Character Backgrounds

In this chapter we present several examples of character backgrounds that can guide you in creating a character of your own. You can also try playing one of our characters.

Finthar

Finthar comes from Nalmien, the realm of the wood elves. His father Finuthar and mother Rilloen belong to the royal rangers, a unit guarding the forest against intruders. His older sister Neliona also became a ranger, but Finthar was drawn more to warfare than to the wisdom of the forest. Like his parents, he mastered archery and swordplay and can move silently through the forest, but he also studied tactics and strategy and, at a young age (for an elf), became an excellent commander who often led ambushes on bands of goblins and other enemies of the elves in Nalmien.

Finthar is a fair-haired elf, tall and lithe. Like all the forest folk, he has deep dark eyes and a handsome face. He usually goes about with a longbow, dressed in green camouflage clothing that makes him almost invisible in the forest or wilderness.

As a child, Finthar liked to wander the forest alone. On one of his walks he came upon a bear that had been wounded by hunters. The enraged bear threw itself at Finthar and tore open the left side of his neck with its paw. He was saved at the last moment by Loanak, who suddenly appeared behind the bear and killed it with his spell. The priests of Irnaliel healed the wound with their art, but a scar remained visible on his neck even years later.

Finthar befriended Loanak and often visited him in his tower. He was also fascinated by Loanak's wizardry. Because of his frequent duties in defending the forest, however, he never found enough time to learn it, and his family was not overjoyed at the idea of him becoming a wizard either. Several times he looked into the master's books and so learned the basics of the wizard's art, but he never cast a single spell, and in later years he no longer had time even for short visits to Loanak's tower.

Around the fortieth year of Finthar's life, a shadow fell upon the forest realm of Nalmien. Armed men on horseback began riding along the edges of the forest, strange creatures blotting out the stars fly over the treetops at night, and the undead emerge from the Zendal Marshes. All these oddities culminated when Kildar, a priest of Irnaliel, the goddess of healing, returned from his journey to Alveion and tried one night to kill the king. The guards saved the ruler, but had to kill Kildar. Loanak managed to discover that Kildar had been under the control of an evil alien will, and not even the power of his goddess had protected him from this evil.

King Gilrodel decided to prevent similar events, so he had the borders closed and forbade all elves to leave without permission. Every newcomer is now examined by wizards regardless of his reputation or origin. The ruler also sent out several elves (warriors, wizards and rangers) to try to uncover the causes of these events.

Finthar, suddenly longing for adventure, joined the scouts and set out to search in Alveion, the capital of Falven, to learn more about these things ...

Acquired Skills

Finthar has gained considerable experience fighting goblins and has a +1 bonus to hit and to defense against them.

Gorth

Little is known about the origin of Gorth the Veiled. He never knew his parents, for he was a foundling, a child abandoned on the road from Falven to Lamuria. The day after the feast of Arenil he was found by the merchant Sagur, a cattle trader, and since Sagur was childless, he and his wife Amilla took him in as their own.

Gorth was unusually sharp and soon began helping Sagur with his trade and accompanying him on his travels. As fate or chance would have it, one day Gorth left a lit lantern in the stable, which set fire to the stables and the whole homestead. In the fire the merchant lost most of his property. He therefore decided to set out on a risky journey to Olmion, where he hoped he could sell part of his herd at a good price.

But the journey proved fatal for him: in war-torn Falven, bands of robbers and deserters roamed, and one of them ambushed the merchant. They killed the merchant, took the herd and left Gorth in the wilderness. Before dying, the merchant managed to tell Gorth that he had a brother, a twin. On the road where he had found him on Arenil, there had in fact been two children. Sagur took in both, but the brother, whom he named Kalmir, mysteriously disappeared after about a year. Sagur searched for him in vain for several weeks, but in the end came to terms with Kalmir's loss.

Sagur breathed his last and Gorth set off to find his home. But he did not know in which direction it lay, so he followed the road onward.

How the ten-year-old Gorth managed to survive is unknown, but after several weeks he appeared in the city of Olmion, where he joined a gang as a pickpocket. Thanks to his extraordinary talent he mastered the Olmionian language within a few weeks, and after five months he spoke like a native Olmionian.

