Anyone got any good character backstories?

[Jorin]

My first ever character was Jorin the high elf ranger. It got to where I couldn't hit anything unless it was undead, which was my favored/hated enemy and was explained that my hatred for them was because my village was destroyed by a necromancer and his undead army. Along the way the party learned that he was slightly insane and liked burning things such as when we happened upon a old cabin in a forest and his response was simply "burn it".
Later on his backstory took a real dark turn when I reveled that Jorin actually had a psychoic blackout and burned the village down. Upon 'waking up' in the burnt ruins he came to the conclusion that many of the charred skeletons were the minons of a necromancer and set out on a quest for vengence, killing undead whenever he comes across them.

[sir_argo]

Well, I won't post my character's entire backstory and I'll relate it a bit later. First I need to tell you about another player's backstory.

My friend had a half orc and wrote a backstory wherein his mother was in a party of adventurers that was in a roadside inn when it got attacked by orcs. The orcs set fire to the inn and swarmed in. His mom fought valiantly. The front half of the inn smashed in and a hill giant walked in. The ranger killed the hill giant and continue to kill orcs. He wrote that there was simply too many orcs and they finally got the ranger. His mom was knocked unconscious and taken away by the orcs. His mom became a slave to the orc tribe and was taken by the chief who raped her and gave birth to a first child. The mom tried her best to care for the baby and got pregnant again (this would be my friend's character). One night, the baby cried and the orc chief woke up and crushed the baby's skull to silence it. The mother finally decided to risk running away. Later that night she tried to slip out of the camp and succeeded. She roamed the forest for about a week until some elves found her and took her back to their village. She gave birth that night, but the stress was too much and she died.

So why did I tell you the backstory of my friend? Because I then submitted a backstory for my elven wizard wherein I left my elven town in search of adventure, but was naive and was taken in by a witch who taught me magic. The local orcs would visit the witch and bargain for her potions and services. One night, an orc war party of considerable size arrived and wanted all her stock. I hated orcs and made the mistake of offending one. They were going to call off the deal with witch, but since she wasn't all that attached to me, she offered me up as a mercenary to whatever they were doing. I was forced to join them that night as they marched on a roadside inn. I watched as the orcs set fire to the inn and attacked it. A hill giant on our side smashed the front of the inn. I couldn't see who was fighting off the orcs, but they were good. I saw dozens of orc bodies and then I saw the hill giant go down. The big orc next to me ordered me to do something. So I cast Sleep and one of the defenders behind the hill giant's body was effected. The orcs swarmed around the hill giant's body and executed the sleeping man. A woman tried to run out the backdoor and I was ordered to sleep her too. The orcs captured that woman. At the conclusion of the battle, I parted with the orcs and did not return to the witch. I wandered about for over year and came across an orc encampment. I would have just avoided it, but I saw a human female working in the camp. That night, I tried to sneak in and see if I could rescue the woman, but accidentally bumped a sleeping baby. The baby began to cry and the big orc woke up. I ran. I heard the cry of the baby cut short, and then the wail of the human female. There was nothing I could do, so I just left. A couple days later, I came across the same woman, delirious, wandering in the woods. As I approached her, she feinted. I took her to a nearby elven village and dropped her off. I finished my backstory saying that almost 20 years later, I went into a bar looking for some interesting conversation and saw a half orc sitting at a table by himself. I sat down and said, "Funny seeing a half orc in these parts. Boy have I got a story for you..."

When my friend read my backstory he just said, "Die, elf!"

[Cybren]

My favorite backstory was: Bertram had a mundane childhood with loving parents, whose dad was an accomplished wizard that died when bert was fairly young, possibly in some sort of magical accident, and a doting mother who is a little racist against elves. Bert grew up to be a bodyguard and mercenary, eventually leaving home to learn magic like his pops, finding his fathers reputation ostracizing him from the local wizards.


