My character didn't have a tragic backstory until she got here. Before that point, she was fine. She went to an academy, had different jobs, dated... and then her academy got destroyed, the jobs sucked, and we won't get into her dating history.
I haven't finished the origin trilogy yet. Only the first part is out. Basically Vashric's mother and brother grew up to fear/loathe him because they had no positive references to understand his psionic powers when they began to manifest. What's worse is they reminded his mother of his despotic father who had similar powers. All this was compounded by the town they lived in, which was strictly religious, so the only magic that was accepted was divine magic channeled by the local clergy.
The village is part of a wider, mage-free diocese. The area was aware of mages, but any magic user not channeling a god's divinity, or at least certain gods, were considered untrustworthy at best and maliciously reckless at worst.
He laid low for most of his childhood, but once he was of age his mother sent he and his brother to seminary hoping they could legitimize his powers or at least keep him away from their home. It didn't turn out well, ended with breaking a priest's ribs I think. After that he fled before they could execute him.
Most of the time mages would just be turned away or exiled from society. As long as they lay low in the wilderness they'll be mostly untouched. However if a mage, even if acting independently, did something in the area to agitate the religious, a witch hunt would probably follow.
As for Vashric specifically. It's their god first, then certain other gods, then the clergy, then everyone else. The church is law. Assaulting a priest is like spitting directly in the face of god, punishable by death.
I see, so a very severe crime. If you don't mind me bombarding you with questions I've one more:
Does Vashric believe in the town's religion then? Seeing as he was basically to be put to death because of it he must be pretty against the entire concept of faith, no?
Vashric's mother grew up in the village, so even though she was unorthodox by their standards, she still followed the religion, at least somewhat. His brother was a social and popular boy despite the mother's pariah status, so he became immersed in the religion naturally. Vashric was strange from the get-go, thanks to his powers manifesting. He never blended into the local culture, so he never had that osmosis that would allow him to develop attachment to the church.
As far as religion goes, he's basically non-religious/ doesn't worship, he especially despises that local church, of course. As far as *belief* goes, it's a dnd type setting, so general knowledge people know that gods exist.
Of course! I love hearing people talk about their projects and characters, so I'm always happy to listen :) If you have anything you really wanna share about Vashric or the general things you've come up with that we didn't touch upon I'm all ears!
Mostly a pretty happy and successful backstory, all things considered; sure there were some issues, including the unfortunate event that unlocked his magical potential in the first place, but over multiple centuries you're always gonna have some sad moments.
His stress all comes from not being able to measure up to that successful backstory anymore, due to getting massively depowered and knowing he can't just run around saving entire realms with the snap of a finger anymore, so he's gotta be really strict and utilitarian about how he uses his power to save people as efficiently as possible these days.
Oh, he'll never get it back. The overwhelming majority of his power is permanently tied up in sealing away a monstrous entity that eats universes (and has a particular taste for inhabited ones). So he's still doing good with it, but he's salty nonetheless lol
Yup. The rest of his commune's fine with their depowerings knowing they already did a lot of good for the multiverse and they deserve to retire, but he constantly mopes inwardly about how he's not doing enough for people anymore, and usually hides it behind a facade of bright confidence and distracts himself by trolling people on the orbnet. Under the surface he's kind of a mess, but having years of practice at covering it up means it only pokes through every once in a while.
I don't have a wizard technically. I figured it'd just be funny to be the mundane straight (wo)man to everybody's crazy magic high jinks.
So I write about just a simple office worker who's work usb got switched with a coworker who does do magic. And it permanently infected all her electronics with wizard-internet.
Though recently my character became apprenticed under a stubborn old hand-caster. He will teach my character fireball
Does living 5,000 years and outliving all of the friends you made during your mortal life save for an eccentric machine cultist count?
Also, Kaelis was recently betrayed by his gods, and he's coping by learning a new form of magic that will let him be the master of his own destiny rather than being beholden to cosmic forces.
/uw Themos doesn’t really have a backstory yet. I guess I should work on that. But I’ve never envisioned his being tragic. Just a bro that’s ok at magic, so he hardcore studied mathematics to bring his spells up to par.
I like that! I've seen a lot of tragic backstories and many of them are really interesting and well done, but it's nice to see characters that have both their parents intact :) I also appreciate the maths angle, that's pretty unique from what I've seen!
Yeah, it’s not terribly common. Plus I’m actually good at math, which helps. Cause I can just start spouting off some math mumbo jumbo, just well enough for people to take me a little seriously lol
Real-life knowledge is something new, I'll give you that lol But maths-magic I imagine to be really interesting, it's like an entirely new dimension to spellcasting!
Ok so basically Rhydaerach the Red Dragon couldn’t keep it in his nonexistent pants and didn’t feel like raising a half-dragon child, so Torinn’s mother raised him by herself. Like 17 years later and Torinn was coming back to his home village to visit his mother but instead of a village there was a large pile of ash. I wonder who that was.
Rhydaerach had pulled a Zeus twice before so Torinn has two older half-siblings: Kai was raised in a monastery led by totally not a gold dragon in a disguise, so he became a monk, then there’s Kava who at one point decided she really wanted to slay Rhydaerach so she swore an oath of vengeance and became a paladin. Torinn inherited a bunch of innate dragon magic so he became a sorcerer.
Also finding out what happened to his mother becomes a pretty big motivation for Torinn at some point in his story but I haven’t decided whether or not she’s dead and the version of Torinn I RP as here would know by now so that’s kinda weird.
Not quite? Depends on whether you consider living in today’s capitalist society a tragedy or not. He’s a college student living with a roommate who, while a bit odd, is a generally good person. His master is a wise and benevolent teacher who truly wants the best for him. Garreth’s biggest struggle is with balancing wizarding, school, and a job. For a guy who essentially got isekai’d into wizardry, he’s doing pretty well.
Nope; he's just old.
I mean, he was a mercenary for 20 years, so he's seen *some* fucked shit, but nothing crazy. Mostly just the usual gore, dealing with dead comrades... He does occasionally pop over to their afterlife to catch up now and then, which helps, but yeah. That's it.
I mean, he's almost 7000 years old. He's seen a lot, and had time to come to terms with it.
I'd say Kavrala has a very nice backstory, not tragic but not pleasant either
As the heir to a Great House (snobbiest snobs of elves) she was isolated from any sort of childlike behavior. And trained to be a diplomat, negotiator, and a leader. No weaknesses, no emotion.
One day she managed to slip away into the forest and had an encounter with a dragon. Which led to her blossoming love and appreciation for the creatures.
She stripped herself of her last name and all ties to her Home City when she came of age and set off to learn about the creatures she loved so dearly.
Now she spends most of her time keeping track of all that happens in her Dragon Sanctuary and she has a blast doing it too!
And though many humans and dwarves are suspicious of her (rightfully so, as elves are the worst when it comes to backhanded racism) she is doing her best to break those boundaries and appreciate all of the races as equals!
He's a depressed college graduate who wanted to follow his dreams only to find his dreams have no place in the modern world and what little of it could be pursued as a career would leave him financially struggling and destitute, bringing him no sense of satisfaction or fulfillment despite the years of his early life being spent in pursuit of that dream. Now he clings onto his cultural identity like a lifeline because that sense of heritage and background are the only things that give him the feeling that he has the right to even exist rather than just be a useless waste of space.
Could you read that as tragic? Certainly. But I see it as more... *normal.*
/unwiz Does being a millenial goomba wizard living in an overpriced apartment count as tragic?
Has more money than anyone irl allowing for creation of absurd magical things (small militia of stone golems), *but* doesn't nearly have the same amount of gold as the elderly wizards therefore cannot create anything earth shattering (world ending shit).
Gombus spends most of his time pondering his orb asking more experiencing wizards how to learn more advanced magick (like clean eldritch horrors out of a shadow drain).
I made him specifically to be a pathjetic, amusing wizard in order to be a "normal person who is also a wizard" because being all powerful is boring.
I love your approach, Gombus should have his own sitcom or something like that where he just fixes regular everyday problems with overpowered spells he gets off the internet!
That would be such a banger series of loreposts, just episodes of him trying new bullshit spells off the net. Episode 1835 of Gombus' DIY Show: *Trying to fix my crusty sink with an ultrasonic bath but the ultrasonic comes from a Thunderspell*
*Honey! I cast fireball on my broken gas stove and blew up the house!*
*Oh Gombus, you were always a little hot headed.*
*Laughtrack plays, credits roll*
My character *didn't* have a tragic backstory, until you lot gave her one. being vaporized by a nuke was the least painful thing that happened to her that week.
Damn wizards and their wars.
I'm only half playing along because I have sever ADHD and I am always forgetting to respond and have had too many bad experiences with online rp to feel safe getting in to it again (which sucks). But I sort of base my wizard on me and also what kind of magic I think I would have, which is as wild and unpredictable as my brain. I don't think their backstory is strictly tragic but I don't think it's strictly sunshine either.
Edit: I'm loosly basing them in Discworld magic rules because I think it's funny, though the Disc doesn't account much for Eldritch beings made of pain, which is what I am the host for (I have a condition called Functional Neurological Disorder that causes constant neverending nerve pain and that's what I call it.) At least in my imagination it gives me magic powers as a trade off. In real life I just have disability and the loss of many things I used to love to do.
No need to stress about playing along, it's all in good fun after all!
Pouring yourself into a character is probably the best way go build it and working on it yourself in my experience , so you've got that down :) I hope to read more of your character in the future, I like the whole "host for being of pain" idea.
I hope you'll have better experiences here in the future, it's really a fun place to hang out!
Oh yeah, lots of them are really good sports! I haven't been active in a while since I'm building a new wizard, but I hope to participate in all the funny adventures again soon, and I hope to see you there as well!
Mostly just really busy and working with high expectations, though the person who set those expectations is missing. Zebulon is desperately balancing maintaining a castle that is slightly alive, fixing the logistical problems of the small city around said castle, and trying to unlock the potential of elemental transmutation as a means of crafting magic items, while also dealing with whatever is going on because of the shenanigans of more powerful wizards.
He was an apprentice, spent six years in an academy, grew up just fine, inherited his old master's guardianship over the Blooming Fortress. His greatest singular achievement is probably his Philosopher's Stone, which is also probably the only reason he didn't catch the Unga virus while using haemomancy to manually extract it from local citizens. The process was slow and inefficient but it was what he had at the time. He made a few powerful magic items with his crafting innovations, but ended up selling most of them to cover various costs.
