Hello ladies and gents,

We've been in a 3.5 Birthright campaign for about 3 years now and we've come across most of the various cases spelled out in the rules when it comes to bloodline usurpation, investiture, inheritance, etc., but I suspect that we have faulty assumptions in our group.

So I'd like to go back to basics.

When a scion is killed and has spilled blood, there is a regency storm and regency is thrown about. AKA Usurpation. Simple enough. If he dies in his sleep without any investiture or heir apparent, his bloodline is returned to the land without fireworks as I understand it.
If a scion has done an investiture ceremony on someone else and dies is where I need some clarity. If he dies of natural causes (read other than being killed in combat), his bloodline is passed to his designated "heir".

Question : If in the above case that scion is killed in violent death, does his bloodline get "stolen" via usurpation or does the bloodline investiture take precedence? In our game, we played it that the bloodline did not get given to the person that stabbed said scion in the heart. Story-wise it was better, but I suspect that the point of usurpation and bloodTHEFT is that is bypasses investiture and heirs...otherwise everyone would go to battle with an investiture and bloodlines would just get stronger and stronger through the generations unless you wiped out an entire family. Also, is there a difference between ursurpation and bloodtheft with regards to the above, or is it only the amount of RP that changes, not what happens per se?
(as a side note, I started suspecting that investitures were bypassed by ursurpation when I learned that M. Roelle had a magical armor that allowed his bloodline to dissipate into the land rather than be stolen by the Gorgon when he died...otherwise what would be the point of that armor.)

Next question : if a scion is wounded and bleeding heavily following a sword fight, but then dies to a fireball, is there also a regency storm? We've been playing it that yes there is. I think its better to have it that way simply to allow non-melee a chance at causing regency storms and preventing the whole "wait for the fighter to finish him off so we can get some regency" meta.

Any clarifications will be most welcome.