It was a real doozy when we came to a story arc about six or so (real life) years later revealing that Bert had nearly died as a kid so his dad had created an elaborate arcane machine to create clones of people to overcome death, and then populated a castle with hundreds of Bert-Clones (led by Marteb, the Bertmost). That sort of curveball is why I like vague and "mundane" sounding backstories. What's the fun if you already know all the answers? EDIT: (and yes, the castle was named Bertannia)

[Sigreid]

This wasn't in D&D but I had a character that was completely insane and childlike. I mean he and reality were barely passing acquaintances. First time he was forced into a fight everyone found out he was a master martial artist. You see, he believed that the moon was a big white frosted cookie, and he wanted that cookie! He'd heard that monks could levitate and joined a monastery to learn how, so he could float up and get his cookie. He did not learn how to levitate. All they taught him to do was pretend he was a monkey and a tiger and a crane... well, you get the idea.

[Astofel]

I've got a couple for you.

Umranth is my dragonborn grave cleric/rogue, who serves as an assassin for the god of death, killing people when his god decrees it's their time. Before all that, he was a bowyer's son, and one day he awoke to find that his mother had been killed. The authorities were summoned, and he found out that she was killed by decree of the god of death, so it was entirely legal and there would be no investigation. Distraught, he went to the god's church for answers, and learned about how the god often chooses peoples' times to create a 'butterfly effect' of sorts that could benefit the world as a whole years down the line.

Eventually he became an acolyte to this church, at which point his father disowned him because he still mourned his wife's death and saw Umranth as siding with her murderers. So Umranth moved in with his new master, and served as an assistant in her apothecary while training to become both a priest and an assassin. He trained for years, and one day he was told that he was almost ready to complete his training. To do so, he would have to carry out an assassin contract by himself. The person he was tasked to kill was his master, who, being an experienced priest, had forseen her time coming and decided to take matters into her own hands and teach her apprentice her final lesson with her last moments. So Umranth killed his master, and in doing so became a fully-fledged priest and simultaneously lost the second of his two mother figures. Now he's somewhat depressed, and devotes himself to his work as a priest, training his own apprentice, and gardening, his favourite hobby.

Antem is my vuman (Actor feat) charlatan shadow monk. As the young son of a fairly well-to-do merchant, Antem never really wanted for much. But he was greedy, and wanted more anyway. Rebelling against his family, Antem became a conman, scamming people out of their money and possessions and causing the town a great deal of trouble. He became skilled at disguise, using many different guises to evade the law. One of the last schemes he pulled was taking the guise of a wealthy nobleman to woo a rich young lady and take her possessions. It worked well, but once Antem's deception became known, she wanted her revenge. One night, she approached Antem in a bar and got him drunk off his face. Taking advantage of his incredibly inebriated state, she had her way with him.

Just as she planned, the young lady became pregnant from this encounter. She announced to the town that she was pregnant, and that Antem was the father. According to custom, this meant that in order for both their families to save face and prevent the birth of a bastard, Antem must marry her. Antem was distraught. There was no way his family would let him avoid the marriage. He'd been out-conned at last. As he visited the bar once more and drowned his woes in alcohol, one thought became clear to him: that woman must not give birth to that child. So, armed with a broken bottle, Antem staggered out into the night.

He never made it to the woman. Too drunk to properly sneak into her house, Antem awoke her father during the attempt. A fight broke out, and by sheer fluke Antem's broken bottle found its way into the man's heart, killing him. By this stage others had been awoken, and the guards arrived to arrest Antem. His crimes were judged to be too grievous, and he was to be executed. Antem's parents, not wanting to see their son killed despite his troublesome nature, were able to pull some strings and instead of being executed they arranged for Antem to be sent to a far away monastery in the hopes that he would at least learn some discipline. While living with the monks, Antem pulled the greatest con of his life. He perfectly acted the part of the sullen prisoner who slowly comes to appreciate the monks and their teachings, and after a few years he was released, with no real change of heart and newfound martial arts knowledge. He currently cons and swindles his way across the land, never staying in one place for long lest the consequences of his actions catch up with him.

[Fishyninja]

So you want to hear the story or Rydor Oreknuckle. Well pull up a stool and bring me a tankard of Mead and I’ll make your ears ache.

