What is a bloodline made of?

Is it spiritual power, such as an essence of the soul, or is it a physical
manifestation of the characters actual blood?

If it is spiritual, then I can accept some sort of 'divine discrimination'
regarding who actually inherits the blood line. A God's essence & 'self
awareness' may yet linger in such a manifestation. However, if the power is
derived from a physical manifestation, then this 'mystical link' can hardly be
considered reserved only for the noble. Anyone with the luck & skill to actually
pierce the heart of such a person, could easily 'drink the victims blood' or
'consume the heart' or otherwise ingest the physical properties of the divine
gift, and gain the power for themselves.

If a blooded person is able to increase his bloodline by way of blood theft, then
why is it only that a commoner is able to gain a BL through the blood theft of an
awnsheigh? What's the difference between the two?

To suggest that an Azrai blood line is the only hope of a commoner gaining a
bloodline, would it not then place a substantial difference between the very
fabric of the 'Good aligned" bloodlines, and those of evil? This would imply that
the "good' blood is reserved only for those who are descended from the original
inheritors of Deismaar, and that this divine gift is some how discriminatory in
the passing of the power. Azrai's blood however, would then be suggested to be
far more 'communicable' (possibly in hopes of fostering his evil) and thus could
be more commonly found, though in lower degrees of power.

Now the complication would arise (IMO), when the land 'denies' a ruler, and
invests someone else with regency. How does the land's choice fit into the over
all scope of the bloodline rational? Did the earth actually absorb some of the
godly power, and thus become 'aware'? If the land is able to grant/deny regency,
then the Godly power of the bloodline cannot be considered as omnipotent as it
might seem, for the final decision rests in the land itself, not the blood line
strength or derivation of the regent.

What do you all think?

Keith

DKEvermore@aol.com wrote:

>
> I haven't seen any mechanism within Birthright to give commoners a bloodline
> through bloodtheft. Only rare, special cases have occurred in the literature,
> and usually involves the death of a powerful awnshegh (not the sort of
> bloodline most characters want!).
>
> However there remains two ways a commoner may become nobility. One, a noble
> may invest the character with his bloodline (not part, all of it--a rare
> occurrence but can happen when a King REALLY wants THIS particular guy to have
> the kingdom). Or, occasionally when a regent dies, it may not go to the
> appointed heir. Instead the Land itself chooses someone to carry a new line
> and rule the land. See the Book of Priestcraft for further details on both
> these methods.
>
> Hope this helps!
> Dustin Evermore
> ************************************************** *************************
> > - --
"I hate it when my brain stem hurts."
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