Choosing a Homeland

Your character’s homeland is where their life was shaped.

It does not have to be where they were born. It might be where they were raised, trained, exiled, adopted, shipwrecked, naturalized, protected, educated, condemned, healed, or forced to become someone new.

In Thesalon, homeland is not the same thing as ancestry.

A dwarf can be from Marithel.
An elf can be from Suthrane.
A halfling can be from Veyrskold.
A tiefling can be from Caerlon.
A dragonborn can be from Vorrak.
A human can be from Ilyr.
Any ancestry can belong almost anywhere if the story makes sense.

The better question is:

What place taught your character how the world works?

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Quick Version

Choose a homeland based on the kind of story you want your character to bring into the campaign.

Homeland	Choose This If You Want A Character Shaped By
Caerlon	War scars, rebuilding, broken trust, veterans, ruined roads, survival after invasion
Vorrak	Harsh survival, conquest’s shadow, exile, militarized culture, fear, discipline, hard choices
Suthrane	Sacred water, river law, temples, pilgrimage, desert survival, burial routes, ancient institutions
Veyrskold	Cold endurance, oath, wilderness, winter roads, ancestral memory, hard hospitality
Marithel	Sea roads, harbors, ships, freeports, salvage, hidden names, storms, routes, refugees
Ilyr	Forests, old learning, living landscapes, memory, hidden paths, scholars, old magic

You may also choose:

Homeland Type	Choose This If
No Fixed Homeland	Your character was raised on roads, ships, caravans, pilgrim routes, or refugee paths.
Multiple Homelands	Your character belongs to more than one place.
Lost Homeland	Your character’s home was destroyed, conquered, abandoned, hidden, or erased.
Adopted Homeland	Your character was born elsewhere but claimed by a new people, shiphold, temple, guild, or community.
Hidden Homeland	Your character’s origin is secret, dangerous, disputed, or legally complicated.

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What a Homeland Does

A homeland can help answer:

• What does your character consider normal?
• What kind of authority do they trust or distrust?
• What kind of danger shaped them?
• What customs do they carry?
• What gods, saints, laws, or stories matter to them?
• What languages or signs might they know?
• What work did they see growing up?
• What do they miss?
• What are they glad to have escaped?
• What do other people assume about them?
• What assumption is wrong?

A homeland does not decide your personality.

Two characters from the same place may be completely different.

One Caerlonian may be a bitter veteran. Another may be a hopeful bridge-builder. One Maritheli may be a free captain. Another may be a temple cook, refugee advocate, or lighthouse child.

Use homeland as a foundation, not a cage.

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Homeland Is Not Ancestry

Thesalon does not lock ancestry to geography.

Your ancestry may affect family history, culture, appearance, community, prejudice, expectation, or personal identity, but it does not automatically determine homeland.

A character’s culture might come from:

• Their birth family.
• Their adopted family.
• Their town.
• Their shiphold.
• Their temple.
• Their trade.
• Their military unit.
• Their refugee community.
• Their teacher.
• Their guild.
• Their clan.
• Their road.
• Their harbor.
• Their exile.
• Their chosen family.

When choosing homeland, think about where your character learned how to live.

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Homeland Is Not Class

A fighter does not have to come from a warland.

A wizard does not have to come from Ilyr.

A cleric does not have to come from Suthrane.

A rogue does not have to come from Marithel.

A ranger does not have to come from Veyrskold.

Any class can come from any homeland.

Examples:

• A Caerlon wizard might study battlefield wards and ruined archives.
• A Vorrak cleric might be trying to redeem a violent tradition.
• A Suthrane rogue might know temple courts, pilgrimage crowds, and water smuggling.
• A Veyrskold bard might preserve winter epics and oath songs.
• A Marithel paladin might defend sanctuary law in a Freeport.
• An Ilyr fighter might protect scholars, forests, and hidden roads.

Choose homeland for story texture, not permission.

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Homeland Is Not Loyalty

Being from a place does not mean your character supports its rulers, factions, wars, crimes, or traditions.

