My Dungeons & Dragons Back Story
My name is Dextera and at this time I am 51 years old and just beginning my journey with new friends. I’ve decided to scribe the tale of my life thus far should peril befall my party on our journey. I was born of elf and man, a rare coupling and I suppose that makes me somewhat of importance to society, though why I hardly know. I refuse to let time flit by however, so let’s dive right into my heritage, for without my two particular parents you’d have no reason to read any further.
My father was a human, and 40 years old at the time of my birth. He was an accomplished ranger and it was with his knowledge and love for the forests that he was able to capture my mother’s heart. I, like the few other children of the elf city, loved both my parents immensely and since elves don’t have children often I was greatly encouraged to excel and praised for all my feats, not matter how small. With the motivation of so many at an early age I decided to follow in my father’s path and train to become a ranger. Fighting was always important to the elves just as much as art and magic, and I knew that someday I would have to defend myself, my family, my friends, or my people.
I was eager to begin my training and my father was happy to hear it. I believe while part of it was his human pride at having raised an ambitious son, he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to see much of my life since I could live on forever, while he had no more than 20 years left of his life to live. He never would have told me of his nearing fatality for fear of upsetting me, and I being naïve as I was hadn’t even thought of the ramifications of my parents crossing races.
When I was 7 my father began taking me on hunting trips outside of the enchanted woods. My mother never approved of these trips and liked to have me where she could watch me, but my father’s deep brown eyes always managed to convince her. He did insist upon me the importance of upholding the elves traditions concerning the value of life in the enchanted forest, and refused to hunt anything within it. In the 4 years that followed I learned everything I know about the bow today from my father, he was an excellent shot and I held on to his every word and remember them even today. He taught me how to track like a human, as well as some of the tricks of the elves movement and silence. I mastered all the abilities he was willing to teach me human, and elf alike. I could never equal him with my bow then, but after only a few attempts I could outperform him in every elven technique.
Sadly my father was taken from me far too soon, in the winter before my 11th year of birth. I was crippled with grief since it was so unexpected to me, the two days he lay upon his death bed were the hardest I’ve yet to endure. My mother told me that this was sadly destined to happen as he was a son of humanity, and she had quietly been preparing for it alone. She cried at her husband’s side for only a half hour following his demise, after that I never saw her shed a tear again.
As you may have guessed my mother was indeed an elf, I don’t know her age and never will, because like most women that’s a well kept secret, and even more so among elven females. She was no ordinary elf though; in fact she was formerly a Star priestess for the queen’s royal guard. Whether she quit or had been forced to “retire” is unknown to anyone I’ve met, and its just one other thing about which she refuses to speak.
After my mother’s brief mourning of my father, and his body was buried deep within the forest she changed. I can only guess it was the grief she suffered, but after my father died she became extremely over protective of me. The day after the funeral she sternly told me that I was not to leave the house or provide an audience to anyone who came until she returned. To be honest I was frightened and she vanished for two days, just as I was getting worried about her safety and my future she returned tired, but with a determined air about her. She bade me pack everything, all of our possessions and place them on the rug from the living room that she had dragged outside the house. Once everything was in position she lifted the carpet with magic and we began our trek deep into the woods, when we were nearly 5 miles away from the city and far from any elven life we came to a small clearing. At the opposite end of the clearing was a house in a tree, similar to our old home, but slightly smaller.
It took the better part of 30 years to get the whole story out of my mother as to what happened when she left me alone for 48 hours. Apparently once she had secured me in the house she fled into the forest and when she was certain she was far enough away from the city she set out to find the best tree she could. When she found the clearing and saw the large tree at the opposite side of it she ran to it and fell to her knees in front of the old tree. Then she sang… she sang of her lament, and her mourning… she sang of her past and her wonderful husband… and she sang of the desire for protection of her only child. Her song was powerful, and her heart pure to her cause, and the tree understood. As she sang, weaving in the language of the Stars, the tree began to bend and twist, until finally, at the end of the second day their beautiful new home was in place right within the heart of the tree.
Don’t ask me how to sing in the celestial language, for I am but a half elf. My mother’s capabilities with magic for exceed my own, and I doubt I will ever fully understand the techniques of Star Song. No matter… It was for the next 39 years that I was forced to live in this new house. My mother shielded me from everything. She refused me contact with anything beside her and the animals around our home. I wasn’t even allowed to leave the clearing or travel deep within the woods behind the tree. It was immensely frustrating at times, but after a while I just got used to it, and went about my studies and my chores to try and make her happy.
