Faerûnian Character Regions
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Dwarf Regions
Elf Regions
Human Regions
Orc and Half-Orc Regions
Other Regions
Regional Backgrounds
About Regional Backgrounds
Regions in the Realms are typically associated with large geographic areas or at least some locale as large as a city. Champions of Valor expands that concept by presenting "regional backgrounds" that function in conjunction with a region. These backgrounds represent character origins or upbringings and are typically tied to a particular area, organization, or belief, such as a monastery, temple, druid circle, Harper safe house, or bardic college. Some of these backgrounds are specific to one region, while others have multiple sites separated by miles and country borders. For example, the Orphan of the Yellow Rose regional background is one small place in a Damaran mountain range, while the Ward of the Triad regional background consists of a dozen small pockets across several countries that favor Ilmater, Torm, and Tyr. All of the regional backgrounds described in Champions of Valor are tied to good in some way.
A character who chooses a regional background uses it in place of a region for determining his automatic languages, bonus languages, favored deities, regional feats, and bonus equipment. Effectively, the background replaces the character's region for all of these listings. However, for the purpose of meeting any other prerequisites (other than regional feats), use the character's actual region rather than his regional background. For example, a character who chooses the Dalelands as his region and Bastard of Azoun as his regional background qualifies for prestige classes and the like using the Dalelands region. Also, you can't purchase skill ranks in Knowledge (local) for a regional background. Use only actual regions for this purpose.
A regional background is chosen during character creation at the same time that the player chooses a region. The regional background chosen must have the character's region listed as an option. For example, the Holy Realm regional background has Dragon Coast or Turmish as associated regions, which means that only characters who choose one of those two regions can select Holy Realm as a regional background.
Some of these regional backgrounds are very general (such as celestial-attended birth), and you can use them for many different faiths or organizations. Others are specific to one region (such as Mulhorandi royal) or specific to a particular good influence (such as ward of the Triad) and therefore more focused in their interests and rewards.