New Background – Raised by Animals

UPDATE: The partial background found in this article is a preview. It is fully available as a Pay What You Want product on the DMs Guild in a pretty PDF with art and 14 other ready to roll backgrounds.

Romulus is the founder of The Rome… he was also raised by wolves. Mowgli is the hero of often film-adapted The Jungle Book and he too was raised by animals. Mila is the main character of Karen Hesse’s The Music of Dolphins and the book’s titular animal raised her.

Loads of fictional characters were brought up by big cats, chimps, bears, and more. Why not PCs? It is with that in mind that I present the raised by animals background below! I’m just on a background kick.

Raised by Animals

When you were a child you were raised by beasts in the elements. The exact type of beast is up to you, but most often characters with this background were raised by large mammals like wolves, big cats, bears, and dolphins. Instead of ignoring or devouring you, these beasts took you in as one of their own and protected you. They taught you to hunt and thrive in the uncivilized world. Even with your beast family looking out for you, survival was still a daily struggle.

How did you come to live with these animals? Were you abandoned by your parents in nature to be claimed by your new kin? Did you wander off and get lost one day? Did your caravan or vessel have an accident which left you stranded and alone? The choice is yours, but somehow you left the civilized world as a child and came to live with your new family.

At some point you were brought back into civilization either by choice or by force. You’re learning what it means to be part of civilization and to have easy access to the things you fought for each day like food, water, and shelter. How has that changed your world completely?

Skills: Animal Handling and Survival

Tool Proficiencies: Herbalism kit and either wood carver’s tools or mason’s tools

Equipment: A piece of fur, tooth, or other memento from one of your beast parents, a set of common clothes, a small knife, and a belt pouch with 5 gp.

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