Need a character background written up?

[Tawmis]

Thank you!! I really enjoyed your backstory for Miran.

Thank you! Always glad to hear people enjoyed what I wrote for them!

Hello Tawmis, I'm starting in a couple of days a new campaign, it's set in Curse of Strahd.
My character is a Human male, a Light Cleric of Lathander. I picked the feat Magic Initiate Druid.
My background is the Haunted One from the CoS book, basically choosing the line: "An apparition that has haunted your family for generations now haunts you. You don’t know what it wants, and it won’t leave you alone".
This is the reason why I became a devout follower of the Light and wander the world smiting evil. I learned a few tricks from druids, but I worship my god and preach the word everywhere I go, even a tad too loudly sometimes.
I pictured a hint of eccentric behavior, borderline paranoid, but I'm resolute in my faith and I fear nothing. I don't want to be an adventurer before the start of the campaign; I'm pretty much an unlucky commoner with a difficult past (this bit is for DM request) that just discovered his powers. I have no idea if I'll find myself in Barovia or end up there accidentally. Hope you can spare some time for this and that what I wrote is inspiring enough. Thank you in advance!

Hopefully got this in before your game started!
The ghostly figure was the center piece, as you mentioned, to becoming a cleric.
Also left her very humble start (no adventuring yet!) - because there was no adventuring, I did the "Magic Initiate Druid" fear as a very subtle way of saying you were good with animals (horses, specifically) that when your cleric powers are bestowed, perhaps that came with it as Lathander saw your love of your horses.
I played up your "paranoid" as general fear (bats, for example; then when the ghostly figure first appears).
And I left the location (are you in Barovia? Could go either way, which is why I used bats in the story)....
Anyway, would love to hear what you think!
Good, bad, what you liked, or didn't like!
Feedback helps me and it also keeps this thread bumped and alive!
Enjoy!
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I was eight years the first time I saw it and the sight of it nearly took twenty years from my life.

Now? I am simply used to it appearing.

My older sister and brother both claimed to have seen it also. I’d never seen it before until it came to me when I was alone.

My mother’s voice had called out from inside the cabin that I was to be the one to clean the horse stables tonight – and to make sure they were very clean – because my father would be riding one of the horses into town to apply as one of the city guards. Again.

As the stable door creaked open, it startled several bats that had taken to nesting at the top of the dark stable, and fluttered out of the door – giving me quite the start. I shook my head and looked over my shoulder, scolding my older brother that he was supposed to have cleaned the upper stables three days ago – and clearly had not – since the bats, which had lived there for weeks now, were clearly still making the barn their home. I had gone inside and saw our two horses; Thunder and Lightning, named so – because Thunder was a larger horse, whose hooves clomped loudly on the ground when he ran. He was thicker, more majestic looking if you were to judge him by size and muscle. Lightning was our female horse; she had a beautiful mane that when the moon hit it just right, seemed to be made of rainbows. She was more slender than Thunder, smaller in height too, but she had earned her name because she could out run Thunder, both in distance, and especially speed. Like their name sake, Thunder was a deep grey color, resembling storm clouds; while Lightning was almost pure white, with uncanny blue eyes.

At that moment, between Thunder and Lightning, a grey mist appeared. Startled, I fumbled backwards, foot in the bucket of water and toppled to the ground. The mist took shape and a ghostly finger pointed to me then slowly began to dissipate. My first thought was my sister was behind this – she’d been practicing magic and it would be just like her to try and scare me, but as I searched the barn there was no sign that she was here. I called out for her and heard my mother call out that she was cleaning dishes and not to be disturbed.

When I spoke with my sister and brother, they both explained they’d seen it before. First, it had come to my eldest brother – he’d seen it at the well. Each and every time – it appeared next to the well. When my sister, who was just a few years older than me, began to see it – it’d been at the edge of the woods. That, my brother explained, was when he’d stopped seeing it. My sister informed me, she’d not seen it in six days. So was it only paying a visit to one family member? What was the message it was trying to tell me?

The following day, my mother was pleasantly surprised when I offered to go to town with her. She knew something was behind the reasoning of my request; because I’d often said I’d much rather go clean the stables than go to town.

As we walked through town I saw exactly what I was looking for – a church of Lathander. I begged my mother if I could go; and she agreed, so long as I stayed there until she came back from the market to get me. I wholeheartedly agreed. I rushed into the Lathander chapel and immediately began to pray to Lathander, who was known throughout the realm as the Morninglord – but he was someone who favored those who dispelled the undead, among other things.

So I prayed to Lathander and asked how to be rid of this undead that haunted my siblings and now me. I was disappointed that I heard no majestic voice, nor did an angel descend and give me holy words I would carry forth to dispatch this spirit. As a matter of fact, I heard nothing.

Day after day, I came with my mother to town and I rushed to Lathander’s chapel and prayed. Each and every day. After weeks of no answer, I realized that perhaps Lathander did not answer me because I was just coming here for my own selfish reason – would I come here again if I’d gotten the answer on how to vanquish this visiting spirit? In my heart, I knew I would not. Lathander knew I was being selfish.

So for the next three years, I continued to come back to Lathander’s chapel and pray – not just on how to vanquish this spirit – but for the people of the world, to let Lathander he was in my heart, and I began to feel a change in me. Once I accepted the ways of Lathander, I could hear whispers of his voice speaking through magic.

I accepted my position as a Cleric of Lathander – and though the spirit continued to visit me; now even outside of the barn – I realized, perhaps it was not there to harm me – but it was giving me a message or needed my help – and perhaps it wasn’t about destroying the spirit, but finding a way to help it find peace.