'''s werewolfism is passed down from parent to child. It totally freaks him out because he had no idea; his father didn't tell him because sometimes it skips a generation.
55	* A rather sweet one from ''Film/IKnowWhereImGoing'' to any [=MacNeil=] who dares enter Moy Castle: [[spoiler: This is the curse of Catriona [=MacLaine=] of Erraig: My curse on [=MacNeil=] of Kiloran and every [=MacNeil=] after him, if he shall ever cross the threshold of Moy, he’ll never leave a free man. He shall be chained to a woman to the end of his days and shall die in his chains.”]]
56	* In ''Film/VanHelsing'' the Valerious family is bound by a curse that keeps them from entering into Heaven until Dracula is killed. This is the result of a vow taken by a distant ancestor.
57	* ''Film/{{Wolfman}}'': The eldest son of the Glasgow family is cursed to become a werewolf.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Folklore]]
61	* "Literature/TheLambtonWorm" is the story of how the BlueBlood Lambton family acquire a curse which means that none of them will die in their beds, for nine generations. (The Lambtons were a real family, who suffered their share of deaths by accident or in battle -- but not nine consecutive generations' worth.)
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Literature]]
65	* The titular house of ''Literature/{{Hurog}}'' is cursed. While the curse mentions something from hell, things haven't been running smoothly for the family for quite some time, and the protagonist suspects the curse is already in effect, while his uncle thinks the horse that killed the protagonist's father will bring the curse about. When Ward talks to the person who wrote the curse on the wall of the main hall, it turns out it is more of a prophecy, and has nothing to do with the horse. (Which is given a cutesy name by Ward, and turns out to be a CoolHorse, which was only so wild because it was mistreated by Ward's father.)
66	* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''
67	** Harley [=MacFinn=] in ''Literature/FoolMoon''. Allegedly, St. Patrick himself cursed the entire family line to become Loup-Garou (super-werewolves) during the full moon. The curse also manipulates fate to make sure the family line never goes extinct (there's always at least one of them who reproduces at least once before their death).
68	** In the side story "Curses", King Gwynn (a Welsh Fey) confirmed that this is the type of curse he personally placed on the Chicago Cubs. He was annoyed that they removed him (in his goat form) from the 1945 World Series for smelling bad, but kept the curse going as part of the tradition of the game. See the Cub's entry below for more.
69	* The ''[[Literature/ForgottenRealms Avatar Trilogy]]'' has Kelemvor Lyonsbane, last scion of a family of cursed mercenaries. The curse began when his ancestor betrayed a powerful sorceress and was cursed to never again act purely for profit, or transform into a murderous panther. However, with the birth of his son, the curse reacted to the boy's innocence and reversed itself. From then on, Lyonsbanes could ONLY act on another's behalf out of thoughts of profit.
70	* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Lupin is overcome with guilt when his wife becomes pregnant because he's worried that his lycanthropy might be this. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the kid takes after [[VoluntaryShapeshifting his mother]] instead.]]
71	* Creator/HPLovecraft's ''The Alchemist'' has the Charles Le Sorcier utter a curse against his father's murderer, with each person in the bloodline being [[YourDaysAreNumbered killed at the age of 32]]. [[spoiler:It is caused by someone living that long and manually ensuring their deaths.]] The last of the line, Antoine, breaks the curse after careful study about the terms, and exploring the castle that he inherited.
72	* The plot of ''Literature/{{Holes}}'' is driven by a bad luck curse on Stanley Yelnats' family as well as that of [[spoiler: Warden Lois Walker]]:
73	** Due to an ancestor [[GypsyCurse cheating a Gypsy]] by accident. After getting sent to a juvenile detention camp for a crime that he didn't commit, Stanley winds up unintentionally breaking the curse after he [[spoiler:pays off the debt to the Gypsy's descendant by doing what his ancestor had promised with them]].
74	** Late in the story it's revealed that [[spoiler: Warden Walker's grandfather, Trout Walker, the de facto ruler of Green Lake, was cursed after he led the lynch mob that murdered Sam after he and Kate Barlow fell in love]]. As part of the curse, the lush Green Lake became an arid desert, and Kissing Kate Barlow [[spoiler: cursed Trout by telling him that he and his descendants will never find her treasure, which included the wealth and worldly possessions of Stanley Yelnats I]]. The curse is finally broken when Stanley finds the treasure that [[spoiler: the Warden was forced by Trout to help him find, and she was arrested for using the camps inmates as slave labor, and for hiding the possibility that Stanley and Zero had died in the desert]].
