Backgrounds

Backgrounds are everything your character was before you got hold of them. They provide you with Skills, Possessions, and other Special benefits where noted. Slide into the role and make it your own.

Roll randomly to determine your starting Background. Notice that they only touch the edge of specificity: it is up to you to tailor them to the worlds you play in. Rework them or remove them entirely and replace them with your own unique vision of the spheres. Boldly lay claim to the games you play, create content recklessly, and always write in pen.

Creating Your Own Backgrounds

When creating your own Backgrounds, as a general rule, stick to 10 or so total points distributed in a range of 1 to 3 with 3 being someone who has already mastered their trade. Do not dismiss the importance of a description — they are the players’ window into the world — but don’t feel intimidated by them. Keep them simple and pack as much information into them as you are able; when they are short and evocative the player will fill in the gaps. The Backgrounds need not be balanced or equal to one another but should instead be fun and flavourful. After making a new Background take a moment to consider the reaction of someone receiving it instead of some other entry in your particular and ever changing list. Balance the enjoyment rather than the numbers.

11 Ardent Giant of Corda

Every giant has a different story about Corda, well told and interrupted with tears and laughter, of how they lost it and mean to find it soon enough but oh, what of today? We should drink and cheer, we’ll search once again in the morning!

Possessions
An Artefact of Lost Corda, being either an enormous Blue Star Map which can tell you where any portal leads (with a successful Astrology test) or a pocket barometer for forecasting the weather (5 in 6 accuracy) or a Ruby Lorgnette granting +2 Second Sight.

Advanced Skills
4 Strength
3 Astrology
2 Run
2 Climb

12 Befouler of Ponds

You’re a wise man, a high priest, a pond-pisser, a typical but committed adherent of P!P!Ssshrp. The bloated Toad God has no church other than the periphery of ponds where the foulness catches in the reeds and no congregation other than the gnats and dragonflies. You minister to them all the same.

Possessions
Sackcloth Robes, caked in stinking mud and undergrowth. +1 to Sneak rolls in marshy terrain while wearing them, -1 everywhere else ‘cos it stinks!
A Large, Worn Wooden Ladle (Damage as Mace).

Advanced Skills
3 Spell – Drown
3 Swim
2 Spell – Tongue Twister
2 Spell – Undo
1 Spell – Web
1 Sneak
1 Second Sight

Special
You never contract disease as a result of drinking stagnant liquids.

13 Burglar

As a second-story man you often have cause to wander. Enemies come naturally from both sides of the law and it pays to keep ahead of trouble.

Possessions
Crossbow and 18 Bolts.
Roll of Lock Picks.
Grappling Hook.

Advanced Skills
2 Sneak
2 Locks
1 Awareness
1 Climb
1 Trapping
1 Knife Fighting
1 Crossbow Fighting

Special
You may Test your Luck to find and get in with the local criminal underbelly if one exists.

14 Cacogen

You are Those-Filthy-Born, spawned in the hump-backed sky lit only by great black anti-suns and false light. Your mother was sailing on the golden barges or caught in some more abstract fate when she passed you, far from the protective malaise of the million spheres. You were receptive to the power and the glory at a generative time and it shows in your teratoid form.

Possessions
Fusil.
2d6 Plasmic Cores.
Sword.
Velare.

Advanced Skills
2 Fusil Fighting
2 Astrology
2 Second Sight
2 Spell – Random
2 Spell – Random
2 Golden Barge Pilot
1 Spell – Random
1 Sword Fighting

15 Chaos Champion

You no longer don the spiked brass armour but you still have the ear of your Chaos patron. They’re happy for you to experiment with not plunging your world into disorder and, ultimately, darkness, but the door is always open.

Possessions
Ritual Scars.
A Huge Maul.
Assortment of Ragged Armour (counts as Modest Armour).
Dream Journal, almost full.

Advanced Skills
6 Language – Kurgan
3 Maul Fighting
3 Secret Signs – Chaos Patron
1 Spell – Random
1 Second Sight

Special
Name your patron. You may call upon your patron for aid once per day. To do so roll three 6s on 3d6. The GM interprets their intervention.

