How is common to killing a family line in Inner Sphere?

[Frabby]

Aldo Lestrade was famously the last of his line, as his illegitimate son who killed him (Clovis Holstein) wanted nothing to do with the heritage.

Similarly, Michael Hasek-Davion's associate Duke Vitios had his family killed by the Capellans, and implicitly was the last of his line now with no heirs.

[Dahmin_Toran]

You would think that after centuries of rule there should be hundreds of potential heirs, especially in the Successor Houses.

[Colt Ward]

You would think that after centuries of rule there should be hundreds of potential heirs, especially in the Successor Houses.

Well, you would also have people who did like Victor and abdicate any claims for themselves & descendants . . .

Put it this way . . . ever see King Ralph?  You can dig up distant descendants if you want who might have a better claim, but those in power have no incentive to do so usually since you can usually find a patsy who can be controlled that is close at hand.  If you were the minister who is transitioning the government and your future is tied up in who takes the throne, do you go with the alcoholic 6th generation descendant who has been at court and you covered up several indiscretions . . . or are you going to select the 3rd generation descendant whose father rejected the court to go settle on a frontier planet and build a trading empire- and the only contact you ever had was making sure he got the Royal Christmas Card and never cashed her monthly Royal stipend?

Look in history at all the 'Pretenders' who may have had a better claim yet someone else with a more dubious claim took the throne b/c they had the connections or control of the military or administrative powers of the government.


(Someone needs to convert that to a Lyran or Davion character image!  Hogarth?)

[Elmoth]

Now I am using king Ralph in fan fiction

[PuppyLikesLaserPointers]

Because most noble family lines are only counts the recent branch from the current/late title holder, usually long descendant through more than four to sixth generations before doesn't have much meaning for count the same family member. You know, even the second cousins are not have much genetic similarity with each other, although second cousins are slightly similar than the other people without any genetic relationship.

It only have a meaning if there is no other possible successor, then they have to set the standards lower than they normally would, and if still there is no one after then they have to set the standards lower than... so on. Also, as you know, many noble family are marry with each others, it is not so difficult to found out the close descendants.

[R.Tempest]

 IIRC in the early part of Heir to the Dragon Takashi decrees the death of an entire noble family line on Rasalhague after an assassination attempt. This was viewed as a reasonable response to a conspiracy to kill the Coordinator.
 For the most part though, for the major houses, there must be so many cadet branches that it would be nearly impossible to get them all.