When creating your character on HAZE you should consider what occured in your character's life prior to their arrival on Narumer. In addition to forming a foundation for your character's ongoing story, there are also mechanical benefits to this called "backgrounds", one of which you will select shortly after creating your character using a character setup mirror in the OOC: Start HAZE area.
While it may be tempting to pick the most mechanically advantageous background, it is encourged on HAZE to pick a background that best suits the character concept you have chosen to create.
Some backgrounds are locked behind the Eminence Reward System, you can view these below or click to see the locked backgrounds.
There are six primary crafting trades in the world of HAZE. Almost all gear and equipment is produced via these crafts. Each of these trades has two selectable backgrounds associated with it, Novice/Apprentice and Adept. To read more about these crafts you can click here - Crafting
You know that sugar and heat create flames. You know that water doesn't put out oil fires. You can mix certain things together without killing yourself.
Perks: Start with Alchemy Skill level 2 and 3 Alchemical recipes.
Pour this into that, mix this, and drain that. Alchemy is a hobby, or perhaps it was a profession. Maybe it was handed down as a family trade. Either way, you know how not to kill yourself when it comes to magical and non-magical substances, acids, and poisons.
Perks: Start with Alchemy Skill level 8 and 5 Alchemical recipes.
You worked as an apprentice to another blacksmith, or perhaps it was a family trade. You know that melting together ingots and casting metals into molds can exploit the earth's precious resources into objects of war.
Perks: Start with Blacksmithing Skill level 2 and 3 Blacksmithing recipes.
You spent years working as a junior blacksmith, or you're a smith of the Stout Folk. You may have even had an apprentice of your own. Either way, you know what you're doing when it comes to working with metals.
Perks: Start with Blacksmithing Skill level 8 and 5 Blacksmithing recipes.
You aren't the best cook, but you've dabbled in the kitchen enough to know how to put together a decent pie.
Perks: Start with Cooking Skill level 2 and 3 Cooking recipes.
Perhaps you kept your own stall in the market, or maybe you cooked for a noble. Either way, people have always said you're an exceptional cook. You know your salts, sweets and textures.
Perks: Start with Cooking Skill level 8 and 7 Cooking recipes.
Perhaps you were a nomad, or a hunter, or a farmer. At any rate, you learned how to use animal skins to make leather.
Perks: Start with Leatherworking Skill level 2 and 3 Leatherworking recipes.
Leatherworking is a noxious profession, and the acids and odors can kill the inexperienced, of which you are not. You have come to work with different kinds of animal skins and virulent substances to pull and bind leathers more expertly than others.
Perks: Start with Leatherworking SKill level 8 and 5 Leatherworking recipes.
Perhaps gnomes trained you in Lantan, or maybe you have a talent for inventing new tools. Others thought you were wasting time, but you know your gadgets are helpful.
Perks: Start with Tinkering Skill level 2 and 3 Tinkering recipes.
Working with precision is something that comes naturally to you. Small screws and even smaller tweezers are the tools of your trade. The wonders you can make out of a few scraps of material would baffle the uninitiated.
Perks: Start with Tinkering Skill level 8 and 5 Tinkering recipes.
Perhaps you were a forester or maybe a carpenter. Either way, the people of your town turned to you for basic woodworking needs.
Perks: Start with Woodworking Skill level 2 and 3 Woodworking recipes.
Perhaps you owned your woodcraft shop or made furniture for the townsfolk, or maybe you were raised by elves. Either way, you konw how to bend and twist nature's wooden munificence into pieces of art and destruction.
Perks: Start with Woodworking Skill level 8 and 5 Woodworking recipes.
Any background that does not correspond to one of the six trades falls into this category. There are a wide variety of options here, many of which require the use of varying amounts of eminence points to access.
You always had a knack for fishing and honed your skill to make a living out of it. You were in search of better fishing locations with the tools of your trade in hand when your journey took an unexpected turn.