16 Claviger

The Key Masters wander the universe fathoming the workings of all entryways. Though they’re
quite fascinated with simple chests and doors they are most excited by metaphysical and metaphorical barriers. You might find small conclaves of Clavigers camped around the feet of Demon Gates, debating appropriate methods of attack, or building obscure machines of entry.

Possessions
Festooned with Keys (counts as Modest Armour).
A Distinguished Sledgehammer (Damage as Maul).
Lock Picking Tools.

Advanced Skills
4 Locks
3 Strength
3 Trapping
2 Spell – Open
1 Spell – See Through
1 Maul Fighting
1 Spell – Lock

21 Demon Stalker

You stake your reputation upon your ability to hunt and kill demonic creatures and those who break bread with them. Goat men in the wilds or the Angel cults of the slums, all need
to be driven back off the edge of the map and onto the shores of chaos.

Possessions
A Silver Sword.
16 Silver Arrows and Bow.
Pouch of Salt.
Vial of Demon Blood.

Advanced Skills
5 Language – Abyssal
3 Spell – Blood Shroud
2 Second Sight
2 Sword Fighting
2 Bow Fighting
1 Tracking
1 Sneak

22 Dwarf

You are a short, hairy, belligerent, alcohol dependent creature. Dwarfs are a sculpted people, ungendered, and thus there are no Dwarf children or Dwarf families to prevent you from fully committing to the important Dwarfy endeavours of creating fine art in unusual places. You intend to find the most unusual places in all the million spheres.

Possessions
Masonry Hammer.
Roll of Artist’s Supplies.

Advanced Skills
3 Awareness
2 Sculpting
2 Painting
2 Metalworking
2 Construction
2 Strength
2 Fist Fighting
2 Wrestling
1 Hammer Fighting

Special
Dwarfs may eat gems and rare metals as food replacements. You, in fact, vastly prefer the taste of rare minerals to mundane food.

23 Epopt

You are a roaming seer, selling your visions at courts and fetes. You are instantly recognisable by your yellow coif and habit as being open for business. Road weary and worldwise, your unpopular visions cause you to constantly move on.

Possessions
Yellow Epopt Outfit, padded for protection against unhappy clients (counts as Modest Armour).
Epopt Staff, being a walking staff with seeing crystal on one end (Damage as Staff).
Collapsible Tent, large enough for your stall.

Advanced Skills
2 Awareness
2 Evaluate
1 Second Sight
1 Etiquette
1 Fist Fighting
1 Run

Special
Epopts may Test their Luck to get a yes or no answer to a question about mundane matters. The GM should make this Test in private, not informing the Epopt if their visions are accurate.

24 Exographer

Where you come from it’s become quite normal to traverse the Spheres. Idle academics like yourself have even begun to study these more remote reaches of the divine effluvia. Though these rural indwellers may never appreciate your important work, you continually, thanklessly measure their latent phlogiston. For posterity.

Possessions
Hermetically Sealed Rubber Suit (counts as Heavy Armour)
Exographical Surveyors Box
Spring-Loaded Measuring Tape
Pistolet
1d6 Plasmic Cores

Advanced Skills
4 Exography
3 Golden Barge Pilot
2 Astrology
2 Pistolet Fighting

25 The Fellowship of Knidos

Mathmologists honour the clean and unambiguous truths of mathematics and coordinate them with their observations of the multiverse. All things can be measured and predicted with the application of the correct mathmological ratios, those methods applied to penetrate the ethereal
surface and glimpse the fundamental numbers below.

Possessions
Large Astrolabe (Damage as Mace).
Abacus.
Lots of Scrolls and Writing Equipment.

Advanced Skills
3 Mathmology
2 Astrology
2 Spell – Find

26 Fellow of the Peerage of Porters & Basin Fillers

Luggers are a servile group by nature, most often found in the service of others, weighed down by loads that would buckle a donkey. You take pride in this, so much so that the everyday assignments of the guild cannot sate your desire to serve, causing you to venture out in search of a real challenge for such a talented varlet.

Possessions
A Wooden Yoke.
Brown Overcoat and Soft Doffing Cap of the Guild.
A Bale Hook (Damage as Knife and +1 on rolls to lift heavy objects).
Length of Rope.

