CHARACTER NARRATIVES
Every hero has a story. Character race describes a hero’s natural gifts and talents from early childhood, while character class describes a hero’s skills, talents, and pure fighting ability—but neither of these truly describe what the character does with his talents
and gifts. That’s where character narrative comes into play.
A narrative is a description of a character’s career, position, or calling in life, a third pillar of character identity that helps you to tell the character’s story. Your choice of narrative makes your character different from other heroes who share the same race and class. If your character is a human barbarian, is he a beastmaster with a loyal animal friend? A hunter of the Dhari tribes, skilled in slaying fierce beasts? Or an ice reaver, greedy for blood and plunder? If your character is an elf wizard, is he a far-seeing sooth- sayer, a Guardian of the Nine Stones of Power, or a mysterious bearer of the Black Book?
Narrative is also one of the important determinants of your character’s place in the world and how NPCs react to him. A NPC can’t tell if an expert swordsman is a barbarian, fighter, ranger, rogue, or warlord just by watching him fight. In fact, those terms have little meaning to people in the world. But that same NPC can tell at a glance that a swords- man looks and acts like a nobleman, a pit fighter, a raider from the icy wastes, or a vicious street thug. Like character race, narrative is an excellent measure of what is observable about your character, and the kind of first impression he makes.
A narrative provides your character with a modest set of skill or background bonuses that reflect his unique experience and training. As your character grows in experience and the tales of his deeds begin to spread throughout Thule, he may gain other benefits: The high regard and friendship of NPCs who respect individuals of his station, or perquisites such as the power to pass judgment against lawbreakers in his home city, or a pirate galley and willing crew ready to join him at his beck and call. But, more importantly, your character’s narrative provides you with built-in adventure hooks and tools for developing the story of your character across his or her career. Narrative provides you with friends, family, rivals, enemies, ambitions, questions, and fears— and you can count on your GM using those tools to tailor the Primeval Thule campaign to your character’s story.
CHOOSING A NARRATIVE
You can choose a narrative for your character at 1st level. This is an important part of your character background—it’s your character’s origin story, and describes how other people in the setting see your character. You can only have one character narrative, and usually your choice lasts for the duration of your ad- venturing career (but see Changing Narratives, below).
Each narrative is available to characters of any race or class, unless it has specific requirements. For example, the Dhari hunter narrative may make the most sense for a barbarian or ranger, but there’s no reason you couldn’t build a hunter concept around a rogue who relies on stealth and sneak attack to make quick kills, or even a druid who worships spirits of the hunt. On the other hand, the whole point of the Black Book is that its owner possesses arcane power, so a character must be an arcane spellcaster to choose the Bearer of the Black Book narrative.
Narrative overlaps the same conceptual space as systems such as character kits, themes, or traits. Ask your Gamemaster which systems he or she prefers to use in the campaign.
FOLLOWERS, INCOME, AND TITLES
Many narratives provide your character with bodyguards or loyal warriors who serve to the best of their ability, along with valuable estates or stipends and high titles. Refer to the individual pages for the special benefits your narrative provides.
Followers come in three basic varieties: Guards, raiders, or armies. You don’t have to pay them or arm them—you can assume that the benefit of gaining followers includes the ability to manage whatever wages are appropriate, provide them with equipment, and see to their room and board.
Guards are high-level bodyguards, usually numbering no more than 40 individuals. They protect your property and interests when you’re not around. They will follow you on adventures (even into dungeons) if you ask them to, but can be difficult to replace if killed.
Raiders are medium-level allies who join you for a specific task, usually not lasting more than a few days or weeks, and then disperse when the task is accomplished. Raiders normally number 200 individuals or less. They are best used to meet an unusual challenge in an adventure, such as storm- ing an enemy fortress defended by a large number of low-level troops or protecting a village from an enemy raid.
Armies (or hordes) consist of low-level warriors who serve you for a period of months. An army may number as many as 10,000 warriors. They generally can’t help you in an adventure, but they may help you solve problems that can’tbe solved by adventures. Think of an army as a story-telling device that makes interesting new adventures possible.
Your followers are very loyal and are willing to fight and die for you, but they aren’t suicidal. You can order them to take a ship and sail off to cross an ocean that has never been crossed, but they won’t obey if you order them to sail with no provisions, or if you simply order them to march into the sea. If you abuse your followers badly (GM’s discretion), they may desert; regaining their loyalty may require a special quest.
Income may derive from a direct stipend, the sale of valuable produce from an estate, rents or royalties for businesses you are entitled to oversee, or your cut of criminal activity in areas you control. You usually can’t turn income into powerful magic items or buy merce- nary champions to guard you, but it does allow you to sponsor activities or individuals you want to help out, live an opulent lifestyle, or invest in property and trade to extend your holdings.
Titles are more nebulous; after all, the value of the title depends greatly on who you’re trying to impress. In general, a high title is a lot like diplomatic immunity; most city guards won’t dare to detain or impede your character unless he poses an immediate and obvious threat to someone else of high rank. A title also grants your character access to the inner circles of power, the ability to gain audiences with rulers or high priests, and a voice in important affairs or decisions—for example, whether the ruler accepts an offer of alliance from another city, or which laws should be passed. Much like an army in your service, a high title is generally not useful for resolving an adventure, but it may make new adventures possible.
CHANGING NARRATIVES
You can select a new narrative with your GM’s per- mission. Usually this is an important and long-lasting change in your character’s fortunes or station. An ice reaver who spends a single adventure as a pirate prob- ably shouldn’t change her narrative, but an ice reaver who never intends to go back to the icy wastes in which she was born and sets her sights on becoming a great pirate captain might be ready to change her narrative from ice reaver to Golden Sea corsair. As a rule of thumb, your character must practice the new career or path he or she is following for at least one full character level before actually changing her character narrative.
When your character changes narratives, you lose the benefits of the old narrative and gain the benefits of the new as a character of equal level. For example, if you were a 5th level ice reaver and you change narrative to Golden Sea corsair, you gain the benefits appropriate for a 5th level Golden Sea corsair. (This is why you must spend a level transitioning between narratives.)
NARRATIVE DESCRIPTIONS
Depending on the game system you prefer, a character narrative grants skill or background bonuses, a special ability, bonuses to how NPCs react to you, and special story-based benefits, wealth, or high social status at higher character levels. Specific bonuses are described below
Prerequisite: If a narrative requires a character to be of a specific race, class, or group of classes, that is noted under Prerequisite. You can’t choose a narrative for your character if he doesn’t meet the prerequisites. (Most narratives don’t have any prerequisites.)
Key Identity: This is a quick summary of character races or classes that are especially appropriate for the narrative. For example, a Dhari hunter ought to be
a human of the Dhari ethnicity or a halfling (since many halfling tribes also inhabit Dhar Mesh and produce hunters of similar skill). This is not a requirement to select the narrative, only a guideline.
(Narrative) Benefits: This paragraph describes the sort of skills, talents, combat edges, or social advan- tages conferred by the narrative. See Appendix 1 for system-specific mechanics.
(Narrative) in the World: This entry explains how NPCs are likely to react to your character, and what sort of status or influence your character is likely to wield because of who he is. It also notes any special enemies or rivals of people like your character.
Personalizing the (Narrative): The narrative description concludes with suggestions about specific tribes, organizations, or cities your character may belong to. For example, ice reavers might be Bearslayer dwarves, Khatranir warriors, Hurgan riders, or Ullathi sea-raiders. These are not intended to be exhaustive lists—there are dozens of barbarian tribes that might produce ice reaver characters. Feel free to invent your own.