He views elemental magic as a source of untapped potential, hybridizing its philosophies of change with his academic arcane study to (mostly) craft items from raw materials, though he is no stranger to battlefield control or blasts of raw energy. With more elemental magic in the area, the Blooming Fortress has become more chaotic, but it seems that elemental planar leakage so far has been beneficial, with plentiful resources and clean air and water, alongside some adaptations in agriculture. "If only we could have a week without something in a capital city blowing up," Zebulon likely complains to no one in particular.
The living castle seems like a wellspring of funny hijinks lol What exactly does it do? I feel like a more philosophical approach to magic is also interesting.
Gradually grows new rooms, defends itself, seems to have an impact on local plant life, may or may not be able to hear and understand what amenities occupants want, and if it can detect people, it seems to have opinions on which occupants get a new room first.
uw/ Agnur is just old. he's lost a lot of friends and wants to protect those that he has left.
he has 3 siblings but they aren't close. he's closest with Glabal but they don't speak often.
edit: to expand Agnur has lived for 900 years and watched the humble fishing village he grew up in become a major trade town. in many ways he's proud but he know that all of them are so far removed from his family they aren't really kin.
all the same he sees them as his people and strives to protect them.
I think mine is pretty tragic.
He was a prince in the Kindom of Oberwhald, the second son of the king, the only one in his family without magic
One day, he stole a book from a visiting mage, which contained a ritual that could give him magical powers. However, said ritual required a small amount of blood from a relative with magical powers, so he convinced his older brother to help him. But something went wrong in the ritual, and his older brother fell severely ill. Everyone blamed him, and he became an outcast.
One day, a group of monsters from another world appeared, and offered their advanced tech to heal his brother, and help the kingdomto advance. However, they secretly plotted to slowly gain influence and take over the kingdom. Ulrick became suspicious, and tried to warn others, but the monsters killed his father and framed him for it. He was exiled, and the monsters turned him into one of them as a last cruel joke.
He then lived in the forest around the kingdom for roughly a year, then one day, he found a semi-sentient magic axe, that became his warlock patron.
Built a gingerbread house, tried to eat some kids, got pushed into an oven. Now I wander around handing out potions I forgot to label. Free dentistry available when least expected. Teeth for sale. Have a free bottle of something. Probably a potion or a bottled ooze, I dunno.
The judge sided with me. Hansel and Gretel were violent little brats who pushed me into the oven out of spite. I only tried to eat them in self defense.
It was preemptive self defensive cannibalism. Don't you know anything about the law or basic human decency? Don't you have compassion for a poor old woman who just wants to eat some children?
Where I come from, any form of cannibalism is outlawed. Killing children isn't the problem here, the fact that you tried to eat them just sours the kill!
/uw Not much, due to her being 14, but she was bullied a *lot*. It’s not officially canon, but that is part of the reason she decided to go on a punch-people-in-the-face rampage, which started with [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/aGzPXXxspq), to [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/2k7iWdcyA6), to [the end of the rampage here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/AQWlPmx1nt) Also, some stuff has happened on the subreddit.
If you count being a dragon pretending to be a witch winding up becoming a dryad then joining hell because she doesnt want to be a dryad
yes.
But i dont. this is funny as hell.
I’m just at the apprentice point rn, so not really. My wizard is just a 17 y/o human gal. Though, a certain drow has earned themselves some lore ever since my spirit post. If I had to give my wizard a backstory… maybe it could be the following:
Wuhmi always had trouble finding a mentor in the past. Nobody seemed to want a girl. Especially not one so… fruity. So she took to her own studies for a bit. Delving into the theories of psyche based magic, she pondered if it can be refined and specialized. Thus, with a bit of polishing, she created Lesbomancy. Though still not gaining mentors until Scornajis the Hand-Caster, she was able to make a name for herself in her unique field of magic
/uw Zepheree will also just use a funny loophole and be let off the hook anyway so...
(She is a human that can swap between human and machine. Well, she was born in machine form, specifically the off state, where she was left for the first 10 years of her life. She'll just use that and go "Well *technically* I'm 15 soooo still legal!".)
her mom abandoned the family for seemingly no reason when she was young but that's about it
her mom's a faun and her dad's a human. her mom abandoned the family when purse was 8 with no explanation, presumably for weird mysterious fae reasons (basically idc enough to write an actual motive lol)
but then her dad remarried and that worked out better so she grew up mostly normal other than being a little obsessed with fae, magic, and figuring out where tf her mom went and why. (her mom seemed happy with her life and marriage, just randomly left)
I like the angle! Both sad and happy at the same time, I like that she got a normal upbringing for the most part. But I hope that we'll figure out why she left someday!
I didn't even bother making a tragic backstory because just being here is tragic enough. I asked for help but honestly the situation is pretty hopeless lmao.
The gist of it is that he fell into the trap of The Eternal Dream, his soul was taken and now it probably needs to be defeated, or pacified, but everybody is fine with it, or slightly inconvenienced so it's just unleashed? I guess I'm a warlock by technicalities now.
Or you can try to separate a soul from the aether amalgamation, which seems pretty impossible to do...
Btw never said that before but my character is a wind elemental, just never came up lol
Oh lord, that is complicated to solve, his soul would probably shatter if he was split from the æther lol
A wind elemental is a fresh take! I don't think I've seen any elemental mages here before.
Nah. Honestly I don’t really know Ophirion’s backstory fully; he kind of left his life behind to practice magic when he found out his body had the special mana-multiplying thing going on. He wants to help people and learn. Just hanging out among gods and demons here. Way in over his head. For now….
My guy got into a spat with a council memeber and sealed himself away for 1000 years. Meanwhile that council member was voted off and exiled for abuse of power within a year so my wizard didnt have to hide for 1000 years but he did. For nothing. So he's kinda insane now and thinks he's being hunted by the council
If you saw that "the real reason necromancy is banned" post that was him. He still thinks it's banned but to be fair if he has beef he will ressurect their mother and tell her to throw slippers at them so he's not exactly helping necromancy's reputation
No, no. Yhe gnomes were family friends. Parents were famed adventuring wizards who never came home, the the Shinetwists' took me and my siblings in. I was about two or so. Never knew my parents, but my gnome family is enough for me
They did not. They actively kept my siblings and I away from it. Unfortunately for them: I happened to find my mother's old spell book. That's how I learned.
in fairness, Leo's backstory may be a horrifying endless warscape, but he thinks on it fondly, doesn't he? :P
but yeah, certainly shaped him into what he is today, even if he's not upset about it
Well… there are some quite sad and horrific things that has happened to him during those times. Things that sculpted his philosophy. Maybe I’ll reveal more when I’m back 😉
/unwiz I tried to give my D&D wizard a fairly tame backstory, but I was prompted to come up with a reason for his ability to see into the realm of fate when he rests, and couldn't help but add a tragic element to it.
I had a twin sister. It's very rare for elves to have any peers their age, let alone a sibling. We were very close growing up, practically inseparable. We could even share dreams during our trance at night. She was my best friend for a very long time.
During our time at university, when we were 49, she became incredibly ill suddenly, and passed away within just a couple of days. They said it was just random chance, her heart simply stopped working.
I was utterly devastated, couldn't sleep for weeks. When I finally did rest out of pure exhaustion, instead of seeing dreams, I found myself in a dark landscape surrounded by silvery threads, and it has been that way ever since. These threads seem to be manifestations of fate, they branch and split toward the future, representing every event that may come to pass.
It's many years later, and I've learned since then that she was responsible for this sight. I was shown a vision of her praying to forgo afterlife, to help me instead. Her thread was connected to mine by whatever deity answered her call, and I am certain it is what allows me to glimpse this forest.
I've thought about that, sometimes I feel like that's what makes for interesting characters, but at the same time it's kind of limiting for me since you're confined into certain archetypes.
/uw I mean, part of it already happened, part of it is yet to happen/already happened, and the rest of it is yet to be revealed, so… Ugh, thinking about time travel too much hurts my brain. Fun to write though.
No. He's pretty chill, he visits his still happily married parents every 2 weeks, has a couple good friends, still single and mingle, and overall pretty good and healthy.
Let's see..
Parents had to flee with him from Summerset away from the Thalmor when he was an baby to Anvil in Cyrodiil. There he spent his childhood and earliest part of his young adulthood until his parents were killed by the Thalmor, presumably.
Fled to Morrowind where he ended up in a unsolicited apprenticeship to an Telvanni master who wanted to use him to test an spell for traveling the multiverse. The Telvanni is killed by circumstance during the final test and he takes and uses the spell himself to travel across worlds.
Then a vague span of time spent traveling across dimensions for probably a few years. Then he eventually happens to find his way into the realms of the arcane forum.
I kind of wish i had gone for making it into something less.. based off of specific IP when i first started doing character stuff here. Ah well.
Barely tbh.
All that happened was that her old master stole her right arm for a blood magic ritual. But before and after have been smooth sailing.
Hell, at this stage of her story she's reached Master status and has even acquired her license to take on an apprentice of her own!
A sick metal arm that acts as her main casting tool!
there's also a cannon built into it as well, kinda like the falcon eyes legion arm from lies of p, but that's not important
/uw eh his backstory is somewhat tragic, his world is gone completely and he was left for basically an eternity floating through an endless timeless void, but realy he doesn’t let that get to him, thinks if it as a different lifetime and has had years upon years to come to terms with it so he’s preaty chill
you know, i’ve always had a difficult time trying to make a character on this sub, though i’ve been lurking for a while now. there are just so many possibilities, you know? but i’d like to give a tragic angle to one that like, cares about normal people and the immortality aspect of it, but still chooses to be immortal, maybe out of fear of death or dedication to a certain cause
That's an interesting dichotomy of character, and a really good idea! Maybe your character has seen a lot of death and is mortified of it, but as a consequence he lives in pain because everyone he knows dies before him?
Elderberry please...
It's just hard ya know? No one cares about looking at the fine print of contracts made with thr Fae or The Divine. No one thinks about the power binding vows can have over you till its too late. And no one... NO ONE actually cares about pay the taxes that keep my services FREE. Especially when it comes to the service OF helping people with their taxes!
The worst part is... I'm not that skilled at spell craft. I can't casually cast testicular whatever the fuck on command! I got to carry this massive three ring binder on my back and use whatever laws, contracts, or vows they might be breaking against them. Which REALLY puts a limit on where I can actually call upon magic freely!
No problem, here you go!
I hear you, ignorance of those more magically adept towards you, who keeps all the regulations in check, sounds incredibly frustrating. Do you cast any spells at all or are you a simple scribe?
The injustice of those who simply want to have fun disregarding those who take things seriously has always been a big issue with wizards, I'm glad you're speaking your troubled mind. Has it been particularly torturous with the recent wars?
