I've read a few threads about Skyrim on Giant Bomb and noticed a few people talked about their character and why he or she came to Skyrim. Basically they made up a backstory for their character.

I'm playing a Nord at this time and decided to make my own. When I first started the game, someone mentioned to me that I had come from Cyrodiil. So here's my story. 
 
My name is Claudian and I grew up in Bruma. My father was killed by some Daedra and my mother died shortly after of a broken heart when I was 14 years old. I sold the family home and set out on my own. I always felt different from the rest of the Nords, but had no idea why. I spent most of my life, hunting, trapping and getting drunk. I called the whole of Cyrodiil my home. 
 
When I turned 46, pretty old for a Nord in Cyrodill, I got a calling. Something told me to go to the homeland of the Nord, Skyrim. I was arrested crossing the boarder into Skyrim and then my calling became clear. I was Dragonborn. Skyrim is now my home and I will defend it with my life.
 
Did you guys make up a backstory for your character?

My backstory was that my character's mom was raped by dragons

My backstory was that my character's mom was raped by dragons

I didn't make a back story for my character, but i did decide that my character was basically going to be a prequel to "Valhalla Rising." My character doesn't really look too much like One Eye (due to the limitation of the new character editor), but it is close enough to role play.

@Bocam said:

My backstory was that my character's mom was raped by dragons

and then what had happened?

Guy was a Nord teen who went out and got dunk for the first time and was caught masturbating to a copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid in public on the streets of Cyrodil.  He was summarily arrested and sent to his homeland of Skyrim

My dude moved to Skyrim to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and he's all out of bubble gum.

Amnesia.

He's a viking dude who likes swords.

Ulfric gave birth to me in that wagon.

I'm a wood elf assassin who came to skyrim to murder the nord that killed my whole family. But suddenly there was a change of plans, I realized I am dragonborn, and I have to slay some dragon ass before I can go onto my main quest for revenge.

In the far flung future, MOOSE was part of a crack anti-terrorist group. He fought in many missions and felled many terrorists.

Then, terrorists infiltrated and captured an experimental particle accelerator machine. During the mission, MOOSE got too close to the machine just as the terrorists overloaded it, causing a rift in the space time continuum to be formed, sending him into a parallel universe where there are infinite dragons.

Then Skyrim the game happens. And he lost his gun and other stuff.

I am a mute Argonan dragonborn who has no idea why he was sneeking into skyrim beceause he blacked out and lost all memory of his former life, except the memory of his shoemaker doing his sister. And so Jack Ossalot set out to find, and kill the shoemaker that fucked his sister.

He's a power hungy mage who will stop at nothing to get stronger and will crush anyone who stands in his way.

Josh is a Nord who after being involved with a life of crime and killing for money escaped his old life to find fortune in the land of skyrim. he intended to move in with his cousin Roman, though he was promptly arrested for having over 2000Lbs of skuma inserted into his anus. the ensuing adventure is merely a skuma trip, as the condom that was holding the illicit drug exploded.

Haunting stories indeed. @joshy9411: It would seem the Elder Scrolls is based off of a Skooma trip.

I always come up with something. Otherwise, without motivation and direction, I'd get bored.

So, I usually make up little stories as the game goes on.

Now that I'm a little more familiar with the world, and because I didn't roll my usual thief, my next character will be an orphan from Rifton, turned Dark Brotherhood assassin who was hired through the female captain or Telius. Working his/her way through the Stormguard ranks, this assassin was the one who gave away Ulric's position to the Empire. Needing to clear his/her trail of dirty deeds, Telius or the Captain has the assassin put on the list at the last moment. Double crossed, the assassin finds him/herself on the chopping block until the dragon comes to intervene and so starts a tale of revenge and murder as the assassin gets in touch with the Northern-sect of the Dark Brotherhood.

