Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Your Characters' History/Backstory

Hail, and well met, all.

I can't seem to find a search function, so maybe there's already a thread for this... if so, kindly direct me to it, thank you.

I thought it might be fun to have a thread consisting of character back stories.

Here's mine.

A High Elf Arcane Trickster I've been playing in a weekly campaign for about 6 months, and plan to be my first BG3 playthrough.

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Born to one of the oldest and wealthiest noble High Elf families, the House of Andaron, Khyrmn grew up running around, playing hide & seek, and tag with the members of the family's Intelligence arm.

This brought him to the attention of the commander of the Intelligence arm, who started devising various tasks and tests, resembling games, to both test, and further enhance Khyrmn's natural, duck to water, skills and aptitude to join his branch of service to the family, as opposed to the family's school of magic.

Showing more of a talent for, let alone interest in, the skills of a spy/rogue/assassin than the boring study of the magics of Wizarding, (thus dashing his parents' hopes of Khyrmn becoming a Grand Wizard of the Kingdom), Khyrmn took to the clandestine training like a fish to water.

Over the years Khyrmn had grown in skill and experience, having taken on several missions for the family, including intelligence gathering, assassination, framing members of opposing family members of treason, and all sorts of chicanery, thus strengthening his family's position in the kingdom while weakening others.

Eventually his parents became targets of reprisal due to their wealth, power & influence in the kingdom.

Due to his own experience with assassination, Khyrmn recognized and thwarted two assassination attempts, ultimately killing the Assassins during the second attempt.

His parents were whisked away to live with the King, where no one would ever be foolish enough to attempt another assassination.

However, now HE was the target.

Khyrmn was forced to leave home and join the outside world where he could both hide and more importantly, find out who was behind the attempted assassination attempts. The only clue from one of the assassins, was that he was Human. No Elf family would utilize an assassin squad that used Humans, or any other non-Elf.

The author of this treachery had to be from the outside world... and Khyrmn planned to find out who it was, and deal with them in spectacular fashion.

I really wouldn't worry about creating some imagined backstory for your character because either a) the game doesn't acknowledge the custom character existed before the game started(and this is the most likely) or b) the game will have other ideas in mind for who your character was before the start of the game. Either way not particularly relevant. During character creation you can set a background but the only effects that has is to give you some proficiencies and determines some challenges you can do to earn inspiration and if you're lucky you might get a dialogue choice or two. But really the background selection during character creation isn't terribly important beyond the proficiencies it gives you so select something that compliments your build well with proficiencies you can make use of.

People make up elaborate backstories for the fun of it, not because they expect the game to acknowledge it.

BINGO!!!

I find that rather pointless for this game. At an actual D&D table sure, your DM might decide to roll with the backstories of the players so that could evolve in interesting adventures. But I wouldn't do it for a videogame where such things don't matter to the game. Plus there is a chance that the custom character also has a pre-determined backstory yet to be revealed in some plot-twist.

Tavlado Bloom grew up as an orphan with golden scales covering his body. Learing to disguise self early to hide his scales he was sold to/adopted by a blacksmith who needed an apprentice.

He crushed hard on the daughter of a local magistrate, often doing work for her father. But turns out she was gay.

Tavlando it turns out was a rather middling smith. Never having the aptitude to create anything of note.

Lacking any willpower to devolpe his innate magical potential, he seemed destined for a life of mediocrity and dissapointment, untill the merciful arm of the Nautiloid scooped him up.

I had an idea of making a bronze dragonborn sorcerer with the gold draconic bloodline. Kind of a reference to the Villentretenmerth from the Witcher books. Disguise Self active use is a very cool twist for a Tav character.