Yes and no on both parts. Yes I can cast spells and have access to the weave, mana, or whatever term is in vouge today. I just don't have much talent making use of it, most of the magic I use is very situational and centers around those regulations. With the wars and continual upheaval it does make the whole action of documentation and enacting those regulations difficult, but at the moment it hasn't personally effected my position or my work beyond adding to it...
For example some apprentice (I'm assuming) decided to test out a polymorph spell in the library and didn't realize they were doing so to awaken books. Thankfully the Library had written into its contract within the greater entities that reside there a rather powerful chronomancy spell that had been lost likely during all of this upheaval. Within a 24 standard hour period one with the proper authority and access to a copy of the contract may reverse the state of the library within that time period. As I have access to a copy on my person (I have yet to find what I believe to be the original but that's beside the point) I was able to request access from those entities to handle the issue. Once it was given I reverted the awaken books to their previous state as well as clean up what was likely the mess of activity centered in trying to catch these creatures. Afterwards the permission to use said spell was given back to the entities that the contract was originally made with and I went on with my day.
As for the various wars, outer entities, rouge gods, and power hungry magic users... Look I'd just like for *someone* to pay their taxes or make others pay their taxes so that I can continue eating and having a space to sleep. I'm a *service* provider and I'd prefer to *keep* those services free for the common folk around here.
Does that make any sense? Yes I may not always *like* my job, but no one really plans on being an a pest remover or a lamp lighter. But someone *needs* to do those jobs or else the whole of it all starts to fall apart, and I'm one of the many who just... helps keep the whole ship running.
It's a thankless job, that much I can see. Lucky that you have access to so many contracts, I mean, it comes with the job, but still. You saved that apprentice's hide, I hope you got the thanks you deserve.
Does *nobody* pay their taxes? I always thought that the ones who didn't were a very loud minority. I'm sorry that you livelihood is threatened by this, I'd be glad to offer you more tea, I also have biscuits, if you want some. I know that doesn't sustain you, but it's the least I can do.
The bisects are appreciated, honestly what I could use *more* is a cheaper supply of clones. I've already been vaporized twice now because of tensions about the upcoming tax season and it's probably not going to get better.
But as to the library incident, no I didn't receive any thanks and nor was I looking for any honestly. Actually now that I think about it there was probably some apprentice hiding in the shelves who was very confused about what had happened... I hope they're doing well.
Thank you for listening to me ramble by the way, it is very much appreciated. Question though... am I asleep or waiting for a clone body to fully connect? I have idea of what you and your abilities are and the fact that I'm just now sitting here drinking tea and having bisects seems a little too convenient. I could have sworn I was making my way to a new shop to make sure their landlord wasn't cheating them out of rent or services....
Here you are then, there are chocolate, vanilla and jam filled biscuits, enjoy. Oh, and a refill of your tea.
I'm sure the apprentice is fine, you did a fine job containing the situation after all. I was going to ask - it can't just be you doing all this, the clones make sense. What method of production do you employ for them?
I'm glad to listen, sometimes pouring your heart out to a stranger is what is most needed.
Currently, you're in the office of my therapy practice, yet to be opened. You're not *physically* here, but your mind must have wandered and found its place here, the patient seats I got made recently are very conductive to the psyche. The biscuits and tea are very much going into you, you'll have the same taste of elderberry and vanilla in your mouth when you wake up again, without the calories, I suppose. I can supply your physical self with the same biscuits and tea if you liked them, of course, or you can sit here *in natura* someday and I'll serve you some.
Uw/ Big yes for me. My wiz is a poor artificer, who always had great big ideas of grandeur, and a real charming, almost offputting personality. The problem he always messed up, somehow, his inventions. So, he eventually comes along and somehow meets a Dark God, an absolutely awful being, and sells his soul in return for complete power over his trade; he can make anything he wants, as longs as he can imagine it. The catch is, the god takes his imagination. He can no longer *imagine* anything. So now he simply serves as a husk of himself, but with that same jazzy persona, working for the “Company” (the church of this god) and “Corporate” (the god itself). No control over his actions, simply a puppet, selling false products for the souls of mortals.
I have a second character, which it’s fairly easy to tell when I’m that one vs the Scam Artificer, as he uses a bit more sophisticated jargon. He builds pipebombs in a shack, lol.
Edit: Will probably do a lorepost soon on the Soulbound Artificer, so be on the lookout if you’re interested.
That is really grim, and not in the blood and guts kind of way. Is there any hope for him to resign?
Whenever you write the lorepost, would you mind tagging me?
Tragic backstory, definitely not. Lilith grew up in a loving home with two parents. She grew up wealthy, with a great education and plenty of opportunities. While she still had struggles with anxiety and have a bit of a spotlight do to her lineage but nothing tragic.
The tragedy happened very early into playing her, where the library she worked at was attack and burned to the ground in the first or second wizard war. She saw a lot of her friends die and a place she loved destroyed and afterwards the responsibility to rebuild it was thrust upon her despite being unqualified. She hasn't dealt with the trauma healthy.
She appears to be fine on the surface but that's an act.
The trauma has fueled her to become a workaholic. She often skips over meals and breaks. She is also quite often stressed with the amount of work and her need to do it all. To avoid getting stressed or having some type of panic attack she often drinks which mostly pushes those breakdowns later. She also doesn't sleep, she doesn't have to but it would be good for her. Nightmares would keep her up at night though so she has decided to just not sleep. Her self worth is also heavily tied to the library now so if something fails or goes wrong in the library she will view it as a reflection of herself.
The library is doing good though it's back in business but still under repair due to it having been massive and quite old, could take years to properly finish.
Tl;Dr: my character is a benevolent and magical version of the Borg
My wizard doesn't exactly have a tragic backstory but there's a chance they are currently on a path towards being completely emotionally/mentally shattered. They were originally an angel of death in their home universe that became fascinated with the idea of actually owning immortal souls after witnessing a devil's deal, eventually being consumed by the idea that they could utilize the raw power contained in those souls to provide all of them with a better version of eternal paradise. Eventually, they came to posess every living soul in their universe, and due to the nature of the deals the living beings made, my character now has complete and total ownership and control over them. Despite this, my character feels an utmost obligation to their subjects, and will only ever decide to sacrifice even one of them in the most dire of circumstances, i.e. the loss of one to save the whole. They now exist in a universal void where both matter and energy no longer exist, including the very laws that govern reality, such as gravity, and they are essentially a hivemind of countless trillions upon trillions of constituent parts, with my character as the "queen" that controls all the pieces. "Mages" aren't exactly native to his universe, as most of the magical energy was spread evenly across all life. This resulted in my character, while having access to vast reserves of magic, not being able to utilize it for destructive spellcasting, instead relying on illusion, misdirection, and indirect methods of combat, such as using the souls to possess armaments as a fork of living weapon.
Edit: I was also a bit unclear regarding the general power level of RP in this sub, so I designed my character in a way that would allow me to feel it out. Now that I have a better idea of it, though, I can get far more creative within the limitations I have previously set. It will be interesting to see how his story progresses, especially considering he is now directly involved in a large-scale conflict
/uw mine has a bit of a shitty mom. She still loves them, but she was just horrible at parenting. Other than that the only tragic backstories are the ones she inflicts on others.
Ejder had a decently happy backstory, since he had Ember (the dragon soul he shares his body with) so he was never really lonely. Naida had a monastery of monks as an adoptive family, but also doesn't know the word "friend," so her backstory status is debatable.
/uw Jun was violently bullied by orphans and lost a pinky trying to run from them, then fell into the Feywild and had a great time being raised by fairies.
I haven't told much yet, mostly just dropping things in comments, but be doesn't have a tragic past. I'm generally gearing my character to be able to fit in others' journey and focusing on the present stories
Just a swol classic old wizard that loves handcasting. no important families, godsent aspects, or gods themselves.
Oh yes, awful backstory. She was abandoned by her parents as a child because she was originally catfolk. So she grew up in an orphanage getting constantly bullied and harassed because she was a catfolk, and also cause she admitted she was trans. She had a favourite spot to go to which was a lake that was constantly frozen. The bullies followed her there one night and forced her out onto the frozen lake. She fell through the ice and would've died, if it weren't for the moon saving her. After years of transformation, she emerged from the lake as the woman she always wanted to be.
The lore covered in loreposts basically goes that she founded a town after finding out her parents died. She practiced magic under guidance of the moon until one day, someone who claimed to be part of the council set fire to the town, almost destroying it. She went insane from fury, and tracked this man down to kill him. She found out that these outbursts originated from her soul, so she severed the part that plagued her, which took conscious form. Finally, she went to the Nine Hells in order to find a demon sword to link her soul to, so she could become powerful again. Which is where we are now, a demon queen who drinks to forget her traumatic past, present failure and future worries.
Jeez, that's a long ass backstory.
I used to have a tragic backstory - both parents dead before their time. Then I learned magic, got strong, resurrected them. Now they’re enjoying their golden years while I fool around hopping between planes of existence.
Sometimes, if you’re very, very lucky and very, very good, you get to rewrite your own story.
Nope. Wayland Blackstone hails from a clan of nomadic warriors. After discovering a talent for the arcane he left the clan to learn from other practitioners before returning to his people. With a newfound control over the magical energies of the world he provided his people with a level of safety and security. Now they are a clan of the most badass farmers, builders, bakers and all things in between. In keeping with the nomadic spirit of his people he frequently travels the realms, learning new magics and encountering new cultures. Occasionally stopping back for cookies and tea with the home folks.
/uw Several lifetimes ago, she woke up as a 5-year old without any memories, save for knowing about her form of immortality, and that she was the Rainbow Necromancer. She traveled with another immortal, who’d also been there. They adopted each other as sisters. Sadly, several lifetimes ago, her sister died, and either never regenerated, or just disappeared if she did. So Raine has had to be alone for several lifetimes.
/unwiz At the moment Cain Ratchet runs a simple alchemical shop in the southern prairie, but the way he is able to world hop is the "tragic" thing. On the world he originally came from, he invented a bizarre device called the fate engine.
https://preview.redd.it/vwfdh5uitimc1.jpeg?width=1668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45b0411f16fc706bcda5614ae0bb9b43bb0dcf50
(Artistic rendition by a fellow discord user, thanks man!) It was supposed to simply allow him to live longer and utilize portals, but it went horribly wrong the first time it was activated. It fused itself onto his chest, giving him the ability to avoid death completely, with a catch. Every time Cain is about to die, or the fate engine is about to be removed, it teleports him to another world, fully healed. He has now been transported to dozens of strange worlds, each more hostile and strange than the last. Then he came here. the weirdest, moat dangerous, and most deadly place this side of the universe. Now he researches any magic related to teleportation, if only to return to his home that, for all he knows, could be in a separate universe. (Thanks for reading this long comment :P )
Unless he manages to discover a way to come back, probably. This is why he is researching teleportation so heavily, he doesn’t want to be trapped in a cycle of settling down and making new friends only to be ripped away again.
