Born into a family of fishermen in the town of Sandpoint, Sarsam never knew luxury. He never cared about it, either. The boy spent his childhood between helping his parents and playing with his older brother Haidran. In their free time, the Zimm brothers would roam the outskirts and delve into the woods, much to their parent's dislike. The many scoldings and the occasional corrective discipline never deterred the two siblings from going exploring. As the years passed, however, Haidran lost interest and became closer to their parents, taking on new responsibilities and participating in the fishing activities with their old man. Sarsam, on the other hand, grew increasingly restless, eager to find new places to explore, and sometimes spending days away from home.
It was in one of his excursions that Sarsam found a strange object of ancient eras, half-buried in a cave and covered in vines. While playing around with it, he accidentally caused a blast of arcane energy that bestowed on him an ounce of arcane magic: after passing out, he woke up hours with his hand glowing, with a strange rune manifesting on the palm. The magic light soon faded, but instead of being afraid, he just got curious, and took the object to the local historian Brodart Quint to learn more about it.
This encounter led to many others, in which Quint taught the boy a little about the ancient Thassilonian empire and sparked in Sarsam the appetite for archaeology. For a good while, the boy dove into one book after another about the subject. His parents were relieved that Sarsam had stopped leaving the house so much, and even started to think he would finally abandon his "childish adventures" to settle down and finally help the family. These hopes were short lived: once Sarsam wa satisfied with his readings, he left
Sandpoint for good. He spent the next decade travelling around Varisia and taking part in archaelogical expeditions—very often as a guide, since the skills acquired in the woods tracking and hunting animals and running away from goblins proved to be very useful on the field. Sarsam lived on the road and occasionally wrote to his family, but his lifestyle made it very difficult for them to reach him. The news of his brother's death in the hands of the serial killer called "Chopper" arrived to him with months of delay.
Sarsam was devastated to learn about the tragedy. The explorer felt particularly guilty for not being there for his parents in the days following the murder and for not being able to give his brother a proper goodbye. He headed back to Sandpoint immediately.
Getting there, Sarsam found a broken home, and decided to stay until things got better. He gave up his old life and settled in Sandpoint, where he has spent the last years taking an active part in the family's affairs, fishing and caring for his aged parents. A devout follower of Desna and Erastil, he always attends Father Zantus' sermons and is happy to see that the new cathedral is almost ready. Despite the monotony of his current days, Sarsam still longs for adventure, and sneaks out to the woods whenever possible to relive times that now seem very distant.
