Summary
Sometimes, avideo game herohas a number of remarkable relatives from generations past. The exact purpose this convention serves in the context of the story can vary, but ultimately, it adds a bit more context to the hero’s actions as just one of many remarkable characters within their greater bloodline.
How their ancestors are used in the story, how or even if the hero engages with this fact, and other factors of note can help to distinguish the narrative of the game. No matter the context,these video game protagonists all have some pretty awesome ancestors.
5Desmond Miles
The Assassin’s Creed Series
The original modern-day protagonist ofAssassin’s Creed,Desmond Miles, has a diverse array of ancestors on both sides of his family Many of them were assassins, aligned with the Assassin Brotherhood, who fought against the Templars, favoring freedom over the latter’s ambition of control. On his father’s side, Desmond’s heritage includes Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an assassin active during the Italian Renaissance, and Ratonhnhaké:ton (or Connor, as he is often called), an assassin of Mohawk and British descent who was involved in the American Revolutionary War. On his mother’s side, Desmond’s most noteworthy ancestor is Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, a Syrian-born assassin who fought against the likes of the Crusaders and Genghis Khan.
Desmond’s ancestry is tied into the narrative, as it is the reason he was captured by the modern-day Templar Order and forced to relive his ancestors' memories through the Animus. The Templars did this with the goal of obtaining thePieces of Eden, items created by Isu, predecessors to humanity, which are largely used to enslave the human race or otherwise aid significant leaders. Ironically, despite the free will the Brotherhood purports to believe in, Desmond feels as though he had little choice in his decision to become an assassin, with both the Assassin Brotherhood and Templar Order treating him as such, largely due to his bloodline.
4Sly Cooper
The Sly Cooper Series
Sly Cooperis a thieving raccoon whose notable ancestry seems largely patrilineal and consists entirely of thieving raccoons, most of whom have the surname Cooper or some such variation. His family’s history is documented in a notebook known as the Thievius Raccoonus, which is passed down from parent to child and was created by Slyntunkhamen Cooper I in Ancient Egypt. This notebook was torn by the Fiendish Five, who killed Sly’s father, Conner, but allowed Sly to live. He eventually reclaimed the pages and the important information held within them.
Sly’s ancestors are kept in the background for most of the narrative. However,Thieves in Timehas Sly and his gang encounter many past Coopers who hail from across the world, including areas such as England, Japan, and Arabia. His oldest known ancestor, Bob, was a prehistoric Raccoon who lived around 10,000 BC. Each ancestor had their own techniques, as well as their own weapons, which tend to resemble Sly’s cane.
3Lucina
The Fire Emblem Series
Fire Emblemoften builds its lore on ancestry, with major characters being descended from or otherwise connected to past heroes, who serve as a sort of blueprint for their own significance in the narrative. An early example of this wasGenealogy of the Holy War, where characters' ancestry served as an additional statistic, allowing them to use legendary weapons and potentially boosting other stats. Perhaps the most interesting take on this theme was inFire Emblem: Awakening, initially intended to be the final game of the series.
Awakeningmade the choice of having Marth, the first ever protagonist of the series, become the ancient hero of legend.Lucina, along with her father, Chrom, and his family, are explicitly identified as descendants of Marth. This means their ancestry also includes Caeda, Marth’s wife, who was the princess of Talys. This family tree also indirectly included Anri, the founder of Marth’s ancestral Kingdom of Altea, whose brother, Marcelus, is Marth’s proper ancestor. Lucina disguises herself as Marth, wearing a mask, styling her hair like his, and wearing similar apparel.
Eventually, after Chrom gets married and fathers his first child, Lucina reveals herself to be the future incarnation of said child. This teases a greater mechanic forAwakening, where the future children of Chrom’s unit, the Shepherds, travel to the present as soon as their parents wed. This often includes a brother or sister for Lucina, depending on the identity of Chrom’s wife. Marth’s most recent confirmed descendant is Ophelia, Lucina’s second cousin, who appears as the daughter of Odin inFire EmblemFates.
2Julius Belmont
The Castlevania Series
Julius Belmontis the latest known descendant of theBelmont Clan, whose ancestors slayed Dracula, and who was all too aware of his ancestral duty. The Belmonts are a clan of Vampire Hunters, dating back to Leon Belmont, born in 1072, who originated the tradition. Across multiple centuries, the Belmonts have been the bane of creatures of the night, with a number of them defeating Dracula in their time, regardless of his purported increase in strength with every resurrection.
The exact nature of the Belmont bloodline is unclear, but it seems to be patrilineal, judging by every Belmont in canon keeping the same surname. Julius Belmont is confirmed to have descended from Richter, who can trace his heritage back to Juste, Simon, Trevor, and Leon, among others.
1Zagreus & Melinoë
The Hades Series
Hadesis a series that tries to remove a lot of the more sordid elements of Greek Mythology for its own take on it. One major example is the incestuous elements of the source material, which are largely removed in this take on the lore. In this iteration,ZagreusandMelinoëare the children of Hades and Persephone, but the pair is no longer uncle and niece. Hades is confirmed to be the son of Chronos and Rhea, alongside his brothers Zeus and Poseidon. However, Persephone’s mother, Demeter, instead descends from Hyperion and Theia, making them great-grandparents to Zagreus and Melinoë. The earliest known ancestors of the pair are the earth and sky primordials, Gaia and Ouranos, respectively.
Additionally, Zeus is no longer the father of Persephone; instead, she is retconned into a demigod whose father is an unnamed “mortal farmboy” whom Demeter fell in love with in the past. This means Zagreus and Melinoë are both a quarter human. Any actual elaboration on their human ancestry is limited in favor of their divine relatives, who aid them in their missions with a variety of beneficial blessings.