Where to start, I’m in my 200’s, middle 200’s. I hail from Bhergolar, a small dwarven city in the mountains. I like mead, ale, beer, wine, liquor. Look, what do you want from me? I’m a dwarf, we are simple folk, we are honourable, fair, we like our treasures and our drink.

*Sigh*

Fine, you know my moniker and from my axe and shield you can guess that I have been around a bit. Yes I have, I am grumpy old dwarf……do I really have to go on.

*Sigh*

Bloody persistent fools, Fine if we you are gonna bleed me for information be prepared for a torrent.

I am Rydor Oreknuckle of Clan Oreknuckle. Oreknuckles are renowned in Bhergolar as sturdy workers, especially miners! It was said our ancestor’s hands were so strong they could tear the ore straight from the bosom of the earth! Oh you may think of us solely to be miners! This axe and shield should tell you that! I’m certainly not the first fighter from Oreknuckle, we have had people from all walks of life, miners, artisans, brewers, soldiers, fighters, louts, thieves.

We were not the largest, nor the strongest but we were, and I assume still are highly respected at home. I haven’t been home for a long time. Yes there is a story behind that. I’ll get there to that soon enough! Don’t give me that look, you are the one who wanted to get to know me!

I’m not going back to when I was a wee boulder. I’ll start during my teenage years. I was 60 I had been working a variety of odd jobs with other members of my clan, I’ve mined and brewed but this was a new interesting job, my father, the old bastard, sets me up with my uncle to do some minor caravan protection work.

Now this was a rite of passage….No not a literal passage, no tradition here but it was a way for me to prove myself and honour my clan.

Here is where having pride and being proud differ. Having pride is to honour your clan, being proud is acting like you were drawvenkind’s saviour. I was a 60 year old whelp holding a battle axe and a wooden buckler. Don’t forget we dwarves live for a long time, much longer than humanfolk!

I was nervous but damnit I was going to do my clan proud! I did, the run was successful, so much so that my uncle set up a regular protection business, I accompanied on every one for 10 years. You know what the advantage of walking to roads for 10 years, you learn…..whether you want to or not. You learn to sleep rough, you learn the dangers of the road, and you learn how to fight.

The most important thing I learnt was that the world can be cruel and it can be bountiful, it is beautiful and ugly.

Bah.

After 10 years of fighting and walking and working with my uncle. I had earned a bit of coin, seen new places experienced new foods, wines, women and I was drunk on it, I wanted to see more of it, I wanted to see it all it was addicting! I had to get out of Bhergolar go wherever the road may take me!

However I had to convince my family of what I must do. Again don’t forget we have a strong sense of individuality by the Honour of the Clan is to be upheld always and I had to receive their blessing. My father was against the idea, my uncle was all for it, he even suggested I take over his protection trade; but I didn’t want to be a businessman I wanted to be a wanderer!

Anyway the meeting went…..let’s say it was a shining example of the diplomacy……He floored me, but not in anger it was his final gift to me. God he is a miserable bastard but he loves me and I him, so with a broken nose and a warm embrace I took some of my gold, hefted on my armour, grabbed my axe and shield and left Bhergolar.

I was 70 at the time. That was it I had left my clan to see the world, but how do I start? Well I knew I was good with an axe so as I did with my uncle, I sold myself out as a sellsword hiring farmers moving their livestock from village to city and fending off bandits, to escorting nobles from city to city.

I was never short of work as I always presented my employers with an interesting contract….
Pay me half of what you are paying the others but teach me a skill in return. In that time I perfected my hobbies of beer brewing and viola playing, however that deal did not always work out well for me, for example I can crochet……..

Anyway forget what I just said about the crochet and get me another mead!
The one that really paid off though was one day I was hired by a town’s mayor to track some missing livestock, now this sounds like a mediocre task. Who am I kidding it was. I needed coin and there was a job. However whether it was luck or fate I ended up teamed up an Elven Ranger, what was her name? Vanlanthiriel, that’s it! Gods my memory never used to this bad.

