I think I have stated before that in the current campaign I am playing in, both of my characters, Lazlo and Amadeus, were related. I think I am now going to reveal their collective backstories, as well as a few factoids that I stated in earlier D&D Stories about Lazlo that actually were true.
Lazlo is the second oldest of five children. His oldest brother is Alois, and is also a Paladin like Amadeus. The oldest sister, who is older than Amadeus, is called Natalia, and she is married to a wealthy merchant is isn't home a lot. Then we have Amadeus, my current character and Paladin. Amadeus, to which I have not shown off the twist for yet, is actually married and had a child right before he went out in search of his older brother Lazlo. So much for the celibate warrior monk image. And then we have Tatiana, who also trained as a Paladin against her family's wishes. Interesting fact, I was half tempted to play Tatiana for a while until I settled on Amadeus
Back when Lazlo and Ollie tried to steal a golden urn from a Temple of Pelor, Lazlo lied and said he was going to take the damaged urn to a goldsmith to get it fixed. Technically Lazlo was not lying about the goldsmith part. The Quicksilver family of Kormine became rich and well known for their goldsmithing. Also, all the men had at least some sort of Paladin training. Lazlo was more interested in sneaking out, living the city life in the underworld, having fun, and all of that shit. Being a younger brother, Amadeus loved and looked up to his older brothers, and is a mix of both. Amadeus is the libertine and freethinking Lazlo combined with the restrained and pious Alois.
It was that very nature that lead Amadeus to run away from his order and become an independent Paladin, falling in love, having a family, and the beginning a quest to find his brother, whom unfortunately met his end trying to saving one of his oldest companions from an acid pit trap. Now Amadeus begins a new quest, to carry on his brother's work in protecting the young tiefling halfling whom has a mysterious fate.
Sorry for the short little Stories post, I guess I kind of wanted to show off how amazing characterization can be. Here I have a Paladin whom I am playing not as a sort of "onwards Christian soldier" kind of style, but as a sort of world-traveled Sacred Band type, except he's straight, or maybe possibly bi, but I don't want to make Amadeus too much like myself, that's saved for my other character of Ceilos, a Half-Elven Ranger (I know, very original). Of course, I have kept the idea of Ceilos alive for so long that he has grown beyond a Mary Sue and became a character with flaws and weaknesses, and Amadeus has his own to.
Characterization within Role-Playing Games is something I think is starting to become a dead art in a way, we are conditioned into the hack'n'slash MMORPG style where its all combat. It deletes the heroism that RPGs are supposed to have in general. Where else do you find brave paladins riding off to fight a demon one-on-one to save a young girl (I did that, btw, I'll have to talk about it sometime, one of my crowning achievements)? Where else do you also find tales of, depite all these warning and traps, a halfling stealing a dagger made of pure chaos?
Characterization is amazing, and in a sense, is the true magic of RPGs.
P.S.: It may be asked that, if Amadeus dies or retires, if we may see the rise of Tatiana. Well, maybe, just maybe ;)
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