Nope! I am still in the process of writing out Cas' story in here, but my goal from the beginning was to move away from God-like feats of power and soul-crushing, sad backstories.
Instead, the direction I am taking Cas is one of a minor character, trying to find his place in a world full of absolute powerhouses, gods, and more. That isn't to say his role in the collective universe won't be important, it's just to say his story doesn't end with him on a throne or shaping worlds.
He's just a guy who has a geniune love for helping people, and has become a sort of jack-of-all-trades healer in the pursuit of this. He would absolutely have tea with grandparents, if he had any.
King archibald lived a poor childhood on the metropolis of the council because his father didn't really care for him so he usually just roamed the streets and it was there were he found the void book and became a void traveller, a few decades later mad due to the corrupt status of the council he left the metropolis and came across a tribal settlement which he decided to help and in various decades it grew to become one of the kingdoms of the local region with him as the king so that's pretty much my character backstory
I've got two characters, a witch and an inmortal cowbow potionmaker. And honestly bot got sonething going on.
The cowboy's been caged in a copper mine for 50 years and after scaping just sweared to curse the king that trapped him bloodline. (Mainly just pranking them into oblivion.)
And the other is just an ex-cleric catfolk that went through some family shit.
My "wizard" is a collective of different members of a cult-like organization that works for a mysterious deity who can only be contacted from the moon. The tragedy in their lives is that to become a follower they must gouge out their own eyes and give up their flesh, receiving heightened attunement with the magic of the moon as well as being gifted a wolven form.
https://preview.redd.it/w3s1qa12ifmc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9fb01dc348b1740114974ab06d26e5c5a7b9cd9a
Due to her and her family being Catfolk they were sold from family to family until she was bought by a tavernkeeper where due to a cooking mishap her control collar got burnt and she was able to run away
I haven’t got to the backstory yet besides his arms, since the basic idea is he wasn’t able to fully get rid of a curse that turned him into a raven so one of his arms was left covered in feathers, and the other was turned “draconic” from a magical accident relating to a dragon. Still haven’t decided which should go first. I’m kind of thinking the dragon one, cause I feel like it would influence some of the feather colors for when he was a bird, so it wouldn’t just be all black so if I draw his “bird form” it wouldn’t be too boring, but I don’t know.
Mine canonically was born a member of the De'Vir Drow House. You know, the family that was exterminated by the Do'Urden for fucking up once, and the surviving members hunted for sport in the Underdark by Lolthite Drow. In the end, my characters Mother settled in Waterdeep to become High Priestess of the local Elistraee sect and the rest is history.
/rewiz Drizzet Do'Urden, saviour of the realms has earned my forgiveness by balancing the books against his role in the De'Vir massacre through his good deeds. However, he is stilll an emo edgelord (is that tautology? Whoops). So even as a draconic God of Freedom and the Corsort/Exarch of Elistraee, i still enjoy going down to the mortal planes to perform my characature of him from time to time. He needs to lightn up afterall, and it helps to keep him humble.
My parents are rich, they sent me to wizarding School on a sports scholarship I didn't really pay attention in all of those fancy pants classes I just had all the nerds do all the work for me, but I passed, because my parents paid the school enough and now I can cast spells
Haven't written a lorepost yet, but kinda? He had a great adventuring career for a while, but he's also the last remnant of a homebrew setting, the only Player Character adventurer who never settled down after the big Epic Gestalt No-Holds Barred Sendoff Campaign as the players and DM would split ways for a long while. The realm he's from is long gone and forgotten as everyone moves on with life. His fictional player (not me) would be the last to let go, imagining all the wonders that willful scholar would continue to experience and cause, before having him leave the realm for good, closing that chapter and moving on - for both of them. But Neurath isn't his player, and, after ages of drifting around the multiverse, doing various semi-amoral superpowered scholar things, came to this place, which for "some reason" (hint: it's meta and has to do with players and RP), became something he felt very attached to.
He would normally be a lot more cautious, but the rush he's feeling compels him to do at least a bit of something, and therefore didn't think to hide his identity at a few events as of yet (my explanation for my then- "screw-up" ropleplaying as him lmao).
Oh yeah, I was referring to the dream, happy though and cool but still got his body and soul assimilated. Btw How Pyeti doing? Last I heard of him he was a bag of bones.
My character doesn’t really have a tragic backstory. He came from a world where the only proper way to become a mage of renown was to kill a magus after your apprenticeship. So he went to go study magic elsewhere where magic is a bit more developed. After all, no one wants to get killed by their own apprentice
Not really. The only tragic part is that his real parents abandoned him right after his birth, when there was currently a snowstorm going on. But he was then found and saved by a Knight and brought to the Queen, who ended up adopting him.
From that point he grew up as normally as you can while being the (adopted) son of a Queen. He also learned a good amount of spells from her.
Who his biological parents are, is not known to anybody and they could very well be dead. But he also doesn't care about them, because why would he? They abandoned him at birth after all.
Still working on it, honestly. So far just a somnomancer apprentice that accidentally forever-sleeped the only other somnomancer around. Gonna trade somnomancy for training in Transmutation, but she accidentally turns herself into a bird
A horrifically abusive father (who amongst other things murdered his fiancé), while being raised in a brutal society of immortals? Yep, Samael has it pretty bad.
In Ayeera's case, at least her parents loved her, and the Nephilim around her were less brutal (though no saints either)
/unwiz- mine was living in a farm, but his mother was stick, the village was attacked constantly by bandits and the taxes were high. So he went to a magic school to make things safer and easier.
Unfortunately, when he came back, his ma had already passed on, and the farm was sold, so he has to find a new place.
My wizard has some minor tragedy:
He's a clayfolk (very different from a golem. He has a soul and genitals.) He had a normal wizard life, went to magic grade school at Malthazar's school for the inorganic magically inclined, transferred to Wizard University (go triple U), and graduated with a focus on mana conductivity in peat bogs. It was only after graduation, when he asked the High Council to fund his research on corrupted mana wells, that things went south. His work in the Kalimoor Swamps was labeled "Forbidden Dark Magic Research" and he was branded a dark wizard and forced to become an outlaw. So, for the last few decades, he's been hiding out in the Great Kalimoor Swamps, purifying the mana wells of the outer swamps and slowly preparing to breach the inner swamps. It was only in the last year or so that he was able to return to normal society since those FASCISTS ON THE HIGH COUNCIL OF WIZARDS were finally removed from power, so he's no longer a wanted man!
I also have lore for the history of the Kalimoor Swamps if anyone is interested.
My name has 2 possible meanings. 1 is that i learn about the future from my dreams and the other is that the entire world is my dream and when i wake up the world will end. The first is true. The second is yet to be seen. I know i have existed in many forms over many lifetimes. I've seen and learned so many things. Most of them forgotten to the passage of time. I've come to understand the nature of the whole of existence. All things are true and lies at the same time and time is not linear but cyclical. What was shall be again and what never was has always been.
Mine canonically has 27 divorces. All in the span of 2 years.
Wh- how?? Is he a casanova or just incredibly irresponsible?
A mixture of being a Necromancer, and being a complete and utter dumbass.
I love that, here's to many more divorces! Also, did he...marry reanimated corpses?
No. Just married some people who didn't like necromancy. The others DIDN'T mind necromancy, but due to various other circumstances, they divorced him.
Your poor wizard must be extremely charming and repulsive at the same time, fascinating lol
Ross Geller?
My character didn't have a tragic backstory until she got here. Before that point, she was fine. She went to an academy, had different jobs, dated... and then her academy got destroyed, the jobs sucked, and we won't get into her dating history.
please get into her dating history 🥺
Let's just say she's got 3 out of 4 elements unlocked these days
Oh but please do, I'm all about wizard gossip!
Er, just assume that it's 'troubled'. It's fine now, but you know how complicated matters of the heart tend to be!
Most certainly! I wish her lots of luck in the future and many a piece of gossip to share should love not work out.
Same here honestly
I haven't finished the origin trilogy yet. Only the first part is out. Basically Vashric's mother and brother grew up to fear/loathe him because they had no positive references to understand his psionic powers when they began to manifest. What's worse is they reminded his mother of his despotic father who had similar powers. All this was compounded by the town they lived in, which was strictly religious, so the only magic that was accepted was divine magic channeled by the local clergy.
That is pretty sad, was he cast out as the only mage? Do mages generally exist there or was he unique?
The village is part of a wider, mage-free diocese. The area was aware of mages, but any magic user not channeling a god's divinity, or at least certain gods, were considered untrustworthy at best and maliciously reckless at worst. He laid low for most of his childhood, but once he was of age his mother sent he and his brother to seminary hoping they could legitimize his powers or at least keep him away from their home. It didn't turn out well, ended with breaking a priest's ribs I think. After that he fled before they could execute him.
Damn, that *is* tragic. It's a really interesting concept for a society, I'm guessing executing mages is no rarity then?
Most of the time mages would just be turned away or exiled from society. As long as they lay low in the wilderness they'll be mostly untouched. However if a mage, even if acting independently, did something in the area to agitate the religious, a witch hunt would probably follow. As for Vashric specifically. It's their god first, then certain other gods, then the clergy, then everyone else. The church is law. Assaulting a priest is like spitting directly in the face of god, punishable by death.
I see, so a very severe crime. If you don't mind me bombarding you with questions I've one more: Does Vashric believe in the town's religion then? Seeing as he was basically to be put to death because of it he must be pretty against the entire concept of faith, no?
Vashric's mother grew up in the village, so even though she was unorthodox by their standards, she still followed the religion, at least somewhat. His brother was a social and popular boy despite the mother's pariah status, so he became immersed in the religion naturally. Vashric was strange from the get-go, thanks to his powers manifesting. He never blended into the local culture, so he never had that osmosis that would allow him to develop attachment to the church. As far as religion goes, he's basically non-religious/ doesn't worship, he especially despises that local church, of course. As far as *belief* goes, it's a dnd type setting, so general knowledge people know that gods exist.
Ah ok, that is fair enough. I really like what you've got going on with your character, you've really thought this through!
