Glad the examples were helpful. I just thought I would share some history and my example character background as I really liked it (this background, not the RL murders, just to clear that up...)
In short, stolen from wikipedia:
In the Ottoman Empire a policy of judicial royal fratricide was introduced by Sultan Mehmet II whose grandfather Mehmed I had to fight a long and bloody civil war against his brothers (which brought the empire near to destruction) to take the throne. When a new Sultan ascended to the throne he would imprison all of his surviving brothers and kill them by strangulation with a silk cord as soon as he had produced his first male heir. The largest killing took place on the succession of Mehmed III when 19 of his brothers were killed and buried with their father. The aim was to prevent civil war. The practice was abandoned in the 17th century by Ahmed I, replaced by imprisonment in the Kafes.
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With the GMs approval I came up with the following backstory.
My character was part of a huge family (dad had many wives) and was 11th in line for the throne. He was a playboy with no sense of responsibility. He would drink and wench in foriegn lands and squander his significant monthly stipend. He liked travelling the world, often ending up with Sinbad style adventures.
Think a cross between a prince, Sinbad and Porthos from the three musketeers. He could always always tell you a story about his time with the queen of Sheba or onboard a cosairs ship battling the sirens of...etc etc. He got really drunk and got shanghai'ed onto a ship sailing for distant lands, he had no idea where he was, but ended up getting on with the crew decently enough.
Then his father died under suspious circumstances. His brothers start a series of mass asssassinations vying for the throne. One comes to power and starts hunting down all of the brothers. He kills 40 of the 41 brothers, but cannot find my character (since he got shanghai'ed).
One night the captain finds out about my characters midnight daliances with his daughter onboard the ship. A jump overboard and a long swim later he starts the campaign just arriving on the coast of a local village with next to nothing.
This led to great room for the GM to move the campaign. The character was the last person anyone would want to be Sultan. He did not want to be Sultan himself in the least. Later in the campaign it became clear that his brother was leading the country to ruin and would be the death of his people. He had to come up with a plot to claim the throne.
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The reason I mention this is that it can be adapted as a pretty cool reason for your character to be out and adventuring and why he does not return home. Being a prince-in-exile has no inherent advantages, as if you hang out with high society types then the hassassins will find you.
By the sound of it you wanted a holier character than mine. What if he was out on a pilgrimage to a holy site when his father died and the proverbial hit the fan? It would give the GM some good hooks to work with. What if your character wants to complete his pilgrimage to his religion's holy sites? That gives the GM good things to work with too. What if your brother knows this too? Won't he be waiting for your to show yourself? Surely he would not shed blood in the holy city of X, defying centuries of traditional law? What would happen if the Sultan did to an unforgivable crime? What would you do?
On a side note, one more quirk. Consider making your character pretty much a monotheist. Bahumut is not just the head of the gods, but the only true one. Other dieties are merely very powerful sorcerers, overly powerful Djinn, exalted saints or upstart demi-gods who are sub-ordinate to Bahumut.
In short, stolen from wikipedia:
In the Ottoman Empire a policy of judicial royal fratricide was introduced by Sultan Mehmet II whose grandfather Mehmed I had to fight a long and bloody civil war against his brothers (which brought the empire near to destruction) to take the throne. When a new Sultan ascended to the throne he would imprison all of his surviving brothers and kill them by strangulation with a silk cord as soon as he had produced his first male heir. The largest killing took place on the succession of Mehmed III when 19 of his brothers were killed and buried with their father. The aim was to prevent civil war. The practice was abandoned in the 17th century by Ahmed I, replaced by imprisonment in the Kafes.
==========
With the GMs approval I came up with the following backstory.
My character was part of a huge family (dad had many wives) and was 11th in line for the throne. He was a playboy with no sense of responsibility. He would drink and wench in foriegn lands and squander his significant monthly stipend. He liked travelling the world, often ending up with Sinbad style adventures.
Think a cross between a prince, Sinbad and Porthos from the three musketeers. He could always always tell you a story about his time with the queen of Sheba or onboard a cosairs ship battling the sirens of...etc etc. He got really drunk and got shanghai'ed onto a ship sailing for distant lands, he had no idea where he was, but ended up getting on with the crew decently enough.
Then his father died under suspious circumstances. His brothers start a series of mass asssassinations vying for the throne. One comes to power and starts hunting down all of the brothers. He kills 40 of the 41 brothers, but cannot find my character (since he got shanghai'ed).
One night the captain finds out about my characters midnight daliances with his daughter onboard the ship. A jump overboard and a long swim later he starts the campaign just arriving on the coast of a local village with next to nothing.
This led to great room for the GM to move the campaign. The character was the last person anyone would want to be Sultan. He did not want to be Sultan himself in the least. Later in the campaign it became clear that his brother was leading the country to ruin and would be the death of his people. He had to come up with a plot to claim the throne.
=========
The reason I mention this is that it can be adapted as a pretty cool reason for your character to be out and adventuring and why he does not return home. Being a prince-in-exile has no inherent advantages, as if you hang out with high society types then the hassassins will find you.
By the sound of it you wanted a holier character than mine. What if he was out on a pilgrimage to a holy site when his father died and the proverbial hit the fan? It would give the GM some good hooks to work with. What if your character wants to complete his pilgrimage to his religion's holy sites? That gives the GM good things to work with too. What if your brother knows this too? Won't he be waiting for your to show yourself? Surely he would not shed blood in the holy city of X, defying centuries of traditional law? What would happen if the Sultan did to an unforgivable crime? What would you do?
On a side note, one more quirk. Consider making your character pretty much a monotheist. Bahumut is not just the head of the gods, but the only true one. Other dieties are merely very powerful sorcerers, overly powerful Djinn, exalted saints or upstart demi-gods who are sub-ordinate to Bahumut.
)