75	* In ''Literature/LabyrinthsOfEcho'', the descendants of the Moon Bulls clan are cursed to turn into {{Extreme Doormat}}s during full moon.
76	* In ''Literature/TalesOfTheFrogPrincess: Once Upon a Curse'', Princess Emma goes back in time in a desperate attempt to break the curse that haunts the females in her family: After they turn sixteen, if they come into contact with a flower, they turn into disagreeable, argumentative, unlovable hags.
77	* In the titular short story in ''[[Literature/TheNecromanticMysteriesOfKyleMurchisonBooth The Bone Key]]'', it's revealed that Booth's mother's family, the Murchisons, have a family curse that will cause their spouses to die young. Any relative affected by the curse, like Booth, will develop white hair by the age of 25. The only way around it is to marry another Murchison, and the family is now dying out due to inbreeding. In a later story, "To Die for Moonlight", one of Booth's relatives tries to arrange a marriage for him with a woman whose family is also cursed, in hopes that the curses might somehow cancel each other out.
78	* ''Literature/ANamelessWitch'': The curse on the protagonist's bloodline is that the sixth child of every generation "shall be made a gruesome abomination".
79	* The Thorburn family in ''Literature/{{Pact}}'' has inherited a horrific karmic balance due to the last seven generations of the family practicing [[TheDarkArts diabolism]], which serves to tilt the odds against them and subtly influences other people to dislike them on sight.
80	* In ''Literature/TheEntail", Theodore wonders if the original Baron R brought all the misery of Castle R down upon them in the first place with the things he was rumored to have done in his astronomy tower.
81	* ''Literature/InCryptid'': James Smith's family has been under a curse for hundreds of years, though he doesn't know it at first. It turns out that his ancestor made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal]] with [[AtTheCrossroads the Crossroads]] to ensure that his sorcerer genes would breed true (sorcery often [[RecessiveSuperGenes skips a generation or two]]), to ensure the safety of New Gravesend. The [[JackassGenie Crossroads]] [[LiteralGenie interpreted]] that to mean [[spoiler:there must always be a sorcerer of this family line in New Gravesend. Therefore, [[ClosedCircle they can never leave the town limits.]] There also only needs to be one sorcerer at a time, so as soon as a child's powers manifest, their sorcerer parent dies.]]
82	* ''Literature/DragonlanceTheNewAdventures'': Nearra and Jirah's ancestor, Anselm, was cursed with the Trinistyr that no member of his family would have magical power until one of them broke the curse...which, of course, required magical power. Fortunately, after her possession by Asvoria, Nearra has some limited magic.
83	* ''Literature/MoongobbleAndMe'': Book 5 explains that four hundred years ago, a member of the Nork family had been cursed so that he and each of his descendants would be turned into an Oggledy (something like an ogre, but nicer). The curse also causes each generation to produce at least two sons, one of whom must stay at Fortress Nork, while the other becomes an Oggledy in turn. Eventually, it's explained that the first Nork had been a were-toad who fell in love with another were-toad, but when she broke his curse, he abandoned her for the woman he was already betrothed to, leading her to place the Oggledy curse on he and his family. Generations later, when Edward unwittingly breaks Susan's were-toad curse, it also breaks half the curse on the current Oggledy Nork, turning him into a Half-Oggledy, who presents the Old Woman with a letter from his ancestor explaining that the whole thing was a misunderstanding: his ancestor had actually left her in order to visit his betrothed and ''end'' their engagement, thus allowing him to marry Susan. Unfortunately, Susan cursed him before she could receive the letter explaining this.
84	* ''Literature/TheEnchantedFiles'': In ''Diary of a Mad Brownie'' / ''Cursed'', the Cairns family of brownies have carried one for a few hundred years, ever since Seamus Cairns helped Ewan [=McGonagall=] and the Queen's daughter, the Princess of Sunshine, send messages back and forth until they fell in love, causing the Princess to leave the Enchanted Realm to be with him until he died. It affects the human family each brownie is living with, bringing misery on them, but only if a male human is living in the house.
