History Main / SuperBreedingProgram

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'' sequence''. You'd expect the Bondsmagi to be the type of sinister organization to have some form of mage-breeding program in place. They don't, for reasons both pragmatic and emotional. The pragmatic reason is that magical ability "does not breed true", and while genetics is barely understood to be a thing in the setting, the implication is that it depends on a huge number of interacting alleles, none of which can be individually correlated to identifiable characteristics. The emotional one is that the Bondsmagi are just as against being bred like cattle as any other free-spirited human and prefer to be allowed to have children with whoever they damn well please, thank you very much.

* The silkworm god race in ''Literature/MonsterGirlDoctor'' was domesticated by humans and selectively bred to produce lots of silk.

* According to ''Literature/{{Allegiant}}'', [[spoiler:people who entered the Bureau's walled off community in Chicago had to agree to have as many children as possible, with the purpose of eventually making "genetically pure" or "genetically healed" humans, known as Divergents]].

%%* In Creator/JohnCWright's ''[[Literature/CountToTheEschaton The Hermetic Millenia]]'', Chimera society revolved about this.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', the BigBad had been breeding the royal family from behind the scenes for quite some time before they went missing. He takes a strong interest in Captain Carrot, who is almost certainly the long-lost scion of that bloodline.
* This trope is all over the place in ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', starting from the Bene Gesserit with their Kwisatz Haderach project and their, um, ''specialists'' in this area. They got their [[OmniscientHero Kwisatz Haderach]], all right. They just didn't expect him to lead an army of [[SuperSoldier Fremen]] and take over the known universe.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the ''Literature/GentlemanBastard Sequence''. You'd expect the Bondsmagi to be the type of sinister organization to have some form of mage-breeding program in place. They don't, for reasons both pragmatic and emotional. The pragmatic reason is that magical ability "does not breed true", and while genetics is barely understood to be a thing in the setting, the implication is that it depends on a huge number of interacting alleles, none of which can be individually correlated to identifiable characteristics. The emotional one is that the Bondsmagi are just as against being bred like cattle as any other free-spirited human and prefer to be allowed to have children with whoever they damn well please, thank you very much.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein:
** The Howard Families of the ''Future History'' series are a breeding project for longevity. Considering that Lazarus Long was born about three generations in and is still kicking (and sometimes contributing to the project) after more than [[Literature/TimeEnoughForLove two thousand years]], it seems to be a success.
** ''Literature/{{Gulf}}'' features a secret group of super-intelligent humans who are engaged in a number of long-term plans, including a breeding program to increase their own numbers as well as become a physically distinct species no longer capable of interbreeding with homo sapiens.
** In ''Literature/TunnelInTheSky'', a group of high school and college students are stranded on an alien planet when a survival test goes wrong. One of the college students, "Waxie", starts to filibuster that the colony should run on "scientific criteria" and that they're in a position to breed a super-race. During his bid for mayor, the pieces of a shattered clay pot are used his ballots, with the resident smartass declaring [[TakeThat "the crackpots are votes for Waxie"]].

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/KidStuff": The elf is a {{Mutant|s}} member of its own race, capable of using its PsychicPowers to [[ShockAndAwe generate electricity]]. Once it has shown to the rest of [[Myth/ArthurianLegend Avalon]] how its genetics are superior, it plans to breed its children together and develop a race of super-elves.

* Taken to perhaps the point of parody in ''Literature/TheTamuli'', where the Atan race were originally a subset of Tamuls, who were bred for strength and size. After a thousand years or so, they had become so fearsome that they threatened to kill off themselves over minor feuds, so a system of cultural slavery was introduced, so that every Atan would only take orders from a Tamul official or other duly appointed authority (this mostly boils down to the Atans asking permission to avenge a perceived slight, getting a no, and going back to what they were doing before).

