Even as a cub Ozbadin had been fascinated by the night sky. The enormous expanse of the night sky in the vast plains that he called home were perfect representations of the awe inspiring night sky. The wizened pack-mams said this was because at the same moment he drew his first mewling breath, a shooting star blazed across the night sky, heralding his arrival. His mother said that she used to worry about him when he didn't awake in the night for his feeding, but when she would check on him he lay awake in his swaddling staring enraptured at the night sky.
As the 5th in line for inheriting the leadership of the pride, Ozbadin had little responsibility in his future plans. Unless misfortune overtook multiples of his elder siblings his chance for rulership were thin... and honestly he had no interest in the more mundane attractions if life. He reached for the stars.
As he grew older he tended to venture further and further from the rest of the pride fully utilizing his curiosity about life. One auspicious day he had been wondering long enough that he needed to make camp for the evening. He foolishly built his camp in a narrow canyon, though he had no idea at the time that the canyon didn't continue. Just before the sun fully set, and the stars made their welcome appearance, he felt as much as heard a dull rumbling. Looking upward he say no signs of thunder, and the rumble increased instead of undulating as thunder was want to do. Finally he realized what was happening, but too late to do anything about it. A large herd of thundering buffalo entered the canyon, stretching as far as he could see. Looking about for shelter he saw nothing that he could reach in time, and simply huddled on the ground wondering how long it would be before he was missed. He made peace with himself.
Suddenly, he heard a sizzling sound from the sky, and a bright flash of light... then he knew no more. He awoke in full darkness, but felt heat emitting from somewhere near him. Was this the afterlife? He had always deep down in side believed that you just died when your life ended. Opening his dust encrusted eyes he noticed a large faintly glowing stone close beside him. The tracks of the Thundering herd veered to each side of the stone, but left the young Litorian untouched. Somehow this stone had fallen from the sky just in time to spare the life of young Ozbadin.
Upon returning to his people the next day his story was met with ridicule, even after he took others to see where the now dormant stone had fallen. But one believed an ancient grandmother Litorian realized that Ozbadin possessed a curiosity, and potential unusual for the folk, but not unheard of. She suggested to his Father to send young Ozbadin to a hermit she knew of who would teach him things that nobody else could, and help him develop. Worried about the future for the young being, his father agreed, and Ozbadin entered the remote regions of the plains to search out Krastus the Sage.
Ozbadin found the Sage after wandering for months, and Krastus took him under his wing. They spent years together in a high set of caves among the many spires and towers of the waste, and introduced him to the power and majesty of the night skies. Ozbadin also learned of Minteezoom the god worshiped by Krastus, and the power that he could share beyond simple knowledge. So it came to be that young Ozbadin embraced the power of the night skies, and the wildness of the storms and winds of the wastes as well as the gentle life present in the plains of his birth.
Ozbadin returned to the caves one day as a teenager, and found Krastus talking to a young Trollkin child. The child seemed hungry, but curious, and that evening fell asleep with his head in Ozbadin's lap. Krastus turned to Ozbadin as the child rested and spoke to him. "It is time for you to leave the nest young bird. I must turn my attention to this fledgling. I task you to journey to the great city of Ptolus, and there seek knowledge which I do not possess to share with you. I have taught you all that I will of what I know. What you become is now in your hands".
The next morning Ozbadin began the long trak to Ptolus. He'd been here a little over two weeks now, and still was as bewildered as the day he arrived. What knowledge could possibly await him here in this dirty, loud, smelly place with limited views of the night sky?