Not long after, the gang was scattered by the army and some of the thieves (including Gorth) were imprisoned. Gorth was sold as a slave to work in the garden of the sorcerer Xarotek. When Xarotek one day saw Gorth in the garden, he recognized that he was no ordinary man and that an unusual fate lay upon him: most children born on Ulonil, the last day of the year, have unusual abilities, and the year of Gorth's birth was under the sign of a great surge of magical forces.

Xarotek took Gorth as his apprentice and initiated him into the secrets of magic. He himself was a master of necromancy and hoped that Gorth would become his instrument. Gorth learned much faster than the other adepts, so Xarotek wanted to proceed to teaching him higher necromancy. But black magic awakened in Gorth an unusually strong revulsion, until the Great Book of Necromancy burst into white flame. At that moment Xarotek recognized his mistake: Gorth was destined not to serve the Darkness, but to fight against it. He wanted to correct his mistake at once and cast a deadly fire spell on Gorth. By chance or luck, Gorth survived the spell with burns, and before the astonished Xarotek could recover, Gorth ran him through with his dagger hidden under his wizard's cloak.

His face and hands were burned to the bone, but he stayed conscious and in the ensuing chaos fled Xarotek's tower. As he fled, he took from the master's study several powerful scrolls and, protected by invisibility, safely escaped the city. His pursuers, Xarotek's apprentices, he destroyed with spells from the scrolls. Then he headed north, to Falven, his home.

There he learned that Amilla, his foster mother, had died of hunger years before. None of his acquaintances recognized him because of his burned face, and Gorth preferred to move on, to the capital, Alveion. He hid his disfigurement under a blue cloak with a deep hood and covered his face with a scarf. Only his gleaming gray eyes can be seen. Even through the robe one can tell that he is tall and slender. For his covered face he earned the epithet the Veiled.

He began to make a living fighting the Darkness, killing magical monsters and necromancers. Besides Xarotek, he destroyed the necromancer Izgep by sealing his tower with a spell from a scroll and setting it on fire. In the smoke and confusion Izgep could not manage a single spell and burned to death.

Acquired Skills

Since his clash with Xarotek, wounds caused by Evil (spells of evil sorcerers, prayers of evil priests, the touch of the undead, necromantic spells) take only half the health points from him. When casting spells from the fields of White magic, Gorth has a +1 bonus.

Kaen

Kaen is tall and slender. He has gray eyes and dark, close-cropped hair and beard. He is usually seen in a long gray robe with a long staff.

Kaen never knew his parents. As far back as he could remember, he had lived from early childhood in the family of Hindak, a shipwright from Kaal. Because Hindak's wife Zerela could not have children, Hindak bought Kaen from a child trader.

Zerela grew fond of Kaen and loved him like her own, but to Hindak he was a thorn in the side and he constantly found fault with him. Hindak's trade, building fishing boats, paid well at first. Over time, interest in Hindak's services declined and he suffered considerable losses. He blamed Kaen for his failures without reason, and his initially cold attitude began to grow into hatred. He often beat Kaen for the slightest cause, and sometimes for none at all. Zerela stood up for Kaen, but that only provoked Hindak more.

His only friend was Arethel, the daughter of one of the workers who worked for Hindak. She was about a year younger than Kaen, petite, with long dark hair and beautiful dark eyes. Even then she was very beautiful, and that is how he remembered her even after many years.

Whenever Kaen could, he was with Arethel. In her presence he could forget about Hindak and was much happier. Arethel also taught him to read and count (Zerela could not read, and Hindak did not think Kaen worth the effort). He learned reading and arithmetic incredibly fast: in just two months he mastered what took other children two years.

From the age of ten, Hindak put Kaen to work in the docks. Kaen was not good at woodworking: he was weak for his age and never learned to handle tools well. Once, when he was finishing a part that Hindak had worked on all week and ruined it, the ill-tempered shipwright beat him unconscious.

Hard times came and Hindak had no orders for a long time. Gradually he had to sell all his property and dismiss his employees. At that time Arethel's family moved to another town for work and the girl left with her parents, so Kaen lost his only friend and from the age of fourteen he neither saw nor heard of her.

