History TangledFamilyTree / Literature

* ''Literature/WarriorCats''. The authors originally said that there were no possible family trees for the first book, and not without reason. Imagine the mess it caused when they wrote a prequel. And now that they're several generations past the original cast, well... KissingCousins and IncestIsRelative abound. [[http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6652/familytree110.png Just look at the tree.]]

* ''Literature/BlackJewels:'' The SaDiablo Family is definitely this. First, Saetan SaDiablo was married to Hekatah and they had two sons ([[OffingTheOffsring not counting the one Hekatah killed]]), Mephis and Peyton. Hekatah then cheated on Saetan with his best friend Andulvar Yaslana, leading to her giving birth to Ravenar. Ravenar is an ancestor of Luthvian, who entered a relationship with Saetan, giving birth to Lucivar. At the same time, he also started a relationship with Tersa, who gave birth to Daemon. Yearrs later, Saetan married a second time to Sylvia, who had two sons already.Not so complicated, right? Well, Daemon was taken away from Tersa and Satan and raised as the child of Hepsabah, the cousin of Dorothea SaDiablo (no relation to Seatan), making Daemon Hesabah's adoptive son and Dorothea's adoptive cousin. Dorothea and her husband Lanzo had a son named Kartane, who raped Titian, which led to her giving birth to Surreal SaDiablo, who Daemon regarded as a cousin for most of their lives but later, after Jaenelle died, he found love again with her and they married and had a daughter, Jaenelle Saetien. Oh, and Daemon's first wife, Jaenelle Angelline? [[NotBloodSiblings She's Saetan's adopted daughter, meaning her husband is also her brother]], though to b fair, they met and fell in love before said adoption.

* In the third book in ''Literature/TalesOfTheMagicLand'' series, named "The Seven Underground Kings", eponymous kings are all descended from seven brothers, and over the centuries there was much inbreeding to preserve noble lineage. So when the kings actually meet in person and try to address each other properly as relatives, they struggle with genealogy for several minutes, Lampshading the situation, then decide to drop it and just call each other "brother".

* Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer's Wold Newton Family has several fictional characters, including SherlockHolmes, {{Tarzan}}, and Franchise/DocSavage as part of a set of inter-married families descended from seven couples exposed to a [[GreenRocks radioactive meteorite]].

** Koontz seems to be fairly fond of this trope. In addition to the non-consensual ParentalIncest that results in the births of major characters in ''Whispers'' and ''Life Expectancy'', in ''What the Night Knows'', a major character is the product of three generations of line-breeding in his family, starting with a brother-sister pairing, then the father/uncle impregnating his daughter/niece, then impregnating his twin granddaughters/grandnieces, one of whom is the mother of the character in question. The other twin and her daughter (also fathered by the family patriarch) state in their last documented conversation with their relative that they're both about a month pregnant. Guess who by?

** Joffrey, Tommen, and Myrcella are brother and sister, first cousins, and third cousins all at once, thanks to their grandparents being cousins and their parents being [[spoiler: brother and sister.]]

* The family tree of Ciri in Andrzej Sapkowski's TheWitcher cycle is a major plot point, as her ancestry is intricately tied to TheProphecy predicting TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and it gets discussed ''a lot'' at a certain point in the story, but... Well, just abandon any hope to get it without pen, paper and nice two-page wide flowchart, because with the number of mages, elves, KissingCousins, BrotherSisterIncest and whatever else (though, thank you, without TimeTravel [[spoiler: at least until Ciri herself saw to it]]) it is as convoluted as it gets.

* The Rozes, a trio of giant/troll hybrids from the ''Literature/GarrettPI'' series, claim to be "triplets with different mothers": a concept that Garrett doesn't even try asking them to explain. Not only that, but Garrett surmises that they're ''somehow'' distantly-related to his human/dark elf friend Morley.

