PC Backstory Street Library

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I think that it's brilliant , myself.

And of course lack of education and opportunity isn't the same as stupid-our Caliban protagonist might be convinced of his own stupidity thanks to years of indoctrination, only to find out in the field that he's more skilled than he knows, has several natural talents that he thought were useless or has an ear for languages when exposed to enough casual conversation:

Bevel-and I assure you, you won't find a better transportation rate in this entire city. You will find that the price is more than fair. Do we have a bargain?

Borcan ambassador (native tongue)-you are from here, looming one...does he give a fair bargain?

Aurek (in crude Borcan)-he knows you not speak like him, he thinks you stupid. He rob you at half that price, he laugh in his palm at stupid Borcan man. You should insult him loud and leave more loud.

Borcan ambassador-Your rate is frankly insulting! If you had uttered such gibberish in my land the ruler would have had your tongue cut out! Who DARES run a business so laxly as to place a drooling IDIOT like you in position where MONEY is involved? You will never see a single coin of mine-no, that is too harsh, I will have my bodyguard compensate you out of pity for your crippling condition. Have someone count it for you so that you know it's value! (leaves in a huff )

Aurek (places a single copper coin on the desk and hammers it into the surface with a fist-it is now one with the desk forever. Holds up a single, highly insulting finger) That was ONE. One is less than two and more than zero. Again, one. ONE. One is more than you deserve. (leaves with swagger).

Bevel (looks at ruined desk in horror while a voice in the back of his head wonders why that hulking monster sounds so familiar)

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Next I go to... Bestials!

Many women claim, if alone in the woods, they'd rather meet a bear than a man. I myself know not what to think of the matter - and in our misty realm, it's bold to assume these are the only two options - but I have to admit I absolutely agree if said bear is Daeg Johnson.
Daeg (bestial caliban druid2/rouge1) grew up in a farm on the edge of the Lightless Wood, herding his parents sheep. He was especially good at that, as he understood the sheep's speech and his appearance scared wolves away. This instilled a certain confidence in him, that helped him through everything that came later. He was the oldest of five siblings, out of them only the second youngest, Felix, shared his deformity (though the latter's was more rabbit-like in appearance). His childhood had been fairly peaceful, isolation sheltering him from strangers' hatred and contempt.
It all changed when his father decided to quit farming and started an office job in Port-A-Lucine, taking the family with him. Daeg was taken straight from his quiet forest to the midst of the bustling city, from homeschooling to a 40-kids-large classroom, and from not even knowing he's strange to hearing slurs on daily basis. High-school was the worst for him. The kids bullied him, and the teachers didn't see the point in trying to teach an 'animal'. Eventually he stopped showing up, instead wandering the streets around the institution, where he quickly befriended the wrong kind of people.
Daeg spent most of his adolscence looking for trouble - vandalism, drugs, minor theft - anything that will make his parents finally realise how bad the city was for him. Eventually he ran afoul of the Gendarmerie and was arrested, spending a few days in a cell before being freed due to lack of evidence. During that time, he befrinded Eliot Fay, a witchspawn caliban who had been falsely accused of the murder of a night club performer in the same area. Feeling strange kinship to the fellow freak, Daeg decided to help the detectives in clearing faer name and capturing the real culprit. (More about that in my upcoming fanfic, 'Irreplaceable')
The crime-solving itself was a one-time thing for him, so far. But during the investigation, he grew familliar with Port-A-Lucine's small but diverse nonhuman community, where he was finally seen as something other than a monster. In the year that passed, he started taking his life back into his hands. School was out of the question, but he left the crime world, started a job at the local dog shelter, and is reconsidering his purpose in life. He wants to somehow help other young calibans in Port-A-Lucine, but is unsure how.
Alanik Ray might ask for his aid again in an investigation, or he might be driven to protect his family (biological or chosen) from a new threat of his own volition if the gendarmerie seems to be useless, but as it is he had his share of adrenaline and is very content with the new life he built for himself.
Personality-wise, Daeg is an island of calm in a city where everyone seems to be in a hurry. He's good with both people and animals, and though numbers and letters tend to jumble in his head, he has this casual but profound life-wisdom of someone who'd been through some shit and came out okay. He has his own open belief system that incorporates stuff from Hala, the druidic teachings he learned as a kid and a bit of the Souragnien 'Loas'. He's a regular in Le Cheval Rose, a tavern known as a gathering place for the city's misfits (which will also be elaborated upon in the fanfic mentioned above), and is quite unaware that some of the guys there are actually into his furry looks. A dude like him - calm and responsible but strong enough to take down the xenophobic thugs often coming to disturb the clients & monstrous-looking enough to make them think twice before even trying to - is actually an asset to the place, so it's with nothing but love and respect that they nickname him 'The Bear'.
However, not all of Daeg's friends from his mildly-criminal era had recovered this well. Some got worse. At least one, Lucas Lefebvre (Tiefling Rouge 4), is working for The Living Brain now, and is determined to drag Daeg down with him. If Daeg doesn't join his nefarious plots willingly, Lucas might resort to threatening those he loves most: His little brothers.
(Sorry guys, no short-fiction piece this time. I just didn't have a good enough idea - Daeg is a man of slow processes, not single dranatic moments. You'll have some scenes with him in my Alarthur fanfic soon.)

