"A kingdom survives by steel at the gate, coin in the harbor, and knives where enemies never think to look."
— Saying attributed to the Wraiths of Draeven
Introduction
You were raised in the March of Draeven, a small but fiercely independent kingdom where the Crimson Gulf and the Shadowed Sea meet. Draeven thrives through maritime trade, diplomacy, craftsmanship, fortified cities, and a national temperament of pragmatism, resourcefulness, and quiet determination. Its people understand that a modest realm surrounded by larger ambitions must defend itself by every tool available: arms, ships, contracts, spies, secrets, and well-timed lies.
Description
The March of Draeven is a land of rugged coasts, shadowed forests, rolling hills, crag-built fortresses, and ports where fortunes are made in whispers as often as in ledgers. Its capital, Tenebral Hold, rises over the meeting of two dangerous seas, while Shadowport serves as its principal harbor and trade engine, alive with merchants, sailors, artisans, informants, and private bargains beneath lanternlight.
You were trained to protect Draeven’s sovereignty, whether through battlefield service, mercantile pressure, private contracts, harbor intelligence, sabotage, or covert action. You may have served the Harbor Guard, dealt with the Veiled Market’s merchant houses, fought alongside the Iron Shields, scouted with the Crimson Rangers, aided the Shadowed Fleet, or brushed against the hidden work of the Wraiths, Draeven’s unofficial covert arm. The Wraiths are known for espionage, counterintelligence, assassination, political manipulation, protection of secrets, and special operations carried out when conventional tools would fail.
You became an adventurer because Draeven does not wait for threats to arrive politely wearing heraldry. Perhaps you were sent abroad to protect trade interests, recover stolen secrets, sabotage a hostile power, track a traitor, negotiate an impossible deal, or discover who is quietly tightening a net around the March. Perhaps you are still loyal to the Council of Tenebral Lords. Perhaps you serve a merchant patron, a military commander, a noble house, or no one but Draeven itself.
Whatever your path, you understand a truth polite nations often deny: survival is not always clean, and independence rarely stays pure after the first knife is drawn.
Using This Background
This background is ideal for Rogues, Bards, Fighters, Rangers, Artificers, Warlocks, Paladins, Clerics, Monks, and Wizards who want ties to espionage, maritime trade, covert operations, mercantile power, national defense, privateering, sabotage, or morally gray patriotism.
A Draeven Veilguard might be:
- a Harbor Guard veteran protecting trade routes from pirates and foreign agents;
- a merchant-spy who weaponizes contracts as efficiently as daggers;
- a Wraith-adjacent operative sent to recover a stolen cipher;
- a privateer serving Draeven’s interests under deniable colors;
- an artisan’s agent hunting stolen designs or sabotaged shipments;
- a noble house fixer who knows too much;
- a patriotic rogue trying to decide where duty ends and corruption begins.
This background works especially well in campaigns involving trade wars, espionage, maritime intrigue, privateering, covert sabotage, stolen inventions, guild rivalries, noble politics, counterintelligence, and the oily little question of whether a nation can be defended in darkness without becoming a creature of it.
"Draeven is small only on maps. In ledgers, harbors, rumors, and graves, we are much larger."
— Anonymous saying from the Veiled Market
- Ability Scores: Draeven rewards adaptability, sharp judgment, controlled charm, and the nerve to act before stronger enemies finish gathering. Choose one:
- Dexterity +2, Charisma +1 for spies, privateers, duelists, agents, and covert troubleshooters
- Charisma +2, Intelligence +1 for merchants, negotiators, diplomats, blackmailers, and political operators
- Dexterity +1, Intelligence +1, Wisdom +1 for scouts, harbor investigators, counterintelligence agents, and strategic irregulars
- Feat: Your background grants one of the following feat options:
- Skilled
- Alert
At the DM’s discretion, Lucky, Actor, Tough, or Crafter may also fit Draeven merchants, infiltrators, privateers, artisans, or irregular fighters.
- Skill Proficiencies: Your upbringing emphasized practical defense, social cunning, commercial fluency, and the ability to act decisively when law, steel, and coin overlap.
Skill Proficiencies: Deception, Insight, Persuasion
- Tool Proficiencies: Your upbringing emphasized practical defense, social cunning, commercial fluency, and the ability to act decisively when law, steel, and coin overlap.
Tool Proficiencies: Thieves’ Tools, Navigator’s Tools, and one of Calligrapher’s Supplies, Forgery Kit, Disguise Kit, or one Gaming Set
- Languages: Your upbringing emphasized practical defense, social cunning, commercial fluency, and the ability to act decisively when law, steel, and coin overlap.
Languages: Common and two additional languages of your choice, often tied to trade partners, enemy courts, maritime routes, or covert work.
