Backgrounds

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<sub>Basic vs Advanced

Winter of Wolves is a Rule-based RP, but that doesn't mean we want players to have to crunch numbers and learn the whole system to play. Pretty much all of the game can be played with basic rules, for which you only need to know the information written out here. Sometimes, there will be advanced rules which can be handled back stage by the GM, whenever you see text Written like this, these are advanced rules and you can feel free to ignore them if you don't want to get into the mechanics of the RP.</sub>

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Where do you come from?

Here you will find a list of possible backgrounds for a Winter of Wolves character. Backgrounds represent the origins of your character, the conditions of her birth and life. Though you may pick any background you want, keep in mind it will affect how your character looks and performs in-game. Remember that in most cases your character's background does not dictate their ethnicity, they might, however, suggest one.

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Street Urchin
Street Urchins tend to be DaGuerrian youths who are born and live in the streets of the upper, wealthier districts of the city. They are nimble and resourceful little gits, always ready to entertain or steal to get their next meal. A lifetime of malnutrition has left them a bit on the scrawny side, though.
_{+1 to their Charisma and Dexterity, -1 to their Endurance, Start with very little money.}

Bruiser
Thugs come from all walks of life and any ethnicity, they are, unequivocally, people who think all conflict can be solved by the correct application of brute strength. Thugs, boxers, bar-fighters, enforcers or muggers all fall under the bruiser background.
_{+1 to their Strength and Endurance, -1 to Intelligence and Charisma}

Indentured Servant
Many times, Majai or even poor Daguerrians are forced to incur upon heavy debts. When they cannot pay, they might have to spend years as servants until the debt is settled. Unscrupulous owners tend to compound interests on those debts so they will never be paid, however, and the servants and their children, who inherit the debt, end up as nearly slaves for life.
_{+1 to Blend In, Bluff, Notice, Listen, Sneak and Memory, -1 to Intimidate and Barter. Start with very little money.}

Daguerrian
Run off the mill Daguerrians with mostly uneventful lives, they tend to be used to a slightly more comfortable, peaceful life than the Majai and are generally better off.
_{+1 to Engineering, Learn and Barter, Start with extra money. -1 to Strike, Block, Finesse and Aim.}

Engineer
Engineers are professionals who are part of the Royal School of Engineers and overwhelmingly Daguerrian. They are either in training or have been trained to become engineers. They are masters of machinery and completely convinced in the absolute superiority of their training and creed. As such, they are completely incapable of using magic.
_{+1 to Engineering and Decipher/Identify, Starts with a Blueprint, starts with extra money. -1 to Magic, -1 to Perception.}

Aristocrat
Daguerrians born into wealth and comfort, Aristocrats are the heirs to noble families, the family of powerful and influential engineers and tend to be spoiled and powerful.
_{+1 to Charisma, Starts with considerably more money. -1 to Strength, -1 to Endurance.}

Doctor
Doctors are health professionals and physicians trained, or in training at the Royal School of Medicine. They are the best in their trade and they never let anyone forget it. Conformed mostly of Daguerrians, they are able to heal any injury with relative ease, and charge quite a bit of coin for their services.
_{+1 to Intelligence, +1 to Heal, Start with Extra Money, -1 to Endurance.}

Learned
While members of the Royal Schools of Chemistry and Biology are not as influential as those that hail from the Royal School of Engineering, they are still skillful professionals. They usually seek solace intermingling with lesser classes, such as the Majai, as Royal Engineers treat them as little more than mad scientists.
_{+1 to Intelligence, -1 to Endurance.}

Recruit
Soldiers in training, recruits to the City Guard and Royal Army are primarily Daguerrians, though in latter years, more and more Majai are trying their luck with the army. They tend to gather all the traits one could expect of military discipline, the good and the bad.
_{+1 to Strike, Block, Stamina, Notice and Aim. Start with an extra weapon and ammunition. -1 to Charisma, Starts with very little money.}

Ranger
Rangers belong both to the city and the white wastes. Primarily Daguerrian, they have, since an early childhood, lived venturing out into the endless blizzard to look for ruins, trinkets, treasures or information. After every trip into the white, rangers are glad to come back to to the warmth of the city, but, unused to the highly sociable city life, its not long before they get the itch to explore once more.
_{+1 to Perception, +1 to Stamina and Climb, -1 to Charisma.}

