ACOLYTE
You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or a pantheon of gods. You act as an intermediary between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS A CLERIC AS NONE OF THESE TASKS REQUIRE THE CHANNELING OF DIVINE POWER.
CHARLATAN
You have always had a way with people. You know what makes them tick, you can tease out their hearts' desires after a few minutes of conversation, and with a few leading questions you can read them like they were children's books. It's a useful talent, and one that you're perfectly willing to use for your advantage.
CITY WATCH
You have served the community where you grew up, standing as its first line of defense against crime. You protected the populace from lawbreakers whether your community was a village or town or city neighborhood.
CLOISTERED SCHOLAR
As a child, you were inquisitive when your playmates were possessive or raucous. In your formative years, you found your way to an institute of learning, or perhaps were taken in by scholars of some institute learning. There you were apprenticed and taught that knowledge is more valuable than gold or gems.
COURTIER
You are one of the many functionaries or attendants in a noble court or a bureaucratic organization. You might be from an upper-class family or your talents, rather than your birth, secured you the position.
CRIMINAL
You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You're far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived by flouting the rules and regulations of society.
ENTERTAINER
You thrive in front of an audience. You know how to entrance them, entertain them, and even inspire them. Your poetics can stir the hearts of those who hear, awakening grief or joy, laughter or anger. Your music raises their spirits or captures their sorrow. Your dance steps captivates, your humor cuts to the quick. Whichever of these, or other, techniques you use, your art is your life.
FAR TRAVELER
You are from a distant place, one so remote most folk don't know it exists. Those few who do, may only recognize the name or have heard a few outrageous stories. Why have you left? Choose one: Emissary, Exile, Fugitive, Pilgrim, Sightseer, Wanderer.
MUST CHOOSE ANOTHER BACKGORUND TO HAVE LIVED BEFORE THIS ONE
FISHER
You have spent your life aboard fishing vessels or combing the shallows for the bounty of the seas. Perhaps you were born into a family of fisher folk, working with your kin to feed your village. Maybe the job was a means to an end -- a way out of an undesirable circumstance that forced you to take up life aboard a ship. Regardless of how you began, you soon fell in love with the sea, the art of fishing, and the promise of the eternal horizon.
FOLK HERO
You come from a humble social rank, but you are destined for so much more. Already the people of your home village/town/city neighborhood regard you as their champion, and your destiny calls you to stand against the tyrants and monsters that threaten the common folk everywhere.
GLADIATOR
A gladiator is as much an entertainer as any minstrel or circus performer, trained to make the arts of combat into a spectacle the crowd can enjoy. This kind of flashy combat is your entertainer routine, though you might also have some skills as a tumbler or actor.
GUILD ARTISAN
You are a member of an artisan's guild, skilled in a particular field and closely associated with other artisans. You are a well-established part of the mercantile world, freed by talent and wealth from the constraints of a feudal social order. You learned your skills as an apprentice to a master artisan, under the sponsorship of your guild, until you became a master in your own right.
GUILD MERCHANT
You belong to a guild of traders, caravan masters, or shopkeepers. You don't craft items yourself but earn a living by buying and selling the works of others (or the raw materials artisans need to practice their craft). Your guild might be a large consortium or family with interests across the region. Perhaps you transported goods from one place to another by ship, wagon, or caravan, or bought them from traveling traders and sold them in your own little shop. In some ways, the traveling merchant's life lends itself to adventure far more than the life of an artisan.
HERMIT
You lived in seclusion for a formative part of your life: either in a sheltered community such as a monastery, or entirely alone. In your time apart from the clamor of society, you found quiet, solitude, and perhaps some of the answers you were looking for.
INHERITOR
You are the heir to something of great value that is not mere coin or wealth, but an object that has been entrusted to you alone. Your inheritance might have come to you from a member of your family, by right of birth, or it could have been left to you by a friend, a mentor, a teacher, or someone else important in your life. The revelation of your inheritance changed your life, and might have set you on the path to adventure, but it could also come with many dangers, including those who covet your gift and want to take it from you by force if need be.
MUST CHOOSE ANOTHER BACKGROUND TO HAVE LIVED BEFORE THIS ONE
INVESTIGATOR
You have served the community where you grew up by being one of the more clever guards in the city watch. You protected the populace by figuring who was responsible for breaking the law when there were no obvious culprits whether your community was a village or town or city neighborhood.