Argonian going on a sight-seeing tour of the empire, wanting to visit all the places he'd read about in the books. His current target was Solitude, where the Wolf Queen ruled in the good old days, but he got caught crossing the border and things really went all kinds of bad. Joined the empire to clear that whole illegal border crossing thing from his permanent record.

He was also convinced that "Dragonborn" was some kind of racial slur until his verbal rebuttal to the guard who said it knocked him on his ass.

I don't really give a backstory for any character I make. I don't really mind either as my focus in these games is learning about the world and its people, not making up a story that will be acknowledged by no one in the world.

My character was sent back in time to prevent the Dragons from creating Skynet.

Don't really need a backstory for someone named Stabby McStabberton of Stabbertonia. Name pretty well covers it but tend to pick a good last name for Oblivion & make everyone from there but will make a few characters for Skyrim as I probably want to explore some of the stuff I'm probably not going to cover much of in the first run through (warrior guild, werewolf, vampy, marriage).

Darnell III was born in Africa as a child and got magically transported to Skyrim.  He grew up at the orphanage in Riften and he began doing petty crimes such as hitting people in the head with a one handed stick and wearing around heavy rags of clothing.  He was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was arrested.  Thus, begins his adventure.

@SeriouslyNow: @SeriouslyNow said:

Guy was a Nord teen who went out and got dunk for the first time and was caught masturbating to a copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid in public on the streets of Cyrodil. He was summarily arrested and sent to his homeland of Skyrim

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

(based solely on his looks, his actual lineage is questionable with some minor spoilers that his mother and grandmother were both known as being sluts for dragon cock, Guy has since found his tastes err on the scaly side)

and thus his story began.

That is so funny. That series of books is certainly my boyfriend and I's favorite book in the game. We have come to quoting it's hilarious passages and laughing.

My character, a female Breton was a mage who was told that she needed to go to the College of Winterhold. And she's also kind of a badass who loves the monies.

@Claude said:

@Bocam said:

My backstory was that my character's mom was raped by dragons

You poor Dragonborn bastard.

Oh god, I can never think of the word dragonborn the same way again.

In 2011, sarcastic people RP just as much as duders that live with their parents and spend WAY too much time in the card shop. 2012 may actually be the end times.

@Jason_Bourne:

@Bocam: :( I don't think I can play this game anymore...

Furthest I went was to explain that he looked more like a Mongol than a Redguard because he was mixed.

My character popped into existence and just happened to end up on a wagon going to an execution.

Bad luck just like me.

Yeah I RP my Elder Scrolls. Since I made a Nord that's easily 65+, I figure he's vet from the great war and that's why I hooked up with the imperial legion, I want them strengthened to bring the fight back to the Dominion. And then the late life news of being Dragonborn appears when he goes back to his homeland after Rambo-style wandering and vagrancy through Tamriel.

Ser Rymar Brownwater was a knight in High Rock, but was exiled for selling Breton secrets to the Dark Elves. He heard shit about dragons and decided Skyrim would be a cool (Ha!) place to go.

I assume any story my character has comes from things I've done.

After originally trying to be a sneaky thief, and getting spotted and thus beaten up many times, Ramus discovered he had more luck setting fire to things than sneaking around. He is now the Archmage of Winterhold.

Samson was a war hero back in Hammerfell and would do anything for his homeland. He was cherished and loved by many due to his valiant exploits, but was shunned from his home once accusations of cannibalism began to fly. Now he wanders all of Tamriel searching for a new place to call home.

Ronja, my Breton female mage's backstory is based on the character in Astrid Lindgrens "Ronja Rövardotter" ( Ronja the Robber's Daughter)
It's about two groups of robber clans living in the same ruined castle, but they are unfriendly towards eachother. Ronja and Birk are from each clan and they fall in love.
In the story it all works out in the end, for my character it all went really bad. Fleeing for her life she runs towards Skyrim. 
Seeking refuge at the thieves guild in Riften and joins the College of Winterhold to train her magic skills - so that it will benefit her, the thieves guild and eventually go home again and seek revenge.