Your character may:

• Love their homeland.
• Hate their homeland.
• Miss it.
• Fear it.
• Be exiled from it.
• Be trying to save it.
• Be ashamed of it.
• Be proud of it.
• Misunderstand it.
• Be misunderstood because of it.
• Have no desire to return.
• Be desperate to return.
• Carry its customs without trusting its authorities.

This matters especially in the Crownless Age, when many people distrust old powers.

A character from Vorrak is not automatically loyal to Vorrak’s war legacy.

A character from Caerlon is not automatically anti-Vorrak in the same way as every other Caerlonian.

A character from Suthrane may question temple authority.

A character from Marithel may distrust Freeports.

A character from Ilyr may reject secrecy.

A character from Veyrskold may leave because endurance became cruelty.

Homeland gives tension. It does not dictate allegiance.

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The Crownless Age and Homeland

The current era is the Crownless Age.

This matters for character creation because many people have complicated relationships with home. War, invasion, displacement, broken roads, failed rulers, famine, religious conflict, trade collapse, storms, and magical danger have changed where people live and who they trust.

Your character’s homeland may be stable.

It may also be damaged, contested, or gone.

Ask:

• Did the Crownless Age change your home?
• Did the Vorrak invasion affect your family?
• Did broken roads, closed harbors, or failed rulers shape your life?
• Did your community take in refugees?
• Were you a refugee?
• Did a temple, guild, ship, caravan, or military unit become your real home?
• Do you trust crowns less than your ancestors did?
• Has your homeland become a memory more than a place?

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The Major Homelands

The following sections give player-safe options for choosing a homeland.

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Caerlon

Caerlon is a wounded, rebuilding continent shaped by the aftermath of the Vorrak invasion.

It is a land of damaged roads, rebuilt towns, ruined keeps, returning markets, veterans, refugees, local militias, old loyalties, broken trust, and communities trying to survive after institutions failed them.

Caerlon is not dead.

It is alive in the hard way.

Choose Caerlon If You Want

Choose Caerlon if you want a character shaped by:

• War aftermath.
• Rebuilding.
• Veterans and survivors.
• Broken roads and repaired bridges.
• Distrust of crowns.
• Local defense.
• Refugee movements.
• Ruined authority.
• Communities that keep going despite grief.
• The question of what comes after invasion.

Common Caerlon Character Ideas

• A veteran who returned to find home changed.
• A bridge-builder helping reconnect broken towns.
• A refugee child who grew up during the invasion’s aftermath.
• A militia scout from the Scoured Marches.
• A noble heir trying to prove old authority still matters.
• A farmer whose land became battlefield.
• A temple healer exhausted by war wounds.
• A ruin-delver recovering records from destroyed keeps.
• A courier who knows which roads are safe and which only look safe.
• A former soldier who no longer trusts commanders.

Caerlon Questions

• What did your home lose?
• What was rebuilt?
• Who failed your people?
• Who protected them when official authority failed?
• Do you believe crowns can still be worthy?
• Did you fight, flee, hide, heal, rebuild, or profit?
• What road, bridge, battlefield, or ruin still matters to you?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume a Caerlonian character is:

• Bitter.
• Tough.
• Anti-Vorrak.
• Suspicious of rulers.
• Experienced with war.
• Practical.
• Haunted.

They may be right or wrong.

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Vorrak

Vorrak is widely feared because of the invasion.

To many outsiders, Vorrak means conquest, military power, harsh survival, raiders, brutality, and the catastrophe that scarred Caerlon.

That reputation is powerful, but incomplete.

A character from Vorrak might be soldier, exile, dissident, loyalist, refugee, scholar, deserter, reformer, survivor, prisoner, scout, raider, artisan, or someone trying to live under the weight of what other people think their homeland means.

Choose Vorrak If You Want

Choose Vorrak if you want a character shaped by:

• Harsh survival.
• Militarized culture.
• Exile or shame.
• Duty under brutal systems.
• Conquest’s shadow.
• Fear from outsiders.
• Discipline.
• Hard choices.
• Loyalty tested by morality.
• A desire to escape, redeem, defend, or redefine where you came from.