Eccentric
Eccentrics are Daguerrians who become enamoured with the exotic and forbidden knowledge and customs of the Majai. Many hide these afinities as if they were some infectious illness, showing a properly xenophobic face to their peers. Others are open in their 'perversion', wearing Majai clothing and even practicing magic, at best, they are considered oddballs. At worst, they are shunned and hated by their kin.
_{+1 to Magic, Willpower, Learn and Decipher/Identify. -1 to Engineering, -1 to Blend In.}

Escort
Escorts are men and women who have made a living out of their looks and ability to charm. For the most part, Daguerrian courtesans, high class prostitutes and matrons come from this background. There are, however, high class Majai escorts, graceful and exotic, who fetch exhorbitant fees but are considered an intoxicating and embarassing fetish by the Daguerrian aristocrats who hire them.
_{+1 to Charisma and Perception, Starts with extra money. -1 to Strength and Endurance.}

Gear-head
Gearheads have an affinity for machines and chemistry from an early childhood but lack the clout or wealth to attend one of the royal schools. Self-taught engineers, Gearheads tend to be less skilled than members of the Royal School, but their work more prone to experimentation, innovation and critical malfunction.
_{+1 to Engineering, Forge, Decipher/Identify and Learn. -1 to Magic}

Tycoon
Tycoons are businessmen or the children of businessmen, well versed in the arts of maming money. Unlike aristocrats, tycoons tend to come from humble origins, either making their wealth or inheriting it, but having little in terms of titles and nobility. Not all tycoons are rich, but they are always trying to get there.
_{+1 to Charisma, +1 to Notice, Learn and Memory, Starts with extra money. -1 to Willpower, Empathy, Block, Fortitude and Strike.}

Outlander
Outlanders have become somewhat of an oddity in the city. Even now, a few straggling survivors live in small communities out in the blizzard, etching a miserable life off the snow and whatever the Lone Trains leave. Outlanders are born and raised in those communities and when they come of age, or when the community finally dies out, they make their way into the city to survive. As the winter grows longer and less towns can survive in the blizzard, the number of outlanders arriving into the city dwindles. As children of the winter, they excel at survival and... not much else.
_{+1 to Endurance and Perception, -1 to Decipher/Identify, Learn and Engineering, -1 Charisma, Starts with very little money.}

Halfbreed
Half breeds are children of two worlds, noticeably born of a Majai and a Daguerrian. Though resourceful, intelligent and versatile, they tend to be shunned by both sides of society and grow up learning to seek the company of other outcasts such as eccentrics and tinkerers.
_{+1 to Intelligence, +1 to Craft, -1 to Barter and Charm, -1 to Blend In.}

Majai
A run off the mill, common member of the Majai, caring little for exactly what tribe her forefathers hailed from. They live an intense life with the Daguerrians ever lording over them, but finding comfort in a city full of their own kin.
_{+1 to Magic, Craft, Blend In and Willpower, -1 to Engineering and Barter. Starts with slightly less money.}

True Majai
The true are those families who are direct descendants of people of the Majai empire, and they tend to be very keen on reminding the others around them of that fact. The equivalent of nobility amongst Majai, they resent the fact they are now subjects to the Daguerrian crown.
_{+1 to Magic, Willpower, Resist, Learn and Decipher, Starts with one Formulae and Focus. -1 to Engineering, Empathy, Charm, and Block.}

Priest
Majai priests are the ultimate and consumate mages. Youths with talent for magic are usually given to temples by their families. Though respected and feared by their majai peers, they are seen as an eyesore by the powerful elite of the Royal City.
_{+1 to Magic, +1 to Decipher and Willpower, Starts with two Formulae and a focus. -1 to Engineering, -1 to Endurance.}

Mystic
Self taught mages, Mystics tend to work as soothsayers, fortune tellers and street performers for Daguerrians who see their powers are more harmless than those of priests. They can grow quite powerful in spite of their lack of respect towards the deities, however, this power is known to turn against them just as easily.
_{+1 to Magic, Decipher and Learn. Starts with a Formulae and a focus. -1 to Engineering and Willpower.}