- Equipment: You begin with the following equipment:
- Dark traveler’s clothes, merchant attire, harbor leathers, or officer-styled field wear
- A Draeven trade seal, Harbor Guard token, noble house favor, merchant credential, or unmarked Wraith sign
- Thieves’ Tools or Navigator’s Tools
- A waterproof document case containing contracts, shipping notes, or coded correspondence
- A small ledger of debts, bribes, contacts, and favors
- A concealed dagger, utility blade, or compact sidearm
- A vial of invisible ink, cipher card, marked coin, or folded false identity paper
- A pouch containing 15 gp
|
d8 |
Origin |
|
1 |
You served in the Harbor Guard protecting Shadowport’s docks, warehouses, and trade routes. |
|
2 |
A merchant house trained you to win disputes through contracts, pressure, and quiet sabotage. |
|
3 |
You worked with the Wraiths once and were wise enough not to ask whether you had officially joined. |
|
4 |
You fought as an irregular, disrupting enemy supply lines and vanishing before the banners arrived. |
|
5 |
You uncovered a foreign attempt to manipulate Draeven’s markets or noble families. |
|
6 |
You were sent abroad to recover a stolen prototype, treaty, cipher, relic, or ship manifest. |
|
7 |
You protected a convoy through the Crimson Gulf and learned that pirates are often just politics with better hats. |
|
8 |
You left after discovering that one of Draeven’s protectors had become more dangerous than its enemies. |
| d8 | Draeven Veilguard Origin |
|---|---|
| 1 | You served in the Harbor Guard protecting Shadowport’s docks, warehouses, and trade routes. |
| 2 | A merchant house trained you to win disputes through contracts, pressure, and quiet sabotage. |
| 3 | You worked with the Wraiths once and were wise enough not to ask whether you had officially joined. |
| 4 | You fought as an irregular, disrupting enemy supply lines and vanishing before the banners arrived. |
| 5 | You uncovered a foreign attempt to manipulate Draeven’s markets or noble families. |
| 6 | You were sent abroad to recover a stolen prototype, treaty, cipher, relic, or ship manifest. |
| 7 | You protected a convoy through the Crimson Gulf and learned that pirates are often just politics with better hats. |
| 8 | You left after discovering that one of Draeven’s protectors had become more dangerous than its enemies. |
Your Draeven training taught you to read the intersection of commerce, force, and covert influence.
In ports, markets, noble courts, military camps, trade houses, guild districts, shipyards, smuggling dens, and border settlements, you can usually identify:
- who controls the money, who controls the weapons, and who controls the information;
- whether a dispute is truly about trade, military pressure, blackmail, smuggling, espionage, or political leverage;
- which merchants, guards, sailors, clerks, or informants are likely to know what is happening beneath the official story;
- where to find discreet lodging, forged papers, quiet passage, mercantile introductions, or someone willing to make a problem disappear from the records.
When you spend time observing a harbor, trade negotiation, fortified site, merchant dispute, convoy route, or courtly exchange, you can usually determine one useful truth: who is profiting from the tension, what supply line is vulnerable, where security is weakest, or what underhanded method someone is already using.
You may also seek modest aid from Draeven sailors, Harbor Guard veterans, merchants, artisans, informants, privateers, caravan factors, shadowy temple contacts, or former irregulars. Such help is rarely free. Draeveners do favors the way bankers write contracts: with room for interest.
Suggested Characteristics
| d6 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I count exits, witnesses, purses, weapons, and lies before ordering a drink. |
| 2 | I believe a fair deal is best, but an unfair deal is still information. |
| 3 | I prefer solving problems quietly before fools make them patriotic. |
| 4 | I never underestimate merchants, sailors, clerks, or servants. They hear everything. |
| 5 | I keep my promises, though I may interpret the wording with professional creativity. |
| 6 | I smile when people assume I am harmless. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sovereignty: Draeven must remain free, whatever larger powers desire. |
| 2 | Pragmatism: Clean hands are admirable. Effective hands are necessary. |
| 3 | Loyalty: The March protects its own, even from the dark corners of the map. |
| 4 | Profit: Wealth is a shield, a weapon, and occasionally a confession. |
| 5 | Secrecy: Some truths must be buried so the kingdom can keep breathing. |
| 6 | Balance: Force, trade, and covert action must serve survival, not vanity. |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I owe loyalty to a merchant house, naval captain, noble patron, handler, or hidden cell. |
| 2 | I carry a debt from Shadowport that has not yet found me. |
| 3 | I know a secret tied to Tenebral Hold, the Council, or the Wraiths. |
| 4 | I will not allow a foreign power to turn Draeven into a client state or battlefield. |
| 5 | A rival agent, pirate captain, guildmaster, or noble scion still wants me dead or useful. |
| 6 | I believe Draeven’s future depends on one dangerous truth remaining hidden—or revealed at exactly the right moment. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I can justify almost anything if I call it “necessary.” |
| 2 | I sometimes treat allies like assets instead of people. |
| 3 | I distrust honest declarations more than clever lies. |
| 4 | I keep too many secrets and forget which ones are mine to keep. |
| 5 | I am tempted to solve political problems with blackmail before diplomacy gets properly dressed. |
| 6 | I fear that protecting Draeven has made me less worthy of the kingdom I protect. |
Contacts
Your contacts may include Harbor Guard officers, Shadowed Fleet sailors, Wraith handlers, merchant factors, Veiled Market brokers, privateers, smugglers, caravan guards, noble stewards, cipher clerks, artisans, shipwrights, or priests of the Temple of the Veil. These contacts can provide passage, market intelligence, forged papers, coded messages, discreet lodging, contract leverage, rumors of foreign plots, or access to hidden trade routes. They may call themselves friends, partners, patriots, or creditors. In Draeven, the difference is often seasonal.
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