Mark is a relatively simple guy. He grew up on the docks, and when he was a young teen he got a job unloading and loading ships.
Like many people around that age, Mark got married and soon had a young daughter, Aria.
Mark was working on the docks the day when a battle broke out between a group of adventurers and the pirate crew who were also wererats.
During the battle, the docks were set on fire as magic was flung on both sides, including multiple teleportation spells, one of which opened underneath Mark's family who promptly fell...somewhere.
Mark watched all this happen while he tried to get to his family before the portal closed.
Mark was not successful.
The battle ended shortly thereafter, with the death of the wererats and the adventurers being arrested.
Shortly before the arrests, Mark begged the wizard in the group to explain where the portal went. Unfortunately, he was so overcome with grief that he couldn't explain clearly.
The wizard told him he had no idea.
As the guard hauled the adventurers away, Mark noticed that a small book had fallen during the fight. Picking it up, Mark put it in his pocket and went home. He then promptly forgot about it while trying to find out an answer as to where his family had gone.
Several weeks later, Mark found the book again and started flipping through it. It was written in a wierd language he'd never seen before, but looked like something he could understand. So, with no other options, Mark started translating the book.
As he worked, he realized that the book was written in multiple languages, which he found himself picking up.
Once he was able to read the languages, his belief was confirmed: this was a spellbook.
Now he just had to figure out how to cast spells.
This was easier than it seemed however; All he did was buy some wizards beer in exchange for 'explaining how magic works.' Soon, he had figured out both cantrips and lower level spells. He knew what the higher level spells were, but he couldn't cast them yet.
So, Mark became an adventurer, hoping to become strong enough to be able to cast magic necessary to discover where his family went.
