So this is partially backstory, and partially a summary of events from several different adventures, ("Forge of Fury", "Tomb of Annihilation", and "Dead in Thay") which the DM had woven elements of her story into the subsequent adventures.
(Commission work a copyrighted creation of Clayscence)
Since her early days, Arnara was expecting to become a sonalta, (an elvish equivalent to a lady in waiting) for an elven family, when tragedy struck. A hobgoblin horde invaded the Misty Forest, killing many, including the elven woman that she was originally to be placed with. Among the dead included number of cousins, and now has found herself inline to become the next Matriarch in the house in several hundred years; a role that neither her father or herself, desired for her to become. Since that invasion, a band of heroes emerged and defeated the horde. They then stayed in the forest for three months before departing. During that time she became a temporary Sonalta to one of the members of that band, an Aasimar named Myrai, who was from Sigil, the City of Doors. Myrai told her stories of the world and the planes beyond her forest, intriguing her. They in the short time forged a close bond with each other. Myrai was compelled to leave several years ago and Arnara has heard no word from her since.
Since then, inspired by Myrai's exploits she took up the art of Bladesong. Recently, Arnara worked up the courage to leave the Misty Forest and explore the world around here, and as Myrai put it:
"Know the universe by experiencing it fully. The senses form the path to truth, for the multiverse doesn't exist beyond what can be sensed."
She left on a errand to Baron Alton near the Spine of the World. Partially to forge ties with other noble houses and partially to avoid her father's constant demands to groom her as the leader of House Ustina. She then joined up with some adventures to help recover forged works from the fortress of Khundrukar and emerged as the group's defacto leader. Afterwards, she stopped in Mirabar, where she and others of her party were approached to find the "Soulmonger" hidden in the Chult, and stop its affects on the raised souls in Faerun. During her journey through the jungles of Chult, she discovered that a Coven of Night Hags made a misshapen clone of her, cut off from the weave and that continually learns what she knows. After defeating the Archlich, she returned to the Misty forest with her Clone. This 2nd Arnara, is currently residing there, trying to hold onto her sanity, while Arnara searched for a way to separate the two.
This led her and a band of adventurers to Thay, in search of necromantic secrets squirreled away by the Zulkir, Szass Tam in a place known as "the Doomvault." There she found penned in a "Tome of the Stilled Tongue" information that may save herself and her clone, before its too late.
I'm a new player and I haven't even played a session yet, but I know a little bit about d&d and made a couple of characters. Here is one that I really like, my blind monk Russ Clearstrength(I got inspiration from the random name gen), just a basic short sad backstory but I still enjoyed making it :)
I was naturally born blind, but as I grew up, my mother was killed by the tyrant as a pawn, and I came to I understand that I needed to get stronger to be able to protect the ones I loved, and so, on my 18th birthday, I set out on my own to prove my worth so I may come back and overthrow the tyrant that took over my home. On my journey, I met an odd group of men who were very helpful, they offered to bless me with power in exchange for my help in the future should they need it, I agreed, and they gave me the ability of echolocation.
For those few poor souls who make it all the way to my post, here are some stats of Russ (when creating him, I made him lvl 20 so I could get a feel for how both low lvl and high lvl stuff worked)
As a young man from the SwordCoast, Tamen grew up on the open sea as a fisherman on his fathers boat. Taman was well equipped for long fishing trips. Tamen and his father Taman would often spend weeks fishing the coast. As his father grew older, Tamen would often take trips on his own. When his father fell ill to the black lung, the trips stopped as Tamen stayed to take care of his father. When Taman succumbed to his illness, Tamen swore off the sea and focused on a life in the underground’s of SwordCoast. Learning he was good with a sword he made a name for himself as a duelist—not shy of taking the life of his foes. One particular night he met a man he had never encountered in SwordCoast before. A man by the name of René d’Herbley. A man of class, extravagantly dressed with fine clothing and a master swordsman. René aka Aramis realized the potential in Tamen, and for the next 5 years took him under his tutelage, and groomed him into a man of class and sword play. When Aramis left, Tamen was left with an emptiness and longing for something. He returned to the sea on various ships until he found his home among the crew on Queen Anne’s Revenge under the Capt. By the name of Black Beard. Tamen further honed his skills with the blade for years on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Among swordplay Tamen also picked up skills suited to a life of a Pirate. With Black Beards blessing, Tamen left the crew to find another path in life more suited to his virtues Aramis instilling him. Honor, pride, and of course All For One, And One For All.
I'm brand new to D&D/role play and know pretty much nothing about specific characters, world history, or geography in D&D so I hope to develop the characters further as I learn more. I hope to use the following character in my first campaign, and uncover more about him by doing so. Hope you enjoy! :)
Name: Tal, Friend of Breeze Race: Goliath. Class: Bard
Tal was born into a nomadic Goliath clan in the Tusk mountains. The youngest of his siblings and runt of his clan, Tal had to earn everything from the clothes on his back to the food on his plate. This clan, like many Goliath clans, appreciated strength, independence, and a devotion to survival above all else. There was little room for pleasures beyond a warm fire and hot meal amongst his people. There were few songs sung, prayers prayed, and warm embraces. His days were mostly a routine of survival and loss. As a child, Tal witnessed the deaths of many of his brothers and sisters due to the harsh conditions in the mountains and the beasts that inhabited them.
Tal would have lived and died in those mountains knowing nothing of the outside world had it not been for a few interactions that set him on a different path. As harsh winters passed in the icy peaks, further down the mountain, trade routes opened up.Tal on a few occasions would see and hear the merriment of travelers passing through; their songs echoing through the mountain sides, as his clan watched at a distance. This new perspective set a flurry of questions rushing through Tal's mind. Who were those people? Where were they going? Why were they so care free? And why did it make him feel the same for a brief moment?
As Tal continued to grow and live the same taxing life day in and day out, he would ask more questions while thinking back to those traveling through the mountains. When he could, Tal would dream up the world below the mountains; dream of the people and places not shaded with cold cloud cover, people that sang and danced and laughed. Like water slowly defeating stone so too did Tal's dreams defeat his sense of reality.
It was shortly after Tal's 15th winter, and rite into manhood, he decided he would no longer dream of the world below, but instead escape to it and witness it for himself. The clan had few that ever left it. While the Goliath often acted alone and in self-serving ways, the clan had a kinship that ran deep and a loyalty to the life of survival. To walk away from the clan would be the same as to die dishonorably in their eyes. While Tal respected many in his clan, loved and had a deep loyalty to a few even, his curiosity and desire to be with song, laughter, and joy drove him to plan his leave.
Tal told two of his closest siblings, Tor and Qelin, of his plan. They warned him of the consequences- if he were to not perish out on his own and somehow return to find the clan there would be no home for him here. After giving their warnings the siblings offered their blessings and asked Tal to pay them a visit if he were to survive his journey. It was that same night Tal set out to find the world below that awaited. He took the only path he knew which was the same route the travelers took through the mountains. As he descended through the clouds and began to see the flat lands that hugged the mountain edge - leading back to a horizon just starting to embrace first light - Tal viewed this new world with bright eyes and said under his breath "Hello breeze. Ride my back for we are moving forward."
After passing through the mountain valleys and adjusting to the warmer climate in the shadow of the mountain, Tal encountered his first village. Acting mainly as an observer Tal watched the people go about their work and daily routines. While the village was not as cruel and unforgiving as the mountain top, the people moved and acted a lot closer to that of Tal's clan than the partying band of travelers he expected everyone to be.
He was met with odd looks as he wandered, but rarely was troubled due to his size and race. There was quite a bit of adjusting to the culture and customs of the people below the mountain. Tal learned quickly that food was plenty and not to be simply taken, and people friendly and not to be barked at in the manner in which he was used to. It was a slow process but Tal started to soften, putting down his defenses, and opened up to more people. His curiosity was unleashed and he began to learn daily.
After months of struggling to adapt and earn his way on his own, Tal one day was struck by the sound of music coming from the other side of the village. Tal leapt at the opportunity to find its source. As he grew closer he saw a crowd gathered. He heard the slow strumming of an instrument foriegn to his ears, and a ballad being sung. The people danced and laughed as the music filled the air. He made his way to the front of the crowd and was met by the smile of the man performing for the people.
As the musician put away his instruments Tal approached him. The man turned, and again greeted Tal with a smile. Through conversation Tal learned the man to be named Trask Evland, a bard and adventurer in his own right. Trask wore the same warm smile as he told Tal of his journeys and then asked to hear of Tal's. As Tal spoke, Trask recognized the spark in Tal's eyes when he described hearing music for the first time. At the end of Tal's tale Trask was set into a ponder. As Trask came to the end of his thinking he extended his hand and offered to take Tal with him and show him more of the life that lay at the feet of the mountain.
After Tal's approval the two set off further and further away from Tal's past, and with it came the sights and sounds that Tal couldn't have dreamt up. Trask introduced Tal to many instruments and taught him the songs passed down to him. Tal practiced daily, yearning to offer up songs of his own one day.
After years of moving across the land giving humble people the opportunity to hear song, dance, and smile, Trask and Tal came to the end of their journey together. Trask described his mission to be a disciple of music and spread its joys, and believed Tal to be ready to head off on his own to find his calling. Trask left for the west and in his parting words said "You are now a true friend of breeze, Tal. I hope you both find wherever it is you wish to be."
