(How Did We Miss This One?
?! Seen It a Million Times
! Needs More Examples
and Needs a Better Description
When a character is an illegitimate child of a royal or noble. Usually a monarch, but on occasions the royal parent can be someone of lesser rank, and can be of either sex (though it's usually the father
common in historical and medieval fantasy settings.
Expect such characters to be very, very angsty
about their royal heritage, even if they've been aware of it for a long time. If they've been kept in the dark about it, this will likely be a part of The Reveal
. If Succession Crisis
fe, anoccurs, it will cause this character even further angst and a ton of drama in their lid may force them into a difficult position, even though they've likely been told they could never inherit anything from their royal parents because of their illegitimacy. Could lead to Luke, I Am Your Father
or Luke, You Are My Father
Truth in Television
, of course. People like this were overwhelmingly common in Real Life
in historical times, especially during Medieval times and the Early Modern period.