JayTee
Eight Thousand Club
During my time Role Playing I've noticed a trend regarding backstories. Whenever someone wants to add "depth" to their character they usually default to one of three methods: kill a loved one or their family, have them raped, or sell them in to slavery for a year or two. There are other methods, but these are the most common.
About a year ago I decided for fun to try and out-traumatize everyone. Ever. I would write the most abusive backstory for a character as an experiment to see how much I could get away with.
The following is that backstory for a character by the name of Ryan Green, who was created on a Legend of Zelda site. When I wrote it, I wasn't too concerned with narrative flow or logical progression, I was mostly interested in seeing how much abuse I could cram in to one backstory.
About a year ago I decided for fun to try and out-traumatize everyone. Ever. I would write the most abusive backstory for a character as an experiment to see how much I could get away with.
The following is that backstory for a character by the name of Ryan Green, who was created on a Legend of Zelda site. When I wrote it, I wasn't too concerned with narrative flow or logical progression, I was mostly interested in seeing how much abuse I could cram in to one backstory.
To say that Ryan has had a poor life would be more than a little bit of an understatement. It started out innocently enough, as it usually does. He and his parents, as well as his extended family, lived on the outskirts of Hyrule. It was a pretty sweet deal really, plenty of sunshine and open spaces for a young boy to play and grow up. Granted you had to help out with chores and whatnot, but that was a small price to pay for all the fun that was to be had.
Naturally, thats when reality ensued.
Living on the outskirts of the city like that comes with its own set of risks and rewards. On the one had you had less to pay for taxes, and much of what you did you were largely left alone for, as there was little in the way of The Law to say otherwise. On the other hand the absence of any real authority meant that there was no one to come save your behind should the worst come to pass. He even managed to make friends with the local trader who came by every week.
As one would expect, the worst did in fact come to pass. Roving bands of criminals were often a source of trouble for them, and while for the most part they had been lucky enough to avoid anything serious, it seemed that this time it was not the case. They came in the night, dressed in masks and carrying torches. They set fire to his home, looted the stores and killed his family. Ryan was only able to escape due to seer luck. He had been in the outhouse during the time of the attack, and was forced to watch as his family was all murdered before him and his home destroyed.
Left all alone, he would have starved to death in the cold and darkness of the night. Thankfully the trader whom visited had seen the blaze and had come to investigate. Finding Ryan half dead, the trader took him home and tried to rase him himself. He succeeded to an extent, Ryan grew up mostly happy and healthy, if not unscarred from the experience.
Sadly, Ryan's luck seemed to run out at around his early teens. The trader was in MASSIVE debt to the local Baron. A corrupt man who used and abused the people under his charge. The trader was forced to sell his home, leaving Ryan and his newfound family homeless once more. His bad luck didn't stop there however, as during the weekly shakedown by the guardsmen, the captain of the guard took an interest in him. Demanding far more money than the poor trader could afford to give, she suggested that the trader give her Ryan for a night as compensation. The trader naturally refused, and the captain simply killed the man for "tax evasion". Dragging Ryan back to her home, she forced herself on him repeatedly until one night while she was asleep, he managed to find a knife and cut her throat.
From then on he lived on the streets, starving and barely surviving day by day. Stealing what he could and taking by force what he couldn't steal, he made a name for himself as the local pariah, a criminal to be hunted down.
And hunted he was, eventually the Baron and his men caught him and sent him away to a prison camp to serve hard labor. Of course, there was a minor war going on at the time, and prisoners were often drafted to use as canon fodder. Ryan himself was sent on several borderline-suicide missions, somehow surviving each one. His unusual luck at surviving assignments that were meant to kill him attracted the attention of the Wizard Naz.
Believing that Ryan was special somehow, Naz decided to take Ryan under his wing as a mentor. The relationship was hardly benevolent however, as Naz would often use Ryan for his magical experiments. Naz taught Ryan a little magic however, but this was purely because he wanted to send Ryan out to fetch an item for him that was supposed to be under heavy lock and key. This also involved cutting out Ryan's eye (without any kind of painkillers) and inserting a magical version. This was only the first of even MORE deadly suicide missions for Ryan, almost all of them for the personal benefit of Naz.
It went as a matter of course that the second Ryan got the chance he bolted towards Hyrule Castle Town. Naz was furious and tried to track Ryan down and kill him for escaping, thankfully the Wizard was more than a little insane and attacked Ryan in broad daylight in front of dozens of people. Thinking that an evil mage was attacking the city, the people cheered Ryan on as he attempted to defend himself from his former mentor, believing him to be a Hero of Justice! When the smoke had cleared, Naz was dead, and Ryan covered in his blood.
His first instinct was to get the hell out of there, however his luck seemed have taken a turn for the better, as the local Lord under Zelda thanked Ryan profoundly (and in a privet conversation between the two, exonerated him for his past crimes). Considering how the only real skills he had were in inflicting violence on others, Ryan was unsure of what he should do now. His past with matters related to government and military prevented him from trusting them to any significant degree, and frankly he wanted to leave that life behind, thankyouverymuch!
