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View Full Version : Need help with character backstory! EDIT: Story complete, hope you like it!)



Snig
2022-06-06, 09:37 AM
Hey guys, I've got a mental block while trying to finalize me character backstory and I thought you guys may have some creative ideas to help get the juices flowing. Basic synopsis is...

- aberrant mind Sorcerer who was "grown" in a bio-chamber, to be used as a perfect host body for her ancient lich "grandmother".
- Over a thousand years ago, said Lich (while still human) was the Matriarch of a powerful family, but was afflicted with a debilitating fear of death. She turned to dark magic to overcome this, which saw her oversee a cloning program to sustain her immortality.
- my character was to be the pinnical of this program, and become the perfect host, immune to the accelerated aging that the previous clones had suffered, as their bodies were wracked by necromantic magic.

Now I have to come up with a good story as to how my character escaped her bio-chamber and her lich grandmother and fled into hiding.....

Let's see some ideas!

Picture of my character.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/695694034382880880/962810013594837042/a64a9f8add3525127c.jpg

The Sallivari were a minor noble family who have lorded over their lands bordering the frozen forests of the Frostweald near the base of the Stormcrest Mountains since the dawn of time. It is said they can trace their bloodline back millennia, and are the last pureblood Suel family in existence; a human ethnic group possessing fair skin and platinum or often pure white hair. Placing strict emphasis on keeping their bloodline pure has resulted in an abnormally high number of albinos in their lineage; a trait the Sallivari consider desirable.

Many centuries ago, the ruler of the ruling matriarch of the Sallivari family, Empress Czarina Sallivari, was afflicted with a debilitating fear of death. After her most trusted mages failed to treat her condition, Czarina's fear turned to obsession which began to drive her mad, compelling her to seek out ever more radical methods to overcome her inevitable death. Although the records are unclear; in the end, it is said Czarina succeeded in her mission, turning to dark magic and striking a deal with The Whispered One, who granted her forbidden secrets to extend her life; there was a catch however, one that would affect the Sallivari bloodline to this day.

In order to fuel her unnaturally long life, Czarina would require a new host body whenever her current one degraded, and the new host must share her Sallivari blood. The more pure blood her host, the better the bond. The better the bond, the longer the body would persist. In the beginning, Czarina turned to her granddaughters. When they came of age, she would perform a ritual, trading their souls to The Whispered One and possessing the husk which was left behind. These new host bodies, wracked by foul magics, lasted only a few decades at best before they began to wither as the Suel people were in decline and the Sallivari bloodline was not as pure as it once was.

This saw Czarina oversee a very strict bio-engineering program, employing her top wizards and apothecaries to develop the perfect host body of pure Suel blood; to grant her true immortality. These new and improved hosts; instead of being born and bred by traditional means, were grown in Czarina's newly constructed laboratory inside of specialised bio-pods, engineered without any of the weaknesses of the former hosts. These shell bodies contained no souls or sentience, and would lie dormant, awaiting the spark of life during the ritual when Czarina's soul would transfer from her old body to the new.

The program was initially hailed a success; however, due to Czarina's uncompromising demand for perfection the first few prototypes had been scrapped, one after another, in favour of improvements to the design. When Czarina was happy that they had reached the pinnacle of the program, clone v1.6 was made ready and the ritual to fuse Czarina's soul with her new immortal vessel began...….however, halfway through, chaos erupted inside the laboratory, interrupting the ritual.

The Cobalt Soul, dedicated to Ioun, the Knowing Mistress; whose mission it was to seek out and destroy any agents of The Whispered One, had been gathering information regarding rumours involving the Sallivari family and their ties to this ancient evil. After confirming these rumours were true, they had sent their champions to deal with the threat and launched their attack, hoping to catch Czarina at her most vulnerable. The champions cut down her mages and apothecaries who were aiding in the ritual and had rushed to their master's defence, but they had underestimated the lich's power.

Her mages had managed to buy Czarina just enough time to awaken from the ritual, breaking off the transfer of her soul early and launch a counterattack against her assailants. Desperate to put an end to the lich's plan's, the champions held off Czarina as best they could while retrieving documents containing the forbidden secrets granted to Czarina by The Whispered One, and destroying the laboratory as they fled.

Just as Alexandros; the leader of the party, was about to bring his warhammer down on the bio-pod containing the clone, he wavered as a voice whispered in his mind...."please, help me" it pleaded, as he looked down to see a beautiful young girl looking back at him with fearful eyes from inside her egg shaped pod filled with an amber colored liquid. It seems as though part of the ritual had awakened the body inside. As the tide of battle was quickly slipping from their favour, Alexandros cursed his consciences as he drew his dagger and cut the clone free, carrying her to safety as the few remaining champions escaped the lich's lair amidst fire and destruction wrought by both parties.

It's been five years since the day she was rescued. "Six"; as she had come to be known, after the notes they had recovered revealed that she was the sixth clone from Czarina's program, has spent this time hidden within the temple walls deep within the verdant expanse. Here the cobalt soul maintained a small outpost where they archive some of their more secretive texts and documents. Most of her time was spent reading from their extensive library as she was not permitted to venture too far from the temple.

Although Six was not necessarily a prisoner of the Cobalt Soul, they were none the less unsure of what fate should befall her. Knowing that some aspect of the lich's soul had imbued itself within her, they were aware of the potential danger she represented. When it was discovered that Czarina had regained some measure of her strength, and had begun searching for her lost vessel, the temple became divided. Friction and infighting erupted among the members with some advocating to destroy Six to prevent her from falling into the lich's hands.