She was stunning and elegant and probably one of the most dangerous people I ever met. Anyway we were teamed up for this job, we estimated we’d be out of town for about 4 to 6 weeks. Now don’t get me wrong, I could sleep rough, I could make camp and I could trap the odd rabbit occasionally. But I was nothing compared to her, I remember on the first night I had barely set up my bedroll and she had already set up a camp, caught dinner and laid defences. I was flabbergasted.

The job went relatively smoothly, we recovered the livestock and got paid, and as per my deal when I was asked what skill I wanted to be taught I pointed at Valanthriel.
She was somewhat confused but she agreed, much to my delight, so for three months in the wilds about 50 miles from this township she trained me. She taught me to fend for myself off nothing but the land. I loved every minute of it but one skill I was very good at (if I don’t say so myself) was tracking, from the smallest animal to the flightiest deer, I could follow it, granted trying to take down a deer with a thrown handaxe is not as easy as a bow but needs must.

After three months I was a little loathe to go, I was learning so much from her and she was a sight to behold, maybe this old fool might have had his heartstrings tugged by her. But alas after the three months she had to go as she went I stayed in the wilds. I was 100 years old at the time.

For the next 60 years, I wandered the world for the sake of wandering. I walked from one coast to another, I stomped cart roads I stomped fields, I went from mountain to mountain and over hills and plains. I explored caves, and dungeons, and saw cities abandoned long ago by its populations. I saw lost treasures, natural wonders and met with people from all walks of life, some I recognised and some completely new to me. Those however are stories for another time.

Hmm… I’m empty, more ale barmaid if you would be so kind!

So after 60 years of warm summers and harsh winters, one day I found myself in a town, I was looking to get my kit mended and also long periods without mead can really strain a man’s thirst.

Speaking of which, where is that barmaid?
Where was I? Oh yes I was in a township whetting my whistle, and getting my gear repaired. In this bar I was quenching a thirst like a true dwarf, the bartender was happy,

I was happy and drunk things were nice, I had forgotten the niceties of towns and cities, I decided to camp in town for a week or two to see how things played out.
At the end of the first week while picking up my mended gear I overheard from the smith’s apprentice that there was a fugitive on the loose, idly I enquired to what the crime was, this man had was on the run for murder, supposedly he had lost a card game and had murdered the other player in a fit of rage, stabbed in the middle of the bar and then ran. This incensed me, as a dwarf we value our selves on being fair in all things even gambling, so after paying the smith and chucking some coin to the apprentice I looked for the local guard and offered my services to track this cheat and murderer.

All I had were two things his name, Quopher and that he was a halfing. Now I knew that the Halfling was wanted, and with the town being small he was either on the outskirts being sheltered by someone or he was on the run in the wilds. My guessing was a man wanted for murder was not going to hang around so I wandered back into my home from home, the wilds. Anyway Quopher had about a 2 day lead on me but I was confident I could find him, if I was able to track animals my guess were people were just as easy. As soon as I was out of the township my skills came shot into overdrive I was tracking in the wild and I was bringing a felon to justice. For the first time in my life everything felt complete! I tracked the Halfling to a clearing 10 miles east of the town. I had multiple options, however again I am a dwarf, and even though I can track like a ranger I cannot sneak like one, so it seemed the best thing to do was to confront him, I strode into the clearing and said to him: I am Rydor Oreknuckle and I am here to bring you to justice…..It sounded heroic at the time, and you know what the little twerp did, he had the audacity to throw his knife at me, the one he used to murder that man. Anyway was expecting the attack and the knifed sailed true and embedded itself into my shield. Unarmed he tried to run, but he was a tired scared man, and I had to uphold my honour I easily restrained him and knocked him out. I then dragged his sorry carcass back to town.
I dumped him in front of the garrison, much to the surprise of the guards who felt it a lost cause. I was immediately hauled in front in the mayor who showered me with congratulations and gold. In all honestly I was not expecting to get paid for it, I thought I was just doing my duty! There were parades, feasts, gold, women, women, wine, more women….I was a young hero to these people I was milking it for all I was worth!