Hindak began to drink to escape his worries about money and creditors. The relationship between Kaen and Hindak kept getting worse, and not a day went by without Kaen being beaten. With a heavy heart Zerela endured Kaen's pain and her husband's ever-worsening behavior, until she died a year later.

Fourteen-year-old Kaen, having thus lost the last person he cared about, ran away from Hindak right after the funeral and never heard of him again. He went to Alris, the second largest city in the land, and tried to find work. But for a weak, untrained boy there was no place anywhere, and living by theft disgusted him. So he went into the wilderness, where he tried to live off animals caught in traps. He had little hunting experience and so he often went hungry.

One day a large wolf attacked young Kaen. His knife, his only weapon, was of no use against such an enemy, and Kaen turned to flee. The wolf quickly caught up with him and knocked him to the ground. Thoughts of death and last memories of life raced through the desperate Kaen's mind, but among them he glimpsed a vision of lightning in the sky. He clung to this thought with all his will and wished that such lightning would strike the wolf. Just as he was giving up hope, a yellow flash shot from his eyes and the wolf clawing at his throat fell dead to the ground. Kaen fainted from sheer surprise and exhaustion.

Now it was no longer a problem to catch an animal. It was enough to get within a suitable distance and cast a lightning bolt. Thus Kaen discovered the secret of magic on his own, without anyone's help. It occurred to him to try other things than casting lightning, and so he mastered further, stronger spells.

He sold the hides he had caught for good money and settled in Alveion, the capital of Falven, where he bought a small house and began to develop his magical talent. He began helping people with his art and often went on dangerous expeditions.

Kar’ch

Kar’ch was born the only son of Brel’ch, a barbarian lieutenant of the Sur-lúmin army. At that time Brel’ch was commander of a scout squad at Eagle Castle, a fortress guarding the northern border of Sur-lúmin. His mother Filona, a human woman and the daughter of the castle's steward, died giving birth to him, so he knows her only from his father's stories.

Kar’ch resembles his father, a barbarian from the distant South, far more than a human. He has dark hair and ice-blue eyes. His face, however, lacks the coarse, angular features so typical of barbarians.

From early childhood his father began raising him as a tough warrior, so Kar’ch could ride a horse from the age of five and fight with a short sword, three years later he could hold a sword as easily as a grown man, and from twelve he could wield his father's mace, the traditional weapon of his clan. Thanks to his natural sharpness, inherited from his mother, he quickly learned the basics of tactics and strategy and showed considerable talent in these fields.

Because of his unusual talent for combat, his father sent him at the age of thirteen to the knightly Order of the White Rose, the elite warriors of Sur-lúmin. Here Kar’ch became familiar with heavy weapons, knightly armor and the shield, and improved his horsemanship. After just a year he surpassed all his human peers and was the only one able to fight for hours in full armor without difficulty.

Here his promising future suddenly ended. The fortress of the White Rose in the Encircling Forest was unexpectedly attacked by clerics of the Order of the Black Snake, servants of the goddess Sansri, and with her help they massacred the order. They captured several surviving knights and adepts and led them into slavery in the north, to the land of the Snake, Ephatim. Among the captives was Kar’ch, who was saved from death only by the fact that the clerics had immobilized him with their art in the first moments of the fight.

The captured knights were taken to the heart of the Ephatim jungle to cut mahogany. Inhuman toil, disease and insufficient food wiped out all his companions within three years. He alone survived, overcame even two bouts of swamp fever, and grew even stronger from the hard labor.

But he bore the shame of slavery badly; his barbarian nature rebelled against the feeling of captivity. So he attempted to escape.

His pursuers caught him after two days on the run. As a warning to the other slaves, he was to be executed by quartering. As he was led to the execution, such a wave of helpless fury swept over him that he fell into a battle frenzy. A red mist clouded his sight, he stopped feeling pain and his mind was filled with a single desire: to kill. He tore his steel shackles apart, killed his executioner with the chain that had bound him, wrenched the axe from his hands and began dealing blows on all sides. In his fit of madness he killed several overseers on the spot and with a leap landed in the middle of another group. He himself took several wounds, but felt no pain or weakness. The sight of the foam at Kar’ch's mouth, his roaring and the heavy losses put the overseers, many times his number, to flight. The other slaves, seeing their chance, began to beat their masters to death and throw off their shackles. Kar’ch paid no heed and noticed nothing. In his fit of battle frenzy Kar’ch pursued them and killed several more in a mad chase.