Common Vorrak Character Ideas

• A deserter who refused an order.
• An exile blamed for a homeland they no longer serve.
• A soldier trying to understand what courage means after conquest.
• A scout who knows harsh terrain and harsher commanders.
• A prisoner taken during war and later freed.
• A reformer trying to prevent another invasion.
• A survivor who believes outsiders know only half the truth.
• A war orphan raised under discipline.
• A scholar studying how nations become monstrous.
• A mercenary trying to outrun a banner.

Vorrak Questions

• Did you support, resist, flee, or survive Vorrak’s war culture?
• What do outsiders assume when they hear where you are from?
• What part of that assumption is true?
• What part is false?
• Do you feel guilt for things you did not do?
• Who from Vorrak would call you traitor?
• Who would call you loyal?
• What would redemption mean to you?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume a Vorrak-born character is:

• Dangerous.
• Loyal to invasion powers.
• Militarized.
• Cruel.
• Disciplined.
• Untrustworthy.
• Useful in a fight.

They may be right or wrong.

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Suthrane

Suthrane is the southern sacred river and arid continent.

It is shaped by water, temples, floodplains, desert roads, pilgrimage, burial routes, river law, caravan trade, ancient institutions, and the constant fact that survival depends on access to sacred water.

Suthrane is not simply desert.

It is a civilization shaped by water’s power.

Choose Suthrane If You Want

Choose Suthrane if you want a character shaped by:

• Sacred rivers.
• Temple authority.
• Pilgrimage.
• Desert survival.
• Water law.
• Burial rites.
• Ancient cities.
• Caravan roads.
• Floodplains.
• Religious politics.
• Wealth and scarcity side by side.
• The question of who controls what everyone needs.

Common Suthrane Character Ideas

• A river-court clerk who saw law fail the thirsty.
• A pilgrim who never returned home.
• A caravan guard who knows desert routes.
• A temple initiate questioning old institutions.
• A water bearer from a poor district.
• A noble-born child of a floodplain house.
• A grave-route guide who protects the dead.
• A healer trained in temple courts.
• A smuggler of forbidden water or relics.
• A farmer whose family depends on irrigation law.

Suthrane Questions

• What is your relationship to water?
• Do you trust temple authority?
• Have you been on pilgrimage?
• Did your family live near river, city, desert, or caravan road?
• Did scarcity shape your ethics?
• Who taught you what is sacred?
• What law do you believe should never be broken?
• What law did you break anyway?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume a Suthrane character is:

• Religious.
• Formal.
• Used to heat and scarcity.
• Respectful of law.
• Connected to temples.
• Skilled at negotiation.
• Serious about water and burial.

They may be right or wrong.

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Veyrskold

Veyrskold is a northern continent of cold endurance, wild lands, winter roads, old oaths, ancestral memory, hard hospitality, dangerous beauty, and survival discipline.

Outsiders often misunderstand Veyrskold as empty ice or brutal wilderness.

People from Veyrskold know better.

The land is not empty. It is demanding.

Choose Veyrskold If You Want

Choose Veyrskold if you want a character shaped by:

• Cold survival.
• Oaths.
• Clan or hold memory.
• Winter roads.
• Wilderness.
• Hunting.
• Stone halls.
• Harsh hospitality.
• Ancestor stories.
• Practical courage.
• The difference between endurance and cruelty.

Common Veyrskold Character Ideas

• A winter guide who knows when to stop.
• A hunter who respects dangerous beasts.
• A hold-born warrior bound by an old oath.
• A skald preserving names through winter.
• A healer trained for frost, hunger, and isolation.
• A smith from a mountain hold.
• A person exiled for breaking hospitality law.
• A traveler sent south to recover an ancestral object.
• A survivor of a failed winter road.
• A quiet character who distrusts soft promises.

