Background: Interplanar Traveler

"The valley doesn't look like much. Just a hill and an old dragon nobody believes in. But you knew to go there, and you knew to wait for the full moon. That makes you different from everyone you used to know."

Overview

You have crossed between the realms of Yggy. Whether you sought passage out of curiosity, necessity, exile, or desperation, you found your way to the valley at the base of the World Tree, knelt before Hjarn the Slumbering Gate on a full-moon night, and earned his stamp. The faint amber sigil he left on you has long since faded — but you remember it. So does he.

You are one of the rare few who knows that the world is larger than the world. You have walked beneath skies that were not your own.

Proficiencies

Skill Proficiencies: Survival, and one of: Arcana, History, or Persuasion.

Tool Proficiencies: Navigator's Tools, and one gaming set or musical instrument of your choice (picked up in your travels).

Languages: Two of your choice — at least one should be uncommon or planar in origin.

Equipment

A traveler's cloak (well-worn, foreign cut), a small token from another plane (a Verdani feather, an Earth coin, a sliver of Heofon-glass — DM's choice), a journal with notes in three different scripts, navigator's tools, a pouch of mixed currencies from realms most have never heard of, and 15 gp.

Feature: Stamped by the Gate

You bear Hjarn's mark, even if it has faded from view. You can identify other interplanar travelers on sight, and they can identify you — a brief moment of recognition, an unspoken understanding. Within this small fellowship, you can usually find shelter for a night, a meal, or directions, no questions asked. The community is small, scattered, and quietly protective of its own.

Additionally, you have an instinctive sense of when the next full moon will fall and roughly which direction the nearest valley-entrance to Yggy lies in. You cannot teleport there. You just know.

Suggested Characteristics

Interplanar travelers tend to be marked by their journeys. They speak with unusual phrasing, carry strange habits, and view their birth-realm with the slight detachment of someone who has seen alternatives.

Personality Trait (d6)

d6	Trait
1	I trail off mid-sentence when something reminds me of somewhere else.
2	I collect small objects — coins, leaves, buttons — from every place I visit.
3	I distrust anyone who has never left their own region, let alone their own plane.
4	I tell stories that nobody believes, and I've stopped caring whether they do.
5	I always sleep with one ear toward the door. You never know which one will open.
6	I have a habit of speaking to people in the wrong language and not noticing.

Ideal (d6)

d6	Ideal
1	Curiosity. There is always another realm. There is always another door. (Chaotic Good)
2	Witness. Someone has to remember what they saw. I will be that someone. (Neutral)
3	Return. I am trying to get back to a place I should never have left. (Any)
4	Escape. Wherever I am now, somewhere else is always better. (Chaotic)
5	Connection. The planes are not as separate as people think. Someone should build the bridges. (Good)
6	Survival. I crossed once because I had to. I will cross again if I must. (Any)

Bond (d6)

d6	Bond
1	A person on another plane is waiting for me, and they don't know I'm not coming back soon.
2	I owe Hjarn a debt. I'm not sure how to repay a dragon, but I'll figure it out.
3	Something followed me across the gate. I can feel it sometimes. I have not told anyone.
4	I left a piece of myself in the realm I was exiled from. I will recover it.
5	The friend I traveled with did not come back. I am still looking.
6	I carry a message that must be delivered before the next full moon.

Flaw (d6)

d6	Flaw
1	I cannot stay in one place for longer than a season without growing restless.
2	I have made bargains in other realms that may come due at the worst moment.
3	I trust my own judgment over local knowledge, and this has cost me before.
4	I cannot pass a stone circle, a waterfall, or any unusually beautiful valley without checking.
5	I am quietly convinced my home plane is worse than every other plane I've visited.
6	There is a name I will not speak aloud. I have my reasons.

Variant: The Exile

Some interplanar travelers did not choose their crossing. Sent to Earth as punishment, dumped into the Common Plane by Heofon's disdainful courts, or banished to a realm of horrors by a god they offended, they made their own way home — or are still trying to.

Replace Feature with — Stripped of Home: You speak fluently of places you can never return to. You can identify common features of life on at least one foreign plane (Earth's customs, Heofon's court etiquette, etc.) on sight, and you know how to pass as a native there for short periods. Mortals from that plane will recognize the signs in you if they look closely, for better or worse.

See Also

• _Backgrounds Index
• Hjarn
• _Planes Index
• The Common Plane
• Earth
• Heofon
• Yggdrasil World System