Well I never met anyone named after a fried potato product over here...
For such, assuming we are not considering the supernatural, etc., we are in the realm of epigenetics – " functionally relevant modifications to the genome that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence". Yes, your DNA is 'read' and becomes proteins which do things and make you who you are, BUT there are environmental and other factors that can effect how your proteins are expressed AND, most importantly, it's actually possible for factors that effect your protein expression BESIDES your DNA to be heritable. In other words, we used to believe that it was not possible for anything besides 'genes' to be passed on from parent to child, but that is known to be false.
I put 'genes' in quotes, because the original concept of a gene was an abstract one – the part of our body that defines who we are. Through the discovery of DNA and its role in protein expression, we came to define genes as nuceotide sequences. Since we've since learned that there are other factors that are heritable, I wonder if our common definition of what a gene is is still appropriate.
Anyway, how does this help us answer the question? Well, perhaps there is something about Legacy's first born that somehow uses up whatever is required to inherit powers. It would have to be pretty strange – something like the very first batch of sperm are carrying the powers and once shot, they're shot. Every single Legacy down the line would have had to successfully impregnated upon first ejaculation.
"Chip" is generally a nickname.
Well, to a non-Brit like me he all but announced his intention to have tea and crumpets after the dogfight.
"Crackin'" is not very American as slang. I don't know if it actually British.
Is he quite posh-sounding, then? I've not actually read his fluff text - I think I'm normally too busy getting my arse kicked :P.
Chip sounds to me like what Americans tend to think we British sound like.
"Cracking" is a thing we say occasionally, but it's not "stereotypically" British. If it said "spiffing" or "smashing" then I'd agree but "cracking" really doesn't say English fighter pilot to me and definitely doesn't seem right for the period his clothing suggests he's from. I don't think we can conclude he's English from that.
Ameena, the text is, "Why, hello there! Up for a crackin' dogfight?"
"Why, hello there! Up for a crackin' dogfight?"
That is totally what an American would imagine a Brit would say.
At least one American did.
L'Epeiste is clearly French, he even has a destroyed Effiel Tower in the background but no identifying marks for Chip, I guess not even the villains of the Sentinels' multiverse dare to touch England.
The crew of La Paradoja Magnifica are:
[list]
[] The Amazing Mable, Mable Griffin. The use of “sugar” in the flavor text sounds pretty American to me. She is a flying trapeze artist, which according to Wikipedia was introduced around 1860 in France.
[] Final Breath, Ishikawa Zenjirou Kagemune. Pretty obviously Japanese. Ronins were active in the feudal Japan period, 1185-1868.
[] Chip, Charles “Chip” Stevenson. Flight goggles, scarf, and gun look WWI or WWII.
[] L’Épéiste, Pierre le Vignierz. Obviously French, but “Vignierz” is a pretty wierd name to me; does anyone know more? The Eiffel Tower, which seems to be under construction in his background, was constructed 1887-1889.
[] Battle Forged, Orinn Haugen, Scandinavian. The Viking age was ~790-1066.
[] Trueshot, Khutulan Bekhi. The names are Mongolian, but I don’t know enough to say more.
[*] Siege-Breaker, Geremio Esaltazione del Signore. Spanish name, right? The glasses look a little anachronistic 
I thought it was obvious that Chip was British.
If the British don't think so then it wasn't that obvious.
Well, not necessarily; it's an American game, and so the characters, especially minor characters who need quick characterisation, would be designed to be obvious for Americans, which it apparently is, not for the British. If GTG put out a British hero (or villain), I imagine they would be a lot more well-rounded than Chip, but for a minor member of a crew meant to represent various nationalities and ages I'd say he was good enough at evoking Britain (though I hadn't realised he was one of ours until this thread).
I think 'smashing' has more global reach than 'cracking', which I've never heard a non-Brit say.
Chip is polite, uses good grammer and says a word that clearly isn't American. He's a Brit.
It is funny that he is so obviously Brittish to us Americans, and not at all to anyone Brittish.
Something about stereotypes and all of us learning something and getting along.
Take a look at the Hayes brothers in Silver Gultch, Matthew Hayes looks far more British than Chip, but as a memebr of the Hayes brothers there is no way he is British.
Hehe, I agree on Matthew Hayes - with his monocle and teacup he looks just like a stereotypical English posh guy...apart from the rifle and the fact he's part of a trio of Amercican, Wild West brothers ;).
The only example of the word "cracking" (no apostrophe) I can think of is Wallace, of Wallace and Gromit ("Cracking toast, Gromit!"). If Chip was supposed to be a posh English guy I'd expect there to be no apostrophe - "cracking" instead of "crackin'". Still, if >G decide to make an actual proper British character (English or otherwise), at least they have plenty of people here to ask about it, right? ;)
Hehe, I agree on Matthew Hayes - with his monocle and teacup he looks just like a stereotypical English posh guy...apart from the rifle and the fact he's part of a trio of Amercican, Wild West brothers ;).
That's a proper Western dandy, is all.
The phenomenon usually called "g-dropping" (which is really a misleading name) occurs (as far as I know) in all varieties of modern English at all registers, although at varying frequencies. See http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000878.html . That article mentions studies on American English, but I believe British dialects are similar in this regard.
Of course it's very weird for us to be speaking as though there were a single way British people speak, and, you know, not all people living in the UK are upper class with the nice tea cups.