[HELP] Modding the Family Tree

Hey all,

I've been trying to add a working family tree to the etruscan faction. However, no luck. I've tried a miriad of character combinations, however all lead to the same result. My characters simply do not exist.

I have my main character as a progenitor and faction leader. At that point he exists but if I get a wife she'll die within' a few turns.
If I set his political party to my rulling party. He disappears from the campaign.
I added one character per political party (3) and set each one to one of the parties. None exist in campaign and the political factions are instead populated by what I'm assuming to be placeholder characters.

I've checked the character's positions and they are all good (main character is supposed to be near Velathri, while the others have no position), there are no family relationships as of now since I only have one character per political party.

How do I make it so I can create a working family tree on a faction that was non-playable? Where did I go wrong?