Advanced Skills
4 Strength
2 Fist Fighting
2 Run
1 Hook Fighting
1 Sneak
1 Awareness

31 Gremlin Catcher

No matter what country, sphere, or abstract dimension you may find yourself in, be assured that gremlins will be there digging their warrens and bothering nice people willing to pay you a shiny penny to bash their little heads in.

Possessions
Small but Vicious Dog.
Flat Cap.
A Club.
A Sack.
1d6 Empty Gremlin Jars.
A Jar with a Pissed–off Gremlin Inside.

Advanced Skills
4 Tunnel Fighting
4 Trapping
2 Sneak
2 Awareness
2 Club Fighting
2 Tracking
1 Swim

32 Journeyman of the Guild of Sharp Corners

You are an assassin in training, graduated from fighting dummies and branding practise clients, freshly imbued with a license to ply your trade. You haven’t fully developed the idiosyncratic methods required of a master but you are on the path.

Possessions
Black Clothes of the Apprentice.
Garrotte.
Curved Sword.
3 Vials of Poison.
Crossbow and 6 Bolts.

Advanced Skills
1 Poison
1 Sneak
1 Locks
1 Knife Fighting
1 Climb
1 Awareness
1 Crossbow Fighting
1 Swim
1 Disguise

33 Lansquenet

You were a mercenary retained in the exclusive service of the Phoenix Throne, handsomely paid and sent to distant spheres on golden ships to spread the ineffable glory of your lords at the tip of your flaming sword.

Possessions
Exquisite Pistolet.
Bandolier containing 18 Plasmic Cores.
Greatsword.
Brightly Coloured Clothing with lots of tassels and bells (impossible to sneak). Though frivolous looking it is in fact built with the Autarch’s divine alchemy and considered Modest Armour while weighing the same as normal clothing (takes no slots in your inventory).

Advanced Skills
2 Greatsword Fighting
2 Pistolet Fighting
1 Run
1 Fist Fighting
1 Astrology

34 Lonesome Monarch

You were the ruler of all you surveyed, a great conqueror, a lawbringer! Unfortunately your horse sped off into the pixie forest, or the court magician ensured you disappeared, or you led a sortie into the stars to put your stamp on them as well. Either way you are now a lost and lonely
sovereign without a kingdom — no one has heard of you or your people. Most don’t believe you and laugh, or worse, they do believe you and shrug at the vagaries of fate.

Possessions
Nice Weapon of your choice.
Crown.
Tired Horse.

Advanced Skills
3 Etiquette
3 Fighting in your Nice Weapon
3 Ride
1 Tracking

35 Member of Miss Kinsey’s Dining Club

The Eaters know that there are only two worlds: the Without and the Within. They intend to insert as much of the prior into the latter as they can while experiencing the finest delights
available. All culinary experience is open to them as nothing is forbidden at Miss Kinsey’s. Try the other, other, other white meat.

Possessions
Sharp metal dentures (Damage as Sword) or forked metal dentures (Damage as Knife. On a Mighty Blow you may cleanly strip all the flesh from one small appendage) or blunt metal dentures (Damage as Knife. May be used to eat hard objects).
Embroidered napkin.

Advanced Skills
3 Etiquette
1 Strength
1 Tracking
1 Trapping
1 Gastrology

Special
Eaters are immune to mundane ingested poisons. They may also identify any object if eaten, gaining knowledge of its material, its origin (if plausibly familiar), and its magical properties on a successful Test of Gastrology though the object must be thoroughly masticated, not merely swallowed and passed. This does not grant special immunity to any effects the object may possess.

36 Monkeymonger

Life on The Wall is hard. One is never more than a few yards from an endless fall yet those precarious villages still need to eat. This is where you come in with your Edible Monkeys (the
distinction is purely for appeal since all monkeys are of course edible). You used to spend days on end dangling your feet off the edge of the world, watching over your chittering livestock while they scampered hither and thither, but there was no future in monkey meat. You wanted much
more and so stepped off. Or you fell off. Either way you and some unlucky monkeys are here now and that’s all that matters.

Possessions
Monkey Club.
Butcher’s Knife.
1d6 Small Monkeys that do not heed commands but are too scared and hungry to travel far from you.
A Pocket Full of Monkey Treats.

