Nicol Bolas wannabe?

If I'm being honest I have no idea who that is

Magic: The Gathering dragon-god thing.

Oh ok

For three months now, I have been hearing voices calling me to the forbidden caves just outside of town. A new adventuring crew just rolled into town bragging about how they plan to plunder the caves. I think I'll go with them to figure out what it is that has been driving me mad.

In the community of Rock Gnomes where I grew up I was known as something of a locksmith and inventor but my true love was with magic and music. I studied the magical melodies and sonic vobrations of the world and created a fantastical instrument I called the cosmic key which should allow me to manipulate the world and even open portals to other worlds. An undead warlord stole it but left me alive and now I need to find a few rare items and odds and ends to build a new one, luckily I have the prototype to work with.

*Rough idea for Gwildor from He-Man, probably a bard using a Hurdy-Gurdy style instrument and focusing spells on teleportation effects.

1) I grew up in a happy, well-adjusted family.

2) My family, friends, and the village/town/city where I grew up are all still alive.

3) I left to become an adventurer because life was exceedingly dull!

I was dared to spend a night in the haunted ruins of a local castle and after finding a way inside I spent the night in a cobweb covered room that looked have once been a bedroom. I was plagued with dreams where I had to wake a sleeping Prince whose nightmares came to life and tried to kill him, another where I had to provoke a King's bodyguards into attacking him and another where I had to offer emotional support to a Lord who was being verbally assaulted by a drunken soldier. It was all rather weird but I awoke in the morning and found a staff by my side and a voice ringing in my ears that said "And as for you, my little mortal minion... Feel free to keep the staff as a symbol of my... Oh, just take the damn thing."

*Another idea clipped from a Skyrim quest, the staff is an Arcane spell focus and probably means the character is either a Sorcerer or Warlock.

Left for dead by our families, with no name or crest on city outskirts. A noble Guardian of the city found me and trained me. I hope to find my home again someday.

I was born of a tribe of Beast-People known as the Lutrai (otterfolk), my mother was full blooded lutrai and my father was a white tiger Leonid.

I was kidnapped on the eve of my 13th birthday and taken to the temple of one of the two gods worshipped on my island where I was chained to an altar top and through a ceremony, was forced into a pact with the very same God; no idea of the terms of the contract.

I am 34 now, and all I can remember from that night is that one of my captors, despite being hooded, let slip the sight of a floral tattoo on the left side of their muzzle.... My mother had this same marking

Leonid Warlock?

Quote from KyrneGnomeBarbarian >>

Leonid Warlock?

 I think Leonid is a Magic The Gathering reference, look at leonin from the Mythic Odessys of Theros book. Otterfolk are also a MTG reference and in the current meta of the MTG CCG all I can say is "Not Otters again!"

A Goliath man with a deep connection to his clan. A gnomish man imperialized the mountains and forced clan to work underneath his circus. Goliath man fought to protect family and now is a wanted criminal, family still working beneath circus.

(Before I joined D&D, my friends made me the deity of their in-game religion, and convinced me to join to play him in mortal form)

Ascended to be the Gatekeeper of the Heavens thousands of years ago, with the job of maintaining peace in the world by taking a mortal form. Overslept on the last scheduled Peacemaking, everything is more messed up than usual and there's a new cheese god. Now I need to fight evil black misty goo with a bunch of idiots.

I used to be an adventurer. Then I took an arrow to the knee. I am still an adventurer, because you can almost always fully  recover in Dungeons & Dragons.

I was just a street urchin when the wizard came to town with his wagon full of fireworks and when I saw them lighting up the sky I vowed to have my very own wagon full of goodies. I am no longer a street urchin and I have my own wagon and even a donkey to pull it but alas I have no fireworks, just the found and cast off items, weapons and armour of bandits, soldiers and various other ne'er do wells that I have scavenged on my travels. Some may call me a hoarder but I prefer to think of myself as a travelling smithy and monger of things both mundane and fantastical...well...I may embellish the histories of some items a little.

Any race, Folk hero in place of Urchin for background as it gives the animal handling and vehicle skills we need in addition to blacksmithing tools and then whatever class floats your preverbial boat but some sort of access to the mending and prestidigitation cantrips would be useful to spruce up any items we find on our travels so we can sell them as "used but good as new" and I am leaning toward some sort of access to Animate Dead so you can, with DM permission, raise the donkey as a zombie when it inevitably dies.

grew up in the hood. slip became a thief because he could not get a job. met a party and fought yeenoghu!

I Jeremiah, am a Alligatorfolk (Lizardfolk), and was born in the bayou. My mama taught me voodoo, and how to cook. I travel the lands in search of a good monster meals and my murderous brother

I never knew my parents, who passed away years before my birth. A kind necromancer took me in. Now I am a marvelous chef.

I found a strange tree with long forgotten prehistoric bones littering its roots growing in a sunless cavern. After eating of the trees fruit I felt an ancient and alien power well up inside my bones. Whenever I feel overcome with rage and anger, that prehistoric force twists and bends my bones and hardens my flesh with scales to mimic its long dead shape and I harness that savage power to slaughter my enemies. 

(Barbarian who transforms into a dinosaur monster whenever he rages.)