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Lore assistance for an ilmatari Monk

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:15 pm
by Morphix90
Hello,
I want to play a lawfully good ilmatari Monk and I need some assistance with making his background-story plausible and waterproof before I'll talk to the BG Ilmataris. So suggestions and corrections in lore are desirable, especially because I'm not that good at story-telling. ;)

So here is my Story in progress, I'll post the whole story later when its *perfected*:

It's the Story of "Mogrant":

His Parents which seems to where travellers around Mulmaster where found dead after an ambush of bandits when he was a Baby. He where found near the corpses of his parents by an Ilmatari Cleric, who adopted him, told him the way of Ilmater and was a good-natured father for him. Because of his new father who was the spiritual head of the local ilmateri church in a small village. Mogrant early learned to be generous and helpfully if he's able to do so and also learned about healing. But the fact that to be a Cleric of Ilmater also means a lot of work in public with other people, he early learned that he's not made to be a Cleric and to follow his *fathers* footsteps. So his *father* send him with his consent into the monastary where he learned discipline and to defend himself or others who are in need. And also to use his abilities only when there's no other alternative. So he beacame a Monk to serve Ilmater in a way his abilities would allow him. Because of growing up within the chondathan society around Mulmaster and later beeing a Monk he would hardly give up on anything and never avoid any work that has to be done. After a while in the monestary he decided to visit other places as a pilgrim to serve all people who need a helping hand just to make Faerûn a better place. While doing so he seeks to perfecten himself in a philosophically way, to defend the weak and help those who are in need. Every failure to do so he'll count as a personal flaw on his way to live the ilmatarian way. After some years of wandering he now arrived in Baldurs Gate...

Some notes:
He's a Human Cleric(Barely the minimum amount of Charisma and cleric-levels to match the server rules) and afterwards just a Monk focused on Wisdom.

Re: Lore assistance for an ilmatari Monk

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:56 pm
by DM Golem
This really needs to be in Tips and Tricks when asking for lore assistance!

Re: Lore assistance for an ilmatari Monk

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:04 pm
by mireigi
You've obviously already put some thought into the character, and I don't see any major flaws with the background. You could, however, spice it up a little. How you wish to do that, is up to you. As I wrote, I don't see any flaws to it, except one minor, but often overlooked, detail: how the character's race and faith mix.

To get a good idea and base for your character's backstory and development, you should consider what race to play as, and take racial behaviour into account. You mentioned Mulmaster in your notes, which leads me to believe your character will be a human one. Humans living in or near Mulmater are considered Chondathan humans, which is what you'll want to read about in Races of Faerûn (p. 84 - 88).

Obviously you're playing a divine character (cleric), so you should define why it is that your character serves a god. Complete Divine (p. 4 - 5) is a good source for this. Based on that, you can adapt all or some of the Ilmatri faith, which you can find in Faiths and Pantheons (p. 30 - 31).

Finally you should determine what type of monk you want to play. Not what order the monk belongs to, but rather what drives the monk and how he views the world. Player's Handbook (p. 39 - 42) is a good source for the basics, with Player's Handbook 2 (p. 50 - 51) expanding upon it.


Race, reason to serve, patron deity, and type of monk will all combine to shape your character's personality, view of the world and the people living in it. It is a big read, specially on the race.

The server is, however, not a High RP server, so you don't have to go so deep into detail as the books above would suggest, but you will be able to find some good information that will help you define your character. Take as much or as little as you want - at least after reading the pages in the books mentioned above, you won't be breaking lore, and lore is what you asked for.

Re: Lore assistance for an ilmatari Monk

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2015 8:05 pm
by Morphix90
Post:

Sorry for posting in the wrong section. :oops:

mireigi wrote: To get a good idea and base for your character's backstory and development, you should consider what race to play as, and take racial behaviour into account. You mentioned Mulmaster in your notes, which leads me to believe your character will be a human one. Humans living in or near Mulmater are considered Chondathan humans, which is what you'll want to read about in Races of Faerûn (p. 84 - 88).
Sure, I missed to mention that I'll play a Human! I think because his parents may be just travellers and he don't have to be Chondathan himself. But I've reat the suggested section to understand Chondathan society, where he grew up. I think the workoholic-part of the people there suits good to him.
mireigi wrote:Obviously you're playing a divine character (cleric), so you should define why it is that your character serves a god.
I think I've adapted some of the suggestions there and why know should be stated more clearly.
mireigi wrote: Finally you should determine what type of monk you want to play. Not what order the monk belongs to, but rather what drives the monk and how he views the world.
The Sections about monks where a good help about how a monk should behave i some cases.
I think I could use this knowladge. For myself I'll keep the Order even if not mentioned explicitly because its near Mulmaster.

I've edited my initial post a little bit and I think I will post it in the appropriate forum later.
Thanks to your reply!