[Manofevil]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

It know. I always struggle with this in fanworks for pre-modern fantasy worlds. I'm a 12th grader, and school is a huge part of my life (for better or worse), so even when I know it doesn't make sense for the setting, I don't know how to fill the gap.

[Mistmaster]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

Lamordia, Mordent, Zherisia, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Dementlieu are all compatible with a modern public school sistem. Other domains can have church operated public schools like Nova Vaasa.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

Lamordia, Mordent, Zherisia, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Dementlieu are all compatible with a modern public school sistem. Other domains can have church operated public schools like Nova Vaasa.

Zherisia has a public school system & compulsory education law (though I'm not sure if that's canon or netbook-canon) and is probably the domain most suitable for a school-centered story. I was considering to tranfer Daeg to there, but that would clash with other elements of the story (for example, how did he get there from Mordent).
Dementlieu canonically has some of the best schools in The Core, but they seem to all be private.
Mordent and Lamordia, if I remember the Gazeteers correctly, both value education but mostly in the form of home-schooling - though it makes sense that as the timeline progresses they'd establish public education.
As of the Gaz era, Hazlani education is reserved for Mulan and conducted mostly through foreign teachers (cause racial/class segregation there is extreme to the point of stupidity), but the Red Academy is already starting to change stuff (gosh, I love how the Red Academy is both a great equalizer that would undoubtly have a role in fighting the domain's rascism and an extremely evil establishment for completely other reasons. That's the sort of thing I read Ravenloft worldbuilding for.)
Actually, I had this weird fanfic idea of Tara Kolyana starting a church-funded school in Hazlan, as a missionary project. But most Lawgiver-worshipping humans aren't too hot on letting their kids be converted, even for free education, so most of her students are either halflings and gnomes (who are less devouted to the Iron Faith anyway) or calibans (nobody cares for the souls of those considered evil from birth. Do whatever you want with those, just please take them away from us.), with the occassional especially open-minded Rashmeni. At first she sees this as a faliure and tries to appeal to the majority population, but then realises she has an actual chance to promote a few of the most oppressed groups in the domain and it's more important than gaining more converts - eventually downplaying the missionary aspect of the school to the minimum required for the Praesidius to have a reason to fund them and focusing on giving the students an equal opportunity.
I'm at odds about Falkovnia. Cause on the one hand, the education system is often abused by dictators to spread propaganda and indoctorinate to obedience. Today's kids are tommorrow's adults, and in the long term there's no easier way to convince an entire country of a completely stupid notion than sneaking it into the textbooks. Hitler was very thorough with this, even starting a youth group dedicated to the nazi values and making it mandatory for all kids in the country. On the other hand, I can't imagine Vlad Drakov ever getting over his contempt for anything that takes a brain for long enough to realise this principle. I don't remember what canon says on that.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

My Bestial PC got criticsm for (arguably) being anachronistic to the setting (I took notes and will check this out before writing his RitM version), so my Banshee one is gonna be one directly stemming from the established worldbuilding! Just to show you I *did* pay attention while reading Gaz 3. And cause it's a sick idea I had beforehand.

