The details below are back-story elements for my Dungeons Dragon character "Crabadonk." Some friends and I are starting a campaign in Ravnica soon and Crabadonk is my Goblin Warlock in the Cult of Rakdos.
Crabadonk grew up with his family in the shabbiest unit of the same tenement house as the person who grew up to be Dr. Lilla Zlovol. While Crabadonk and his siblings were nominally friends and played with the children from the other units, Crabadonk always resented the more affluent families, especially when he was being bitten by mites trying to get to sleep on the pile of rotting hay that was his bed.
Lilla's mother Danika was Crabadonk's family's landlady and wasn't particularly nice to the "lower dwellers." When she could, Lilla would help out Crabadonk's family with a few surplus niceties from their household, which spares Lilla from being the target of Crabadonk's "working-class rage."
What sparked Crabadonk's spirit was seeing the Rakdos carnival parades going down the street. His mother would club him on the head and tell him not to look but Crabadonk would run to the alley and steal glances, fascinated by the writhing acrobats, ululating singers, and nightmarish harlequins that would cavort in the streets enticing people to "come see the show." Crabadonk knew that's where he wanted to be.
Like many children do, Crabadonk would sometimes draw a pair of eyes with soot on his hand and curl his thumb under to mimic a mouth. He would entertain other children by doing little skits in this manner and eventually gave his hand-face a name: Mr. Bananas.
His mother would cuff him on the head and tell him to stop goofing around but Mr. Bananas was ever-present. What started to become alarming was that the voice of Mr. Bananas soon started taking on a depth of tone and personality that didn't really sound like Crabadonk.
It was around this time that Crabadonk started feeling a pull to join the Cult of Rakdos. His parents are guildless and had no such aspirations so when Crabadonk literally ran away to join the circus when he was a young adult they pragmatically saw it as one less mouth to feed and got on with their dreary routine.
Crabadonk developed his ventriloquism and became quite good and upgraded Mr. Bananas to a fully-articulated dummy in the shape of a monkey made primarily out of coconut shells. What has started to become off-putting about Crabadonk is that he is never "off." He carries Mr. Bananas with him everywhere and conversations with Crabadonk inevitably involve Mr. Bananas. When nobody else is around, Crabadonk frequently has conversations with Mr. Bananas on his own. Whether this is undying devotion to practicing his craft or outright delusion, nobody knows.
Proximity to the Cult of Rakdos awakened arcane potential within Crabadonk and, in his dreams, Crabadonk made a pact with a nameless, shapeless entity which has given him the powers of a Warlock. This allows Crabadonk to manifest all manner of phenomena during his performances to the delight of his audiences. While his act is rooted in a comedically antagonistic conversation between himself and Mr. Bananas, his shows often cross over into the bizarre, frightening, and disturbing. This has become part of the mystique of going to one of his performances, and Crabadonk is often heard saying, "Who knows what kind of mood Mr. Bananas will be in tonight!' with a wink.
CONTACT (ALLY): There's a lesser demon in the cult who thinks he owes me a favour, and who am I to argue?
Crabadonk has a contact with a slow-witted but reliable Dretch named Loafus. Some of Loafus' superior demons pushed him out on to the Prime Material Plane as a joke and Loafus happened upon one of Crabadonk's street performances wherein Crabadonk and Mr. Bananas had a particularly entertaining set. This cheered up Loafus and he helps out Crabadonk with bits of helpful information when he can.
CONTACT (RIVAL): I had a romance with a pain artist in another troupe.
While Crabadonk is short, ugly, dumb, and makes bad decisions, there's just something about the little blighter that people find endearing although they often can't say why, exactly.
One summer, Crabadonk got a job on a flying pleasure dirigible cruise ship where he and Mr. Bananas performed on the comedy side stage. One of the headline acts for the more affluent and thrill-seeking clientele was a renowned Tiefling Pain Artist named "Zaxsonya the Agonizer" who, by appointment only, catered to the needs of those seeking gratification in the medium of pain.
The world-weary Zaxsonya took a shine to Crabadonk and the two had the unlikeliest of cruiseship romances. Zaxsonya's troupe-mates looked down at her for "slumming it" with the likes of Crabadonk but when asked why she was on his arm she, with an ironically stern face, would simply say, "He makes me laugh."
Zaxsonya's idea of a good time eventually got to be too much for Crabadonk to keep up with and when the cruise was over Crabadonk ham-fistedly broke up with her. This enraged Zaxsonya and Crabadonk was nearly killed trying to get away from her. Zaxsonya still has a fondness for Crabadonk but seeks to humiliate him, as well, and sometimes shows up at his performances and is disruptive.
CONTACT (NON-RAKDOS): I once convinced a Golgari Medusa to participate in a show. We've been on good terms ever since.
One night, Crabadonk was having a particularly rough set in front of a highly inebriated and unappreciative crowd who were not appreciating the antics of Mr. Bananas that evening. There were two particularly aggressive hecklers near the front that were making it impossible for Crabadonk to even try to win back the crowd. The only person who he saw smiling was a Medusa named Vambrelia sitting off to the side near the front. She was grinning sardonically watching this hack ventriloquist act bomb but Crabadonk's unbridled confidence interpreted it as her enjoying the act.
Crabadonk shouted out, "OK! Time for some audience participation!!! Can I have a volunteer, please? Hey, you with the writhing hair-do, get up here" Before Vambrelia knew what was happening, Crabadonk had hustled her up on stage. He hastily whispered to her, "Look, I'm dying up here. If you shut those two guys up the way I know you can (wink wink) I'll split my pay for the night with you."
Taken aback by his chutzpah, Vambrelia shrugged and said "Why not?" to herself and proceeded to petrify the two hecklers. Crabadonk proceeded to then play a bongo solo on their heads while Mr. Bananas excoriated him for beating up the audience. The crowd loved it and, when it was done, Crabadonk addressed the crowd and said, "Hey! Let's hear it for... (what's your name?) Let's hear it for Vinbrolio! Hey, she's all right!"
Not wanting to be petrified himself, Crabadonk gave Vambrelia half of his night's pay and the two of them struck up a conversation that turned into a friendship.
Zaxsonya has seen Crabadonk and Vambrelia together and, even though there is in fact no romance between Crabadonk and Vambrelia, is seethingly jealous of Vambrelia for the time she spends with Crabadonk.