I'll make one up should I play the game.

Meaya Dres pretends to be a descendant of the once powerful House Dres from Morrowind in order to boost her standing in the criminal underworld. She is part of a small, secretive drug cartel that discovered a new ingredient from a little-known realm of Oblivion that is sure to take the Tamriel drug scene by storm. The ingredient needed to be delivered to a secret partner in the College of Winterhold for study and Meaya insisted on being the one for the job. When ambushed by Imperials at the border, she wondered if it was all an elaborate setup by one of the other members of the cartel to get her out of the picture.

My default story is Yahtzee's backstory in his Oblivion review.

This thread is beautiful.

Yes. He is the same dark elf that I played through Morrowind and Oblivion with,

I was listening to Radiohead at the time so I named my Greenwood. Naturally my back-story is that between recording and tours Jonny Greenwood likes to have a little jaunt through a Dragon infested fantasy land.

My character, Samuel, is just an Imperial drifter from Cyrodil who by his physique has a past as a warrior and is helping people out and trying to do the right thing while surviving this harsh world.

My Argorian left his home at an early age after his family were killed at a very young age. Hoping for some coin he heard about some mercenary work near the border of Skyrim which turned out to be the Stormcloaks attacking an Imperial emplacement which ended up with him in shackles.

I'd like to think that since Bretons are supposed to be abstract thinkers, that's why I'm able to learn Thu'ums so quickly, along with being Dragon Born. I don't need Roseta Stone, bitch.

His name is my last name, which is Scottish, so I'm pretty much role-playing as myself, if I could use magic and be a ninja, that is.

@Video_Game_King said:

I'll make one up, I should play the game.

Fixed that for you.

@sofacitysweetheart: Which would explain why both Terminator and Skyrim have sweet drum riffs in their musics.

I don't usually make a background for my character, just goofy names, but I decide to do some bit of 'role-playing' and that has been it's own reward. I'm playing a native son of Skyrim who was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Though he certainly doesn't like the Stormcloaks' racial and religious agenda, he also doesn't like the Empire's elitism and many concessions to the Thalmor. He believes that Skyrim should be an independent nation ruled by the people of Skyrim- though that doesn't mean a Nord ruling class- and that the indigenous Forsworn should be given national recognition. While these solutions can't be found in either of the main factions, war is coming- he'll need to decide soon.

As a side note, one of the rules of my role-playing is that I'm a Weapons and Armor smith who only makes armor out of predator animals. I saw a bear attacking a deer(elk?) and once I killed the bear, the deer/elk came up to me and looked me in the face, and started vocalizing. Has this happened to anyone else? Was I being thanked?

All my High Elf remembers was being on a plane when it hit turbulence, broke in half and woke up on a carriage.

My character is the great-great-great-great-grandfather of King, from the Tekken series. He can't wrestle, but he doesn't use weapons.  *sigh* Now i'm wishing to wrestle dragons.

@Roger_Klotz said:

My character is an alchemy professor at Arcane Univeristy, who finds out she has cancer and decides to cook the narcotic potion skooma to help pay for her treatment and support her family. She travels to skyrim in a moveable skooma lab disguised as a wholly mammoth, where she cooks her pure skooma potion.

Congratulations, you've won the Internet.

@whistlebottom said:

As a side note, one of the rules of my role-playing is that I'm a Weapons and Armor smith who only makes armor out of predator animals. I saw a bear attacking a deer(elk?) and once I killed the bear, the deer/elk came up to me and looked me in the face, and started vocalizing. Has this happened to anyone else? Was I being thanked?

I saved a goat that was being attacked by a bear and he too walked over, but there was no vocalizing that I remember. I did have a wolf come over after we killed a dragon together, he didn't seem to be aggressive or anything. Sadly Lydia head shotted him before he got close enough.

@Arker101:

I should, but I'm busy with other games.