As time away from home accumulated and the experiences that came with it added, Tal found his calling. He, with his love of music and blossoming heart, would travel the land seeking those of all fortunes - the rich and poor, bright and bleak - and be the joy they might possibly need.
Born into his tribe through the exceptionally strong bloodline of the Kiati clan, Goliath "Hard-body" Kiati discovered his chieftains nefarious plans to sell his own tribe into servitude, disgracing all values integral to Goliath society. Seeking to overthrow the chieftain in accordance with Goliath laws, Todd challenged his chief directly in level combat, an irrevocable ritual held sacred, spelling exile for the loser as well as disgrace for their clan. Todd was mortally wounded and consequently defeated by unlawful means at the hands of Dwayne "the rock" Johnson his chieftain. Left to fend for himself in the cold, his family shunned, Todd starved to the point of death was found and rescued by a roaming wood elf monk by the name of Earendil. Who believes himself to have been guiding by the universe to aid Todd for some unknown purpose. Studying under Earendil, Todd learned the ways of monkhood, and now wanders in search of enlightenment and purpose beyond the worldly burden of his rage and sorrow. He is constantly haunted by the conflict of his newfound responsibility to accept his circumstance with compassion and forgiveness as an agent of cosmic balance in a dark world, and the responsibility he feels to his doomed kin to redeem his clan, liberate his people, and destroy "the rock".
Once a young merchant in a Goblinoid community, Jaak shared a passionate romance with a local beautiful Hobgoblin female. beautiful she was, so much so that she became the distant obsession of their Hobgoblin war-chief Aku. Though it was only a matter of time before Aku Declared it his right to claim her as his own. Refusing to submit to Aku's tyranny, Jaak and Sargulesh defected, and into the night ran away to the far east land of Kara-Tur. They settled in a village that lie in the shadow of the IKuyu Mountains. A village whose daimyo, seeing an opportunity in the Hobgoblins' brute strength and tenacity, taught Jaak the ways of the eastern warrior, proclaimed him protector of the village, and provided him refuge. for several years Jaak and Sargulesh lived in peace with their two young children, with the exception of the usual bandit invasion against which Jaak would easily defend his village. one day a goblin merchant caravan came through the village, as rare as this was it was not unheard of, and was dismissed by Jaak as such. Approximately a month later a horde of goblins, hobgoblins, wargs and the like raided the village, laying waste to everything in site. Jaak was ambushed in the jungle nearby, cut open, left to die, and his left eye plucked out of his skull with a message of scorn for having inconvenienced Aku by forcing him to travel so far in order to exact punishment for Jaak's apostasy. Jaak would not know of the annihilation of his village until he regained consciousness, either by luck or divine interference. Jaak discovered the village in ruins, as well as his wife and children dead. Jaak traveled back to his birthplace to end the dishonorable life of Aku, though as skilled a warrior as he was, was not able to defeat an entire commune of adversaries. He was left alive this time, as a cruel joke, to live alone in his misery. Jaak now travels as a sword for hire, for the purpose of finding ever stronger warriors to fight develop his skills against, he will eventually return to Aku and kill him once and for all.
I've never been fond of the overdone "vengeance driven edgelord with a tragically harrowing past" stereotype, but with my latest character I decided to go as explicitly far away from that concept as I can manage without playing a clone of Piffany from Nodwick. Piffany may have still been a slight inspiration, albeit a hyperbolic one (I sometimes base characters on an at least slightly absurd concept then say "Okay, now how do I dial this back a bit to make it a non-joke character that will be fun to play for longer than a half an hour?"). The concept I started from was "super cheerful and positive minded teenage church girl." I just recently found a game to join and pitched this idea to the DM in our private session zero-ish discussion (the game was already two sessions in and he had to figure out how to insert my character in addition to going over the usual rules, setting, etiquette, etc). He liked the idea but warned me that such a character would present some roleplaying challenges as the setting is a bit dark with the hook of the party being recruits in the army of their nation, Solstice, in a long running war with the nearby nation of Fravia. I said that was great, as one of the big reasons I want to play this type of character is to see how well I can keep her positive in the face of the various dark, gritty, and violent situations that adventurers often encounter. And so Sister Serena, priestess of Pelor was born.
Serena was born to a family of fishermen on the island nation of Solstice. It isn't out of the ordinary for human children to be born with bright golden blonde hair, but Serena's matching golden lips and bright yellow eyes that literally sparkle were immediately noteworthy. Nobody seems to know where her celestial heritage comes from or when it entered her bloodline, but it seems to be at least a generation or two back, probably much longer, since she inherited the freckles scattered about her milky pale complexion (that never seems to tan or burn in the sun) from her father's side of the family. Serena had a simple and generally unexciting yet still pleasant childhood, mostly spent playing with other young kids in the dockside neighborhood her family called home. She was always a pleasant and kind child, usually very well behaved although she was occasionally prone to bouts of what her parents called "orneriness." Despite general adherence to faith in the gods and formal religious practice being in a long, steady decline in Solstice (largely attributed to discontent associated with the long ongoing war with the nearby nation of Fravia) Serena's family remained faithful, possibly in no small part because of her mere presence serving as a reminder that they themselves had at least a trace of celestial essence within them. When Serena turned twelve years old, her parents sent her to live and study at Solstice's primary temple dedicated to Pelor, god of the sun.
Serena took to temple life like a fish to water. More empathetic than properly scholastic, she embraced her studies and quickly felt a strong personal calling to help those affected by hardships and dangers that her relatively sheltered and innocent youth had left her largely ignorant of. She found the sheer breadth and variety of dangerous and outright evil creatures that she learned exist staggering at first, but before long began to focus most of her distaste on the war that she came to see as an affliction to the collective body and souls of her people. She found it particular frustrating that, despite insisting she undergo regular physical training and combat practice, her teachers steadfastly insisted that a cleric of a "god of good" such as Pelor had no business getting directly involved in something as awful as the war. This triggered a lot of frustration in the otherwise generally patient Serena, urging her to occasional bouts of orneriness that resulted in headaches for her teachers and extra chores for her. She would cite her many lessons about how a priestess should lead by example, doing good and noble deeds to inspire others to do likewise so the world benefits from the collective goodwill that results. The gods almost never directly intervene in mortal affairs, she would point out, but rather choose to act through mortal followers who serve as their agents and conduits of their divine power to carry their message and will. That never to sufficiently cursed war (and despite usually not repeating them, she had picked up quite a few colorful curses and profanities from the fishermen she grew up around) was just full of opportunities to channel Pelor's blessed radiance to the benefit of so many good people! If the church would take a more active role in pushing back this darkness, perhaps an end to it could finally be possible, and more people would rediscover faith as a result (seeing so many empty pews in the temple cathedral during services always greatly bothered the devoted young acolyte).
Eventually, Serena's frustration grew beyond the point of mere orneriness. Shortly after being ordained as a proper priestess, albeit a junior one still expected to continue learning from elder clergy, she decided that she could no longer sit idly in safety while so much suffering continued unabated just beyond her reach. One night she gathered a pack and threw a hooded cloak over her armor and weapons and snuck out of the temple before anyone began rousing predawn. She quickly went to a dockside military post and asked how to volunteer to be of the best help, showing off her armor and weapons and saying that she was trained in both both a magical healing and mundane medicine. Not about to turn away a fighting healer, even if she was clearly young and lacking worldly experience, the officer at the post told her that if she really wanted to help out she could hop on the boat that was leaving that morning. She spent two months on that boat, first crossing the ocean and then traveling up a long river. After all that, she spent a rather miserable week on a stinky wagon slogging through marshlands with bugs the size of squirrels until finally arriving at a tiny fortified outpost raised slightly above the muck on a little hill. Then, before she even figured out who she should check in with, there was a sudden ambush and something heavy hit her on the back of her head and knocked her out.
Some indeterminate time later, Serena awoke in the dark, in a puddle of something wet, sticky, and foul smelling, dazed and disoriented. Noticing a bit of light coming from a slightly ajar door, she stumbled to her feet and staggered over to it, opening it. On the other side she saw several people wearing markings of Solstice soldiers standing amid quite a few corpses, many of which were bugbears with armbands bearing the sigil of the Fravian army. The soldiers, who had just killed those bugbears and didn't expect to find any survivors, suddenly became very curious who this young girl with sparkling eyes and blood-smeared chainmail was. And thus begin the adventures of Sister Serena.
Soldier coming back from a war stops by in the random village / town. Gets captured / enrolled in the ritual with magical artifact that brainwashes him and makes him lose all memories. Becomes part of the cult, which is entire town. Years come by and after strange event one of the leaders steals artifact and runs away. Half of able men are sent after him, including Fannin. He starts mercenary work with a party to support his investigation and learn about the new (for him) world.
Will he find his master? Will he learn the truth of the artifact? How will he react to other Hunters? Will he put the wellbeing of the party over his personal quest? Will he want his memories returned?
Best quote so far: "I am so sure Derren(master). Maybe without my memories I've became a better person."
