> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.playsonder.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# A hero's past

> Every hero reaches your town with a life already behind them.

No hero arrives in your town as a blank page. Each one comes with an origin and several chapters of life behind them, and those years set who they are on their first day.

![A traveler and a child walk beside a wagon at dusk, a burning village behind them and a walled town ahead](https://playsonder.app/heroes/past-road.jpg)

Pit born, temple raised, war refugee.

## An origin

A hero's story starts with where they come from. Every race has at least two origins, so two heroes of the same race rarely walk the same road.

| Race | Some origins |
| - | - |
| Human | Peasant Stock, Noble Blood, Street Urchin, War Refugee, Fallen Noble |
| Orc | Tribal Heritage, Pit Born |
| Elf | Outcast, Scholar's Path, Temple Raised |
| Dwarf | Frontier Child, Hold Born |

## Chapters of a life

After the origin come the chapters: the seasons, journeys and hardships that made them. A hero reaches your town with three to five chapters behind them, and the more stars a hero has, the longer their past.

| Stars | Chapters |
| - | - |
| 1 and 2 stars | 3 |
| 3 and 4 stars | 4 |
| 5 stars | 5 |

Higher star heroes are also more likely to have lived through the rarer chapters, like war or service at a royal court.

A few of the chapters a hero may have lived: an Apprenticeship, a Garrison Season, a Campaign, the Lost Winter, the Plague Year, an Exile, a Merchant Voyage, a Pilgrimage, Court Intrigue, Bandit Life, Forge Service, The Deep Seams, The Red Fog, Caravan Guard, The Travelling Players, The Long Hunt and many more.

## The past shapes the traits

Every chapter leaves its mark on a hero's [traits](https://docs.playsonder.app/heroes/traits.md). Across all the lives a hero can have lived, every trait gets pushed both ways, so any hero can end up on either side of any trait. Many chapters also read two ways, and the hero's traits at that point in their life decide how they take it.

That is also where a hero's epithet comes from. A hero whose strongest trait is nerve and who lived through the Lost Winter may be known as "the Fearless of the Lost Winter".

## The story goes on

The past does not stop at your town's gate. Everything a hero lives in your service is added to the same story: the friends they make, the allies they lose and the grudges they settle. Their past and what they live with you form one single life.

> [card] [How personality changes](https://docs.playsonder.app/heroes/how-personality-changes.md)
>
> The moments in your town that keep changing a hero.

## Reading a hero's past

A hero's name, nature and grudges are visible to everyone. Their full past, the depth of every mark and the exact strength of their traits stay hidden until you open that hero's file.


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