We are currently switching from 1st to 2nd edition Midnight and for character submissions all I ask for is background/character personality. The background should include at least 5 living NPCs, be it friends, foe, family, unknown or whatever, use your imagination. If you want to give me a full character sheet, character should be level 4, with starting ability scores generated by the Point Buy system in the DMG with 28 points.
Example of what I consider a minimal Background submission:
He comes from a long line of wildlanders, was taught by his father and grandfather. He has since "retired" from adventuring to become a farmer near the village of Swiftwater. Fathers name is Karl and mothers name is Judith. He also has one younger sister named Thalia, who has an inane ability for magic but parents are trying to hide it. She wishes to become a channeler one day and fight against the ever growing darkness that is covering the land.
In one of his first adventures with his father, he was able to rescue a channeler by the name of Burne, who was part of another party out of the village of Caderin that had gotten jumped by an Orcish raiding party. He was the only survivor and since has developed a good friendship with Alton. He, Burne and another wildlander by the name of Malthorn have gone on some small adventures. He also has crossed swords with a legate, Lordack, who hails from the city of Erenhead. He had come to the farm to investigate Thalia, but his family was able to protect her from him. He has since vowed to return to the farm and finish what he started.
One of the things he had to do as a rite of passage was craft his own composite longbow, which he now carries with him as well as the bastard sword that has been handed down through his family to fight the evil that covers the land.
Example of a thorough submission (almost too much):
BACKGROUND
Churvani grew up in a farming village in the southwest savanna, his parents having fled the banks of the Eren river in their youth to narrowly escape Izrador’s minions. His parents and their neighbors helped to create a small, new farming village which was exceptionally concealed so that it would be overlooked by roving invaders. During Churvani’s early childhood he was largely shielded from the terror and danger which the adults must always be aware of to keep the village safe. He delighted in grassland games involving hiding from playmates, approaching rabbits or grass cats as closely as possible before being noticed, or recognizing the calls of birds. His older brother, Trevain, was always a bit of a bully, pushing his younger siblings around for his own petty reasons and cuffing them for laziness or excessive curiosity. Trevain’s bad attitude seemed to be a venting of his frustration at being excluded from scouting and hunting parties, which he yearned to join but was too young for. Churvani’s own restless and playful energy drew special interest and affection from one of the village’s wogren. The two swiftly developed a strong bond as years passed and they could often be found together playing games of their own or play-wrestling. Churvani called him Fang on a childhood whim and continued to use the name ever after.
Friendly refugees occasionally passed through the village, and one traveler who particularly fascinated Churvani as he was growing up was a Sarcosan woman named Noreth. She was a merchant who also entertained herself and others with magic tricks, jokes, and singing. She always seemed to have a carefree, unpredictable nature which Churvani adored and he always looked forward to her stops as she roamed from one village or camp to another. Adept at play-acting and adapting quickly to the mood or environment of her travels, she apparently couldn’t be shaken by anything, supremely confident.
One of the games created by Churvani and his childhood friends was a sort of pretend treasure-hunting, which led them to dig small holes in the ground to find imaginary jewels and artifacts about which they would spin outlandish stories. They would always carefully fill up those holes, of course, to preserve the natural setting as much as possible and avoid punishment from their parents. During one such game, at the bottom of a dip between two hills at the fringe of the village, Churvani uncovered a smooth and flat stone surface which he imagined to be the top of a treasure chest. He was avidly dreaming up the stories he would tell his friends when he was shocked out of his light spirits by some kind of scratching sound, apparently below that stone surface. In his frantic worry, he also seemed to hear a faint whisper, “Freeeeeee,” which might have just been the wind through the grass. Churvani anxiously filled in the hole, sure that he would be devoured by some awakening monster at any moment, and fled home without mentioning it to anybody. Thereafter, he often suffered nightmares about that scratching sound and whatever might be trapped beneath it. As time passed he gradually convinced himself that he imagined the sounds, though he still suffered nightmares. One time, during his adolescence, he came up with an idea. He gathered a bit of hallucinogenic pipe weed and smoked it near the long-covered hole, wondering if seeing into the spirit realm might reveal something to him about what he thought he heard years ago. As the pipe weed reached its full effect, Churvani seemed to see through the dirt to the stone itself, which was large and rectangular, perhaps a door or a coffin, marked in a few places with unfamiliar carving. Then he saw through the stone as well, and after a moment of complete darkness a vaguely humanoid but horrific-looking creature loomed out of the void to leer at him and murmur enticingly “Free me... the plains can be clean and pure again...” Churvani abruptly snapped out of his frightening experience at the nudging and anxious whining of Fang, and he resolved to walk away from that stone and forget about it.