Of course, an elf’s mind is an incredible thing, and it certainly doesn’t lack an acute memory. I never forgot a detail about my father, or his teachings. Everything I learned rang through my head daily. No matter how much my mother protected me I still remembered the world outside our enchanted wood, and still desired to be a man my father would be proud of. The years spent alone save the company of my mother weren’t wasted though. I learned of my elven roots, and history. I also learned a lot about the nationalism surrounding our culture; my mother was extremely patriotic after her experiences with the royal guard. She would even happily divulge stories about her service, although I did notice that there were never any negative stories. Some of her tales had huge gray areas that she refused to address, and I would never get anywhere arguing with her. In addition to teaching me my history, she was happy to practice her magic, and taught me what she could about Star magic.
As I neared my 50th birthday, I noticed that I still looked alarmingly like a teenage human. My mother hinted that she was mildly surprised at how much her blood had affected me, but didn’t say much on the matter. While I may not have aged especially fast, I didn’t lounge about all day. I still practiced all 39 years with my long bow, and with the few spells my mother tried to teach me. I had managed to perfect my aim from most distances on stationary targets with my old long bow, and even mastered one of my mother’s spells. My mother told me that the ability for a half born to be able to use Star magic was most commendable, even for an elf I was rather young to be able to perform a spell so accurately. The spell I learned, and still know well is Draumr Kópa, which directly translates to “Dream Stare.” The most difficult part of Star magic is being able to properly and exactly pronounce the words in the celestial language to produce the desired effect.
Much to my surprise on my 50th birthday my mother revealed something quite wonderful to me. When she sang the house into being she had created a chest in the tree that was unable to be opened in anyway (trust me I tried). My mother told me that now that I was 50 the chest would open for me, and sure enough it did without the slightest effort. Within was a beautiful elven bow that my mother had apparently sung out of a tree’s branch many years before I was born. The wooden shaft and bowstring would never break as long as its wielder lived, and when I loosened an arrow from that bow they flew with surprising accuracy and force apparently tapping into my energy which seemed to be focused by the strange lunar shaped birthmark on my right hand.
Sadly my 50th birthday was not all presents, and cheer. Along with the bow was a note in my mother’s hand…
My son,
I hope you’ll make proud use of your father’s bow. It was one of his most prized possessions, and I know that he would want you to have it as his only son. I’m sorry that I’ve kept you in this house so long, and I’m sorry I haven’t been entirely truthful. This note will ensure that you ask me for the truth relating to your father’s death, and that I cannot break my vow to tell you all I know, and free you from our home on this 50th year of your life should you choose it.
- Your Loving Mother
When I looked up from the note I could see tears hidden behind my mother’s eyes, but she refused to cry. Without me saying a thing words began to tumble out of her mouth. She explained that my father hadn’t died of old age, but from either a slow acting poison, or a withering spell, both were undetectable but he shouldn’t have died for at least another 10 years. She continued to tell me that our solitude in the woods would prevent anymore attempts to take another life from her, unlike the constant energy and bustle in the enchanted elf city, where infiltrators could more easily enter our home. She couldn’t say if it was some old grudge from her days as a royal guard, or something completely different, the only thing she knew for certain was that her husband… my father’s death wasn’t natural, it was definitely premeditated murder.
Only a few hours later did I tell her that as she had vowed to permit me to, I would leave home the next day. I made it clear to her that my intentions were to find out the truth behind my father’s demise, but she told me that it didn’t matter what my desire was, I was free to come and go as I pleased, and that without me she would return to our old home. The next morning after a heartfelt goodbye to my mother who had strove so hard to protect me from everything, did I leave home and bound off toward the human forest at a brisk pace.
It wasn’t until I reached the boundary where the enchanted woods met the regular forest that I paused, and truly realized how long I’d been shielded within my mother’s reach and how little I knew of the world outside. I decided that only a fool would flee from the woods so quickly after being away from them so long so I trekked a bit further into the forest and set up camp.
I spent my time in the forest hunting, tracking, fishing, practicing my Star magic, and once again perfecting my archery on moving targets once again. I didn’t waste a day, and was always hard at work honing my skills on the wilderness of a different world, and it was only a little over a year later that I decided that I was ready for whatever it was that would lay beyond. Only a few days of travel after leaving the woods did I find the city of (Starting City Name Here) where I met my new friends. Since I have no leads about my father at this time I’ve decided to travel with these adventures for now with the hope that I’ll find something, anything that will begin to unravel my mother’s mysterious past, and the truth behind my father’s murder.
