Welcome back everyone and thanks for joining me for the second installment of Player Advice. In this installment we'll take the Character Primer from September 28th and look at a character that has been created using the steps outlined within the primer. I will warn you up front that what comes below is quiet a bit to read so if you're not interested in actually seeing what the primer can create, then you can stop reading now! However, if you enjoyed the primer, enjoy a good bit of storytelling, well, then I think you might just enjoy this!
I am Krieger Shallowdale and this is my story……..
I am the result of a violent rape. The village of my upbringing was pillaged and plundered on the day of my conceivement by orc hordes from the north. Nearly no one escaped the wrath of the hordes and most of the women of the village were murdered in the assaults. My mother was one of the lucky ones, well, if luck is what you call surviving. Maybe death would have been better for her. A few short months after the raid and mother had to revisit the horror when the first signs of life began to show in her expanding waist line. My sister tells me that mother struggled throughout the pregnancy to come to grips with what should be done with me upon my birth. Most child born of violence were sacrificed to the gods for protection from future torment, or as I see it, getting rid of the unwanted. In the end I guess she decided what happened wasn’t my fault or maybe I just didn’t deserve an unjust fate. Lucky me. Despite what I am, mother has always tried her best to care for me but more often than not, I have always been more of a painful reminder to her of that tragic event than a son.
Father never cared for me at all. Aside from a name, it’s very apparent that he only tolerates me because of mother. Despite his displeasure in having a bastard son, he never mistreated me as you might think, well, at least not in the way you might think. I was little better than one of the beasts that plowed the field to him and my strength of arm was really the only thing that kept me in his good graces. The power I possessed allowed me to handle chores around the farm and the beasts in the field extraordinarily well and this made fathers life less complicated. I guess I served some purpose after all. Though he never paid me much attention, I was damned and determined to earn his affections. After all, he was the only father I had! Through the years my need for his affections pushed me to excel at everything I did. Chores were completed without my father being hassled to tell me what to do and more often than not I stayed one step ahead of him so that he didn’t have to work hard. No matter what I did, or how hard I worked, the attention I sought would never come!
As if life wasn’t hell enough for me there just had to be another cruel joke thrown my way. My sister told me I was becoming a man and that all the boys in the village underwent the change. Well, only they didn’t change like I did. Up till now I had appeared nearly as every other boy in the village had, human! Now with the coming of age I was changing into something else! My hair thickened and became a little more course. My bottom teeth developed into small tusks that protruded from my lower jaw and the tips of my ears developed slight points. The sheen of my skin took on a grey tone and almost over night I shot up to almost 7 feet tall! As bad as all this was I still appeared more human than orc but these changes had finally pushed my father over the edge. At this point, rather I blended in more than others of my heritage or not, I was all orc to him! I could tell he regretted ever letting me live. So it was that I cast out to live in another village as far away from father as he could get me. The last thing he would ever do for me was to secure me an apprenticeship under the neighboring village’s blacksmith.
This was a huge psychological blow for me. The pain of such a rejection filled me with a rage that I turned on the world. I took to getting into fights and suffered violent outbursts that would leave my enemies gravely wounded and quite often outright dead. The drink and even worse afflictions became my only solace. Fortunately for me, Fazig, the blacksmith my father had apprenticed me to was a kind and caring old codger whom somehow realized the pain that was eating me from the inside. Fazig sobered me up and taught me to harness my rage. Then he put an axe in one hand and a scourge in the other and focused that rage and anger into a more constructive force. For several years I would spend the days working in his forge learning the ways of the smithy and at nights he instructed me further on becoming a finely tuned warrior. I found the forge to be a great calling for me, a labor of love if you will and my work ethic was second to none. This proved to be a blessing for Fazig as well as business was booming! I had the mentor that filled the role of the father I had always wanted and Fazig had a very talented apprentice. What a pair we made!
Fazig had one other profound effect on me. During our time together he spoke often of his days as an adventurer and of the great many treasures he found. He spoke of the joys that he had sharing companionship along the road with his fellows and I found myself longing for this release as well. So it was that on my 17th birthday that I decided it was time to seek my fortunes in the world and leave the tiny village of Fazig behind. Leaving Fazig would be difficult, but I knew in my heart this was what he had been preparing me for all along. I vowed to return in a few years and share my stories of adventure with him just as he had done with me and gods willing the old codger would still be around for it!
Well, here I am, older, wiser, and ready to tackle the world. I’ve got my axe, my grudge, and my hopes. Maybe now the world is ready for me!
DETAILS
• Description: Krieger stands 6’9” tall and weighs 289 lbs. He appears human except for a few small features He has coal black hair that he keeps short and straight with a close cropped beard. He has green eyes, slightly pointed ears, coarse black body hair, and a slight grey pigmentation to his skin. His most orcish feature is his lower tusks. With effort he can hide them but this causes his speech to slur badly which is a sore spot for him.
• Flaw: Krieger is extremely hot headed and stubborn. His orc heritage causes him to be chaotic at times but he takes great strides to control it. This conflict often causes bouts of indecision for him.
• Motivation: Krieger’s rather large chip on his shoulder for his father would be motivation enough but Fazig’s stories of bold adventures and heroism have added plenty of fuel to his inner fire.
• Influence: Fazig is his biggest influence. Aside from taming his wild side and giving him the skills necessary to adventure, Fazig has been more of a father to Krieger than he has ever known. Krieger has a deep affection for Fazig and would go to great lengths to help Fazig if he thought Fazig needed it.
• Important Figure: Libby, Krieger’s older sister. Libby was the only person that fully accepted Krieger while he was growing up. She never judged him or dealt with him in a harsh manner. Libby often cared for Krieger when their mother couldn’t or more over wouldn’t. Libby taught Krieger to read and write and how important education was. In many ways Libby was more of a mother to him than he mother truly was. Krieger misses Libby greatly and longs to see her again soon.
• Important Possession: A tiny book of poems given to Krieger by Libby. He carries it a leather pouch that he wears across his chest. Krieger frequently reads the book whenever he feels lonely, angry, or otherwise unsettled. The book always reminds him that at least someone in this world cares for him.
As you can plainly see from the background above several things are clear from the outset. First, Krieger has a story and that story doesn't revolve around his character class. No, instead it revolved around his race and his upbringing. These were his biggest motivators for his eventually starting down the path of an adventurer. What his character class is was only hinted at through descriptors about his behavior and may not have been so obvious to newer gamers.
That class is in fact a barbarian. The Character Primer spoke at length about decided what niche within the party you saw your character filling and, well, Krieger is definitely a striker! All of his skills, intimidate, endurance, and athletics can easily be seen referenced somewhere within the contents of this background. And finally, the finishing touches round out the character in ways that really wouldn't have a place in the writings of the characters background story. The points that really make the character real.
Walla!! There you have it. One finely tune, well rounded, character. Not just a barbarian. Not just a striker. Krieger Shallowdale, a character that started life as a victim but is determined not to live it that way! I hope you have enjoyed this second edition of Player Advice as much as I have. I look forward to hearing from each of you about your own character creations.!
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