Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rowan_Whispercloak 11-29-06, 06:10 PM	Here is the backstory for a new character I hope to run in the next game I play in. I think that it need a lot of work. I'm sorry for it being too long and not very good. :weep: : Physical Description: Tall and wiry, Vorick stands slightly over six feet tall. His pale skin seems to spurn the touch of the sun. Dark hair, black almost blue, frames a youthful face. However his handsome features are marred by two horns, the color or yellowed bone, that spring from his forehead. Blood red eyes stare out apparently unfocused on the world around him. Vorick was born in a small town several days travel from both the nearest city and the boarder to the next country*. Just after his first breath, his life was in jeopardy, his horns, red eyes and fangs marked him as something unnatural and unholy. Only did the mercy Oleriv, a town elder and school teacher, was Vorick’s life spared. For the next thirteen years Vorick was more or least ignored by his mother’s family, his father denied his existence and used his birth as grounds to divorce his mother. When not at the small school room or sitting atop the walls that separated his home town from the rest of (it him at least) an unknown world, Vorick spent most of his time in back breaking labor, his mother routinely “renting” him out as a porter or other. While physically exhausting the jobs gave him a chance to be away from his mother’s endless reminder of how he was her “shame” and the reason for the loss of her one true love. It was in though years that Oleriv became the anchor of Vorick’s sanity. Due to the number of elders on the council in Vorick’s “fathers” family Oleriv was never allowed to take him from his mother. So the old man could only watch as his mother’s family tried to slowly starve the boy to death. When she had found out that he had been taking his evening meal with the elderly teacher she forbid Vorick from seeing Oleriv except during the hours of school. Those days at school were a bittersweet time for him. As many of the adults in the town viewed him as an unholy scion that would be the source of the town’s doom. Those views were passed down to their children. Vorick learned early how to stay hidden and to detect others nearby. It was the summer of his thirteenth year when all things changed. Oleriv grew ill during that previous winter and never recovered. In the last week of his life recruiter from the army came to the town. Soldier were needed and the pay was good. Oleriv tried to talk Vorick out of joining telling him of his own days at war, but his word could not sway the young tiefling. The day before he was to leave Oleriv died his last words to Vorick were “You’ve grown to be a fine young man, if you dead set to go to this war then be safe,” then he laughed, his voice weak “You’ll be a real terror on the battlefield my boy, but what a giant you would have been if we could have gotten proper food in you.” Oleriv closed his eyes and fell asleep. At first Vorick served as a rank and file infantry man, until his superiors notice his talent for moving around unseen and silently. His first kill, disgusted him, but as the battles got more and more frequent that revulsion was replaced with the thrill of being alive. Soon as months of war turned to years the only comfort Vorick knew was from catching an enemy soldier unaware and seeing that man’s life end. Those endings showed him that he still breathed and that it wasn’t all dreams in the sleep of death. In a small town near the border that all changed. Vorick and the unit he was assigned to had entered to reinforce the defenses and hold any hostiles that attempted to cross over, but when they arrived the town was in flames. The town was being slaughtered and his sergeant the ever pious ordered them to save as many as they could to drive back the invader to give the townsfolk time to escape. It was a lost cause. Vorick when to hide as the last of his allies fell before he could be surrounded. From his hiding spot he saw a pair of invaders chasing a small group of children into the alley below him. All good sense told him to stay still, to hide he would be safe and would be able to escape, but all he could picture was Oleriv and how many things he had done as of yet that the old man would have frowned upon. Before he dropped silently behind the man at the rear he thought to himself ‘At least if I die I can tell the old man that I wasn’t the monster mother thought I was.’ The first man fell choking on his own blood. The second was a battle harden veteran and it showed his axe finally shattered Vorick sword and forced his back to a wall. Instinct was all that saved him as the man’s began a downward cut. Vorick ducked low as pushed the mans elbows up to buy himself some time, then slipped within his guard and stabbed one of his horns into the man’s eye. Looking to the older children he spoke before thinking “Gather up the smaller children we’re leaving.” With that he picked up the sword from the first man hid downed and moved off. Stopping by a stream after a few hours of running he finally got a chance to rest. After gathering wood and getting a fire going he set up the small tent from his pack and putting the three younger children to bed with his blanket and hand the two remaining children (a boy and girl) his cloak to share, Vorick walked over to the stream to wash his face and hands. After removing his helm and getting the blood off of his horn, he walked back toward the fire sit down and assess the situation. The girl looked right at Vorick and screamed “Monster” waking the other children. Vorick flinched at this, for the first time in years. Then the unexpected happened the youngest child, another girl that was, barely walking, crawled out of the tent shaking with fear. The child approached Vorick and climbed onto his lap. She spoke her voice tiny and frail “You’ll won’t let the monsters get us right” *Unsure of setting to be used so, am trying to be slightly vague with place names. Basically that is the beginning of Vorick journey from mistreated child to cold hearted killer and his redemption. I was thinking of eventually have him become a paladin. But his starts out as a rogue/fighter. Any help with this would be most appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read this. :)
Daxen 12-08-06, 07:42 PM	A nice enough story I would say. I believe that a Paladin of Freedom may be a better choice. It is the lawful thinking of society that has branded him a monster. I wouldn't waste time with the fighter levels, you don't have to be a fighter to fight. You could balance it out by just taking levels of scout. It really depends on which skill set you find more attractive. I wouldn't have him be quite so young when he joins the army. 15 or 16 sounds better to me, but that is a matter of personal taste. Saving the children was the moment of his salvation, play that to the hilt. Good luck and happy Tieflinging.