Life was never easy growing up in the River Kingdoms, violence and pain were common place, and the idea of law and morality extended only as far as the ideals of those currently in power.
Born in one of the various small, unimportant villages and slums that litter the River Kingdoms, to a small and unimportant barmaid named Tora. An unwanted bastard child whose mother was involved with less than savory characters, racking up a small fortune in loans, which would ultimately cost her, her life.
The gang leader who took her life, a man by the name of Rahric, would help himself to her meager possessions, including her son, taking him as a possible investment, either as a slave or potential new recruit. Lessons were hard learned in the group, and most ended in violence leaving him bruised and broken, life in the north was always a brutal one, Rahric just brings his own flavor of pain to the stage. As they moved from town to town he would experience the thuggery and harshness of the world, and even be forced to partake in it.
Eventually the group would overestimate itself, crossing those even more dangerous than themselves. Caught and imprisoned in the city state of Tymon, the group quickly finds themselves guests of the arena, sentenced to fight, and in all likelihood die for their crimes. The matches are brutal, small groups are taken, 3 or 4 at a time until at last only Garn and Rahric remain. The events from there aren't entirely clear to Garn, but what he does remember, the bits and pieces, are the fear, the pain, and the sudden release, the feeling of freedom as he came to in the middle of the arena, axe in hand and a bloody Rahric below him. Their executioner simply looks on with mild surprise before moving over to him to deliver a killing blow. He is stopped mid swing, Garn struggling under the large mans grip, saved from death with nothing but a word. Despite his sentencing, he is spared, his display garnering the attention of those from the gladiatorial college of Tymon.
He would spend the rest of his childhood in the tutelage of the masters and gladiators of Tymon, although his life had changed little from what it was. His days still spent enduring pain and mental strain, although this felt different, like being built up for something rather than for someone else's amusement. But if there is anything previous events have taught him is that pain and hardship are needed to temper an individual just as the fire and hammer temper steel.
His many trials and tribulations teach him many things, but most of all they teach him there is value in knowing pain and hardship, drawing strength from it. While others run and hide from it, he must seek it out if he wishes to grow strong enough to maintain mastery of himself. For in this world, the strong hold dominion over the weak.
