Heroic Lineage

"I think I've found what it is I don't like about Fable: it's inherently fascist. "Heroism", rather than a quality anyone can exhibit, is reduced to some kind of biological thing unique to a single genetic line of handsome white people."

- Yahtzee on Fable 3, Zero Punctuation

Got a good Ancestral Weapon? Got a cherished family recipe for whoop-ass? There's only one thing to make this heroic picture complete: at least one sword-wielding, name-taking hero in your family tree. Maybe more. No wonder you've got a thing about saving people—it's In the Blood.

Maybe not as shiny as full-on Divine Parentage, but it certainly explains that Orphan's Plot Trinket.

Makes a great surprise if there's a Luke, I Am Your Father moment in store.

In short, a character is a descendant of a famous hero, regardless of if he knows it or not, or how strong the blood is. Compare Tell Me About My Father, where the character loves to think about his dead/absentee parents as heroes, regardless of the truth.

Anime and Manga

 * The Joestars, the Zepelli and, to a lesser extent, the Speedwagons of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
 * In Naruto, not only is the titular character descended from the and the Sage of Six Paths, but is the most recent in a line of mentor-pupil relationships including Kakashi, Jiraiya, and the second through fourth Hokage. To be more exact, he is pretty closely related to  . So much for being able to achieve things without having a Bloodline Limit.

Fan Works

 * The Hutchins clan in Undocumented Features seems to be displaying this trope, even though they've only managed two generations so far.

Literature

 * Deltora Quest, all kings and queens of Deltora are descendants of King Adin, a blacksmith who united the Seven Tribes to drive back the Shadow Lord's army. Searching for the King Endon's child was a part of the main quest in the first series.
 * In Dune, House Atreides claims lineage from King Agamemnon of Argos (or Mycenae, depending on the source), who fought in the Trojan War. This claim originally belongs to the Titan Agamemnon (not his real name) and taken up by his son Vorian Atreides, whose last name is derived from "Atreidae", the collective name for the descendants of King Atreus, Agamemnon's father.
 * So deeply-ingrained is this trope that, for years, legions of Harry Potter fans saturated the Internet with theories that Harry was the descendant of Godric Gryffindor ... this, despite how the series' prevailing Aesop is that people should never be judged by their ancestry or background. And in the end,.
 * Historia Regum Britanniae chronicles what happens to a splinter group of survivors from the Trojan War, which eventually settles in Britain. The name of the hero is Brutus, whose name eventually became the name for the Britons.
 * The Lord of the Rings has the classical example with Aragorn, whose lineage is certifiably heroic going back about 70 generations.
 * Eowyn argues that she's entitled to fight because of this trope.
 * All the Abhorsens are of the same bloodline, so both Sabriel and of The Old Kingdom are descendants of heroes.
 * In Ragnar Lodbrok and His Sons, the orphan Kraka discovers that she is the daughter of Sigurd the Volsung and Brynhild the Valkyrie.
 * The Saga of the Volsungs traces the history of the eponymous heroic clan over four generations. They are all descendants of one Sigi, who was possibly a son of Odin.
 * Star Wars: Luke Skywalker and a lot of his descendants in the Expanded Universe.
 * In Warrior Cats, almost all of the point of view characters in the main series are the descendents of the living legend Firestar, the first hero of the series.

Live Action TV

 * Delenn in Babylon 5 is a descendant of Valen . In this case it almost verges on Divine Parentage.
 * Super Sentai has used this more than once:
 * In Gosei Sentai Dairanger, Lin (the present-day Hou-Ouranger) is descended from the Dai tribe, and Ryou (the present-day Ryuranger) is.
 * The present-day Kakurangers from Ninja Sentai Kakuranger are each descended from their respective predecessors, who sealed away the Youkai Army Corps long ago.
 * Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (and Power Rangers Samurai) features samurai whose families have fought the monsters for generations; the Red Ranger from the Shiba clan and the others from the clan's retainers. When a friend of the Red Ranger wishes to join them as the Sixth Ranger, much is made of the fact that he is self-taught and has no such lineage.