85	* ''Literature/TheMermaidsDaughter'': Fand, also known as Literature/TheLittleMermaid, sacrificed her tongue and lived in horrible pain so she could live as a human. She passed on her mermaid nature to her descendants. Any mermaid living in human form will suffer severe chronic pain in her feet and tongue, so eight generations of women lived lives full of suffering.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
89	* In ''Series/JackAndTheBeanstalkTheRealStory'', Jack's family suffers from a curse that kills the sons after exactly 40 years, which is ultimately the result of [[spoiler: the original Jack's mother killing the giant, and being cursed to forever watch her descendants die young]].
90	* In the Venezuelan soap ''Valgame Dios'' a woman cursed her love rival into choosing the rival's other option, and since then, all the women in the Lopez family are cursed to ever be between a NiceGuy and a BitchInSheepsClothing and inevitably choosing the later. To make the things worse, all the Lopez women are aware of the curse, but that only makes them to hold the IdiotBall like their newborn baby and muddle their choices and reasonings even more.
91	* Parodied and subverted in the Colombian soap ''Cartas de Amor''. [[MyBelovedSmother Cupido's mother]] convinced her at a short age that all the women in the family are cursed to be inevitably abandoned by any male related to them; and in so guilt-trips the poor kid into crossdressing, presenting herself as male and actively avoiding deep friendship and love relationships. When Cupido becomes a professional love letter writer, her mom doesn't shut up about how both of them are cursed, that Cupido's efforts are in vain, and Cupido will be inevitably dumped if she manages to get a boyfriend at all. Turns out, there is no family curse, just that toxic obsessive neediness is her mother's family hat and men are just the ones who do get out, something that is discovered when Cupido finally manages to track back her DisappearedDad and he reveals the degree of {{Evil Matriarch}}y, {{Manipulative Bastard}}ry and {{Wounded Gazelle Gambit}}s he saw and suffered back when he was still tied to his ex-wife.
92	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'':
93	** In Season 6, Sam and Dean discover that the victims of a series of gruesome freak accidents are all distantly related. Dean questions a member of the family, asking if any of his ancestors were Nazis or pissed off a gypsy. [[spoiler: It turns out that the whole episode takes place in an AU in which the ''Titanic'' never sank and all the victims are descendants of the survivors who shouldn't have survived.]]
94	* In ''Series/WynonnaEarp'', the Earp family is the subject of a demonic curse. Everyone slain by Wyatt Earp is returned from Hell as demonic revenants, and are trapped within the region known as the Black River Triangle. When the heir of the family comes of age they must attempt to end the curse by killing all the revenants with the magical Peacemaker gun. Any revenants the heir manages to slay return to Hell until the heir dies, becoming more unstable and demonic each time.
95	* ''Series/{{Haven}}'' takes a literal approach to the trope. The "Troubles" are the name for the 500-year-old curse upon the town, inflicting families with undesirable, uncontrollable, and often violent supernatural abilities. The Troubles are genetic and are triggered by an emotionally scarring event, making their appearance random and unpredictable. The curse varies by family, but it's almost always deadly--to other people, the Troubled person, or both. And the only person who can stop them is the one person who is [[AntiMagic immune]] to them.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
99	* Myth/GreekMythology:
100	** Tantalus prepared ''his own son'' Pelops as [[ImAHumanitarian food]] for the gods. Not only was he himself punished for this gruesome act (but this is another story...) but also a curse was laid upon the next four generations of his house. How did this curse manifest itself? Let's just say that the House of Atreus (named after Tantalus' grandkid) became quite a DysfunctionalFamily.
101	** The royal House of Thebes was cursed from the very start, due to [[UltimateBlacksmith Hephaestus]] gifting Harmonia with a cursed necklace during her wedding. (Harmonia was born from an affair that [[GoddessOfLove Hephaestus' wife]] had with [[WarGod his brother]].) Most of her descendants were driven insane, killed in horrible ways, or both.
102	* Several examples from ''Literature/TheBible'', all the way back to the original sin of Adam (in Christian doctrine) or somewhat later (in Judaism).
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
106	* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' has the Proximi, magical legacies who have the somewhat limited ability to learn Awakened magic. The downside to this is that each line has its own curse, such as poverty, death at 45, etc. And don't even ''think'' about pursuing a CurseEscapeClause - if the curse is broken, then it just rewrites itself into a stricter format.
107	* In ''{{TabletopGame/Eberron}}'' this happened to the entire race of Gyrderi, who were trapped in their wild shapes when they helped their enslaved kin fight for freedom.