The girl kneeled in front of the altar, her flowing black hair falling on the floor, her white lips muttering a silent prayer.
"Hello, Ezra," She whispers, her tone almost casual. When you were raised in a temple, it's easy for the holy to become normal. You just get used to it. The girl wished people would get used to her; instead, it seemed they only grow more nervous around her the longer they stay. "It's been... Quite a day. I'm still processing it all...
"You see - you probably already know, you're a goddess, I just don't have anyone else to rent too - The day started okay. Toret Mina sent me to town to make errands, so while I was there I paid a visit to Mike. He's feeling a little better, which is good - I was really worried for him this winter. I said I'd pray for his quick recovery, but he said I shouldn't bother, cause his illness 'isn't the sort you really recover from'. I'm still praying, though - if you can't heal him, can you at least make sure he won't have flares like this last one again? He doesn't deserve that much pain, even if I wish he hadn't said what he said today.
"You see, I knew Mike is a medium since the first time we met, but it took me nearly a decade to ask him that. I guess that when I was little I didn't really understand what ghosts are - like, I knew, but didn't really internalise. They were just another magical creature, like fey or mermaids. When you're little, you don't really understand that 'spirits of the dead' means spirits of people who died. Like, normal people. Your best friend's grandma etc. Especially if you don't really know anyone who died. Cause I don't. And even when I saw him interviewing Widow Marina's husband or Fred Whitby's uncle, I never thought about it, cause I never really thought about myself as of a girl who lost her parents. I just didn't have any. Some kids have Mom and Dad, I have the anchorites. Never thought about it. It's all so normal when you're little. Only this year I started wondering what happened to them, how did they die... So it came to be that only today I asked to talk to them. Mike tried to summon them, but said he couldn't sense their spirits anywhere. I asked what could hide them from him, but he said he knows the feeling of a ghost who's magically bound or hidden. With my parents, it just felt like they aren't undead. Either they moved on - which practically never happens in this country - or they're still alive.
"I was excited - maybe I can find them, and... I don't know, could be nice to have an actual family instead of a stuffy Toret whose solution to everything is a fake 'inspirational' story and some puns. But Mike watched me with this weird look, and he was like 'I don't want to spoil your joy, but... If your parents left you alone, are you sure they're the sort of people you want as family?"
"I said it's really kinda weird, and asked if he thinks they didn't love me. He said... He said it's hard to love kids like us, touched by death before they even came into life. When I asked what he meant, he said he doesn't know enough to diagnose, but from what he'd seen, he always thought I was 'somewhere between life and undeath'. He thought that's what brought us together. Maybe he wanted to explain more, but I couldn't bear to listen, I just ran away, even forgot my tasks. I took the first carriage back to Threestones, and asked Toret Mina why did my parents abandon me here. She said... She said I was cursed at birth by a vengeful ghost haunting my village, and sending me away was the only way to avert the curse. Then just asked me why I forgot to buy incense! Ma'am, you can't just - I mean, what does it mean? Like, am I still cursed, or the curse was averted? Am I human? Am I even alive?!"
The girl sighed. "I really don't know, when I think about it. Like, am I alive? It sounds simple - I breath, I sleep, adults say I'm pretty smart, I eat and drink normal food, not blood or anything... But how many living girls have white lips? Toret Mina always says I'm too pale and should eat more meat, but every time I try I just can't stand it - every bite fills my mind with thoughts of death and gore... And what if that's why the other kids in Threestones never stay around me, even though I'm always nice? What if they just look at me and see death?
"And what do you think, Ezra? How did you feel all these years, hearing prayers from my impure lips? Do I even have a right to kneel in your temple?" The girl broke into tears. "Am I... Am I part of the Legions of the Night? Can I be one without knowing it? Can a kid just be born a sinner?" Her heart was racing as she collapsed, burying her face in her arms. "Please tell me I'm not, our Lady in the Mists! Please let me know I shall not be named 'Death' forever! My entire life I'll ask for nothing more! Just give me a sign I have a place among your Pure of Heart."
The girl lied there, weeping, for what could be a moment or a century, but was most likely about five minutes. Eventually, a brown-haired woman of forty or so wearing priestess' vestiments entered the room and noticed the temple's ward was lying in front of the altar.
"Acolyte Adira, are you napping in the prayer hall?" Asked the anchorite.
"No, Toret Mina!" Adira quickly stood up. "I was just praying!"
"Horizontally?"
"I guess..."
The Toret's expression softened. "Are you still bothered by our conversation this noon?"
Adira nodded shyly.
"I'm sorry I haven't told you before." She put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "You just never asked, and I didn't know when would be the right time... Honestly, I wished you could grow up and lead a normal life, without being labeled - "
" - as a monster." She said it bluntly. "A dead girl walking. An abomination onto Ez - "
" - Don't call yourself that!" The normally calm priestess was now breathing heavily. "Let's calm down, Adira. Do you want to hear a story?"
"No..."
"So once upon a time, there was a young woman who fell victim to the Black Widow. She was defiled and turned into a creature of the night, her veins filled with poison, and enslaved to the wicked woman. She was sent to infiltrate the church and assassinate a young anchorite."
"Ooh, violent." Adira chuckled. "Now I'm hooked in."
"Her cover story was that of a novice acolyte, which involved a great deal of learning. At first, she saw her theological studies as merely another part of the ruse, but one day she stumbled upon a verse in the Second Book of Ezra:
"Ezra accepted this, saying, “So shall it be. But if the legions of the night can be brought out of the darkness, then that is the role they have chosen in the grand scheme, and they shall stand in your legions no more.”
The Mists of Death were silent."
Seeing that, she realised even the darkest of monsters can be redeemed, abandoned her plots and fully devoted herself to Our Lady."
"And let me guess," Adira rolled her eyes. "That girl became the Praesidius?"
"Just a bastion."
"Lol. Never happened."
"Kids these days are so cynical..." The anchorite sighed. "My point is... Well, when I was a little older you and studied for priesthood, I spent a year at Ste. Mere des Larmes. The anchorites there love to philosophize about silly questions like 'can Ezra create a rock she cannot lift?'. But I was always fascinated by another question: Can Ezra create a person that has no place among her Pure of Heart? I've been debating this my entire life. But the more people I meet, I know that no, she can't. Not even the drinker of blood and the beast that rends are without hope - let alone a pious girl like you, who can't even eat a sausage without feeling sorry for the poor lamb!"
Adira supposed that's the best she'll ever get from the Toret. That was her way of comforting people. She wasn't her mother, but she was trying her best to fill the gap.
"Many people, I'm afraid, will judge you for what you were born as." She said sadly. "But don't believe for a moment that Ezra - or I - am one of them."