Veyrskold Questions

• What did winter teach you?
• What oath matters most?
• Did your people value silence, song, stone, fire, or blood?
• Who offered you hospitality when you needed it?
• Who refused?
• What ancestor story shaped you?
• What do outsiders misunderstand about your home?
• Are you enduring something, or escaping it?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume a Veyrskold character is:

• Stoic.
• Harsh.
• Honest.
• Superstitious.
• Strong.
• Wilderness-trained.
• Serious about oaths and hospitality.

They may be right or wrong.

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Marithel

Marithel is the western maritime and island continent.

It is shaped by sea roads, harbors, freeports, shipholds, lighthouse orders, salvage law, storms, privateers, refugees, hidden routes, reef courts, sea temples, and the idea that the sea is not a border but the main road.

Outsiders often reduce Marithel to pirates.

That is wrong.

Pirates exist, but Marithel is more deeply about movement, law, survival, ships, names, and who controls arrival.

Choose Marithel If You Want

Choose Marithel if you want a character shaped by:

• Sea travel.
• Harbors.
• Freeports.
• Shipholds.
• Hidden names.
• Salvage.
• Storms.
• Lighthouses.
• Refugees.
• Privateers.
• Trade.
• Pilots and maps.
• The question of who gets to arrive safely.

Common Marithel Character Ideas

• A Windrider Freeport court runner.
• A sailor born aboard a shiphold.
• A refugee protected under Blue Lantern law.
• A lighthouse child who saw a false signal.
• A reef diver who believes wrecks are not treasure.
• A Farwake guide who knows hidden routes.
• A privateer deserter.
• A shipwright who recognizes hull scars.
• A pilot apprentice from the Shard Isles.
• A drowned-declared person who returned.

Marithel Questions

• What is your relationship to the sea?
• What ship, harbor, reef, or route shaped you?
• Do you have more than one name?
• Do you trust Freeport law?
• Have you ever been shipwrecked?
• Who taught you how to read weather?
• What would make you leave harbor?
• What should never be put on a public map?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume a Maritheli character is:

• A sailor.
• A pirate.
• Comfortable with false names.
• Practical.
• Good with trade.
• Used to legal ambiguity.
• Superstitious about storms.

They may be right or wrong.

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Ilyr

Ilyr is a continent of forests, old learning, living landscapes, hidden routes, scholars, memory, spirits, ancient places, and powers that do not always explain themselves to outsiders.

Outsiders often describe Ilyr as mysterious.

That may be true, but it can also be lazy.

Ilyr contains communities, cities, roads, scholars, guardians, ordinary families, political struggles, and practical people. Its old places are important, but not every person from Ilyr is a secretive forest mystic.

Choose Ilyr If You Want

Choose Ilyr if you want a character shaped by:

• Forests.
• Old knowledge.
• Hidden roads.
• Scholars.
• Memory.
• Living landscapes.
• Dreamlike or ancient places.
• Sacred groves.
• Secrets kept for good or dangerous reasons.
• The question of what should be learned and what should remain undisturbed.

Common Ilyr Character Ideas

• A forest guide trained to ask permission of places.
• A scholar who left because knowledge was being hidden.
• A guardian of an old road.
• A healer from a living-wood sanctuary.
• A student of dreams, memory, or old magic.
• A person sent to recover something taken from Ilyr.
• A quiet exile who refuses to explain why they left.
• A mapmaker whose maps include warnings, not just routes.
• A temple-trained historian.
• A person raised near a place everyone avoided.

Ilyr Questions

• What did your home teach you not to disturb?
• Do you trust scholars?
• Did you leave with permission?
• What secret are you allowed to know?
• What secret are you forbidden to reveal?
• What old place shaped your life?
• What do outsiders misunderstand about Ilyr?
• Are you protecting knowledge, seeking it, or running from it?

What Others May Assume

Others may assume an Ilyr character is:

• Secretive.
• Scholarly.
• Magical.
• Forest-wise.
• Patient.
• Unsettling.
• Connected to old powers.

They may be right or wrong.

