5e Background Directory

Acquisitions Incorporated

Celebrity Adventurer's Scion

Your family name strikes fear and admiration in the hearts of the common folk - but that's got nothing to do with you. Songs and stories celebrating the adventuring exploits of your famous parent are widely known. Kids across the land grew up wishing they were you. But being the child of a famous adventurer wasn't all hugs and kisses... In the end, all you have to show for your lineage is your name. Most of the family's money went for consumables, from potions of healing and spell scrolls to copious amounts of dwarven ale. And everyone expects you to swing a sword or sling spells like your famous forebear, making it doubly hard for you to prove yourself.
Failed Merchant

Maybe you come from a long line of merchants. Perhaps you were an entrepreneur. Regardless, your ventures ended poorly. Whether it was because of outside influences, bad luck, or simply because your business acumen was weak, you lost everything. With failure, however, comes experience. You're free of that old life, having made some connections and learned your lessons. Prepared to pursue the life of an adventurer, your insight into the world of commerce brought you into the sphere of Acquisitions Incorporated - and a franchise just might be in your future.
Gambler

All you need to make a lot of gold is a little gold. Except at those times when all you need to have no gold at all is a little gold. Whether you're a good gambler or a bad one rarely matters, because no one can divine the whims of Lady Luck. Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. But the thing about gambling is that someone is always willing to take a bet.
Plaintiff

Sure, accidents happen. But they seem to happen an awful lot when Acquisitions Incorporated operatives are on the scene. Naturally, nothing ever happens when there are no witnesses left behind. But sometimes one casualty is left a little less than dead, just waiting to discover what a lucky break that accident actually was. You were a victim of a legal incident that was ostensibly the fault of Acquisitions Incorporated. At least that's what the local magistrate said. But before a final ruling could be handed down, Acquisitions Incorporated offered you a job! Don't know how to swing a sword? They promised to teach you! Think you have what it takes to sling spells? They've got masters who'll have you throwing fire in no time!
Rival Intern

You were an intern at a rival of Acquisitions Incorporated, and you gained a healthy respect for not just the job and the franchising opportunities, but for the ruthless and efficient way Acquisitions Incorporated goes about its business. Why deal with the rest, when you can work for the best? Perhaps the rival did not treat you as well as you were hoping, or you washed out of that organization. Maybe you hope to leverage the knowledge you gained there for an advantage at Acquisitions Incorporated. Either way, you're now bringing your talents to the company, ready to put your skills to use.

Curse of Strahd Backgrounds (AL: Curse of Strahd)

Black Fist Double Agent

You are an informant for the Tears of Virulence who now lord over Phlan, but are also a double agent for original town guard of Phlan, the Black Fists. For the Tears you've been tasked with ferreting out the secrets of Phlan's criminal underworld, insurgency, and the common peoples of Phlan. In exchange for reporting on the activities of dissenters, criminals, and other rebel elements, the Tears of Virulence leave you alone to conduct your affairs in peace.
Dragon Casualty

When the Maimed Virulence descended upon Phlan, you were one of the unfortunate casualties of war. Captured during the initial assault, you have spent the last year of your life as a plaything of a capricious and malevolent overlord. While many of your fellow prisoners fell to the dragon's insatiable fury over the coming months, you and your fellow "survivors" were spared only for a worse fate as one of the dragon's magical experiments, leaving you and those who survived the torture scarred and disfigured. What reasons the dragon had for releasing you few survivors, nobody knows. You only fear that those who died under his terrible claw were the lucky ones, and you and your fellow Dragonscarred are doomed for a fate worse than death.
Iron Route Bandit

The Iron Route, once the primary trade route between Phlan and Zhentil Keep, used to be a site of extensive banditry until the Phlan's recent occupation. Your time as an erstwhile bandit has given you plenty of experience in the saddle and a knack for acquiring and appraising other people's mounts, pets, and vehicles, among other things. This particular set of skills has become very lucrative for you by working for the underground as a horse thief for a local guild of thieves and other shadowy organizations.
Phlan Insurgent

The taking of Phlan by Vorgansharax is a clear memory in your mind. You were going about your everyday business when the green dragon's forces spilled out of the sewers and assailed your home. Many of Phlan's citizens, young and old alike, were captured, killed, or offered as tribute to the Maimed Virulence. You, yourself were one of those captured. But, either with the help of adventurers or through your own wits and sheer determination, you escaped. Rather than flee the region, you've chosen to stay and fight.
Stojanow Prisoner

