This Chapter’s goals are to assist you the Player in making a Narrative Background for your Character. You already would have decided on a mechanical Background in the Character Generation & Levelling Chapter, which was detailing something your Character did before they became an adventurer.
A Narrative Background is taking the elements of that chosen Background, the training and knowledge you decided to gain, and to give them a story you, your Party and your GG can call upon during play, both for Character motivation as well as future plot threads.
Creating a background is very simple grab a paper and pen, or a word document program, and write about the Character’s early life before they were an adventurer. This can be as simple as a bullet pointed list of key NPCs and moments or could be something more involved. It is entirely up to you and optional.
Once you do have something written though, pass it to your GG as it will potentially help with the Campaign, giving the main plot thread of the Campaign a chance to have greater import for your Character or providing the GG a new NPC to throw in at an important moment.
This Chapter is here to provide advice on writing a Narrative Background, provide prompts, and even example tables for answers to the prompts. This Class Playbook will also Feature some unique prompts and ideas related to the Class you have chosen to play. These tables and prompts should be used as places to help generate ideas rather than to force them, and as such, you do not have to use an prompt or a rolled result from a table if it doesn’t mesh with the Character.
So, to begin with first look back at the Background you made during Character Generation, note down in your Narrative Background document the following things:
Background’s Name. This was what you did before you became an Adventurer, it did not have to be your whole life prior, as you may have learnt the basics of your chosen Class before the first session.
As such consider how what you did in your Background related to your training to be a member of your Class.
Background’s Languages & Training. You in your Background chose to learn to use certain Weapons and Tools, as well as specific Languages. It may be wise to consider what about your Background led to you gaining that knowledge and could provide some threads to include in your Background.
Background’s Feat. Another thing you gained because of your Background was a Feat. Consider what the Feat says about the Character and their Background and how that could be incorporated into your Background’s narrative.
These may give you some ideas for basic beats your Background should cover, from there we get onto more specific aspects that will vary Character to Character.
Battle Channelers spend years studying their arts from small Channeler Orders or from Spirits of the Dream, before advancing on their own personal journey down one of the Channeler’s Paths. These questions will hopefully help determine aspects about your Character. So, considering your Character consider the following aspects and looking to the following tables for inspiration for your own answers:
What led to channelling your chosen emotion? Consider what led to you channelling your chosen emotion, was it from a specific event in your backstory, was it from the nature of your training as a battle channeler, or is the reason something more unique to you? Do you find you naturally show this emotion even when not channelling? Do you find you are attuned to this emotion or find it hard to channel? Is this an emotion you are comfortable or uncomfortable channelling and/displaying normally? This may inform how you answer the other questions.
| Results | |
|---|---|
| 1 | I have trained myself to channel a specific emotion, as a goal to overcome my worst emotions which I all too easily shift towards in my normal life. |
| 2 | I channel my chosen emotion as I am always feeling that emotion normally. |
| 3 | I trained to channel my chosen emotion to help me overcome my past. |
| 4 | It took me a long time to find an emotion to attune myself to channel, my teacher sent me on a quest to better center myself and connect with my emotions. |
| 5 | I normally am a peaceful person, I hate how I somehow have attuned myself to some darker emotion, is that what I am truly like on the inside? |
| 6 | An event in my past has meant that I find myself uncontrollably falling into my chosen emotion both in my normal life and when channeling. |
Who taught you the art of the Battle Channeler? How did you learn the art? Are you self-taught, did you have a teacher, or multiple? Were they an ancient spirit from the Realms of Dream, something more twisted by the Nightmare, or maybe taught by an older Battle Channeler? Did this education come with membership to a Knightly Order or other organisation? How did your teacher(s) treat you, and what was your relationship with them?
| Results | |
|---|---|
| 1 | I was tutored by one of the spirits of the Dream. Being a manifestation of my chosen emotion, they taught me accordingly. |
| 2 | I studied from an old, disgruntled master of the art, who grudgingly taught me the way. |
| 3 | My family passed down the forgotten art, telling me to keep it a secret. |
| 4 | I learnt from a darkened entity I encountered while dreaming, sometimes I even hear their voice when I am awake. |
| 5 | I became a squire to an Order of Battle Channelers, to study the art formally. |
| 6 | You learnt yourself but you are not sure from where or how. |
Do you have any channelling aids? Do you find having specific Items or other things help you channel your emotions? Is it needed for you to channel? How does it help your channelling? Does the Item change appearance while channelling?
| Results | |
|---|---|
| 1 | You have a set of tattoos that glow with an eerie light when channeling, they seem to give you focus when channeling. |
| 2 | You have a small carved trinket from your home settlement or family, you find it harder to channel when it is not on your person. When you channel while in contact with this totem you can feel the spirits of those closest to you giving you the strength to overcome any obstacles. |
| 3 | An heirloom weapon or set of armour that you find helps with your channeling, enhancing its benefits for you, to allow you to be equal to other Battle Channelers. |
| 4 | A fragment of the Dream or Nightmare that you find necessary to grant you the power to channel your emotions. |
| 5 | You need no aids; you find your abilities flow naturally without assistance. |
| 6 | Your training included learning from animals of the wild to channel, you have tokens made from the parts of the animal you studied to help you channel their wisdom and strength in your channels. |
Have you picked up any superstitions from your time tied to the Dream? The Realms of Dream interact differently to the Material Realm. These entities that live there have their own customs, beliefs, and superstitions, and even those who are only tangentially tied to these Realms may have picked up some beliefs inherited with their powers and experience.
| Results | |
|---|---|
| 1 | You should never give your name when requested, lest it be taken from you. |
| 2 | You should always carry silver when dealing with the denizens of, or passing through Realms you are not native to. |
| 3 | The rules of hospitality are mandatory when dealing with others. |
| 4 | You have studied the art of flower language after an unfortunate encounter with some denizens of the Dream. |
| 5 | When entering a room, you always step out of the room before stepping back in again. |
| 6 | You will not cross the threshold of a domain unless its owner gives permission, especially if it belongs to a Fae, like a Fairy Circle, or any Fae Domain. |
What do you think about to help fuel your channelling? Consider the above answers and your Character concept when answering the question. Potentially also consider how often and freely do you channel your emotions? Finally consider with all of the above, what does this ability and your relationship to it say about you as a Character? How does it reflect the background and nature of your Character?
| Results | |
|---|---|
| 1 | I think about the event in my past that set me on this path. Losing myself to completely relieving the moment and letting it fuel my channeling. |
| 2 | I think about the future I wish to see. I let that desire for the dream fuel my abilities. |
| 3 | I think about who I am fighting for. It could be a person I hate and wish revenge upon, or someone I love dearly I wish to protect. My feelings about the individual fuel my channeling. |
| 4 | I remember my training. The exercises I was taught to channel my emotions, focusing on one above all others. |
| 5 | I stop thinking. I let my consciousness be subsumed and let the emotions take over. |
| 6 | I think of my dreams or nightmares. Letting the emotions tied to them flood my body while channeling. |
| 7 | I do not need to think. I have mastered my emotions such that I need only will it, for my channeling to occur. |
| 8 | I think of stories I once read of heroes and channelers of the past. I think of those stories and the emotions they made me feel to assist with my channeling. |