History TangledFamilyTree / Literature

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': The family situation of Rozemyne, the commoner protagonist's Noble identity later in the story, is slightly convoluted. Long story short, she officially has both a birth family and an adoptive family within the Nobility. Those two families are related to each other via their respective fathers. This means that Rozemyne's "birth" parents and siblings remain a household of cousins after her adoption, while her adoptive parents and siblings were all cousins to her before the adoption. She generally streamlines things by liberally adressing both sets of parents in similar ways and thinking of all their children as her siblings.

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

** House Frey's elderly patriarch, [[DirtyOldMan 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 [[{{Squick}} that thought]]) and has over a hundred known and living descendants of varying degrees at the start of the series. 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...

** Dorne was brought into the Seven Kingdoms when Daeron II Targaryen married Myriah Martell, the Princess of Dorne at the time, while his sister Daenerys married Myriah's brother, Maron. The match was repeated later on when Prince Rhaegar Targaryen married Elia Martell, and though their marriage was hinted to be loveless, they did produce two children, Rhaenys and Aegon. This becomes heavily important in ''Literature/ADanceWithDragons''. [[spoiler:Doran Martell has been crafting a plan for the last decade to bring the Targaryens back to the Iron Throne, thus avenging the deaths of his sister, niece, and nephew (who, unknown to him, [[HiddenBackupPrince is still alive]]), by proposing the match between his daughter Arianne with Viserys Targaryen, Rhaegar's younger brother. When that fails, he sends his son Quentyn to court Viserys' sister Daenerys, with Quentyn using the historical union between the previous Daenerys with Maron Martell as a precedent, and when that fails, trying to "tame" the dragons on account of his distant Targaryen ancestry ([[KillItWithFire it doesn't work]]).]]

** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her [[KissingCousins second cousin Laenor Velaryon,]] Laenor's illegitimate son Alyn (possibly in fact [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo his illegitimate brother]]) marrying [[KissingCousins 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.

** [[RoyalInbreeding The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of]] [[BrotherSisterIncest brother-sister,]] [[IncestIsRelative uncle-niece,]] or, failing these, [[KissingCousins 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 CrazyIsCool and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy, and only one of those unambiguously, makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen#Targaryen_Family_Tree see this]].

* ''Literature/WarriorCats'': The authors originally said that [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness 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. [[https://warriorcats.com/clans-cats/family-tree Just look at the tree.]] The characters also have a tendency to not refer to family in-series. Cousins, nephews, nieces, and grandparents are only referred to as "kin", half-siblings and adopted siblings rarely get treated as siblings, and even full-blooded siblings from other litters get ignored. Many times characters won't even mention their parents in the books themselves; this results in out-of-book retcons and reveals like Sandstorm's parentage. This all only makes the family trees more confusing. The [[RoyalInbreeding Clans forbid breeding with outsiders]], meaning that almost everyone is related to everyone else somehow. By the seventh arc, every protagonist is either a relative of Firestar or Tigerstar (with some being directly related to ''both'').

** [[RoyalInbreeding The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of]] [[BrotherSisterIncest brother-sister,]] [[IncestIsRelative uncle-niece,]] or, failing these, [[KissingCousins 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 CrazyIsCool and a 50% chance of AxCrazy; although the fact that only three of the seventeen Targaryen monarchs were crazy and only one of those unambiguously makes that a significant exaggeration. Just [[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen#Targaryen_Family_Tree see this]].

** [[RoyalInbreeding The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of]] [[BrotherSisterIncest brother-sister,]] [[IncestIsRelative uncle-niece,]] or, failing these, [[KissingCousins 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 CrazyIsCool 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://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen#Targaryen_Family_Tree see this]].

** 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 [[DelicateAndSickly 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 [[SuccessionCrisis other options]] out there with claims just as attenuated as Harry's if ''somebody'' were to mess with the shades of meaning just slightly (no need to actually hit murder, even). Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's fostermother and cousin, is very well aware of this time bomb sitting under them, 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, should little [[IllBoy 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 [[SuccessionCrisis other options]] out there with claims just as attenuated as Harry's if ''somebody'' were to mess with the shades of meaning just slightly (no need to actually hit murder, even). Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's fostermother and cousin, is very well aware of this time bomb sitting under them, even if he may not be.

* The very first novel, ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji'', already features this very heavily.

** 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 [[SuccessionCrisis other options]] out there with claims just as attenuated as Harry's if ''somebody'' were to mess with the shades of meaning just slightly (no need to actually hit murder, even). Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's fostermother and cousin, is very well aware of this time bomb sitting under them, even if he may not be.