When everyone was fleeing Phlan, you choose to stay. Whether out of an emotional attachment, or pursuit of riches, you made the decision that would affect the rest of your life. Food became scarcer for those without connections. You became a beggar and to stay alive you bartered information to any interested party with food or gold to spare. You were good at what you did, and thought you were invincible. That changed when you were captured by the Tears of Virulence, the soldiers of Vorgansharax, the Maimed Virulence, for selling secrets to those bent on overthrowing the dragon. They locked you in the cells of Stojanow Gate. The first weeks you hoped to stay alive. As the weeks turned into months, and the interrogations continued you began to pray for death.
Ticklebelly Nomad

You were born into a nomadic tribe that called the Ticklebelly Hills home. You migrated from location to location, living off the land with your tribe. The tribe would seasonally travel south into the Grass Sea and the Giant's Cairn, north into the Dragonspine Mountains, and even occasionally east across the Stojanow River to the borders of the Quivering forest. In your migrations, your people have come to know the stone giant tribes that populate the Giant's Cairn. The dragon cultists came to the hills one day-magic-users wearing purple and riding horrid beasts, black-clad warriors wearing wicked masks, and even soldiers from the nearby town of Phlan. Then the dragon called Vorgansharax arrived and laired in the hills, causing horrid thickets to grow and animals to act unusually. The cultists began raiding nomad camps for victims to offer to the wyrm. Eventually, the dragon moved on to attack Phlan, but life was never again the same for the nomads of the Ticklebelly Hills.

Descent Into Avernus

Faceless

Being who you are, you could never be a hero. Whether due to your class, your people, your family, or your sins, something about you prevents you from effectively pursuing the path you've chosen. Even so, that doesn't stop you. You've left your old face behind, taking on a new persona, becoming something more. Characters with the faceless background don a disguise - literally or otherwise - as they adventure. This persona might be dramatic or subtle. In a way, though, many characters have such larger than life personalities. Therefore, this background largely focuses on detailing the hero behind the mask.

Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Also found in Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

House Agent

You have sworn fealty to a dragonmarked house. If you possess a dragonmark, you're likely a member of one of the house's influential families; otherwise you're an outsider who hopes to make your fortune through the house. Your primary task is to serve as the eyes of your house, but you could be called upon at any time to act as its hand. Such missions can be perilous but lucrative.

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount

Grinner
The Golden Grin began in the far-off land of Tal'Dorei, trading secret messages through a network of bards and minstrels to undermine an iron-fisted king's authoritarian rule. Today, Tal'Dorei is a relatively peaceful republic, and some Grinners have grown restless while waiting for tyranny to raise its ugly head again... You are a Grinner. Your goals are to spread freedom and inspire hope - or, in time, revolution - in the hearts of the oppressed.
Volstrucker Agent
The Volstruckers are a clandestine organization of arcane assassins and enforcers in the service of the Cerberus Assembly. Their operatives bear no official title, but are referred to in hushed tones as "scourgers" by residents of large Dwendalian cities such as Zadash and Rexxentrum. You are a Volstrucker agent. Your duty is to silence dissidents who would undermine the will of King Dwendal - and more importantly, the will of the Assembly.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Fisher

You have spent your life aboard fishing vessels or combing the shallows for the bounty of the ocean. Perhaps you were born into a family of fisher folk, working with your kin to feed your village. Maybe the job was a means to an end — a way out of an undesirable circumstance that forced you to take up life aboard a ship. Regardless of how you began, you soon fell in love with the sea, the art of fishing, and the promise of the eternal horizon.
Marine

You were trained for battle on sandy beaches and rocky shores. You have launched midnight raids from swift ships whose names evoke terror in the hearts of your adversaries. The water is your second home, the rain your shelter, and the crashing waves your battle cry.
Shipwright

You have sailed into war on the decks of great ships, patching their hulls with soup bowls and prayers. You once helped build a fishing vessel that single-handedly saved a town from starvation. You have seen a majestic prow in your dreams that you have not been able to replicate in wood. Since childhood, you have loved the water and have been captivated by the many vessels that travel on it.
Smuggler

On a rickety barge, you carried a hundred longswords in fish barrels right past the dock master’s oblivious lackeys. You have paddled a riverboat filled with stolen elven wine under the gaze of the moon and sold it for twice its value in the morning. In your more charitable times, you have transported innocents out of war zones or helped guide herd animals to safety on the banks of a burning river.

Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

Azorius Functionary
The brutes are at the gate, chaos is looming, and the only thing standing in the way of disaster is the foundation of law and order — as embodied in the Azorius Senate. You're a proud member of the Azorius guild, which both enacts and enforces the laws that make Ravnican society function smoothly and safely.
Boros Legionnaire
As a member of the Boros Legion, your life is devoted to the service of angels and consecrated to the work of establishing justice and peace on the streets of Ravnica. You might be a true believer, inspired by the example of the angels, moved by the plight of the downtrodden, and devoted to the cause of justice. Or you could be a cynic in the ranks, perhaps because you reluctantly followed in the footsteps of a Boros parent, succumbed to the persuasion of a charismatic recruiter's lofty promises, or were drawn in by the prospect of a life of action.
Dimir Operative
You're a spy. Secrets and misinformation are your stock in trade. You skulk in the shadows, infiltrate other guilds, and steal the most precious secrets, whether they're written in locked journals or hidden away in someone's mind. Even you might not be aware of all the reasons behind the missions you carry out. Sometimes a mission's sole purpose is to conceal the motivation behind another strike performed in a different part of the city, or simply to spread fear.
Golgari Agent
You are a member of a teeming horde — one small part of a sprawling organism. Just as you are part of the swarm, the swarm is part of a larger ecosystem, a never-ending cycle of life, death, rot, and rebirth. You have spent your life in the slow churn of that ecosystem, in the dark places of the city where the messy parts of existence are on display. There is little squeamishness among the Golgari, no fear of death or taboo about the dead, just a fierce affirmation of the cycle.
Gruul Anarch
The entire world of Ravnica is a sprawling metropolis, but you are a native of the wild areas that still exist — the abandoned districts, the rubblebelts, the overgrown parks, and the crumbling ruins. You are part of a savage society that clings desperately to the Old Ways — attuned to nature, full of primal rage, and given short shrift by a world consumed with continuing civilization's march of progress.
Izzet Engineer
Armed with an inventive intellect, a love of magical technology, and an unquenchable energy, you are an enthusiastic participant in the research work of the lzzet League. Though you're likely to begin your career as a mere attendant, you can aspire to become a skilled mage or alchemist, a laboratory supervisor, or even a flamethrower-wielding scorchbringer tasked with defending lzzet laboratories. The Izzet are obsessive, brilliant, inspired, and an unpredictable force of chaos in Ravnica, and you epitomize all of those qualities.
Orzhov Representative
The prospect of immense wealth is the promise of membership in the Orzhov Syndicate. All of the guild's endeavors channel wealth from Ravnican society into the ranks of the Orzhov — and concentrates the spoils at the top of the hierarchy. As a functionary in that system, your best hope is to claim as much as possible of the money that passes through your hands on its way up, so that you can work your way into a more prominent position.
Rakdos Cultist
You're an entertainer at heart, a performer with a flair for the dramatic and a love of the spotlight. You've spent years honing your craft, mastering a demanding set of skills so you can perform them with panache and make them look easy. The wild applause, the screams of the crowds, the mayhem and terror spreading into the streets — this is what you live for. You're also a member of a cult devoted to an ancient demon who delights in violence and chaos.
Selesnya Initiate
You are a member of a blessed community, built on the ideals of harmony. Here, nature and civilization coexist peacefully, living and growing in accordance with the will of the Worldsoul, Mat'Selesnya. As a member of the Selesnya Conclave, you are surrounded by people and other creatures who share your worldview and your longing for deeper spiritual communion with the world, and you have a fervent desire to share the joy you have experienced with Ravnica. Along with the rest of the conclave, you are committed to resisting the ambitions of the other guilds — with military force if necessary.
Simic Scientist
Imagine a perfect world: one in which nature and civilization exist in harmony, adapted to each other; one in which life is shaped to match its environment and the environment is shaped to match life. That's the world you have been trying to grow in the laboratories of the Simic Combine. Nature is all about adaptation, evolution, and balance — but for it to keep up with the pace of advancing civilization, nature needs some help from biomancers and terraformers.

Hillsfar Regional Character Options and History (AL: Rage of Demons)

Cormanthor Refugee

You are one of hundreds of refugees that were driven from Hillsfar or that fled the destruction of Myth Drannor and who now shelter in hidden camps under the northern eaves of the Cormanthor Forest. If you up grew in the camps, you have never been to a settlement other than the village of Elventree. As a guest of the elves, you have learned their ways and the ways of the forest. You are also a traumatized, as residual wild magic, energies released by the fall of Thultanar upon Myth Drannor, and the constant fear of raids hunting for non-humans to fight in Hillsfar's Arena have taken their toll on you, as they have on everyone in the camp.
Gate Urchin

All traffic into and out of the City of Trade passes through the Hillsfar Gate, making it the ideal place for the destitute to gather to panhandle, busk, gossip, and pick pockets. You grew up on the streets in the shadow of that great steel edifice, which houses both Red Plumes and Guild Mages. Though you may have moved on, you still have friends among them, and that life has had a lasting impact on you.
Hillsfar Merchant

