Since my character unexpectedly survived this week, I might as well post the bio for him that I made up a while back.  For those who don't already know, he's an Eladrin (high elf) Wizard (3rd level at the time of this writing).  A sketch is on the left.  I'm no trained artist, as you can tell.  Anyway, the bio:

The younger son of a minor Eladrin noble family, Sparrow was shuffled off to an academy at an early age to learn the arcane arts.  Though never a bad student, he rapidly became fascinated with lore about the world beyond insular Eladrin civilization and often neglected other subjects.  To relieve the boredom, and to get back at fellow students who’d irritated him, Sparrow became a prankster in his later academy years – and was sneaky enough to avoid official censure.  Following graduation he set out to explore the wider world that the Eladrin had abandoned.  Sparrow quickly fell in with a motley party of adventurers who bumbled into several minor triumphs – the last nearly costing Sparrow his life (and that of the rest of the party) due to his overconfidence.

Sparrow is a walking collection of contradictions.  Though outwardly arrogant and contemptuous of lesser races and primitive cultures (which includes almost everyone else, according to Eladrin lore), he’s also fascinated by their energy and variety and is easily irked by (other) people with superior attitudes.  Loyalty is not one of his main characteristics - it’s hard to feel loyalty to those you hold in contempt – but experience is slowly strengthening his respect for his fellow adventurers.  Despite his considerable magical talent, and supreme outward confidence in it, he’s not quite as knowledgeable as he’d like others to believe and has an insecure streak from always being the lesser son in the family.  As a result Sparrow is driven to stay a step ahead in every situation, which occasionally includes withholding important information from his companions.  Overall, he could be described as selfish but not malicious.