Advanced Skills
4 Climb
2 Trapping
1 Club Fighting
1 Knife Fighting

Special
The GM may choose to roll on this table anytime the Mien of monkeys must be determined.

Mien
1 Playful
2 Stalking
3 Hungry
4 Tired
5 Austere
6 Aggressive

41 Necromancer

The least popular of magical practitioners, Necromancers are shunned by the major centres of
learning, left to their own devices on the edges of society, passing on knowledge in the time honoured master–student dynamic. This loneliness encourages students to make their own friends.

Possessions
Dusty Robes.
The Skull of your Master or Zombie Servant or Ghost with whom you have developed a codependent relationship.

Advanced Skills
2 Healing
2 Mortuary Science
2 Relationship Counseling
1 Spell – Posthumous Vitality
1 Spell – Skeletal Counsel
1 Spell – Torpor
1 Sneak

42 Parchment Witch

Known for their smooth skin, midnight gatherings, and preternatural fear of rain and open flames; the Parchment Witches are long-dead sorcerers who cannot give up the vanity of life. They cover themselves in perfect paper skin, a patiently painted and immaculately folded imitation of life intended to hide ancient bone and gristle.

Possessions
d6 Rolls of Parchment.
Vials of Pigments and Powders.
Collection of Brushes.
Sword Cane.

Advanced Skills
2 Spell – Protection From Rain
2 Spell – Callous Strike
2 Spell – Quench
2 Spell – True Seeing
2 Disguise
2 Second Sight
1 Healing
1 Spell – Undo
1 Spell – Random

Special
You are undead and so do not need to breathe or circulate blood. You take double Damage from Silver Weapons and regain Stamina half as effectively from all sources. You must Test your Luck if outside in the rain, are made wet, are close to open flames, or suffer generally grievous wounds. A failure will see your skin ruined. If your skin is compromised you are very obviously a walking corpse.

43 Derivative Dwarf

Dwarfs are known for being the finest artisans of the million spheres. Give a Dwarf a rock and they will make gold, give a Dwarf a boulder and they will make a Dwarf. You were supposed to
be the finest expression of Dwarfy craftsmanship, a true masterpiece, a brand new step in aesthetic design, a jump not seen since the old masters.

Possessions
Woodsman’s Axe.
Empty Firkin.

Advanced Skills
3 Fist Fighting
3 Awareness
2 Strength
2 Wrestling
2 Axe Fighting

Special
As 22 Dwarf but additionally:
To non-Dwarfy eyes you look like any other Dwarf. Only Dwarfs can see the derivative or uninspired parts of your creation. Other Dwarfs will completely ignore you since you remind them of their fading novelty. You have +4 Sneak versus Dwarfs.

44 Questing Knight

You are on a quest for the grail, or the sword, or the throne, or for god, or a lost love, or some other significant object. Your sort are common enough, wandering the worlds, acting out
your romantic melodrama, accusing good folk of being demons or faeries. Questing Knights are generally considered to be harmless.

Possessions
Heavy Armour.
Horse.
Lance (Damage as Spear).
Sword.
Shield.
A Quixotic Undertaking.

Advanced Skills
3 Jousting
2 Sword Fighting
2 Spear Fighting
1 Shield Fighting
1 Awareness

45 Red Priest

You are an evangelist of the Red Redemption, wandering confessor, cauterizer of the festering wound of sin: the constant accumulation and recreational consumption of Mass. How can your spirit fly free while shackled and flabby?

Possessions
Red Robes.
Traditional Faceless Metal Helmet of
your order (Modest Armour).
Symbolic (but fully sized and fully functional) Single Headed Greataxe, to help batter down the door to sin (Damage as Greatsword).

Advanced Skills
2 Spell – Ember
2 Spell – Fire Bolt
2 Spell – Flash
2 Great Axe Fighting
1 Second Sight
1 Spell – Exorcism

46 Rhino-Man

The original Rhino-Men were created by an insane sorcerer several centuries ago but rebelled and killed him. They are fairly rare creatures, serving as formidable and loyal guards to those
who can afford their services.

Possessions
Horn (Damage as Knife).
Thick Skin (Rhino Men always count
as being Modestly Armoured).
Undersized Spear.
Tiny, Useless Helmet.
Knuckle Dice.
Half Full Firkin of Rhino-beer (20 Provisions worth).