* The Kashpaw-Nanapush-Lamartine-Morrissey family from Louise Erdrich's ''Love Medicine''. [[ReallyGetsAround Lulu Napapush]] is responsible for at least half of the tangledness.

** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her [[KissingCousins second cousin Laenor Velaryon,]] Laenor's illegitimate son Alyn (possibly in fact [[FamilyRelatioinshipSwitcheroo his illegitimate brother]]) marrying [[KissingCousins 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.

** [[RoyalInbreeding The Targaryen dynasty had a tradition of]] [[BrotherSisterIncest brother-sister,]] [[IncestIsRelative uncle-niece,]] or, failing these, [[KissingCousins 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 [[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen#Targaryen_Family_Tree see this]].

* ''Literature/ATangledWeb'' by LM Montgomery has the Dark and Penhallow clans, who continue to intermarry very frequently.

* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'': Arwen and her brothers have an [[http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc81/neldhw/arwen27s20inbred20copie-2.jpg extremely tangled family tree]]. Mostly due to the fact that their father Elrond is descended from all the important Elven and human families of the First age. Their maternal grandparents Galadriel and Celeborn are also related.
** Arwen herself getting married to Aragorn, a descendant of her uncle Elros, arguably adds another knot to the tangle, but there are many, many generations between 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 [[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/House_Targaryen#Targaryen_Family_Tree see this]].
** House Baratheon is distantly related to the Targaryens since their founder was Aegon the Conqueror's illegitimate half-brother Orys. And Robert, Stannis and Renly's grandmother was a Targaryen princess, daughter of Aegon V, which is how they had a claim on the Iron Throne.
** The Targaryen and Velaryon family tree around the Dance of the Dragons gets quite confusing to follow, Rhaenyra marrying her second cousin Laenor Velaryon, Laenor'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.
** 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.]] Added to that is the fact that the Lannisters have not one, but ''two'' extant and recognised family lines: the Lannisters of Casterly Rock, heirs of the Rock Kings and who we all know and sometimes loathe to love -- and the Lannisters of Lannisport -- um... who are also descendants of the Rock Kings, but from a line shunted to one side and basically put in charge of keeping the Westerlands' navy in tip-top shape on behalf of the main, inheriting Casterly Rock line. [[KissingCousins They intermarry quite regularly.]]

* 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 mentor, 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.

** The Nobbs family is described as being less of a tree than a briar patch. In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Nobby is actually revealed to be descended from the Earl of Ankh. Of course, the source of this information is an obsessive-compulsive vampire whose hobby involves editing the Morporkian royal line for desirable genetic traits and was making a power play against the current non-royal government, so grain of salt recommended. Add to this the sheer number of artifacts the family has "acquired" over the years through compulsive thievery and Sam Vimes believed you could probably prove Nobby to be the Dowager Duchess of Quirm if you really wanted to.
** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' has Pteppic from the royal family of Djelibeybi. Because the "divine blood" must never be diluted, they had a long history of inbreeding and outright incest: Pteppic's marriage prospects are limited to his aunt and his sister. Also, anything spoken by a ruling monarch at any point in the last seven thousand years is automatically law and treated as such unless repealed... and Pteppic's grandmother declared herself to be a man in order to keep the throne. So at this point, Pteppic could easily be his own grandpa...or his own grandma...or anything really. And the prohibition on ''official'' out-marriage didn't prevent a lot of bastards over the millennia. Pteppic remarks that most of the country's population is probably related to the royal family in some degree, so just find someone who dreams about the seven cows to get a new heir. [[spoiler:When Pteppic abdicates, he easily finds a successor. As a matter of fact, it's the person he's explaining this to: Ptraci, a courtesan he (rightly) suspects to be his half-sister.]]

* The ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'' has this with the Lethbridge-Stewarts.

** The ''Lethbridge-Stewart'' novels also reveal that he and Doris ''did'' have a son named Albert, who was raised as Albert Wilson when Doris married George Wilson, and would go on to be the father of Lucy Wilson from Candy Jar's ''The Lucy Wilson Mysteries'' and her two brothers. George Wilson, incidentally, was the brother of Barbara Smith, the mother of Sarah-Jane Smith (seen in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' episode "The Temptation of Sarah-Jane Smith").

** The ''Lethbridge-Stewart'' novels also reveal that he and Doris ''did'' have a son named Albert, who was raised as Albert Wilson when Doris married George Wilson, and would go on to be the father of Lucy Wilson from Candy Jar's ''The Lucy Wilson Mysteries'' and her two brothers. George Wilson, incidentally, was the brother of Barbara Smith, the mother of Sarah-Jane Smith (seen in the ''Series/SarahJaneAdventures'' episode "The Temptation of Sarah-Jane Smith").

