D&D 5E What is Your Character's Back Story?

Velen is a half-elven sorcerer, with bronze dragon blood in his family line. He was taken to Faerie as a babe and grew to maturity there.

One day, he was amazed to awaken in the mortal world, with no memory of how he got there. Devoted to the Lords of Faerie, he is convinced they would never cast him out, so the only possible explanation for his situation is the fey sent him to complete an important task. Hearing rumors of a demon invasion, he immediately headed toward the Underdark. He is convinced that the Fey will summon him "home" once the last demon prince is driven out. He relates his tale to any who will listen, but for some reason, not one listener has yet been convinced that the Fey actually want him back. Or course, this just encourages Velen to prove them wrong.

The inspiration for this character is the Fey-snatched background I found on these boards. In the party, everyone rolls their eyes when Velen tells them - yet again - that the Fey would never send him away unless they had to. They'll come for him. Really.

I'm playing a high elf named Anavatar Ferasine, who wandered near a fey crossing as a child and was abducted by faeries. He was brought to an archfey and offered a bargain: he would gain her protection until such time as he reached adulthood, at which point he would then act as her guardian for an equal number of years. In the meantime, she cultivated him as a knight of the Summer Court (ancients paladin).

With this character, I had joined a game in progress where the PCs had already reached level 10. As such, he had a little more history than I just described, but the blurb above is his "How I became a level 1 high elf paladin" story.

In their earliest days. the Shepherds travelled and helped the helpless to defend themselves with weapons and magic. "Everyone has the right to its own defense."

As their leaders became corrupt and began spreading discord and strife, fanning wars between others, the corrupted Shepherds became merchants of death and war - selling weapons and inciting conflicts to keep potential enemies weak and everyone buying their tools of death.

When the others became wise to the schemes and united against the corrupt ones, the Shepherds were mostly destroyed. The survivors simply moved into the shadows, selling wares to criminals and others who sowed chaos from within the others' houses.

But after a time, a few Shepherds returned to the old ways and now have again taken up the call of finding those who cannot defend themselves and helping them to grown strong and overcome their predators.

The last character I played (and am still playing) is an Eastern Warrior (Eldritch Knight) who will be going Dragon Sorcerer.

His story is he was exiled from his homeland, having to disconnect from family and friends, he was banished. He killed an important political figure in the defense of the lower caste masses. Instead of execution, the punishment was exile.

He became a coal miner in the new land he had moved to. He would often drink at a local pub, and had a small little house.

For helping the town he had lived in with local problems he was offered a position for a guard which led to his development of being a Fighter.

So he works a part-time coal miner and full-time town guard.

I would use my gold to import items from my family back in my home country. These items were heirlooms, items that had some importance to my character.

His grandfather was a famous samurai, so I had imported his samurai gear (swords, bow, shield, armor, helmet, etc...)

Next up I am going to import his mother's items. She was a sorceress, so I will most likely be getting get a hairpin from her, and maybe one other item.

I should probably add my last character's back story...

He was a fire genasi eldritch knight with the noble background.

Kaiden is the youngest son of Baron Aldair Novorast III. Born to an otherwise human family, Kaiden is a fire genasi (said to either be due to some remote ancestor having a dalliance with a fire spirit, or a remote ancestor being born near a great eruption of a volaco). Despite inheriting this ancestral connection to the element of fire, he is perfectly accepted by his family.

The Novorast barony is a small affair that comprises only a handful of villages and hamlets in the southwestern area of Nyrond. Well respected by the commoners of the barony, Baron Aldair works closely with the people of his lands, and is known to be a fair and generous protector. He has a wife, three sons, and two daughters.

Growing up in the relatively peaceful times after the Greyhawk Wars where the only threat was the occasion bandits and humanoids, Kaiden has lived a peaceful and boringly (in his opinion) sedate life in the rural countryside. However, he devoured the stories of how his father fought valiantly in the Wars, and the heroics of his other forebears since a young age, and has embraced an idealized (if greatly naïve) view heroism and knightly comportment. Added to this, his eldest brother Brennen, whom Kaiden views as a paragon of these ideals, has taken up the knighthood and actively protects the barony from banditry and other threats.

Kaiden wishes to follow in his father's and older brothers' footsteps, becoming a knight with the goal of becoming a hero in his own right, and being worthy of his people's and his family's respect. However, Kaiden has become impatient and bored with his complacent country life, and has decided that, rather than wait for great things to come to him, he will take matters into his own hands and forge his own destiny. To help ensure Kaiden doesn't find himself too deeply in trouble, Baron Aldair has sent one of Kaiden's friends, Ellis (a young noble), to be Kaiden's squire as well as two retainers (Brock and Ash) to keep watch over his foolish son.

Blue said:

A nifty thing I came across for backgrounds is called "Knife Theory" - it's about giving the DM hooks. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/775caq/my_friends_and_i_have_something_called_knife/

Click to expand...

I like that a lot. I usually try to provide some hooks when I create a character, and as a DM, I love it when players create interesting backgrounds that tie them to the setting and allow me to weave them into the campaign better.

My late Necromancer deliberately ventured into Ravenloft to seek more arcane knowledge. He was a book merchant but turned to study necromancy when his wife died and the temples couldn't help. So he's anti-cleric, pro-necromancy. It was pretty cool as the DM even gave him low level healing spells to help along.