Guys I'm conflicted.
How do I virtue signal about an incestuous weirdo in a story about an old dude marrying a bunch of lolis calling him dad?
You don't. You give in to your inner Hentai and embrace the depravity. We offer good rates on Membership...
And honestly... Between adoption, fostering, and inevitable consanginuity which could
at best only be approximated roughly with all the interconnection family trees and dynastic needs...
The situation our MC finds himself in wasn't
normal in both western and eastern Culture, but.... also not unheard of.
And why it was possible for "Commoners" to be ennobled on Merit, usually the battlefield, but also for many other reasons, and thus fed into the Blood to "refresh" it.
Not directly "Marry the Princess" level, but landed gentry with a Court post, married to a suitable Niece/Aunt, which offspring could then ..."move up" the ranks if the mix proved ..successful...
Medieval times were weirdly meritocratic in many ways... And it was relatively easy to "discover" that a promising commoner who understood his position was "aksually" the cousin of.. because of a dalliance with a Mistress by Count Grandpaw, god rest his soul, but he was a bit of a type, wasn't he? ....
Peeps didn't know about genetics, but sure as hell knew about breeding, and realised there wasn't that much difference between Cow and Countess to maintain a "breed". And that you occasionally need to bring in a fresh bull...
Until, of course, people became obsessed with "lineage", because that was the only thing they had going for them, being pretty much useless for all else.. And so you got the lack of chin, prominence of nose, and weakness of....limb...