** Tracing the descent of the Heir to the Eyrie requires some work, as the Arryn family has had trouble [[HeirClubForMen producing surviving sons]] for a couple of generations now. As a result, the various female-line claims have to be sorted out -- with a bit of head-scratching. This becomes important to the plot in later books. Littlefinger also steps in to make it sound more tangled than it is for his own reasons. The relationship is simple enough: the heir to the Eyrie, should little [[IllGirl Robert Arryn]] "unexpectedly" die without issue, is Jon Arryn's (Robert's dad) great-nephew Harry Hardying (the son of Jon's sister's daughter). But, for the right price, ''somebody'' could, with varying degrees of ease, get that called into question as there are other options out there. Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's fostermother and cousin, is very well aware of this, even if he may not be.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features lots of TheClan, and most of the Great Noble Houses have intermarried repeatedly over the past 300 years. The Southern Houses have a tendency towards big families and bundles of cousins in a bid to have enough redundancy to keep the family holdings within the family, come what may. Rather more so than [[SingleLineOfDescent Northern Houses]] tend to do... The vast majority manage some form of BigScrewedUpFamily, however; be they from the North or South.

* The Pollard family in Creator/DeanKoontz's ''The Bad Place''. The present generation (co-protagonist Frank, villain "Candy", and their sisters Violet and Verbena) have ''two'' great-grandparents instead of the usual eight, ''two'' grandparents (who were brother and sister) instead of the usual four, and ''one'' genetic parent (a hermaphrodite who [[TrulySingleParent self-impregnated]]).

* "Literature/ATangledWeb" by LM Montgomery Tells the story of 1 year in the lives of the Dark and Penhallow clans. It is said at one time they would have no-one else, now no-one else will have them. Aunt Becky is the matriarch she dies owning a heirloom jug. She leaves instructions on who is to get it, with the one person in the clan who can keep a secret. For one year - the family must wait, and the stress causes all sorts of problems.

* The Vangers in Stieg Larsson's ''[[TheMillenniumTrilogy Millennium]]'' Trilogy are an incredibly screwed-up family with lots of members.

* Margit Sandemo's ''Sagaen om Isfolket'' has this. The 47 book long story begins in 1581, and ends sometime in the 1960's, and it follows a family/clan. The family branches all over Scandinavia, and [[http://home.c2i.net/ehaehre/katta/sagaen_om_isfolket_slektstre.htm the family tree]] rivals that of the European royal houses. Just about everyone can trace themselves back to the founders of the modern Isfolk in several ways, and the older, pre 1581, Isfolk were even worse with their inbreeding, though not willingly all the time. For more convolution throw in [[spoiler:Lucifer, Lilith and Typhon]] as ancestors to some of the modern ones.

** Tracing the descent of the Heir to the Eyrie requires some work, as the Arryn family has had trouble [[HeirClubForMen producing surviving sons]] for a couple of generations now. As a result, the various female-line claims have to be sorted out -- with a bit of head-scratching. This becomes important to the plot in later books. Littlefinger also steps in to make it sound more tangled than it is for his own reasons. The relationship is simple enough: the heir to the Eyrie is Jon Arryn's great-nephew Harry Hardying (the son of his sister's daughter). But, for the right price, ''somebody'' could, with varying degrees of ease, get that called into question as there are other options out there. Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's fostermother and cousin, is very well aware of this, even if he may not be.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' features lots of TheClan, and most of the Great Noble Houses have intermarried repeatedly over the past 300 years. The Southern Houses have a tendency towards big families and bundles of cousins in a bid to have enough redundancy to keep the family holdings within the family, come what may. Rather more so than [[SingleLineOfDescent Northern Houses]] tend to do... The vast majority manage some form of BigScrewedUpFamily as a result, be they North or South.
** House Frey's elderly patriarch Lord Walder Frey is on his eighth official wife (don't ask about the affairs, one night stands, or what have you -- also, [[KavorkaMan you might]] want [[SlimeBall a gallon of]] free BrainBleach with that thought) and has over a hundred living descendants. For added confusion for not-Freys, a large chunk of the family are also named Walder or Walda (Waltyr just confuses ''everybody'') in a bid to suck up. Now, if some rumours about what ''[[JerkJock Black]]'' Walder has been up to are even remotely true, the paternity of a fair few of the younger Freys may be in question...
** Tracing the descent of the Heir to the Eyrie requires some work, as the Arryn family has had trouble [[HeirClubForMen producing surviving sons]] for a couple of generations now. As a result, the various female-line claims have to be sorted out -- with a bit of head-scratching. This becomes important to the plot in later books. Littlefinger also steps in to make it sound more tangled than it is for his own reasons. The relationship is simple enough: the heir to the Eyrie is Jon Arryn's great-nephew Harry Hardying (the son of his sister's daughter). But, for the right price, ''somebody'' could easily get that called into question. Lady Anya Waynwood, his fostermother and cousin, is well aware of this, even if he may not be.