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Homelands Beyond One Continent

Not every character fits neatly into one homeland.

The Crownless Age has made movement common. War, trade, pilgrimage, exile, ship life, caravan routes, temple education, adoption, and displacement create people who belong to more than one place or none in the usual sense.

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No Fixed Homeland

Your character may have grown up moving.

They might have been raised by:

• A caravan.
• A shiphold.
• A mercenary company.
• A pilgrim group.
• A refugee convoy.
• A traveling troupe.
• A merchant road family.
• A temple mission.
• A military camp.
• A hidden-route network.
• A group of exiles.
• A wandering teacher.

Choose No Fixed Homeland If You Want

Choose this if your character is shaped more by movement than by place.

They may know roads, languages, shortcuts, markets, border customs, camp discipline, and how to read people quickly. They may also struggle with belonging.

Questions

• What route shaped you most?
• Who raised you while moving?
• What place almost became home?
• Why did you keep moving?
• Do you want a permanent home?
• What do you carry from every place you left?

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Multiple Homelands

Your character may belong to more than one place.

They might have been born in Suthrane, raised in Marithel, trained in Caerlon, and currently traveling from Ilyr. They might have one parent from Veyrskold and one from Vorrak. They might have been adopted by a shiphold far from their birth culture.

Choose Multiple Homelands If You Want

Choose this if your character lives between cultures and sees things others miss.

They may translate, mediate, compare customs, or feel pressure from more than one identity.

Questions

• Which place claims you most strongly?
• Which place do you claim?
• What customs conflict?
• What languages or rites did you inherit?
• Where do you feel most foreign?
• Where do you feel most responsible?

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Lost Homeland

Your character’s homeland may be gone.

It may have been destroyed by war, abandoned after famine, swallowed by wilderness, conquered, burned, flooded, magically altered, erased from records, hidden for survival, or left behind during exile.

Choose Lost Homeland If You Want

Choose this if memory, grief, recovery, or rebuilding matters to your character.

A lost homeland can be a powerful motivation without needing to dominate every session.

Questions

• What happened to your home?
• Who remembers it?
• Who denies it existed?
• What object, song, map, recipe, oath, or rite preserves it?
• Do you want to restore it, avenge it, or let it rest?
• What would you do if you found someone from there?

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Adopted Homeland

Your character may have been born one place and claimed by another.

They may have been adopted by:

• A temple.
• A shiphold.
• A guild.
• A clan.
• A court.
• A refugee ward.
• A military unit.
• A noble house.
• A lighthouse family.
• A school.
• A monastery.
• A caravan.
• A hidden community.

Choose Adopted Homeland If You Want

Choose this if belonging was given, earned, negotiated, or contested.

Questions

• Who took you in?
• Did they treat you as fully belonging?
• Do outsiders recognize your adopted identity?
• Do you?
• What did you keep from your birth home?
• What did you gain from your adopted home?
• What would threaten your place there?

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Hidden Homeland

Your character may come from a place they cannot safely name.

This may be because of war, politics, criminal accusations, hidden routes, forbidden magic, religious danger, family shame, oath, sanctuary law, or personal choice.

Choose Hidden Homeland If You Want

Choose this if secrecy, identity, and revelation are central to your character.

The DM should know the truth, but the whole table does not need to know immediately unless you want them to.

Questions

• Why is your homeland hidden?
• Who knows the truth?
• What happens if the truth is revealed?
• Do you lie, avoid the question, or give partial truth?
• Do you want to return?
• Are you protecting yourself, someone else, or the place itself?

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Homeland and Starting the Campaign

The campaign can begin even if the party comes from many different places.

A shared starting location does not require shared homeland.

