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Feedback on character background

Lei'gen Zylralei

Does not play well with others
I've been putting together a character for myself today, just looking for some feedback to see if what I've wrote isn't absolute drivel and if I've understood the starting character skills and inventory correctly.

whoosh

It's not 100% finished, I'll be fleshing out some bits and trimming others as things pop into my head, but the tl:dr is that he's a minor noble from a noble house that a bit of a laughing stock, and had a less-than-nurturing upbringing, and after sticking a giant middle finger up to own family and high society in general on the eve of his arranged marriage has basically been on the run. However rather than developing past his traumas he uses them as an excuse to be an awful person, and his mouth tends to write cheques that his knuckles can't cash.

My motivations for the character isn't just and excuse to be an asshole to all and sundry IC, I kind of want to explore being a confrontational jerk (which is quite the opposite of my OOC self), but I want his story to kind of be a redemption arc? where he learns (often the hard way) to become less nihilistic and finds ways to 'learn to play with others' (so-to-speak), and generally become less of an an asshole as time goes by.

So yeah, any feedback on Lei'gen would be much appreciated, I know it's not perfect (heck it's not even finished) but I'm trying to interpret what I've read of the lore thus far and craft what I hope is a decent character out of it.

Thanks
 
Seems generally fine, as far as I can tell!

I figured I'd point out, as a note on being an Esh'lahier noble (or formerly so) and potential further background information: Lei'gen would probably be from a barbari house, in that case. Nobility that operates outside the official structure of the Empire.

Somebody who's a little more familiar with Esh'lahier society might be able to better inform (coughcough @charybdis) on what exactly that looks like, but I'm not sure if there were any Esh'lahier houses that joined the official Imperial nobility structure. (Besides the PC-run House Andares/Kitrye'veresi.)
 
Hi!

So I skimmed your PC background a bit, and I really liked the references to political maneuvering, marital alliances, power at any cost, etc.--definitely fits with the sort of culture that's been presented in-game for the Esh'lahier! As Indefinite mentioned, are you thinking imperial or Ethgan'torian nobility? They follow very different systems and would come with very different sets of opportunities, advantages, and disadvantages for your PC.

Also, as Indefinite said, Esh'lahier are still mostly considered "dark elves", so there's a lot of prejudice there on the imperial side. Again, it'd really depend on whether you're envisioning your PC to have grown up in Ethgan'tor or grown up in the empire.
 
I'll be honest and say I hadn't thought that far ahead, I kept things deliberately vague so as not to tread too heavily on established canon as I hadn't read much into that part of the lore yet. I could probably go either way to be honest, either fitting into the Ethgan'torian nobility or being more imperial, with the matriarch of the family being someone who clings desperately to the 'old ways', I'm kind of leaning towards Ethgan'torian though, as I want to lean into that 'otherness', I think he would have learned his 'world wisdom' the hard way in his years of self-imposed exile, as opposed to being surrounded by other cultures growing up.

As for the prejudice, I feel Lei'gen would be the kind of person where, if a tavern patron were to throw a slur his way, he'd be unable to ignore it and snap back with a cutting remark before really thinking if doing so was a wise choice, and probably lose a few teeth as a result.
 
Okay, that gives us a little bit more of a starting point.

If your PC was from Ethgan’tor, they wouldn’t be nobility directly. They’d more likely be a small house that’s sworn to a noble house and working in their interests. This fits well with the persona that you’ve crafted for your NPC relations.

Ethgan’tor is completely separate from the empire, so military uniforms, politics, people, etc., would be completely unrecognizable by anyone imperial.

Keep in mind that Ethgan’tor is presumed destroyed by the Black Fog that swallowed Lauryl. So if your PC ran away a while ago, that means they think the city and all their family is gone.

If you opt to go the imperial route, all nobility ranks are sworn to higher ranks in fealty, so this would need to be something worked out in game, not in a CIR background. (Meaning, you wouldn’t be able to start with a “minor noble” background but would need to change it to “social climber” or something like that). Keep in mind that esh’lahier are still rather frowned upon and have only very rarely made marks in imperial society.
 
Took a long time but finally found some time to make some tweaks to my character profile to align better with being a family sworn to a noble house and that he thinks himself safe since the (rumoured) destruction of Ethgan'tor.
Apologies for the lateness in responding, IRL has a way to do that to you lol
 
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