** Tracing the descent of the Heir to the Eyrie requires some work, as the Arryn family has had trouble [[HeirClubForMen producing surviving sons]] for a couple of generations now. As a result, the various female-line claims have to be sorted out -- with a bit of head-scratching. This becomes important to the plot in later books. Littlefinger also steps in to make it sound more tangled than it is for his own reasons. The relationship is simple enough: the heir to the Eyrie is Jon Arryn's great-nephew Harry Hardying (the son of his sister's daughter). But, for the right price, ''somebody'' could easily get that called into question. Lady Anya Waynwood, his fostermother, is well aware of this, even if he may not be.

** House Frey's elderly patriarch Lord Walder Frey is on his eighth official wife (don't ask about the affairs) and has over a hundred living descendants. For added confusion, a large chunk of them are also named Walder or Walda. Now, if some rumours about what Black Walder has been up to are even remotely true, the paternity of a fair few younger Freys may be in question...
** Tracing the descent of the Heir to the Eyrie requires a lot of work as the Arryn family has had trouble [[HeirClubForMen producing surviving sons]] for a couple of generations now and the female-line claims have to be sorted out -- with a lot of head-scratching. This becomes important to the plot in later books.
*** Littlefinger just makes it sound tangled. The relationship is simple enough: the heir to the Eyrie is Jon Arryn's great-nephew Harry Hardying (the son of his sister's daughter)

* In Richard Powell's ''Pioneer Go Home!'' the protagonists were from a New Jersey family so inbred that the narrator's father wasn't sure whether his relation to grade school-age twins Eddie and Teddy was grandfather or uncle. When a judge later commented that there was no real proof that he was directly related to the two of them, he replied that there was no real proof that he ''wasn't''.

* ''ASongOfIceAndFire'' features lots of TheClan, and most of the Great Noble Houses have intermarried repeatedly over the past 300 years. The Southern Houses have a tendency towards big families and bundles of cousins in a bid to have enough redundancy to keep the family holdings within the family, come what may. Rather more so than [[SingleLineOfDescent Northern Houses]] tend to do... The vast majority manage some form of BigScrewedUpFamily as a result, be they North or South.

* In ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'', the Damodred/Mantear/Mandragoran/Trakand/[[spoiler:Al'Thor]] family tree. [[spoiler:Rand is the half-brother of Galad by the same mother, Tigraine Mantear, although Rand and Luc/Isam are the only characters who actually know this.]] Galad is the half-brother of Elayne and Gawyn by the same father, Taringail Damodred. (Probably.) Rand is in a relationship with Elayne [[spoiler:and as of the latest book, she's pregnant, expecting twins]]. Gawyn wants to kill Rand in revenge because he believes Rand killed Gawyn's mother Morgase, although she isn't actually dead. Gawyn is in love with Egwene. Egwene is a friend of Elayne's and [[ChildhoodMarriagePromise used to be betrothed to Rand]]. Morgase is now working for Rand's childhood friend Perrin as a servant. Moiraine Damodred, Rand's [[TheObiWan Obi-Wan]], is Taringail's younger half-sister, and so Galad, Gawyn, and Elayne's aunt; her {{Love Interest|s}}, Thom, is one of Morgase's ex-lovers, and another Morgase ex, Gareth Bryne, is, as of book twelve, [[spoiler:engaged to]] Moiraine's [[SituationalSexuality former]] [[BiTheWay lover]] Siuan. Tigraine's brother, Luc Mantear, is also alive and merged some way or other with Isam Mandragoran, first cousin of Lan Mandragoran, another mentor figure of Rand's and Moiraine's Warder. No characters know anything at all about Luc/Isam being alive or connected except for himself.