The fury left him as quickly as it had come, and Kar’ch realized that he was deep in the jungle, far from his captors. He heard neither the noise of the rebelling slaves nor the distant voices of the Ephatim soldiers who had come to put down the revolt.

The journey through the jungle, unknown to Kar’ch, was full of suffering and toil. To cover his tracks, he often walked along, or against the current of, forest streams. After a month of exhausting marching and several encounters with wild animals and dangerous snakes, he reached the edge of the forest at the sea coast near the city of Kaal.

After several weeks of wandering and minor skirmishes, he reached the castle where he had once lived with his father. There he heard bad news: his father had been killed in battle with the cavalry of goblin warriors, the Legion of Death. His father's inheritance had already passed to the state, but the commander of the castle gave Kar’ch his father's mace and a pouch of gold and offered him a place in his service. Kar’ch declined his offer, for he had decided to go his own way and fight against evil in the world.

With this resolve he set out back to Falven, the land bordering Ephatim, to find out more about the clerics of the Order of the Black Snake ...

Acquired Skills

If Kar’ch manages to restore his order, he will gain priestly abilities.

Lenesal

Lenesalvermalmerch stopped counting the passing years of his life many centuries ago. His memories reach deep into the past, but like most members of the elven race, he perceives the course of history in a way incomprehensible to the ordinary human mind.

He spent Vinae, his childhood, lasting a hundred human years, under the careful supervision of his parents Anieltirmaeny and Tremelvilthermerch. For most human offspring, childhood is the most turbulent period of their short life, a time when experience follows experience, joys mingle with worries, and illnesses and injuries come. From Lenesal's childhood his parents, as if with a magic wand, charmed away all worries and wild events. He spent it slowly getting to know the course and laws of life, learning gently through long conversations with his elders and whole months of contemplation. For three years he did nothing but watch trees and flowers grow, for a whole ten years he observed the habits of animals and got to know them.

Only after several centuries did he learn about the outside world. His mother began to tell him of creatures that are a little more than animals. Of dwarves, halflings and gnomes, and above all humans, who are the best of them, yet still a very poor and distant imitation of elves. Creatures with their own reasoning, but with lives far too short to grasp the essence of being.

All these words firmly sowed a sense of superiority in Lenesal's mind. "Walk among them, speak with them, watch them. Just as you walked and talked with deer and birds," his father advised him well. "You will learn much, but gain very little. Humans invented betrayal, fraud and deceit, they are tossed about by emotions they do not understand at all," his mother advised.

Despite these constant allusions to the wickedness of the other races, Lenesal soon showed an almost morbid fascination with their behavior. He became an obsessive researcher of their deeds, and with a scientist's callousness he set up various situations and observed how they acted. In his research he made ample use of his knowledge of magic, which always helped him remain only a hidden observer.

After many, many years he discovered in himself a strange, growing feeling he did not understand. Admiration. Admiration for the rich and immensely fast life of these creatures. And perhaps even love, like the love a person feels for his pet. He still did not understand them, but he marveled at the tenacity with which they defend their short lives, and their unbridled emotions never ceased to amaze him. And slowly he began to long. He longed to let himself be swept along by the current of events, to take part in them, to control them, and not merely float with that current like the members of his race.

Neral

Neral comes from the Nalmien Forest, the realm of the wood elves. He spent his childhood in the peaceful atmosphere of the temple of Irnaliel, raised by his mother Quirma, a priestess of Irnaliel. When he reached the age of twenty, his father Kertan decided that Neral would become a warrior. Kertan himself was a royal huntsman and one of the best swordsmen in the kingdom, and he saw himself in his son. Quirma protested against his choice, for she wanted to dedicate Neral to the service of her goddess. But Kertan imposed his will and took Neral with him into the forest, which his wife never forgave him, and she stopped visiting him.

