Is Inbreeding Good or Bad?
In popular opinion, it is widely believed that close-relative marriages often result in children with genetic defects, posing significant challenges to healthy and optimal reproduction.
This belief is grounded in scientific fact.
From humanity's earliest origins in primitive times, harsh natural environments have already eliminated the majority of genes responsible for dominant genetic disorders.
Over millions of years, as humanity evolved into higher civilizations, genetic diseases became recessively inherited—meaning a child has about a 25% chance of inheriting a genetic disorder only if both parents carry the same recessive gene for that disorder.
Key point: It must be the same recessive gene.
Close relatives, sharing ancestry and genetic lineage, are more likely to carry identical recessive genes. As a result, their children are at greater risk of inheriting conditions like congenital disabilities or severe developmental disorders.
However, if inbreeding continues for dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of generations, all recessive defective genes within that bloodline will eventually be expressed—and subsequently eliminated through the selection process, as only children without paired defective genes would survive.
In other words, through a harsh process of elimination, inbreeding can reduce defective genes, achieving a form of genetic optimization.
Genetic optimization operates on two fronts: reducing harmful genes and amplifying beneficial ones, often achieved more effectively through hybridization.
Here, the discussion focuses solely on "inbreeding reducing defective genes."
To achieve genetic optimization through inbreeding, it would require consistent efforts across at least dozens of generations. Any introduction of new bloodlines with fresh genetic defects during this process would render prior efforts futile, requiring a reset of the process.
Without millennia-long, uninterrupted direct-line marriages, the so-called "noble bloodlines" are little more than fantasy.
In the vast history of the Celestial Empire, no absolute aristocratic lineage has existed for over a thousand years—none capable of refusing royal marriages. Thus, for the Chinese people, close-relative marriages have always been a taboo to avoid.
Even when examining Earth's history over tens of millennia, only the ancient Egyptian pharaohs came close to achieving such a feat—though they, too, succumbed to the pitfalls of inbreeding. The occasional introduction of "lesser" mixed blood meant restarting the optimization process.
This led to the birth of malformed heirs and intellectually impaired successors, unable to sustain an increasingly unstable regime. Would "noble" pharaohs have married outside families if their dominance hadn't declined?
Ultimately, the ancient pharaoh bloodline almost entirely vanished. While the people may not have perished, their dynasties and systems were wholly discarded.
Europe's ancient nobility entertained similar ideas to the pharaohs, but they fared even worse—most famously with hemophilia, which devastated the European royal families.
Their failure stemmed from an inability to sustain direct-line reproduction, as new bloodlines were regularly introduced.
However, what Earth's people could not accomplish, many families in the continents of Ice and Fire have achieved. These families truly possess royal bloodlines.
Take, for instance, the Targaryens.
In fact, Essos was once home to a remarkable group that practiced inbreeding—the Valyrian Freehold. The Targaryens were merely a small offshoot of this great civilization.
How powerful is Valyrian blood?
A look at Daenerys Targaryen today makes it clear.
Beyond the Valyrian descendants, the ducal families of Westeros (formerly royal families before Aegon Targaryen's conquest united the Seven Kingdoms, demoting them to dukes) practiced a form of secondary inbreeding, albeit diluted through intermarriage with other families.
The ability of this world to achieve "genetic optimization through inbreeding" lies in its long history. Take, for example, the family of the story's protagonists—the Starks of Winterfell—who boast at least 8,000 years of family history.
The Freys of the Twins, Known for the Red Wedding
The Freys of the Twins have long been despised by the upper nobility for their shallow roots and "nouveau riche" reputation.
How "newly rich" is House Frey, exactly?
Well, they're merely a marquis family with a "mere" 600 years of history and nothing to their name but wealth.
... If a family with 600 years of prominence were in the Celestial Empire, that'd be a different story.
But the point of all this? Viserys attempting to climb into his sister's bed might seem appalling, but in the savage and fantastical world of A Song of Ice and Fire, it's a crime, though not necessarily a moral one.
The Targaryens have always upheld an ancient tradition: sibling marriages.
For example, Aegon the Conqueror, who founded the Targaryen dynasty, married both of his sisters.
Yes, both of them: his elder sister Visenya and his younger sister Rhaenys.
The city of King's Landing is built upon three hills: Aegon's Hill, Rhaenys's Hill, and Visenya's Hill, named to honor the dynasty's three founders.
In fact, Daenerys's parents, "The Mad King" Aerys and Queen Rhaella, were also siblings. Even her grandparents were siblings.
Had Daenerys been born just ten—no, five—years earlier, she would likely have married her eldest brother, Rhaegar.
"And then?" Daenerys calmly asked Lilith. "I already know Viserys is a scoundrel."
Lilith gave her a strange look, baffled by her nonchalant attitude.
Failing to provoke Daenerys with words, Lilith's anger only grew. She suddenly turned to point at Ser Jorah Mormont, who was eyeing her warily. "He took me, too. Though he didn't call out your name, the way he looked at me… it felt like he was reaching through my body to touch your soul."
