From The Past (5e Background)

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From The Past[edit]

36665625266109.563435f1a2b9b.jpg
Original painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze; edited by April Day

You don't belong here. You came from a time when things were different. The technology was more rudimentary and everything was perhaps just ... different. You are an anachronism out of place in time. Somehow you were pulled from your own time into another, one in the future. You know this because you hear people talk of your time as the past, though to you it still feels like the present. What you once knew is now considered old-fashioned. Your clothes and weapons are of a make that may be superseded or obsolete. Your mannerisms are laughed at for being so antiquated. There is a large gap of time here that is unaccounted for, that you did not live.

Consider how you came here to the future. Was it by means of magical or divine intervention, like time travel? Perhaps you fell into a warp or wormhole which transcends the temporal fabric. Or were you maybe even kept in a form of stasis for an immeasurable length of time, perhaps petrified for a hundred years? How much time has passed? How much of a bygone are you? If you are really, really out of fashion, people may regard you with suspicion at how a relic like your attire has survived. People may consider you a nutcase rambling about events of the past as if in the now. You need to perhaps find out how you got here, why and maybe even think about a way back... unless you're confident you can adapt.

Skill Proficiencies: History, and one other skill of your choice befitting your previous standing in your old life

Tool Proficiencies: One musical instrument

Languages: A language more spoken from your time

Equipment: A map of the area from your time, traveler's clothes in the fashion of your original time, a trinket from the past, and a belt pouch containing 20gp of currency from the past (perhaps 20 gold coins but they are now far out of mint).

Feature: Old Friends[edit]

Maybe you made a lot of connections with the common folk back in your time. Some may still be alive, or perhaps succeeded by their heirs. Whoever it may be, they could be willing to offer some assistance or coin for you helping them, or their ancestors, in the past. You may also occasionally be recognized by people from your past life, or their children, or historians, depending on your impact.

Suggested Characteristics[edit]

You, being from the past, have several connections to a land long dead. Living in what is practically a new world to you has its troubles and its benefits. When interacting with people in this new world, it is often hard to grasp the nuances of “modern” society.

d4 Personality Trait
1 Every thing I see in this timeframe fascinates me.
2 I can’t loose my past, even if it means not being able to fit in.
3 I see everything around me as a bastardization of what I knew.
4 Collecting and finding things from the past I came from entertains me.
d4 Ideal
1 Knowledge. I want to learn everything that has changed since I lived. (Neutral)
2 Redemption. I am the cause for the drastic changes from the past, I can’t have it happen again. (Good)
3 Freedom. I let life and time come as it may, and live freely as I do. (Chaotic)
4 Loyalty. I still hold to the people of my past and will see their graves, and wishes, be protected. (Lawful)
d4 Bond
1 I will find a way back home, even if it takes a lifetime and costs a fortune.
2 I will track down all of the living friends I knew, or the children of those I loved.
3 I need to know what happened to get me here, and I will find out.
4 I need to learn how to adapt to this new world before someone find someone out I’m here.
d4 Flaw
1 My inexperience with modern customs and traditions often gets me into trouble.
2 I feel as though I am better than those around me, and know that my knowledge of the past makes me necessary.
3 I can’t accept this place as my home, and no amount of living here will change it.
4 I look, and sound, like a maniac when I try to explain my past, as words have changed so much.
0.00
(0 votes)

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