Professor Summer Whitney, High Elf Divination Wizard
I had always had a deep interest in the arcane since I was a child. So, my father did what he knew was best for me: he sacrificed possession of our family heirloom (an ancient history of a small, forgotten nation) to allow me to study magic at Candlekeep. Eventually, I grew to know much, but I became restless, having to stay in the grounds so that I could always come back. So, I left in search of something new. I built a small academy in the Greypeak Mountains, bringing with me a young gnome, Kilev, to be my first apprentice. Occasionally, we would take trips to go to cities and study new magic at the academies and libraries there. It was after returning from one such trip that, having been studying till midnight, I saw Kilev, presumably going to relieve himself, being grabbed from behind by a cloaked figure and vanishing into thin air. I think I passed out from shock. When I awoke, I swore that I would find him. Since then, I have left my empty academy, taking only what I needed from my room, and have searched day and night for him. I can only hope that somehow, I will find a clue as to where Kilev is.
Am I allowed to discuss a potential character backstory?
Joshua Killraven, son of a Knight and an elven former Pirate due to a rival in his father's knightly order they were banished from their home shortly after Joshua's mother fled the city as she wasn't comfortable being away from her sea based life.
That rival sent assassins after them as he didn't want either knight or his son posing a threat to his position of power that was largely based on politics rather than actual fighting ability.
His father died, but the son prevailed against their attackers choosing to go into hiding becoming a mercenary or a guard growing up in hiding.
Things came to a head when he became a knight on his own merit, but was seen as a member of an evil order by the world at large joining a company literally called the League of Infamy who were mercenaries taking advantage of that reputation for decent jobs and the wealth that came with them operating as a team.
However as I said that evil reputation might not be their actual behaviour, but not all of them avoided committing atrocities when they felt it was needed.
This led to them having problems with their then leader who unlike Joshua was clearly comfortable with general nastiness and when Joshua had a relationship with one of his daughters and she bore his child they agreed to sacrifice that child to a hag in pursuit of greater power.
Joshua found out, went ape shit killed the hag and disembowelled it to rescue his newborn daughter but she was already dead forcing him to seek a way to prevent her rebirth as a hag that alas meant she was permanently dead and as a result of him killing said hag receiving its death curse that should have killed him.
Should have, but didn't as normally that's what the hag's death curse should have resulted in but this is a man who didn't want to live with his failure to save his child and so the curse instead warped his body resembling a tiefling in a process that can only be described as horrifying and terrifying taking several weeks to complete and left him in a coma for at least a week.
His former team mates found his body stripped him of his gear, but refused to finish him thinking he was already dead and their leader shocked at Joshua's actions didn't give him another thought the other team members left a purse of gold hoping whoever found his body would at least give him a decent burial.
The person who found him was his great grandmother who nursed him back to health once she realized he was still alive.
He had to learn everything from the beginning once more such was the change he went through it took almost a year before he could begin his physical therapy and another year before he could take off the bandages and walk around unaided.
Thus he went back to training as a knight, but one with an entirely new identity and purpose in life if he should choose to take it.
Then he met some adventurer's and some rookies seeking to become like them even he could tell their heroes were far from deserving of their respect but haunted by memories of his past he donned his new armour and weapons and stepped out on his first quest since recovering to help those rookies survive their first adventure and who knows maybe find his new purpose in life?
In summary for my level ones (explained in more depth prior):
I've had a "friendly, kindhearted, honest merchant" whose parents and siblings were completely unaware that he was actually a cruel pirate under a different name, Woodsman. He was part of the crew, not the captain. He relished in torturing foes; mainly chopping off limbs at the elbows and knees of defeated foes and throwing the limbs in roaring fires on ships the crew was scuttling and leaving the victims on the sinking ships. He wrote letters home about his travels, leaving out the piracy and torture, stretching the truth to make it sound like he really was the friendly, kindhearted, honest merchant they loved. (Not a fan of this one. Too much backstory for a level one; too established with experiences not feasible for a brand new adventurer. EDIT: This was also my one and only innocent-murdering character, and the whole party was like that, but I'm never doing that again. It was kind of an experiment on being murderers. Okay experience, but we all decided it was far less fun to try to justify unnecessary combat through backstory than trying to avoid combat through roleplay.)
I've had a Tiefling amnesiac left for dead in an extremely xenophobic, insular, Human community. With patience and personal experience with paranoia; after all, someone out there left him for dead in a place it was expected the people would just bury and forget him as an undesirable stranger; his influence among the people turned the town into a friendly and welcoming place even though he, personally, would still avoid strangers coming to the town, and if forced into an encounter with strangers, he would pretend to be a hooded, blind Human with solid white eyes; hiding his tail wrapped around a leg in baggy trousers. Then, a DM happened...
I've had a janitor ("custos") who worked at a monastery where everyone else had taken a vow of silence. He never knew the name of the place, and he wasn't really good at his job; hiding in places just to sleep most of the time. The monastery was destroyed while he was asleep in a latrine shed outside the monastery. Free ride ended, and he got dragged into adventure as the only survivor despite his best efforts to avoid it.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I have a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer who is actually a Ancient Gold Dragon stuck in it's human form due to a curse from Tiamat. She now searches for Bahamut, who is the only one who could break the curse, or something that will allow her access to the wish spell, for the same reason. If I can play her through Zikran's Zephyrean Tome, there might be a chance to break said curse.
In a current Curse of Strahd campaign with just 2 players we both got to make two characters each.
Meet character one: Ferael.
He was a human ranger-monster hunter (undead specifically) chasing after a trail of his lost mother. Initially he just tried to find her but in the search he kept meeting undead and eventually became specialized in hunting them. In his search for her he heard a rumor of a young man who supposedly had some connection to the celestial realm and he decided with a wizard friend that they were to perform a ritual during which they would talk to the celestial realm and ask some questions to further the search. So they find the young man, around 15 years old, and convince him to let them perform the ritual to get in touch with his divinity. They prepared him with the necessary runes that would make sure he wasn't harmed in the process and got on with it. What they didn't know was that they had completely misunderstood the ritual and instead of getting a connection with the celestial real, they bound a celestial spirit inside his body. Creating a kind of aasimar (scourge version) with two souls inside it at the same time.
Meet character two: Rynn (human, age 15)/Khel-thur (celestial scourger spirit trapped in a human body)
With its connection to the celestial realm I made him a celestial warlock, bound to the celestial realm and initially played him as a roughly 50/50 mix of personality. One being the youthful boy, the other a unforgiving hunter of wrongdoing with less care for collateral damage than his other half. As we leveled up I decided that it meant the longer he spent inside the body, the more his radiant soul simply burned away the lesser human one. So the more I leveled the more he became Khel-thur, the less he became Rynn. Eventually Rynn was almost gone and that was the way I had planned it. Meanwhile Ferael of course felt guilty about the whole thing and part of their travels together was to find a way to free Khel-thur without harming Rynn in the process.
By now we were already inside Barovia. I'll try to keep it as spoilerfree as possible but now something happened, he died in battle. You could say the DM decided to give me an offer of a reincarnation and Khel-thur, the celestial, who one could imagine would perhaps just return to his own realm didn't want to remain in this frail body but the small part who was still there of Rynn was desperate to survive so I decided to just roll for it, a mental challenge or fight even betwen the two, where surprisingly Rynn won (I basically made some kinda save, twice, which I had really high stats in but rolled two 1's for khel-thur to resist it). So, he accepted and was reincarnated in a thiefling body instead, losing all his teeth in the process oddly enough. Now, I decided this meant their souls fused with Rynn now being the stronger of them since he kinda won the contest earlier and was being partly restored by the reincarnation process. Now I played him quite differently instead.
Meanwhile, character 1, Ferael got kinda killed by the main villain who also stole his body. Bad news.
Enter character 3, Gavin, elf, paladin oath of the ancients, cook, traveler, lute player and singer. His backstory, although a bit shorter since we had to get the game moving, was basically that he and another group had entered Barovia and they had all died except him and one more who's fate was unknown. He managed to escape from torture and ended up with the rest of the group. Being a generally nice guy, he quickly became part of the group (I mean, he really is nice).
Long story shorter we did some stuff, got some gear, are pretty much ready for the final battle but the 2nd character decided we had to do something else, one more thing before the battle to ensure we would win. He's been hearing voices. Calling him. He answers. No one knows this. He claims his gods are showing him the path and we end up going to one final place before we are ready to end the campaign. We decide he will sneak of and become an NPC, he just used the group to get close to where he wanted. Since losing a character, the only good healer we have to be precise (even though the 3rd character has healing hand and can cast revivify) would mean we are a bit less strong for the final battle we decided to make a 4th character (I'd still only be playing two was the plan, since the 1st one died and the 2nd one would sneak away).
Meet character 4: Jorim, dustjumper, gnome illusionist. (we are all level 10 by now). Since we used a random background list for events, it turned out that among other things he got trapped in a dungeon for 5 years and went insane for a while there. Shortly after regaining his sanity he managed to enter a portal which unfortunately led to Barovia (the portal was actually a random roll on events). He is an odd fellow and the introduction to the rest of the party includes eating a small bug from a wall, because you need to get nutrition from any place you can, never know when you'll find food next.
