Find inspiration from your class by embracing archetypes
Branek, The Man Raised Among the Animals
Branek was born on the streets of Lutheric, abandoned as a child and raised by the local temple as well as they could raise such a wild spirit. But Branek was not for the streets and could not be controlled. As soon as he was able he ran away from the temple and the city as a whole and lived his life where he felt comfortable –in the wilderness.
His formative years were guided more by the wolves, birds, and deer of the woods than the foundation of his life in the temple. He preferred the company of beasts to that of the unnatural noises of the town. But life in the woods was anything but safe.
Imitating the fighting styles of the beasts that were his friends Branek learned to defend himself. By the time he was 10 he could fight off a raging badger with both swords and save his friends from a hunting stirge with his arrows, but when he really needed to fight he always called on his animal companions and worked with them to bring down his foes using the tactics of the pack to surround, confuse, or trip up his enemies.
At the age of 18 Branek found the urge to coming upon him too strong to resist. He needed to find human companionship. He tried to return to the city but just couldn’t force himself to cross that border.
And so it was that he was standing outside of town, one animal companion left willing to get this close to town, torn between his life with nature and the desire to find a mate when he met a group of companions heading into town…
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About jeff
On loan to this planet from Oa by way of the The Tome Show, Jeff Greiner joins the At-Will team to offer his keen insights on character and other critical issues pertaining to 4e.
Ha, that’s a nice trope to add in to the beastmaster ranger. The bit about the desire to find a mate was amusing…and could lead to some very interesting repercussions with the adventuring party…
Would be fun to have a crazy twist thrown in there, something that really sets the guy apart.
Great post!
I agree with the comments–there needs to be some weakness in there somewhere…How about before “at the age of 18″:
At the age of 12, while exploring the deepest part of the forest Branek meet Trillia, a beautiful wood elf and the two fell in love. Trillia was engaged to another and their love was mocked by the other elves (who called him Rudolf, and would not let him join in any of their games). Trillia was forced into an arranged marriage with Pudic, one of the worst elven bullies. This experienced badly scared the maturing Branek who hates all elves to this day.
Thanks, David S.
I think that’s all good stuff. Thanks for the comments guys.
@Andy: I purposesly left the statements of finding “companionship” vague so it could be interpreted as finding a mate (as you read it) or someone could take it in a more innocent direction. One of the things I like to think about when I create stories/character backgrounds is to create more options rather than limit them. By going vague Branek could become part of a love story in the future of the campaign or it could simply be an easy way to explain why he joins the party.
@david schwarm: I completely agree, having some sort of complication in the background is a GREAT idea. These articles aren’t intended to be a comprehensive background or a character, rather a version of a background that exemplifies the one-liner (in this case, Embracing Archetypes). I suspect that through these articles I can develop characters over time that are all part of a shared world and that I might even re-imagine backgrounds of characters already established. So perhaps we’ll revisit a character like Branek but the one-liner will be “create a character with complications” and the same backgroudn will take on a very different perspective that looks at something like that.
I love your idea, it just doesn’t fit into the idea of embracing archetypes (in fact, it’s more the opposite, a nature-loving ranger who dislikes wood elves!?!?).
Animal styles sound more monk than ranger to me.
OT:
How about a man raised by a man raised by wolves. Or a ranger raised by apes raised by (circus) people. Madness.
The animal styles descriptions are me embracing the powers that rangers have. They are often named for various animals and the attacks that they imitate.