Good Thomas has no recollection of his real parents. He knows that their union must have been either perverted or forced, but his first memory is that of his adoptive father holding a lantern as he peered down at him.
Elias, his adoptive father, found him one night during a rainstorm a good thirty yards from the inn's stables. Good Thomas' wailing had drawn the blind stable master to him. In the midst of the night, Elias had considered killing the monstrous baby. But his own wife had died giving childbirth but the year before, and it was that grief that cause him to bundle the babe in his cloak and hide him in an empty shed.
He wasn't sure if the emaciated babe would survive, and fed it strips of cured meat and hot milk. Tenacious, Good Thomas fought to live, and soon was crawling about the shed, prying at the boards, and regarding his new father with solemn black eyes.
Elias decided to call him Thomas, the name he had planned to give his own son, and when he could keep the secret no more from the others at the inn, he introduced the boy defiantly and dared any to hurt him. His good standing earned him a cautious warning: if Thomas caused any trouble whatsoever, both he and his father would be cast out.
Raising Thomas was a harrowing experience. Prone to rages and sullen withdrawals, Elias took to calling him Good Thomas, as in, "Don't do that, that's a good Thomas," or "Put down that knife son, that's a good Thomas, there you go, nice and slow..."
Eventually 'Good Thomas' became his name, and slowly his father's love and patience (as well as firm right hand) shaped the boy and taught him to love Elias in turn. Fierce and protective of his father, Good Thomas soon became invaluable around the inn, his prodigious strength helping him carry bales of hay and goods, while his intimidating appearance kept bandits away.
By the time he was sixteen, Good Thomas towered over everybody, standing almost eight feet tall and with shoulders as broad as a barnyard door. Life in the inn had become too constrained, and in his slow Common, he asked his father permission to see the world.
Elias, terrified of his son being killed by errant adventurers or some terrified city guard, asked him to join a merchant caravan as a guard. That way he would still travel, but do so within a group that would vouch for him and keep him from getting in trouble.
Good Thomas readily agreed, and signed up with a friend of Elias, a caravan heading south. His size and appearance got him signed up, but soon his inexperience with weapons began to show. An old guard called Martyn began to show him how to handle a blade, and it was soon made apparent that only a greatsword would do for someone Good Thomas' size.
For two years he traveled and saw Golarion, becoming moderately skilled with his blade but relying primarily on his formidable strength to help him win battles. Once the caravan was attacked and he was the only guard to stand and not flee in the face of the enemy. Brandishing his greatsword and roaring, he gave the attacking bandits pause, and the other guards rallied and helped him drive them off.
The caravan owner was so grateful that he gifted Good Thomas with a set of enchanted banded mail, which quickly became his most prized possession.
Three years with the caravan however began to wear thin. Good Thomas is now on the lookout for his next step, confident now in both his military skill and ability to navigate the world at large without the guidance of the caravan master.