Now, just before we meet this fellow though, we end up in a fight where we meet our friend the 1st character ferael, only now turned into a vampire. A perhaps not so surprising plottwist except the other player decides to save him, so we capture him and spend a lot of time convincing him to allow us to help him, including a bunch of spells cast to make the process actually work (kinda). It ended with a ceremony attonement and.. He returned to us. So, being the original player I'm somehow playing 3 characters now, something neither me nor the DM was planning on. And to make things even better, or worse? The DM decided to let me play Rynn, in a battle against the rest of the group. Since I know him better and also because it's kinda fun. So I managed to get a bad guy speech in before hitting them(me? us? it's a bit confusing) with a spell. The speech is basically "I'm glad you came, I found what we were looking for. But Khel-thur is no more, I am Rynn of the many lives. Here is a last gift from Khel-thur!" (and I decided that he used the last essence of khel-thur to cast a final sickening radiance that would only be cast once because I only picked it because it felt like a mix of thiefling and celestial, which fitted with his reincarnation).
In a series of unfortunate events almost the whole party failed the save and ended up with around 20-30 radiant damage + a level of fatigue and will have to roll for another attempt in the beginning of their own turn. This turned into a big cliff hanger since we haven't been able to continue but... all in all I'm playing 4 characters:
A human vampire thrall, broken free of his bonds to his master. Ranger, undead hunter specialist (monster hunter, but focus is undead). An Elf paladin of Mielikki, oath of the Ancients, who brings joy to the lands of Barovia. A mostly sane forest Gnome illusionist who was trapped in a dungeon for 5 years. And a once human turned into an aasimar turned into a thiefling, previously celestial warlock now something else. Who we are fighting. To make it more fair I'll try to kill my own characters first ;)
If my friends ever noticed the spitefulness when we first met, they were either kind enough, or afraid enough to not make mention of it, though I prefer to think it was the former, rather than the latter.
When I was hired on with The Goonies, a detective service in Waterdeep, it was more as hired muscle, rather than a brilliant detective. I was at a low to neutral point in my life, with a hope of redemption courtesy of my new paladin oath with Torm, god of courage and self-sacrifice, whom I was more than willing to offer both to serve.
My friends do not know this, but my given name is Malelius Morthos, I did not even confide this in Ariwyse, ‘The Maker of Gods’, whom I’ve come to consider to be my best friend. By the time I was able to acknowledge her as a friend, it seemed rather pointless to make mention of it.
I was in the process of starting a family of my own once in a small town called Porthcawl. Her name was Meredith, and she was the only human at the time to bother looking past my horns and tail to see me as something more. She was carrying our child, close to 9 months along, when a plague hit the town, killing everybody but me. This feeling of helplessness contributed the greatest to becoming Torment the Spiteful.
Full of rage and hatred, I discovered the source of the plague, and joined the army that was formed to eradicate the vile demons who brought it from Avernus. There was a lot of mistrust towards me because of my appearance, but muscle was muscle at that point. My rage became legendary as I slaughtered what appeared to be my own kind with relentless vigor, and my captain, Raborc, took notice, and took me under his tutelage. He was a paladin under Helm, god of protection, and offered to mentor me in becoming a paladin as well.
That war lasted 10 years, but shortly before it was over, my commander, mentor and best friend Raborc was slain in battle. Given our close ties, I was instantly promoted on a temporary basis to commander to finish this war, and finish it we did!
My adventures with The Goonies started out as just a job with strangers, then became a journey with companions, until it became what it is now… simply family. I have evolved much along the way, going from Torment the Spiteful to becoming Torment the Smiteful, and, as some (including myself) would argue, a god.
Which leads me to the greatest evolution I never dreamed of. The recently restored arch-angel Zariel remade me into an aasimar, a humanoid angelic being, which was already in my bloodline, courtesy of my mother, Octavia Drellasi.
I later discovered that this decision was in part inspired by my half-sister, Lilith Drellasi, not only whom I thought was dead, but who had also become a priestess at one of the many temples popping up in my name. Upon hearing about the religion of Torment, she had volunteered her services as priestess to determine my intent, suspecting corrupt motivations on my part.
I did run into her at Neverland, but it turns out that the adventures we experienced in that time span may not have been real, although my unique transformation occurred there. I hope that she is indeed alive, for we have much to catch up on.
Looking back, my spitefulness was the necessary tool for becoming who I am now. Sometimes it's when you’re at your lowest that you can miraculously rise to your highest. The deep bonds that I have formed with the friends I now call my family have made me Torment the Smiteful, because I will continue to sacrifice everything to keep them safe.
I have two related characters Rinys Reedfellow and Ishahi (Izzy). Rinys is a halfling schoolteacher that accidentally stumbled into a sect of the cult of Bane that had infiltrated his country of Delmyr. this sect had hidden away a celestial they had kidnapped and tortured to the point where she doesn't know who she is herself anymore. This celestial currently didn't have a body and in the process of rescuing her, she bonded to Rinys. Now whenever he is asleep she is awake and using his body and powers have been manifesting in both of them as warlock powers. They both want to restore izzy without hurting her and prevent the cult on Bane from doing this to someone else.
I'd love to make a character who is the subject of True Polymorph. Maybe they were a great villain, but got true polymorphed into an earlier version of their self (either with or without their memories).
Or alternatively, a character who was made into a copy of someone from an inanimate object, and has no memory from before the moment of their creation. Like a young version of a powerful Warlock created for a certain mission, or sent off into the world so the Warlock can secretly keep tabs on them to see if they could have had a good life free of eldritch entanglements as they live vicariously through their clone.
Started playing with my family to get them into the world of D&D, here the backstory of my 13 year old boy
He cause by the name of friend, not wanting his real name knowed, not to be remember. He was a LG Paladin. Started getting a small reputation (Folk Hero). One night he hears some noise in his home. He was beeing attack by Orc, these orc are out for revenge since he killed there leader in his last crusade. The Orcs killed his wife and daughter in front of him. He lost it and killed them all and left his house to burn. He renonce his faith, his God.
He tried to killed himself, more then once, to be reunited with his family. But everytime Faith intervine. He his now a follower of Savras, he his LN, following a path he does not control and only wanting to died, when his time comes.
He evens RP this really well, after a fight he says a prayor to his dead wife that it is not his time yet and will see them soon.
The backstory of Claire, a Lawful Good Paladin and a member of the Boros Legion:
Claire joined the Boros Legion because her father drafted her into it after her village was attacked by the Gruul. She admired the firefists of the legion and thus set out to become one. After months of training in the Horizon Military Academy, she was ordained a paladin firefist. She also gained a unique armor style, adding a "dress" made of armor plates to her armor because she wanted a level of elegance to her. On her first assignment, she was placed under the command of an egoistic sergeant along with some equally egoistic legionnaires. But as she soon discovered, they were also lazy, rude, bossy, and overconfident. As she was the only female in the group, they also called her names, ordered her around, and disrespected her, which caused her to resent them greatly. After a few days, the party came across a renegade Gruul minotaur that was wrecking havoc in a ruined neighborhood.
Claire eagerly readied her blade, finally having some action. But when the minotaur roared, her teammates, including her sergeant, screamed and fled; they were also cowards! Clare's anger with them reached the boiling point, and she unleashed that anger at the minotaur. After a long battle, Claire managed to defeat the minotaur.
Battered, bruised, and bloodied, Claire trekked all the way back to the garrison, where she caught her "brave" teammates telling a Wojek commander an embellished and false version of their encounter with the minotaur (i.e. how they fought the minotaur but were forced to retreat and how Claire had died in battle). However, their faces turned pale white when they saw Claire, just before she angrily recounted what really happened. The commander quickly chastised the cowardly legionnaires, even going as far as stripping the sergeant of his rank, and ordering that they will be sent back to the academy to teach them the proper attitude of being a member of the Boros, as well as 3 months of KP.
Claire was given the former sergeants rank for her bravery and honesty. Today, she has risen to the rank of captain, and is occasionally deployed to different realms to deal with any possible threats there. Her story is still told to other legionaries, showing that ego is not a replacement for bravery.
His father (elf) and mother (human) came from two noble families that had used to be allies before the patriarch of his father's family decided to end the friendship. The two parents met at a ball, and they immediately fell in love. They met in secret often, and ended up having Somnium.
After having him, they unfortunately split up, as there was a high risk of their relationship being discovered, although they continued meeting in secret.
While they were split up, his father had a short fling with a woman from another family, which resulted in his younger half brother. However, he didn't truly love her, and wasn't ready to raise a child with someone he didn't love, so the two of them separated.
When Somnium was born, something was very obviously off about him, and it wasn't his blindness. His face had blue lines on it which couldn't be wiped off or removed with magic, and his hair was silver rather than the brown of his mother or the black of his father.
He would sometimes have dreams where a figure that looked a little like him led him down dark tunnels, with crystals set into the walls that seemed to glow with a strange light. Looking into them showed him images of beautiful cities where he knew there were only ruins in the waking world. When he woke up, the lines on his face would glow with that same light.
Eventually, he was able to speak to the figure in his dreams, and they revealed a shocking truth.
Somnium was the reincarnation of a powerful and honorable warrior from an ancient civilization that had since fallen to ruin.
The figure that had been leading him through the tunnels had been worshiped as a god by that ancient civilization, but they claimed that they weren't one. Rather that they simply had a lot of knowledge, and a little power over dreams.