As he grew into adulthood and the ever-present danger of Izrador’s minions became a larger part of his life, Churvani took on some scouting duties which took him farther away from the village, accompanied only by Fang, to watch for trouble and report it quickly to his family. A few times, he thought he saw something and swiftly returned home with the news, prompting his brother to eagerly approach the scene in hopes of finally battling the enemy. Usually there was no real danger, and Trevain cuffed him in reprimand, but on one occasion a handful of goblins was truly spotted by Churvani, who trailed behind his aggressive brothers to eliminate the goblins before they could spot and reveal the village to others. He didn’t have to actually fight that day, but he was dismayed by Trevain’s bloodlust in spearing the goblins to death and beyond, disfiguring the bodies and screaming a victory cry.
As a young adult, Churvani was on one of his scouting forays with Fang when a large band of orcs and goblins discovered and assaulted his village. He ran to help, but could already see the smoke and smell the blood of slaughter. Furious, he launched himself at the small group of orcs who approached him with casual cruelty. He was soon wrestled and beaten into submission. His wogren companion, Fang, fiercely fought to free Churvani but was flung aside by a swipe of a poisoned blade. At that moment, the orcs were harshly called back to the burning buildings by their leader, who threatened painful punishment for any delay. The orcs, afraid of that punishment and assuming the wogren dead, returned to their leader with Churvani. Fang, meanwhile, was unable to even stand, riveted by the malicious venom, but would eventually recover after weeks of painful near-incapacitation.
Churvani was soon enslaved in a camp of goblins inhabited also by a handful of turncoat humans who eagerly served Izrador’s forces. There he was forced to endure abominable conditions and treatment by his masters, constantly harrassed and insulted and tortured, often just for the fun of it. He acquired several scars which would never naturally fade, including deep burns around one eye as he was teased into believing he would lose an eye, several near-fatal cuts from his chin to the base of his neck, and a misshapen nose from being broken several times without proper healing. He was also marked with a permanent facial tattoo in the form of a knife impaling an eye, the symbol of an especially sadistic orc named Krall who led that slavery camp. Krall delighted in performing atrocities to other slaves right in front of Churvani, who pulled painfully at his chains until his wrists and ankles were bloody but couldn’t interfere. Churvani watched Krall with smoldering rage, intent on observing all he could in order to eventually make him pay for his deeds. Another terrifying sight in the slave camp was Noreth, the fun-loving merchant and singer who had passed through his home village in the old times of relative peace. The orcs treated her not only as an ally but someone to be feared and obeyed. Upon seeing Churvani, she bared her teeth and laughed harshly at his dismay. He saw her only a few times in the slave camp, each time for a moment or two, but that was enough to chill him to the bone. He gradually learned the orc language and came to know some of his fellow slaves, although many were slain or sent away. Zan, a compassionate halfling slave who refused to break, often spoke quietly to Churvani and others, trying to restore their spirits with jokes and stories. It was Zan who first told Churvani about the Liberators Smidge and Copper, giving him hope that not all slaves were doomed to a life of unending misery. Zan retained her sense of humor even in the darkest conditions, winking conspiratorially at Churvani when an orc or goblin stumbled due to a sabotaged boot or drank dyed water which stained his face blue.
