Lore Keeper (5e Background)

Lore Keeper

Less intent on discovery than a Sage or Researcher, less of a showman than an Entertainer, Lore Keepers are those trusted and tasked with collecting and retaining stories, myths, legends and histories. Many are walking libraries of information, eager to listen and to share their knowledge, while some collect this knowledge for their own means. You might have been the student with their head always in a book, absorbing as much as you could. You might have been the child always eager to listen to your grandparents’ or the village elder’s stories. You might have spent all your time growing up in a tavern, hearing tales through song and performance. You might have been all three, or more. Regardless of the origin, you have grown up around stories, and they have become a part of you. You have a memory for history, for stories, for esoteric knowledge that many don’t care to remember. Others recognize this, and many are eager to share their stories with you. In fact, many people come to trust you as a repository, and you are likely known within and outside your own people for being someone who will keep their history safe. You are the Lore Keeper, trusted by your tribe, village, organization, perhaps even kingdom, to keepsake history and learn evermore.

As an adventurer, you seek to collect and preserve ever-more stories, and share those that need to be told. But perhaps there is an ulterior motive.

Perhaps you left your origins simply to learn. Perhaps to share with others. Perhaps you left to travel the world, exploring more cultures. Perhaps you are the only one left who remembers your people after a tragedy. Perhaps you found something too dangerous to be left alone, yourself the only one you trust with this knowledge.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two of the following: History, Arcana, Nature, Performance, or Insight

Tool Proficiencies: Calligrapher's Tools or any one musical instrument

Languages: Any one of your choice

Equipment: Calligrapher’s Tools or an instrument you are proficient with, traveller’s clothes, a book of stories or songs, a trinket from a culture you have visited or are interested in, a notebook with 50 pages, a pouch with 10 gold.

Specialization

Lore Keepers are somewhere between Sages, Anthropologists, Entertainers, and Researchers for where they get their knowledge, but as opposed to just discovering or showing their stories, they are universally intent on collecting and retaining histories and legends, to keep them safe and pass them on to others.

Choose one or more specializations, or roll on the table, to decide which are the primary sources of the knowledge you hold:

d6	Specialization
1	Songs/Music
2	Books
3	Arcane Scrolls
4	Folk Tales
5	Ancient Runes
6	City Records

Feature: Open Ear

Everywhere you go, as long as there is society you can find someone to share it with you. People are friendlier to you if you show them respect to their traditions, and you can share stories with them to discover more than they may have been willing to share initially. You are better able to find people to share this knowledge with you, and in the absence of people to tell it to you, you are better able to find hidden stores of this knowledge.-->

Suggested Characteristics

You have spent years hearing and collecting stories from a variety of sources. Histories and lore, myths and legends from your own culture and the cultures of others have been your greatest collections throughout the years. Dedicated to recording and preserving history, your efforts have made you a veritable library of information, and someone who will go to great lengths to discover all the more stories.

Many Lore Keepers or good or neutral, intent on preserving what needs to be known to future generations. However, there are those that see other, less moral uses for this information.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I read every book I come across.
2	I have a habit of ignoring the outside world while I’m working on my records.
3	I want nothing more than to share my tales with others, regardless of if they’re really listening.
4	I can usually be found in a tavern or town center, listening to everyone’s stories.
5	I greatly respect those older than myself. They have so many stories to share.
6	I think people who don’t care about history are fools to be ignored.
7	I can often be heard muttering or humming to myself.
8	I treat every story I hear with respect, not caring about how true it is.

d6	Ideal
1	Knowledge. The most important thing is knowing. Everything else comes after. (Any)
2	Protection. I know things that are dangerous to others and must keep them safe from the world. (Good)
3	Discovery. I don’t care who I have to speak to or what I have to do to learn more, I will do it. (Chaotic)
4	Accuracy. I make certain that whatever I learn is as accurate as possible. There’s no use in retaining history if it isn’t. (Lawful)
5	Sharing. I will share with anyone who wants to listen, and listen to anyone willing to share. (Good)
6	Destruction. To know your enemy is to know how to defeat them, and I know many things about many people. I am not afraid to use my knowledge to hurt others. (Evil)

d6	Bond
1	My writings are my legacy and I will protect them with my life.
2	I am building a great library to prove I am the most knowledgeable.
3	The people who I learn from are most important to me. There’s no point in learning about people if you don’t care about them.
4	I have learned ancient secrets that need to be contained. This information haunts me.
5	I left my home to learn more from the world. I miss it every day, but my work is too important to stop.
6	I have been adopted by another culture, and consider myself one of their own.

d6	Flaw
1	These stories are the only things that give my life meaning, and seem more real than the world around me.
2	I will believe anything people tell me.
3	Keeping my records safe is worth more than one or two lives.
4	I have a habit of ignoring those I feel know less than me.
5	I trust the stories I know more than the people around me.
6	I care more about the past than I do the present day.

0.00

(0 votes)

---

Back to Main Page → 5e Homebrew → Backgrounds