How much for royal blood?

[Racer]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

To be in line for the throne you have to be a legitimate descendant of the Electress Sophia.

I know . My Aunt's husband is . They met indirectly via ancestry website/forum .

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Racer

I know . My Aunt's husband is . They met indirectly via ancestry website/forum .

Yes, but

Late Maternal Grandmother was a direct descendant of William Peverell the Elder , who came over with William the Conquer . Fair bit of bed hopping during 11th to 15th century in our family tree . Plus illegitimate child of George 2nd or 4th somewhere .

has nothing to do with it. Everyone in England or whose ancestors came from England since the industrial revolution is biologically descended from William the Bastard.

[Racer]

Okay got it & thanks .

[Alden Loveshade]

I'm a Lord of Sealand; does that count as noble blood?

I can see different points here. But let's face it, in real life I don't think there's some genetic test than can say "The noble blood of France, England, Germany, Japan, Ethiopia, India, etc. all has these characteristics, and the commoner blood of those countries all has these other characteristics." As has been pointed out, "royalty" was often decided by whoever killed whom.

The assumption I'm going by is that for a fantasy campaign there is such a thing as "royal blood." Maybe it's not genetic; maybe the gods bless royalty and their descendants. That could be an interesting discussion of its own.

I appreciate the different perspectives that have been offered. Again, I realize I'm asking a completely subjective question, but the concepts presented here have given me a lot of ideas. So thanks!

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

In real life it is the first. For your fantasy the later might work.

Of course in real life the crown is legitimized by whoever is tough enough in battle and wily enough in statecraft.

For a fantasy setting - even a wainscot one - we could allow the coronation or anointing to be the thing: that or any more primitive form of acclamation ceremony is what invests the monarch as Lord of the Land. This would, of course, be the The Person of The King model - arguably entirely fitting with feudal ways of doing things - which would mean that only the king's own blood is royal.
Alternatively you could use the descent model, tracing your royal blood from divine figures as the pre-Christian kings of Europe did (whether that was Odin, Bel or Mars...). This makes heredity important and would argue for concentrating the blood by inbreeding … this would take fantasy as we know it doesn't work in real life (unless it's just not concentrated enough - lab rats, for example, have apparently come out the other side of inbreeding compression...).
Mixing the two might allow a certain number of generations removed from a royal investiture to have (declining) levels of power, but would still favour in breeding unless you have a lot of royal houses about.
So, this being a GURPS board, we end up giving the helpful advice of "first figure out your world building, then chose what rules apply".

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

has nothing to do with it. Everyone in England or whose ancestors came from England since the industrial revolution is biologically descended from William the Bastard.

And pretty much anyone from Europe can claim descent from Charlemagne … as that wombat-ghost put it in Digger, concerning the coincidence of the main character being his descendant "not much of a stretch, I had five sons a thousand years ago … do the math".

[Daigoro]

I would've thought that royals would be opposed to creating a market for their blood. They don't want people thinking there's any profit in kidnapping one to keep in a dungeon and milk indefinitely.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I would've thought that royals would be opposed to creating a market for their blood. They don't want people thinking there's any profit in kidnapping one to keep in a dungeon and milk indefinitely.

Their best plan might be to flood the market and force the price down to where that scheme is financially unattractive.

If they don't do that, and if royal bastards have royal blood, the best royal to keep thus in durance might be one whom the authorities don't know exists.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

If they don't do that, and if royal bastards have royal blood, the best royal to keep thus in durance might be one whom the authorities don't know exists.

In a case like that, you may well have women attempting to seduce high-ranking royals for the purpose of making a royal bastard, who can then be secretly raised to become a cash cow once he's old enough to be reliably bled. An adult - which 15+ is probably large and healthy enough to work as - can provide a pint of blood every 2 months or so. Assuming some waste, let's say 4 pints a year. Bastards are probably worth 1 Status lower than legitimate children, and we'll go off of my chart from post #29. Seducing a status 7 king thus gets you $20,000 per year after a ~16 year delay, while seducing a status 6 prince gets you $2,000 per year. At TL4, the former is between Average ($13,200/year) and Comfortable ($26,400/year), readily supporting Status 0 (and Status 1 isn't out of reach if you're careful); the latter between Struggling ($2640/year) and Poor ($6600/year), readily supporting Status -2 (and Status -1 isn't out of reach). That's not great, but isn't horrible as basically independent income - and if she has multiple royal bastards, the income improves. If a bastard's blood is just as good as a legitimate child's, multiply those values by 10 (a king's bastard supports Status 2-3, a prince's bastard supports Status 0-1).

Granted, she has to raise the child(ren) into dysfunctional adults who think their purpose in life is getting bled every few months to support their aging mother, but that's doable. Hardly moral or ethical, of course, but that's kind of a given with the scenario.

[Racer]

In Charlaine Harris's True Blood Novel universe , the Royal Houses & minor noble houses of Europe & beyond make a ton of cash from selling their blood to the revealed Vampires .

Not sure if it was in the books or graphic novel (possibly fan fiction?) , but $3,000 for magnum of top quality 'Swedish' or $400 for 'blended Polish' .
In a parody of wine tasting connoisseurs , conversations were something like "Ah you can take the Victoria in that devine vintage!" & "Reasonable Bourbon infusion notes."

You could imagine Discworld Vampires setting up business ventures around this sort of theme !