** Craster ''marries his daughters'' -- of which he has many -- and sacrifices his sons to the [[EldritchAbomination White Walkers]]. By the time we meet him, he's got granddaughters old enough that he's now marrying ''them''.
** The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of brother-sister, uncle-niece, or, failing these, first-cousin marriages -- repeated six times throughout the generations for brother-sister alone (including 2 times in consecutive generations)-- to reduce the number of rival claims to the throne and maintain their pure Valyrian blood. An unfortunate side effect of this was their own special brand of RoyallyScrewedUp: at least one character comments that with the Targaryens you have a 50% chance of CrazyAwesome and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_House_Targaryen see this]].

** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her second cousin Leanor Velaryon, Leanor's illegitimate son Alyn (possibly in fact his illegitimate brother) marrying their cousin (or half-niece) Baela Targaryen, and Rhaenyra marrying Baela's father, her father's brother Daemon, who was previously married to her husband's sister.

** The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of brother-sister, uncle-niece, or, failing these, first-cousin marriages -- repeated six times throughout the generations for brother-sister alone -- to reduce the number of rival claims to the throne and maintain their pure Valyrian blood. An unfortunate side effect of this was their own special brand of RoyallyScrewedUp: at least one character comments that with the Targaryens you have a 50% chance of CrazyAwesome and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_tree_of_House_Targaryen see this]].

** The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of brother-sister, uncle-niece, or, failing these, first-cousin marriages -- repeated six times throughout the generations for brother-sister alone -- to reduce the number of rival claims to the throne and maintain their pure Valyrian blood. An unfortunate side effect of this was their own special brand of RoyallyScrewedUp: at least one character comments that with the Targaryens you have a 50% chance of CrazyAwesome and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[http://www.lagardedenuit.com/wiki/index.php?title=Maison_Targaryen_(g%C3%A9n%C3%A9alogie_test) see this]] (it's in French but you'll understand it).

** House Frey's elderly patriarch Lord Walder Frey is on his eighth official wife (don't ask about the affairs) and has over a hundred living descendants. For added confusion, a large chunk of them are also named Walder or Walda.

** And let's not start on the Sharizai clan...

** The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of brother-sister, uncle-niece, or, failing these, first-cousin marriages -- repeated six times throughout the generations for brother-sister alone -- to reduce the number of rival claims to the throne and maintain their pure Valyrian blood. An unfortunate side effect of this was their own special brand of RoyallyScrewedUp: at least one character comments that with the Targaryens you have a 50% chance of CrazyAwesome and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[http://www.lagardedenuit.com/wiki/index.php?title=Maison_Targaryen_(g%C3%A9n%C3%A9alogie_test) see this]] (its in French but you'll understand it).

** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her second cousin Leanor Velaryon, Leanor's illegitimate son Alyn (possibly in fact his illegitimate brother) marrying their cousin (or half-niece) Baela Targaryen, and Rhaenyra marrying her father's brother Daemon, who was previously married to her husband's sister.

** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her second cousin Leanor Velaryon, his illegitimate son (possibly in fact his illegitimate brother) marrying their cousin (or half-niece), and Rhaenyra marrying her father's brother, who was previously marriedto her husband's sister.