PITFIGHER

Not wishing to pay to feed and house two, the madam that purchased your mother sold you to the Proving Grounds, the Northern Empire's bloodiest, most notorious fighting arena. Given only enough training to assure the show isn’t over too soon, your natural prowess and survival instinct led you to one victory after another. There was no elegant swordplay, no formalized duels - just brutal melee and the stench of blood, shit, and bronze with each day’s gruesome necessities.



It is said that any fighter that slays a dozen others in the grand melee is given her freedom, but in three hundred years, only three warriors have ever walked away from the Proving Grounds. When the closing horns sounded and thirteen corpses lay about your feet, you became the fourth to be granted freedom to thunderous applause - but this autonomy was short-lived. Within days, word of your accomplishment made its way to the Archon of Justice.



LAW BREAKER

Accused of a crime you most certainly did commit, you stood before Tunon the Adjudicator, Archon of Justice, and argued your case with eloquence and conviction. Impressed by your logic, reason, and confidence, he found you guilty anyway.



It is rumored that Tunon selects many of his agents from his prisoners - who better to catch the wicked than those versed in such ways?



In his mercy, Tunon offered you the choice of two sentences: decades languishing in prison or a lifetime serving him in the court of Fatebinders. The choice was an easy one, and instead of seeing the inside of a cell, you were trained in letters and numbers, magic and war. The laws you once broke are now yours to interpret and enforce.



WAR MAGE

Few have the combination of wits and courage to be accomplished casters and warriors, and those cursed with such a combination of talents are invariably pulled from their mundane lives and assigned to the armies of the Archons. Your earliest memories are a painful slog of training, study, lecture, and exhaustion - all the elements of being groomed for battle. You knew better than to ask what became of your family, nor to question the missives allegedly penned by their hand that were part of your earliest lessons in reading.



When you reached adulthood, Tunon the Adjudicator came to the barracks and laid claim to your life. Seeing you as too valuable for the crucible of battle, the Archon of Justice deemed your life better spent dedicated to the art of punitive legal remedies. Though you had much to learn in matters of civil discourse, none could deny your bright future as Tunon's next great enforcer.



SOLDIER

Unable to settle the year's accounts with grain, your parents offered you as a tithe to the Overlord instead. Seeing your first battles as a child, you've known all your life how to fight, how to stay calm at the sight of blood and disembowelment, and how to rely on your fellow warriors. Deemed smarter than the average killer, you were groomed for command and given an education in letters and numbers.



With rumors of war, it seemed recruitment into the Disfavored legion would be the obvious match for your skills, but the Archon of Justice is known to say that good iron is not used for swords, and good minds are not used for soldiers. Claimed by Tunon, you were instead drafted into the Court of Fatebinders, where your martial skills were put to use in the enforcement of Kyros' laws.



NOBLE SCION

Born to noble parents, you were groomed for leadership - your youth spent on letters, history, rhetoric, and other matters of culture and statecraft. Though you had wealth and creature comforts, you were expected to grow up quickly and bear the honor of shepherding others through prosperity and war.



When your parents came under accusation of sedition, you were sent to the court of Tunon, Archon of Justice, to defend your family's actions. Your parents were found guilty - their sentence: the dissolution of the treasonous estate. Eloquently pleading your own ignorance on your family's actions, you negotiated your most important deal yet - immunity from the crimes of your family for the simple cost of swearing fealty to the Archon himself. Despite the unwilling induction, your education and savvy made you a valuable addition to the Archon's cadre of enforcers. And so long as you remain in good standing, your family just might be allowed to live.



APPRENTICE

Deeply proud of your intelligence, your parents always knew you were too smart for a life spent with your hands in the soil. Looking to secure a better future, your parents struck a bargain with the Seven Tree Guild, a small magical order willing to teach you letters, numbers, and magic - if you proved capable.



For several years, you learned much from the mages, mastering reading and writing faster than the rest, and eventually learned the basics of mystic theory and spellcraft. Your magical studies came to an abrupt halt when the Voices of Nerat, Archon of Secrets, deemed the Guild 'a peacetime distraction' that must be disbanded for the upcoming war, its mages assigned to proper armies. While your peers went on to other guilds, your mind was seen as too valuable to be wasted on the armies - instead, your life was claimed by Tunon, Archon of Justice.



DIPLOMAT

Though they would never tell you why, Kyros bestowed great wealth upon your family for some unmentioned service, and your parents used this wealth to have you raised far from home - your childhood was a nomadic tour of Terratus with hired tutors and fleeting friendships. Where others had stability and routine, you had a worldly and varied education.



A careless word in a far-flung city landed you in legal trouble, and you were taken before Tunon the Adjudicator and made to stand trial. Not only did you plead your innocence, but you turned the accusations around on the accuser for wasting the Court's time, and the Archon of Justice concurred. Amused by your wit, wisdom, and adaptability, Tunon claimed you as his newest enforcer.



HUNTER

When the leader of your home village spoke out of turn one time too many, agents of the Overlord put the whole town to the torch to contain the spread of insubordination. The Bounding Viper tribe came across the smoking ruins of your village, and when the Beasts’ matriarch found you frozen but unafraid, the mighty leader took you in and raised you with the protection of her tribe.



For years you lived with these wild Beastmen in their migratory homes throughout the mountains, but the Bounding Vipers were a dying breed. Each long winter took a greater toll than the last, and once the dwindling tribe was too weak to defend its lands, Disfavored soldiers came to dispense of the ravenous scavengers your tribe had become. Finding a human amongst the wild tribe, the Disfavored soldiers made a point of taking you alive. News of the wild child of the North eventually spread to the Archon of Justice - and he ordered you released from captivity and delivered unto his court.