Various characters can be related to one another, and this is true both for your own characters and those of others. There are two basic kinds of relationships: Parent/child and arranged relationships.
When you create a character and only then, you can determine his or her father and mother. This relation will then forever be recorded for both the child and the parents. No matter what happens later in the game, just like in real life, your parents never change.
Of course every character does have parents, but if you don't set them at character creation, then they are assumed to be unknown, lost to history, simply not important, etc. This can also be true for just one parent, so you can have a known father and an unknown mother or the other way around.
Parents can be your own characters, or even characters of other players, provided that they are in a suitable relationship with one of your own characters (see below).
Parents can have an unlimited number of children, with the same or different partners, but please do keep things within reasonable limits. While the game mechanics do intentionally not restrict you, if your family tree becomes ridiculous, you may encounter difficulties dealing with other players who reject such nonsense.
Characters can form various relationships with other characters in Might & Fealty. The basic steps are always the same:
There are three main parameters to a relationship:
The relationship type is mostly flavor, but not entirely: Only marriages are included in the family tree, other partners will not appear on the family tree unless they are there for a different reason (say, as parents). Generally, one should assume marriages are the most binding, followed by paramours, engagements, and liaisons, in that order. For the purposes of Might & Fealty, a "paramour" is similar to the medieval term of concubine, though not specifically female.
We did not include sex as an option to grab headlines. It serves a very simple and straighforward function: Only relationships that include sex can result in children as outlined above in parenthood. This also means the existence of a child is proof that the parents were in a sexual relationship, even if it is otherwise secret (see below).
Public relationships will be displayed in various places by the game while secret relationships will not.
You can propose a new relationship to any nearby character. Simply set up the kind of relationship you want and send the proposal. Off course you will almost always want to accompany it with some roleplaying to make sure step 2 goes the way you want it to.
Rejecting or accepting is even more straightforward: Simply press the button of your choice.
Once a relationship is established, the options change, because there are a two switches that both partners can still make, depending on the relationship details. These changes are possible because they are unilateral, requiring no consent of the partner. Obviously, the partner might not always be thrilled...
Other changes require the creation of a new relationship following the same two-step process.
The game puts no limit on the kind and number of relationships your characters can have. Multiple marriages, half a dozen liasons, engagements to three princesses so you can pick the best later on - everything is possible. As long, and that is the real limit just like it is in real life, as long as the people important to your career, politics and power accept what you are doing.
Your realm will most likely have an established culture that might have rules on things such as marriage, especially because marriages between nobles are more often driven by power than by love.
While you can explicitly set a successor, the family of your characters automatically takes this role should you not.
(TODO: this is not yet implemented and details are not yet defined)