108	* Some of the noble families in the ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' setting are saddled with these, such as the propensity to madness displayed by the Hiregaard clan in ''Legacies of the Blood''. One of the most powerful spells introduced as part of the setting allows the caster to inflict this trope upon an enemy and their descendents.
109	* PsychicPowers are very much a case of BlessedWithSuck in ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', as it involves your mind being under constant assault by daemons. The Navigators are a special breed of psyker (literally- the only way to manifest the gene is through inbreeding) who are blind, but have a third eye that can see into the Warp (and kills anybody who looks into it), and pass this "gift" to their children so that they can become Navigators as well. The main reason for their existence is that without Navigators, no Imperial ship can navigate the Warp, the only way they can achieve FTL travel.
110	* In Fourth Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'', this trope was part of Jaguar's backstory. The Villagatos family had been cursed centuries ago by a rival, the eldest member of the family would turn into a ferocious jaguar under stress. As time passed the curse weakened enough that the current curse-bearer had control of the jaguar's actions, if not the transformation itself. When Santiago Villagatos, a New York City private investigator, found himself the eldest member of the family he was able to use the transformation to become the superhero Jaguar.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Theatre]]
114	* The premise of ''{{Theatre/Ruddigore}}'' is based around this trope. One of the baronets of Ruddigore, having persecuted a number of witches, is finally cursed by one. All the heirs of the title are required by the curse to commit one heinous crime per day or die in agony. Apparently, though, the curse doesn't know how to seek out the legitimate heir when he fakes his own death.
115	** And before that, the curse is [[LogicBomb Logic Bombed]] by one of the heirs refusing to commit a crime. Doing this is attempted suicide, which is a crime.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Video Games]]
119	* ''VideoGame/ClockTower'': Thanks to their patriarch's demonic sacrifices, a curse was laid upon the Barrows family that at least one child of every generation would be born as a demon to continue the slaughter.
120	* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': Otacon believes that everyone in the Emmerich family is to suffer misfortune when they get involved with nuclear weapons. His grandfather was part of the Manhattan Project and was filled with guilt, his father, [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Huey]], was born on the day of the Hiroshima bomb, who would then develop the Peace Walker AI, and then betray his allies for his own protection, cumulating in him being ousted and later drowning himself after discovering his second wife was sleeping with his son. [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Emma Emmerich]] would be forced onto the development of Arsenal Gear, and [[spoiler:she would tragically be murdered before being given a chance to redeem herself]].
121	* In ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'', thanks to a [[DealWithTheDevil blood pact with]] {{Orochi}}, the Yagami clan (formerly the Yasakani) gained more powerful [[PlayingWithFire flames]]--[[DeadlyUpgrade but not without a price.]] Each heir dies young, while the mother dies during childbirth. In addition, since the clan now has Orochi's blood, this makes them all susceptible to [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity the Riot of the Blood]]. Iori (the current heir) [[ScrewDestiny actually has no care in the world for his family's stigma]], although there are hints that Iori is the one destined to finally break the curse.
122	* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
123	** Ultimately played straight, though in a roundabout way, with one means to cure [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent Lycanthropy]] in the series' lore. The means is to infect someone who has a dormant, hereditary version of the disease. Passing it on to such a person removes the disease completely from the original Lycanthrope.
124	** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'''s ''Knights of the Nine'' expansion, there is a man named Kellen in the Chapel of Stendarr who was cursed by something stupid his ancestor did. He's bedridden and can hardly stand from the fatigue caused by the curse. Naturally, the PlayerCharacter has to lift the curse and cure him.
125	* ''VideoGame/EXTRAPOWERAttackOfDarkforce'': V's ore heart has been carried through his family for generations. While it grants the bearer the ability to transform into a beast god Verzerga, the heart's power is desired by the devils of Malice who constantly target his heart. It feels even more like a curse for V after one such attack cost his sister his life and [[DrivenToSuicide filled him with anguish]].
126	* In the InteractiveFiction game ''VideoGame/{{Curses}}'', the protagonist is trying to find a Tourist Map of Paris in his ancestral home's attic. After reading a few biographies of previous members of the family, it becomes apparent that everyone in the family is cursed to undertake a task and never finish it. Previous tasks include finding a five-leaf clover, finishing the biographies of the family, or finding a legendary river. Your quest? Getting that map.
127	* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': Like his father, Zagreus is [[spoiler:metaphysically bound to the Underworld, and even a successful escape will end with him being dragged back home by the Styx]].