Mongrel
Mongrels usually start as the children of extremely poor Majai families, as orphans, as addicts to the pipe or other destitutes. They come from the harshest conditions, the cruelest backgrounds and the poorest lives and, more often than not, turn to crime at one point or another.
_{+ 1 to Sneak, Tumble, Strike, Aim, Break, Barter, Intimidate, Bluff and Blend In, -1 to Willpower, Decipher, Fortitude, Recovery, Stamina and Resist. Starts with very little money.}

Dancer
The name Dancer is a blanket term used by people who come from a background of entertainment and pleasure. Performers, actual dancers, prostitutes, etc can all benefit from the same set of skills. Though they lack the grace of higher class escorts, these mostly majai performers are experts at giving whatever pleasure one seeks.
_{+1 to Dexterity, +1 to Charm, Persuade, Empathy and Bluff, -1 to Strength, -1 to Willpower, Fortitude, Strike and Resist.}

Apothecary
Apothecaries are a mixture of curiosity, intuition and knowledge passed down from previous generations. They are able to heal the body and addle the mind and know the use of many a component and ingredient. People from this background usually learn their skills from an elder who learned in the same way.
_{+1 Memory, Heal, Willpower, Decipher, Notice, Decipher/Identify and Magic. -1 to Strike, Block, Engineering, Finesse and Aim.}

Tinkerer
Tinkerers ar Majai who have turned their back on their culture and traditions are sought to learn the craft of the Engineers. Be it for pure love of machines, the betterment of their social standing, or even a natural skill with engineering, tinkerers tend to be shunned by their own kind and never really accepted by the Daguerrians.
_{+1 Engineering, Decipher, Memory, Learn, Forge and Craft. -1 Persuade, Blend In, Charm, Magic and Willpower.}

Shah
The Shah were part of the Shah Empire, the main rivals of the Majai before the winter. Their customs, dress and even looks are radically different. Considering their distaste for Majai, people that indentify themselves as Shash tend not to be very pleased with the qualifier. The Shah are fair skinned and dark haired with sharp features, their culture appreciates moderation and stoicism, striving for perfection in everything, however, they can come across as haughty and unreachable.
_{+1 Willpower, +1 Resist, +1 Dexterity, -1 Charisma, -1 Empathy.}

Shah Pureblood
Purebloods are Shah nobility. Though their titles do not confer them special status, lands or power anymore, many Shah still look up to them. Someone born into a Shah Pureblood bckground is raised in an enviornment in which they are constantly barraged with accounts of former glories and the search for perfection in everything.
_{+1 Willpower, +1 Resist, +1 Dexterity. -1 Charisma, -1 Empathy, -1 Sneak, -1 Barter, -1 Bluff.}

Amiri
The Amiri were nomads, warriors and herders before the Winter. Now they keep to that tradition moving often from city to city, working as rangers and the sort. For the Amiri, the most important thing is framily and clan and, as such, they have no strong feelings towards any other Majai groups. The Amiri are the most physically varied of the Majai.
_{+1 Strike, Throw, Jump, Recovery, Stamina, Aim, Tumble, Climb, Sneak, Notice, Listen, Orientation. -1 Charm, Bluff, Forge, Resist, Engineering, Decipher and Barter.}

Amiri Firsborn
The firstborn of an Amiri family is usually burdened with extra responsiblity from their early youth. They lead their kin, decide where the family will move next and are usually the only ones taught magic.
_{+1 Strike, Throw, Aim, Tumble, Climb, Notice, Orientation and Magic, Starts with a Formulae and Focus. -1 Forge, Resist, Engineering, Decipher and Barter.}

Kkala
The Kkala are strong, tall, black of hair and dark skinned. Their bodies always seem perfectly toned and are renowned warrior mages. Someone born and raised by a traditional Kkala family will be trained and honed as a warrior and mage from birth, paying little attention to other concerns.
_{+1 Strength and Endurance, +1 to Magic, Starts with a formulae and a focus. -1 to Decipher, Engineering, Orientation, Forge, Craft, Bluff, Persuade, Charm and Barter.}


Kkala Trader
The Kkala were powerful before the war because they knew when to fight and when to deal. Children who are born with weak bodies are instead taught how to hone their minds and smiles and inducted into a Trader Clan. Within the clan, they are taught that soldiers conquer lands, but economists keep them.
_{+1 Charisma and Intelligence, +1 to Craft. -1 Strength and Endurance.}

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