Written by Generation Archives, the product this guide describes. We are not affiliated with any of the books, games, or communities mentioned here.
A fictional family tree maker for worldbuilding, fan fiction, and roleplay
Fictional families are harder to chart than real ones. A fantasy dynasty can have a king with three wives, a bastard line that matters more than the legitimate one, a fostered ward, and cousins who marry for politics. A fan fiction family might have to follow canon and then branch off into your own AU. A roleplay server may have dozens of player characters who all need to connect to the same noble houses.
Generation Archives is a free family tree maker that handles this kind of mess well. You place every character yourself, keep several views of the same family, attach portraits and lore to each person, and share the whole thing with one link. Try it in the demo, no signup needed.
Who this is for
- Worldbuilders designing royal houses, clans, and succession crises.
- Fan fiction writers keeping track of canon families, OCs, and alternate timelines. Think of the sprawling houses in A Song of Ice and Fire, where readers build fan trees of the Targaryens, Starks, and Freys.
- Roleplayers who need a house tree for a character application or a server wiki.
- Game communities that track generations of characters, like ClanGen players following kits, mates, and Clan lineages, or Sims legacy players (see our Sims legacy family tree guide).
What fictional trees need
Complicated relationships without complaints
Stories rarely follow neat genealogy rules. Generation Archives supports:
- Multiple spouses per person, so a ruler's three marriages, and the children from each, all show clearly.
- Any number of parents per person, so a character can have birth parents, adoptive parents, and step-parents on the same tree.
- Relationships between people already in the tree, so the tangled marriages dynastic stories love can be charted.
An adoptive, foster, or step-parent is simply added as another parent of the character. One honest caveat: parent types are not labeled yet, so a fostered ward and a birth child look the same on the tree. You can add a line to the character's biography ("Fostered at Highcourt from age eight") so the relationship is clear. Our guide to adoptive and step-parents has more tips.
A layout you control
Automatic layouts are fine for small families, but big fictional trees often end up as a web of crossing lines. In Generation Archives you can drag any character anywhere. Put the ruling line in the center and the bastard line off to one side. Group each house together. Leave room for characters you have not written yet.
If you want a quick starting point, use auto arrange first and adjust from there.
Several views of the same world
A tree can have multiple named layouts. The characters and relationships stay the same; only the arrangement changes. For example:
- "Line of succession": the claimants, in order, readable at a glance.
- "Everyone": the full web, for plotting.
- "Book 2 cast": the characters in the current arc grouped front and center, with everyone else moved aside.
- "House Varn" and "House Oller": each house on its own.
Portraits and lore on the character
Fictional trees are as much about story as structure. For each character you can:
- Add a portrait or character art.
- Tag characters in group images. Upload a painting of a feast or a council scene and draw a box around each character to tag them.
- Add photo notes to explain the scene.
- Write a biography, and add stories for events that involve several characters, like "The Winter Wedding" or "The Siege of Tarrow."
If your art already lives on an image host, you can link it rather than upload it.
Sharing with readers, players, and co-writers
Trees are private by default, which is handy while your plot is still secret. When you want to share:
- Make the tree public and paste the share link into an author's note, a wiki page, a character application, or a server channel.
- Invite a co-writer or a game master to edit.
A public link is a switch, not the default, so a spoiler-heavy tree stays private until you decide otherwise.
Export a poster of your dynasty
Open Import / export on the tree toolbar to export your whole tree as one large PDF page, portraits included, in the layout you arranged, or as a PNG or JPEG image. Use it for a map-style poster, a reference sheet on your desk, or an image for your worldbuilding doc.
Getting started with a fictional family
- Start with an anchor character, such as the founder of a house or the protagonist.
- Add the family around them: parents, spouses, children.
- Add other houses and connect them by marriage.
- Drag things into place, then save that arrangement as a named layout.
- Add portraits and biographies for the characters that matter most.
- Make a second layout for a different view, such as a single book or house.
- Share the public link when you are ready.
Moving an existing fictional tree
Family Echo is a favorite with worldbuilders, fan fiction writers, and roleplayers, and for good reason: it is free, stable, and copes with very large trees. If you would like to keep going in Generation Archives, you do not have to start over.
In Family Echo, click Download below the tree and choose Read-only HTML, then import it into a free Generation Archives account. Characters, relationships, birth years, and portraits come across, with the portraits on the right characters. See the full Family Echo import guide.
If your tree lives in another program, Generation Archives also imports GEDCOM. Read what GEDCOM is to see what transfers.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free?
Yes. Building, arranging, and sharing a tree is free.
Can I chart relationships that would not happen in a real family tree?
Generation Archives supports multiple spouses, any number of parents, and links between people already in the tree, which covers most tangled fictional families. Try your trickiest case in the demo first.
Can I show fostering, wards, or knight-and-squire bonds?
Parent links are not labeled by type, so a foster parent looks like any other parent. Note the relationship in the character's biography. Non-family bonds like mentors are best described in biographies or stories.
Can I hide spoilers?
Keep the tree private until you are ready. If you want to share a spoiler-free version, keep it as a separate public tree and leave the full one private. Layouts change the arrangement, not who is in the tree.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It runs in your phone's browser, with nothing to install.
Start charting your world
Open the demo and try building a small house, no signup needed. When you are ready to keep your world, create a free account.
Try the demo Sample tree Create a free account