Before becoming an adventurer, you were a successful merchant operating out Hillsfar, the City of Trade. Your family operated warehouses, organized caravans, managed stores, or owned a ship and has trade contacts throughout the Moonsea region, as well as up and down the length of the Sword Coast. Perhaps they import ore, uncut gems, untreated furs, or grain into the City of Trade, or they export fine cloth, faceted gems, fine furs, or Dragon's Breath, a brandy-like liquor. Regardless, you've largely given that life up for some reason and have chosen to seek adventure instead. Nevertheless, the training you received then, and perhaps the contacts you made, serve you well as an adventure.
Hillsfar Smuggler

Hillsfar is the City of Trade. However, the Great Law of Trade only protects "legitimate" trade, trade that passes through the city's sole gate, which the Red Plumes monitor and tax. And the Great Law of Humanity banishes non-humans from the city altogether. The two Great Laws create great demand and great risk for smugglers, who shepherd illicit goods and non-humans into and out of the city by secret routes. The Rogues Guild tightly controls all of this activity, takingits cut from sanctioned jobs and exacting punishment for independent jobs.
Secret Identity

Even though you are a non-human, despite Hillfar's Great Law of Humanity, you continue to live in the City of Trade. You do so by maintaining a secret identity, forging documents, and wearing a disguise. Few, if any, know you aren't human.
Shade Fanatic

You grew up at a time when the wizards of Netheril were at war with the elves of Cormanthor. You recall sitting cross-legged hearing the stories of the glorious Thultanthar, also called the Shade Enclave and the City of Shade, and aspired to study there and maybe even did, for a time. Your dreams came crashing down a few years ago when Thultanthar fell from the sky upon Myth Drannor.
Trade Sheriff

You are one of the many people that make sure the trade routes are clear at ALL times. You assure that the Great Law of Trade is followed at all costs. You work by yourself or in groups to quell bandits and brigands who might stop trade routes from going through. You investigate potential ambushes and possible rumors as to someone wanting to rob or stop caravans. You are as much an investigator as you are law enforcement.

Mulmaster Bonds and Backgrounds (AL: Elemental Evil)

Caravan Specialist

You are used to life on the road. You pride yourself at having traveled every major tradeway in the Moonsea region, including the best backroads and shortcuts. When traveling these roads, you know where the best inns, campsites, and water sources are located, as well as potential locations of danger such as ambush. Having worked the roads as long as you have, you have made many aquaintences and find it easy to pick up information and rumors floating from town to town. You are skilled with beasts of burden and handling and repairing wagons of all kinds.
Earthspur Miner

You are a down-on your luck miner from the Earthspur Mountains who is no stranger to hardship. You have spent a great deal of time living among the dwarves, goliaths, and denizens of the Underdark that also work mines in the area. At this point, you're just as comfortable working underground as above. You know how to read a seam, dicker for supplies with the deep gnomes, party with dwarves, and find your way back to the surface afterwards. Unfortunately, you haven't struck it rich... yet. Although you've come to Mulmaster looking for work, the tall peaks and deep mines of the Earthspurs still call to you.
Harborfolk

You are one of the hundreds of small-time fishermen and women who haul the bounty of Mulmaster's freshwater harbor to the city's markets each morning. You have spent countless days rowing in the waters in and around Mulmaster and know them and the other fisherfolk, dockworkers, and port inhabitants better than anyone. Though you have left that life behind, you still visit once in a while.
Mulmaster Aristocrat

From your hilltop home, you have looked down (literally and perhaps figuratively) on the unwashed masses of Mulmaster for your entire life. Your fur-trimmed robes and training in the visual and performing arts mark you as wealthy and perhaps well-born; you are a member of the City of Danger's aristocracy.
Phlan Refugee

Gone are the happier days of walking into the Laughing Goblin Inn after a hard day's labor. Everything has changed, and you are lucky to be alive. Back in Phlan you could count yourself among those street-wise folks who knew when to pay a bribe and who to work with to make a living. Your ability to listen to the winds of change have saved you before, and this time they allowed you to be one of the lucky few who escaped Phlan with something more than just the shirt on your back.

Mythic Odyssey of Theros

Athlete
You strive to perfect yourself physically and in execution of everything you do. The thrill of competition lights fire in your blood, and the roar of the crowd drives you forward. Tales of your exploits precede you and might open doors or loosen tongues. Whether in one of the poleis, between them, or among the nonhuman peoples of Theros, physical contests and those who pursue them command respect bordering on reverence. Athletes arise from all walks of life and all cultures and quite often cross paths with one another.

