Family Trees

Visualize character lineages, family relationships, and genealogy trees across generations

Family Trees let you visualize character lineages, family relationships, and genealogy across generations. Whether you're mapping a sprawling dynasty for an epic fantasy or tracking relationships in a family saga, the family tree gives you a clear, visual overview of who's related to whom.

Creating a Family Tree

Create a family tree anywhere in your project to start mapping character relationships.

1
Open a project
Navigate to the project where you want to create a family tree.
2
Click the + button
In the sidebar, click the add button and select "Family Tree".
3
Name it
Give your family tree a name, like "House Aldric Lineage" or "Main Character Family".

TIP

Create separate family trees for different houses, factions, or branches of your story to keep things organized.

Adding Persons

Each node in the family tree represents a person. Add characters and fill in their details to build out the lineage.

Add a Person

Click the add button in the toolbar or double-click an empty area to create a new person node. Enter their name, title, and a short description.

Define Relationships

Connect persons by dragging from one node to another. Choose the relationship type: parent-child, spouse, sibling, or divorced. Lines are drawn automatically to show the connection.

Relationship Types

Family trees support several relationship types to accurately represent your story's genealogy.

•Parent-child - the core of any family tree, shown as vertical connections
•Spouse/partner - horizontal connections between partners at the same generation level
•Sibling - automatically inferred from shared parents, or added manually
•Divorced - a former spouse relationship, rendered distinctly from a current spouse link

TIP

Color-code relationship lines to distinguish between blood relations, marriages, and adoptions at a glance.

Layout Modes

Choose the layout that best fits your family tree's structure.

Vertical

The classic top-down tree layout. Ancestors at the top, descendants below.

Horizontal

A left-to-right layout. Useful when you have many generations and want to scan the tree like a timeline.

Radial

A central figure with family radiating outward. Great for highlighting one character's web of relationships.

Linking to Character Sheets

Connect family tree persons to other content in your project for a richer writing experience.

Link to Documents

Link any person node to a character sheet, chapter, or note in your project. Click the link icon on a node to navigate directly to the associated content.

•Link to character sheets for quick access to detailed backstories
•Link to chapters where a character first appears
•Link to notes with research or inspiration for the character

Custom Fields & Customization

Tailor the family tree to your story's needs with custom fields and visual options.

Custom Fields

Add custom fields to person nodes - birth date and death date (free-form strings, so "1920", "March 15", or "Third Age 2931" all work), titles, allegiances, gender (Male / Female / Other / Unknown), or any metadata relevant to your story world.

Portrait Images

Attach a portrait image to any person node. Display settings let you toggle portraits Hidden, Small, or Large to balance detail against tree density.

Auto-Layout (Arrange)

The Arrange button in the toolbar runs auto-layout, repositioning every node to the chosen layout mode (vertical, horizontal, or radial). Useful after importing or after a large set of edits.

Visual Styling

Color-code nodes by house, faction, or status. Adjust node sizes, line styles, and labels to create a tree that's both informative and visually appealing.

TIP

Use different node colors for living, deceased, and missing characters to add an extra dimension of meaning to your tree.