Sample Characters
Here are some sample character ideas to help spur some ideas for you to generate your own player character. Feel free to borrow liberally from these ideas or disregard them entirely in favor of other parts of the setting that interest you.
Sample characters
Human Martial Artist:
Before the elves came, I was barely subsisting as a farmer. The rich, learned, and powerful never did anything for me. So why should I trust a bunch of weird creatures who aren't even from this world? I stayed behind, knowing I'd survived without anyone's help before and could do so again, which is more certainty than I had about whatever awaited me aboard those elven ships.
When magic started seeping out of the rocks and stones, it made it a lot easier to do what I've always done: grow enough food to feed myself. When the wolves in the woods stood up on two legs and started trying to eat my neighbor, I tied a sawblade to a stout pole and figured I'd give them a taste of their own medicine. Word spread about me, and pretty soon people were clamoring to have me stand up and act as some kind of hero. Well, I'm not going to let the few friends I have left get eaten or sacrificed by cultists or whatnot, am I? But I don't especially fancy trying to do that alone, so I'm going to head to one of these gatherings of warriors I've been hearing about.
Goblin Interventionist:
I grew up in a searing coastal desert where few humans ever visited. We could only live there because as goblins we could adapt our bodies to handle the intense heat and drink from the ocean instead of fresh water. We were isolated, but wealthy, with all the riches of the desert to share among the few of us who could live there. We built glittering pearl towers and wore delicate embroidered gowns.
But our isolation meant the elves treated us as an afterthought in their efforts to bring everyone to the stars. A bored elf swung by once, visibly irritated by the heat, made a perfunctory offer to leave this planet and experience a paradise among the stars, and left before most of us could even make up our minds. I regret not taking the elves up on their offer, because after they left and magic came to this world, our beautiful towers by the sea were overrun by demons.
My family fled, and we spent months working our way down the coast towards somewhere better protected. Along the way, I sought power any way I could, with painful trial and error showing me that the same power that created the demons could heed my call. I rent my beautiful gown and tied runic knots in its tatters, fueling my magic with the ruination of my past.
We've finally made it somewhere safer than our old home, or at least safer from demons. I'm still not sure I can trust these people, some of the first I've ever met outside my own clan. But if this area's my new home, I'll work together with anyone who sincerely wants to keep it safe.
Elf Moonbow:
When we came to bring the locals of this planet to the stars, I watched my closest friend casually murder one of those locals. In was "for the greater good," my friend said afterwards. "That grandpa was going to browbeat his whole family into staying behind. Six people would live and die on this dirtball just to appease one old guy who couldn't have had all that long left to live. I killed him, and the rest of them listened to me when I told to get on the ships. Now they're going to live a million times longer and a billion times better. It's simple math."
It broke my heart. There was no point in arguing with my friend, but I couldn't stand to spend another minute together. Were we elves this cruel as a people? Or was it just my friend? Either way, what did that say about me, who had been proud to be an elf and treasured that friend? I had to get off the elfships immediately, and there was only one place to go. I've faced danger and deprivation on this "dirtball" that I could never have imagined before, but at least I've never felt that "simple math" required me to end an innocent life.
But my heart never left the stars, not really. I spent years staring up at the starry sky, wishing I could return there. As I soothed my regrets one night by reminding myself that my decision was the right one, the night itself spoke back to me. My child, you were born in the cosmos and you have never left. All living beings are starfarers, and all are noble accordingly. Let none be trod upon, let none exalt themselves above others. I knew then a power unlike anything else in my long life. I serve the night's justice, protecting all people from would-be aggrandizers and tyrants. Whenever heroes gather, I am there.
Character Ideas
I stayed behind on this planet:
Because I didn't trust the elves
Because I loved my home and didn't want to leave
By accident
Because I wanted to live in an empty world
To stay together with someone else
Because someone else forced me to stay
I can hold my own in a fight:
Because I used to be a warrior
Because I've had to learn in order to survive after the elves left
Because I've been gifted power
Because I've trained with someone special
Because of my goblin adaptations, I am:
Graceful and refined
Slimy and warty
Furry, horned, or otherwise beastlike
Stout and tough
Amphibious
Tolerant of heat or cold
Photosynthetic
I used to sail through the stars on the elfships, but left because:
I was enchanted by the simplicity of life on this planet
I had moral objections to the life of the elves
I fell in love with someone or something here
I was tricked or forced to by an enemy
I was bored of endless life in endless luxury
My culture:
Had kings, nobility, and all the trappings of medieval Europe
Were united by our religion
Traded and travelled all over
Were at war, which suddenly stopped when the elf ships landed
Were a minority within some bigger nation
Were isolated and lived peacefully but knew little of the rest of the world
My devotee powers come from a connection to a Living Will who:
Demands I fight for the defenseless
Demands that I labor to feed the hungry
Demands that I spread its wisdom and pronounce its glory
Resides in a sacred tree and demands that I defend its glade against despoliation
Speaks to me in the thunder of storms, the gurgle of streams, or the crash of waves
Torments me with its demands
My adept powers brush up against the apocalypse, which:
Gives me nightmares that unleash magical accidents in the waking world
Mutated my body, giving me a strange appearance
Requires strange medicines to control and even stranger ones to unleash when I really need it
Is held back by my meditative practices and strict taboos