Planeshift: Amonkhet

Dissenter

Even in the carefully constructed and curated city-state of Naktamun, and in the presence of the five gods, some people rebel against the doctrines of the God-Pharaoh. They don't challenge the existence of the gods, of course, for those gods are visible nearly every day in the streets of the city. Nor do they question the fact of life after death, which is plain to see in the anointed mummies that surround them, as well as the marauding mummies outside the Hekma. Rather, these dissenters simply refuse to follow the ordained course of life that leads to the glorious afterlife.
Initiate

You are an initiate, on the path to completing the trials of the five gods in the hope of earning a glorified death in the final Trial of Zeal. Some combination of your natural aptitude, your crop's needs, and your teachers' assessment while you were an acolyte led you to focus your training in one particular area of specialization — hand-to-hand combat, long-range combat, or spellcasting. But only a well-rounded initiate can be called truly worthy of the afterlife. Some dissenters are spurred by fear, not wanting to subject themselves to a violent death in the trials (or in training for the trials). Some are moved by conscience, unwilling to kill their crop-mates in the trials. For while they cannot deny that the gods exist, they can deny that the gods are just — and can fight to prove that the dictates of an unjust god need not be obeyed.
Vizier

You are a vizier, a servant of your god. You perform tasks that are essential to facilitating the initiates' journey, so the gods reward you with entry into the afterlife with the God-Pharaoh's blessing. You hope to achieve the most honored status in the afterlife by being the best possible servant to your god.

Planeshift: Innistrad

Inquisitor

Historically, inquisitors were cathar detectives who investigated crimes both mundane and supernatural. They were known for traveling to remote parishes plagued by unexplained murders, and for exposing werewolves living among normal humans. During Avacyn's absence, when the archangel was trapped within the demonic prison known as the Helvault, the inquisitors led a series of brutal forays into Kessig and the Gavony Moorland. They executed suspected lycanthropes with little or no proof, and punished accused heretics in unsanctioned trials. With Avacyn's madness, this savage form of inquisition has become the norm, and inquisitors who still pry into dark mysteries have become a minority.

Player's Handbook

Acolyte

You have spent your life in the service of a temple to a specific god or pantheon of gods. You act as an intermediary between the realm of the holy and the mortal world, performing sacred rites and offering sacrifices in order to conduct worshipers into the presence of the divine. You are not necessarily a cleric; performing sacred rites is not the same thing as channeling divine power.
Charlatan

You have always had a way with people. You know what makes them tick, you can tease out their heart's desires after a few minutes of conversation, and with a few leading questions you can read them like they were children's books. It's a useful talent, and one that you're perfectly willing to use for your advantage. You know what people want and you deliver, or rather, you promise to deliver. Common sense should steer people away from things that sound too good to be true, but common sense seems to be in short supply when you're around.
Criminal

You are an experienced criminal with a history of breaking the law. You have spent a lot of time among other criminals and still have contacts within the criminal underworld. You're far closer than most people to the world of murder, theft, and violence that pervades the underbelly of civilization, and you have survived up to this point by flouting the rules and regulations of society.
Entertainer

You thrive in front of an audience. You know how to entrance them, entertain them, and even inspire them. Your poetics can stir the hearts of those who hear you, awakening grief or joy, laughter or anger. Your music raises their spirits or captures their sorrow. Your dance steps captivate, your humour cuts to the quick. Whatever techniques you use, your art is your life.
Folk Hero

You come from a humble social rank, but you are destined for so much more. Already the people of your home village regard you as their champion, and your destiny calls you to stand against the tyrants and monsters that threaten the common folk everywhere.
Gladiator

A gladiator is as much an entertainer as any minstrel or circus performer, trained to make the arts of combat into a spectacle the crowd can enjoy. This kind of flashy combat is your entertainer routine, though you might also have some skills as a tumbler or actor. (Variant of Entertainer)
Guild Artisan

You are a member of an artisan's guild, skilled in a particular field and closely associated with other artisans. You are a well-established part of the mercantile world, freed by talent and wealth from the constraints of a feudal social order. You learned your skills as an apprentice to a master artisan, under the sponsorship of your guild, until you became a master in your own right.
Guild Merchant

You don't craft items yourself but earn a living by buying and selling the works of others (or the raw materials artisans need to practice their craft). Your guild might be a large merchant consortium (or family) with interests across the region. Perhaps you transported goods from one place to another, by ship, wagon, or caravan, or bought them from traveling traders and sold them in your own little shop. In some ways, the traveling merchant's life lends itself to adventure far more than the life of an artisan. (Variant of Guild Artisan)
Hermit