Tabletop Games

 * In Legend of the Five Rings, famous ancestors can be bought as merits at character creation. Each of them gives some merits (and sometimes drawbacks) depending of what he was famous for.
 * This trope is made into an actual game mechanic in the Star Wars Saga Edition tabletop game with the Legacy Destiny, where your normal Destiny is replaced with a family line that grants you a special ability (usually, getting a Critical Success more-or-less when you really need one).

Video Games

 * In Assassin's Creed, Desmond Miles is a bartender reliving the genetic memories of his ancestor Altaïr. He later learns to be an Assassin from another of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore.
 * The Belmont clan from Castlevania, always out to hunt the night.
 * The first Dragon Quest I game had you play as the descendant of the legendary hero Loto. The second had you play as the descendants of the first game's hero. The third had you play as Loto, who was himself the descendant of another hero. Somewhat subverted in the fifth, where the legendary hero is actually a descendant of the main character, who marries a descendant of the last legendary hero.
 * In Fable it is implied that all heroes are descended from the first Archon.
 * Lords from Fire Emblem as a whole universally qualify. The 4th game makes this an actual game mechanic: characters who are descendants of one of the Twelve Crusaders receive boosts to their growth rates, weapon levels, and can even use their respective ancestor's Ancestral Weapon in certain conditions.
 * Marth from the first game is actually a subversion. While called Anri's decedent, Anri died childless and Marth is actually descended from Anri's brother.
 * Ico is the descendant of Wander, protagonist of Shadow of the Colossus. Though Wander's fame is debatable, and the one sign of the lineage is more of a curse than a blessing for Ico.
 * A Mysterious Informant with this news kicks off the plot of Last Scenario. . This leads to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming
 * The hero you can name yourself in Lufia and The Fortress of Doom is the descendant of Maxim, the hero who originally sealed the four Big Bads. This tradition is continued in The Legend Returns with Wain, who is also descended from Maxim.
 * Susano from Okami is a descendant of the legendary hero Nagi. His resentment and later acceptance of his ancestor has a major impact on the plot of the first half of the game.
 * Touhou: Rarely mentioned, but all the humans of Gensokyo (that didn't stumble from The Outside, anyway) are descendants of brave people who defeated the youkai to settle there.
 * Link and Zelda from the Zelda series are actually recurring characters who appear throughout the series:
 * All of the Zeldas are blood descendants of the Zelda from The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword, who was a reincarnation of the Goddess Hylia.
 * The Links are not necessarily blood related but are said to share the "Spirit of the Hero" and are at least a spiritual lineage of heroes. Only the Links from The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past and The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess are explicitly stated to carry a special bloodline and according to the Hyrule Historia guidebook, the only confirmed relation between Links is that Link from Twilight Princess is a descendant of the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time.
 * Then The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker.

Visual Novels

 * Luka in Monster Girl Quest is the son of Marcellus, a former hero who . Both of them are distantly descended from.
 * Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime is a last descendant of.

Webcomic

 * According to his father Cabbage, Cucumber of Cucumber Quest is of a heroic lineage. When Cucumber tries to point out that Cabbage is not a hero, his father says that "it skips a generation here and there."
 * Nearly every single one of the trolls in Homestuck has a famous, badass Ancestor.

Western Animation

 * The Emmy-winning episode of Samurai Jack "Birth of Evil", shows that Jack's dad was no slouch himself, heroically defeating Aku on the day his son was born.
 * Codename: Kids Next Door:

Real Life

 * There are decendants of Jon Sobieski in America. One is a movie star: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leelee_Sobieski.
 * Lots of families claim this in real life. Some claims are rather dubious but that's part of the fun.
 * In parts of the world knowing someone's cousin is the answer to the important questions of, "Who will pay me if you default on a deal" and "Who will beat me up if I pick on you." Having a Heroic Lineage counts as having a credit report.
 * You. You have ancestors that trekked on great journeys, made the wilderness bloom, toiled for their bread, defended it against all comers, raised children, built civilizations, made and used tools, created things of beauty, pondered the meaning of the universe, and made your existence possible.
 * Take a look at any nice polite barista. Chances are he or she has ancestors who are heroes, explorers, pioneers, or tyrants. Or at the least fighting, feuding, thieving, savages.