One day, when Zan and Churvani were in chains tending a neglected farm to provide food for the goblins, a commotion arose in the distance. An orc approached the farm to speak with the goblins supervising the slaves. From a few words picked out of that conversation, Churvani got the impression that a surprise raid was in progress on the other side of the slavery camp. Some of the goblins were called away to help, offering a rare opportunity that could not be ignored. Churvani used a hidden sliver from a metal tool to covertly unlock his own chains as he knelt among the vegetables in the garden, and then he contrived to approach Zan to help her tug her gardening tool free of the soil, and in the process he tried to unlock her chains as well. At that, however, the goblin wardens grew suspicious and came over to pull the two apart. The two halflings fought the goblins with all their pent-up rage and fear, Churvani pummeling while Zan tried to suffocate a goblin with her still-unlocked chains. The slaves were outnumbered and in very poor health, and they would have been killed if Fang and another wogren had not sprung out of nowhere to join the tussle. The goblins were slain but the struggle had attracted the attention of a large group of distant orcs and goblins which ran toward the scene. Zan mounted the other wogren, which was apparently her own bond animal, and Churvani pulled himself atop Fang. Glancing at the overwhelming pursuit, the halflings decided they should flee in opposite directions to separate their enemies. With a handclasp of gratitude and a promise to reunite somewhere, they parted on their sprinting wogrens.
Churvani needed a long time and some clever ruses to finally escape pursuit, and he couldn’t locate Zan. His first instinct was to return to his home village, where he found a disturbing surprise. The entire village was razed and burned, of course, but much more severely than even orcs were capable of. Pieces of crumbled stone walls had been flung about and intense fire had melted metal tools and scalded large patches of earth. The litter of bodies all around included not only halflings but many orcs and goblins, many of them ripped into several pieces. The sight which chilled Churvani to his core was the gaping wound in the earth where his covered-up hole had long ago revealed a bit of flat stone. This raw pit of dirt was over ten feet across and plunged deep into yawning darkness. After a long moment of shock Churvani fled the village, still accompanied by Fang, to travel many miles as his head cleared.
Eventually he discovered a small, hidden valley shrouded by thick and thorny vegetation, and he hoped to shelter there a while. He soon found that the valley already had a resident, however: one isolated Dorn who questioned Churvani thoroughly and then allowed him to share the valley with him. This man, named, Ordigon, coordinated local efforts to protect caravans, lure Izrador’s minions into ambushes, and reassure and support nearby villages. For some private reason, Ordigon preferred to live by himself in this valley, leaving on various errands and speaking intently with passing rebels and conspirators, but always returning here. Churvani gradually learned many things from the solemn and coldly determined man, including how to defend himself without weapons or armor. The halfling wanted to help resist Izrador’s evil forces as well, but he felt out of place among human villages with few of his fellow halflings around, so he quietly planned for a future of aiding halfling slaves. His code of honor became “You shall oppose slavery at all costs.” With tireless energy, he studied unarmed combat with Ordigon and also learned a bit of current events in the area. He soon came to realize that his brother, Trevain, who he had known only as a callous bully, was now a local hero of sorts, gathering support to lead nomads against orcs and goblins in ferocious raids, earning him a new respect in Churvani’s eyes.
In time, Churvani’s lessons advanced far enough for him to strike out on his own from time to time, exploring the area and observing the movements of orc patrols. Finally Ordigon wished him luck as he sought out a slave camp in an attempt to free his fellow halflings. Once he actually spied on a camp and resolved to take action, he realized how daunting a task it truly was. He could be easily killed, but he was determined not to let the slaves down. In a stroke of inspiration, he decided to take advantage of his scars and tattoo by slipping into a slave camp and posing as a slave, wearing manacles which he had learned through much practice to easily unlock. Over the next year or two, with cunning and careful planning, not to mention crucial help from Fang, he managed to free three halfling slaves, including a ruthless fellow warg who fervently thanked Churvani and raced off with a vow to spill orc blood in the eastern hills.