* In ''Literature/TheWitcher'', there's a not-so-AncientConspiracy of [[LongLived long-living]] sorcerers who bred their own [[UltimateLifeForm uber-mage]] (by the way, from leftovers of an older Elven program), manipulating a few "interesting" ancestries via arranged marriages, "random" quarrels and love potions. One sorceress who was induced into the secret immediately expressed her opinion on the idea very graphically -- by swirling the visual representation of the bloodlines into complete chaos and stating that's how this works [[BastardBastard outside the official genealogy books]]. As in ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'', they ended up with something too hot for them to handle -- but weren't wise enough to drop it before some got burns.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', as successful results of Magic infusion experiment, [[MagicKnight Celes]] is expected to marry [[MonsterClown Kefka]] and bear his children for the Empire. Thankfully, the story never went ''[[{{Squick}} that]]'' route.
* A major plot point in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' has the [[ReligionOfEvil Loptr Church]] breeding a new vessel for their dragon of worship, Loptous to return, via breeding two siblings who are distant descendants of Loptous' original vessel. They turn out to be [[spoiler:the hero's LoveInterest and his rival]].
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' does the same thing as ''Genealogy of the Holy War'' with one twist: [[spoiler:The Avatar, a.k.a. the player character]], is the product of one of these, held by the [[ReligionOfEvil the Grimleal cult]] to breed a person who can be the perfect vessel of [[EvilGod Grima]]... and the current leader of the project is [[spoiler:[[ArchnemesisDad the Avatar's biological father]]]], [[EvilSorceror Validar]].

* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games have allowed the player to do this since ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''. It's pretty much a requirement if you want to play competitively against other people or even do well at the various battle facilities that are unlocked in the post-game. Each generation of games after ''Gold and Silver'' have also made breeding better monsters easier and easier and allow you to customize the monster with high stats, moves that they can't normally learn, rare abilities and even [[PaletteSwap shiny forms]] on top of that.

* [[TheChosenOne The Chosen]] in ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'' always comes from a long-line of people whose marriages and children were designated by the church to create children who can become angels for the Journey of Regeneration. [[spoiler:In fact the intent is to [[RaisedAsAHost create a body]] that Martel's soul can take over.]] In particular, Zenos' parents also never loved each other, and correspondingly did have much interest in him either.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' has an interesting spin on this: [[spoiler:the High Entia have, for millenia, had a tradition of royals marrying both a High Entia and a Homs partner, producing children with both. Due to this, Homs blood has slowly been spreading through the High Entia, and Homs-hybrids are becoming more and more common. To many, this would be a ''downgrade'', as High Entia are longer lived and generally more powerful than Homs... but the true goal is to breed out the genes in the High Entia that would eventually trigger their transformation into Telethia. Only the reigning monarch and specific trusted individuals know of this, leading many High Entia questioning why the tradition is upheld.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Spinnerette}}'', North Korea had a breeding program intended to create more supervillains like Colonel Glass. They kidnapped women who had the Cherenkov-Kirby reaction in their bloodline, impregnated them, and exposed them to radiation. [[spoiler:Mecha Maid was one of the children produced, she suspects the radiation caused her ALS.]]

* ''[[https://questden.org/wiki/The_Family_Business Family Business]]'': Zig-Zagged. Rezans believe themselves to be the Master Race, what with their mastery over all stat attributes, superior technology, and ''universal'' cross-species fertility. The problem is, any genetic purity leads to "overspecialization"; inbreeding will eventually lead to Gorods - hulking, monstrous mutants that are as sterile as they are stupid. To prevent this and total extinction, their entire culture is centered around raiding parties to kidnap slaves to breed with, choosing those with exotic features and unique behavioral traits. Most Rezans are fairly appreciative of culture diversity and treat mixed-breed Rezans with full equality, though they typically look down on their breeding stock.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* In ''Literature/FlightOfTheGodkinGriffin'', the Godkindred Kingdom believe that by breeding many different species together they can become gods. Social status is determined by the number of species in one's genealogy.
* One of the [[FourthWallMailSlot Q&A sessions]] in ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' has a letter propose one of these after hearing of The Emperor's own creation. ''Everyone'' is creeped out by it, [[EveryoneHasStandards even the Custodes]].
* In ''Podcast/MetamorCity'', the Psi Collective organizes many of its members into polyamorous "breeding cells" in order to increase their numbers and the power of the next generation. Unfortunately, because one man can have children with several women at once, many weaker men such as Daniel are forbidden from forming cells while practically every woman with a pulse is encouraged to join one.

* Speaking of UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, the UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}n king Frederick William I was obsessed with tall soldiers and reportedly tried making more by breeding some of his "Potsdam Giants" with tall women.

* ''Literature/ReignOfTheSevenSpellblades'': While it isn't formalized in any way, the mage aristocracy often tries to breed more powerful mage children, which is part of [[BlueAndOrangeMorality the all-consuming societal drive to push the limits of magic]]. To that end, TeenPregnancy is tacitly encouraged by Kimberly Magic Academy, with mages third-year and up officially permitted to conceive children. This causes Nanao and Pete to start getting approached repeatedly for dates starting in volume 4, since both are [[MageBornOfMuggles Mages Born of Muggles]] with unique magical traits that could potentially be bred into a bloodline.