Adira is your average Mordentish Wailing Woman. Her biological parents, superstitiously fearing her birth to be an ill omen, left her in the care of the next village's church. Growing up first in the Toret's house then in a small room of her own at a little-known corner of the temple, Adira wasn't terribly neglected, but still got the impression that she isn't the first priority of any adult in her life. She was mostly left to herself other than some religious schooling and occasional chores, and put this free time to good use, exploring the countryside and looking for adventures. She quickly made friendships with kids in and out of the village, but they rarely lasted long: There was just something off-putting about her, an 'uncanny valley' effect no one could put the finger on, that made kids and adults keep her at arm's length.
The one man who never kept her away was Micheal Jendalis, whom she met accidentaly on her first visit to Mordentshire, and was ever since as friendly as could be appropriate between a six-years-old child and an adult not related to her by blood. They were simply the only two people who weren't even a little disturbed by each other's ghostly streak.
As she grew up, Adira grew aware of her unusual nature, which was quite a shock, but had a surprisingly accepting envoirment - even the less progressive anchorites agreeing that even if the girl was a 'child of the night', she was 'one of the good ones'. Few people even resisted when, in her late teens, she decided to join the clergy - bastion Otrava was especially supportive.
What did surprise people, on the other hand, was her choice to become a paladin. Numerous concerns rose: How would she handle quests in more heavily biased lands? Is she healthy enough for the martial side of the job? But Adira didn't have the patience to sit around studying scripture and preaching to villagers. She wanted to do something good in the world here and now - and maybe to prove herself she's a hero rather than a monster. She has a dozen arguments why she deserves to wear the church's armour just like any 'normal' person, but is a lot less confident than she shows, secretly anxious that she's just as bad as the undead she fights.

Statistics-wise, I'd make her an 'oath of devotion' paladin, but one less concerned about what seems lawful and honorable to old-fashioned men and more about the oath's actual tenets (being honest, protecting the weak without hesitation & giving personal example.)
The paladin's strength of will and faith (aka charisma) comes naturally to Adira, but she had to train twice as hard as any other knight to withstand the physical demands (i.e. Invest some points to balance out her constitution malus if you want her to live.) I also imagine her being expert or at least proficient on the Religion skill - knowledgable enough to win debates against fanats and bigots who think they speak for the goddess, even though she's too jumpy to fully dedicate herself to research when there are villains to fight, innocents to protect and sights to see.
Important note: Adira's full level-one character sheet will be posted in the RitM thread!

[Manofevil]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

Lamordia, Mordent, Zherisia, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Dementlieu are all compatible with a modern public school sistem. Other domains can have church operated public schools like Nova Vaasa.

I have to disagree that any of the realms are in any way compatible with a modern public school system. At most, They would be just beginning the industrial standardization version. For a while, these listed domains do hav Rudimentary public school systems, They still end at an early age in which the student is expected to either
A) take up their parents, occupation,
B) enter into an apprenticeship with a standing trade.
C) join an army, or
D) join the church.
Each of the listed domains also have your university and/or college available for those able pay the tuition. And then of course, there are magic schools which do things in their own way. So I must again say do not expect anything resembling modern education as we know it in the real world today.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

A 20 years old soldier from Tovag, traveling beyond the Burning Peaks for the first time and is unaware of how his domain affects age (as in, he thinks it's perfectly normal for humans to be mature by the age of 9 and live around 40 years.)
Now, he sees himself as the experienced veteran that can mentor the other party members. In reality, most of them are around his age if not older, far more knowledgable in the ways of the world, and more suitable for life of adventure in terms of physical prowess.
So he, like, expects to be the star, but ends up as both the dumb kid that needs everything explained to him and the 'old' guy whose back always hurts after combat etc. He starts the campaign massively overconfident, then slowly realises how awkward he seems to everyone else, and has to work with it.

IDK who would want to play this, cause it's a character written as a loser, but I find it funny and I had to take it out.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

I want to complete the caliban series with a Witchspawn, but I find it hard, cause witchspawns are basically the nerd subrace. They're smarter than average, relatively weak, often isolative and aloof as response to society rejecting them... That's me. That's half of my friends. Even the darker parts about them being patronising to non-spellcasters and 'the most removed from concepts of love and friendship' is parallel to the 'nerd to incel' pipeline, Aspie supermascists & all sort of other shit I've seen multiple times on some nerd/neurodivergent spaces. (Thankfully not on most, and certainly not on this site. Y'all are surprisingly wholesome for a bunch of horror-obssessed Gen-X guys.) It's too close to home. I find it hard to write a witchspawn who isn't at some level either a self-insert, extremely similar to an existing OC of mine (Talyn Truefinder, a quirky human wizard with hEDS, a fondness for geology and a talent for getting in and out of trouble), or leaning into the darker sides of the subrace (as with Jinxie, my character from the 'VRS Monster Hunting Academy' roleplay*, who's constantly getting involved with dark magic spaces like The Red Academy or the in-world FoS because fae's so afraid of judging people too severely like most people judge faer that fae tend to ignore the red flags when stuff crosses the line between 'weird' and straight-up 'evil'.).

I think I have an idea, actually. Maybe I'll make one that is a self insert, but of my... Less flattering sides.

