FS Character & Group Origin
When coming up with your character's background, here's what you will use as a structure:
"You're a two-time loser with chance #3 coming up, and you know it's going to be your last. Regardless of who your origin, you grew up with dreams. Dreams bigger than what your surroundings could offer, or even society. But the world hasn't made things easy on you. At some point during your Upbringing and Apprenticeship life-paths (we'll be doing lifepath character construction), some screwed you over (it's your choice whether you're enemies and whether it's one way or mutual). This has a significant effect on your development. How they screwed you closed some doors. If you were born to a Noble family on a rural estate working towards a courtly appointment, this antagonist (your choice whether it was a "just business" screwing or a personal, spiteful screwing) closed the door on military options. Basically, there is a specific reason you didn't take a possible path during your early life. Later, during your Early Career and Extra Tours (1 & 2), you screwed up yourself. Again, in a significant way that close some more doors. And you've been a while getting over that.
But now, not too long before the drama begins, you come to a realization. It's not sudden, it just creeps up on you and down into your bones until one moment you're just looking up at the sky, or maybe just down at the table you've been idly scratching at and realize that something's changed. The Universe has wrapped itself around you and put you into a keyhole. You feel this tension deep inside, inside your very soul, that tells you the Universe is trying to decide which way to turn you: One way leads to your Fate and the closing of all future doors, the other way holds your Destiny and opens into a realm of infinite possibility. Meeting your Fate doesn't necessarily mean physical death, but it means the death of your dreams. You'll never amount to anything, no one will remark your passing, and the Universe will forget your very existence. Achieving your Destiny doesn't mean instant riches and ultimate power. It means the power to create your own future and to move the Universe closer to that of your dreams.
Soon after this realization you begin meeting others. It's never anything big, just a small comment during a conversation in passing, the way they just happen to stand among a particular crowd in front of a unique backdrop, etc, but something about these things makes you recognize the same tension in these others. It's like you're all vibrating on some different frequency than everyone else. You might not know these people, you might even not trust them, but you know that they're on the same path as you, and it will be together you achieve your Destinies, or alone to meet your Fate. You still have loyalties to whatever groups raised you and gave you what power you have now, but this group, this cadre, is the one that you must cleave to above all else if you're to succeed."
We'll be doing some kind of "meeting at an inn" kind of situation. If you want to have known each other beforehand, I can work with that, too. But this is going to be the glue that holds the cadre together.
