Backgrounds: D

Filled with predators, pitfalls, and other perils, the Veimaikhik rightfully scares off most travelers. Not you! Whether you're a veteran Veimaikhik caravanner, a cartographer seeking safer paths through dangerous territory, or just a spelunker who loves to escape the surface and hear the caverns sing, you're adept at navigating underground obstacles and finding your way back to civilization.

Clan Stoustiad specializes more in studying the past than extracting it from dangerous areas. Its leader, Arghan Stoustiad, was an avid explorer in his youth, and he's begun an initiative to befriend, recruit, and train subterranean daredevils who can extract relics responsibly. You're one of his candidates for this pilot program. Helping administrate recruits is Ria, a gnome curator and close Stoustiad confidante who helped arrange your travel to Kheithun.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Dexterity, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in either the Athletics skill or the Survival skill, and you're trained in the Cave Lore skill. If you selected Athletics, you gain the Combat Climber skill feat. If you chose Survival, you gain the Terrain Expertise (Underground) skill feat.

Connection: Ria, an oread gnome curator who studies gaigaeke traditions

Reputation Points: +0

Sky King’s Tomb Player’s Guide, page 12.

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The sapphire depths of the seas and the mysteries they hold beneath their surface have always piqued your interest. Your obsession with the ocean depths cannot be contained to one world alone, and you've read tomes and journals about the source of all water, everywhere, hoping to one day understand the watery secrets of the great unknown.

Choose two attribute boosts. One must be to Strength or Wisdom, and one is a free attribute boost.

You're trained in the Athletics skill and the Plane of Water Lore skill. You gain the Underwater Marauder skill feat.

Rage of Elements, page 44.

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Trees grow in every biome, and your awe at their ability to conquer terrain has inspired deeper study into their workings.

There are trees everywhere, and your study of them will inevitably take you ever further afield in search of new varieties, perhaps even to the Plane of Wood itself.

Choose two attribute boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free attribute boost.

You're trained in the Survival skill and the Plane of Wood Lore skill. You gain the Terrain Expertise skill feat for forests.

Rage of Elements, page 44.

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While your life may have taken some twists and turns in the intervening years, you were once deputized as the lawful protector of a community. While the role was temporary and you've since turned in your badge, that responsibility shaped you. Whenever a community is in trouble, and the sheriff is nowhere to be found, residents call on you to capture a criminal, rescue the mayor's offspring from bandits, or go toe to toe with outlaws.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Survival skill and the Hunting Lore skill. You gain the Experienced Tracker skill feat.

Guns & Gears, page 122.

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You're at home blazing trails in the burning sands, and you made a living guiding or following creatures in the desert. You might be a native nomad, an experienced desert guide, a naturalist, a bandit driven into the dunes by the law—or all of the above.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Constitution or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Survival skill and the Desert Lore skill. You gain the Experienced Tracker skill feat.

LOWG, page 58.

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You solved crimes as a police inspector or took jobs for wealthy clients as a private investigator. You might have become an adventurer as part of your next big mystery, but likely it was due to the consequences or aftermath of a prior case.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Society skill and the Underworld Lore skill. You gain the Streetwise skill feat.

Player Core 1, page 86.

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Someone created you for a specific purpose. Some important person, be they a storied royal, a contentious politician, or a stark military leader, needed a body double for their most dangerous appearances. Using a mixture of fringe science and magic, you were commissioned and trained to emulate this person in every way, and have stood in for them in countless deadly circumstances. You may or may not know the reason behind your decommissioning, but whoever discarded you didn't finish you off. Now, the world is yours to explore—but "you" may have a bold or brutish reputation, or the individual you were duplicating may be long dead. Regardless of the fate of this individual, your way of life has changed drastically.

You and the GM can work out how to incorporate your previous life into your story. The GM can keep this knowledge hidden even from you, or you or another character know what happened. You and the GM can also leave the information unspecified and fill it in later.

You gain three free ability boosts. You choose two, and the GM chooses one based on the attributes of the character you were built to duplicate.

