I Need a Good Idea to Start a Good Backstory


Advice

Grand Lodge

So I am building a Lotus Geisha bard from Minkai. Somehow I need a some good ideas on how to get Kagome, my bard, to the Sargava are to eventually fight a great evil in the city of Cauldron for the Shackled City campaign. Im kinda stumped and need your help. Thanks all.


If it's a question of why your character would travel so far -- keep in mind people from Xian Xia (where Minkai is of course a part of) often make the long and perilous journey to foreign lands in the interest of making diplomatic contact, and more importantly, trade. Such operations no doubt often involve very important, wealthy, and influential personages -- folks who would no doubt see the merits in retaining a Geisha as part of their retinue. Perhaps the Diplomat or Merchant Commander for your expedition was assassinated in these foreign lands, or the expedition otherwise collapsed, fell to disaster, went broke, or scattered. Perhaps it was so successful that the persons in charge of the caravan decided to retire or in these strange and foreign lands, or having achieved it's objectives you had to decide to go home with your colleagues or seek adventure in these strange new lands.

Cheliax has colonies in Sargava, and Cheliax is a powerful and influential culture/government for regimes in Xian Xia to have profitable dealings with. Perhaps your Minkai expedition travelled to Sargava for Exotic Beasts (dinosaurs?) for an emperor's private arena or menageries. Maybe you discovered after your caravan sold all of it's precious tea, spices, and exotic-porcelainware, your morally flexible leader decided to load up for the return trip with Sargavan natives to sell as slaves, considered equally exotic in your homelands -- and if your character is the type to be repelled by this, you might have terminated your employment for this despite it stranding you in Sargava.

Is that enough? What other complexities do you perceive that haven't been addressed here?

Other ideas could be:

* Cultural Exchange -- You travelled to these foreign lands as part of a troupe of Minkai artists and performers who performed at a vast circuit of cities in foreign lands to introduce and promote the culture (and trade interests) of your homelands. For reasons of crisis, conflict, or personal choice (see above) you find yourself a free agent when after performing for the aristocracy of Eleder, the Capital of Sargava... that puts you close enough to ground zero of where you want to be or just tweak that concept.

* You travelled very far, by yourself, to be the personal Geisha of an ultra-wealthy noble in one of the cities near where you want to start your adventure. With an enormous down payment to your family/school/guild/what-have-you, it's an offer you can't refuse and you take the long and dangerous journey to accept this commission. The journey is long enough however for the noble responsible for hiring you to have died of some sudden and tragic circumstance, and his heir, a young and petulant boy -- does not share his predecessors appreciation for higher culture, releasing you from service without much ceremony or audience.

* You have for some time been working in Sargava or a region nearby as a diplomatic agent (and perhaps spy) for Minkai's trade interests in one or more cities - depending on your level maybe you are a subordinate or aid to one or more experienced Geisha you are learning under. You have been working various cities society-party circuits and gathering information about various allied and rival countries trade caravans, and manipulating those interests against each other to maximize the price and perceived value of Minkai trade goods. Once in the region, by assignment, inspiration, or other plot device you strike out on your own.

That should be PLENTY to choose from... if not... tell me what you think else needs to be addressed. :D


Wow. Yeah. I think Vicon cleaned up pretty well here. I'm gonna use some of those.

Grand Lodge

Thanks for the help, I will more tyhan likely modify one of these to fit my pesonal whims. Good ideas, thanks!


'Welcome guys. Just giving a speck of what I've gotten back to the forum! <3

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