My father was a human, and 40 years old at the time of my birth. He was an accomplished ranger and it was with his knowledge and love for the forests that he was able to capture my mother’s heart. I, like the few other children of the elf city, loved both my parents immensely and since elves don’t have children often I was greatly encouraged to excel and praised for all my feats, not matter how small. With the motivation of so many at an early age I decided to follow in my father’s path and train to become a ranger. Fighting was always important to the elves just as much as art and magic, and I knew that someday I would have to defend myself, my family, my friends, or my people.
I was eager to begin my training and my father was happy to hear it. I believe while part of it was his human pride at having raised an ambitious son, he also knew that he wouldn’t be able to see much of my life since I could live on forever, while he had no more than 20 years left of his life to live. He never would have told me of his nearing fatality for fear of upsetting me, and I being naïve as I was hadn’t even thought of the ramifications of my parents crossing races.
When I was 7 my father began taking me on hunting trips outside of the enchanted woods. My mother never approved of these trips and liked to have me where she could watch me, but my father’s deep brown eyes always managed to convince her. He did insist upon me the importance of upholding the elves traditions concerning the value of life in the enchanted forest, and refused to hunt anything within it. In the 4 years that followed I learned everything I know about the bow today from my father, he was an excellent shot and I held on to his every word and remember them even today. He taught me how to track like a human, as well as some of the tricks of the elves movement and silence. I mastered all the abilities he was willing to teach me human, and elf alike. I could never equal him with my bow then, but after only a few attempts I could outperform him in every elven technique.
Sadly my father was taken from me far too soon, in the winter before my 11th year of birth. I was crippled with grief since it was so unexpected to me, the two days he lay upon his death bed were the hardest I’ve yet to endure. My mother told me that this was sadly destined to happen as he was a son of humanity, and she had quietly been preparing for it alone. She cried at her husband’s side for only a half hour following his demise, after that I never saw her shed a tear again.
As you may have guessed my mother was indeed an elf, I don’t know her age and never will, because like most women that’s a well kept secret, and even more so among elven females. She was no ordinary elf though; in fact she was formerly a Star priestess for the queen’s royal guard. Whether she quit or had been forced to “retire” is unknown to anyone I’ve met, and its just one other thing about which she refuses to speak.
After my mother’s brief mourning of my father, and his body was buried deep within the forest she changed. I can only guess it was the grief she suffered, but after my father died she became extremely over protective of me. The day after the funeral she sternly told me that I was not to leave the house or provide an audience to anyone who came until she returned. To be honest I was frightened and she vanished for two days, just as I was getting worried about her safety and my future she returned tired, but with a determined air about her. She bade me pack everything, all of our possessions and place them on the rug from the living room that she had dragged outside the house. Once everything was in position she lifted the carpet with magic and we began our trek deep into the woods, when we were nearly 5 miles away from the city and far from any elven life we came to a small clearing. At the opposite end of the clearing was a house in a tree, similar to our old home, but slightly smaller.
It took the better part of 30 years to get the whole story out of my mother as to what happened when she left me alone for 48 hours. Apparently once she had secured me in the house she fled into the forest and when she was certain she was far enough away from the city she set out to find the best tree she could. When she found the clearing and saw the large tree at the opposite side of it she ran to it and fell to her knees in front of the old tree. Then she sang… she sang of her lament, and her mourning… she sang of her past and her wonderful husband… and she sang of the desire for protection of her only child. Her song was powerful, and her heart pure to her cause, and the tree understood. As she sang, weaving in the language of the Stars, the tree began to bend and twist, until finally, at the end of the second day their beautiful new home was in place right within the heart of the tree.
Don’t ask me how to sing in the celestial language, for I am but a half elf. My mother’s capabilities with magic for exceed my own, and I doubt I will ever fully understand the techniques of Star Song. No matter… It was for the next 39 years that I was forced to live in this new house. My mother shielded me from everything. She refused me contact with anything beside her and the animals around our home. I wasn’t even allowed to leave the clearing or travel deep within the woods behind the tree. It was immensely frustrating at times, but after a while I just got used to it, and went about my studies and my chores to try and make her happy.