Perks: Start with a Pine Basic Fishing Rod and 5 units of Bait.
Sshh. A bagman is known to carry lucid drugs that have wild effects. Those stimulants are craved everywhere in Faerûn. Even on the colony of Erstwhile.
Perks: Start with 5 Sedatives.
You can pick a tune in your head and keep a beat with your feet. You can whistle a popular song and play a piece of well-known music, but you aren't a member of the High Minstrels of Silverymoon.
Perks: Start with musical instruments.
You have devoted yourself to the service of your deity at one of their temples and might have been sent on your travels with an errand for the faith. Now you find yourself in an unknown land with little, save your robes and a faith that your god or goddess has brought you here for a reason.
Perks: Start with Deer Studded Gloves, a Cloth Robe and a Holy Symbol.
Perhaps you studied at Candlekeep or in the voluminous libraries of Calimport, or you were a secretary in Waukeen's Promenade; either way, you have been complimented on your penmanship and are capable of keeping notes.
Perks: Start with a Quill, an Inkwell, 5 Pieces of Paper and a Blank Book.
Before your landing, you were a clerk at an apothecary making salves, ointments and bandages.
Perks: Start with 3 Medical Kits and 2 Sedatives.
From an early age you have been taught to do wonders with cloth, needle and thread. This allows you to shape clothes and outfits to your heart's desire. Even after washing up on new shores, you have your sewing kit to bring a bit of style and civilization to your wild surroundings.
Perks: Start with a Sewing Kit and 2 Cloth Dyes.
You have a talent for keistering. Or maybe you shoved coins in your boots. Either way, you came ashore with extra coins.
Perks: Start with 100 Coin Pieces.
Stalking your prey through the woods, following animal trails through the grass, aiming your arrow at fleeting shadows destined to become dinner and coin for furs has long been your way of life and will serve you well in the new place you find yourself in.
Perks: Start with a Copper Harvesting Knife, a Pine Shortbow and 20 Copperhead Arrows.
You have a higher capacity for learning languages than most people, which means that you are now fluent in a few more than one would expect. It is likely that you would have successfully used these language skills to your social, scholarly or monetary advantage.
Perks: Start with 3 Random Bonus Languages.
Arr, you're a pirate. You've dashed the high-seas and rode the waves. Your hair smells like salt, and your clothes like seaweed. Perhaps your mates stashed something on the island or maybe you smuggled some gear aboard. Either way, you've held onto your trust blade and a few drinks to set you straight.
Perks: Start with a Copper Falchion, 3 Bottles of Booze, Cloth Pirate Tricorne (Black) and a Pirate Vest.
You keep everything. Well, almost everything. If it weren't for your washing, your pockets would probably still be littered with junk. Or are they still?
Perks: Start with 3 Random Recipes.
At a certain point in life you have been taught a type of dance which borders on a martial art and, like your trusty blade, it is something that will accompany you wherever you go.
Perks: Start with a Copper Kama and a Cloth Monk's Habit.
Whether you followed in the footsteps of a parent, joined up to have a steady respectable job or because you wanted to protect those within your town, being a town guard has been a way of life for you, until a seemingly routine errand had taken you aboard a ship.
Perks: Start with Copper Scale Mail, Pine Large Shield, and a Copper Headed Short Spear.
You always had a love for the great outdoors, well-prepared for exploring wild and remote places and pitching your tent under the stars and cooking dinner over a fire. Your freedom unfettered by the comforts of civilization. You boarded a ship in the hopes of reaching a wilderness you had never set eyes on before.
Perks: Start an Animal Hide Tent Kit, a Basic Bedroll and Flint.
You have been out there finding your way in the world for a while now and the various scrapes and experiences you have been through have given you above average skill and resilience.
Perks: Start at level 3 instead of level 2.
Important Note: The primary bonus of Seasoned Adventurer, is you get 2,000xp that does not count towards any of your gained XP caps from monsters or other kills, effectively allowing you to level up slightly faster even after the initial +1 level.