KNIGHT
You understand wealth, power, and privilege but are not the primary heir of your family title. To retain your nobility, your family bought you the lowliest of noble titles, Knight. Unlike the militant knight, your title is Lord for male and Lady for female. Your a pampered aristocrat unfamiliar with work or discomfort.
KIGHT OF THE ORDER
You belong to an order of knights, the aristocratic sort not militant, who have sworn oaths to achieve a goal. Pick an order.
Knights of the Unicorn: this order began as a fad of romantically minded sons and daughters of the nobility. Their ideals are life is to be relished and lived with laughter, quests should be taken on a dare, impossible dreams should be pursued for the sheer wonder of their completion and everyone should be praised for their strengths and comforted in their weaknesses.
Knights of Myth Drannor: this order is made up of the sons and daughters of the nobility who believe in building alliances and friendships between the civilized races of the world in order to combat evil.
Knights of the Silver Chalice: this order is made up of the sons and daughters of the nobility who believe in the nobility's right and responsibility to rule. It is the most popular of the orders.
MARINE
You were trained for battle on sandy beaches and rocky shores. You have launched midnight raids from swift ships whose names evoke terror in the hearts of your adversaries. The water is your second home, the rain your shelter, and the crashing waves your battle cry.
MERCENARY
You are a sell-sword who fought battles for coin. You're familier with the ins and outs of mercenary life, and you likely have harrowing tales of events on the battlefield.
NOBLE
You understand wealth, power, and privilege. Choose which type of noble you are.
You are the heir to a noble title whose family owns lands, collects taxes, and wields significant political influence. Your a pampered aristocrat unfamiliar with work or discomfort.
You are the heir to a former merchant just elevated to the nobility by royal favor or, more commonly, purchased from the Crown.
You are a disinherited scoundrel with a disproportionate sense of entitlement.
OUTLANDER
You grew up in the wilds, far from civilization and the comforts of town and technology. You've witnessed the migration of herds larger than forests, survived weather more extreme than any city-dweller could comprehend, and enjoyed the solitude of being the only thinking creature for miles in any direction. The wilds are in your blood, whether you were a nomad, an explorer, a recluse, a hunter-gatherer, or even a marauder. Even in places where you don't know the specific features of the terrain, you know the ways of the wild.
PIRATE
You spent your youth under the sway of a dread pirate, a ruthless cutthroat who taught you how to survive in a world of sharks and savages. You've indulged in larceny on the high seas and sent more than one deserving soul to a briny grave. Fear and bloodshed are no strangers to you, and you've garnered a somewhat unsavory reputation in many a port town.
SAGE
You spent years learning the lore of many things. You scoured manuscripts, studied scrolls, and listened to the greatest experts on the subjects that interest you. Your efforts have made you a master in your fields of study.
SAILOR
You sailed on a seagoing vessel for years. In that time, you faced down mighty storms, monsters of the deep, and those who to sink your vessel to the bottomless depths. Your first love is the distant line of the horizon. What position did you hold (pick one): boatswain, captain, helmsman, cook, general hand, cabin boy/girl.
SHIPWRIGHT
You have sailed into war on the decks of great ships, patching their hulls with soup bowls and prayers. You once helped build a fishing vessel that single-handedly saved a town from starvation. You have seen a majestic prow in your dreams that you have not been able to replicate in wood. Since childhood, you have loved the water and have been captivated by the many vessels that travel on it.
SMUGGLER
On a rickety barge, you carried a hundred longswords in fish barrels right past the dock master's oblivious lackeys. You have paddled a riverboat filled with stolen elven wine under the gaze of the moon and sold it for twice its value the next morning. In your more charitable times, you have transported innocents out of war zones or helped guide herd animals to safety on the banks of a burning river.
SOLDIER
War has been your life for as long as you care to remember. You trained as a youth, studied the use of weapons and armor, learned basic survival techniques, including how to stay alive on the battlefield. You might have been part of a standing army or a local militia who rose to prominence during a recent war.
SPY
Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very different context: as an espionage agent. You might have been an officially sanctioned agent of a crown, or perhaps you sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder.
URBAN BOUNTY HUNTER
Unlike some people who collect bounties, you aren't a savage who follows quarries into the wilderness. You're involved in a lucrative trade, in the place where you live, that routinely tests your skills and survival instincts. Its been important to maintain contacts within the criminal subculture and with other bounty hunters.
URCHIN
You grew up on the streets alone, orphaned, and poor. You had no one to watch over you or provide for you, so you learned to provide for yourself. You fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from you. You slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. You've survived despite all odds, and did so through some combination of cunning, strength, or speed.
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