In the following years Neral lived among the wood elves, where under his father's guidance he trained in masterful handling of the sword. Like most elves, he wore no armor that would hinder him in combat, and preferred to rely on his speed and dexterity.

He grew strong, with the agile build of a born swordsman. His once fair hair darkened to brown, his blue eyes gained elven depth and wisdom. Like all elves, by human standards he had fine features that belied his otherwise strong build.

After several years of training he had advanced so far in the martial arts that Kertan placed him in Ernil's unit of Guardians, who guarded the borders of Nalmien against intruders.

After some time Neral grew tired of the service: he knew the whole Forest by heart, and the civil war in neighboring Falven was ending, so the borders were safe again and chances for combat were few. So he went out into the world in search of fortune and adventure.

— — —

Nobody prepared Neral for life in the city. At first he was carried away by the bustle in the streets, the colorful crowds, the variety of goods on offer and the delights, especially nocturnal ones, that the city offers. After a few unreal days his enthusiasm turned to disillusionment when he was robbed in the street in broad daylight. Without money, life in the city is hard, as Neral soon found out when bouncers threw him out of the inn where he was staying. At first he thought of returning home, but could not bear the thought of the humiliation of failure. Instead he accepted the first offer that came along: an invitation from the rash knight Orm to an expedition against a dragon.

On the long journey across half the continent to the Dragon Mountain, their company grew by further members: the halfling Tib, the dwarven warrior Dorin and the sorceress Kathiena. After overcoming many hardships, they came within sight of the Dragon Mountain. The sight of the Mountain stunned Neral. He had lived within sight of the Arthari Mountains, but even their highest peaks seemed insignificant next to the fifteen-mile-high mountain that towered over the Anrif plain.

At the foot of the mountain, Orm's company set out to search for the dragon's cave. Neral forgot the dragon, the cave and his friends the moment he looked into the emerald-green eyes of a girl who stood before him. Neral had known many women in his life, delicate elf maidens in Nalmien and passionate human women in the cities by night, but none could compare to the woman he was looking at.

— — —

He did not know how long he stood on the mountainside. Perhaps hours, perhaps days, perhaps whole centuries. He did not hear his companions calling, nor the distant roar of the dragon, but his mind seemed filled with a beautiful voice whispering a single name: Aelinen.

When he tore himself out of his reverie, he was still standing facing Aelinen, and at that moment he saw a mighty dragon approaching on mighty wings.

The girl ran off, and before Neral came out of that strange reverie, the dragon landed.

"Wretched mortal!" it thundered. "I should burn you on the spot and scatter your ashes across the whole land. The only reason I do not kill you on the spot is that Aelinen would never forgive me your death. Now begone and never return." And the dragon flew away.

Neral perceived its words as if through a veil of mist and ignored its warning. The only thing he longed for was to see that girl with the green eyes again. Aelinen. He set out farther into the mountains, where after several days of wandering he found the green-eyed girl again.

So that the old dragon would not find him, he hid at the bottom of a mountain lake that Aelinen opened with her spells. Very quickly the two grew close.

After several weeks (or years?) full of happiness, the dragon caught them. As Neral found out, he was Aelinen's father and his name was Gurax. Gurax's wrath was terrible, and at the sound of his voice stones fell from the surrounding rocks. He wanted to destroy Neral on the spot, but Aelinen stopped him with her spells.

"How dare you attack my husband?" asked the she-dragon.

"Your hus...?" the dragon did not finish. "Surely you are not..." again his voice failed him.

"Yes. Exactly," she replied.

Gurax turned red and breathed out fire and smoke by turns.

"Do you know what the Law says?" he asked.

"What does some law have to do with it," Neral cut into the conversation.

"What..." the dragon was about to explode, but at the sight of Aelinen he calmed down. "Our Law says that a dragon's daughter may be taken as wife only by one who is worthy of her, in other words another dragon who is richer than her father. So I can kill you."

"You cannot. You cannot kill your own relative."

"But he is not my relative," Gurax retorted.

"According to the Law, your relative, and therefore untouchable for you, is everyone you are related to by blood."

"But ... that ... is not ... Such a ... mortal ..." the dragon stammered.

