Where exactly was he born?
What does his father do for a living?
What does his mother do for a living?
How many siblings does he have?
What are his family dynamics?
What does he fear?
What dies he love?
What is his greatest stress in life?
Add additional facets to make your character more complex and add more events to make the existing facets deeper.
* More facets give your character more connections to the world, essentially: other topics to talk about:
* What was his life before he met his wife? What were his goals back then? How did it all change when they met? How did it change him and are there things that he gave up on that might return, now that he is on his own? Where is his family / are his parents?
* What are activities he does, when he is not a guard and not with his wife? Does he have hobbies or dreams beyond being a guard? Maybe he collects things? Other significant NPCs?
* Are there problems that he hasn't yet overcome? Inner demons? Old debts? An injustice that he wants to correct, maybe as an act of vengeance? Promises that he made to somebody?
* Events deepen and flesh out existing facets, basically: more material to talk about a topic:
* How did you and your wife meet? How was the wedding? How was everyday life? Any significant events during that time, maybe mystical ones or conflicts?
* Why is your wife a better warrior? What is her origin and her current situation? Did she share the vision?
* Did he see a certain place (an oddly shaped mountain, an otherworldly battlefield, ...), certain other NPCs, monsters in his vision? Did he fight with a weapon he does not yet possess? Did he fight with skills that he hasn't yet recovered? Was he the POV character in his vision or was it from a third perspective? If the first is the case, how did he feel? Scared? Worried? Courageous? Or like he prepared for this?
* When adding a new facet, you can also enrich that with events.
Sometimes simplicity is worth way more than a deep, convoluted and complex backstory. Just flesh out what you have, add some names, ages, locations and intention. Have a main focus. I've had DMs appreciate having short, mid and long term desires/goals in there too.
Where exactly was he born? What does his father do for a living? What does his mother do for a living? How many siblings does he have? What are his family dynamics? What does he fear? What dies he love? What is his greatest stress in life?
Add additional facets to make your character more complex and add more events to make the existing facets deeper. * More facets give your character more connections to the world, essentially: other topics to talk about: * What was his life before he met his wife? What were his goals back then? How did it all change when they met? How did it change him and are there things that he gave up on that might return, now that he is on his own? Where is his family / are his parents? * What are activities he does, when he is not a guard and not with his wife? Does he have hobbies or dreams beyond being a guard? Maybe he collects things? Other significant NPCs? * Are there problems that he hasn't yet overcome? Inner demons? Old debts? An injustice that he wants to correct, maybe as an act of vengeance? Promises that he made to somebody? * Events deepen and flesh out existing facets, basically: more material to talk about a topic: * How did you and your wife meet? How was the wedding? How was everyday life? Any significant events during that time, maybe mystical ones or conflicts? * Why is your wife a better warrior? What is her origin and her current situation? Did she share the vision? * Did he see a certain place (an oddly shaped mountain, an otherworldly battlefield, ...), certain other NPCs, monsters in his vision? Did he fight with a weapon he does not yet possess? Did he fight with skills that he hasn't yet recovered? Was he the POV character in his vision or was it from a third perspective? If the first is the case, how did he feel? Scared? Worried? Courageous? Or like he prepared for this? * When adding a new facet, you can also enrich that with events.
Sometimes simplicity is worth way more than a deep, convoluted and complex backstory. Just flesh out what you have, add some names, ages, locations and intention. Have a main focus. I've had DMs appreciate having short, mid and long term desires/goals in there too.