For example, several characters might all begin in or near Windrider Freeport for different reasons:

Homeland	Why You Might Be in Windrider Freeport
Caerlon	You arrived as refugee, veteran, trader, investigator, or survivor of the invasion’s aftermath.
Vorrak	You are exile, prisoner, deserter, envoy, mercenary, or someone trying to escape Vorrak’s reputation.
Suthrane	You came by pilgrimage route, trade ship, temple mission, water-law dispute, or burial matter.
Veyrskold	You traveled south as guide, guard, hunter, oathbound messenger, or exile.
Marithel	You are local, shipborn, Freeport-connected, reef-born, lighthouse-trained, or route-tied.
Ilyr	You came as scholar, guide, emissary, fugitive, healer, or seeker of old knowledge.
No Fixed Homeland	Windrider is one more stop, or maybe the first place that might become home.
Lost Homeland	You seek records, sanctuary, passage, revenge, or someone who remembers.
Adopted Homeland	Your adopted community sent you, needs you, or has been threatened.
Hidden Homeland	Windrider’s legal ambiguity gives you a chance to survive under another name.

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Homeland and Languages

Your homeland can help suggest languages, but it does not force them.

Think about what your character needed to communicate.

A character might know:

• A family language.
• A trade language.
• A temple language.
• A military code.
• Dock cant.
• Caravan signs.
• Court language.
• Road marks.
• Sailor signals.
• Pilgrim chants.
• Secret signs.
• Scholarly script.
• Local dialect.
• Ancestral language.
• The language of a place they lost.

Ask:

• What language did your family use at home?
• What language did work require?
• What language did authority use?
• What language did you learn to survive?
• What language do you refuse to speak?
• What language do you wish you knew?

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Homeland and Faith

Your homeland can shape which gods, saints, and rites feel familiar, but faith is personal.

A Caerlonian may honor Morvane because of war dead.

A Maritheli may honor Thalara because of storms.

A Suthrane pilgrim may honor Veyra, Morvane, Oranth, or river saints.

A Veyrskold hunter may honor Vaelthorn, Edrun, Halven, or ancestor figures.

An Ilyr scholar may honor Myrrakai, Olyrra, Sylune, or local powers.

A Vorrak exile may reject the martial rites they were raised with.

Ask:

• Which god did your household call first?
• Which rite marked your childhood?
• Which saint story do you remember?
• Did a temple help you?
• Did a temple fail you?
• Did your homeland’s faith comfort or constrain you?

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Homeland and Reputation

Where you are from affects how people treat you.

This can create roleplay, not punishment.

A character’s homeland may cause others to assume things about them. These assumptions may be true, false, incomplete, insulting, useful, or dangerous.

Homeland	Common Outside Assumption
Caerlon	You are wounded by war or distrust crowns.
Vorrak	You are dangerous, militarized, or connected to invasion.
Suthrane	You are religious, formal, or serious about water law.
Veyrskold	You are harsh, oathbound, wilderness-wise, or cold-resistant.
Marithel	You are a sailor, smuggler, trader, pirate, or legal opportunist.
Ilyr	You are secretive, scholarly, magical, or forest-wise.
No Fixed Homeland	You are unreliable, adaptable, worldly, or rootless.
Lost Homeland	You are grieving, dangerous, or desperate.
Hidden Homeland	You are suspicious or in need of protection.

Use these assumptions to create tension.

Then decide how your character responds.

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Choosing by Theme

If you are not sure which homeland to choose, start with theme.

If You Want War Aftermath

Choose:

• Caerlon
• Vorrak
• Lost Homeland
• No Fixed Homeland
• Refugee or displaced background

Good for characters dealing with guilt, survival, rebuilding, revenge, or distrust of authority.

If You Want Sacred Law and Religion

Choose:

• Suthrane
• Caerlon temple communities
• Marithel sea temples
• Veyrskold ancestor traditions
• Ilyr old sanctuaries

Good for clerics, paladins, monks, scholars, pilgrims, healers, judges, and characters shaped by rites.

If You Want Sea, Trade, and Hidden Names

Choose:

• Marithel
• No Fixed Homeland
• Adopted Homeland
• Hidden Homeland

Good for sailors, rogues, fighters, bards, warlocks, clerics, free captains, refugees, smugglers, and characters with layered identity.

