Public Background
As part of character creation, you will write a public background for your character. Anything you write in your public background can potentially be discovered by other PCs asking around in-game through the rumor system. Information included in the public background should therefore be considered common knowledge, the sort of personal details which it would be relatively easy for anyone to discover or figure out without much personal familiarity.
A more detailed and in-depth background for your character should be provided in the private background.
Backgrounds and Origin
Public backgrounds are origin-specific, so when you write your public background in chargen, you will be writing it for whatever your land of origin is. If you leave your land of origin and travel to a completely new zone, nobody in your new locale will have any information about your public background from your original location. However, over time you can develop a new background for the second zone, which people there will similarly be able to find out through rumors.
Making Changes to Your Background
You may submit an addition to your character's public background twice a year. Note that this is not a full change of your entire background. It will simply add an extra paragraph to the end of the background for the zone that the character is currently occupying. The CHANGE command can be used for changing an entire background.
Examples
Arezou Rufsahni
Rufsahni is known and recognized nearly everywhere due to his fame as one of the greatest Poets of the age, and his long years of prominence in the guild and at the Raziyan provincial court. Though his career began in Irzal, he has made Omrazir his home for many years and is known to be deeply attached to the city, having even given up a post at the the caliphal court itself to reside here. His prestige has waned slightly in recent years, as he has aged and younger Poets have come to the fore in both guild and court, but he is still well respected and a force to be reckoned with. Besides being famed for his poetry, and rumored to be a true poet-mage as well, he is known for his passion for horticulture.
Donna Seaglass
Raised as the daughter of the couple who built the Seaglass Inn at St Loomis, Donna Seaglass is the current innkeeper. She has two sons, one lost to the sea, and the other living a fisherman's life down near the St Loomis dockyard with a wife and two young children. Her daughter has left for Imbryck, but everyone in St Loomis knows that Donna is hoping for her daughter to return and take over work at the inn. The picture of bubbly religiosity, Donna is at church every morning on the Lord's Day.
Halfah Mistbane
To anyone living in the Mistmarches, the current Master of Lamps is a personage of some renown and the object of much admiration, or even awe. Though few know much of the woman's past -- most even know her simply as "Hal" instead of by her full name of Halfah -- and many are not entirely certain just what it is that a Master of Lamps does, everyone is very much aware of the vital importance and dignity of the post. Most people of the Mistmarches also still recall her role in the Battle of Foggy Fens, when she took up the lamp when the previous Master of Lamps fell, and bravely rallied the defenders against the Mist. Outside the Mistmarch, and particularly among the Court, Hal is viewed rather less positively, as few among the nobility relish being treated as an equal by someone possessing the multiple defects of being a woman, a commoner, a Yehani, and one of the leaders of some esoteric society defending against a superstitious threat that is clearly exaggerated.