When the attempt on her life came during the night, at the hands of some of the temple members, Six manifested a destructive force that had been dormant within her, lashing out and killing her would be murderers with psychic energy. Hearing her screams, Alexandros was the first one to arrive at her quarters. Seeing the carnage before him, he knew that once the other's arrived, her fate would be sealed. As he glowered at her from the doorway, she sat on her bed clutching her sheets and recoiling from the horror she had committed. He saw that same fear in her eyes as the day he rescued her from the pod, and as the others rushed to the room Alexandros barred the doorway and looking over his shoulder with a look of despair and a lowering of his head, he uttered one final word to her....."Run".

Six wasted no time. Through a stream of tears, she hopped out her window and fled.....into the unknown.

Demostheknees
2022-06-06, 09:46 AM
Perhaps your powers were an accident of the cloning process, or you became aware much earlier than the lich expected.

Your powers activated in a sort of "survival instinct" and shattered the tube you were in, and maybe you fought your way through the guards. Maybe this was all instinct or the surge of your powers activating, and you don't quite remember all of the details? (Classic psychic awakening sorta stuff)

Alternatively, what if you didn't "escape" and this is still part of the experiment? Your Lich Grandmother is testing the effectiveness of the cloning process by letting you wander free for a while. (From your perspective you escaped, but maybe as time goes on you realize that it was far too easy, etc)

Warder
2022-06-06, 09:56 AM
Adventuring party came to kill the lich, tore up the lair and set you free by accident. Lich escaped, but all her research is gone and you're all that remains. Both the lich and the adventuring party want to find you, whether it is in order to possess you or to destroy you. If only you had some allies for protection!

Samayu
2022-06-06, 09:07 PM
Adventuring party came to kill the lich, tore up the lair and set you free by accident. Lich escaped, but all her research is gone and you're all that remains. Both the lich and the adventuring party want to find you, whether it is in order to possess you or to destroy you. If only you had some allies for protection!

Set you free by accident, because they thought you were a prisoner. Which you were. So... what is your attitude towards your mother?

Sorinth
2022-06-06, 10:15 PM
One thing to note is it's ok to not have everything explained, in theory your background should be what your characters knows about the situation, so you might have heard the term "perfect host" but not know what it actually means. Though taking the Reborn race as an example gives the DM a direction for that.

That said, suppose the Lich's phylactery rather then an object is her bloodline. Whenever her current body dies she takes over someone from her bloodline (Possibly only female hosts). You had a fairly normalish childhood and we're told/believed that one day you might receive your ancient grandmother's spirit which would be a great honour and a joyous merging of your souls, only to later discover that when your grandmother takes over your soul is actually obliterated. This is why you ran away from home, and are now searching for a way to prevent your body from being taken over, and find a way to stop your grandmother from respawning into your sister(s)/cousin(s).

This makes escaping easier since you still have/had a normal life so it's just your regular run away from home situation. Your grandmother might still have done stuff to make you a more perfect host but what that was you have no idea. I would probably even add that the family is in decline, it used to be a huge family but the bloodline is dying out and there are now very few family branches left, there's a conspiracy theory that the family is being targeted and being killed off by forces unkown.

Nidgit
2022-06-07, 01:50 AM
Adventuring party came to kill the lich, tore up the lair and set you free by accident. Lich escaped, but all her research is gone and you're all that remains. Both the lich and the adventuring party want to find you, whether it is in order to possess you or to destroy you. If only you had some allies for protection!

Alternatively, the adventuring party adopted you in the way that parties love to adopt odd wayward characters. Like, they had broken you out of your pod and were set to kill you when you did something endearing. You've been sponsored by them to go to a boarding school, but that was destroyed by your grandmother in an attempt to retrieve you and you're now going by a different name to hide your identity. Maybe that choker in the artwork is an amulet of nondetection that's keeping you safe. Your previous party could be powerful and useful allies but you worry that contacting them could put you both at risk.

Snig
2022-06-08, 07:24 PM
He guys, i've edited my OP to include my character's backstory involving the Lich!!! Thanks to all for the inspiration and ideas. I hope you enjoy!

Tawmis
2022-06-09, 01:18 AM
He guys, i've edited my OP to include my character's backstory involving the Lich!!! Thanks to all for the inspiration and ideas. I hope you enjoy!

Was just coming here to offer my services (see my signature) - but just read the spoiler story, and dig what you got. Nicely done.

KorvinStarmast
2022-06-09, 10:22 AM
The back story
Well done! (I like your use if Ioun and the Suel in particular).
Also, did you draw that picture yourself?

animorte
2022-06-09, 10:25 AM
Was just coming here to offer my services (see my signature) - but just read the spoiler story, and dig what you got. Nicely done.
I considered doing that exactly, was waiting on you to show up!


Well done! (I like your use if Ioun and the Suel in particular).
Also, did you draw that picture yourself?
I’m thinking the same thing. Whoever did, very nice.

Snig
2022-06-09, 12:52 PM
Well done! (I like your use if Ioun and the Suel in particular).
Also, did you draw that picture yourself?

I created the face on artbreeder.com, an AI program which is great for creating unique original characters. After I had the face how I liked it, I threw it into Windows default photo editing and added the glasses and tweaked the eye color and added the choker.

I'm glad you like it!