Born in Ilizmagorty to a poor family in the Rivergreen district outside the city walls, life was a constant struggle for Nissi. From a young age she dreamed of joining the ranks of the mantis assassins. Her grandfather told her stories of the ninja from their far away homelands. Though she spent as much time as she could learning the ways of the order so that when the time was right she would have the best chance of being noticed, the day to day challenges of life severely limited her time for personal pursuits.
Her family did whatever they could for a few coppers here and there, occasionally even resorting to theft in desperation or when an opportunity arose. When she was old enough Nissi found that her self taught skills in some of the basic mantis order acrobatics could be used to entertain sailors in the Jawbone district and so she leveraged those talents to develop a dancing routine which pleased patrons enough to bring in a little more coin for the family.
While her goal was still to become a skilled ninja, her practical experience led her to develop her own style which was as much about showmanship as practicality.
Nissi's plans changed the night that her family was killed. Her parents had taken a loan from a man named Kirst, the leader of a small local gang. To help pay off their debt they had started to do small jobs here and there for Kirst. When a gang war involving Kirst erupted, Nissi's family was caught in the position of being marked as Kirst's associates without actually being part of his organization and thus had no protection. Worse yet, they didn't even realize they were caught in that position until it was too late.
Nissi returned from that evening's performance to find ruffians rummaging around in the family's small hovel. Though she was unaware of what had happened, this affront would not stand. It would be the first time she used her skills in an actual fight.
Before the men in the hovel knew what was going on, Nissi tumbled in among them and with a wide flourish the chain from her spear came down on the small lamp that lit the interior, smashing it and extinguishing the only light source. The men fumbled around in the darkness and panicked as Nissi danced about them, stabbing with spear and sword and hindering and upending them with chain. After a few moments the fight was over and Nissi surveyed the scene.
It was at this time that she realized what had happened. Realizing that she couldn't stay here any more, she gathered what little she could from the family's house. She piled up the furniture and crafted a crude pyre. It wasn't much but it was better than letting her family's corpses be tossed in some trash heap somewhere, or worse yet sold for some purpose to pay off their debt. With a last farewell she set the house alight and headed to the docks as quickly as she could. There she booked passage on the next ship out of port that she could afford. Her actions were certain to attract attention and she was eager to leave the city as soon as possible, the destination was not important.
Though her dream of joining the mantis order had come to an end, her recent success had emboldened her and, and she still had what little teachings she managed to accumulated. It would take time and the technique might be crude, but she was determined to learn the secrets of the ancient assassins and when she did she would return to see that those responsible for ordering her family's deaths would pay.