👍🏼 Neato burrito

Yeah I wanted to play a sorcerer, but we know tav is a baldurian, or atleast was, so I wasn't trying to come up with an originvthat works for an average dude sorcerer

He was a young prodigy, gifted with a wizard's education. Although in youth he could be considered somewhat of a scamp, in time he grew to be a world-class wizard. In fact, he rose to become a formidable archmage within one of the largest cities in Faerun. He achieved such heights of magic that even Mystra herself--the goddess of magic--noticed him and took him as a lover. Unfortunately, things didn't work out, largely because of his own hubris. He made an attempt to usurp her godhood, but she stole his magic away and cursed him.

I'm not entirely sure yet how she cursed him, but I'm thinking she put some kind of dangerous artifact in his chest. I'm talking a powerful artifact, like one that could, say, destroy an entire city.

He didn't just learn his lesson for his hubris. Now he is burdened with worry, concerned about the potential devastation he could unleash on other folks nearby. Now he has to fight against going through ceremorphosis because he fears such would not only end his existence, but also imperil more lives than even he could imagine.

I'm still working on a name.

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And yes, party-pooper above, I know, I can't expect the game to acknowledge my backstory perfectly, but it's just some flavor stuff I like to keep in my head as I'm playing. Let me pretend, will ya?

Depends on which version of Azrael,

Original Version:

He's a Chaotic Horny/Chaotic Good Zariel Tiefling Monk Charlatan that seduces noble women into sex by lying about being foreign noblity, technically a half truth and then loot their valuables the morning after, not the brightest bulb in the room, gets the job done anyways


Or the revamped version:

where he's a Zariel Tiefling Paladin that serves as a member of Flaming Fist looking for the fabled "moral compass" still a Chaotic Horny Idiot but less horny, less heroic and dumber than before, this version has more of an Invader Zim like personality and rarely understands things like metaphors, takes everything very literal, even the Moral Compass that he seeks is a metaphor he doesn't understand,


Extra stuff that both versions share with eachother:

Both versions were born in Hells and both versions have an evil identical twin, their Mom is a cambion so there's none of that Pact BS, both versions of Azrael later made it to Baldur's Gate when he was around 8 or 9 after following a foolish mage through a portal, the mage themselves accidentally sent themselves to the hells with a teleportation spell, Both versions were specifically planned for a "Descent Into Avernus" Campaign,


Conclusion, blueprint notes:

I admit I heavily borrowed some stuff from Devil May Cry, human toned hornless white haired pretty boy tiefling with evil identical twin brother, even during concept phase he was planned to be a demon hunting ranger, but I decided against it since it would've another thing I would've borrowed from DMC, haven't thought of their father but he could potentially be a Bardbarian or a Bardlock Tiefling still working on that one

I ended up writing a whole page of backstory because I felt inspired, but I'll cut it to just the main bullet points here. I'm going to keep this character in reserve for possible use in an actual game someday.

Kasimir, Tiefling Cleric of Ilmater
Born to a devil-worshipping cult centered around his cambion father. Criminal youth, subject of familial abuse and racism. Eventually he was caught as a result of crimes and nearly lynched, saved only by the intervention of a cleric of Ilmater. The cleric died to rescue his sorry ass and Kasimir suddenly realized that most people are not constantly horrible and wracked with guilt. He joined the church of Ilmater to make up for bad deeds. Is still wracked with guilt, but pretty good at hiding it.

The person he dreams of is himself as a regular human. He's over-corrected on his moral compass and absolutely hates himself for things both in and out of his own control.

Copying myself from Reddit:

First run: Dusk, a Seldarine drow druid. She grew up in the Underdark, learning about the flora and fauna there initially for the purpose of making poisons and such. Every once in awhile, something would make its way down to her from the sunlit realms - a flower, a critter, etc. - and she grew... curious. Then more than curious. And finally, one day, she took an opportunity to escape, and explore the strange new world for herself.

Next run: Merrilee, an elven or half elven bard (wood elf variety) with lots of frizzy red hair. A bit mischievous, a bit naive, she makes her living as an entertainer at one of the smaller taverns in Baldur's Gate, doing some acting on the side. She's the daughter of Gorion's Ward and Xan. I'm gonna do my best to recreate my favorite BG1/2 portrait in the BG3 character creator.