Advanced Skills
3 Spear Fighting
2 Run
2 Strength
1 Gambling

51 Sceptical Lamassu

With the body of a bull, the head of a man, the forelegs of a cat, and the wings of a swan you are the sweetest of the children of the gods. You, however, were not content to rest on your cloud and instead descended from the heavens or crawled up from the abyss and set about finding your own path among the stars.

Possessions
Incidental Sacred Jewellery worth 10d6 Silver pence if traded.
Pillbox Hat.
Claws (Damage as Sword).
Hooves (Damage as Club).
Wings — able to fly as fast as a running man over clear ground.

Advanced Skills
3 Fly
3 Spell – Random
3 Spell – Random
3 Spell – Random
2 Claw Fighting
1 Hoof Fighting

52 Sorcerer of the Academy of Doors

You are a student at Troika’s most prestigious wizarding academy (pride of the city, experts in pan-dimensional mobility) you were finally able to penetrate the (2d6)th door. You are no master but few outside your peers can claim to know more about the vagaries of skyward travel than you.

Possessions
Small Functional Door worn on your forehead through which you
channel your magic.
Flashy Robes.

Advanced Skills
3 Astrology
2 Second Sight
2 Spell – Astral Reach
1 Spell – Teleport
1 Spell – Web
1 Spell – Random
1 Spell – Random
1 Spell – Random

53 Sorcerer of the College of Friends

As an integral part of your tutelage in the sub-dimensional academy of the Cordial Wizard God you spent your childhood learning about the fate of pixies, the colour of magic, ritual grammar, and endless other theoretical topics. Now you’re out in the world, discovering that your
education hardly accounted for any of the things that you’ve seen.

Possessions
Pointed Wizard Hat you received at graduation.
Pocket Full of Wizard Biscuits (2d6, each counts as a Provision).
Wand used to help focus new apprentices, now kept for sentimental reasons.

Advanced Skills
4 Secret Signs – Witching Words
2 Run
1 Climb
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Swim
1 Sneak
1 Second Sight
1 Spell – Jolt
1 Spell – Amity
1 Spell – Mirror Selves
1 Spell – Protection from Rain
1 Spell – Helping Hands
1 Spell – Purple Lens
1 Spell – Random

54 Fellow of The Sublime Society of Beef Steaks

Brawlers believe the application of might and a good beef steak is the universal truth. Words have no power and can no more define the universe than they can build a house, lift a cup, or sear a steak. Might can! Really, they have thought a lot about this.

Possessions
Weapon of your choice.
Small Gridiron.
2kg of Premium Meat Cuts.
Waistcoat.
Bottle of Strong but Fancy Wine.

Advanced Skills
2 in a Fighting Skill of your choice
2 Wrestling
2 Swim
2 Climb
2 Run
2 Fist Fighting
1 Grilling

55 Temple Knight of Telak the Swordbringer

You were once (and possibly still are) a fanatical monk set to maintain constant, vigilant martial readiness in preparation for the end times, when all doorways crumble inwards. You are
always prepared and never unready.

Possessions
The Blessing of Telak.
6 Swords of your choice.

Advanced Skills
3 Awareness
2 Blacksmithing
1 Sword Fighting
1 Greatsword Fighting

Special
The blessing of Telak awards you Armour equal to half (rounded down) the number of Swords you carry. If you carried 6 Swords your Armour would be 3 while if you carried 9 it would be 4. You must be overtly armed at all times or else Telak will take this blessing away until you forge and donate to the unarmed a brand new Sword.

56 Thaumaturge

Wandering miracle workers, the depths of whose clothes are filled with pouches of unguents, holy icons and herbs. No matter the metaphysical need, you are always prepared.

Possessions
Thaumaturgic Fez.
Staff, bedecked with charms and bells. May reroll one die on the Oops! Table if using this staff, however, may never sneak up on anyone because of the ringing and clattering it makes.
Curled Shoes.
Voluminous Robes.

Advanced Skills
3 Spell – Undo
2 Spell – Assume Shape
2 Spell – Thunder
2 Spell – Random
1 Spell – Brittle Twigs
1 Spell – Random
1 Second Sight
1 Astrology

Special
You may Test your Luck to just so happen to have exactly the (common) mystic tchotchke, bauble, or gewgaw the situation requires.

