Mykhail always traveled. Always.
Born to Kellish parents and Mammoth traders to boot, the boy was used to changing scenery.
He grew up much like anyone else; he had his chores, he played with the other children, he tried to get away with not eating his vegetables. Everything was perfectly normal: before the accident.
Mykhail's father, Previchi, had been staking out the pens, a job he had done every other day for 30 years, when the mammoths spooked. Previchi got his head and chest out of the way but a bull calf crushed his shin and before long, it grew septic. The healer woman amputated immediately as any sensible medic would, but then the wound wouldn't close.
In the end, nothing could be done and the boy's father passed and no amount of changing scenery could fill his place.
With no man to defend her, Mykhail's mother became a de facto slave to anyone who needed a thing done and there was always more than enough that needed doing. Mykhail helped as much as he could and soon grew broader and stronger than the other children.
For a while he could scare off the smaller women and younger men that came requiring work off his mother, but word soon spread and the women just sent their husbands to get the work done and Mykhail found he didn't have enough fight in him to stop it all.
Eventually, the caravan made it down into Belkzen and the boy's mother took up with a tower of an Orcish man with 3 children of his own.
Mykhail was by no means broader or stronger than his step-father's children: two girls and one boy, they bullied, badgered, and broke whatever they could and took special delight in tormenting Mykhail.
They could never quite get their Orcish mouths around his father's last name and so "Usov" became "Your Soft" and deteriorated to become plain "Soft".
Now the boy lives in Trunau with his step-father, his mother, his step-siblings, and his half-sister. His father is something of a prize fighter, while his mother is a well known weaver and an even better midwife.
Soft does his best to stay clear of his step-siblings and only really challenges the status quo when it comes to Zoya's (his half-sister) well-being.
Mother: Oksana
Half-Sister: Zoya
Step Father: Tsadok
Step Sisters: Goruza, Tevaga
Step Brother: Ausk
