Kongu was born in outskirts of the Kingdom of Haense, the last in a long line of Stragglers, a last name earned by an ancestor, intended as an insult but embraced due to their adventuring impulses. Kongu is the son of Regim and Lilium Straggler, and the middle sibling of three, his older sister Zahra and his younger brother Johnny. While he had a loving family, Kongu was primarily raised by General Carter to become a soldier and knight of Haense. When Kongu was just a teenager, Carter betrayed his family, taking a bribe to frame his family for treason, forcing them to flee the country. Years later, when Kongu was 16, his parents disappeared, presumably going into hiding to protect their children, even though his parents were the ones at risk, Kongu still has not set foot back in his homeland for 5 years, instead wandering the other human and elven countries, living off mercenary work, enamored by tales of heroes he longed to be more than an ordinary sword for hire.
After an incident at sea involving a failed mutiny, Kongu saved the life of a woman named Abigail Airborzen, a mysterious farfolk from an island outside the peninsula. They have had a complicated off and on relationship for over a year and manage to always run into each other in remote places due to some kind of “mystic life debt,” though Kongu doesn’t much much stock in things like that. The relationship is further complicated because the failed mutiny was against Captain Cutler, Abigail’s father and Kongu’s now sworn enemy, this and similar incidents have caused Kongu to develop a phobia of sea travel, leading to him traveling great distances over land to avoid boarding a ship.