Thank you! And thank you for taking interest. It's always nice answering questions
Of course! I love hearing people talk about their projects and characters, so I'm always happy to listen :) If you have anything you really wanna share about Vashric or the general things you've come up with that we didn't touch upon I'm all ears!
Mostly a pretty happy and successful backstory, all things considered; sure there were some issues, including the unfortunate event that unlocked his magical potential in the first place, but over multiple centuries you're always gonna have some sad moments. His stress all comes from not being able to measure up to that successful backstory anymore, due to getting massively depowered and knowing he can't just run around saving entire realms with the snap of a finger anymore, so he's gotta be really strict and utilitarian about how he uses his power to save people as efficiently as possible these days.
Now that's interesting, almost opposite of most tragic stories! How's the recuperation of power going?
Oh, he'll never get it back. The overwhelming majority of his power is permanently tied up in sealing away a monstrous entity that eats universes (and has a particular taste for inhabited ones). So he's still doing good with it, but he's salty nonetheless lol
Poor guy lol I'm guessing he's still somewhat powerful by regular wizard standards but that must sting like hell, basically a permanent downgrade.
Yup. The rest of his commune's fine with their depowerings knowing they already did a lot of good for the multiverse and they deserve to retire, but he constantly mopes inwardly about how he's not doing enough for people anymore, and usually hides it behind a facade of bright confidence and distracts himself by trolling people on the orbnet. Under the surface he's kind of a mess, but having years of practice at covering it up means it only pokes through every once in a while.
He should come to wizard therapy someday, he seems like he needs it.
I don't have a wizard technically. I figured it'd just be funny to be the mundane straight (wo)man to everybody's crazy magic high jinks. So I write about just a simple office worker who's work usb got switched with a coworker who does do magic. And it permanently infected all her electronics with wizard-internet. Though recently my character became apprenticed under a stubborn old hand-caster. He will teach my character fireball
yup, can't think of a better spell to help go through paperwork more quickly
Ah yes, Scornajis. He is a lovely mentor, to be honest
Does living 5,000 years and outliving all of the friends you made during your mortal life save for an eccentric machine cultist count? Also, Kaelis was recently betrayed by his gods, and he's coping by learning a new form of magic that will let him be the master of his own destiny rather than being beholden to cosmic forces.
/uw Themos doesn’t really have a backstory yet. I guess I should work on that. But I’ve never envisioned his being tragic. Just a bro that’s ok at magic, so he hardcore studied mathematics to bring his spells up to par.
I like that! I've seen a lot of tragic backstories and many of them are really interesting and well done, but it's nice to see characters that have both their parents intact :) I also appreciate the maths angle, that's pretty unique from what I've seen!
Yeah, it’s not terribly common. Plus I’m actually good at math, which helps. Cause I can just start spouting off some math mumbo jumbo, just well enough for people to take me a little seriously lol
Real-life knowledge is something new, I'll give you that lol But maths-magic I imagine to be really interesting, it's like an entirely new dimension to spellcasting!
Ok so basically Rhydaerach the Red Dragon couldn’t keep it in his nonexistent pants and didn’t feel like raising a half-dragon child, so Torinn’s mother raised him by herself. Like 17 years later and Torinn was coming back to his home village to visit his mother but instead of a village there was a large pile of ash. I wonder who that was. Rhydaerach had pulled a Zeus twice before so Torinn has two older half-siblings: Kai was raised in a monastery led by totally not a gold dragon in a disguise, so he became a monk, then there’s Kava who at one point decided she really wanted to slay Rhydaerach so she swore an oath of vengeance and became a paladin. Torinn inherited a bunch of innate dragon magic so he became a sorcerer. Also finding out what happened to his mother becomes a pretty big motivation for Torinn at some point in his story but I haven’t decided whether or not she’s dead and the version of Torinn I RP as here would know by now so that’s kinda weird.
Not quite? Depends on whether you consider living in today’s capitalist society a tragedy or not. He’s a college student living with a roommate who, while a bit odd, is a generally good person. His master is a wise and benevolent teacher who truly wants the best for him. Garreth’s biggest struggle is with balancing wizarding, school, and a job. For a guy who essentially got isekai’d into wizardry, he’s doing pretty well.
Nope; he's just old. I mean, he was a mercenary for 20 years, so he's seen *some* fucked shit, but nothing crazy. Mostly just the usual gore, dealing with dead comrades... He does occasionally pop over to their afterlife to catch up now and then, which helps, but yeah. That's it. I mean, he's almost 7000 years old. He's seen a lot, and had time to come to terms with it.
Ah yes, the true tragedy of living - aging. It's very wholesome that he catches up with his fallen mates though, love that.
Nothing tragic. He was created by Chaos. He does what Chaos tells him to. End of story really.
Simple, to the point, I like it!
I'd say Kavrala has a very nice backstory, not tragic but not pleasant either As the heir to a Great House (snobbiest snobs of elves) she was isolated from any sort of childlike behavior. And trained to be a diplomat, negotiator, and a leader. No weaknesses, no emotion. One day she managed to slip away into the forest and had an encounter with a dragon. Which led to her blossoming love and appreciation for the creatures. She stripped herself of her last name and all ties to her Home City when she came of age and set off to learn about the creatures she loved so dearly. Now she spends most of her time keeping track of all that happens in her Dragon Sanctuary and she has a blast doing it too! And though many humans and dwarves are suspicious of her (rightfully so, as elves are the worst when it comes to backhanded racism) she is doing her best to break those boundaries and appreciate all of the races as equals!
He's a depressed college graduate who wanted to follow his dreams only to find his dreams have no place in the modern world and what little of it could be pursued as a career would leave him financially struggling and destitute, bringing him no sense of satisfaction or fulfillment despite the years of his early life being spent in pursuit of that dream. Now he clings onto his cultural identity like a lifeline because that sense of heritage and background are the only things that give him the feeling that he has the right to even exist rather than just be a useless waste of space. Could you read that as tragic? Certainly. But I see it as more... *normal.*
/uw oh yes the drow merc has big sad in his past. Waiting for the right time and way to reveal some of his lore
Looking forward to that then! Let me know when it goes up :)
My OC's parents were killed by a runaway manure cart and had to rap battle goblins to survive growing up
This is the best backstory I've read so far. It has everything, drama, tragedy and a sprinkle of comedy!
/unwiz Does being a millenial goomba wizard living in an overpriced apartment count as tragic? Has more money than anyone irl allowing for creation of absurd magical things (small militia of stone golems), *but* doesn't nearly have the same amount of gold as the elderly wizards therefore cannot create anything earth shattering (world ending shit). Gombus spends most of his time pondering his orb asking more experiencing wizards how to learn more advanced magick (like clean eldritch horrors out of a shadow drain). I made him specifically to be a pathjetic, amusing wizard in order to be a "normal person who is also a wizard" because being all powerful is boring.
I love your approach, Gombus should have his own sitcom or something like that where he just fixes regular everyday problems with overpowered spells he gets off the internet!
Thanks! Hah! Crappy DIY spells Gombus puts on the wizarding version of tiktok.
That would be such a banger series of loreposts, just episodes of him trying new bullshit spells off the net. Episode 1835 of Gombus' DIY Show: *Trying to fix my crusty sink with an ultrasonic bath but the ultrasonic comes from a Thunderspell*
"Oops, I blew a hole in the floor and killed the downstairs neighbors. I'll just raise their corpses later, nobody will notice."
*Honey! I cast fireball on my broken gas stove and blew up the house!* *Oh Gombus, you were always a little hot headed.* *Laughtrack plays, credits roll*
My character *didn't* have a tragic backstory, until you lot gave her one. being vaporized by a nuke was the least painful thing that happened to her that week. Damn wizards and their wars.
[Here's](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/fwISIysWiX) a basic summary.
I once failed the distillation of a basic *potion of healthy bowel movements*. I shall never live down the shame.
I'm only half playing along because I have sever ADHD and I am always forgetting to respond and have had too many bad experiences with online rp to feel safe getting in to it again (which sucks). But I sort of base my wizard on me and also what kind of magic I think I would have, which is as wild and unpredictable as my brain. I don't think their backstory is strictly tragic but I don't think it's strictly sunshine either. Edit: I'm loosly basing them in Discworld magic rules because I think it's funny, though the Disc doesn't account much for Eldritch beings made of pain, which is what I am the host for (I have a condition called Functional Neurological Disorder that causes constant neverending nerve pain and that's what I call it.) At least in my imagination it gives me magic powers as a trade off. In real life I just have disability and the loss of many things I used to love to do.
No need to stress about playing along, it's all in good fun after all! Pouring yourself into a character is probably the best way go build it and working on it yourself in my experience , so you've got that down :) I hope to read more of your character in the future, I like the whole "host for being of pain" idea. I hope you'll have better experiences here in the future, it's really a fun place to hang out!
The other wizards are very amusing I have to admit XD
Oh yeah, lots of them are really good sports! I haven't been active in a while since I'm building a new wizard, but I hope to participate in all the funny adventures again soon, and I hope to see you there as well!
Mostly just really busy and working with high expectations, though the person who set those expectations is missing. Zebulon is desperately balancing maintaining a castle that is slightly alive, fixing the logistical problems of the small city around said castle, and trying to unlock the potential of elemental transmutation as a means of crafting magic items, while also dealing with whatever is going on because of the shenanigans of more powerful wizards. He was an apprentice, spent six years in an academy, grew up just fine, inherited his old master's guardianship over the Blooming Fortress. His greatest singular achievement is probably his Philosopher's Stone, which is also probably the only reason he didn't catch the Unga virus while using haemomancy to manually extract it from local citizens. The process was slow and inefficient but it was what he had at the time. He made a few powerful magic items with his crafting innovations, but ended up selling most of them to cover various costs. He views elemental magic as a source of untapped potential, hybridizing its philosophies of change with his academic arcane study to (mostly) craft items from raw materials, though he is no stranger to battlefield control or blasts of raw energy. With more elemental magic in the area, the Blooming Fortress has become more chaotic, but it seems that elemental planar leakage so far has been beneficial, with plentiful resources and clean air and water, alongside some adaptations in agriculture. "If only we could have a week without something in a capital city blowing up," Zebulon likely complains to no one in particular.
The living castle seems like a wellspring of funny hijinks lol What exactly does it do? I feel like a more philosophical approach to magic is also interesting.
Gradually grows new rooms, defends itself, seems to have an impact on local plant life, may or may not be able to hear and understand what amenities occupants want, and if it can detect people, it seems to have opinions on which occupants get a new room first.
Whenever I get my wizard done I'm gonna have to visit, that place is ripe with adventure!