"I did not!" Ser Jorah, who had been on guard to prevent Lilith from harming the "poor, fragile" Daenerys, found himself implicated. His face turned red, and he waved his gloved hands frantically. "You slander me! I never thought such a thing."
"I've seen enough men to know," Lilith sneered.
"Cough, cough. You're now a khaleesi, no longer the star courtesan of Lys," Daenerys interjected awkwardly, warning her sternly, "I doubt Khal Drogo would enjoy hearing about what you just said."
Daenerys had long been aware of Jorah Mormont's feelings for her.
She had even known this before coming to this world, thanks to Game of Thrones. In the series, the old bear and Tyrion once encountered each other in a brothel, where Jorah had his arm around a silver-haired, violet-eyed Valyrian prostitute. The woman was even cosplaying as Daenerys herself—two or three years in the future, the Queen of Meereen.
(Author's Note: This book primarily draws from A Song of Ice and Fire, with Game of Thrones as an important reference. The struggling author has not only watched the TV show but also read the books several times. The protagonist of this book, however, has only seen the TV series, so the plot may diverge from her expectations. Regarding Jorah's brothel visit, the show makes it explicit, whereas the books merely hint at it. Many events in the books are implied, while the show spells them out—such as Renly and Loras's relationship.)
"Khal Drogo?" Daenerys's attempt to intimidate Lilith failed. Lilith leaned in close and whispered into her ear, "Do you know how I ended up with him?"
Daenerys felt a sudden unease. Was she becoming Helen of Troy?
"Does he love me too? That doesn't seem likely," she whispered back, without the slightest embarrassment.
Lilith sneered. "No. Like me, he only wants the same thing Khal Drogo does. To him, you're no different from Drogo's horse or his tent."
"Then aren't you worth even less than Drogo's tent?" Daenerys pushed her head away and loudly dismissed her. "Leave. I don't want to discuss such trivial matters with you anymore."
"Fine, I'll go," Lilith huffed. "But when Khal Drogo inevitably returns to Vaes Dothrak, I hope you're just as proud when you join the ranks of the dosh khaleen crones."
Lilith stormed off in a rage.
The next morning, at the break of dawn, Khal Drogo's khalasar began moving northward through the cold morning mist.
There was no other choice. They had run out of not just water and horse feed, but even firewood for days now.
The Red Waste was blistering hot and dry by day but plunged to below ten degrees at night—a typical desert climate.
Stepping out of the dim tent, Daenerys found the outside world blindingly bright.
The slanting sun hung in the sky like a furnace dripping molten gold, its scorching light pouring onto the land, baking the ground until it cracked and hollowed.
The small camp was not silent. The coughs of the elderly echoed from nearby grass shelters, while a small group of children ran and played on the open ground, heedless of the heat. Further away, women busied themselves with daily chores.
On the outskirts, over a hundred unsaddled horses roamed aimlessly. They stomped the ground sluggishly and let out weary whinnies, as if complaining, "Why is there not even a single blade of grass in this cursed place?"
When Daenerys appeared, the maidservants hurriedly brought her water, wine, fruits, and roasted meat, standing ready by her side.
After wiping her face, Daenerys ate a little and then instructed Aggo to organize the khalasar to move their tents back to the original location near the grass-woven palace.
Although that area was also barren, at least the nearby hills provided some shade and protection from the relentless sun and blowing sand.
Qotho and Haggo remained in the tent, attending to Drogo, who was on the brink of death. Daenerys called Aggo, Rakharo, Jhiqui, Jhogo, and Ser Jorah Mormont to sit in the shade, forming a small circle on the ground.
Thus began the first political expansion meeting under a small hill.
"Drogo's khalasar has scattered," she stated plainly.
"It's only natural," Jhogo replied matter-of-factly. "A khal who cannot ride is no khal."
"The Dothraki follow strength," Ser Jorah added. "Your Grace, I'm sorry, but we cannot stop them from leaving. Since Bono first departed, Drogo's warriors have been slipping away in groups, day by day."
"How many people, horses, and supplies do we still have?" Daenerys asked.
"Khaleesi, not a single one of your bloodriders has left," Aggo said solemnly. "We are your sworn protectors, loyal to you, not the Khal. That's why we've all stayed."
Daenerys felt a surge of happiness. Though the Dothraki were savage, their sense of honor far surpassed the so-called "higher civilizations" of places like Westeros, where sacred oaths were treated as worthless.
"And who else?" Daenerys asked in a lighter tone. "Our bloodriders are fewer than a hundred, but when we moved the tents earlier, I saw at least two hundred people."
For Daenerys—regardless of which version of her—Dothraki were her foundation. The horse people were loyal, brave, and straightforward, far more genuine and trustworthy than the distant people of her "homeland" across the Narrow Sea.
By her status, Daenerys was the wife of a Khal, fully integrated into the horse people's way of life on the vast Dothraki Sea.
Thus, she referred to the Dothraki as her "people."
Whether due to subtle shifts in her mindset or because the horse people had always regarded her as one of them, no one noticed this distinction.
Jhogo answered her question, "The elderly who cannot travel stayed behind, along with the cowards, the weak, and the sick. None of the new khalasars wanted to take them in."
(End of Chapter)
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