Phelan's "legit" claim to a Ward Bloodname was probably more then a little "influenced" by Ulric
No doubt. Obviously Phelan was not a product of his Clan's trueborn breeding protocols. It took Ulric's intervention to ignore this fact when Phelan competed for a Ward bloodname.
But through his mother Salome Ward, Phelan was a direct matrilineal descendant of SLDF Captain Michael Ward. Phelan carried the right Ward genes; they just hadn't been tweaked by the Scientist Caste for a couple centuries.
What I'm wondering is whether Alaric also carries Ward genes. We know that the Wards and Kells are cousins of the Steiners through marriage, due to Arthur Luvon's marriage to Katrina Steiner.
But are all these cousin references about more than just the Luvon/Steiner marriage? Did the Steiner or Davion line cross with SLDF Captain Micheal Ward's line at some point farther in the past? That's what I'm asking.
If the Steiners or Davions do carry Ward genes, then it's possible that Alaric may have as "legitimate" (or nearly as "legitimate") a claim on a Ward bloodname as Phelan did.
That would be a very different situation than if Alaric claimed a Ward bloodname with no Ward genes.
(That also begs the question of who had the clout to force the Ward bloodhouse to accept Alaric's claim. If it took someone of Ulric's stature to allow freeborn Phelan to compete with good Ward genes, who had even more power to allow trueborn Alaric to compete with no Ward genes?)