You lived in seclusion — either in a sheltered community such as a monastery, or entirely alone — for a formative part of your life. In your time apart from the clamor of society, you found quiet, solitude, and perhaps some of the answers you were looking for.
Knight

A knighthood is among the lowest noble titles in most societies, but it can be a path to higher status... One of your commoner retainers is replaced by a noble who serves as your squire, aiding you in exchange for training on his or her own path to knighthood. (Variant of Noble)
Noble

You understand wealth, power, and privilege. You carry a noble title, and your family owns land, collects taxes, and wields significant political influence. You might be a pampered aristocrat unfamiliar with work or discomfort, a former merchant just elevated to the nobility, or a disinherited scoundrel with a disproportionate sense of entitlement. Or you could be an honest, hard-working landowner who cares deeply about the people who live and work on your land, keenly aware of your responsibility to them.
Outlander

You grew up in the wilds, far from civilization and the comforts of town and technology. You've witnessed the migration of herds larger than forests, survived weather more extreme than any city-dweller could comprehend, and enjoyed the solitude of being the only thinking creature for miles in any direction. The wilds are in your blood, whether you were a nomad, an explorer, a recluse, a hunter-gatherer, or even a marauder. Even in places where you don't know the specific features of the terrain, you know the ways of the wild.
Pirate

You spent your youth under the sway of a dread pirate, a ruthless cutthroat who taught you how to survive in a world of sharks and savages. You've indulged in larceny on the high seas and sent more than one deserving soul to a briny grave. Fear and bloodshed are no strangers to you, and you've garnered a somewhat unsavory reputation in many a port town. (Variant of Sailor)
Sage

You spent years learning the lore of the multiverse. You scoured manuscripts, studied scrolls, and listened to the greatest experts on the subjects that interest you. Your efforts have made you a master in your fields of study.
Sailor

You sailed on a seagoing vessel for years. In that time, you faced down mighty storms, monsters of the deep, and those who wanted to sink your craft to the bottomless depths. Your first love is the distant line of the horizon, but the time has come to try your hand at something new.
Soldier

War has been your life for as long as you care to remember. You trained as a youth, studied the use of weapons and armor, learned basic survival techniques, including how to stay alive on the battlefield. You might have been part of a standing national army or a mercenary company, or perhaps a member of a local militia who rose to prominence during a recent war.
Spy

Although your capabilities are not much different from those of a burglar or smuggler, you learned and practiced them in a very different context: as an espionage agent. You might have been an officially sanctioned agent of the crown, or perhaps you sold the secrets you uncovered to the highest bidder. (Variant of Criminal)
Urchin

You grew up on the streets alone, orphaned, and poor. You had no one to watch over you or to provide for you, so you learned to provide for yourself. You fought fiercely over food and kept a constant watch out for other desperate souls who might steal from you. You slept on rooftops and in alleyways, exposed to the elements, and endured sickness without the advantage of medicine or a place to recuperate. You've survived despite all odds, and did so through cunning, strength, speed, or some combination of each.

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

Lorehold Student

You have spent your youth preparing to be a student of Lorehold College, reading every book on the college's recommended reading list for prospective students. Your academic passions are in the broad field of history. You might dream of using magic to contact great historical figures or your own ancestors or of recreating the mighty magic of a distant age.
Quandrix Student

In preparation to become a student of Quandrix College, you have spent years working through the college's math problems for prospective students. Your interests concentrate on the mathematical principles and patterns found in the natural world. You might lean more toward mathematics or physics, or you delve into more abstract studies of metaphysics, arcana, or logic.
Witherbloom Student

You filled your childhood with rudimentary alchemical experiments, all in the hope of becoming a student of Witherbloom College. The life sciences are the focus of your reading, which include biology and necromancy. Brewing strange concoctions with medicinal properties, exploring the anatomies of monsters, and cataloging swamp flora are the kinds of studies you might pursue at Witherbloom College.
Prismari Student

You are an artist, and you have been preparing to hone your craft according to the traditions of Prismari College. Whatever your medium-sculpture, dance, paint, music, drama, architecture, or any other field-you have grand visions of bringing your art to life in a fusion of magic and creativity.
Silverquill Student

You have spent years practicing your writing and oration in the hope of becoming a student of Silverquill College. Your studies focus on language, literature, and the power of words, both magical and otherwise. The metaphorical power of words to illuminate or conceal is joined with the literal ability of magic to do the same in your academic pursuits.