128	* ''VideoGame/TheGreatGaias'': According to the [[AllThereInTheManual official Horizon's End website]], Grindelwald Maultor actually had a hard time maintaining his popularity as Validus's emperor with his [[FauxAffablyEvil charisma]] alone and many doubted his propaganda. He got around this by convincing them to sacrifice their current children in a ritual that will supposedly protect their future children from the blight. In reality, this caused all future generations of humans to be cursed to be completely unquestioning of his orders. However, Adramelech secretly spared his own child, Gerum Greyhem, resulting in the Greyhem line becoming immune to Maultor's blood curse. Tantalasia eventually managed to convince Arthur Greyhem to see through Maultor's lies, and he used his untainted blood to free much of humanity from Maultor's influence.
129	* One of the curses available to ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'''s Ed the Undying, when you're [[AnotherSideAnotherStory playing as him in a challenge path]]. Only since Ed has anger-management issues, he doesn't stop at the target's family, but their entire phylum.
130	* The GypsyCurse that was once cast upon Raz's family in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'', which makes Raz not only unable to swim, but also to enter a body of water at all (even when the water is made out of cardboard). ''VideoGame/Psychonauts2'' reveals the truth behind the "Curse", specifically that it [[spoiler:was a form of hydrophobia psionically implanted by Ford Cruller into his grandmother (actually great-aunt) Nona as a way of making sure she doesn't reawaken her Hydrokinesis abilities (and more importantly, her "Maligula" personality) that she proceeded to pass onto the rest of her family]].
131	* From ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' franchise, a hereditary curse has a name: [[spoiler:'''Ganon'''. After being defeated by the very first Link and Zelda in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', the Demon King Demise places a DyingCurse on them, such that their descendants will forever be forced to do battle with [[ThePowerOfHate a living incarnation of his hatred]]]].
132	* ''VideoGame/PaperDolls'': The source of all those supernatural going-ons that plagues both games turns out to be one of these, passed down the once-prestigious Yin Family after the patriarch, General Yin of the Manchurian Court, orders a village massacred. The family starts getting hit by all kinds of misfortunes, from Madam Yin suffering a miscarriage to a string of mysterious deaths... it gets worse from there.
133	* ''VideoGame/WhatRemainsOfEdithFinch'': The Finch family suffer from a curse that causes them to drop like flies, or at least they think they do. The family maintains a SingleLineOfDescent despite every generation having multiple siblings because only one of those siblings ever survives to breed the next generation. It's never confirmed whether the curse is actually real, or whether the knowledge that they are "cursed" and could be snuffed out at any moment causes the Finches to live LikeYouWereDying and thus get themselves killed through their own recklessness and TooDumbToLive behaviour. Though some of the deaths such as [[spoiler:Sam setting his camera timer to take a picture of him and his daughter with the deer they just shot, only for it to turn out to be NotQuiteDead and throw him off a cliff the exact moment the camera went off, immortalizing the moment in a photo; or Walter managing to stay alive until old age by living in an underground bunker doing absolutely nothing for 30 years, until one day the boredom became too much for him and he smashed open the back wall with a sledgehammer so he could leave, only to exit directly onto train tracks just as a train was coming]] makes things lean more towards the "curse is real and also an asshole" side of things.
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136	[[folder:Web Comics]]
137	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Eugene Greenhilt makes a BloodOath to kill Xykon, who had murdered his master. One of the downsides amounts to this, as neither he nor his descendants can get into the afterlife until the oath is fulfilled. [[spoiler: Turns out he misunderstood the conditions -- when Roy [[DeathIsCheap temporarily]] dies, he's allowed in in because, unlike Eugene who simply gave up, Roy died trying to fulfill the oath to the best of his ability]].
138	* In ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'', both Pat and his father magically became homosexual due to the curse of Gladdington castle, wherein an ancestor of theirs was cursed such that all of his sons and their sons thereafter would become homosexual at the age of 26.
139	* His family’s [[SharkMan curse]], brought down by [[SinsOfTheFather his great-grandfather]], is the MacGuffin that motivates Tiberius Skärva the Fourth throughout ''Webcomic/TheFourth''.
140	* In ''[[Webcomic/TheSilverEye The Silver Eye]]'', Melete Dolan, a Nedarian, grants a curse to Bhatair Hollingsworth for saving her from a painful imprisonment. He lets his father, Walter, choose the curse instead. Unfortunately, the curse backlashed and brought their family more trouble. Little is known about it, except that it is most definitely hereditary.