"I think you are going to be a grandfather."

"Aelinen!" Neral gasped.

"Silence!" the dragon collected himself. "According to the Law I cannot kill a relative, but neither can I accept into the family anyone poorer than myself. Let alone such a ..." and he went on: "This is my judgment: When you have greater wealth than I, that is, more than any dragon, only then shall Aelinen be yours!" thundered Gurax, and he beckoned to Aelinen:

"As you surely know, this decision is my right. Or do you wish to renounce me as your father?"

The girl shook her head.

"Then it is agreed. When you have a greater treasure than I have, and I count my daughter too, only then will I welcome you as my son-in-law. Until then you are forbidden to meet her."

Then he beckoned to the saddened Aelinen, who at once turned into a magnificent dragon with golden scales, and together they rose to the heights of the Dragon Mountain.

While still in flight, they both heard Neral's voice:

"I will come sooner than you expect, Gurax." "I will never forget, my beloved."

— — —

Neral returned to Nalmien to seek help on his quest for a dragon's treasure. On returning among people he found that since his journey with the group of adventurers a full two centuries had passed, even though to him it had seemed like a few weeks.

He learned that his companions had escaped the dragons and later won great fame and wealth. Except for Kathiena, all had long since died. In those two hundred years she had become a powerful sorceress active in the political life of Sur-lúmin.

Acquired Skills

Neral cannot be beguiled by the dragon Voice or similar abilities.

Roven

Roven comes from the family of the farmer Limak from the province of Istli in the Olmion Empire. While his father worked in the fields, his mother Kitma was a maid in the house of the Baron of Istli, their liege lord.

Like his father, Roven has a strong, muscular build. Although his features have lost some of that barbarian angularity, a keen observer can still notice several differences from the civilized Olmionians. His eyes also betray that he does not belong among the local brown- or green-eyed inhabitants: unlike theirs, they are a clear gray and burn with a freezing chill.

Following his father's example, Roven keeps his head shaved smooth. If he let his hair grow, it would be coal black.

— — —

From childhood Roven helped his father in the fields together with his older brother Karvel. In secret, the two brothers learned the warrior's art from their father: despite the general ban, they had weapons hidden in the cellar and often trained for long hours.

In the tenth year of Roven's life there was a dry summer and Limak suffered losses. The situation did not improve the next year either, and Limak was not able to pay the taxes to his lord, who sold him and his whole family into slavery.

On the day the baron's henchmen came for his family, Roven and his brother were working in the field, while their parents were in the house. Limak's barbarian blood awoke, and he threw himself at the slavers with a sword and killed several of them before he himself fell. His wife was then raped and taken away together with Roven and Karvel.

Shortly afterward Kitma was sold to another master in the north of the country, and Roven remained in Istli. He and his brother showed unusual skill in fighting with weapons, and so they were assigned as gladiators.

They received the best training with weapons and in fist fighting. They learned to fight against human opponents as well as ferocious beasts.

After three years Karvel managed to escape. Because Roven was too young, he left him in the arena and promised to come back for him. Later word reached Roven that Karvel led a band of robbers in the mountains to the south, where they ambushed Olmionian travelers.

Meanwhile Roven kept training and began to fight in the arena. His first opponent was a large wolf, then a lizard, to which he nearly succumbed. From this fight he carried a lifelong memento, a long scar across his whole left cheek.

He also came to his first fight against a human: his childhood friend (who had also fallen into slavery). After a hard fight Roven killed him, and from then on he went from one victory to the next.

— — —

In time Roven grew up and, besides fighting, became interested in other things, like every barbarian: good food, drink and also women.

During one of his bouts the muscular Roven caught the eye of the baron's daughter Kaila. Over time they grew close, and after several nights spent together their relationship came to light.

The baron flew into a rage and sentenced Roven to death. To punish his daughter, he had him face a venomous snake, an opponent no one had ever defeated without dying himself, and Kaila was to watch the fight.

In the cell where he awaited his last fight, Roven decided to escape. Despite considerable difficulties, he managed to escape together with the captive thief Garim and fled to his brother.

In his heart he swore that he would take revenge on the baron and carry Kaila off.