They began to show him visions of what his past life had been like. In these visions, he saw a woman who had clearly had feelings for his past life, and he began to fall in love with her too.
While Somnium dealt with these discoveries, another truth was to be revealed, that shocked him equally as much. The truth of his parentage.
In noble families, a secret marriage, especially between two families that weren't allies, was considered scandalous, and having a child even more so. Somnium's half brother was most angry about this development, so angry in fact that he attempted to end Somnium's life.
After that occurrence, Somnium decided that he would leave home, both to learn more about the figure in the dreams and the nature of his reincarnation, but also to wait out the entire scandal.
The backstory of Rafael Dumont, a Tiefling gray necromancer in a race against time.
Greetings my name is Rafael Dumont, of House Dumont in Sorenfell. House Dumont is a family of wizards who want nothing more than to uncover secrets long forgotten and share our findings with the world. Some of us are evocationists, some of us are illusionists, while still more are enchanters and enchantresses. But what we all are, are archaeologists. Our schools of magic vary based on what peaks our interests, and as such I happen to be studying Necromancy! I may dabble here and there in other schools, after all I am a tiefling; however, I am mostly interested in magics that prolong life and of course, stave death. Many often wonder why I would study such a macabre topic, some even accused me of seeking lichdom. Let me assure you that is not the case, I neither wish to live forever nor do I wish to raise an army of undeath to reap havoc upon the world. No, my motivations are much more personal. I wish to understand undeath to undo a terrible affliction that has cursed and plagued my twin sister, Adrian-Marie, during her frail existence in this world. Well more frail than usual for our family, we have not been known to be a physically strong sort. Yet one look at my sister and anyone would assume she was twice my age. It’s been like this for as long back as I can remember, though the journals of my late father suggest that the aging started some months after she and I were born. Sadly, he does not state how the affliction began only that the curse was necromantic in origin, so he believed.
For years the Dumont family poured through countless books and scrolls in the libraries of Sorenfell, myself included from ever since I could read. And for years we have been examining the ruins and artifacts our ancestors and kin have excavated in the surrounding countryside, some even going so far as to venture far beyond the borders of the North Mire province. Yet thus far, our research hasn’t borne any promising results. My mother brought in healers, clerics, even a paladin to try their hand at fixing the problem. Yet each time divine magic was used, Adrian-Marie became more and more frail and I blame these “men of the gods” for her now bed-ridden state. But if divine magic was making my sister worse, then I suspect that Necromancy holds the answer for her cure. This will be my last journal entry from my home here in Sorenfell for on the morrow I will journey forth like my kin have done before and I will not return until I find something, anything, that will undo this curse, no matter the price. Though, I curse the fact I have not done so sooner. Time, you see, is not on my side, as I soon celebrate my 34th year upon this world while Adrian-Marie will be celebrating the equivalent of, what I surmise, roughly her 70th year. As I journey forth, I do so with both the blessing - and the credulous eye - of my family
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So this is partially backstory, and partially a summary of events from several different adventures, ("Forge of Fury", "Tomb of Annihilation", and "Dead in Thay") which the DM had woven elements of her story into the subsequent adventures.
Arnara, 1st Daughter of House Ustina
(Commission work a copyrighted creation of Clayscence)
Since her early days, Arnara was expecting to become a sonalta, (an elvish equivalent to a lady in waiting) for an elven family, when tragedy struck. A hobgoblin horde invaded the Misty Forest, killing many, including the elven woman that she was originally to be placed with. Among the dead included number of cousins, and now has found herself inline to become the next Matriarch in the house in several hundred years; a role that neither her father or herself, desired for her to become. Since that invasion, a band of heroes emerged and defeated the horde. They then stayed in the forest for three months before departing. During that time she became a temporary Sonalta to one of the members of that band, an Aasimar named Myrai, who was from Sigil, the City of Doors. Myrai told her stories of the world and the planes beyond her forest, intriguing her. They in the short time forged a close bond with each other. Myrai was compelled to leave several years ago and Arnara has heard no word from her since.
Since then, inspired by Myrai's exploits she took up the art of Bladesong. Recently, Arnara worked up the courage to leave the Misty Forest and explore the world around here, and as Myrai put it:
"Know the universe by experiencing it fully. The senses form the path to truth, for the multiverse doesn't exist beyond what can be sensed."
She left on a errand to Baron Alton near the Spine of the World. Partially to forge ties with other noble houses and partially to avoid her father's constant demands to groom her as the leader of House Ustina. She then joined up with some adventures to help recover forged works from the fortress of Khundrukar and emerged as the group's defacto leader. Afterwards, she stopped in Mirabar, where she and others of her party were approached to find the "Soulmonger" hidden in the Chult, and stop its affects on the raised souls in Faerun. During her journey through the jungles of Chult, she discovered that a Coven of Night Hags made a misshapen clone of her, cut off from the weave and that continually learns what she knows. After defeating the Archlich, she returned to the Misty forest with her Clone. This 2nd Arnara, is currently residing there, trying to hold onto her sanity, while Arnara searched for a way to separate the two.
I'm a new player and I haven't even played a session yet, but I know a little bit about d&d and made a couple of characters. Here is one that I really like, my blind monk Russ Clearstrength(I got inspiration from the random name gen), just a basic short sad backstory but I still enjoyed making it :)
I was naturally born blind, but as I grew up, my mother was killed by the tyrant as a pawn, and I came to I understand that I needed to get stronger to be able to protect the ones I loved, and so, on my 18th birthday, I set out on my own to prove my worth so I may come back and overthrow the tyrant that took over my home. On my journey, I met an odd group of men who were very helpful, they offered to bless me with power in exchange for my help in the future should they need it, I agreed, and they gave me the ability of echolocation.
For those few poor souls who make it all the way to my post, here are some stats of Russ (when creating him, I made him lvl 20 so I could get a feel for how both low lvl and high lvl stuff worked)
ST:20 +5 to rolls
DT:14 +2 to rolls
CN:14 +2 to rolls
IN:18 +4 to rolls
WS:14 +2 to rolls
CH:13 +1 to rolls
Want a place to roleplay in your spare time? Here: Lord's Rest Inn
Please don't hide your imperfections, if one part is beautiful, it all is.
I don't like rp-heavy games, I LOVE them.
Name Tamen “QuickBlade” Shadowclad
Class: Rogue
Sub: Swashbuckler
Background: Pirate
As a young man from the SwordCoast, Tamen grew up on the open sea as a fisherman on his fathers boat. Taman was well equipped for long fishing trips. Tamen and his father Taman would often spend weeks fishing the coast. As his father grew older, Tamen would often take trips on his own. When his father fell ill to the black lung, the trips stopped as Tamen stayed to take care of his father. When Taman succumbed to his illness, Tamen swore off the sea and focused on a life in the underground’s of SwordCoast. Learning he was good with a sword he made a name for himself as a duelist—not shy of taking the life of his foes. One particular night he met a man he had never encountered in SwordCoast before. A man by the name of René d’Herbley. A man of class, extravagantly dressed with fine clothing and a master swordsman. René aka Aramis realized the potential in Tamen, and for the next 5 years took him under his tutelage, and groomed him into a man of class and sword play. When Aramis left, Tamen was left with an emptiness and longing for something. He returned to the sea on various ships until he found his home among the crew on Queen Anne’s Revenge under the Capt. By the name of Black Beard. Tamen further honed his skills with the blade for years on the Queen Anne’s Revenge. Among swordplay Tamen also picked up skills suited to a life of a Pirate. With Black Beards blessing, Tamen left the crew to find another path in life more suited to his virtues Aramis instilling him. Honor, pride, and of course All For One, And One For All.
I'm brand new to D&D/role play and know pretty much nothing about specific characters, world history, or geography in D&D so I hope to develop the characters further as I learn more. I hope to use the following character in my first campaign, and uncover more about him by doing so. Hope you enjoy! :)
Name: Tal, Friend of Breeze Race: Goliath. Class: Bard
Born into his tribe through the exceptionally strong bloodline of the Kiati clan, Goliath "Hard-body" Kiati discovered his chieftains nefarious plans to sell his own tribe into servitude, disgracing all values integral to Goliath society. Seeking to overthrow the chieftain in accordance with Goliath laws, Todd challenged his chief directly in level combat, an irrevocable ritual held sacred, spelling exile for the loser as well as disgrace for their clan. Todd was mortally wounded and consequently defeated by unlawful means at the hands of Dwayne "the rock" Johnson his chieftain. Left to fend for himself in the cold, his family shunned, Todd starved to the point of death was found and rescued by a roaming wood elf monk by the name of Earendil. Who believes himself to have been guiding by the universe to aid Todd for some unknown purpose. Studying under Earendil, Todd learned the ways of monkhood, and now wanders in search of enlightenment and purpose beyond the worldly burden of his rage and sorrow. He is constantly haunted by the conflict of his newfound responsibility to accept his circumstance with compassion and forgiveness as an agent of cosmic balance in a dark world, and the responsibility he feels to his doomed kin to redeem his clan, liberate his people, and destroy "the rock".
