Joe was born and raised in (port city that is also on a river). As he likes to tell it, the streets were his parents and he clawed his way up from the bottom.
What annoys him is that in fact his parents are alive and well, and have a thriving wholesale bakery business in a relatively benign neighborhood. He has no odd birthmarks, nor were there any dire portents at his birth, nor at any later time during his life.
The banality and sheer normality of his existence caused him to seek out excitement in his early teens and he got involved with some of the less than savory elements of the city, where his enormous strength and greater than average intelligence served him well in dealing with various gangs and near underground organizations, which is how he learned some of his less savory skills.
Though having no interest in following in his parent's footsteps, he was smart enough to see the value of what they were teaching him, and actually had a fair knack for languages and bookkeeping. Though terrible at actual baking, he was pretty good at cooking the books, though his parents never let him use any of the ideas he came up with. Many of the skills his parents taught him about dealing with customers and potential customers he also found quite handy in his underground activities.
A big fan of drinking and brawling, Joe loves to put on a show illustrating his strength and physical prowess, and he has learned and is willing to use whatever dirty tricks are necessary. Joe has often found it expedient to spend some time guarding a caravan or out at sea after certain barroom fights, making him an experienced, if somewhat indifferent, sailor. He loves the ocean, and climbing the rigging, but isn't really all that into the actual work, though he does what he needs to do to earn some pay and get on the ocean.
He's done freelance work both as bodyguard and enforcer and favors using a really big greatsword to try and intimidate people. Whether they end up intimidated from the sight of it, or from being hit in the face with it is up to them.
Joe is also a big fan of gambling, though he realizes he isn't particularly good at it. He almost always has some cards or dice and is willing to play a game with pretty much anyone.
When he was 17, Joe decided he'd had enough of living with his parents and split. He still visits them occasionally, but only if he thinks no one's watching. He's spent the past few years building a name for himself as a realiable, if somewhat brash, bit of muscle who's also a fair hand at dealing with people. He's discovered as well that he's a fair hand at forging official looking documents, but he has been very careful about sharing that aspect of his skills with people.
