Backstory builder

The Backstory Builder is where you write articles about your character's history before — and during — the campaign. Your backstory space is private: only you and your GM can see it until an article is approved and canonized into the world.

What you can create

Inside the Backstory Builder you have your own workspace for your character's past. You can create:

Backstory entities — the people, places, and events from your character's history that don't exist in the world yet
Formatted articles using the same editor the GM uses for world entities — headings, text blocks, images, and callouts
Wikilinks between your own backstory entities — so your backstory becomes internally connected, not just a list of disconnected notes

You can also wikilink to world entities the GM has already revealed to you. Unrevealed world entities appear as plain text — you can't link to things your character doesn't know about.

Backstory block types

The editor includes backstory-specific block types designed for character history:

Formative Trauma — an event that fundamentally shaped your character
Mentor Relationship — someone who taught, guided, or formed your character
Oath Sworn — a promise or vow your character made before the campaign
Home Left Behind — a place, community, or life your character walked away from
Enemy Made — a person or group who has reason to want your character harmed

These blocks are optional. You can write plain articles too — the block types are there when the structure helps.

Submitting for approval

When a backstory article is ready for your GM to review, click Submit to World. You can optionally add a note for your GM — context about your intent, questions you have, or things you'd like their feedback on.

📝Note

The article locks while pending review. You can't edit it until your GM returns a decision. If you need to make changes before they've reviewed it, you can withdraw the submission from the article page.

The approval flow

Your GM has three options when they review a submitted backstory article:

Approve — the article is canonized as-is into the world
Approve with edits — your GM makes minor adjustments for world consistency before approving. You see the approved version; edit history is not shown to you. The changes are typically small things like adjusting a place name to match the world's geography.
Return with notes — your GM sends it back with feedback for you to revise and resubmit

After canonization

Once approved, your backstory article becomes a full world entity:

It appears in the world graph and timeline
Your name is attached as the author
You retain full read access to it
Your GM can edit it going forward for world consistency — just as they would any other entity

💡Tip

Canonized backstory articles can be linked to by other world entities. If your backstory NPC becomes relevant to the main plot, your GM can wire them into the world graph.

Troubleshooting

I submitted my article but can't edit it anymore. Submitted articles lock while pending GM review. To make changes before your GM responds, open the article and click Withdraw Submission. This returns the article to draft state and you can edit it freely.

My wikilinks to world entities aren't working. You can only wikilink to world entities that your GM has revealed to you. If an entity hasn't been revealed, your link renders as plain text. Contact your GM to reveal the entity if you need to reference it.

My GM approved my article but I can't see it in the world graph. After canonization, it can take a moment to appear in the graph. Refresh the world graph. If it still doesn't appear, check that the article's visibility is set to something other than GM Only — your GM may need to adjust the visibility setting on the canonized entity.

The Submit to World button is missing. The submit button only appears on articles that have at least a title. Make sure you've named the article and saved it. If the button is still missing, check that you're in the Backstory Builder section of your character portal, not the notes area.