However I found something that I could do that would allow me to sate my wanderlust, uphold my clans honour and earn some money from it. Bounty Hunting, I’ve been hunting ever since and now this older bedraggled dwarf is the end result. I’m worn, and not as quick as I used to be but if you need a solid arm behind you and a man who likes to keep the peace and serve justice then I’m your man.

[Jorin]

I love a good story and to me a characters backstory is important. All of these were great!
I would also like to share another one, he is a human artificer gunsmith using 5e UA. I'm actually now playing this one and decided that the thunder cannon would be based off a sawed off shotgun. His name you ask?
Madington Maximilion, a former calvary officer in the military force our DM was using as a sort of UN in his world.
I know it's not a backstory but anyone can watch it by looking at mad max. My personal quest is hunting the bandit warlord Toecutter, who united the bandit clams of the desert.

[stollfy]

Blank is the name he most commonly goes by but he has variety of name to go with his personalities. Iuore was a common thief back in his day and would have fun running with the local thieves guild. He felt on top of the world when he could see everyone and no one seemed to notice or see him. One fateful day he got pulled into the office of one of the leaders of the guilds office and was told he had a job. It was a simple snatch and grab at a noble's manor, easy money.
He scoped out the place with his beloved Yasmine and found that the item in question was stored in an underground vault. After accruing some items needed for magical issues and heading in, he found an easy time of getting to the vault. Almost too easy. The vault had no magical protection in place and he easily found the item; an odd, metallic looking metal that seemed to shift between a ring, an earring, and then a bracelet and back again, all while trapped in a glass container that was obviously magically protected. Upon looking at it Yasmine wanted to back out and leave and say we were unsuccessful, but Ioure was stubborn and grabbed it anyways. They left without any further resistance.
Upon getting back to the guild, against Yasmine's insistence to leave it and run, they met with the thief lord. Upon showing the lord the glass container, the lord smiled and raised his hand. At the same moment, Ioure heard a shout in his head, and the glass shattered. Crossbow bolts filled the air, as the metallic liquid touched Ioure and unleashed a concussive force upon contact.
Ioure awoke a few seconds later, realizing everyone else in the room was dying, even Yasmine, and he went to her. At the same moment he touched her he saw her draw her last breath and then felt an invasion in his mind. It was her and he could talk with her and her with him. It took only seconds to convey their happiness before they felt other consciousness's enter in to the conversation.
He ended up fleeing the city he had come to love and tried to understand the power that had come into him. The other personalities sometimes took over and sometimes he let them. He became a wanderer searching for the information to help him understand the item that had grafted itself to him.
(GOO warlock with a different twist, the item only works when it grafts and afterwards cannot add any other minds to it til it would graft again. adds nothing but flavor but he was fun especially when I got mask of many faces and the personalities would switch to the way they looked in life when they took over.)

[Kenkudette]

My current character probably has the best story and I honestly think the future will be interesting.

Essentially they're a Kenku formerly known as 'Gwak' (Best I could do for that weird regurgitating noise) who lived with their flock at a temple. Their job was to hunt for food and bring offerings to the temple. It was a simple but happy life and she spent many evenings with her friend and tutor Ysayle an aasimar. In her religion they believe you are reincarnated within your family tree so you can imagine just how close the flock was. Disaster strikes when there is a dragon attack to raid the temple for gold. She tries to get back but only arrives for the tail end of the attack when she can do no good. Being a Kenku she cannot express her grief vocally because she has never heard anyone grieve so she does the best she can: a baby's cry. So she sits with her baby and cries. Kenku's are named after the things they do. Well she no longer has a baby to feed so she can't be called Gwak can she? So she's renamed Cry.

She stays at the temple for a time. Burying everyone and trying desperately to repair her life but it is a show of futility. She soon realizes that one can't rebuild on good intentions alone and sets off into the big bad world for the very first time at the start of the campaign.

