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Game Guide · Genetics

Heritable Traits

nature’s blueprint

The inheritance system governs 5 traits with 56 phenotypes and 15 alleles. Plan your Parafolk’s family tree.

Parafolk pass looks to their children the same way real genes work: each trait has a dominant version that shows up easily and a recessive version that needs both parents to pass it on. Pick a trait to see what a child can inherit.

Eye Color

Eye color comes in three inherited looks - brown, green, and blue - plus an unnatural set that's character-creator only. Brown is dominant and blue is recessive, which makes blue the rarest to inherit.

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Face Freckles

Freckles are a single on-or-off trait. Having freckles is dominant - one parent passing them on is enough - so freckle-free children need both parents to lack them.

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Hair Color

Hair color is inherited as black, brown, or blond. Black is dominant and blond is recessive, so two dark-haired parents can still have a blond child if both carry the gene.

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Hair Texture

Hair texture runs from straight to coily. Coily and curly are dominant over wavy and straight, so straight hair only appears when a child inherits it from both parents.

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Skin Color

Skin tone isn't a short list of looks. It's set by an undertone family and a lightness level from 0 to 6, and a child blends toward a tone that sits between their two parents.

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Showing 5 of 5 traits.

Genetics FAQ

How does genetics work in Paralives?

Paralives uses an allele-based inheritance system. Each heritable trait (eye color, hair color, etc.) is determined by alleles inherited from both parents. Some allele combinations are forbidden, preventing certain phenotype expressions.

Can children have different eye colors than both parents?

Yes! Eye color inheritance follows genetic rules where recessive alleles can surface in children even if neither parent shows that phenotype. Two brown-eyed parents can have a blue or green-eyed child.

What does ‘asymmetric’ mean for eye color?

Eye color is marked as asymmetric, meaning each eye inherits independently. This allows for heterochromia: your Parafolk can naturally have two different-colored eyes.

Are unnatural colors inheritable?

Unnatural phenotypes (fantasy eye colors, unnatural hair colors) are not marked as genetic, meaning they won’t pass to children through inheritance. They’re cosmetic choices in the character creator.