To help role-play who your character is now, you should know where he came from. What circumstances molded him into what he is now? Someone who was raised to a life of great wealth and luxury might become a jaded sybarite. On the other hand, he might (like the Buddha) decide from personal experience that such amenities are worthless. Someone born poor might stay poor or might be driven to become a ruthless business entrepreneur.

Each sample origin contains a brief description and lists a few specific examples that fit the particular origin. When you choose your character's origin, you also get one point in a single related Background; appropriate choices are listed at the end of each description. In addition to the origins here, feel free to generate your own and determine its corresponding Background, with the Storyteller’s approval.

Instead of being raised in a “developed” nation such as those of Europe or the United States, you had the traditional upbringing of a low-tech society.

Examples: Australian Aborigine, Bedouin, Inuit, Pygmy

Background Options: Cipher or Menagerie

You're a proponent of new, modern politics.

Examples: Anarchist, Suffergette, Communist, Fascist

Background Options: Influence or Reputation

You're a scholar from a long line of scholars; education and knowledge have always been important to you.

Examples: Scientist, Teacher, Librarian, Monk

Background Options: Backing or Sanctum

You're an artist or entertainer of some sort or another, earning your living by making others laugh, think or simply relax.

Examples: Dancer, Circus Acrobat, Stage Magician, Musician

Background Options: Influence or Reputation

You crusade against society's wrongs.

Examples: Muckraker, Politician, Police Officer, Missionary

Background Options: Contacts or Influence

You're not in your home country for me reason or another, whether to start a new life or to escape you old one.

Examples: Diplomat, Immigrant, Royalty in Exile

Background Options: Allies or Resources

Risk is what makes life palatable.

Examples: Card Sharp, Bookie, Stuntman, Barnstormer

Background Options: Contacts or Mentor

You come from wealth and are used to commanding great financial resources.

Examples: Duchess, Business Tycoon, Eccentric Millionaire

Background Options: Followers or Resources

Your whole life has been a struggle to keep shoes on your feet and a roof over your head.

Examples: Revolutionary, Criminal, Laborer

Background Options: Cipher or Contacts

You had an average upbringing, with some hard times and some luxuries.

Examples: Chauffeur, Police Officer, Greengrocer, Accountant

Background Options: Ally or Contacts

You’re enlisted in (or possibly retired from) some form of armed service, or you were the child of military personnel and were raised in that disciplined milieu.

Examples: Sailor, Soldier, Pilot, Mercenary

Background Options: Backing or Followers

Your past is shrouded in conjecture or is entirely blank, either deliberately or due to some vagary of fate.

Examples: Spy, Fugitive, Amnesiac, Orphan

Background Options: Cipher or Nemesis

Somehow you have ended up on the wrong side of the authorities.

Examples: Mobster, Bank Robber, Fugitive, Smuggler

Background Options: Contacts or Reputation

Occupied with matters of the mind.

Examples: Scientist, Poet, Theorist

Background Options: Followers or Sanctum

You push at the world’s boundaries.

Examples: Artist, Inventor, Explorer

Background Options: Gadget or Reputation

You do good works or studiously avoid wickedness.

Examples: Priest, Moralizer, Samaritan

Background Options: Followers or Influence

Not only do you find out what makes things tick, you make them tick better.

Examples: Mechanic, Watchmaker, Inventor

Background Options: Gadget or Sanctum