If You Want Wilderness and Survival

Choose:

• Veyrskold
• Ilyr
• Suthrane desert routes
• Caerlon borderlands
• No Fixed Homeland

Good for rangers, druids, fighters, barbarians, scouts, guides, hermits, and characters shaped by harsh places.

If You Want Scholarship, Secrets, or Old Magic

Choose:

• Ilyr
• Suthrane temple schools
• Marithel Saltglass or chart houses
• Caerlon ruined archives
• Veyrskold ancestral halls

Good for wizards, bards, clerics, warlocks, sages, investigators, and characters tied to forbidden knowledge.

If You Want Exile or Reinvention

Choose:

• Vorrak
• Marithel
• Hidden Homeland
• Lost Homeland
• Adopted Homeland
• No Fixed Homeland

Good for characters with secrets, false names, redemption arcs, political danger, or complicated pasts.

If You Want Community and Belonging

Choose:

• Caerlon rebuilt towns
• Suthrane river communities
• Veyrskold holds
• Marithel shipholds
• Ilyr forest settlements
• Adopted Homeland

Good for characters motivated by family, duty, home, shelter, memory, and protecting people.

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Homeland Creation Questions

Answer as many as useful.

Basic Questions

• Where are you from?
• Were you born there or raised there?
• Do you still consider it home?
• Who there still knows you?
• Who there would rather never see you again?
• What do you miss?
• What are you glad to have left?

Authority Questions

• Who held power where you grew up?
• Did they deserve it?
• Did law protect you?
• Did law harm you?
• Do you trust crowns, councils, temples, guilds, ship captains, elders, or no one easily?

Family and Community Questions

• Who raised you?
• Were you part of a family, shiphold, clan, temple, guild, crew, orphan house, caravan, or something else?
• What obligation do you still owe them?
• What obligation did they fail to keep to you?

Crisis Questions

• What disaster touched your homeland?
• War?
• Famine?
• Storm?
• Invasion?
• Plague?
• Religious conflict?
• Magical accident?
• Route collapse?
• Political betrayal?
• Something quieter?

Departure Questions

• Why did you leave?
• Were you sent, exiled, rescued, recruited, lost, or fleeing?
• Did you leave anyone behind?
• Are you expected to return?
• What would happen if you did?

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Homeland Table

Use this table if you want a quick starting point.

d20	Homeland Situation
1	You are from Caerlon and your home is still rebuilding after war.
2	You are from Caerlon and distrust anyone who speaks too easily of crowns.
3	You are from Vorrak and carry the weight of what others assume about you.
4	You are from Vorrak and left because obedience became impossible.
5	You are from Suthrane and learned that water, law, and faith cannot be separated.
6	You are from Suthrane and broke a temple, river, or burial law for a good reason.
7	You are from Veyrskold and were taught that hospitality is survival.
8	You are from Veyrskold and left after an oath, winter, or ancestral duty changed your life.
9	You are from Marithel and think of ships, harbors, and routes as ordinary parts of life.
10	You are from Marithel and have used, protected, or hidden more than one name.
11	You are from Ilyr and were taught that not every path should be taken.
12	You are from Ilyr and left with knowledge someone wanted kept still.
13	You were raised on the road and know more inns, shrines, and toll gates than hometowns.
14	You were raised aboard a ship and think land people are strange about walls.
15	Your homeland was destroyed, and you carry its memory in an object, song, or vow.
16	You were adopted by a community far from where you were born.
17	Your homeland is hidden because naming it would endanger you or others.
18	Your family moved so often that your homeland is a route, not a place.
19	You are from a border, harbor, pass, or crossroads where cultures constantly meet.
20	You do not know where you are truly from, but someone else does.

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Final Advice

Choose a homeland that gives your character something useful to play.

A good homeland gives you:

• A way to see the world.
• A few customs.
• A few assumptions.
• A few tensions.
• Someone or something you care about.
• A reason to leave.
• A reason the past might return.

You do not need a long backstory.

You only need enough to answer:

Where did you learn who you are, and what did that place cost you?