I ' m liking my fire elemental sorcerer ' s background right now . Firstly , he ' s an Aasimar , so already pretty peculiar . Second , he ' s a sorcerer , and arcane casters are even more of a deviation for them . When he was very young , his powers manifested when a highwayman grappled and subsequently killed his friend on their way back from an adventure somewhere outside of the town . JeanLuc the sorcerer , yes , I know , blatant TNG ripoff was tearing at the man , trying to get him off . Upon seeing the fatal blow to his friend , he sent flames from his hands in an emotional burst of grief and fury and incinerated the criminal . Feeling pretty terrible about the act , he eventually enlisted in the region ' s equivalent to the Reserves , hoping to at least use his powers for something good , and in the meantime try to learn to control them better . Years later , an evil Aasimar sorceress emerged in the land , wreaking terrible destruction upon the the relatively small communities , until the towns formed a coalition of powerful adventurers that ceased her campaign . JeanLuc was part of the Outriders , whose purpose was to travel around between towns , picking off the sorceress ' s lackeys before they posed a threat to any walls . Even though JeanLuc was heralded as an invaluable asset to the defense movement , the political climate was shifting , becoming much more xenophobic . JeanLuc , and other aasimar , tiefling , and outsider humanoids , were ostracized . Those who refused to leave eventually fell to righteous vigilante bands of humans whose intent was to purge the land of any future threat . JeanLuc traveled for 35 years after that event , initially emotionally defeated by his people ' s betrayal . In those decades , he encountered several different philosophies , all expanding his owndwarves , draconic ascetics , elves , giants , halflingsand came to the conclusion that indeed everything is a cog in the machine . Rather than being focused on material things in a literal sense , the Material Plane , he has become focused on discovering the true source and limits of his power . His personal motivations , apart from the general party motivations of the campaign , are to eventually visit the Plane of Fire , where he hopes to find answers pertaining to his heritage .