Character background: All characters were born and live in Pavalar, a coastal city in the southwestern part of Nyternia. Pavalar is a city within a city (much like Beijing and the Forbidden Palace). The center of the city is a keep where the ruling and residing Belar live. Outside this keep are various universities, educators, laboratories, fine restaurants, museums, parks, and the like. The residences of the humans who work within the keep and the inner city are also here. The buildings ring the keep and form the inner city. At the edge of the inner city there is a tall (30') wall with guarded gates within which people can enter and leave.

Outside the wall is another ring of buildings, of lesser construction. This area supports the inner city. Open air markets, farms, taverns, and residences make up the bulk of the area. There are also some parks and forests, though these are of human creation and pale in comparison to those inside the inner city. Many guilds can also be found in the outer city.

Within the inner city, the Belar keep the peace. In the outer city, a human militia enforces the law. The militia ultimately reports to the Belar, but have a lot of lattitude in enforcing the laws.

Each of the PCs will have grown up and spent their entire lives in the inner city. Their parents will work for and with Belar, and each of the PC's will have had schooling at the private school. Because each of the PC's has shown above average talent, they have gone through a special educational program. It is very elite -- there are only about 30 students from each year accepted to it.

When the campaign begins, it will be late winter. The PC's have basically finished most of their schooling. They have only the grueling week-long final examinations to pass before they graduate. After that, each PC must decide where to work or apprentice in the summer. This will be their last spring as carefree youths.

Starting stats: 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13... arrange any way you want. You may think this is a generous starting array, but realize you are playing in a powerful world. For example, these stats will still pale in comparison to your average belar.

Skills: Choose your starting skills carefully. In many games, most skills are irrelevent, resulting in characters not caring how many skill points they get, or in shunting all available skill points into a few specific skills. Optimal play in this campaign will require characters to be well rounded, though of course some specialization will help.

Due to the education each of these characters have received, they also start with a skill 0 in spellcraft, knowledge: arcane, and use magic device. You may substitute something reasonable (geography, nature, religion, history, etiquette etc) for knowledge: arcane. Note: cross-class skills still require 2 skill points for each increase in rank beyond 0.

Family: Please note who your mother, father, and siblings (if any) and their occupations within the palace (if any). Take care in your selections; what you choose may seriously alter the course of the game! (Don't worry no family members will be kidnapped or otherwise harmed in any way.) Starting items: