hi I’m new to Empier and larping and this will be my first time doing something like this and I plan on going next year. So since I am new I wanted to prepare myself and come up with a character so I can get used to the character creation process. I was thinking of going as a Navarr (since I think I can pull off the costume), healer named River Fawn (because I love deer) who is shy, anxious, forgetful, and terrible at directions (I am like that in real life too), but I am completely stumped on backstory or how to even start since I have never written one before, so I wrote this forum to ask if you smart people have any tips or ideas.
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Welcome to the forum!
I’ve seen backstories with bullet points recommended. Personally I would start with “why has River Fawn picked now to start coming to Anvil?”. The big thing in Navarr is the valorn so you probably want to look at some of the recent events and thing about whether River was caught up in them or has a strong opinion about them.
For example:
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/The_first_shot
(further reading is at the bottom of the page)
or regarding the poor opinions of the Navarr by the Jotun (one of our enemies):
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/A_stone_for_a_stone
or the recent military campaign in Therunin
https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Blood_and_mire
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Thank you for being so welcoming and for giving me guidance on where to begin with my backstory. These links have been very helpful.
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Welcome to Navarr someone who helped me gather my character back ground is @Unslain such a big help as another Navarri he was fantastic but everyone on here are awesome and all so helpful
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Welcome along Shadow-Deer!
Wake has some good answers, feel free to check the rest of the forums (especially the New Player category), and of course ask any further questions here.
No such thing as a stupid question. 
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Welcome to the Empire, citizen and to (probably, definitely) the best nation!
Everything that others have said above so far is good advice in my opinion. Below is largely general backstory advice but I’m perfectly willing to discuss Navarr-specific stuff if that’s more useful. Fair warning, I do tend to get a bit long-winded!
A backstory for Empire only needs to be as detailed as is useful for you and it’s main purpose is to give your character reasons to get involved with things in the game that you the player want to try out. The big battles (if you want to partake) only take up Saturday and Sunday mornings so it’s worth having a list of things to try or learn about in the more peaceful times at Anvil, and connect them to your backstory if that will help motivate you.
The backstory section of character creation on the website is there as a chance for you to flag up plot/setting elements you want the character to get involved with, while the backgrounds team get to check that you haven’t completely misunderstood the setting.
For instance, if I submitted a background stating that my character was the secret half-orc lovechild of a previous emperor, coming to Anvil to claim the throne that is rightfully mine, it would be rejected by the Profound Decisions crew as inappropriate; half-orcs don’t exist in the setting and titles aren’t inherited.
Something that is in my character’s backstory is that he’s sworn an oath to see Liathaven back under the control of the Empire, oaths being something prompted for when creating a Navarr character. I’ve not had any plot come to me directly personally because of that being in my backstory -there are just too many players for that to be common- but there must be enough characters with Liathaven mentioned in their backstories that the plot team keep making things happen in and around the territory. Obviously my character hasn’t been successful yet but I (mostly) enjoy the continued effort involved, even if he is more frustrated than anything else.
A backstory also doesn’t need to be exciting, because the idea is that what your character does in play will be the dramatic, potentially world-changing stuff. If you’ve already wiped out two barbarian armies singlehandedly in your backstory, why bother coming to Anvil at all?
One other bit of advice is to avoid your character having murdered somebody in their backstory unless you are absolutely sure. Crimes committed in backstories have been pursued and prosecuted at events, and the Empire does use the death penalty.
I hope all/any of that’s useful. I’m very happy to answer any other questions I can, and feel free to message me if you should prefer.
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Hi Shadow-Deer, realised that we’ve all been providing tips but no particular ideas so here are a few that might be useful.
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Healers are always welcome but have you decided yet what method of healing River Fawn will use? My brain defaults to a Physick using herbs to heal but there’s also the options to use spells, ritual magic or being an Apothecary focussed on curative potions. It’s possible to combine 2 of those approaches with the starting character creation points if desired. Though I will say that unless you want to give trading a go or have friends to assist, having to choose between Herb Garden and Mana Site for Personal Resource means that ritual magic only easily combines with spellcasting.
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Navarr first names are predominantly Welsh or Celtic so you might like to consider translating River Fawn, which would be Elain Afon (pronounced eh-LINE AH-vun, literally “fawn river”) in Welsh (unless you intend Fawn to be the name of the community they come from). In your shoes, I think I’d run them together into a single word and possibly switch the order depending on what sounded better to my ear. If you are planning Fawn for their surname/community then you may want to expand it a bit for clarity; for example there is a group by the name of Ashenfawn that’s been active this year, while I don’t know if there are any characters from Fallowdeer striding still in the game.
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Have you decided on whether your character is a travelling or settled Navarri? “Terrible at directions” does first suggest settled to me but healers are valuable wherever and in a striding they’d still have a community around them to stop them getting lost (even if they’re “off-screen” as it were as NPCs, if you’re coming alone and don’t join a group between now and starting), as well as the negative aspects of the other traits.
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With the anxious bit, there are unofficial symbols for social anxiety (and I think some other conditions too) that can be got at events to let other players know that a person may need some encouragement to join in with an interaction. From an in-character stand-point, their being anxious could stem from the recent chaos that the more stable Navarr territories have gone through, suggesting Miaren, Hercynia (both attacked by otherworldly armies) or Therunin (invaded by the eastern Druj orcs) for where River Fawn calls home. Miaren in particular hasn’t had to deal with Vallorn for around 350 years and is far from barbarian lands, making it pretty peaceful before Cold Sun attacked it’s southeast region. Or you might flip that entirely and have the character hail from a small steading in Broceliande and use the constant risk of Vallorn attacks as the reason for their anxiousness, along with being shy when surrounded by far more people than they are used to.
One extra tip that I didn’t think of before is to ask around for an existing group that is open to new recruits. The advantage there is that the group’s story then becomes the majority of your character’s backstory, or at least a framework for it. There is lots of time to interact with other players online, or even find some local to you, between now and the official events (as opposed to sanctioned player-run events which can be spread all over the year and are side-quests and/or socials). There are official Facebook groups for new Empire players and Navarr along with all the other nations and some off-shoot groups too, plus an unofficial Discord server. If you don’t use either of those platforms, there are people here who will happily go and prod others to come make contact on these forums too.
Finally, Navarr as a nation is very welcoming to new players and lots of the groups with in-character camps will readily welcome people to hang out or use their camp as a base, even if they aren’t recruiting more members. So turning up as a solo player needn’t be an isolating experience and a lot of new characters find a group (if they want one) pretty quick by approaching groups in person and getting to know one another in-character.
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