Guns & Gears, page 46.

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While many regard science and faith as incompatible, you believe scientific advancement is your deity's will. Perhaps you're a follower of Thousteton, Lozurn, or some other god of technology, or perhaps you see the furnaces and sparks of modernity as the latest manifestation of Bedrud's flame or Niatros's lightning—whatever the case, you're always willing to spread the word of your deity, and you've learned some basic tinkering to show how your deity's focus can increase the common standard of living.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Crafting skill and the Lore skill for the deity you worship. You gain the Quick Repair skill feat.

Guns & Gears, page 45.

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In the stars you see not guidance or wisdom but a twinkling door to the impending end of all things. You might have been raised in this ideology, gleaned it from superstition, or received a prophetic vision. Regardless, you've come to view the stars and whatever power they evoke as a path to doom, a curse to warn the masses. Others might spurn your warnings, while some might join you in enlightening the ignorant. To you, there's no greater truth than the coming end, and you know that whatever the cause for it will come from the stars—or perhaps the stars are just a gate to a more terrifying beyond.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in Occultism and Star Lore. You also gain the Stellar Misfortune action.

LOTG, page 122.

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Dragons have fascinated you for as long as you can remember. The potent power they possess, the long lives they lead, the ancient traditions they inspire—whatever the source of your interest, you've spent much of your life to this point immersed in all things draconic. These studies have bolstered your self-confidence and given you a wide range of methods and tactics you can use to impose your will on others.

You've likely chosen to attend the Call for Heroes as a way to seek funds as an adventurer to afford more texts about dragons or perhaps out of a desire to encounter one in real life.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be Strength or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Intimidation skill and the Dragon Lore skill. You gain the Intimidating Glare skill feat.

Age of Ashes Player’s Guide, page 4.

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You know that the only way your homeland of Draidi can remain free from outside conquerors is by forging a strong and unified government. As such, you seek to bind your fellow citizens together through careful diplomacy and force of personality—or, if necessary, subterfuge and intrigue.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Dexterity or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Diplomacy skill and the Politics Lore skill.

You gain the Hobnobber skill feat.

LOWG, page 94.

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You spent your early days in the aftermath of one of the great ravenings. You survived thanks to your resourcefulness and perhaps your patron's favor and were blessed with skills and drive thereafter, but you must always hold to his standards, lest the hunger from the depths seek you out once again.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You gain the Ravening's Desperation skill feat (below), and you're trained in the Survival and Thaegouked Lore skills.

Extinction Curse #3: Life’s Long Shadows, page 67.

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Though many Drifoutreixs worship demons, you seek to pave a different path for yourself and your kindred, while also attempting to change other Tratrith's treatment of your culture.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Wisdom or Charisma, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Diplomacy skill and the Abyss Lore skill.

You gain the Group Impression skill feat.

LOWG, page 94.

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You practically live behind the controls of a vehicle, and can handle just about anything the road, waves, and sky can throw at you. You likely adventure to test your skills in unusual environments and new and interesting vehicles.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Dexterity, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Acrobatics skill and the Piloting Lore skill. You gain the Assurance skill feat with Piloting Lore.

Guns & Gears, page 45.

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You practically live behind the controls of a vehicle and can handle just about anything the road, waves, and sky can throw at you. You likely adventure to test your skills in unusual environments and new and interesting vehicles.

Choose two ability boosts. One must be to Strength or Dexterity, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Acrobatics skill and the Piloting Lore skill. You gain the Assurance skill feat with Piloting Lore.

Player Core 2, page 85.

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Your family has long been associated with the enigmatic death cult known as the Drugraegrou Way, which was recently responsible for the terrible devastation in the nation of Sitreiku. Whether or not you have followed in their footsteps, you know many of the philosophy's secrets.

Choose two ability boosts.

One must be to Intelligence or Wisdom, and one is a free ability boost.

You're trained in the Religion skill and the Undead Lore skill. You gain the Student of the Canon skill feat.

LOWG, page 46.

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