Family Tree: A Dynamic Genealogy System for Imperator: Rome
A Dynamic Genealogy System for Imperator: Rome
v1.1 — Compatible with Invictus 1.11
Family Tree adds a rich, interactive genealogy panel to the character window. Open any character’s window and you can see not just who they are, but where they came from — parents, grandparents, siblings and half-siblings, spouses past and present, children, grandchildren, stepchildren, aunts and uncles, and more. The tree is dynamic: it responds to your actions, reveals secrets when you choose to investigate, and tracks the full span of a character’s family history, including multiple marriages and adoption.
Imperator already models family relationships in extraordinary depth. Family Tree puts that information in front of you — clearly, cleanly, and interactively — so you can actually use it.
Standalone: No other mods required. Load after Invictus and after any other UI mods. Compatible with vanilla and Invictus playthroughs of any government type.
Opening the Family Tree panel in any character window displays the character’s extended family arranged in a structured genealogy layout. The header identifies the character by their full name, nickname (if they have one), and dynasty — with separate display variants for monarchies, republics, Latin cultures, tribal rulers, and minor characters, so the title always reads naturally for the culture on screen.
From the central character, the panel radiates outward:
Ancestors — parents and, where known, grandparents. Adoptive parents are clearly labelled as such.
Siblings and half-siblings — shown together in a single row, with half-siblings visually distinguished from full siblings.
Patrilineal and matrilineal aunts and uncles — the tree can display the siblings of both parents.
Current spouse — shown with a marriage indicator that distinguishes a normal marriage from an incestuous one. If the character is unmarried, a clear "Unmarried" label appears. Betrothals are shown and labelled separately.
Former spouses — the tree tracks up to three historical spouses per character, inferred at game start from the ages of children. Former spouses appear in their own row beneath the current one.
Children — collapsed by default; expanded on demand. Stepchildren (children of the current spouse from a prior relationship) are shown separately and labelled as such.
Grandchildren — available via a second expansion level, shown when the player wants the full picture.
The Family Tree uses colour and iconography consistently so the information you need is visible at a glance.
Marriage status — a golden ring icon indicates a standard marriage. A red variant flags an incestuous union. Hovering over the indicator shows the full tooltip.
Arrow tips between characters use colour to indicate the nature of the parent-child relationship:
- Blue — standard biological parent
- Green — confirmed biological parent when real parentage has been revealed
- Red — the other parent (used when secret parentage is displayed)
- Grey — indicates the other known parent of a child in a blended family
Primary Heir — a gold crown indicator marks the character currently in line to inherit.
Current Ruler — a separate indicator distinguishes the ruling character from other family members.
Abroad — a badge appears under any family member employed by a foreign state, so you can see at a glance which relatives have left for other courts.
Age and life status — children are labelled with descriptors (baby, child) appropriate to their stage of development.
When a child’s displayed parent is not their biological parent, the tree surfaces that information — carefully. A small indicator appears on the child’s portrait showing that the current spouse is not the biological parent. Clicking it reveals the biological parent relationship for that child and their full siblings, highlighting the real parent among the portraits displayed.
The mod tracks this cleanly even in complex blended families: half-siblings are correctly identified, full siblings stay grouped, and the real-parent variable is removed cleanly when the view is collapsed.
The mod adds two character interactions for adopting characters into a ruling family.
Adopt into Family (available to monarchies and tribal governments) — the ruler adopts a minor character from their own court. Requires legitimacy above zero and costs family prestige. Characters with proud, selfish, arrogant, or stubborn traits will refuse. Cross-culture adoption requires the citizenship by adoption country modifier.
Offer for Adoption — a character offers one of their people to be adopted into another ruler’s family. Requires the target family to have sufficient prestige (45+).
Adopted characters retain a hidden record of their biological parents. The family tree correctly displays their adoptive relationship while allowing the real parentage to be revealed through the secret-parentage system described above.
For monarchies and tribal governments, an alert fires when the ruler is unmarried and has no active betrothal — reminding you that succession planning is overdue. The alert can be suppressed if you prefer to play without it.
- Designed for and tested against Invictus 1.11
- Standalone — no third-party mods required
- Fully functional for all government types: monarchies, republics, and tribal governments
- Minimal vanilla overrides; does not replace the character window wholesale
- Compatible with UI mods including BUI; load after any such mods
I want to thank Lord of Liberty for inspiring this mod and allowing me to use some of his excellent code to get it started. I urge you to try his much more ambitious mod, Reanimāta, it’s fantastic!