Of course, an elf’s mind is an incredible thing, and it certainly doesn’t lack an acute memory. I never forgot a detail about my father, or his teachings. Everything I learned rang through my head daily. No matter how much my mother protected me I still remembered the world outside our enchanted wood, and still desired to be a man my father would be proud of. The years spent alone save the company of my mother weren’t wasted though. I learned of my elven roots, and history. I also learned a lot about the nationalism surrounding our culture; my mother was extremely patriotic after her experiences with the royal guard. She would even happily divulge stories about her service, although I did notice that there were never any negative stories. Some of her tales had huge gray areas that she refused to address, and I would never get anywhere arguing with her. In addition to teaching me my history, she was happy to practice her magic, and taught me what she could about Star magic.
As I neared my 50th birthday, I noticed that I still looked alarmingly like a teenage human. My mother hinted that she was mildly surprised at how much her blood had affected me, but didn’t say much on the matter. While I may not have aged especially fast, I didn’t lounge about all day. I still practiced all 39 years with my long bow, and with the few spells my mother tried to teach me. I had managed to perfect my aim from most distances on stationary targets with my old long bow, and even mastered one of my mother’s spells. My mother told me that the ability for a half born to be able to use Star magic was most commendable, even for an elf I was rather young to be able to perform a spell so accurately. The spell I learned, and still know well is Draumr Kópa, which directly translates to “Dream Stare.” The most difficult part of Star magic is being able to properly and exactly pronounce the words in the celestial language to produce the desired effect.
Much to my surprise on my 50th birthday my mother revealed something quite wonderful to me. When she sang the house into being she had created a chest in the tree that was unable to be opened in anyway (trust me I tried). My mother told me that now that I was 50 the chest would open for me, and sure enough it did without the slightest effort. Within was a beautiful elven bow that my mother had apparently sung out of a tree’s branch many years before I was born. The wooden shaft and bowstring would never break as long as its wielder lived, and when I loosened an arrow from that bow they flew with surprising accuracy and force apparently tapping into my energy which seemed to be focused by the strange lunar shaped birthmark on my right hand.
Sadly my 50th birthday was not all presents, and cheer. Along with the bow was a note in my mother’s hand…
My son,
I hope you’ll make proud use of your father’s bow. It was one of his most prized possessions, and I know that he would want you to have it as his only son. I’m sorry that I’ve kept you in this house so long, and I’m sorry I haven’t been entirely truthful. This note will ensure that you ask me for the truth relating to your father’s death, and that I cannot break my vow to tell you all I know, and free you from our home on this 50th year of your life should you choose it.
- Your Loving Mother
When I looked up from the note I could see tears hidden behind my mother’s eyes, but she refused to cry. Without me saying a thing words began to tumble out of her mouth. She explained that my father hadn’t died of old age, but from either a slow acting poison, or a withering spell, both were undetectable but he shouldn’t have died for at least another 10 years. She continued to tell me that our solitude in the woods would prevent anymore attempts to take another life from her, unlike the constant energy and bustle in the enchanted elf city, where infiltrators could more easily enter our home. She couldn’t say if it was some old grudge from her days as a royal guard, or something completely different, the only thing she knew for certain was that her husband… my father’s death wasn’t natural, it was definitely premeditated murder.
Only a few hours later did I tell her that as she had vowed to permit me to, I would leave home the next day. I made it clear to her that my intentions were to find out the truth behind my father’s demise, but she told me that it didn’t matter what my desire was, I was free to come and go as I pleased, and that without me she would return to our old home. The next morning after a heartfelt goodbye to my mother who had strove so hard to protect me from everything, did I leave home and bound off toward the human forest at a brisk pace.
It wasn’t until I reached the boundary where the enchanted woods met the regular forest that I paused, and truly realized how long I’d been shielded within my mother’s reach and how little I knew of the world outside. I decided that only a fool would flee from the woods so quickly after being away from them so long so I trekked a bit further into the forest and set up camp.
I spent my time in the forest hunting, tracking, fishing, practicing my Star magic, and once again perfecting my archery on moving targets once again. I didn’t waste a day, and was always hard at work honing my skills on the wilderness of a different world, and it was only a little over a year later that I decided that I was ready for whatever it was that would lay beyond. Only a few days of travel after leaving the woods did I find the city of (Starting City Name Here) where I met my new friends. Since I have no leads about my father at this time I’ve decided to travel with these adventures for now with the hope that I’ll find something, anything that will begin to unravel my mother’s mysterious past, and the truth behind my father’s murder.