*Do you think we should revive that one?

"Shut up, Zilber!" The taller boy pushed the shorter one against the wall.
"Dude, stop! What are you, a caliban?" The shorter kid pushed him in return.
Yarden overheard them. This was unfortunate, as previously she was highly absorbed in 'What If: Serious Arcanic Answers to Ridiculous Questions', and the chapter on bacteria familliars was undoubtably both more intelligent and more interesting than her classmates' brawl.
"Your mama's a caliban!"
Should I tell them? Yarden wondered.
"Don't you dare involve my mother!"
Nah, they'll probably just get mad at me. She sighed. If they even hear me through the shouts.
"I'll call your mama whatever I want," the first kid said, and that includes a filthy, ugly cali - "
That's enough.
"Ugh... Hi guys..." Yarden got up, waving with one hand and holding her book behind her back with the other. "I'm not mad, cause you probably didn't know this, but I'm a caliban - and I find it really offensive when people use my identity as a slur. It's like if I went around calling people I don't like 'hey, you gnome!' - it'd be more offensive to gnomes than to the people I'm trying to insult."
She shrugged, hoping she seems more nonchalant than she felt.
"Wait - you aren't supposed to call people 'gnomes'?" The bully seemed puzzled.
"He calls me that all the time." Zilber explained.
"Like, how am I supposed to insult people?" The former asked.
"That's the neat part - you aren't!" She smiled brightly. "Kindness - isn't it awesome?"
"Wat?"
"Like, ever tried to just be nice to people?" Yarden asked. Probably never occured to him.
He diplomatically ignored the question, if such reasoning can be attributed to such a foolish being without giving it too much credit.
"You don't look like a caliban." He stated.
"My pointy hat hides the horns." She shrugged, watching him trying to decide whether or not she's joking, "I put sponge in my boots to fill the empty space, I've actually got hooves down there. Wanna see?"
"No, I don't wanna see your stinky hooves!" He startled. "It's just that, you, like, read..."
"Oh, I'm not of the big and stupid kind!" She quickly clarified. "I'm of the super smart and magical kind! It's a pretty wide spectrum, you see, and usually people only talk of the lower end..."
The boys nodded and went away. Yarden glanced at the sundial at the middle of the yard befire going back to her book.
One PM. Only three hours till the day ends.
Three hours till Yarden goes home, and has to meet... The lower end of the spectrum.

Most parents get panicked when their child turns out to be a caliban.
Yarden (Witchspawn Caliban, Wizard 1)'s parents were only relieved that she was relatively human-passing and didn't seem to suffer from the same cognitive limitations as her sister, Asy (Brute Caliban, Bard 1), two years her senior.
Troughout their childhood, Asy was pretty much locked in the basement, while Yarden got to study first from the best private teachers, then at the Red Academy's new junvile program (which was theoretically meant for magically and intellectually gifted youth, but in practice was more than half-filled with stupid rich kids). Yarden was taught to make a clear separation: She was a caliban of the 'good' kind - clever, productive, able to act normal - while her sister was of the bad kind, an accident that could never really be part of human society, barely even a person. As she grew up, Yarden abandoned the pretense of normalcy and decided to be proud of her strangeness, but was still secretly ashamed of the girl in the basement.
During Yarden's final year at the program, she noticed Asy was never seen anymore during her visits back home - but as the family generally preferred to pretend the young woman doesn't exist, it was hard to bring up the topic.
For the last term, Yarden and her classmates had to perform their first experiment on a live, humanoid subject. She hoped it was the sort when the subject stays alive, but never really dedicated a thought to where the academy brings them from.
That is, until she entered the laboratory and found Asy - starved and drugged, her body covered in shimmering scars, but still recognisable.
She's still under the effects of the failed horror save from that day, but she managed to function for long enough to convince two of her teammates to help her free her sister (the third, Zilber, is still upset at them for ruining the project and forcing him to take the course a second time, and might decide to wreck vengence upon her).
Yarden and Asy are on the run now, adventuring together and trying to stay one step in front of Hazlik's soldiers. Asy is excited and confused to see the outside world for the first time in her life, and Yarden is trying to be supportive of her interests (especially her surprising musical talent), but still mentally struggles with the patronization she'd internalized throughout their childhood. Also, life on the roads had revealed to Yarden for the first time her own disabilities: She gets tired and stiff a lot faster than a girl her age is supposed to, and has a strange tendency to dislocate some organ at least once a day - while Asy withstands the hardships of the journey with no trouble, and often has to defend her in combat.

I actually gave you two PCs this time. (Very loosely based on me and my sister - both autistic, different functioning labels and completely clashing personalities - though fortunately neither of us was never locked in a basement or exposed to inhumane magical experiments or anything.) Run them together! Maybe bring in Natasha from the neighbooring Nova Vassa for an all-caliban, all-female party!