Once a young merchant in a Goblinoid community, Jaak shared a passionate romance with a local beautiful Hobgoblin female. beautiful she was, so much so that she became the distant obsession of their Hobgoblin war-chief Aku. Though it was only a matter of time before Aku Declared it his right to claim her as his own. Refusing to submit to Aku's tyranny, Jaak and Sargulesh defected, and into the night ran away to the far east land of Kara-Tur. They settled in a village that lie in the shadow of the IKuyu Mountains. A village whose daimyo, seeing an opportunity in the Hobgoblins' brute strength and tenacity, taught Jaak the ways of the eastern warrior, proclaimed him protector of the village, and provided him refuge. for several years Jaak and Sargulesh lived in peace with their two young children, with the exception of the usual bandit invasion against which Jaak would easily defend his village. one day a goblin merchant caravan came through the village, as rare as this was it was not unheard of, and was dismissed by Jaak as such. Approximately a month later a horde of goblins, hobgoblins, wargs and the like raided the village, laying waste to everything in site. Jaak was ambushed in the jungle nearby, cut open, left to die, and his left eye plucked out of his skull with a message of scorn for having inconvenienced Aku by forcing him to travel so far in order to exact punishment for Jaak's apostasy. Jaak would not know of the annihilation of his village until he regained consciousness, either by luck or divine interference. Jaak discovered the village in ruins, as well as his wife and children dead. Jaak traveled back to his birthplace to end the dishonorable life of Aku, though as skilled a warrior as he was, was not able to defeat an entire commune of adversaries. He was left alive this time, as a cruel joke, to live alone in his misery. Jaak now travels as a sword for hire, for the purpose of finding ever stronger warriors to fight develop his skills against, he will eventually return to Aku and kill him once and for all.
I've never been fond of the overdone "vengeance driven edgelord with a tragically harrowing past" stereotype, but with my latest character I decided to go as explicitly far away from that concept as I can manage without playing a clone of Piffany from Nodwick. Piffany may have still been a slight inspiration, albeit a hyperbolic one (I sometimes base characters on an at least slightly absurd concept then say "Okay, now how do I dial this back a bit to make it a non-joke character that will be fun to play for longer than a half an hour?"). The concept I started from was "super cheerful and positive minded teenage church girl." I just recently found a game to join and pitched this idea to the DM in our private session zero-ish discussion (the game was already two sessions in and he had to figure out how to insert my character in addition to going over the usual rules, setting, etiquette, etc). He liked the idea but warned me that such a character would present some roleplaying challenges as the setting is a bit dark with the hook of the party being recruits in the army of their nation, Solstice, in a long running war with the nearby nation of Fravia. I said that was great, as one of the big reasons I want to play this type of character is to see how well I can keep her positive in the face of the various dark, gritty, and violent situations that adventurers often encounter. And so Sister Serena, priestess of Pelor was born.
Name: Sister Serena Race: Protector Aasimar Class: Cleric (Life Domain) Age: 17 Height/Weight: 5'5"/135 lbs Alignment: Lawful Good Level: 2
Str: 14 Dex: 9 Con: 13 Int: 10 Wis: 16 Cha: 14 (Stats from standard array before racial modifiers)
Background: Acolyte Proficiencies: Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, Religion Languages: Common, Celestial, Goblin, Draconic
Serena was born to a family of fishermen on the island nation of Solstice. It isn't out of the ordinary for human children to be born with bright golden blonde hair, but Serena's matching golden lips and bright yellow eyes that literally sparkle were immediately noteworthy. Nobody seems to know where her celestial heritage comes from or when it entered her bloodline, but it seems to be at least a generation or two back, probably much longer, since she inherited the freckles scattered about her milky pale complexion (that never seems to tan or burn in the sun) from her father's side of the family. Serena had a simple and generally unexciting yet still pleasant childhood, mostly spent playing with other young kids in the dockside neighborhood her family called home. She was always a pleasant and kind child, usually very well behaved although she was occasionally prone to bouts of what her parents called "orneriness." Despite general adherence to faith in the gods and formal religious practice being in a long, steady decline in Solstice (largely attributed to discontent associated with the long ongoing war with the nearby nation of Fravia) Serena's family remained faithful, possibly in no small part because of her mere presence serving as a reminder that they themselves had at least a trace of celestial essence within them. When Serena turned twelve years old, her parents sent her to live and study at Solstice's primary temple dedicated to Pelor, god of the sun.
Serena took to temple life like a fish to water. More empathetic than properly scholastic, she embraced her studies and quickly felt a strong personal calling to help those affected by hardships and dangers that her relatively sheltered and innocent youth had left her largely ignorant of. She found the sheer breadth and variety of dangerous and outright evil creatures that she learned exist staggering at first, but before long began to focus most of her distaste on the war that she came to see as an affliction to the collective body and souls of her people. She found it particular frustrating that, despite insisting she undergo regular physical training and combat practice, her teachers steadfastly insisted that a cleric of a "god of good" such as Pelor had no business getting directly involved in something as awful as the war. This triggered a lot of frustration in the otherwise generally patient Serena, urging her to occasional bouts of orneriness that resulted in headaches for her teachers and extra chores for her. She would cite her many lessons about how a priestess should lead by example, doing good and noble deeds to inspire others to do likewise so the world benefits from the collective goodwill that results. The gods almost never directly intervene in mortal affairs, she would point out, but rather choose to act through mortal followers who serve as their agents and conduits of their divine power to carry their message and will. That never to sufficiently cursed war (and despite usually not repeating them, she had picked up quite a few colorful curses and profanities from the fishermen she grew up around) was just full of opportunities to channel Pelor's blessed radiance to the benefit of so many good people! If the church would take a more active role in pushing back this darkness, perhaps an end to it could finally be possible, and more people would rediscover faith as a result (seeing so many empty pews in the temple cathedral during services always greatly bothered the devoted young acolyte).
Eventually, Serena's frustration grew beyond the point of mere orneriness. Shortly after being ordained as a proper priestess, albeit a junior one still expected to continue learning from elder clergy, she decided that she could no longer sit idly in safety while so much suffering continued unabated just beyond her reach. One night she gathered a pack and threw a hooded cloak over her armor and weapons and snuck out of the temple before anyone began rousing predawn. She quickly went to a dockside military post and asked how to volunteer to be of the best help, showing off her armor and weapons and saying that she was trained in both both a magical healing and mundane medicine. Not about to turn away a fighting healer, even if she was clearly young and lacking worldly experience, the officer at the post told her that if she really wanted to help out she could hop on the boat that was leaving that morning. She spent two months on that boat, first crossing the ocean and then traveling up a long river. After all that, she spent a rather miserable week on a stinky wagon slogging through marshlands with bugs the size of squirrels until finally arriving at a tiny fortified outpost raised slightly above the muck on a little hill. Then, before she even figured out who she should check in with, there was a sudden ambush and something heavy hit her on the back of her head and knocked her out.
Some indeterminate time later, Serena awoke in the dark, in a puddle of something wet, sticky, and foul smelling, dazed and disoriented. Noticing a bit of light coming from a slightly ajar door, she stumbled to her feet and staggered over to it, opening it. On the other side she saw several people wearing markings of Solstice soldiers standing amid quite a few corpses, many of which were bugbears with armbands bearing the sigil of the Fravian army. The soldiers, who had just killed those bugbears and didn't expect to find any survivors, suddenly became very curious who this young girl with sparkling eyes and blood-smeared chainmail was. And thus begin the adventures of Sister Serena.
Fannin, Human Fighter
Soldier coming back from a war stops by in the random village / town. Gets captured / enrolled in the ritual with magical artifact that brainwashes him and makes him lose all memories. Becomes part of the cult, which is entire town. Years come by and after strange event one of the leaders steals artifact and runs away. Half of able men are sent after him, including Fannin. He starts mercenary work with a party to support his investigation and learn about the new (for him) world.
Will he find his master? Will he learn the truth of the artifact? How will he react to other Hunters? Will he put the wellbeing of the party over his personal quest? Will he want his memories returned?
Best quote so far: "I am so sure Derren(master). Maybe without my memories I've became a better person."
Professor Summer Whitney, High Elf Divination Wizard
I had always had a deep interest in the arcane since I was a child. So, my father did what he knew was best for me: he sacrificed possession of our family heirloom (an ancient history of a small, forgotten nation) to allow me to study magic at Candlekeep. Eventually, I grew to know much, but I became restless, having to stay in the grounds so that I could always come back. So, I left in search of something new. I built a small academy in the Greypeak Mountains, bringing with me a young gnome, Kilev, to be my first apprentice. Occasionally, we would take trips to go to cities and study new magic at the academies and libraries there. It was after returning from one such trip that, having been studying till midnight, I saw Kilev, presumably going to relieve himself, being grabbed from behind by a cloaked figure and vanishing into thin air. I think I passed out from shock. When I awoke, I swore that I would find him. Since then, I have left my empty academy, taking only what I needed from my room, and have searched day and night for him. I can only hope that somehow, I will find a clue as to where Kilev is.
Come participate in the Competition of the Finest Brews, Edition XXVIII?
My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
Am I allowed to discuss a potential character backstory?
Joshua Killraven, son of a Knight and an elven former Pirate due to a rival in his father's knightly order they were banished from their home shortly after Joshua's mother fled the city as she wasn't comfortable being away from her sea based life.
That rival sent assassins after them as he didn't want either knight or his son posing a threat to his position of power that was largely based on politics rather than actual fighting ability.