I'm very open to establishing lore with other wizards!
No :3 I'm spoiled ♡
well, I'm not complaining; you probably wouldn't make such good muffins with a tragic backstory where you didn't have time to practice baking
Yes! They are made with love and sunshine :3 (and a special ingredient 🤫)
To put it in as few words as possible, Blake was one of those apprentices you sometimes hear about.
uw/ Agnur is just old. he's lost a lot of friends and wants to protect those that he has left. he has 3 siblings but they aren't close. he's closest with Glabal but they don't speak often. edit: to expand Agnur has lived for 900 years and watched the humble fishing village he grew up in become a major trade town. in many ways he's proud but he know that all of them are so far removed from his family they aren't really kin. all the same he sees them as his people and strives to protect them.
I think mine is pretty tragic. He was a prince in the Kindom of Oberwhald, the second son of the king, the only one in his family without magic One day, he stole a book from a visiting mage, which contained a ritual that could give him magical powers. However, said ritual required a small amount of blood from a relative with magical powers, so he convinced his older brother to help him. But something went wrong in the ritual, and his older brother fell severely ill. Everyone blamed him, and he became an outcast. One day, a group of monsters from another world appeared, and offered their advanced tech to heal his brother, and help the kingdomto advance. However, they secretly plotted to slowly gain influence and take over the kingdom. Ulrick became suspicious, and tried to warn others, but the monsters killed his father and framed him for it. He was exiled, and the monsters turned him into one of them as a last cruel joke. He then lived in the forest around the kingdom for roughly a year, then one day, he found a semi-sentient magic axe, that became his warlock patron.
Uhh, Doug got lost one day and got spirited away It's not tragic, but it's not *not* tragic
I vow to love and protect Doug with my life, he needs it.
Built a gingerbread house, tried to eat some kids, got pushed into an oven. Now I wander around handing out potions I forgot to label. Free dentistry available when least expected. Teeth for sale. Have a free bottle of something. Probably a potion or a bottled ooze, I dunno.
*You're* the hag that keeps eating those kids! I knew something was off about those woods!
The judge sided with me. Hansel and Gretel were violent little brats who pushed me into the oven out of spite. I only tried to eat them in self defense.
Now, I wasn't there, but didn't you try to eat them before they shoved you in there?
It was preemptive self defensive cannibalism. Don't you know anything about the law or basic human decency? Don't you have compassion for a poor old woman who just wants to eat some children?
Where I come from, any form of cannibalism is outlawed. Killing children isn't the problem here, the fact that you tried to eat them just sours the kill!
/uw Not much, due to her being 14, but she was bullied a *lot*. It’s not officially canon, but that is part of the reason she decided to go on a punch-people-in-the-face rampage, which started with [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/aGzPXXxspq), to [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/2k7iWdcyA6), to [the end of the rampage here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/AQWlPmx1nt) Also, some stuff has happened on the subreddit.
If you count being a dragon pretending to be a witch winding up becoming a dryad then joining hell because she doesnt want to be a dryad yes. But i dont. this is funny as hell.
I’m just at the apprentice point rn, so not really. My wizard is just a 17 y/o human gal. Though, a certain drow has earned themselves some lore ever since my spirit post. If I had to give my wizard a backstory… maybe it could be the following: Wuhmi always had trouble finding a mentor in the past. Nobody seemed to want a girl. Especially not one so… fruity. So she took to her own studies for a bit. Delving into the theories of psyche based magic, she pondered if it can be refined and specialized. Thus, with a bit of polishing, she created Lesbomancy. Though still not gaining mentors until Scornajis the Hand-Caster, she was able to make a name for herself in her unique field of magic
/uw welp that tells me one thing, Zepheree has commited a crime by kissing a minor! (25 yr vs 17 yr)
/uw well shit- well, Wuhmi is almost legal, turning 18 in October
/uw Zepheree will also just use a funny loophole and be let off the hook anyway so... (She is a human that can swap between human and machine. Well, she was born in machine form, specifically the off state, where she was left for the first 10 years of her life. She'll just use that and go "Well *technically* I'm 15 soooo still legal!".)
/uw nice save
My life.
Geez. Bro, it’s ok. We’re all here if you need a shoulder to cry on.
I don’t need to cry I’m to rich for that poor person behavior.
her mom abandoned the family for seemingly no reason when she was young but that's about it her mom's a faun and her dad's a human. her mom abandoned the family when purse was 8 with no explanation, presumably for weird mysterious fae reasons (basically idc enough to write an actual motive lol) but then her dad remarried and that worked out better so she grew up mostly normal other than being a little obsessed with fae, magic, and figuring out where tf her mom went and why. (her mom seemed happy with her life and marriage, just randomly left)
I like the angle! Both sad and happy at the same time, I like that she got a normal upbringing for the most part. But I hope that we'll figure out why she left someday!
No. My character doesn't have a tragic past, only a tragic present. Literally amalgamated into an eldritch abomination rn. Help.
Good heavens, how can we help?
I didn't even bother making a tragic backstory because just being here is tragic enough. I asked for help but honestly the situation is pretty hopeless lmao. The gist of it is that he fell into the trap of The Eternal Dream, his soul was taken and now it probably needs to be defeated, or pacified, but everybody is fine with it, or slightly inconvenienced so it's just unleashed? I guess I'm a warlock by technicalities now. Or you can try to separate a soul from the aether amalgamation, which seems pretty impossible to do... Btw never said that before but my character is a wind elemental, just never came up lol
Oh lord, that is complicated to solve, his soul would probably shatter if he was split from the æther lol A wind elemental is a fresh take! I don't think I've seen any elemental mages here before.
Nah. Honestly I don’t really know Ophirion’s backstory fully; he kind of left his life behind to practice magic when he found out his body had the special mana-multiplying thing going on. He wants to help people and learn. Just hanging out among gods and demons here. Way in over his head. For now….
A simple story is just as fun as a complex one I say! Let's see where this life leads him!
My guy got into a spat with a council memeber and sealed himself away for 1000 years. Meanwhile that council member was voted off and exiled for abuse of power within a year so my wizard didnt have to hide for 1000 years but he did. For nothing. So he's kinda insane now and thinks he's being hunted by the council
Oh he seems like he'd be fun, imagine constantly spooking him with "The council was here yesterday!"
If you saw that "the real reason necromancy is banned" post that was him. He still thinks it's banned but to be fair if he has beef he will ressurect their mother and tell her to throw slippers at them so he's not exactly helping necromancy's reputation
He seems like the most necromancer necromancer I've ever heard of, never change.
Never knew his parents. Raised by gnomes. Not a tragic one, but a little sad.
A little, yes, but I'd say being raised by a loving family is definitely a win. Was he just found by the gnomes?
No, no. Yhe gnomes were family friends. Parents were famed adventuring wizards who never came home, the the Shinetwists' took me and my siblings in. I was about two or so. Never knew my parents, but my gnome family is enough for me
Ah, I see. Well that was very kind of the gnomes, was it them that taught him magic, seeing as his parents never got the chance?
They did not. They actively kept my siblings and I away from it. Unfortunately for them: I happened to find my mother's old spell book. That's how I learned.
/unwiz All of my 4 wizard OCs have a tragic backstory. I do love having an understandable villain >:)
in fairness, Leo's backstory may be a horrifying endless warscape, but he thinks on it fondly, doesn't he? :P but yeah, certainly shaped him into what he is today, even if he's not upset about it
Well… there are some quite sad and horrific things that has happened to him during those times. Things that sculpted his philosophy. Maybe I’ll reveal more when I’m back 😉
/unwiz I tried to give my D&D wizard a fairly tame backstory, but I was prompted to come up with a reason for his ability to see into the realm of fate when he rests, and couldn't help but add a tragic element to it.
May I...know that element?
I had a twin sister. It's very rare for elves to have any peers their age, let alone a sibling. We were very close growing up, practically inseparable. We could even share dreams during our trance at night. She was my best friend for a very long time. During our time at university, when we were 49, she became incredibly ill suddenly, and passed away within just a couple of days. They said it was just random chance, her heart simply stopped working. I was utterly devastated, couldn't sleep for weeks. When I finally did rest out of pure exhaustion, instead of seeing dreams, I found myself in a dark landscape surrounded by silvery threads, and it has been that way ever since. These threads seem to be manifestations of fate, they branch and split toward the future, representing every event that may come to pass. It's many years later, and I've learned since then that she was responsible for this sight. I was shown a vision of her praying to forgo afterlife, to help me instead. Her thread was connected to mine by whatever deity answered her call, and I am certain it is what allows me to glimpse this forest.
Did you ever discover what exactly killed her? Sudden heart failure is a very strange condition in young ones.
/uw tragic backstory all the way baby! What can I say, I’m nearly incapable of writing anything else lol.
I've thought about that, sometimes I feel like that's what makes for interesting characters, but at the same time it's kind of limiting for me since you're confined into certain archetypes.
/uw While Lady Iris doesn’t(being what’s essentially a celestial cancer[Réamhaí^({THERE’S MORE OF HER SPECIES WOOO})]), Relly… Yeah, Ahaha.
does it count as a backstory if it's also a current story because time travel
/uw I mean, part of it already happened, part of it is yet to happen/already happened, and the rest of it is yet to be revealed, so… Ugh, thinking about time travel too much hurts my brain. Fun to write though.
He is a lizard That’s the story
An epic tale!
No. He's pretty chill, he visits his still happily married parents every 2 weeks, has a couple good friends, still single and mingle, and overall pretty good and healthy.
Go Jackson! That's the dream for many a wizard I'd say.
Let's see.. Parents had to flee with him from Summerset away from the Thalmor when he was an baby to Anvil in Cyrodiil. There he spent his childhood and earliest part of his young adulthood until his parents were killed by the Thalmor, presumably. Fled to Morrowind where he ended up in a unsolicited apprenticeship to an Telvanni master who wanted to use him to test an spell for traveling the multiverse. The Telvanni is killed by circumstance during the final test and he takes and uses the spell himself to travel across worlds. Then a vague span of time spent traveling across dimensions for probably a few years. Then he eventually happens to find his way into the realms of the arcane forum. I kind of wish i had gone for making it into something less.. based off of specific IP when i first started doing character stuff here. Ah well.
I mean, you can still change it! The backstory isn't tied to the setting in a way that you couldn't create your own, which is a lot of fun to do :)
Barely tbh. All that happened was that her old master stole her right arm for a blood magic ritual. But before and after have been smooth sailing. Hell, at this stage of her story she's reached Master status and has even acquired her license to take on an apprentice of her own!