Your Character and their story Here's an old thread I remember had people describing their EA tavs. I still intend to play Merelda on my first runthrough, I'm not sure if I'll be doing concurrent runs though.


Illusion magic is a bit of an asperation considering it's the most difficult to implement in a computer game. I might go with Sorcerer.

Hey look, there I am in the old thread, and... yeah, done a bit of rethinking since then. Had plenty of time!

Amen!!

That's all this is about, RP/pretend for OURSELVES, and this thread to hopefully entertain others.

Thank you for that, my apologies, I never saw that one... time to do some reading 😁

2020 was quite some time ago, I don’t think anyone will hold it against you :p

It’s been nice seeing some of the oldbies returning as we approach the release. Maybe we’ll get some more fanfiction soon too

I was also a part of the earlier thread! I'll just go ahead and quote myself (this is old and even though I made some slight modifications, expect errors xd ):


To answer the thread:

My first character will be Ivara (earlier named Aei, but I did edit the name as I quoted myself). She is a wild elf that dedicated her life to become an arcane archer; a defender of her homelands. Unfortunately, she did not finish her training (because Larian did not include arcane archers (: ) before her brother disappeared. So she embarked on a long quest to find him; aiding those in need on the way. She was looking for clues in Baldur's Gate when she got nabbed by the mind flayers.

I have, like 10 characters I'm considering. Only a few have detailed backstories.

Zedabog
Druegar Gloomstalker, Urchin and Bounty Hunter. Came into Baldurs Gate through the sewers as a refugee from the Underdark. Grew up in the slums and made his coin hunting criminals in the places the authorities wouldn't go.

Boldgar
Druegar Spore Druid. Outlander of the Underdark. He has a wonderful relationship with the Myconids.

Gravelok
Half-Orc Former Captain. A member of a fleet of necromancer pirates. He commanded a crew of the undead and terrorized the Sword Coast until he was betrayed by his fellow captains and chose to jump overboard rather than be killed and join their crew. Losing everything, he washed up in Baldurs Gate, just in time to be abducted by Mindflayers.

Aelwyn
High Half-Elf Charlatan. She never had a strong relationship with her Elf side, instead choosing to make her way in the city by scams and plots. However, one day she scammed the wrong person and was confronted by thugs in an alley. A haunting voice called in her mind offering a deal. Power to defend herself in exchange for advancing their mysterious agenda. She agreed and became an Warlock of the Archfey.

Melphina
Asmodeus Tiefling Monk. An orphan left by parents on the steps of a hidden temple. She was raised by Acolytes and steeped in the Way of Shadows. She had ventured into Baldurs Gate to find her human parents, but was found herself by Mindflayers.

Ja'akas
Githyanki Bard, College of Swords. Never able to fit into the militaristic society of his crèche, he ran away at a young age and fell in with a troop of troubadours. He put his early training to good use, reenacting famous battles on stage with theatrical flourishes. Now in a makeshift band of abducted, he intends to annoy Lae'zel... or seduce her.

Figgins
Rock Gnome Cleric, Knowledge Domain. Some gnomes revere intelligence and become wizards or artificers. Figgins takes it to a whole different level, worshipping the very gods of knowledge.

Dorn
Dragornborn Noble and Sorcerer. The Dragonborn are descended from Dragons. It is known. But ones with stronger connections to their ancestors are held in higher regard. Such is Dorn. And his birthright brought raw magical power.

Aglwulf
Halfling Wild Magic Barbarian. No one knows where this feral creature originated. He was discovered by a regiment of soldiers patrolling a deep forest and lured into their camp with food. Somehow, the rough men and women found his crude ways endearing and made him their mascot. The surprise was theirs when he turned out to be useful in a fight, tearing through a party of highway robbers like a miniature pack of wolves.

Orsythe
Human Battlemaster Fighter. A veteran of many battles, he's a master of tactics, knowing just the right time and place to put an arrow to turn the momentum in his favor.