Looking for ideas for fleshing out character. Teifling sworn to an angel.

[Rfkannen]

Hi there!

So yesterday we did a session zero, and all rolled up characters, the gm said to wright a more detailed backstory, which I like the idea of having one, but I am having trouble filling out the backstory.

the backstory story that I have is that he is from what is essentially mad max fury road land, which is on the other side of the planet from where the campaign takes place. His family was a clan of war demons (and some half demons and tieflings) who were desert raiders and lived going around ransacking towns and villages.

On one raid he was mortally wounded, and was left in the desert to die. Just as he was about to bleed out, something he recognized as an angel of truth came to him, and said that it would heal him if he would promise to go to fantasy scotland and find Tobias, and then do what Tobias told him to when he got there.

He said yes immediately passed out, and then woke up a day latter fully healed and with strange magic powers. He just got to fantasy scotland, and is ready to go find tobias when the campaign starts. Also he is convinced that the angel can take his life away if he pisses it off, and as such refuses to lie as he is convinced it will kill him if he does.

Any ideas for filling that out? I’m especially looking for ideas about who he was before the angel came to him.

Some notes

He has 5 strength, 17 dex, and 20 charisma. So he is literally as charismatic as a mortal can be, but is a huge wimp. The wimp thing seems interesting for a war demon but I can’t figure it out.

Mechanically he is a tiefling warlock with the celestial patron, which means he is the party healer. Interestingly though I realised that he had no fighting or healing power besides what the angel gave him, so im not sure what he did before hand.

He doesn’t know anything about the angel or tobias, that is a plot hook the dm plans on using.

War demons in this world are magical beings that appear when the demon lord of war comes to earth, but they do not follow him or care about him, they are only obsessed with violence.


So you have any ideas for filling out that backstory and making it more detailed?

Also looking for ideas for the characters personality and appearance. What did you picture with the backstory? I want to something besides the traditional tiefling look, but i'm not sure what. What personality do you think makes sense?

[BWR]

Is your GM big on backstories?
If not, I would just leave it mostly open and let it slowly manifest in your mind so you can write it to fit the character and setting. Add or alter details as needed/wanted and don't get too concerned with having to have everything detailed and written down right off the bat.

That could just be my personal bias.
The only time my characters have detailed backstories is when the setting and game previously already provides it for them because I rarely, if ever, have a handle on who the character is until I've played them a number of sessions.

[The Aboleth]

He has 5 strength, 17 dex, and 20 charisma. So he is literally as charismatic as a mortal can be, but is a huge wimp. The wimp thing seems interesting for a war demon but I can’t figure it out.


So, this part stuck out to me when thinking about your character. I think it depends on how you view him as a "wimp." Do you mean physically? If so, his war band might have designated him as the group's "mouthpiece" when demanding tribute from villages under their "protection" (I know you said the war bands generally ransack and raid, but I would imagine they would leave some survivors that would regularly give the band food and/or coin as a form of tribute to prevent further raids). Since he has high charisma, he would have been ideal to deliver the clan's message to these conquered villages.

Or, you could have him as the person in charge of prisoners/slaves that the war band acquires after their raids. Since your character would not be physically imposing, his charismatic gifts could be used to either interrogate prisoners or keep the slaves in line using non-violent means (since if you beat slaves too much, they die, so the war band might see the need to use restraint from time to time).

IF, however, you view the character as a "wimp" in personality, then I think you take the character in another direction--that of a "fringe" member of the war band, one who is viewed with annoyance at best and outright disgust at worst by the other members of the band. This type of character might also be physically weak, but maybe not--either way, they probably view the war band's violent tendencies in a negative light and wish there was a way to pursue a life that didn't involve hurting innocent people. Maybe this view is what drew the celestial patron to your character in the first place--they saw someone who grew up in a violent environment but still has a "good" (or at least, not wholly evil") heart and thus sought to guide your character to a better way of life.

Whichever route you choose, I think there's much you can do with the character concept. I think some questions you need to ask yourself (which I've alluded to a bit already) are as follows:

1.) What are the character's strengths and weaknesses (and not just from a stat sense--how do you see their personality? How do you think they would interact with other people?)

2.) How do they feel about their former war band? Did he approve of the war band's methods and ways? Was he ambivalent about it? What would happen if he ever ran into the war band again--would he be greeted in a friendly or hostile manner? Would he greet THEM in a friendly or hostile manner?

3.) Why does your character think his patron chose him? How does he feel about the patron being a celestial being and him being a tiefling?

4.) What, ultimately, does the character hope to accomplish?


I think the answers to these questions would go a long way towards fleshing out your character. As far as their appearance, I don't have much help in that regard but I think the more you flesh out how they ACT the easier it will be to form how they LOOK.