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

City Watch

You have served the community where you grew up, standing as its first line of defense against crime. You aren't a soldier, directing your gaze outward at possible enemies. Instead, your service to your hometown was to help police its populace, protecting the citizenry from lawbreakers and malefactors of every stripe.
Clan Crafter

The Stout Folk are well known for their artisanship and the worth of their handiwork, and you have been trained in that ancient tradition. For years you labored under a dwarf master of the craft, enduring long hours, and dismissive, sour-tempered treatment in order to gain the fine skills you possess today. You are most likely a dwarf, but not necessarily — particularly in the North, the shield dwarf clans learned long ago that only proud fools who are more concerned for their egos than their craft turn away promising apprentices, even those of other races.
Cloistered Scholar

As a child, you were inquisitive when your playmates were possessive or raucous. In your formative years, you found your way to one of Faerun's great institutes of learning, where you were apprenticed and taught that knowledge is a more valuable treasure than gold or gems. Now you are ready to leave your home — not to abandon it, but to quest for new lore to add to its storehouse of knowledge. The most well known of Faerun's fonts of knowledge is Candlekeep. The great library is always in need of workers and attendants, some of whom rise through the ranks to assume roles of greater responsibility and prominence.
Courtier

In your earlier days, you were a personage of some significance in a noble court or a bureaucratic organization. You might or might not come from an upper-class family; your talents, rather than the circumstances of your birth, could have secured you this position. You might have been one of the many functionaries, attendants, and other hangers-on in the Court of Silverymoon, or perhaps you traveled in Waterdeep's baroque and sometimes cutthroat conglomeration of guilds, nobles, adventurers, and secret societies.
Faction Agent

Many organizations active in the North and across the face of Faerun aren't bound by strictures of geography. These factions pursue their agendas without regard for political boundaries, and their members operate anywhere the organization deems necessary. These groups employ listeners, rumormongers, smugglers, sellswords, cache-holders (people who guard caches of wealth or magic for use by the faction's operatives), haven keepers, and message drop minders, to name a few. At the core of every faction are those who don't merely fulfill a small function for that organization, but who serve as its hands, head, and heart. As a prelude to your adventuring career (and in preparation for it), you served as an agent of a particular faction in Faerun.
Far Traveler

You are from a distant place, one so remote that few of the common folk in the North realize that it exists, and chances are good that even if some people you meet have heard of your homeland, they know merely the name and perhaps a few outrageous stories. You have come to this part of Faerun for your own reasons, which you might or might not choose to share. Although you will undoubtedly find some of this land's ways to be strange and discomfiting, you can also be sure that some things its people take for granted will be to you new wonders that you've never laid eyes on before.
Inheritor

You are the heir to something of great value — not mere coin or wealth, but an object that has been entrusted to you and you alone. Your inheritance might have come directly to you from a member of your family, by right of birth, or it could have been left to you by a friend, a mentor, a teacher, or someone else important in your life. The revelation of your inheritance changed your life, and might have set you on the path to adventure, but it could also come with many dangers, including those who covet your gift and want to take it from you — by force, if need be.
Investigator

Rarer than watch or patrol members are a community's investigators, who are responsible for solving crimes after the fact. Through such folk are seldom found in rural areas, nearly every settlement of decent size has at least one or two watch members who have the skills to investigate crimes or track down criminals. (Variant of City Watch)
Knight of the Order

You belong to an order of knights who have sworn oaths to achieve a certain goal. The nature of this goal depends on the order you serve, but in your eyes it is without question a vital and honorable endeavor. Faerun has a wide variety of knightly orders, all of which have a similar outlook concerning their actions and responsibilities. Though the term "knight" conjures ideas of mounted, heavily armored warriors of noble blood, most knightly orders in Faerun don't restrict their membership to such individuals.
Mercenary Veteran

As a sellsword who fought battles for coin, you're well acquainted with risking life and limb for a chance at a share of treasure. Now, you look forward to fighting foes and reaping even greater rewards as an adventurer. Your experience makes you familiar with the ins and outs of mercenary life, and you likely have harrowing stories of events on the battlefield.
Urban Bounty Hunter

Before you became an adventurer, your life was already full of conflict and excitement, because you made a living tracking down people for pay. Unlike some people who collect bounties, though, you aren't a savage who follows quarry into or through the wilderness. You're involved in a lucrative trade, in the place where you live, that routinely tests your skills and survival instincts. What's more, you aren't alone as a bounty hunter in the wild would be: you routinely interact with both the criminal subculture and other bounty hunters, maintaining contacts in both areas to help you succeed.
Uthgardt Tribe Member

