The mod looks around at existing rulers (so no linking to dead dynasties or ones where none are rulers, save for the previous holder of your title - in case you made a custom ruler and want to link to the character you bumped out of the way), checking for anyone you can be a child of or sibling to. I'll list the exact criteria below:

To be a character's child:

• They need to be at least 16 years younger than the character linking to.
  
• If you're trying to link to your own character, they need to be the same Faith and Culture.
  
• If you're trying to link to anyone else, they need to be of a faith that is at least of "astray" hostility or better and at least the same culture heritage. The one exception is if your'e trying to link to your own mother or father and the other parent already exists and isn't your exact faith/culture, then they'll need to be (meaning: at least one of your parents needs to match your faith and culture).
  
• If you're trying to link your mother, the character can't be from your father's dynasty.
  
• If this is for a faith that doesn't allow bastards (and uses the Wild Oat trait), they must have a child who is already their primary heir and which the created character won't supplant.

To be a character's sibling:

• If they're the same sex as the character you're linking to, they need to be older. In every case, they cannot be more than 10 years older (so no massive age gaps).
  
• They need to have an existing father. The father needs to be at least 16 years older than the character you're linking to... if he's dead, this includes "age he would be if he were still alive" so long as you're not younger than the number of years he's been dead.
  
• If you're trying to link to your own character, they need to be the same Faith and Culture.
  
• If you're trying to link to anyone else, they need to be of a faith that is at least of "astray" hostility or better and at least the same culture heritage. The one exception is if your'e trying to link to your own mother or father and the other parent already exists and isn't your exact faith/culture, then they'll need to be (meaning: at least one of your parents needs to match your faith and culture).
  
• If you're trying to link your mother, the character can't be from your father's dynasty.
  
• If this is for a faith that doesn't allow bastards (and uses the Wild Oat trait), they must have a child who is already their primary heir and which the created character won't supplant.

I'm considering getting rid of the requirement for an adult child, though the entire point of that was to avoid linking situations where the player could very easily end up as the ruler's heir. The linking system isn't really meant for that (just play as them already), but perhaps I'll allow a situation where you could be someone's only bastard child. I don't know. Right now, however, that's not how it works.


The character will be a bastard if:

• you already have a noble family title in an administrative realm (as of 1.13).
  
• the ruler you're linking to has no primary heir that's their child.
  
• you're linking to a parent who has Equal succession and their primary heir isn't older.
  
• you're linking to a sibling who has Equal succession and they're younger.
  
• you're linking to a parent who has Male Only or Male Preference, your character is male, and their primary heir is either female or isn't older than you.
  
• you're linking to a sibling who has Male Only or Male Preference, your character is male, and either their primary heir is female, they're female, or they're younger.
  
• you're linking to a parent who has Male Only or Male Preference, your character is female, and their primary heir is female and isn't older than you.
  
• you're linking to a parent who has Female Only or Female Preference, your character is female, and their primary heir is either male or isn't older than you.
  
• you're linking to a sibling who has Female Only or Female Preference, your character is female, and either their primary heir is male, they're male, or they're younger.
  
• you're linking to a parent who has Female Only or Female Preference, your character is male, and their primary heir is male and isn't older than you.
  
• the parent you're linking to has no spouses, alive or dead, who can be your parent. This only applies to characters who have a spouse - ones which are blank, like many rulers at game start, are ignored.
  
• the parent you're linking to already has twin children your exact age.
  
• the sibling you're linking to already has a father with twin children your exact age.
  
• you're linking to a sibling who has a mother and, despite all of the above not being true, their father has no spouse, alive or dead, who can be your mother. This applies only to faiths that allow bastards but don't allow bastards to be legitimized.

Any player character who you're linking to a dynasty who would be a bastard instead will be a bastard founder.

The character will be a legitimized bastard if:

• None of the items for being a bastard are true, and you're linking to a sibling who has a mother but the father has no spouses, alive or dead, who can be your mother... AND they belong to a faith which allows bastards to be legitimized.

If there are more than three potential options for linking, the event randomly picks three and there should be a menu option saying "surely there are more options than this!" If you pick that, it'll discard the current three and show more (and you can continue, if there are still more than three options after that). If you aren't seeing any menu option like that, you've hit all the possible links there are.


Sorry. I can't make it do anything, sadly, nor do I want to. It's pretty complicated as it is, and we're already miles beyond where the functionality of the last ASNF was.