History Main / ProtagonistWithoutAPast

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in ''[[Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor]]''. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]]. Due to this, the other characters in this world have no information ''at all'' on who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad themself.

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In some games, usually {{RPG}}s, a player character that does not start out in his actual home at the beginning of the scenario will usually have no prior history in the world of the game. He/she/it will never encounter people they know from before or have a hometown to visit. This is entirely justified in cases where the protagonist is in a foreign country or another world, but is decidedly strange in cases in which it appears that the scenario takes place in the protagonist's homeland.

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''. Other than a mention of his birthplace [[note]]Christmas Island[[/note]] in the Japanese manual for [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the original game]], his past isn't elaborated upon at all. Tails also comes close, with slight elaboration. It's not clear how he was born on an island that he was the only inhabitant of, though.

* All too many ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' characters throughout its history may well have popped out of a tankard at the tavern [[YouAllMeetAtAnInn moments before the questgiver arrives]]. This is particularly true in hack-and-slash games, in which the character only needs to be a meat cleaver on legs that the party points in the vague direction of monsters.

* Nightmarishly justified in ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' and ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII''. Your Player Characters ''did'' have a past, but the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Undead Curse]] is [[TheFogOfAges rotting their minds, starting with the oldest memories]]. Dark Souls II especially plays up this angle - you ''no idea'' who you are. The opening teases you with the image of a woman and a child, but even that vague memory dissolves, lost forever. [[SarcasmMode Wowee gee]], isn't CompleteImmortality [[WhoWantsToLiveForever great]]?

** The Agent, hero of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'', downplays it. Less is known about him than the Eternal Champion, but still somewhat more than later games in the series. The Agent was born in 3E 375, making him 30 at the time of ''Daggerfall''. He was imprisoned for a time (with the reason depending on answers given during character generation) during the Imperial Simulacrum, but was released and caught the attention of the Emperor, possibly by aiding one of the Emperor's sons.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in ''[[Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor]]''. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]]. Due to this, the other characters in this world have no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad themself.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in ''[[Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor A Knight's Tale as Inquisitor]]''. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]]. Due to this, the other characters in this world has no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad themself.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]]. Due to this, the other characters in this world has no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad themself.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]]. Due to this, the other characters in this world has no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad them self.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, Arturia has [[Franchise/DragonAge landed in an completely different setting than her own]], the other character in this world has no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad them self.

* [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] and [[JustifiedTrope Jusified]] in case of Arturia Pendragon in the Fanfic/AKnightsTaleasInquisitor. While the audience is very much aware of her past since the very beginning of the story, since Arturia has [[''Franchise/DragonAge'' landed in an completely different setting than her own]], the other character in this world has no information ''at all'' of who she is or where she comes from, making her ARiddleWrappedInAMysteryInsideAnEnigma to everyone around her, only rivaled by the BigBad them self.

* In ''VideoGame/BrokenSword'', it's never really indicated what George Stobbart's job is. He has spent most of the series being a tourist. The first game has him mentioning that he studied law. In the third it is explicitly stated that he is an attorney specialising in patent law. By the fourth he's become a bail bondsman.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' usually averts this, and the Courier of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' appeared to be the first example in the series. Subverted as some their past is revealed, mostly confined to plot points pertinent to this game, but a few seeds for OntologicalMystery have been sown and by the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC the player is given a glimpse into a major event of the Courier's past.
And even then, the dialog tree in the Lonesome Road [=DLC=] can allow you to insist to Ulysses that you don't even remember the place he's lured you to and/or might have mistaken you for someone else, which may very well be true.

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' usually averts this, and The Courier of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' appeared to be the first example in the series. Subverted as some their past is revealed, mostly confined to plot points pertinent to this game, but a few seeds for OntologicalMystery have been sown and by the ''Lonesome Road'' DLC the player is given a glimpse into a major event of the Courier's past.
** It's justified in that the Courier was shot in the head during the game's intro and might have lost a significant amount of his/her memory, and presumably is a stranger in the Mojave having only to deliver their cargo. The dialog tree during Lonesome Road allows you to insist to Ulysses that you don't even remember the place he's lured you to and/or might have mistaken you for someone else, which may very well be true.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', where Bartz turns out to have a hometown after all; it's in Lix. And while it [[spoiler:does get destroyed much later on, so do half a dozen other places at the same time, and they all come back during the ending.]]

** And then you can play one of these in ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'' (which seems to Retcon the original Final Fantasy's plot into having only one Warrior), and this time, he gets talking cutscenes. In which you discover even he himself doesn't know where he came from (due to the nature of the endless cycle, every time he was resurrected, he would lose more of his memory, and he's been in the conflict since the very beginning). ''Dissidia 012'' reveals that [[spoiler: he doesn't have a past, as he was a Manikin infused with memory and personality.]]

** The first expansion ''Shadows of Undrentide'' is really just like the original game; your character is someone who went somewhere to be trained to be an adventurer and is now "graduating". At least the details are less lame this time. You're learning under an independent master, whereas in the original the academy was set up to train potential heroes to save the city from the plague. That latter is either a really bad excuse or unrealistically GenreSavvy. The second expansion ''Hordes of the Underdark'' gets off easily by giving your background as "you're the guy from the other expansion" - even if you're not, and even if you're the guy from the ''original game'', who keeps getting referred to.

* In ''BrokenSword'', it's never really indicated what George Stobbart's job is. He has spent most of the series being a tourist. The first game has him mentioning that he studied law. In the third it is explicitly stated that he is an attorney specialising in patent law. By the fourth he's become a bail bondsman.

* Seth, the main character in AtlantisTheLostTales. He seems to be Atlantean himself but has no connection to anything before the story's beginning.

* Turned on its head in ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': the hero encounters people who remember him all the time... he just doesn't remember them in return. Most of the time, he just plays along. This does allow a few of those people to play him for a fool, though. The best example is Pharod, who will only help you if you go into the catacombs and find the Bronze Sphere. After you bring it back, he reveals that you originally tasked him with finding it and now since you don't remember he was able to make you go find it yourself.

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', the character may as well not have existed before the start of the game. No home city, friends, family, etc. In both, you start out in jail for a crime you don't even remember and which the authorities say is "not important". In the former game, the player character is explicitly stated to be an outsider to the island the game takes place on, justifying the trope. In the latter, however, even the prisoner in the cell vis-a-vis yours who taunts you at the very beginning will make statements indicating that you haven't even been ''conscious'' in his presence before. It's also hinted that you never committed a crime at all - when asked about it, the emperor says that "perhaps the gods arranged us to meet."(Or, to translate Emperor-speak: "Someone in middle-management fucked up and you got shafted. Sorry.")
** ''Morrowind'' establishes that your parents are unknown ("On a certain day to uncertain parents"), and how and why you were moved from the Imperial City's prison to a boat on the way to an island. Beyond that, things are as blank as ''Oblivion''.