(Note: I would like to explore further the idea of Hazlan seperating calibans to two categories: Brutes, Bestials and Cannibals are considered little more than mindless monsters and often murdered for being abominations onto the Lawgiver or used as test subjects for mages' depraved experiments, while Banshees and Witchspawns are said to 'compensate' for their freakishness with mental and magical power considered an asset to the country. Not because it's a good idea, but because it's analogous to the ableistic crap I've heard so many times. Just because we have different abilities and support needs doesn't mean we don't belong in the same community, or can't help eachother, or that one is worthier or more valid than the other. There's no 'high' and 'low' functioning - we're all part of the same family.)

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

So 'Premier to the Umbra Peoples' in QtR 28 presented, alongside 5e conversions of the caliban subraces, a host of other spooky races - including playable versions of monsters.
I have mixed opinions on some of the game design choices (for example, a lot of the races are said in the flavour text to have a certain downside that their mechanics just don't reflect. I think they should: for players who want to play a 'cursed' character option, the downside is often part of the player fantasy. Also, the caliban subraces lost the versatility the OG Brutes & Banshees article offered. I get why converting all 100 deformities would've been too much work for the writer, too much text for the word count and too mechanically heavy for the players, but I think there could've been a middle-ground.), but I absolutely love the concept.
So how about I go through these too?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Let's start with the carrionette.
As a lifelong lover of dolls, plushies, puppets and everything in between, I deeply believe that a sentient doll doesn't have to be evil. There's no reason why we can't peacefully co-exist.

Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides that dispute me...

Helen climbed down the stairs as fast as eir tiny legs allowed them. Stupid invention, stairs - convienient only for one size of people.
Ey couldn't really step down those things - they had to jump, over and over again. Jump, jump, jump, jump...
"Hi, Lily's dad! Hi, Lily's mom!" Ey burst into the bedroom. "You have to call the doctor. Now."
The two grown-ups stirred, still sleeping. Helen climbed up the bed, using the blanket end as a rope, and woke them up by shouting and tickling.
"Anne is injured! Badly! I tried to bandage her, but there was a ton of blood - I'm not sure she's gonna make it..." Ey cried. "You have to save her. Please."
"What?" The couple exclaimed simultaneously.
"Your daughter was nearly killed tonight. She needs to go to the hospital. Do you want me to take her there, or are you gonna wake up already?"
"What... Are... You?" The mom asked hesitantly.
"I'm Helen Ray, your daughter's action figure. Nice to meet you." Helen gritted eir teeth. These adults need everything explained, don't they? Can't they see it's an emergency?
"You're... A talking puppet?"
"Action figure." Helen corrected. "Lily's been trying to tell you I'm sentient for ages, you were just too damn busy to listen - that's beside the point now. Just call the dam hospital."
"Sure, sure..." The dad pinched himself, as if to make sure this isn't a dream.
"What happened to Lily? How did she get injured?"
"I'm not sure... I heard screams in the middle of the night. A small figure - about my size - couldn't see their face - was standing over her chest, holding a knife - I tried to fight them off, but they wounded her before I could get to them. Got hurt too, but I'll be fine."
"How? Why would anyone want to hurt our little girl?" She asked, shivering.
Helen sighed.
"I don't know," ey forced out the painful truth, "But I suspect there's another one like me."

Ever since The Casebook of Alanik Ray was translated to Zhestrian, the character of the elvish detective had grown surprisingly popular among Paridon's kids - and multiple merchants hopped on the bandwagon coming up with themed toys (The real Alanik and Arthur aren't getting any royalties on those, by the way, and are considering a lawsuit).
Helen started its existence as one of these toys: a painted lead doll marketed as 'action figure' for boys who think playing with dolls sounds too girly. Helen, ironically, was bought by the then 8-years-old Lily Berman, who decided to genderflip em just for fun. (Helen feels both genders ey were assigned are equally arbitrary, and personally feels like eir gender is simply 'toy'.)
Yes, Lily was a pretty weird girl. Fortunately, this weirdness also meant she stayed fiercely loyal to Helen, even when other kids her age stopped playing with dolls - and was rewarded when their emotional bond brought Helen to life.
The girl and the action figure (not doll! that's a big difference! ) were best friends. Lily took Helen with her to school, to family gatherings, to vacations etc, and so Helen gained a much wider common knowledge than most carrionettes.
But it all ended when Lily was attacked.
The girl thankfully survived, but had been camatose for a few weeks now. Helen has no idea who could stand behind the murder attempt - who in the mists has a vendetta against a 7th-grader?! - but eir most likely theory is that another toy in the house was secretly a carrionette, of the more sadistic variety.
As they can't do much to help Lily heal, Helen dedicated themself to investigating the crime, living up to the person in whose image they were made. Eir original plan was to test all toys in the house for signs of life, but soon after ey started, three of them mysteriously disappeared.
Who are they, which is the culprit, and what are they up to? I don't know, but you can find out if you suggest Helen to your players and put this hook into your campaign!

Personality-wise, Helen has the mind of a gifted pre-teen: Ey are very clever and knowledgeable, but lack emotional maturity.
Non-construct adults' response to their presence typically ranges from surprise through denial to outright questioning their own sanity, so Helen's impression of their kind so far is of silly, unimaginative and easily panicked people. Kids tend to be more accepting of what they see with their own eyes, so Helen views them as smarter and is wondering what causes this strange decline in common sense as they age.
Ey was recently made aware that lead is toxic in long-term exposure, so ey's trying to avoid phyaical contact with people who aren't undead or fellow constructs.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Next I'm going for... Broken Ones!