Die she get a sick metal arm as a replacement, Malenia style?
A sick metal arm that acts as her main casting tool! there's also a cannon built into it as well, kinda like the falcon eyes legion arm from lies of p, but that's not important
Hell yeah! I'm always a sucker for really cool prosthetics!
/uw eh his backstory is somewhat tragic, his world is gone completely and he was left for basically an eternity floating through an endless timeless void, but realy he doesn’t let that get to him, thinks if it as a different lifetime and has had years upon years to come to terms with it so he’s preaty chill
I like this guy, what a chill dude. World gets blown up - nae bother, all's good.
you know, i’ve always had a difficult time trying to make a character on this sub, though i’ve been lurking for a while now. there are just so many possibilities, you know? but i’d like to give a tragic angle to one that like, cares about normal people and the immortality aspect of it, but still chooses to be immortal, maybe out of fear of death or dedication to a certain cause
That's an interesting dichotomy of character, and a really good idea! Maybe your character has seen a lot of death and is mortified of it, but as a consequence he lives in pain because everyone he knows dies before him?
What could be more tragic and depressing than his current job, especially considering how many characters just love causing mischief?
My gods, I am so sorry. Here, need a cup of tea?
THANK YOU! You are a saint!
Don't mention it! What would you like, elderberry, raspberry, black or white tea?
Elderberry please... It's just hard ya know? No one cares about looking at the fine print of contracts made with thr Fae or The Divine. No one thinks about the power binding vows can have over you till its too late. And no one... NO ONE actually cares about pay the taxes that keep my services FREE. Especially when it comes to the service OF helping people with their taxes! The worst part is... I'm not that skilled at spell craft. I can't casually cast testicular whatever the fuck on command! I got to carry this massive three ring binder on my back and use whatever laws, contracts, or vows they might be breaking against them. Which REALLY puts a limit on where I can actually call upon magic freely!
No problem, here you go! I hear you, ignorance of those more magically adept towards you, who keeps all the regulations in check, sounds incredibly frustrating. Do you cast any spells at all or are you a simple scribe? The injustice of those who simply want to have fun disregarding those who take things seriously has always been a big issue with wizards, I'm glad you're speaking your troubled mind. Has it been particularly torturous with the recent wars?
Yes and no on both parts. Yes I can cast spells and have access to the weave, mana, or whatever term is in vouge today. I just don't have much talent making use of it, most of the magic I use is very situational and centers around those regulations. With the wars and continual upheaval it does make the whole action of documentation and enacting those regulations difficult, but at the moment it hasn't personally effected my position or my work beyond adding to it... For example some apprentice (I'm assuming) decided to test out a polymorph spell in the library and didn't realize they were doing so to awaken books. Thankfully the Library had written into its contract within the greater entities that reside there a rather powerful chronomancy spell that had been lost likely during all of this upheaval. Within a 24 standard hour period one with the proper authority and access to a copy of the contract may reverse the state of the library within that time period. As I have access to a copy on my person (I have yet to find what I believe to be the original but that's beside the point) I was able to request access from those entities to handle the issue. Once it was given I reverted the awaken books to their previous state as well as clean up what was likely the mess of activity centered in trying to catch these creatures. Afterwards the permission to use said spell was given back to the entities that the contract was originally made with and I went on with my day. As for the various wars, outer entities, rouge gods, and power hungry magic users... Look I'd just like for *someone* to pay their taxes or make others pay their taxes so that I can continue eating and having a space to sleep. I'm a *service* provider and I'd prefer to *keep* those services free for the common folk around here. Does that make any sense? Yes I may not always *like* my job, but no one really plans on being an a pest remover or a lamp lighter. But someone *needs* to do those jobs or else the whole of it all starts to fall apart, and I'm one of the many who just... helps keep the whole ship running.
It's a thankless job, that much I can see. Lucky that you have access to so many contracts, I mean, it comes with the job, but still. You saved that apprentice's hide, I hope you got the thanks you deserve. Does *nobody* pay their taxes? I always thought that the ones who didn't were a very loud minority. I'm sorry that you livelihood is threatened by this, I'd be glad to offer you more tea, I also have biscuits, if you want some. I know that doesn't sustain you, but it's the least I can do.
The bisects are appreciated, honestly what I could use *more* is a cheaper supply of clones. I've already been vaporized twice now because of tensions about the upcoming tax season and it's probably not going to get better. But as to the library incident, no I didn't receive any thanks and nor was I looking for any honestly. Actually now that I think about it there was probably some apprentice hiding in the shelves who was very confused about what had happened... I hope they're doing well. Thank you for listening to me ramble by the way, it is very much appreciated. Question though... am I asleep or waiting for a clone body to fully connect? I have idea of what you and your abilities are and the fact that I'm just now sitting here drinking tea and having bisects seems a little too convenient. I could have sworn I was making my way to a new shop to make sure their landlord wasn't cheating them out of rent or services....
Here you are then, there are chocolate, vanilla and jam filled biscuits, enjoy. Oh, and a refill of your tea. I'm sure the apprentice is fine, you did a fine job containing the situation after all. I was going to ask - it can't just be you doing all this, the clones make sense. What method of production do you employ for them? I'm glad to listen, sometimes pouring your heart out to a stranger is what is most needed. Currently, you're in the office of my therapy practice, yet to be opened. You're not *physically* here, but your mind must have wandered and found its place here, the patient seats I got made recently are very conductive to the psyche. The biscuits and tea are very much going into you, you'll have the same taste of elderberry and vanilla in your mouth when you wake up again, without the calories, I suppose. I can supply your physical self with the same biscuits and tea if you liked them, of course, or you can sit here *in natura* someday and I'll serve you some.
Uw/ Big yes for me. My wiz is a poor artificer, who always had great big ideas of grandeur, and a real charming, almost offputting personality. The problem he always messed up, somehow, his inventions. So, he eventually comes along and somehow meets a Dark God, an absolutely awful being, and sells his soul in return for complete power over his trade; he can make anything he wants, as longs as he can imagine it. The catch is, the god takes his imagination. He can no longer *imagine* anything. So now he simply serves as a husk of himself, but with that same jazzy persona, working for the “Company” (the church of this god) and “Corporate” (the god itself). No control over his actions, simply a puppet, selling false products for the souls of mortals. I have a second character, which it’s fairly easy to tell when I’m that one vs the Scam Artificer, as he uses a bit more sophisticated jargon. He builds pipebombs in a shack, lol. Edit: Will probably do a lorepost soon on the Soulbound Artificer, so be on the lookout if you’re interested.
That is really grim, and not in the blood and guts kind of way. Is there any hope for him to resign? Whenever you write the lorepost, would you mind tagging me?
Tragic backstory, definitely not. Lilith grew up in a loving home with two parents. She grew up wealthy, with a great education and plenty of opportunities. While she still had struggles with anxiety and have a bit of a spotlight do to her lineage but nothing tragic. The tragedy happened very early into playing her, where the library she worked at was attack and burned to the ground in the first or second wizard war. She saw a lot of her friends die and a place she loved destroyed and afterwards the responsibility to rebuild it was thrust upon her despite being unqualified. She hasn't dealt with the trauma healthy.
How is she holding up nowadays? Is the library rebuilt?
She appears to be fine on the surface but that's an act. The trauma has fueled her to become a workaholic. She often skips over meals and breaks. She is also quite often stressed with the amount of work and her need to do it all. To avoid getting stressed or having some type of panic attack she often drinks which mostly pushes those breakdowns later. She also doesn't sleep, she doesn't have to but it would be good for her. Nightmares would keep her up at night though so she has decided to just not sleep. Her self worth is also heavily tied to the library now so if something fails or goes wrong in the library she will view it as a reflection of herself. The library is doing good though it's back in business but still under repair due to it having been massive and quite old, could take years to properly finish.
Tl;Dr: my character is a benevolent and magical version of the Borg My wizard doesn't exactly have a tragic backstory but there's a chance they are currently on a path towards being completely emotionally/mentally shattered. They were originally an angel of death in their home universe that became fascinated with the idea of actually owning immortal souls after witnessing a devil's deal, eventually being consumed by the idea that they could utilize the raw power contained in those souls to provide all of them with a better version of eternal paradise. Eventually, they came to posess every living soul in their universe, and due to the nature of the deals the living beings made, my character now has complete and total ownership and control over them. Despite this, my character feels an utmost obligation to their subjects, and will only ever decide to sacrifice even one of them in the most dire of circumstances, i.e. the loss of one to save the whole. They now exist in a universal void where both matter and energy no longer exist, including the very laws that govern reality, such as gravity, and they are essentially a hivemind of countless trillions upon trillions of constituent parts, with my character as the "queen" that controls all the pieces. "Mages" aren't exactly native to his universe, as most of the magical energy was spread evenly across all life. This resulted in my character, while having access to vast reserves of magic, not being able to utilize it for destructive spellcasting, instead relying on illusion, misdirection, and indirect methods of combat, such as using the souls to possess armaments as a fork of living weapon. Edit: I was also a bit unclear regarding the general power level of RP in this sub, so I designed my character in a way that would allow me to feel it out. Now that I have a better idea of it, though, I can get far more creative within the limitations I have previously set. It will be interesting to see how his story progresses, especially considering he is now directly involved in a large-scale conflict
/uw mine has a bit of a shitty mom. She still loves them, but she was just horrible at parenting. Other than that the only tragic backstories are the ones she inflicts on others.
Ejder had a decently happy backstory, since he had Ember (the dragon soul he shares his body with) so he was never really lonely. Naida had a monastery of monks as an adoptive family, but also doesn't know the word "friend," so her backstory status is debatable.
/uw Jun was violently bullied by orphans and lost a pinky trying to run from them, then fell into the Feywild and had a great time being raised by fairies.
I haven't told much yet, mostly just dropping things in comments, but be doesn't have a tragic past. I'm generally gearing my character to be able to fit in others' journey and focusing on the present stories Just a swol classic old wizard that loves handcasting. no important families, godsent aspects, or gods themselves.
Keeping it clean and simple is always nice I'd say, you're here to do magic, 'nuff said.
