Kal Codrin was a scholar. A student of the planes and a reader of philosophies. Born to a merchant family in Kaer Maga, Kal was always more enthralled with worlds other than the one in which he resided. That entire planes of existence existed beyond his reach fascinated him, and spurred on his largely independent studies in magecraft.
Kaer Maga was many things, but academically inclined it was not. It was this, then, that led Kal to depart from this chaotic and freewheeling city and travel to Korvosa. There he hoped to gain entrance to the famous Acadamae, where he might pursue his studies with access to the finest of teachers and libraries. Armed with what wealth he brought from home, he set out across Varisia until the North Bridge was in his sights.
To enter Korvosa is the easiest thing. To enter the Acadamae is not. Here in the oldest and greatest of the Varisian city-states, Kal was no more than one of many hopeful acolytes seeking admission to that finest of magical institutions. He had no special connections within this strange new city, nor any friends to count on. To that end, he pursued the entrance examinations with the same characteristic determination and bloody-mindedness that had brought him so far already.
And yet through it all there was a lingering doubt at the back of his mind. Day after day, he saw the other applicants, their skills, their strengths, drawn from prestigious backgrounds and bloodlines. Meanwhile, Kal took a dreary job as a low-level clerk to support himself while struggling to keep up his studies. Increasingly, he felt the combination of mounting stresses and mind-numbing work gnawing away at him.
And that was how he met Gaedren Lamm, and damned himself in the process.
Gaedren Lamm was a name that was already well known within the student circles of Korvosa as a peddler of “Alternative” forms of entertainment - drugs, chiefly. Kal still can’t rightly say when he first fell into the cold grip of the shivers - Indeed, much of that period seems to be wholly lost to him, and perhaps better left forgotten. But what might have been meant as a brief escape from an increasingly difficult life erupted in a destructive addiction.
The drug gave Kal dreams even as it tore away the ones he had so long sought. It was not until his failure at the entrance exams that Kal was left to realize the extent of his decline. He would spend months struggling against addiction and despair both, and as he did his mind cast about for somewhere to place the blame. How could he, someone who had so long prided himself upon his strength of will and character, have fallen into the grips of such a thing? Surely, this failure could not be wholly his own? He could not leave Korvosa now, and return home to Kaer Maga broken and defeated. Not without having accomplished something.
And there was the face he remembered from so long ago.
Gaedren Lamm, and a chance for vengeance.