It was not to be however, as the slaying of Naz had earned Ryan a reputation as a Hero of Justice! People came to him left and right with their woes, and others pledged themselves to his cause. Feeling confused and resigned, he decided to make the best of the situation. Starting a small scale organization dedicated to protecting the people, Ryan actually found some small measure of peace doing good for the cause of others.
He expects reality to come around and bite him in the ass sooner or later, and is preparing for the worst.
Unfortunately it got a little happier at the end and only had a few of the classic abuse methods, but in my defense I wrote it all in one go and wanted to post the character before I went to bed at 3 am. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to ruin his life, I would be very appreciative. I'm not worried too much about logical or narrative flow, just pure over the top trauma.
Naturally, thats when reality ensued.
Living on the outskirts of the city like that comes with its own set of risks and rewards. On the one had you had less to pay for taxes, and much of what you did you were largely left alone for, as there was little in the way of The Law to say otherwise. On the other hand the absence of any real authority meant that there was no one to come save your behind should the worst come to pass. He even managed to make friends with the local trader who came by every week.
As one would expect, the worst did in fact come to pass. Roving bands of criminals were often a source of trouble for them, and while for the most part they had been lucky enough to avoid anything serious, it seemed that this time it was not the case. They came in the night, dressed in masks and carrying torches. They set fire to his home, looted the stores and killed his family. Ryan was only able to escape due to seer luck. He had been in the outhouse during the time of the attack, and was forced to watch as his family was all murdered before him and his home destroyed.
Left all alone, he would have starved to death in the cold and darkness of the night. Thankfully the trader whom visited had seen the blaze and had come to investigate. Finding Ryan half dead, the trader took him home and tried to rase him himself. He succeeded to an extent, Ryan grew up mostly happy and healthy, if not unscarred from the experience.
Sadly, Ryan's luck seemed to run out at around his early teens. The trader was in MASSIVE debt to the local Baron. A corrupt man who used and abused the people under his charge. The trader was forced to sell his home, leaving Ryan and his newfound family homeless once more. His bad luck didn't stop there however, as during the weekly shakedown by the guardsmen, the captain of the guard took an interest in him. Demanding far more money than the poor trader could afford to give, she suggested that the trader give her Ryan for a night as compensation. The trader naturally refused, and the captain simply killed the man for "tax evasion". Dragging Ryan back to her home, she forced herself on him repeatedly until one night while she was asleep, he managed to find a knife and cut her throat.
From then on he lived on the streets, starving and barely surviving day by day. Stealing what he could and taking by force what he couldn't steal, he made a name for himself as the local pariah, a criminal to be hunted down.
And hunted he was, eventually the Baron and his men caught him and sent him away to a prison camp to serve hard labor. Of course, there was a minor war going on at the time, and prisoners were often drafted to use as canon fodder. Ryan himself was sent on several borderline-suicide missions, somehow surviving each one. His unusual luck at surviving assignments that were meant to kill him attracted the attention of the Wizard Naz.
Believing that Ryan was special somehow, Naz decided to take Ryan under his wing as a mentor. The relationship was hardly benevolent however, as Naz would often use Ryan for his magical experiments. Naz taught Ryan a little magic however, but this was purely because he wanted to send Ryan out to fetch an item for him that was supposed to be under heavy lock and key. This also involved cutting out Ryan's eye (without any kind of painkillers) and inserting a magical version. This was only the first of even MORE deadly suicide missions for Ryan, almost all of them for the personal benefit of Naz.
It went as a matter of course that the second Ryan got the chance he bolted towards Hyrule Castle Town. Naz was furious and tried to track Ryan down and kill him for escaping, thankfully the Wizard was more than a little insane and attacked Ryan in broad daylight in front of dozens of people. Thinking that an evil mage was attacking the city, the people cheered Ryan on as he attempted to defend himself from his former mentor, believing him to be a Hero of Justice! When the smoke had cleared, Naz was dead, and Ryan covered in his blood.
His first instinct was to get the hell out of there, however his luck seemed have taken a turn for the better, as the local Lord under Zelda thanked Ryan profoundly (and in a privet conversation between the two, exonerated him for his past crimes). Considering how the only real skills he had were in inflicting violence on others, Ryan was unsure of what he should do now. His past with matters related to government and military prevented him from trusting them to any significant degree, and frankly he wanted to leave that life behind, thankyouverymuch!
It was not to be however, as the slaying of Naz had earned Ryan a reputation as a Hero of Justice! People came to him left and right with their woes, and others pledged themselves to his cause. Feeling confused and resigned, he decided to make the best of the situation. Starting a small scale organization dedicated to protecting the people, Ryan actually found some small measure of peace doing good for the cause of others.
He expects reality to come around and bite him in the ass sooner or later, and is preparing for the worst.
Unfortunately it got a little happier at the end and only had a few of the classic abuse methods, but in my defense I wrote it all in one go and wanted to post the character before I went to bed at 3 am. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to ruin his life, I would be very appreciative. I'm not worried too much about logical or narrative flow, just pure over the top trauma.
