He was born in the rural highlands of Norland, to a poor family of hunters and trappers. During his youth, he spent much of his time helping his father prepare traps for game, or assisting his mother in hauling wood and butchering the meat his father procured. His demanding life left little time for formal schooling, and he never learned how to write beyond an elementary level. What reading and writing he did learn, he gained from the local church, where his family regularly heard sermons from a cleric of the red faith. Although he never learned much in the way of writing, reading, history, or math, he is well versed in the axe, having learned both from his father, and from watching local soldiers train, and replicating their practice at night. he always secretly harbored dreams of leaving his homeland behind, and gaining fame and perhaps fortune in the northguard. As he grew to adulthood, his desire to see the more of the world and gain martial glory only grew. When his parents were stricken by dysentery, he resolved to carry out that dream, rather than facing an inglorious death in the middle of nowhere. When they finally succumbed to disease, he buried them with honor, and set out to make his fortune. With little knowledge of greater Norlandian geography beyond his village, he set out in the general direction of Varhelm, hoping to find his fortune on the road.