141	* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', the corrupt God of Justice released the god of destruction in a bid to assassinate Krohnus and become the new TopGod. While the plot ultimately failed, it did manage to kill off Krohnus's wife and son. Enraged, Krohnus placed the former God of Justice under a curse of blindness that would afflict him and his descendants for all time. In the modern day, the curse has been diluted to the point that his current descendants ''can'' see, their eyes are just overly sensitive, to the point that they wear SunglassesAtNight.
142	* Llewellyn of ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' has a curse upon his family, that they'll all lose their hair every year. Llewellyn and his family are ''dragons''. It didn't come up much until he adopted Ozy, a fox.
143	* In ''Webcomic/{{Baalbuddy}}'', there's a recurring character named [[MeaningfulName Virgina Kissless]], a skilled knight who despite being [[HeadTurningBeauty a very physically attractive woman]], has had no luck in losing her virginity, despite making it abundantly clear that [[ExtremeOmnisexual she has almost no standards]]. For example: she tried faking getting stuck in a hole in the wall in a town's main square and was asked to pay for the damages when no man took her up on her "offer"; disguised herself as a succubus in a dungeon, only to be rejected by [[EveryoneHasStandards an elf-orc duo who were expecting an experienced succubus not a human virgin]]; she even tried to force herself on [[TotemPoleTrench three goblins]] who [[PrankDate asked her out on a date as a prank]]. Its later revealed that one of her ancestors, [[NerdsAreVirgins a nerd at a magic academy]], summoned a wish demon, and wished that he would be more attractive and thus have more luck with women. Despite being told that a descendant will be cursed to be repulsive to anyone she finds attractive, [[ItsAllAboutMe he tells the demon he doesn't care and his wish is granted]]. However, after a "series of wacky sex adventures", [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone he asked what he could do to reverse the curse]], only to be told the curse can't be undone, with the only hope Virginia has is for a man with an [[ExtremeLibido extremely high sex drive]] to find her, and then the curse will be broken. Cue [[ExtremeOmnisexual Sir Richard, a powerful paladin, who has detected a woman he hasn't slept with yet]].
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146	[[folder:Web Original]]
147	* Techwolf of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse. An amiable gadgeteer genius who, due to a witch's curse on one of his ancestors, looks like a seven foot tall werewolf all the time.
148	* In ''Literature/GravenHunterFiles'' novel ''Death by Demon'', Andvari Nagelfar curses Kyrie and [[RevengeByProxy all of her ancestors for killing his son]]. Protagonist Sye receives the curse and has to convince Andvari to drop the curse so that Andvari can pass on to the afterlife.
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151	[[folder:Western Animation]]
152	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Disenchantment}}:'' Through series 3, it turns out there's a curse on Bean's patrilineal line going back a few generations. It apparently ends with her father, meaning she and her half-brother Derek are safe from that, but the secret conspiracy may have been helping speed things along. Exactly why they're cursed is unclear, [[spoiler:but it's implied to be because one of Zog's ancestors stole Dreamland from the elves.]]
153	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Invincible\|2021}}'': The indirect source of Kate's powers. One of Kate's ancestors, the Warlord Fung Cha, was cursed by the dying breath of the Emperor of China that "The seventh generation after Cha's seventh grandchild would be burdened with a family too large to care for... and it would drive him mad." That grandchild would be Kate's father, Tsing Cha, and the curse was fulfilled by giving Kate and her brother Paul duplication powers.
154	* The premise of ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' is that the title character, whose ancestor coined "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy%27s_law Murphy's Law]]," was BornUnlucky but [[ThePollyanna cheerfully tries to endure]] the crazy things that happen to him [[TheJinx and those around him]]. WordOfGod says that the curse only affects men in his family, which explains why his father has the same condition, but his sister [[CoolBigSis Sara]] doesn't.
155	* Misery of ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom'' comes from a family of people who have long been BornUnlucky. In the first episode, she notes that the genetically high content of lead in their blood attracts lightning. When her family members come together, it's enough to cause ''natural disasters.''
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158	[[folder:Real Life]]
159	* Modern genetic research suggests that a lot of health problems originated in Neanderthals (who early humans interbred with). This explains why diseases like arthritis and schizophrenia are more common in people who originated from regions where humans and Neanderthals used to co-exist.
160	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HereditaryCurse