You are in beautiful palace filled with revelry. The sounds of merriment echo around and you can’t help but feel the swell of pride that sweeps through you. A joyous grin begins to curl at your lips as you turn back to the familiar face sitting next to you. Their eyes glitter with laughter, their face flushed and exuberant. A moment of confusion flits through you as you realize that while you know them, you can’t recall their name. You go to say something to them, you don’t know what, but a chilling darkness rushes in just as the screams of terror rip through the cavernous hall. You’re able to witness the brief flash of horror in your companion’s eyes right before the scene changes.
As your vision returns, you find yourself chained to a cold stone wall. Your wrists ache and you can feel the dried blood from where the chains cut into them. As you frantically look around the almost pitch black cavern, you clock your still nameless, yet familiar, companion a few feet away. Their hands are also chained and their body slumped over as far as it could go, head lolled to the side staring up at you lifelessly. A sharp pain strikes you as you rip your eyes away, wishing you could erase the sight from your mind. Just as the thought flits through your head, the scene changes again and you find yourself stretched out on the ground staring up at a pair of cruel and malicious eyes. Their mouth is curled up in a smirk as different kind of pain rips through your mind.
You jolt awake in a cold sweat, your pulse racing. Was it a dream or a memory? It felt so real. As clarity of the waking world sets in, the details of your dream begin to fog over and frustration and emptiness fills you. Just another day of adventuring with no memory of your past beyond the day a few years back. You were found by a stranger in the middle of the forest, on the brink of death and your mind nearly shattered. With nothing but the clothing off your back and a bit of stranger hospitality you embarked on a quest to find out who you were, but you feel no closer now than the day you woke up. But it’s only a matter of time, right?
- Skill Proficiencies: You don't know how, or why, but some things come easier to you than others... (Pick any two skill proficiencies)
- Tool Proficiencies: In the days after you awoke from near death, you were wandering through the nearby market and found yourself drawn toward a shop, and a toolkit/gaming set/instrument for sale in it in particular. (Choose one toolkit, gaming set, or instrument proficiency)
- Languages: While you already knew Common and the language of your kind (if one exists), one day a few weeks after you’d begun your new life, you overheard a strange conversation in an even stranger language you didn’t realize you had also known. (Choose any one Exotic language)
- Equipment: After you woke in a set of bloody and almost destroyed clothes, you were given a clean set of common clothes. You also discovered hidden upon your person was a dagger, a coin pouch containing 10 gold pieces, a notebook written in a code that you can almost remember, and a small trinket from your past that may or may not be pivotal to your forgotten history.
Although you have no memory, you are not a completely blank slate. Certain mannerisms and behaviors persist, even though you don't remember their point of origin.
| d8 | Quirks and Impulses |
|---|---|
| 1 | Resigned. You have an overwhelming feeling that it’s just best to resign yourself to failure or contentment. You don't have a natural urge to achieve or to change your circumstances, you just let the world be. Whether you become comfortable in this feeling or fight it is up to you in the end. |
| 2 | Wanderlust. For whatever reason, the moment you woke up you felt the need to travel and get away. Perhaps it was a spark of curiosity or maybe even fear that compelled you to keep moving on from town to town. The moment you begin to settle into a place, a restlessness begins to unsettle you and unless you learn to curb this impulse, you will feel the need to move on again. |
| 3 | Pious. You find yourself easily convinced by religious figures and messages. You are more likely to believe a religious person over a non-religious one. Evidently, you were quite the devout in your past, although you might now have a fresh perspective on the consequences of such thinking now that you're starting with a clean slate. |
| 4 | Prejudiced. You have no idea why, but you started noticing that your feelings toward certain kinds of people or types of creatures were immediately skewed without reason. Perhaps in your previous life you were scorned by one and it left you bitter. Or perhaps there was no rhyme or reason, and you simply did not like them. Regardless, it is your choice in the present to either embrace it or reject it. |
| 5 | Regimented. Whether you were military, a nobleman, or for some other reason, you find yourself always speaking in a formal manner. This is especially true of when you speak to people whom you see as superior to you. Your posture is also very rigid and it seems almost hard to relax at times. |