--

What got really interesting here is that I made the character intentionally very religious. The way it has worked out every prayer that has been answered has only lead to a greater amount of pain. Recently, the whole team died apart from her. She was able to revive the one character she really doesn't like who was less than merciful on her before he left and she limped back to town. I'm thinking I might just send her off the deep end in a whole "**** God" sort of thing. She's also been contacted by this dark thing which saved her life but hasn't really said anything yet. I kinda like the idea of her maybe falling into becoming a warlock but gaining redemption by giving up her soul to kill the big bad or revive her friends. She's doesn't believe in an afterlife and has nothing left to hope for so I think itd be cool.

I get chills at the idea of her facing off against the big bad, badly wounded herself. Muttering lightly "Bless me lord for I have sinned. I have covetted power beyond my comprehension, I have killed and I have failed my friends and family" and then calling upon her warlock master offering her life to take the big bad's with a final "May the Lord have mercy on our souls" or something. Kinda like a weird version of the story of the prodigal son but without a happy ending.

[sightlessrealit]

Meet Velphi. Velphi, Promise.

A female tiefling born into slavery by the great wizard Vazik-rus Runkhuelrift or just Vazik for short. This man taught her only the basics of common and math at a very young age. We are talking like between the ages of 1-3 years. At the age of 3 he put her to work to act as the Librarian to his vast library. A very daunting task for someone so young. She failed on a daily basis which resulted in both wards designed to trigger should a book be put back into the wrong place hitting her with a bolt of lightning and then getting wiped by Vazik as the wards also alerted him.

Although she was young she learned quickly, maybe it was due to the profuse torture or maybe she was just naturally gifted. In any case the years went by and the libraries sorting system grew more and more absurd. To give you an idea of the absurdity, the books had to be sorted alphabetically both by name and author, the first letter of every page of every book also had go in alphabetical order, they had to be ordered by the number of pages, and it only got more and more complicated.

But all the same, Velphi pulled through. The complexity of the order system essentially demanded that she read every last book and oh boy did she. With there being exactly 4742 books, she read all of them 38 times. All of that knowledge got her to learn quite a few things. From her native Tongue and other varies languages of Infernal to learning Elven & even surprisingly Celestial. Tons of stuff related to magic but for her the most important thing she learned was about mechanisms. Something about how a pocket watch worked or even something as simple as a crossbow made the gears in her head turn. In secret she scrounge up supplies and tinker to attempt to make her own devices. Most of the time they failed but that didn't stop her, she was doing something that she found she could for once love. And all thing considering she had it pretty well for a slave, well up to the age of 21 that is.

By the age of 21 Velphi had completely mastered the library and the only times she got wiped/electrocuted was when Vazik deliberately put a book in the wrong place. Until one day that would both change her and break her. On that day Vazik summoned her to the third floor of the library. He told her that there would be new a rule that would have to be followed. The books up to this point didn't have a particular time frame that they needed to be put back on the shelf but now there was. More over, each and every book had their own set time frame making the task of putting the books back on the shelves in time massively more difficult. With the flick of his staff he demonstrated this. All of the books on the first floor of the library were blown away from the shelves. As Velphi ran all she could was Vaziks laughter, and then bolts of lightning triggered by the wards being to constantly shock her. For every book that's time limit was exceeded there was a lightning bolt. It took her a while though before she passed out, hearing only Vaziks laughter and the crackle of lightning.

She almost died that day but whether it due to pure will power or her devil ancestry she lived. Three days later when she awoke she knew what she had to do. For the next to years, in secret she taught her self all she could about the arts of war. Be it sword, shield, bow, armor, she learned it all. She fastened a hand crossbow of her own design and named it Dead Eye. She made strange plates that attached themselves to her cheekbones as well as some for her arms....

4 months prior to the start of the campaign Velphi snuck into Vaziks room while he was asleep and killed him. It was almost to easy. He said some strange things towards her as he died. Things that she probably never would understand. She thought she was free but there was just one thing left. On her ring finger there was a Signet Ring with Vaziks symbol. And despite him being dead she could not remove it. So now to her despite being able to leave the tower for the first time in her life she wasn't free. Not yet, she with a burning desire to rid this ring she set off to seek someone that could.

---

Some things have been left out deliberately.