In the dark times that grip the land, the sacking and burning of small mountain towns are far from uncommon, and more often than not, innocent lives are changed forever. Alero remembers very little of his life before the bandits came, and even less of his mother and father, whose bodies he found when he returned from camping in the mountains behind the town of less than twenty houses. Left with only his grandfather who lived on the outskirts of town, the boy of seven spent most of his childhood taking care of the ailing man, learning the necessities of farming and hunting, and the barest skills and understanding of the ways of the monk. Through his meditations, he came to abhor weaponry of any kind after the death of his family. Ten years later, and only four days shy of Alero's eighteenth birthday, his grandfather passed away from a long illness, leaving the young man completely alone in the world. Many years passed uneventfully, with Alero tending the small farm and living by himself in the highlands. When he wasn't busy with the plants or animals, he spent his hours in silent contemplation, drawing on the weak ki energy his grandfather had tried to leave him with to bring his mind peace and find comfort in the lonely days and nights. In time, all things change, and as times became more desperate, so did the bandits from the outlying villages at the base of the mountain. One day, returning from bathing in a nearby stream, Alero found the house he had been raised in empty, ransacked of all his belongings, and the animals either slain or stolen. Sighing to himself, he took his meager coinpurse with a small inheritance, and began walking down the mountain to start a new life, the wather being far too cold to start over on his crops. Though not slow-witted, Alero lacks any formal schooling, with his knowledge of the outside world severely stunted, and the trauma of his youth finds him unable to so much as touch any kind of bladed weapon without being overwhelmed with sheer disgust. He has had very little experience with interpersonal contact, making him seem impolite or even rude, but he is a generally good person.