* A sidequest in ''VideoGame/{{Arcanum}}'' reveals that this is the origin of the Half-Ogre species. They were actually created by a GovernmentConspiracy of Gnomes who wanted an obedient and powerful race to serve as bodyguards for them, and to that end, created a horrible breeding program that secretly kidnapped human and elf women, and forcibly impregnated them with Ogre semen. The births were almost invariably fatal for the mother, and the program went through countless of victims who gave birth to sterile hybrids before enough Half-Ogres who could reproduce were born to create a viable gene pool, at which point the whole program was covered up. Attempts were made to impregnate female Ogres with human DNA, but this almost never led to pregnancy. Worse still, the evidence of the conspiracy is stolen, and the player has no way of proving what they found.

* ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': Part of the worldbuilding discusses the concept of "Quirk Marriages"; {{Arranged Marriage}}s made in hopes of producing an advantageous combination of Quirks in the resulting child(ren). These were popular in the generations before the present, though they are falling out of favor in the modern era. Shoto Todoroki is the result of one of these marriages and possesses both the [[YinYangBomb fire powers of his father and ice powers of his mother]]. His three elder siblings [[YinYangClash got much worse combinations and were declared failures]]. [[spoiler:This is part of the reason why Toya Todoroki snapped and became the villain Dabi.]]

* In RealLife, the eugenics movement is based on a disastrous misunderstanding of genetics combined with classism and racism. The hard truth is that it's just not possible to breed some sort of UltimateLifeForm by selecting for supposedly superior genes. Genetics do not work that way, evolution is not {{goal oriented|Evolution}} or organized along EvolutionaryLevels, and no human is objectively superior to any other. Unfortunately, a lot of people didn't realize this for much of the twentieth century, which led to such unpleasantries as UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates forcibly sterilizing around sixty thousand supposed "undesirables" (criminals, [[KillThePoor poor people]], [[DisposableSexWorker prostitutes]], TheMentallyDisturbed, etc.), and UsefulNotes/NaziGermany [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust massacring millions of its own "undesirables"]] (including nearly six million [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jews]]) to maintain a supposed Aryan MasterRace.

* The irony is in reality this trope is just about the exact opposite of what one would want in a healthy population. The smaller the gene pool, even when narrowed with the intent of promoting benign or desired traits, the higher the chance of disastrous inbreeding combinations that result in mental or physical deformities (just go to the trope RoyallyScrewedUp for a long list of examples). Not to mention increased vulnerability to diseases old and new. The fact selective breeding often seeks to promote exterior traits regardless of what consequences appear in the genome only exacerbates this. It's one reason why "purebred" dogs are almost always far less healthy than "mixed bred/mutts", the smaller gene pools can lead to harmful recessive traits cropping up more and more.
* Natural selection, itself, is essentially an automatic, undirected version of this trope, provided one defines "superior" merely as "more prone to leave descendants under extant conditions".

* ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'': The Bloodline King has one of these, and he forcibly kidnaps people to be used to breed bloodliner children. [[spoiler: These include Misty's older sisters.]]
* ''Fanfic/WishCarefully'': Death Eaters kidnapped a group of women to become the Cabal, to breathe in new life for their inbred bloodlines and ensure magically strong children.

* In the ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' CrackFic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10950522 Ozpin the Eugenicist]]'', the eponymous EccentricMentor breeds his students together so as to ensure humanity's future safety against [[AlwaysChaoticEvil the Grimm]]. Drugs are involved.
* In ''Fanfic/MandiesNewTarget'', [[WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents Princess Mandie]] explains Boudacians became so powerful through this. Since her father is not a Boudacian, her mother married a powerful member of another race so that her child could inherit his best traits. Seeing WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom in action, Mandie wants him as a lover and to breed supersoldiers. Danny [[AbhorrentAdmirer has no desire to be with her]] and rejects the idea of fathering evil planet conquerors.
* [[DarwinistDesire Endeavour]] in ''Fanfic/TotalCommand'' utilizes this just as much as [[GenderFlip her]] canon male self, treating Rei as a BabyFactory. When she sees Izuku's quirk in action, she drops her "past project" Shoko and tries to take his sperm to create a hero to surpass All-Might. Aware of the type of [[AbusiveParent person]] she really is, Izuku has absolutely no interest in being anywhere [[AbhorrentAdmirer near her]].