Broken Ones come in incredible variety - they can be humanoids turned more animalistic or animals turned more humanoid, as well as have the traits of any of the billion animal species on earth (like, seriously. Ever thought of an axolotl broken one? A capybara broken one? An armadillo broken one?), and that's before we're getting started with who turned them into one and why.
I already have 3 ideas for broken one characters, but I know which I'm starting with.

"I'm not some glorious knight of ancient days. I'm a broken man. Do you hear me, Syl? I'm broken."
She zipped up to him and whispered, "That’s what they all were, silly!"
- Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson

Kalidia stared at the page, realising she'd been reading the same paragraph over and over again for ten minutes, and was no closer to understanding it. That's it. She couldn't stand it anymore. She let out a groan of despair.
"I even sound like a beast." She sighed. Frankly, the fact her vocal cords were human enough to speak reasonably-understandable Vassi was a medical miracle in and of itself. But considering everything else, it was hard to appreciate.
"Hey," Aurek offered words of comfort from the other side of the campfire. "Some of my best friends sound like beasts. Look like ones, too. Everyone has their oddities - some people remember etymology fun facts better than their schedule, some people like their kebab with pineapple, and some people are half-camel! No big-deal."
"You don't get it." Kalida rolled her eyes.
"Trust me, sis, I probably get it more than anyone else in this part of the mists." The giant shrugged. "I've been called my whole life 'freak', 'simpleton', 'creature'... Eventually you realise it's all bunkers. 'Normal' is overrated. I can do everythin' 'normal' people can."
Tara twisted a skewer over the fire. Kalidia glanced at her. The cleric was old by adventurer standards - nearing fifty - and stubbornly non-violent, but Kalidia had to admit she was useful. Every party needs someone to be the voice of common sense, the one who can handle human interaction without starting civil wars by mistake. And she had these... Powers of hers. Kalida never believed before that a god other than the Lawgiver can grant divine magic, but what Tara did couldn't be fake. Kalida refused to imagine the maternal, humble woman making deals with fiends and the like for her supernatural talents. She figured out it was like moonlight: The lesser gods only reflected the Lawgiver's power, but they could still enlighten mortals with it.
"I don't think you fully understand Kaly's experience." Tara shook her head. "You were born with your unusual form, Aurek. You don't know anything else. It feels natural to you. You haven't gone through the torture Kaly had suffered. I doubt you know what it's like to have your body violated like this, to look in the mirror and see a face that's just not yours."
Every word stung Kalidia, reminding what she didn't want to remember. It was the memories that turned her into an animal, far more than the body they'd created.
"It must be even harder for people from your culture, right?" She asked. "You must be thinking what you've done to deserve this, what inner flaw this disfigurement was put on you to reflect. There isn't one, let me tell you. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, no reason why. Ezra can't protect us from everything. You can rage against it, try to solve it or just accept it - but never, ever, believe you deserve it."
Aurek nodded.
"They'll try to make you think you deserve it." He added. "They'll try to take away your humanity, your dignity, your identity - But they can never really do that, as long as you know who you are. You know you're a proud, brilliant, woman, and nothing they can say can change that. Your body might be different, but your mind and soul are just the same."
"Only that it doesn't." Kalidia admitted. "My brain isn't what it used to be either. I don't know if it's the shock or that the stupid wizard physically messed with it, but it just doesn't work anymore. I've been trying to read this thing for a week - " She held high the tome in her furry fingers (at least her hand fingers were still human-length. Another small mercy.)
" - Armasen's Noder Endeligt?" Tara raised an eyebrow. "Nobody understands Armasen. I tried for years - I've always believed it's important for a warden to be in open conversation with the religions of the people she's working among. I asked Melkior Vandais once and he said even he barely gets half of it. At this point I doubt even the Himmelsk Naeve knows more than that."
"Armasen uses a very poetic language. His books are best described as half a theological treatise and half an epic saga." Kalidia explained. "The thing is, I read one of his other books - Skyde Forbrydeise when I was sixteen, and pretty much understood him. Now I don't. Something is clearly off."
"Maybe you're just tired?" Asked Tara. "We all are. The borders were closed for two hours before we started to get going, and this was a busy day."
Kalida retreated back to her book - this time not even trying to concentrate, simply using it as a shield from the need to answer. She didn't think even the anchorite knew what it's like to be truly broken.