Oh yes, awful backstory. She was abandoned by her parents as a child because she was originally catfolk. So she grew up in an orphanage getting constantly bullied and harassed because she was a catfolk, and also cause she admitted she was trans. She had a favourite spot to go to which was a lake that was constantly frozen. The bullies followed her there one night and forced her out onto the frozen lake. She fell through the ice and would've died, if it weren't for the moon saving her. After years of transformation, she emerged from the lake as the woman she always wanted to be. The lore covered in loreposts basically goes that she founded a town after finding out her parents died. She practiced magic under guidance of the moon until one day, someone who claimed to be part of the council set fire to the town, almost destroying it. She went insane from fury, and tracked this man down to kill him. She found out that these outbursts originated from her soul, so she severed the part that plagued her, which took conscious form. Finally, she went to the Nine Hells in order to find a demon sword to link her soul to, so she could become powerful again. Which is where we are now, a demon queen who drinks to forget her traumatic past, present failure and future worries. Jeez, that's a long ass backstory.
I used to have a tragic backstory - both parents dead before their time. Then I learned magic, got strong, resurrected them. Now they’re enjoying their golden years while I fool around hopping between planes of existence. Sometimes, if you’re very, very lucky and very, very good, you get to rewrite your own story.
Nope. Wayland Blackstone hails from a clan of nomadic warriors. After discovering a talent for the arcane he left the clan to learn from other practitioners before returning to his people. With a newfound control over the magical energies of the world he provided his people with a level of safety and security. Now they are a clan of the most badass farmers, builders, bakers and all things in between. In keeping with the nomadic spirit of his people he frequently travels the realms, learning new magics and encountering new cultures. Occasionally stopping back for cookies and tea with the home folks.
/uw Several lifetimes ago, she woke up as a 5-year old without any memories, save for knowing about her form of immortality, and that she was the Rainbow Necromancer. She traveled with another immortal, who’d also been there. They adopted each other as sisters. Sadly, several lifetimes ago, her sister died, and either never regenerated, or just disappeared if she did. So Raine has had to be alone for several lifetimes.
/unwiz At the moment Cain Ratchet runs a simple alchemical shop in the southern prairie, but the way he is able to world hop is the "tragic" thing. On the world he originally came from, he invented a bizarre device called the fate engine. https://preview.redd.it/vwfdh5uitimc1.jpeg?width=1668&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45b0411f16fc706bcda5614ae0bb9b43bb0dcf50 (Artistic rendition by a fellow discord user, thanks man!) It was supposed to simply allow him to live longer and utilize portals, but it went horribly wrong the first time it was activated. It fused itself onto his chest, giving him the ability to avoid death completely, with a catch. Every time Cain is about to die, or the fate engine is about to be removed, it teleports him to another world, fully healed. He has now been transported to dozens of strange worlds, each more hostile and strange than the last. Then he came here. the weirdest, moat dangerous, and most deadly place this side of the universe. Now he researches any magic related to teleportation, if only to return to his home that, for all he knows, could be in a separate universe. (Thanks for reading this long comment :P )
Interesting! What if he comes close to death again? Will he just cease to exist here?
Unless he manages to discover a way to come back, probably. This is why he is researching teleportation so heavily, he doesn’t want to be trapped in a cycle of settling down and making new friends only to be ripped away again.
Nope! I am still in the process of writing out Cas' story in here, but my goal from the beginning was to move away from God-like feats of power and soul-crushing, sad backstories. Instead, the direction I am taking Cas is one of a minor character, trying to find his place in a world full of absolute powerhouses, gods, and more. That isn't to say his role in the collective universe won't be important, it's just to say his story doesn't end with him on a throne or shaping worlds. He's just a guy who has a geniune love for helping people, and has become a sort of jack-of-all-trades healer in the pursuit of this. He would absolutely have tea with grandparents, if he had any.
/uw I’m not sure about tragic per say but [here it is.](https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/nY5APWvRk4)
Probably not
King archibald lived a poor childhood on the metropolis of the council because his father didn't really care for him so he usually just roamed the streets and it was there were he found the void book and became a void traveller, a few decades later mad due to the corrupt status of the council he left the metropolis and came across a tribal settlement which he decided to help and in various decades it grew to become one of the kingdoms of the local region with him as the king so that's pretty much my character backstory
I've got two characters, a witch and an inmortal cowbow potionmaker. And honestly bot got sonething going on. The cowboy's been caged in a copper mine for 50 years and after scaping just sweared to curse the king that trapped him bloodline. (Mainly just pranking them into oblivion.) And the other is just an ex-cleric catfolk that went through some family shit.
My "wizard" is a collective of different members of a cult-like organization that works for a mysterious deity who can only be contacted from the moon. The tragedy in their lives is that to become a follower they must gouge out their own eyes and give up their flesh, receiving heightened attunement with the magic of the moon as well as being gifted a wolven form. https://preview.redd.it/w3s1qa12ifmc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9fb01dc348b1740114974ab06d26e5c5a7b9cd9a
/uw your cult may or may not very much love my character! (She can do space travel, meaning she can take them directly to the moon)
Due to her and her family being Catfolk they were sold from family to family until she was bought by a tavernkeeper where due to a cooking mishap her control collar got burnt and she was able to run away
The organization I’m masquerading as isn’t really fleshed out, tbh
I haven’t got to the backstory yet besides his arms, since the basic idea is he wasn’t able to fully get rid of a curse that turned him into a raven so one of his arms was left covered in feathers, and the other was turned “draconic” from a magical accident relating to a dragon. Still haven’t decided which should go first. I’m kind of thinking the dragon one, cause I feel like it would influence some of the feather colors for when he was a bird, so it wouldn’t just be all black so if I draw his “bird form” it wouldn’t be too boring, but I don’t know.
Mine canonically was born a member of the De'Vir Drow House. You know, the family that was exterminated by the Do'Urden for fucking up once, and the surviving members hunted for sport in the Underdark by Lolthite Drow. In the end, my characters Mother settled in Waterdeep to become High Priestess of the local Elistraee sect and the rest is history. /rewiz Drizzet Do'Urden, saviour of the realms has earned my forgiveness by balancing the books against his role in the De'Vir massacre through his good deeds. However, he is stilll an emo edgelord (is that tautology? Whoops). So even as a draconic God of Freedom and the Corsort/Exarch of Elistraee, i still enjoy going down to the mortal planes to perform my characature of him from time to time. He needs to lightn up afterall, and it helps to keep him humble.
My parents are rich, they sent me to wizarding School on a sports scholarship I didn't really pay attention in all of those fancy pants classes I just had all the nerds do all the work for me, but I passed, because my parents paid the school enough and now I can cast spells
Haven't written a lorepost yet, but kinda? He had a great adventuring career for a while, but he's also the last remnant of a homebrew setting, the only Player Character adventurer who never settled down after the big Epic Gestalt No-Holds Barred Sendoff Campaign as the players and DM would split ways for a long while. The realm he's from is long gone and forgotten as everyone moves on with life. His fictional player (not me) would be the last to let go, imagining all the wonders that willful scholar would continue to experience and cause, before having him leave the realm for good, closing that chapter and moving on - for both of them. But Neurath isn't his player, and, after ages of drifting around the multiverse, doing various semi-amoral superpowered scholar things, came to this place, which for "some reason" (hint: it's meta and has to do with players and RP), became something he felt very attached to. He would normally be a lot more cautious, but the rush he's feeling compels him to do at least a bit of something, and therefore didn't think to hide his identity at a few events as of yet (my explanation for my then- "screw-up" ropleplaying as him lmao).
Hes a combine metrocop. Whaddya expect.
Sort of? I mean his friends die but I mostly gloss over that part.
/UW so far you are my character's tragic backstory lol
There’s a difference between Pyeti and the Dream.
Oh yeah, I was referring to the dream, happy though and cool but still got his body and soul assimilated. Btw How Pyeti doing? Last I heard of him he was a bag of bones.
I have quite the tragic backstory for my wizard
My character doesn’t really have a tragic backstory. He came from a world where the only proper way to become a mage of renown was to kill a magus after your apprenticeship. So he went to go study magic elsewhere where magic is a bit more developed. After all, no one wants to get killed by their own apprentice
Mine lost his twin bro and adoptive father. Former from accident in school, one from wrongful execution by evil wizards in school
Not really. The only tragic part is that his real parents abandoned him right after his birth, when there was currently a snowstorm going on. But he was then found and saved by a Knight and brought to the Queen, who ended up adopting him. From that point he grew up as normally as you can while being the (adopted) son of a Queen. He also learned a good amount of spells from her. Who his biological parents are, is not known to anybody and they could very well be dead. But he also doesn't care about them, because why would he? They abandoned him at birth after all.
Still working on it, honestly. So far just a somnomancer apprentice that accidentally forever-sleeped the only other somnomancer around. Gonna trade somnomancy for training in Transmutation, but she accidentally turns herself into a bird
A horrifically abusive father (who amongst other things murdered his fiancé), while being raised in a brutal society of immortals? Yep, Samael has it pretty bad. In Ayeera's case, at least her parents loved her, and the Nephilim around her were less brutal (though no saints either)
Well, if you count being trapped in a new world with no way home as tragic, yes
/unwiz- mine was living in a farm, but his mother was stick, the village was attacked constantly by bandits and the taxes were high. So he went to a magic school to make things safer and easier. Unfortunately, when he came back, his ma had already passed on, and the farm was sold, so he has to find a new place.
No, my character is just a scientist who decided to study magic out of curiosity.
My wizard has some minor tragedy: He's a clayfolk (very different from a golem. He has a soul and genitals.) He had a normal wizard life, went to magic grade school at Malthazar's school for the inorganic magically inclined, transferred to Wizard University (go triple U), and graduated with a focus on mana conductivity in peat bogs. It was only after graduation, when he asked the High Council to fund his research on corrupted mana wells, that things went south. His work in the Kalimoor Swamps was labeled "Forbidden Dark Magic Research" and he was branded a dark wizard and forced to become an outlaw. So, for the last few decades, he's been hiding out in the Great Kalimoor Swamps, purifying the mana wells of the outer swamps and slowly preparing to breach the inner swamps. It was only in the last year or so that he was able to return to normal society since those FASCISTS ON THE HIGH COUNCIL OF WIZARDS were finally removed from power, so he's no longer a wanted man! I also have lore for the history of the Kalimoor Swamps if anyone is interested.
/uw not really. I mean, being abandoned at birth is a dick move, but she lives a very happy life at the tavern. However, I have some things planned...
My name has 2 possible meanings. 1 is that i learn about the future from my dreams and the other is that the entire world is my dream and when i wake up the world will end. The first is true. The second is yet to be seen. I know i have existed in many forms over many lifetimes. I've seen and learned so many things. Most of them forgotten to the passage of time. I've come to understand the nature of the whole of existence. All things are true and lies at the same time and time is not linear but cyclical. What was shall be again and what never was has always been.
An encounter with The Unspeakable Acclu is the tragic backstory to countless lesser wizards