Character Development - Real Life Story

I enjoy creating thoughtful and interesting character backstories. I have been posting some of those character histories here and on facebook.

Today I was contacted by a councilor who uses D&D as therapy for kids with social issues. He asked for a character story for a kid with problems relating to people. He has low self esteem and problems communicating with his peers. The councilor wanted to work with him on these issues using his D&D character. His chosen class was Druid and the name that the kid chose for that character was Hoshech (Darkness in Hebrew).

These are all the details I was given. Here is the backstory I came up with:

Image by Crow-God on Deviantart

Hoshech was born to a single parent family which is a bit unusual in Elf society. His father was an adventurer and it seems like in one of his adventures he found something stronger than him and failed to come back home.

Hoshech was a silent kid. He didn't get along well with other kids and much preferred the company of the Great Forest and animals.
The forest didn't ask any questions. It didn't bug him or pestered him. The forest simply was. Animals had simple, easily understood motives. He found it far easier to understand them than other kids his own age.

Hoshech's mom thought it was just a phase he'll grow out of but that didn't happen. He wasn't very interested in school nor was he attracted to magic. His interest was piqued one day when a druid came to talk to his class. Here was someone whose job it was to be an integral part of the cycle of life, of the Great Forest, without undue entanglements with other people. He could actually spend his time as an animal himself, not having to try and phrase things that were far easier left unsaid.

After the lesson was over Hoshech sought out the old druid, Master Ethuil (Spring in Sindarin), and asked to be his apprentice. Hoshech was well suited to the druid vocation and they both set for hours at a time in the forest, observing, not saying anything.

Master Ethuil asked him to accompany him and learn and Hoshech agreed. He felt a small pang of regret leaving his mom behind but he felt the call of the wild was far stronger than the bond to his family.

Over the next 20 years they traveled together down the paths of the Great Forest. Ethuil taught Hoshech druid craft and the wisdom of animals. He showed him the cyclic flow of nature where everything happens in its own time. There is predator and pray but never senseless killing - you only find that in the 'civilized lands'. Even fire has its own place in nature. When the forest becomes too thick for new things to grow, fire cleanses and renews the forest.

Like Ethuil, Hoshech has mastered the ability to turn himself into an animal for short periods of time. They shared many comfortable silences and weeks or months could pass without the two of them exchanging a single word. It suited Hoshech just fine.

One day, while roaming the Great Forest in the form of wolves, they happened on a group of humans. Curious about the reason for this group to be inside the forbidding Great Forest they followed them. It soon became apparent the the humans were bandits who have escaped into the Great Forest to evade prosecution from the law for their crimes. The druids cared little for law, human or otherwise, but when the bandits started slaughtering animals for no good reason it made the two wolves' hackles rise. One look was enough to communicate that these outlaws needed to be punished.

Master Ethuil returned to his elf form and started casting spells. Several of the bandits wore metal armor and now that armor became red hot, burning the bandits who were frantically trying to take it off. He grew entangling, snaring vines from the forest floor and captured several other bandits, cocooning them in weeds and briers on the ground. Hoshech attacked in wolf form, feeling the satisfaction of closing his sharp teeth on the flesh of the forest desecrators.

It looked like the bandits didn't stand a chance and so the few that remained on their feet turned to run away. As they were fleeing one of them turned and cast a spear at Master Ethuil. The spear turned into a lightning bolt that pierced the old druids' chest, knocking him to the ground. Seeing the rest of the bandits flee Hoshech dropped his wolf form and rushed to his master's side to see if there was anything he could do.

Alas, the wound was too grave and as he was taking his last breath Master Ethuil charged his young apprentice with the sacred job of maintaining the peace of the forest. With a soft sigh the old elf's spirit left to find rest at the glades of Silvanus, the god of nature and forests.

Hoshech, now a full druid, shed a few tears for his departed master and buried him under an old oak tree so that his body will still be part of the forest he loved so much. He swore he would spend the rest of his life defending the natural order and peace of the forest from the so called 'civilized' people.

Here is the same story in Hebrew.

I hope that the kid enjoys playing this character and that, together with his instructor, he can start to overcome some of those self esteem and communication issues he seems to be struggling with.

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