Though you might have only recently arrived in civilized lands, you are no stranger to the values of cooperation and group effort when striving for supremacy. You learned these principles, and much more, as a member of an Uthgardt tribe. Your people have always tried to hold to the old ways. Tradition and taboo have kept the Uthgardt strong while the kingdoms of others have collapsed into chaos and ruin. But for the last few generations, some bands among the tribes were tempted to settle, make peace, trade, and even to build towns.
Waterdhavian Noble

You are a scion of one of the great noble families of Waterdeep. Human families who jealously guard their privilege and place in the City of Splendors, Waterdhavian nobles have a reputation across Faerun for being eccentric, spoiled, venal, and, above all else, rich. Whether you are a shining example of the reason for this reputation or one who proves the rule by being an exception, people expect things of you when they know your surname and what it means.

Tomb of Annihilation

Archeologist

An archaeologist learns about the long-lost and fallen cultures of the past by studying their remains — their bones, their ruins, their surviving masterworks, and their tombs. Those who practice archaeology travel to the far corners of the world to root through crumbled cities and lost dungeons, digging in search of artifacts that might tell the stories of monarchs and high priests, wars and cataclysms.
Anthropologist

You have always been fascinated by other cultures, from the most ancient and primeval lost lands, to the most modern civilizations. By studying other cultures' customs, philosophies, laws, rituals, religious beliefs, languages, and art, you have learned how tribes, empires, and all forms of society in between craft their own destinies and doom. This knowledge came to you not only through books and scrolls, but also through firsthand observation — by visiting far-flung settlements and exploring local histories and customs.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

Haunted One (Also found in Curse of Strahd)

You are haunted by something so terrible that you dare not speak of it. You've tried to bury it and run away from it, to no avail. Whatever this thing is that haunts you can't be slain with a sword or banished with a spell. It might come to you as a shadow on the wall, a blood-curdling nightmare, a memory that refuses to die, or a demonic whisper in the dark. The burden has taken its toll, isolating you from most people and making you question your sanity. You must find a way to overcome it before it destroys you.
Investigator

You relentlessly seek the truth. Perhaps you're motivated by belief in the law and a sense of universal justice, or maybe that very law has failed you and you seek to make things right. You could have witnessed something remarkable or terrible, and now you must know more about this hidden truth. Or maybe you're a detective for hire, uncovering secrets for well-paying clients. Whether the mysteries you're embroiled in are local crimes or realm-spanning conspiracies, you're driven by a personal need to hunt down even the most elusive clues and reveal what others would keep hidden in the shadows.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Feylost

You grew up in the Feywild after disappearing from your home plane as a child. Perhaps you were spirited away by kindly Fey who thought you were destined for great things. Perhaps you stumbled through a fey crossing by chance during a twilight stroll in the woods. Perhaps you were kidnapped by evil Fey but escaped from their clutches. Whatever the manner of your disappearance, you gradually fell under the Feywild's spell and learned a little about the nature of the mercurial tricksters that dwell there. When you finally returned to your home plane, you did not come back unchanged. You are haunted by the fact that the Feywild—a mirror world hidden behind a mere twist of perception—is only a hair's breadth away. Although your memories of the Feywild grow fainter with each passing day, your heart swells with a mixture of fear and joy at the prospect of one day venturing back to the Plane of Faerie—your home away from home.
Witchlight Hand

You crept into the Witchlight Carnival as a child or youth and never looked back, earning a place among those who work behind the scenes to keep the carnival in business. As a hand, you work hard and party hard. The carnival has borne you to many fantastic worlds, circling back around to your home world once every eight years, but you know almost nothing about these worlds because you spend all your time in the carnival... Maybe you joined the carnival to escape a dismal life at home, or maybe you were enchanted by the idea of visiting new places or the dream of becoming one of the carnival's star attractions. Now that you're older, carnival life has lost some of its appeal. The daily routine has grown tedious, the cyclical nature of the carnival's journey monotonous. The carnival no longer fills your heart with a sense of wonder. Perhaps greater adventures await you beyond the carnival's gates.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: Background Directory

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition: Background Directory

Acquisitions Incorporated

Curse of Strahd Backgrounds (AL: Curse of Strahd)

Descent Into Avernus

Eberron: Rising from the Last War

Explorer's Guide to Wildemount

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

Hillsfar Regional Character Options and History (AL: Rage of Demons)

Mulmaster Bonds and Backgrounds (AL: Elemental Evil)

Mythic Odyssey of Theros

Planeshift: Amonkhet

Planeshift: Innistrad

Player's Handbook

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos

Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide

Tomb of Annihilation

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight