<!-- family was in sacked city, followed in wake of refugee columns.
My father was a grain merchant in {IMPERIALCAPITAL}. Men such as he feed the city, yet they are hated when the price is high, and they do not sell at a loss. When the riots broke out, the riff-raff were not content to loot our warehouses. They attacked our house, and broke my father's skull with a weighing block -->

<string id="prebackstory.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=KNCnJN4n}I'll tell you my story. If it bothers you, I'd prefer you keep it to yourself - unless you've lived months on crusts of bread and chaff of grain, that is." />
<string id="backstory_a.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=pD92hewA}My father was a merchant in {IMPERIALCAPITAL}. We lived in a rich house, with many servants. I wanted for nothing. Our neighbor was a moneylender, who specialized in loans to the imperial guard. That turned out to be a bad neighborhood in which to live, when the riots came. " />
<string id="backstory_b.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=OGyYFIEA}The guardsmen came to burn our neighbor's house, so their debts would be forgotten. The flames spread to our house, and it was destroyed. My father tried to save his strongbox, and that was his undoing. A riot is a holiday for thieves and robbers, and some saw him dragging it through the streets, so they knifed him and took it. We tried to find shelter with my uncle, but there was no food in the city, and he turned us out. So we joined the refugees in the country, living on what we could steal from the fields. " />
<string id="backstory_c.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=aNSIajhR}I found a guardsman, alone and drunk. I have no idea whether he was one of the ones that set fire to our neighborhood. Maybe I should not have done to him what I did to him. But now I have his sword. It's been very useful." />
<string id="response_1.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=cGr6RvX7}The starving do what they must." />
<string id="response_2.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=iaagSMEa}And to think you had all the advantages of an educated childhood." />
<string id="backstory_d.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=RZglJSZ3}I think my story shows that I am adaptable, at least. If there was room for me in a warlord's retinue, say, I imagine I could quickly learn whatever skills were needed." />
<string id="generic_backstory.spc_wanderer_empire_8" text="{=QUamabEa}I was a merchant's daughter. There was a bout of unrest in our home city, and our home and warehouses were burned and our family made penniless. I shall spare you the details. I am sure you've heard plenty of similar tales in these times." />