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§ 08 — Character

The Eleven Backgrounds

Character archetypes — your starting role in Solace, the +1/−1 tier modifier, your signature item, your hooks, and your perk. Each Background has its own catalogue page.

All eleven Backgrounds assume you are green — recently certified, with only a handful of Path-walks under your belt. The campaign is about your character growing into the multiverse alongside you.

Each Background defines:

  • Company status — your declared posture toward Solace at session zero (True Believer, Skeptic, Captive, Lifer, Contractor, Unclassified)
  • Tier modifier — most apply +1 in one Domain and −1 in another; the Anomaly applies none
  • Signature item options — three concrete possibilities you pick from
  • Hook prompts — three or four candidate questions your character is reaching for
  • A perk — one small mechanical edge specific to the archetype

The full prose, perk text, signature item options, and hook prompts for every Background live in the catalogue.

→ Open the Backgrounds catalogue

Quick selection guide

  • The Junior Surveyor — Core-born, fresh certification, believes in the work (or did, until Out)
  • The Native Recruit — Path opened on your home world; you came back through it as a Solace asset
  • The Defector — Came to Solace from somewhere else, with a thing to leave behind
  • The Stranded — Lost your home world; Solace is the only Path back, if there is one
  • The Specialist — Deep narrow training (medic, archivist, linguist, engineer); Solace bought your expertise
  • The Mystic — Spirit-attuned before Solace found you; you knew about the Paths first
  • The Recovered — You returned from a place that should not have let you leave
  • The Smiling Functionary — Office-side career, pulled into the field with paperwork as armour
  • The Pathwalker — Outside Solace, you found a way to cross between worlds before; now you work for them
  • The Steward — Senior, quietly subversive; you keep the team alive against the metrics
  • The Anomaly — Unclassified. You don't quite fit any of the above. No perk, no tier mod — an unfinished sketch shaped by play
End of section · Doc P-08 · 15 sections total