Backstory builder

The Backstory Builder is where you write articles about your character's history before — and during — the campaign. Your backstory space is private: only you and your GM can see it until an article is approved and canonized into the world.

What you can create

Inside the Backstory Builder you have your own workspace for your character's past. You can create:

  • Backstory entities — the people, places, and events from your character's history that don't exist in the world yet
  • Formatted articles using the same editor the GM uses for world entities — headings, text blocks, images, and callouts
  • Wikilinks between your own backstory entities — so your backstory becomes internally connected, not just a list of disconnected notes

You can also wikilink to world entities the GM has already revealed to you. Unrevealed world entities appear as plain text — you can't link to things your character doesn't know about.

Backstory block types

The editor includes backstory-specific block types designed for character history:

  • Formative Trauma — an event that fundamentally shaped your character
  • Mentor Relationship — someone who taught, guided, or formed your character
  • Oath Sworn — a promise or vow your character made before the campaign
  • Home Left Behind — a place, community, or life your character walked away from
  • Enemy Made — a person or group who has reason to want your character harmed

These blocks are optional. You can write plain articles too — the block types are there when the structure helps.

Submitting for approval

When a backstory article is ready for your GM to review, click Submit to World. You can optionally add a note for your GM — context about your intent, questions you have, or things you'd like their feedback on.

📝Note

The article locks while pending review. You can't edit it until your GM returns a decision. If you need to make changes before they've reviewed it, you can withdraw the submission from the article page.

The approval flow

Your GM has three options when they review a submitted backstory article:

  • Approve — the article is canonized as-is into the world
  • Approve with edits — your GM makes minor adjustments for world consistency before approving. You see the approved version; edit history is not shown to you. The changes are typically small things like adjusting a place name to match the world's geography.
  • Return with notes — your GM sends it back with feedback for you to revise and resubmit

After canonization

Once approved, your backstory article becomes a full world entity:

  • It appears in the world graph and timeline
  • Your name is attached as the author
  • You retain full read access to it
  • Your GM can edit it going forward for world consistency — just as they would any other entity
💡Tip

Canonized backstory articles can be linked to by other world entities. If your backstory NPC becomes relevant to the main plot, your GM can wire them into the world graph.

See also