I'm looking to get some input for my young mage's background - Anaria Stillborn.
I'd love some general feedback, but I'd be particularly interested in finding an appropriate township for the first part of my story as it'd seem like a very very bad idea to end up back there on accident. It'd be amazing if said township which is founded while Jergal was still the big boss of bad things and had lore precedence mentioning a small temple to Kelemvor.
My thought is to have a Lawful Neutral Mage turn Necromancer or at least tend to favour spells from said school, not because of conscious choice, but because it seems easier to her somehow.
The name “Stillborn” isn’t the family name Anaria was given as a child, but the name the Priest Armonius at the village temple of Kelemvor gave her. As the story goes, he found her lying by side of the path, tucked in among the thistles. He immediately assumed she was an abandoned stillborn that her unfortunate parents had left close by the temple for burial that they probably couldn’t have afforded. However, at his first touched, life sprang into the child as an orange tint crept into her wide-open, dark brown eyes.
Armonius had taken Anaria into his care and tutored her well in a wide range of subjects, spanning from History, Languages and Theology to practical applications of the herbs growing in the woods around the temple. The two acolytes of the temple, who served as gravediggers and novice scribes, tended to be less broad in their lessons focusing diligently on the doctrines of Kelemvor, teachings which the young orphan had difficulty making her own.
On occasion Anaria would sneak into the cellars of the temple where the older texts were kept in store next to broken tools, barrels and broken cart wheels - she’d always felt that Armonius was encouraging her to explore, perhaps not the wilds or the world, but her mind and it seemed almost a secret between the two which became clearer as she read through the piles of moldy scrolls. Stories of an older God, Jergal, arcane texts on a variety of spells and even a clearly propagandistic text declaring even the most hated school of magic to be mere tools in the pursuit .. not all the text were strictly speaking legible, complete or in prime condition.
It was one such text, in an older and unfamiliar dialect Anaria had read the evening before she was to be made an acolyte at age 10 in the temple, as part of the initiation she was to prepare a recently deceased for burial while his mourning wife and son, a cleric of Torm. At the end of the ritual, the young girl having lost all focus on the task at hand, started mumbling the words from the scrolls she’d read, trying to recall, make sense of and to understand the meaning behind. While she mumbled, the same words over and over, she moved to brush away the hair of the dead man from his forehead, in the instant she touched him his eyes opened and he gasped out the name of his wife in obvious agony. Everyone in the room was clearly taken by surprise and Anaria probably most of all. This was the first time she’d ever done anything beyond merely making a few sparks fly about the air. Armonius quickly and assuredly grabed hold of Anaria and dragged her to her room, slammed the door and left. Later that night, Anaria woke to find the temple a blaze, with a strong hand pulling her out of bed by her hair. The Cleric had returned, with more men, all in armor wielding swords. On the way out she saw the two acolytes who’d helped raise her, they’d been put to the sword in the main room of the temple, now nothing more than corpses lying in pools of crimson that reflected the dancing orange light of the flames tearing through the roof. Outside the priest was already strung up by his neck, struggling in vain in the last moments of his life. A noose was prepared next to his and Anaria was put in place next to her, it was beyond reason to think she could struggle, and short after she was gasping as the men rode away.
The morning after Anaria awoke, her neck felt like it had been burned and her head was pounding. The branch had broken, shortly after she had lost consciousness it seemed and the fall had not been kind, but kinder at least than death. She had to leave, there was no reason to believe that the men from the village would be any more forgiving today than they had the night before - on the old priest, Anaria found a letter, and a few coins, the charred temple didn’t offer much either. The letter became Anaria’s mission, decrypting its’ meaning could hold answers about the truth of Jergal, arcane secrets or even just a journal of sorts that would bring her some consolement in the loss of the man that gave her life. A few months later, Anaria had arrived at the Blackstaff tower, an Arcane library and taken up apprenticeship there.
That was 2 years ago - no answers were found there, despite her relentless search. The now 16-year-old left in hopes of finding an alternate way of uncovering the meaning of the letter.
I don't know about on desktop - but on mobile people can't view the description or notes page on characters. You would have to paste the backstory in this forum post.
Background and notes are not visible on the shared character sheet currently (in any form, not just mobile!) If you'd like to share you can copy-paste it into the forums for us to read.
Hi,
I'm looking to get some input for my young mage's background - Anaria Stillborn.
I'd love some general feedback, but I'd be particularly interested in finding an appropriate township for the first part of my story as it'd seem like a very very bad idea to end up back there on accident. It'd be amazing if said township which is founded while Jergal was still the big boss of bad things and had lore precedence mentioning a small temple to Kelemvor.
My thought is to have a Lawful Neutral Mage turn Necromancer or at least tend to favour spells from said school, not because of conscious choice, but because it seems easier to her somehow.
The name “Stillborn” isn’t the family name Anaria was given as a child, but the name the Priest Armonius at the village temple of Kelemvor gave her. As the story goes, he found her lying by side of the path, tucked in among the thistles. He immediately assumed she was an abandoned stillborn that her unfortunate parents had left close by the temple for burial that they probably couldn’t have afforded. However, at his first touched, life sprang into the child as an orange tint crept into her wide-open, dark brown eyes.
Armonius had taken Anaria into his care and tutored her well in a wide range of subjects, spanning from History, Languages and Theology to practical applications of the herbs growing in the woods around the temple. The two acolytes of the temple, who served as gravediggers and novice scribes, tended to be less broad in their lessons focusing diligently on the doctrines of Kelemvor, teachings which the young orphan had difficulty making her own.
On occasion Anaria would sneak into the cellars of the temple where the older texts were kept in store next to broken tools, barrels and broken cart wheels - she’d always felt that Armonius was encouraging her to explore, perhaps not the wilds or the world, but her mind and it seemed almost a secret between the two which became clearer as she read through the piles of moldy scrolls. Stories of an older God, Jergal, arcane texts on a variety of spells and even a clearly propagandistic text declaring even the most hated school of magic to be mere tools in the pursuit .. not all the text were strictly speaking legible, complete or in prime condition.
It was one such text, in an older and unfamiliar dialect Anaria had read the evening before she was to be made an acolyte at age 10 in the temple, as part of the initiation she was to prepare a recently deceased for burial while his mourning wife and son, a cleric of Torm. At the end of the ritual, the young girl having lost all focus on the task at hand, started mumbling the words from the scrolls she’d read, trying to recall, make sense of and to understand the meaning behind. While she mumbled, the same words over and over, she moved to brush away the hair of the dead man from his forehead, in the instant she touched him his eyes opened and he gasped out the name of his wife in obvious agony. Everyone in the room was clearly taken by surprise and Anaria probably most of all. This was the first time she’d ever done anything beyond merely making a few sparks fly about the air. Armonius quickly and assuredly grabed hold of Anaria and dragged her to her room, slammed the door and left. Later that night, Anaria woke to find the temple a blaze, with a strong hand pulling her out of bed by her hair. The Cleric had returned, with more men, all in armor wielding swords. On the way out she saw the two acolytes who’d helped raise her, they’d been put to the sword in the main room of the temple, now nothing more than corpses lying in pools of crimson that reflected the dancing orange light of the flames tearing through the roof. Outside the priest was already strung up by his neck, struggling in vain in the last moments of his life. A noose was prepared next to his and Anaria was put in place next to her, it was beyond reason to think she could struggle, and short after she was gasping as the men rode away.
The morning after Anaria awoke, her neck felt like it had been burned and her head was pounding. The branch had broken, shortly after she had lost consciousness it seemed and the fall had not been kind, but kinder at least than death. She had to leave, there was no reason to believe that the men from the village would be any more forgiving today than they had the night before - on the old priest, Anaria found a letter, and a few coins, the charred temple didn’t offer much either. The letter became Anaria’s mission, decrypting its’ meaning could hold answers about the truth of Jergal, arcane secrets or even just a journal of sorts that would bring her some consolement in the loss of the man that gave her life. A few months later, Anaria had arrived at the Blackstaff tower, an Arcane library and taken up apprenticeship there.
That was 2 years ago - no answers were found there, despite her relentless search. The now 16-year-old left in hopes of finding an alternate way of uncovering the meaning of the letter.
I don't know about on desktop - but on mobile people can't view the description or notes page on characters. You would have to paste the backstory in this forum post.
A Graduation to be Remembered | A Village Bathed in Crimson
Hi Xiio,
Background and notes are not visible on the shared character sheet currently (in any form, not just mobile!) If you'd like to share you can copy-paste it into the forums for us to read.
Arh, sorry - Background added above