Editing Gothic Horror (section)

===Family Honor===
Family honor is crucially important to Victorians of all classes. Once that honor is tarnished by taint or a broken taboo, the stain will affect every member, including those not yet born. So there is an overwhelming sense of duty to one's family, over and above any mere affection (or rivalry) between individuals. Scions of tainted ancestry may find that their family has tried to cover up its past by faking records, changing names, or emigrating. But family shame will out; the ties of blood can never be escaped.

A family legacy can be far more dreadful than mere shared history. Inheritance may include diseases, mental illnesses, bargains with infernal entities, and physical deformities. Unacceptable offspring may be hidden away by parents who are ashamed to admit their existence, even to other members of the same family.