| 6 | Forgiving. You aren’t sure why, but a part of you is very quick to forgive those who have wronged you. You believe in your heart that everyone is deserving of a second chance. This could ultimately steer you very right or very wrong. Perhaps you will come to distrust your own intuition, however, if things go wrong one too many times. |
| 7 | Vindictive. You have no room for betrayal in your heart. Those who wrong you earn a place on your eternal shit list. Second chances will only end up with them stabbing you in the back again. By nature you are already distrustful of others and it takes a lot for you to push that initial reaction down to actually get to know a person. |
| 8 | Curious. Perhaps in your life before you were a scholar of some sorts because you have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. When you discover something you don’t understand you feel compelled to do everything you can to learn the when, where, why and how of it all. This can be rather exhausting considering you don’t know much about anything after all. |
In your travels you see a lot of unfamiliar places and faces, but occasionally you'll find yourself perhaps staring into the eyes of someone or walking past a shop or maybe even just looking out over the landscape and a spark of familiarity will zing through you. When this occurs you can make a Wisdom (Insight) check (with a DC set by your DM) to try and recall the memory further. Depending on failure or success, you can either fail to remember anything, have slight flashes of memory, or even a full-blown flashback. You can make this check only twice per character level. (It would be best to discuss the details of these potential occurrences with your DM beforehand)
Suggested Characteristics
Our pasts are often are what shape and mold us into what we are, but you have no past. At least not one you can recollect yet. So it is the the memories you do have and perhaps even the lack of memories itself that has begun to shape the person you are.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I come up with a new story of who I was every time I am asked. |
| 2 | I get constant headaches when I want to think about my past. |
| 3 | I am sullen and quiet, as I often feel homesick for a life I can’t remember. |
| 4 | I am constantly adding notes to a diary of new things I remember from my past, looking for connections between entries. |
| 5 | I struggle with social interaction and try to mimic the mannerisms and behavior of those around me to try and blend in. |
| 6 | I try to meet as many people as I can, hoping someone will finally remember me. |
| 7 | Everything is quite frightening and I can't help but be jumpy. The possibility that whoever hurt me is lurking just around the corner never fully leaves my mind. |
| 8 | I see the world with eyes like a child. Everything is new and wonderful, while I may not remember who I am, I know who I could become. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Truth. I want to know what's real, and not just about my past, but the world and people around me as well. (Any) |
| 2 | Heart. Although I woke as a blank slate, my first act was to rescue a trapped animal. There must be inherent kindness in people, even if hidden deeply. (Good) |
| 3 | Merciless. I can't hurt the ones who stole my past from me, so I will take my anger out on anyone who makes even the slightest infraction against me. (Evil) |
| 4 | Freedom. No memories means nothing holding me back or tying me down. I have no worries or obligations and I prefer it that way. (Neutral) |
| 5 | Destiny. Something greater than myself set me on this path and it is my duty to see it through to the end, regardless of whatever struggles I have gone through or will go through. (Lawful) |
| 6 | Intrigue. I don't know anything and there's a kind of beauty in that when it means endless possibilities on the horizon. (Chaotic) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I was taken in by strangers that helped me get back on my feet. I owe them everything. |
| 2 | The familiar face from my dream haunts me and I will stop at nothing to find out who they were and why they were killed. |
| 3 | I wandered away from where I woke up the first time and couldn't find my way back. There may be answers there I missed. |
| 4 | I can only go to sleep while clutching my trinket, one of the only things that ties me to my unknown past. |
| 5 | I desperately want to find something to dedicate my life to, a purpose. |
| 6 | I cling to the relationships I've made, because I never know how long we'll have together or if something will happen to make me forget them. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I'm terrified of who I might have been and refuse to acknowledge what's been left behind. |
| 2 | I overthink everything, anxious about the person I might become. |
| 3 | I will latch onto anything that will provide me at least an idea of who I was, even if it's an obvious trap. |
| 4 | Every time I hit a dead end in learning of my past, I mentally shut down for a bit. |
| 5 | The vices of the world seem so wonderful and new to me and I end up overindulging more often then not. |
| 6 | I have trouble keeping my true feelings hidden. My sharp tongue lands me in trouble. |
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