It's been a while since this was discussed so it may have changed but.

The answer was no. If you start as a ward you lose the surname and such from bloodline.

The ward would have a name if you are talking generation one. Now if you have no heir and use a ward in generation two you would lose your name.

Don't go ward if you want to take advantage of any family related things, including custom names. Caspian has stated that any and all of those perks would be gone if you choose ward, because the very nature of a ward is to NOT have a name to call their own, and titles etc exist under the same basic principle.

Thanks for the help

I asked this in Discord the other day and was told the opposite, that you would still get to use the surname. This needs clarification.

Posted By VictoriaRachel at 10:01 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017

I asked this in Discord the other day and was told the opposite, that you would still get to use the surname. This needs clarification.

The info I posted about was from back during the KS. So like I mentioned it very easily could have changed so I agree. :)

I can see allowing the custom surname, since it's akin to having full naming control over your character in other MMOs. I think being an orphan and having a coat of arms would be a stretch, though.

Posted By Wooga at 11:50 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017

I can see allowing the custom surname, since it's akin to having full naming control over your character in other MMOs. I think being an orphan and having a coat of arms would be a stretch, though.

I can see a way for it to work....

Basically, you are the child of what used to be an established family with a surname and a coat of arms...but your entire family died off when you were very young. Thus, you became a Ward of the State because there was no one else to take care of you...but you still have a legal claim to your family name and Coat of Arms, which you make take up when you Come of Age.

Posted By guildsbounty at 08:54 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017

I can see a way for it to work....

Basically, you are the child of what used to be an established family with a surname and a coat of arms...but your entire family died off when you were very young. Thus, you became a Ward of the State because there was no one else to take care of you...but you still have a legal claim to your family name and Coat of Arms, which you make take up when you Come of Age.

Which is why I said it would be a stretch. :) That's a pretty edge case that couldn't occur with every ward in the game without it seeming strange.

If you had two souls and two sparks, could you not create the family with your first char, and make a ward as your 2nd char and then just marry him/her into the family?

Posted By Rovert at 7:38 PM - Wed Apr 05 2017

If you had two souls and two sparks, could you not create the family with your first char, and make a ward as your 2nd char and then just marry him/her into the family?

Not too sure on this. I believe marrying your own characters will not be allowed, as it should be. This breeds game breaking situations right here where if I was King on character one with no heir I would create character two as a ward and marry into my own family to save my title.

For that reason stated I believe that it won't be a thing to marry yourself.

Posted By Wooga at 6:35 PM - Wed Apr 05 2017

Posted By guildsbounty at 08:54 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017

I can see a way for it to work....

Basically, you are the child of what used to be an established family with a surname and a coat of arms...but your entire family died off when you were very young. Thus, you became a Ward of the State because there was no one else to take care of you...but you still have a legal claim to your family name and Coat of Arms, which you make take up when you Come of Age.

Which is why I said it would be a stretch. :) That's a pretty edge case that couldn't occur with every ward in the game without it seeming strange.

You could also say that you did something worthy of a surname as a ward and that is why you have one now.

Posted By Kaynadin at 9:13 PM - Wed Apr 05 2017

Posted By Wooga at 6:35 PM - Wed Apr 05 2017

Posted By guildsbounty at 08:54 AM - Wed Apr 05 2017

I can see a way for it to work....

Basically, you are the child of what used to be an established family with a surname and a coat of arms...but your entire family died off when you were very young. Thus, you became a Ward of the State because there was no one else to take care of you...but you still have a legal claim to your family name and Coat of Arms, which you make take up when you Come of Age.

Which is why I said it would be a stretch. :) That's a pretty edge case that couldn't occur with every ward in the game without it seeming strange.

You could also say that you did something worthy of a surname as a ward and that is why you have one now.

but, you haven't, some people will have actually done something worthy to deserve their surname, and those won't have a choice, the game engine will recognize the feat and NPC's will start calling them this or that.

I prefer the child of an established noble family but then again you wouldn't be a ward from unknown parents you'd still have parents, dead parents, but parents none the less, so you should choose your characteristic just like any other who had parents.

also usually when a noble or a rich guy died with his heir not old enough to rule the child would have a ''tutor'' chosen by the father, who would rule until the kid is of age.

I believe that this game is not about giving the players everything like in other MMO's CoE is about making tough decisions that will affect your play style in the future, this should be one of them choosing if you prefer to have the ability to modify your character more than other people and being able to decide what sort of specialisation you wanted. or start in a family that already have x,y or z skill set, with limited costumisation, but you have the perks of being in a family.

I guess we just have to wait until we get a solid answer from the devs.

Most if not all of the character perks in a package will be attached to an NPC family. During KOE and the Mud you may play the ancestral head of that family. If someone does not have a bloodline+ package they might end up playing a more common character [possibly something like a ward]. If they then upgrade their package, it is conceivable that the pre-alpha character might then be promoted to noble status and be the founder of the bloodline family available in COE.

In the actual COE game you will have a dynasty window tracking the open codes of your bloodline family for use as a Non Traditional Character. You will also have a character creation window in which you either search for a new [already existing] NPC family to join or actually create a new Ward character from scratch. Wards are the only characters in the game that are spawned into the game without genetic parents [every other plant, animal, and microbe/disease uses genetics]. Every account has at least 3 souls which can be used to either possess an existing NPC or spawn a new PC. The dynasty window will keep the codes of every family you have access to. If you do not occasionally take over a family member to lock character codes, you may over time lose access to the family due to deaths and other players taking over from the character creation window. So you should use a soul in Exposition to at least take over the head of the family and lock your entire family lineage from being stolen by another player [since we don't know if this will be done automatically].

All characters can use Story Points to "improve your lot in life". SP acts as karma to promote your divine right to a title. If you try to take over the heir to a title with less than the required number of SP, the heir may be demoted to a lesser title with the greater being transferred to the next in line. Story wise the heir might become sick when you try to possess them and seen as incapable of holding the title. Basically the less SP you have, the harder you have to work to earn your birthright. The key point is that we do not yet know how SP will influence wards [it could for instance improve their luck when gamboling].

https://chroniclesofelyria.com/forum/topic/10316/down-the-rabbit-hole