61 Thinking Engine

Your eyes are dull ruby spheres, your skin is hard and smooth like ivory but brown and whorled like wood. You are clearly broken, you have no memory of your creation or purpose, and some days your white internal juices ooze thickly from cracks in your skin.

Possessions
Soldering iron.
Detachable autonomous hands or centaur body (+4 Run) or inbuilt particle detector (+4 Second Sight) or one random Spell at rank 3.

Advanced Skills
3 Golden Barge Pilot
2 Astrology
2 Pistolet Fighting
2 Healing
1 Run
1 Strength
1 Cooking

Special
You don’t recover Stamina by resting in the usual manner — instead you must spend a full rest period with a hot iron welding your skin back together like putty. For each hour of rest with access to the right tools you regain 3 Stamina.

You may recharge plasmic machines by hooking your fluids to them and spending Stamina at a rate of 1 Stamina and 6 minutes per charge.

You always count as being at least Lightly Armoured.

62 Vengeful Child

Your village was burnt down by ruffians, or your mother was beheaded by snake cultists, or your father was hung by corrupt officials. Either way you took umbrage and entered the world with a chip on one shoulder and an oversized Sword on the other.

Possessions
Too-Large Sword that provides +1 to Longsword Fighting and Damage while using it. Only you may benefit from this bonus; it’s not magic, just sentimental.
Old Hunting Bow and 12 Arrows.

Advanced Skills
3 Longsword Fighting
1 Awareness
1 Climb
1 Bow Fighting
1 Run
1 Swim
1 Vengeance

63 Venturesome Academic

You’re a classically trained Academic, a product of the universities of the Brass City, the Palace of Tigers, or some other less prestigious centre of learning among the spheres.

Possessions
Reading Glasses in a sturdy case (you cannot read without them).
Small Sword.
Bundle of Candles and Matches.
Writing materials.
Journal.

Advanced Skills
2 Evaluate
2 Astrology
1 Healing
1 Spell – Random
1 Sword Fighting
1 Sleight of Hand

Special
You may Test your Luck to recall facts that you might reasonably be expected to have encountered relating to the natural sciences and humanities.

64 Wizard Hunter

Some people say man is the most dangerous prey. They’re wrong. Can men ignite the air and freeze your blood? Can men turn into flocks of seagulls when cornered in an alley? No, they can’t. Wizards are the most dangerous prey.

Possessions
Large Sack.
Witch-hair Rope.
Crossbow and 12 Bolts.
Sword.
1d6 Pocket Gods.
Ruby Lorgnette.

Advanced Skills
2 Tracking
2 Disguise
2 Crossbow Fighting
1 Sword Fighting
1 Sneak
1 Locks
1 Etiquette

65 Yongardy Lawyer

Down in Yongardy they do things differently. They respect the Law. Every day there is a queue outside the courts to get a seat to see the latest up and coming barrister defend their case with a metre of steel. The people follow the careers of their favourite solicitors, watch all their cases, collect their portraits, and sneak into the court after hours to dab the patches of blood on white handkerchiefs. In Yongardy, they love the Law.

Possessions
Rapier (Damage as Sword) and Puffy Shirt or Sjambok (Damage as Club) and Lots of Scars or Longsword and Heavy Armour or Hammer and Gargantuan Shield.
Manual on Yongardy Law.
Barrister’s Wig.

Advanced Skills
4 Fighting in your chosen Weapon
2 Etiquette
1 Healing

66 Zoanthrop

At some point in your past you decided you didn’t need it anymore: you found a Zoanthropologist and paid them well to remove your troublesome forebrain and elevate you to the pure and unburdened beast you are today.

Possessions
No starting possessions; you have thrown off the shackles of civilisation. You are probably nude.

Advanced Skills
3 Climb
3 Run
2 Strength
2 Fist Fighting
2 Club Fighting
2 Wrestling

Special
You are immune to all mind altering effects. You are able to speak but usually choose not to. When making Advancement Checks for Skills related to abstract thought, such as Spells or
Astrology, you must roll twice and succeed on both to improve them.