** The Nobbs family is described as being less of a tree than a briar patch. In ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', Nobby is actually revealed to be descended from the Earl of Ankh. Of course, the source of this information is an obsessive-compulsive vampire whose hobby involves editing the Morporkian royal line for desirable genetic traits and was making a power play against the current non-royal government, so grain of salt recommended. Add to this the sheer number of artifacts the family has "acquired" over the years through compulsive thievery and Sam Vimes believed you could probably prove Nobby to be the Dowager Duchess of Quirm if you really wanted to.
** ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'' has Pteppic from the royal family of Djelibeybi. Because the "divine blood" must never be diluted, they had a long history of inbreeding and outright incest: Pteppic's marriage prospects are limited to his aunt and his sister. Also, anything spoken by a ruling monarch at any point in the last seven thousand years is automatically law and treated as such unless repealed... and Pteppic's grandmother declared herself to be a man in order to keep the throne. So at this point, Pteppic could easily be his own grandpa...or his own grandma...or anything really. And the prohibition on ''official'' out-marriage didn't prevent a lot of bastards over the millennia. Pteppic remarks that most of the country's population is probably related to the royal family in some degree, so just find someone who dreams about the seven cows to get a new heir. [[spoiler:When Pteppic abdicates, he easily finds a successor. As a matter of fact, it's the person he's explaining this to: Ptraci, a courtesan he (rightly) suspects to be his half-sister.]]

** The Nobbs family is described as being less of a tree than a briar patch. In ''Discworld/FeetOfClay'', Nobby is actually revealed to be descended from the Earl of Ankh. Of course, the source of this information is an obsessive-compulsive vampire whose hobby involves editing the Morporkian royal line for desirable genetic traits and was making a power play against the current non-royal government, so grain of salt recommended. Add to this the sheer number of artifacts the family has "acquired" over the years through compulsive thievery and Sam Vimes believed you could probably prove Nobby to be the Dowager Duchess of Quirm if you really wanted to.
** ''Discworld/{{Pyramids}}'' has Pteppic from the royal family of Djelibeybi. Because the "divine blood" must never be diluted, they had a long history of inbreeding and outright incest: Pteppic's marriage prospects are limited to his aunt and his sister. Also, anything spoken by a ruling monarch at any point in the last seven thousand years is automatically law and treated as such unless repealed... and Pteppic's grandmother declared herself to be a man in order to keep the throne. So at this point, Pteppic could easily be his own grandpa...or his own grandma...or anything really. And the prohibition on ''official'' out-marriage didn't prevent a lot of bastards over the millennia. Pteppic remarks that most of the country's population is probably related to the royal family in some degree, so just find someone who dreams about the seven cows to get a new heir. [[spoiler:When Pteppic abdicates, he easily finds a successor. As a matter of fact, it's the person he's explaining this to: Ptraci, a courtesan he (rightly) suspects to be his half-sister.]]

* Looking at the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse, try working through [[Comicbook/XWingSeries Soontir Fel's]] family tree. The Fel family is pretty large even before it gets to him, and then it practically explodes; he marries the sister of Wedge Antilles, trying the Antilles family in, and has a ''lot'' of children with her. Presumably several of the ones who don't get killed off end up married. One of his sons ends up in a relationship with Jaina Solo, daughter of Leia and Han, tying in the Skywalker and Solo lines. It's implied by the ''Comicbook/{{Legacy}}'' comics that his son and Jaina got married. Soontir Fel's great-grandson is TheEmperor. Oh, and in the ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'' duology we found that Fel had clones. [[SendInTheClones A lot of clones]]. Many of them in sleeper cells, with families of their own. [[CloningBlues For some reason]], they almost never show up on family tree charts.

** To add to the complication is Jaenelle's biological family; Jaenelle and her older sister, Wilhelmina are legally the daughters of Robert Benedict but have different mothers. However, their real father is Philip Alexander, Robert's brother, because his first wife, Adria, ahted him so much she didn't want him to have his baby and his second wife, Leland, was in love with Philip but married Robert for status. Philip would actually go on to marry Jaenelle's mother Leland after Robert died, making him the legal stepfather of his own daughters.

* ''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. [[https://warriorcats.com/clans-cats/family-tree Just look at the tree.]]

* ''Literature/ATangledWeb'' by LM Montgomery has the the Dark and Penhallow clans, who continue to intermarry very frequently.

* "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.