So I'm will be starting a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign and one of the items each player did was come up with a background for their character to help justify their CofCT trait.
One of the players picked the tortured trait.
Male Human(Shoanti) Barbarian
This is his background:
Teodosie (Teo) Cinca was born to a family of Shoanti traders. Being a willful boy, Teo ran away from home at an early age and found his way to the sea. There he managed a berth on a halfling trading vessel out of Korvosa (working as a cabin boy) and made his way to that teeming metropolis.
He was then homeless and hungry in the streets of Korvosa when he was found by Gaedren Lamm, a minor crime lord, and offered food and shelter.
He worked for Lamm for a couple of years, begging & stealing to avoid being punished. During this time, he befriended a number of the other children.
There was an incident that changed everything. Lamm was going to punish one of the younger children for not having brought in enough copper pieces when Teo stepped in and tried to defend the child. Well, he must have caught Lamm in a particulary bad mood because Lamm hauled Teo off and beat him bloody, locked him in a room, and then came back and did it again. Teo, half dead, was dragged away one of Lamm's goons and left bleeding and broken in the streets.
It was there that Teo was found by none other than Garrick Tann, Korvosa's Magistrate of Commerce. Garrick Tann nursed Teo back to health and put him to work as part of Tann's tax collection crew. It amused Tann to use a Shoanti to collect the taxes from the more snobbish citizens who made too much of their pure Chelaxian heritage.
Teo got on well enough, but he harbors a deep hatred for Gaedren Lamm, the man who beat him senseless. Teo hopes to be able to repay the favor -- and more -- someday.
So how would you handle this race knowing the turmoil in Korvosa between them and the Korvosan Government?
How about interaction with other players/characters?
Thanks
Joe
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The Chelaxian/Shoanti dynamic in Korvosa is that of colonizer and colonized. The Chelaxians showed up several hundred years ago in Shoanti ancestral lands, kicked all the indigenous people off their tribal lands, and set up shop in what is now known as Korvosa. As a result, relations between the two peoples have never been completely cordial - currently, the Shoanti and the Korvosan government have a cold war going on, as nobody's really interested in provoking the other right now. Politically, Eodred II probably didn't care much about the Shoanti one way or the other - as long as it didn't involve Korvosa or the city, then it wasn't his concern. Ileosa's probably not too far off her husband's perspective right as the campaign starts, but if she's successful, I can imagine she'd start looking towards claiming even more land in her name, and the Shoanti would be a prime target.
That all said, native Korvosans usually look down upon both the Varisians and the Shoanti, the former for being nothing more than thieves, and the latter for being backwards tribesmen. Individuals can be more or less prejudiced than average, of course, but in general, Korvosans distrust the "dancers" and "horsers," and the Varisians and Shoanti in turn distrust the "Chels" and their supporters.
As for other characters - well, I can't answer that, but PCs should probably be less prejudicial than the average members of their communities.
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1. Sounds like a nice, fleshed-out background compared to many I've seen...
2. As for how to handle it? Have antagonistic NPCs give him the side-eye. Have people mutter about "savages." Have Chelish authorities ignore the PC and speak to other characters. And then have people who AREN'T scumbags treat him like everyone else.
3. Note that the Sklar-Quah will likely also not think too highly of him, since he abandoned his Quah (whichever it was), and will in a worst-case scenario regard him as a traitor- and at best, he'll just be another outsider who has to earn their respect.
Cole and Misroi have the right of it (surprise, surprise).
Just imagine playing a Native American in a Western scenario in the U.S.: You would face prejudice from the locals, up to and including out-and-out hostility and violence (a nice opportunity for random encounters of drunken thugs trying to "rough up" the "savage"). You would be even worse than an outsider to the tribes, because you abandoned them, and you're likely not from any of their tribes anyway.
It should lead to a rich, interesting roleplaying experience. I'd roll with it!
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I hope this goes without saying, but all this talk of "the authorities don't like the Shoanti" stuff probably doesn't apply to the Field Marshall. As a former adventurer herself, she's probably more woke than the average person in authority in Korvosan. In fact, she'd probably be the one that reaches out directly to the Shoanti character when it comes time to deal with the Dead Warrens. "You know how the city treats the quahspeople. If we don't find his body, then a lot of innocent people are going to die on both sides for the crimes of a few racist idiots. I'll find those people and bring them to justice. Please, find Gaekhen's body."