His father died, but the son prevailed against their attackers choosing to go into hiding becoming a mercenary or a guard growing up in hiding.
Things came to a head when he became a knight on his own merit, but was seen as a member of an evil order by the world at large joining a company literally called the League of Infamy who were mercenaries taking advantage of that reputation for decent jobs and the wealth that came with them operating as a team.
However as I said that evil reputation might not be their actual behaviour, but not all of them avoided committing atrocities when they felt it was needed.
This led to them having problems with their then leader who unlike Joshua was clearly comfortable with general nastiness and when Joshua had a relationship with one of his daughters and she bore his child they agreed to sacrifice that child to a hag in pursuit of greater power.
Joshua found out, went ape shit killed the hag and disembowelled it to rescue his newborn daughter but she was already dead forcing him to seek a way to prevent her rebirth as a hag that alas meant she was permanently dead and as a result of him killing said hag receiving its death curse that should have killed him.
Should have, but didn't as normally that's what the hag's death curse should have resulted in but this is a man who didn't want to live with his failure to save his child and so the curse instead warped his body resembling a tiefling in a process that can only be described as horrifying and terrifying taking several weeks to complete and left him in a coma for at least a week.
His former team mates found his body stripped him of his gear, but refused to finish him thinking he was already dead and their leader shocked at Joshua's actions didn't give him another thought the other team members left a purse of gold hoping whoever found his body would at least give him a decent burial.
The person who found him was his great grandmother who nursed him back to health once she realized he was still alive.
He had to learn everything from the beginning once more such was the change he went through it took almost a year before he could begin his physical therapy and another year before he could take off the bandages and walk around unaided.
Thus he went back to training as a knight, but one with an entirely new identity and purpose in life if he should choose to take it.
Then he met some adventurer's and some rookies seeking to become like them even he could tell their heroes were far from deserving of their respect but haunted by memories of his past he donned his new armour and weapons and stepped out on his first quest since recovering to help those rookies survive their first adventure and who knows maybe find his new purpose in life?
Does that work?
In summary for my level ones (explained in more depth prior):
I've had a "friendly, kindhearted, honest merchant" whose parents and siblings were completely unaware that he was actually a cruel pirate under a different name, Woodsman. He was part of the crew, not the captain. He relished in torturing foes; mainly chopping off limbs at the elbows and knees of defeated foes and throwing the limbs in roaring fires on ships the crew was scuttling and leaving the victims on the sinking ships. He wrote letters home about his travels, leaving out the piracy and torture, stretching the truth to make it sound like he really was the friendly, kindhearted, honest merchant they loved.
(Not a fan of this one. Too much backstory for a level one; too established with experiences not feasible for a brand new adventurer. EDIT: This was also my one and only innocent-murdering character, and the whole party was like that, but I'm never doing that again. It was kind of an experiment on being murderers. Okay experience, but we all decided it was far less fun to try to justify unnecessary combat through backstory than trying to avoid combat through roleplay.)
I've had a Tiefling amnesiac left for dead in an extremely xenophobic, insular, Human community. With patience and personal experience with paranoia; after all, someone out there left him for dead in a place it was expected the people would just bury and forget him as an undesirable stranger; his influence among the people turned the town into a friendly and welcoming place even though he, personally, would still avoid strangers coming to the town, and if forced into an encounter with strangers, he would pretend to be a hooded, blind Human with solid white eyes; hiding his tail wrapped around a leg in baggy trousers. Then, a DM happened...
I've had a janitor ("custos") who worked at a monastery where everyone else had taken a vow of silence. He never knew the name of the place, and he wasn't really good at his job; hiding in places just to sleep most of the time. The monastery was destroyed while he was asleep in a latrine shed outside the monastery. Free ride ended, and he got dragged into adventure as the only survivor despite his best efforts to avoid it.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I have a Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer who is actually a Ancient Gold Dragon stuck in it's human form due to a curse from Tiamat. She now searches for Bahamut, who is the only one who could break the curse, or something that will allow her access to the wish spell, for the same reason. If I can play her through Zikran's Zephyrean Tome, there might be a chance to break said curse.
In a current Curse of Strahd campaign with just 2 players we both got to make two characters each.
Meet character one: Ferael.
He was a human ranger-monster hunter (undead specifically) chasing after a trail of his lost mother. Initially he just tried to find her but in the search he kept meeting undead and eventually became specialized in hunting them. In his search for her he heard a rumor of a young man who supposedly had some connection to the celestial realm and he decided with a wizard friend that they were to perform a ritual during which they would talk to the celestial realm and ask some questions to further the search. So they find the young man, around 15 years old, and convince him to let them perform the ritual to get in touch with his divinity. They prepared him with the necessary runes that would make sure he wasn't harmed in the process and got on with it. What they didn't know was that they had completely misunderstood the ritual and instead of getting a connection with the celestial real, they bound a celestial spirit inside his body. Creating a kind of aasimar (scourge version) with two souls inside it at the same time.
Meet character two: Rynn (human, age 15)/Khel-thur (celestial scourger spirit trapped in a human body)
With its connection to the celestial realm I made him a celestial warlock, bound to the celestial realm and initially played him as a roughly 50/50 mix of personality. One being the youthful boy, the other a unforgiving hunter of wrongdoing with less care for collateral damage than his other half. As we leveled up I decided that it meant the longer he spent inside the body, the more his radiant soul simply burned away the lesser human one. So the more I leveled the more he became Khel-thur, the less he became Rynn. Eventually Rynn was almost gone and that was the way I had planned it. Meanwhile Ferael of course felt guilty about the whole thing and part of their travels together was to find a way to free Khel-thur without harming Rynn in the process.
By now we were already inside Barovia. I'll try to keep it as spoilerfree as possible but now something happened, he died in battle. You could say the DM decided to give me an offer of a reincarnation and Khel-thur, the celestial, who one could imagine would perhaps just return to his own realm didn't want to remain in this frail body but the small part who was still there of Rynn was desperate to survive so I decided to just roll for it, a mental challenge or fight even betwen the two, where surprisingly Rynn won (I basically made some kinda save, twice, which I had really high stats in but rolled two 1's for khel-thur to resist it).
So, he accepted and was reincarnated in a thiefling body instead, losing all his teeth in the process oddly enough. Now, I decided this meant their souls fused with Rynn now being the stronger of them since he kinda won the contest earlier and was being partly restored by the reincarnation process. Now I played him quite differently instead.
Meanwhile, character 1, Ferael got kinda killed by the main villain who also stole his body. Bad news.
Enter character 3, Gavin, elf, paladin oath of the ancients, cook, traveler, lute player and singer. His backstory, although a bit shorter since we had to get the game moving, was basically that he and another group had entered Barovia and they had all died except him and one more who's fate was unknown. He managed to escape from torture and ended up with the rest of the group. Being a generally nice guy, he quickly became part of the group (I mean, he really is nice).
Long story shorter we did some stuff, got some gear, are pretty much ready for the final battle but the 2nd character decided we had to do something else, one more thing before the battle to ensure we would win. He's been hearing voices. Calling him. He answers. No one knows this. He claims his gods are showing him the path and we end up going to one final place before we are ready to end the campaign. We decide he will sneak of and become an NPC, he just used the group to get close to where he wanted. Since losing a character, the only good healer we have to be precise (even though the 3rd character has healing hand and can cast revivify) would mean we are a bit less strong for the final battle we decided to make a 4th character (I'd still only be playing two was the plan, since the 1st one died and the 2nd one would sneak away).
Meet character 4: Jorim, dustjumper, gnome illusionist. (we are all level 10 by now). Since we used a random background list for events, it turned out that among other things he got trapped in a dungeon for 5 years and went insane for a while there. Shortly after regaining his sanity he managed to enter a portal which unfortunately led to Barovia (the portal was actually a random roll on events). He is an odd fellow and the introduction to the rest of the party includes eating a small bug from a wall, because you need to get nutrition from any place you can, never know when you'll find food next.
Now, just before we meet this fellow though, we end up in a fight where we meet our friend the 1st character ferael, only now turned into a vampire. A perhaps not so surprising plottwist except the other player decides to save him, so we capture him and spend a lot of time convincing him to allow us to help him, including a bunch of spells cast to make the process actually work (kinda). It ended with a ceremony attonement and.. He returned to us. So, being the original player I'm somehow playing 3 characters now, something neither me nor the DM was planning on. And to make things even better, or worse? The DM decided to let me play Rynn, in a battle against the rest of the group. Since I know him better and also because it's kinda fun. So I managed to get a bad guy speech in before hitting them(me? us? it's a bit confusing) with a spell. The speech is basically "I'm glad you came, I found what we were looking for. But Khel-thur is no more, I am Rynn of the many lives. Here is a last gift from Khel-thur!" (and I decided that he used the last essence of khel-thur to cast a final sickening radiance that would only be cast once because I only picked it because it felt like a mix of thiefling and celestial, which fitted with his reincarnation).
In a series of unfortunate events almost the whole party failed the save and ended up with around 20-30 radiant damage + a level of fatigue and will have to roll for another attempt in the beginning of their own turn. This turned into a big cliff hanger since we haven't been able to continue but... all in all I'm playing 4 characters:
A human vampire thrall, broken free of his bonds to his master. Ranger, undead hunter specialist (monster hunter, but focus is undead).
