family curse
Bloodline's dark legacy
A family curse is a supernatural affliction believed to pass down through generations, punishing descendants for an ancestor's transgression or enemy's hex.
The concept appears across folklore and fiction: The family curse claimed another victim.
More loosely, any recurring misfortune in a family lineage—addiction, early death, failed marriages—may be called a family curse, whether attributed to fate, genetics, or bad luck.
- secretConcealed information
- generational traumaInherited psychological harm
- maledictionVerbal invocation of harm
- hexMalevolent incantation
- jinxCurse bringing misfortune
bloodline · cursed bloodline · blood debt · spell · omen · emotional scars · House of Atreus · hereditary · trauma · sins of the father · shadow · prophecy · folklore · oral tradition · chain · exorcism · grudge · sworn enemy
- family dramasibling rivalry, kinship, parent-child, inheritance, estrangement
- Family Storiesmother-daughter, father-son, childhood memories, maternal bonds, kitchen talk
- Gothic horrorghost story, haunted houses, Dracula, vampires, Frankenstein
- story tropesquest, hero's journey, plot twist, chosen one, red herring
- cursescurses, hex, hexes, jinx, jinxes
- familymother, father, parents, siblings, parent
family cursefamily blessing
Favor invoked upon kin
birthright · divine favor · family legacy · guardian angel · protective charm
family cursecoincidence
Unplanned matching of events
chance occurrence · statistical probability · bad luck · random chance · happenstance
family cursefree will
Autonomous choice capacity
self-determination · personal choice · clean slate · fresh start