What are your favorite character concepts and stories?

[Rauthiss]

Recently, I made a backstory to a character based around a concept I had a while back - a mute bard who talks by manipulating the air around him.

Character is here: Egosum Sanus. To those of you who don't know latin, it's a rough pun on "I am Sound". To those of you who do, I'm sorry for slaughtering the language - I think.

Backstory is here:

Spoiler

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Some say the power of music is born within people, and there is none other who exemplifies this than Egosum Sanus. Some say he was born with the music flowing through him, some say he merely found the music one day. None know the truth but himself.

His parents were normal people of the plains in all respects, and Egosum was born the same. He was not the subject of any mystical prophecies of fortunes that his parents knew of. As far as they could tell, he would just live a quiet life with them. Their first few years together passed mostly uneventfully, except for one thing – Egosum could not speak. No matter how his parents tried, he could not make a sound other than the hissing of air past nonexistent vocal cords. It was difficult for the parents, but they taught Egosum how to draw and write, and before long, he was communicating happily with his parents, despite his lack of voice.

To the delight of his parents, Egosum began to show signs of magic once he had hit the age of 13. It was spontaneous, mostly, for him, as he went out one day and felt the breeze blow through his hair despite the lack of wind. Interested, he began to wonder why, when the wind began sweeping around him in a turbulent fashion. It was as if the wind itself mirrored his emotion. In a fit of curiosity, Egosum directed the wind to blow into a tree. The leaves shook, and Egosum knew that he had something valuable, a gift all his own.

As he grew into a young adult, Egosum began to find that the thing he loved most in life, other than his parents, was the music that traveling minstrels would bring to his town. Although he could not sing for himself, he would spend hours listening to the bards tell their epic tales of battle, bravery, and beauties. His parents found it somewhat odd that the child would find so much pleasure in something he would never be able to do, but they shrugged it off. Day by day he would sit and listen, fascinated. His eyes would close, as if he was imagining the battles in his head. Or perhaps, feeling the music itself.

It was on his parent’s 24th anniversary, a week after his 18th birthday, that he showed them the fruits of his listening. It had been a quiet day, and his parents had been eating together when they heard a delicate, almost ethereal voice drift into their dining area. Curious and slightly worried at the odd sound, – Perhaps someone was there? - the couple followed it into Egosum’s room. There, his hands seemed to strum at the air itself. He looked at them, and smiled a wide smile. “Happy anniversary, Mum and Dad.” With tears in their eyes, they gave their son a hug. What better present could there be for a pair of parents than their child’s first words?

Egosum took his hard-earned talent, powered by wind finesse, and began to learn from his idols of old. By the age of 20, he could not only reproduce words, but also the sounds of nearly any instrument. His performances began to gather large numbers of people from across the plains, and he became a bit of a sensation. “Come! See the performer who plays the air itself!”, the posters and criers proclaimed. What his parents had thought would be a quiet life quickly became a life of wealth and renown.

It didn’t take much to ruin it, however. It had been a simple incident – a rowdy crowd, and a mother trying to get closer to her son’s performance. There had been an ugly snap – the kind of which Egosum would never desire to hear again. The music stopped, and the crowd dispersed to reveal Egosum’s mother with a twisted leg. A rush of emotion flooded him, and le leaped off of the stage to his mother. Not wanting to see her in pain, Egosum pulled power he didn’t know he had from the depths of his heart and placed his hands on his mother’s leg. There was a soft, glowing warmth, and her injury healed itself below his hands. He smiled at his mother as she stood back up, now fine. “Thank you, son… It seems music is not your only gift.”

For a long time afterwards, Egosum avoided crowds and large, public performances, for fear of another injury. His parents, however, encouraged him to continue his musical endeavors, as well as provide healing for the townsfolk. He did so, and lived a happy life for a few more months.

It had been a normal day for him when he heard the Song. He had been called to help one of the townsfolk who had accidentally cut himself with his scythe, and as he was traveling on the way back, he began to hear a song. It was not merely a song of sound, but a beat he could feel in his very veins. He wasn’t able to catch more than a few beats of the Song, but it was enough to give him a taste of the rapture. He looked around for the source, but he could see nothing.

After Egosum had returned to his house, he told his parents of what he had experienced, and told them he would go on a journey to discover more of the song, and to spread his music across the world in hopes that others would experience the moment of enlightenment that he had. They bid him a fine farewell, and he left in search of the Song.

Months later, Egosum found himself performing at a small tavern. In exchange for providing entertainment for the night, the barkeep allowed him a room to stay in for the night. The performance went swimmingly, and the night flew by. Egosum went to his room, laid in bed, and closed his eyes.

"Draw."

"Aim."

"Fire."

Couple fun facts: Recently, I started a game where I asked for a backstory of about 1000 words. To see if that was about the length I was looking for, I made this backstory exactly 1000 words long. It's exactly what I'm looking for. Also, the last three words are from the campaign itself, over here.

So what are some of your characters that you think are just totally awesome?

[dsmiles]

So what are some of your characters that you think are just totally awesome?

I once played a 3.5 warlock who had a demon living inside of him (split personality included). The DM gave me a 'plot armor' of sorts because of his backstory (which I will not post, as I don't have it with me). On each failed Will save, he had to make a second Will save. If this one passed, he passed his Will save, but the demon had the opportunity to take over the body (I also played the demon). As the character grew in power, the demon had more and more chances to take over the body (no save allowed, all at my discretion), or at least parts of it. I found myself having arguments with myself (and losing!), and 'coming out of it' just in time to stop myself from blasting my comrades. It was the most fun I've had playing two characters at a time.

[panaikhan]

My most recent character concept, was a 4E character - a Drow Swarm Druid. I'm looking forward to trying it out.

A long-standing theme for me, is taking 'transition classes' in LA adjusted races. Starting out as a LA-0 version, RPing finding out more about their beginnings and/or nature, and taking a level in that race at the next opportunity.