An Elf paladin of Mielikki, oath of the Ancients, who brings joy to the lands of Barovia.
A mostly sane forest Gnome illusionist who was trapped in a dungeon for 5 years.
And a once human turned into an aasimar turned into a thiefling, previously celestial warlock now something else. Who we are fighting. To make it more fair I'll try to kill my own characters first ;)
Torment the Spiteful
If my friends ever noticed the spitefulness when we first met, they were either kind enough, or afraid enough to not make mention of it, though I prefer to think it was the former, rather than the latter.
When I was hired on with The Goonies, a detective service in Waterdeep, it was more as hired muscle, rather than a brilliant detective. I was at a low to neutral point in my life, with a hope of redemption courtesy of my new paladin oath with Torm, god of courage and self-sacrifice, whom I was more than willing to offer both to serve.
My friends do not know this, but my given name is Malelius Morthos, I did not even confide this in Ariwyse, ‘The Maker of Gods’, whom I’ve come to consider to be my best friend. By the time I was able to acknowledge her as a friend, it seemed rather pointless to make mention of it.
I was in the process of starting a family of my own once in a small town called Porthcawl. Her name was Meredith, and she was the only human at the time to bother looking past my horns and tail to see me as something more. She was carrying our child, close to 9 months along, when a plague hit the town, killing everybody but me. This feeling of helplessness contributed the greatest to becoming Torment the Spiteful.
Full of rage and hatred, I discovered the source of the plague, and joined the army that was formed to eradicate the vile demons who brought it from Avernus. There was a lot of mistrust towards me because of my appearance, but muscle was muscle at that point. My rage became legendary as I slaughtered what appeared to be my own kind with relentless vigor, and my captain, Raborc, took notice, and took me under his tutelage. He was a paladin under Helm, god of protection, and offered to mentor me in becoming a paladin as well.
That war lasted 10 years, but shortly before it was over, my commander, mentor and best friend Raborc was slain in battle. Given our close ties, I was instantly promoted on a temporary basis to commander to finish this war, and finish it we did!
My adventures with The Goonies started out as just a job with strangers, then became a journey with companions, until it became what it is now… simply family. I have evolved much along the way, going from Torment the Spiteful to becoming Torment the Smiteful, and, as some (including myself) would argue, a god.
Which leads me to the greatest evolution I never dreamed of. The recently restored arch-angel Zariel remade me into an aasimar, a humanoid angelic being, which was already in my bloodline, courtesy of my mother, Octavia Drellasi.
I later discovered that this decision was in part inspired by my half-sister, Lilith Drellasi, not only whom I thought was dead, but who had also become a priestess at one of the many temples popping up in my name. Upon hearing about the religion of Torment, she had volunteered her services as priestess to determine my intent, suspecting corrupt motivations on my part.
I did run into her at Neverland, but it turns out that the adventures we experienced in that time span may not have been real, although my unique transformation occurred there. I hope that she is indeed alive, for we have much to catch up on.
Looking back, my spitefulness was the necessary tool for becoming who I am now. Sometimes it's when you’re at your lowest that you can miraculously rise to your highest. The deep bonds that I have formed with the friends I now call my family have made me Torment the Smiteful, because I will continue to sacrifice everything to keep them safe.
I have two related characters Rinys Reedfellow and Ishahi (Izzy). Rinys is a halfling schoolteacher that accidentally stumbled into a sect of the cult of Bane that had infiltrated his country of Delmyr. this sect had hidden away a celestial they had kidnapped and tortured to the point where she doesn't know who she is herself anymore. This celestial currently didn't have a body and in the process of rescuing her, she bonded to Rinys. Now whenever he is asleep she is awake and using his body and powers have been manifesting in both of them as warlock powers. They both want to restore izzy without hurting her and prevent the cult on Bane from doing this to someone else.
I'd love to make a character who is the subject of True Polymorph. Maybe they were a great villain, but got true polymorphed into an earlier version of their self (either with or without their memories).
Or alternatively, a character who was made into a copy of someone from an inanimate object, and has no memory from before the moment of their creation. Like a young version of a powerful Warlock created for a certain mission, or sent off into the world so the Warlock can secretly keep tabs on them to see if they could have had a good life free of eldritch entanglements as they live vicariously through their clone.
Started playing with my family to get them into the world of D&D, here the backstory of my 13 year old boy
He cause by the name of friend, not wanting his real name knowed, not to be remember. He was a LG Paladin. Started getting a small reputation (Folk Hero). One night he hears some noise in his home. He was beeing attack by Orc, these orc are out for revenge since he killed there leader in his last crusade. The Orcs killed his wife and daughter in front of him. He lost it and killed them all and left his house to burn. He renonce his faith, his God.
He tried to killed himself, more then once, to be reunited with his family. But everytime Faith intervine. He his now a follower of Savras, he his LN, following a path he does not control and only wanting to died, when his time comes.
He evens RP this really well, after a fight he says a prayor to his dead wife that it is not his time yet and will see them soon.
The backstory of Claire, a Lawful Good Paladin and a member of the Boros Legion:
Claire joined the Boros Legion because her father drafted her into it after her village was attacked by the Gruul. She admired the firefists of the legion and thus set out to become one. After months of training in the Horizon Military Academy, she was ordained a paladin firefist. She also gained a unique armor style, adding a "dress" made of armor plates to her armor because she wanted a level of elegance to her. On her first assignment, she was placed under the command of an egoistic sergeant along with some equally egoistic legionnaires. But as she soon discovered, they were also lazy, rude, bossy, and overconfident. As she was the only female in the group, they also called her names, ordered her around, and disrespected her, which caused her to resent them greatly. After a few days, the party came across a renegade Gruul minotaur that was wrecking havoc in a ruined neighborhood.
Claire eagerly readied her blade, finally having some action. But when the minotaur roared, her teammates, including her sergeant, screamed and fled; they were also cowards! Clare's anger with them reached the boiling point, and she unleashed that anger at the minotaur. After a long battle, Claire managed to defeat the minotaur.
Battered, bruised, and bloodied, Claire trekked all the way back to the garrison, where she caught her "brave" teammates telling a Wojek commander an embellished and false version of their encounter with the minotaur (i.e. how they fought the minotaur but were forced to retreat and how Claire had died in battle). However, their faces turned pale white when they saw Claire, just before she angrily recounted what really happened. The commander quickly chastised the cowardly legionnaires, even going as far as stripping the sergeant of his rank, and ordering that they will be sent back to the academy to teach them the proper attitude of being a member of the Boros, as well as 3 months of KP.
Claire was given the former sergeants rank for her bravery and honesty. Today, she has risen to the rank of captain, and is occasionally deployed to different realms to deal with any possible threats there. Her story is still told to other legionaries, showing that ego is not a replacement for bravery.
Backstory of a Half Elf Noble Monk:
I want my funeral to be so funny everyone forgets to cry.
The backstory of Rafael Dumont, a Tiefling gray necromancer in a race against time.
Greetings my name is Rafael Dumont, of House Dumont in Sorenfell. House Dumont is a family of wizards who want nothing more than to uncover secrets long forgotten and share our findings with the world. Some of us are evocationists, some of us are illusionists, while still more are enchanters and enchantresses. But what we all are, are archaeologists. Our schools of magic vary based on what peaks our interests, and as such I happen to be studying Necromancy! I may dabble here and there in other schools, after all I am a tiefling; however, I am mostly interested in magics that prolong life and of course, stave death. Many often wonder why I would study such a macabre topic, some even accused me of seeking lichdom. Let me assure you that is not the case, I neither wish to live forever nor do I wish to raise an army of undeath to reap havoc upon the world. No, my motivations are much more personal. I wish to understand undeath to undo a terrible affliction that has cursed and plagued my twin sister, Adrian-Marie, during her frail existence in this world. Well more frail than usual for our family, we have not been known to be a physically strong sort. Yet one look at my sister and anyone would assume she was twice my age. It’s been like this for as long back as I can remember, though the journals of my late father suggest that the aging started some months after she and I were born. Sadly, he does not state how the affliction began only that the curse was necromantic in origin, so he believed.
For years the Dumont family poured through countless books and scrolls in the libraries of Sorenfell, myself included from ever since I could read. And for years we have been examining the ruins and artifacts our ancestors and kin have excavated in the surrounding countryside, some even going so far as to venture far beyond the borders of the North Mire province. Yet thus far, our research hasn’t borne any promising results. My mother brought in healers, clerics, even a paladin to try their hand at fixing the problem. Yet each time divine magic was used, Adrian-Marie became more and more frail and I blame these “men of the gods” for her now bed-ridden state. But if divine magic was making my sister worse, then I suspect that Necromancy holds the answer for her cure. This will be my last journal entry from my home here in Sorenfell for on the morrow I will journey forth like my kin have done before and I will not return until I find something, anything, that will undo this curse, no matter the price. Though, I curse the fact I have not done so sooner. Time, you see, is not on my side, as I soon celebrate my 34th year upon this world while Adrian-Marie will be celebrating the equivalent of, what I surmise, roughly her 70th year. As I journey forth, I do so with both the blessing - and the credulous eye - of my family