Community Suggestion: Add Parental relationship to types of familial relationships supported by "Add a Character Relationship"

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Add Parental relationship to types of familial relationships supported by "Add a Character Relationship"

Feature Upgrade · Articles & templates · Created by Eige
closed
relationships parents foster

What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?

While it is possible to add detail and nuance to sibling and spousal relationships, there is no corresponding option for parental relationships. Adding this to the familial relationship types drop down menu on the "Add a Relationship" form would solve this problem.  

How does this feature request address the current situation?

Adding the option to designate a relationship as parental would allow more detail to be recorded about the nuances of the parental relationship.  

What are other uses for this feature request?

Additionally, this parental relationship feature could either be used in conjunction with relationship descriptions to designate foster parents, or an additional option for foster parents could also be added. Historically, and in many works of fiction, foster parents are used to create bonds between characters of different families. This acts as a stabilizing influence socially. Not only are children provided with a (theoretically) unbiased guide to the adult world, but they have an opportunity to foster contacts with their second family that can serve them well as adults. Therefore, this is an important relationship to recognize, because it can play a major role in the progress of a story. In some cases, foster parents or foster sibling relationships may be more important to understanding a character's motivation than their blood relations. A parent you haven't seen in years has a different impact on you than the one you saw yesterday. The former is who you inherit from, the later is who you learn from. Tracking this complex web of social connections between a large group of characters is part of why I use World Anvil. I'd love to see this modification added to improve this valuable tool.

The Team's Response

Thanks for the suggestion! The relationship system will be completely overhauled when we work on it again. This suggestion will no longer be relevant for that new system, so we're closing it. The new system will address this (although in a different way and with a different UI).
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Current score

34/300 Votes · +6801 points

Votes Cast

  • +300

    by A Goodhearted Elf
    on 2025-06-14 02:35

  • +100

    by A Glamorous Dimensional Horror
    on 2025-06-12 07:20

  • +300

    by Oltrya
    on 2025-06-07 14:57

  • +300

    by CodyProductions
    on 2025-06-07 13:39

  • +1

    by WhiteDragonFD
    on 2025-06-06 22:50

  • +300

    by Madame Vera
    on 2025-06-05 06:00
    Oooohhh, this. And found family dynamics would be awesome

  • +300

    by firstHorceman
    on 2025-05-31 06:48

  • +300

    by Eatthatmuffin
    on 2025-05-31 02:20

  • +300

    by Strychnos
    on 2025-05-31 00:07
    Parental relationships are very important to my storytelling. It's frustrating this feature is not available like it is for siblings and spouses.

  • +100

    by Aia Danuja
    on 2025-05-30 22:05

  • +100

    by Drawkill Dragon
    on 2025-05-29 21:10

  • +100

    by A Lusty Elf
    on 2025-05-29 11:21

  • +300

    by LisaGrimm
    on 2025-05-26 06:08

  • -300

    by A Goodhearted Hobbit
    on 2025-05-25 08:31
    A needed improvement to family tree customization.

  • +300

    by A Sneaky Mimic
    on 2025-05-24 20:38

  • +100

    by LunasMovies22
    on 2025-05-23 21:44

  • +100

    by Mme88
    on 2025-05-23 04:14

  • +300

    by bphilippe
    on 2025-05-22 06:04

  • +300

    by MrBauta
    on 2025-05-21 22:07

  • +300

    by solomonjack
    on 2025-05-21 17:21

  • +300

    by Kranjax
    on 2025-05-21 07:11
    I like this! Especially the note about Foster parenting. I have quite a few characters who have such circumstances

  • +300

    by Jupiter Melichios
    on 2025-05-20 19:23
    The ability to add a free-entry label to parental relationships (the way we currently can for siblings or spouses) would be a great addition

  • -100

    by A Filthy Orc
    on 2025-05-20 15:53
    As far as I can tell, all of this functionality already exists. Biological and Adopting Parents can already be defined. I suspect they are defined differently (above extended relationships) for the purposes of the Family Tree feature. And while that doesn't provide the fields to add in the extra details on the relationship, there's nothing preventing one from also adding Parental relationships (or any other kind of relationship) in the Extended Relationships (without choosing something in the Sibling/Spouse pulldown) and then adding in those additional details. I've been doing this for years for friends, parents, step-parents, mentors, etc..

  • +100

    by Exhausted Archivist
    on 2025-05-20 06:06

  • +100

    by yatenari
    on 2025-05-19 17:38

  • +300

    by shadowclasper
    on 2025-05-19 07:59

  • +100

    by Lady-knight
    on 2025-05-19 02:31

  • +300

    by Drudster
    on 2025-05-18 18:12

  • +100

    by A Uncontrollable Kobold
    on 2025-05-18 17:52

  • +300

    by A Revolutionary Cthulhu
    on 2025-05-18 03:02

  • +100

    by TheBroddha
    on 2025-05-17 21:35

  • +300

    by Lonnie makes mayhem
    on 2025-05-17 19:38

  • +100

    by A Beloved Kobold
    on 2025-05-17 19:05

  • +300

    by kaixabu
    on 2025-05-17 11:59

  • +300

    by Eige
    on 2025-05-17 04:09
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