Backgrounds of Velnaris — Twenty Lives Before the Sheet

Before your character rolled a die, the city had already decided what they were worth.

Backgrounds of Velnaris gives your 5e character twenty origins grown from a gothic noir port city where desire is currency — each a full 2024 background with ability scores, a custom Origin feat, equipment at 50 gp, a roleplay hook, and the people who still remember you.

Part One — The Paths of the City

Twelve backgrounds: Arena Champion · Courtesan · Cultist Escapee · Debt Collector · Dream-Touched · Exiled Noble · Guild Enforcer · Information Broker · Plague Doctor · Shipwrecked Sailor · Smuggler · Street Oracle.

Part Two — The Courtesans of the House of Red Vows

Eight backgrounds: Confessor's Companion · Songweaver · Velvet Discipline · Ink and Secrets · Alchemist of Sensation · Scarred Phoenix · Keeper of Forbidden Truths · Serpent's Communion.

Also Inside (~77 pages)

• Twenty Origin feats, each calibrated against the 2024 Player's Handbook and printed in one appendix beside the backgrounds
• At a Glance: every background on one table — ability scores, skills, tools, feat, hook
• Faces of the City: eleven recurring people your background already knows, one entry each, and the angle each background has on them
• Choosing one, pairing with the rest of the line, a 2014 note, and a safety page written for the courtesan backgrounds in particular

No GM spoilers: what the city hides stays in the GM sourcebook; what your character remembers is here.

Who It's For

Players who want a character who was already someone before the adventure, and GMs who want twenty hooks that come with their own people. Sweet spot: levels 5-10, like the rest of the line. Pair with the free Player's Guide to Velnaris for species, districts and sanctuary rules.

Content

18+. Sex work portrayed with agency and dignity (eight courtesan backgrounds), grief, addiction, debt and adult indenture, religious pressure, scars and recovery. No explicit sexual content; intimacy is never required to play any background. Safety tools assumed; a mature-content note opens the book and a safety page closes it.

More in the Line

Player's Guide to Velnaris (free) · Rogues of Velnaris · Heroes of Velnaris (three of the seven use these backgrounds) · Courtesans of Velnaris (GM) · the Velnaris sourcebook (GM).

Written, designed and playtested by a human; AI assists with editing, translation and cover art.

Compatible with fifth edition. Includes material from SRD 5.2.1, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.