Carlisle glances Glacius' way, offering his partner a polite, reassuring smile as he realizes just why he's hovering so close. The alien is as attentive and considerate as ever.

"A bloodline. Those who are directly and legitimately related to a family name through birth, such as my father and my uncles, and my grandmother before them. One can be married into the line, of course, but inheritance follows the blood itself rather than ties of matrimony."