Kalida Amir (Broken One, Monk 4, LG, she/her) was born and raised in the rapidly changing Hazlan of the 760s and 770s. She was determined to become the first Rashmeni in the Iron Faith's clergy - not out of any rebeliousness, but out of deep devotion to the Lawgiver, confident that small traditions and prejudices are minor compared to his grand and perfect justice. The mainstream church rejected her request, but she found acceptance in an esoteric monk order.
While in training, she happened to encounter Tara Kolyana. Though from rival faiths, the two women quickly found many things in commmon, being two idealists trying to improve a deeply broken society. Tara was convinced that the only way to fix Hazlan was to normalise the presence of more liberal religions in the domain, while Kalida aspired to change things from inside the Iron Faith, but their goal was the same. Eventually, Tara recuited her to her new adventuring party for [whatever quest that fits the backstory you campaign needs], possibly including Aurek (Tara met him during a visit back in Borca and kinda took him under her wing.). But things went horribly wrong when they got in trouble with the authorities and Kalidia found herself imprisoned and tortured in The Tables. Her comrades managed to rescue her, but not before Hazlik left her with a camel's head and feet, short light-brown fur all over her body and a strange hunch that distantly echoes a hump. The worst consequence, however (at least in Kalidia's eyes) was the loss of her intellectual capacity: Once a genius, she now has an Intelligence score of 7, struggling with reading, short-term memory and maintaining concentration. Her Wisdom is still higher than average and her Dexterity has only improved, though, so thankfully this doesn't affect her class abilities too much. Though Kalidia's party members accept her as she is now and still see her as a valueable part of the team, she still angsts over the gap between her past and current abilities, as well as the fact her chances to be accepted into the Iron Faith's formal clergy are now lower than ever (not to mention her trauma from the transformation process itself). Kalida is truly and utterly broken - body, mind and spirit. She would struggle due to that even if society was perfectly accepting. But she might find out that broken people are often the ones who fix the world.

Statistics wise, I'd like to suggest as Kalida's monastic tradition Pointy Hat's 'Way of Flesh' https://docs.google.com/document/d/1INi ... it?tab=t.0 , which gives the monk's theme of 'using their own body as a weapon' a more literal twist, for extra body-horror flavour - not as the tradition of the order she studied at, but as her way to combine her fleshcrafted body's advantages with her martial training.
As I already said, I imagine her with unusually low intelligence strangely contrasted by her being roleplayed as a reasonable woman capable of curiousity, analytical thought and self-awareness (to reflect that she's a smart person simply stuck with a malfunctioning brain), high wisdom, high dexterity, average strength and constitution and pretty low charisma that might improve at later character levels as she learns to accept her disability and regains confidence.
I'd also give her the 'skilled' feat: Kalida would have a ton of intelligence-related skills from her pre-transformation time, which she can still recall despite the brain damage she suffered, meaning her proficiency in those would be higher than her current intelligence score should allow.

[Mistmaster]

TheArcaneWeirdo, I like the basis of the character you wrote up here but your reference to High School took me out of the story. It’s my understanding that very few if any of the realms in RavenLoft are Industrial Revolution level. By that I mean here is a breakdown of schooling systems as they have come to be:
The modern public school system emerged in the 19th century. Driven by the Industrial Revolution and nation-building, reformers created mass, standardized education to homogenize populations and produce literate factory workers. In the US, this "common school" movement was pioneered in the 1830s by Horace Mann in Massachusetts.The evolution of modern schooling happened in a few key historical phases:
The 17th Century (Colonial Roots): Early schooling primarily focused on religious instruction (e.g., reading scripture) rather than secular subjects. The Massachusetts Bay Colony instituted some of the earliest compulsory education laws in 1642.
The 1830s–1850s (The Common School Movement): Horace Mann championed a tax-supported, free public education system modeled loosely after the Prussian system. He envisioned schools as great equalizers that could instill civic virtues and basic academic skills.
The 1870s–1920s (Industrial Standardization): As the US and Europe industrialized, universal education laws were coupled with child labor laws. Schools adopted a factory model—grouping students by age, utilizing bells, and standardizing the curriculum—to create disciplined, punctual, and compliant workers.
The 20th Century to Present (Civil Rights & Equity): The modern era saw a heavy emphasis on equal opportunity, ending segregation, integrating students with disabilities, and creating federal oversight to ensure baseline standards


So public usually one room house school is fully believable but a fully developed elementary/middle/high school system isn’t really something I could see being in RavenLoft.

Lamordia, Mordent, Zherisia, Hazlan, Falkovnia and Dementlieu are all compatible with a modern public school sistem. Other domains can have church operated public schools like Nova Vaasa.

I have to disagree that any of the realms are in any way compatible with a modern public school system. At most, They would be just beginning the industrial standardization version. For a while, these listed domains do hav Rudimentary public school systems, They still end at an early age in which the student is expected to either
A) take up their parents, occupation,
B) enter into an apprenticeship with a standing trade.
C) join an army, or
D) join the church.
Each of the listed domains also have your university and/or college available for those able pay the tuition. And then of course, there are magic schools which do things in their own way. So I must again say do not expect anything resembling modern education as we know it in the real world today.

If you read my articles on Lamordia Falcovnia and the rest you will see that they are all compatible with a modern public education. Recruitment in the army starts at eighteen you want people abke to lift a sword in your army. Recruitment in the church start at sixteen at least even if the can study in the church baked school before that age. And you can help your parents or get apprentiship while completing the kast few years of school. I think that a from 6 to 15 is a compatible compulsory school time This is how I see it.