Obvious exaggeration aside, I've posted an image of my supposedly "sterile" emperor in the early medieval ages who has still managed to father eight sons (all of whom want a slice of my realm upon my death) and two daughters without any affairs, concubines, or other lustful pursuits. I have also shared an image of my family tree to date, which requires significant lateral scrolling to see all my predecessors and peers who have each similarly parented a large town of their own children.



In reality, it has been incredibly uncommon for the British aristocracy to have more than \[2-3 children per generation\](https://www.britroyals.com/royaltree.asp) dating back to the start date of this game and the likelihood of children surviving even to ten years old in this period is \[thought to have been roughly 40%\](https://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/medieval\_child.htm). Even taking a generous view that nobility would likely have suffered a lower rate of mortality than the peasantry would surely not virtually eradicate the idea of mortality at all.

  
I have experienced four plagues under this emperor alone, have had my family members lead armies into every battle for 150 years, have survived uprisings and wars and imprisonments and other periods of violence and yet still have 13 distinct branches of my family dynasty and never enough land to share around my heirs. Why is it so easy to survive and what are people's thoughts on that as a game mechanic?

Why is it so common to have a thousand children survive to adulthood?