Derem Rent, born of the union of a psychotic necromancer and a drunken aristocrat, was shunned as a bastard child at birth and his mother scorned. After a few years of this treatment, unable to bear the shame she faced from her family, she fled her home town of Melnon alongside a wizard, and a handful of outcasts from the town, which were making the journey to Shoufal, where the wizard was to return to meet some members of the order of which he was a member and the rest planned to work in the mines upon hearing the rumour of a vein of gold being found in the mountain. They travelled for months, through merciless weather and fending off all manner of animal, for such a young child, this was a too harsh environment, but during the journey something amazing happened. Late one night, after about 3 quarters of the journey, near lake Derius, the wizard was watching the place they had chosen to camp, when he fell asleep. That night they were attacked by a pack of wolves, easily killing half the group, including Derem's mother. By the time the wizard had awoken the wolves had done their damage, and the remaining men were badly injured. Derem awoke to find himself facing the ravaged carcass of his remaining parent, turning to find a wolf approaching the fallen figure of one of the men accompanying them, immediately, without thinking, he imitated the words of the wizard and sent the wolf flying in a ball of flame. Once the remaining wolves were dispatched, the wizard came to check for wounded and healed those he could, he found Derem holding onto his mother's corpse, and, hearing the account from the man the boy had saved, began to think of introducing Derem to his order. Upon arrival at Shoufal the wizard, who Derem had established to be Procyon Nigilius, a mage of high stature, met with the members of his order, who began to question and probe the child until and elderly wizard, who had remained silent until this point spoke, all the other wizards fell silent as the old man inquired about the proceedings that led Procyon to bring the child to them, after lengthy explanation and argument, the child was accepted into the order to be trained, and, since he had recently become an orphan, was adopted by Procyon as his son, and apprentice. Years passed as Derem was trained to control the magic that he possessed, not only learning mentally, but also spiritually, after discovering a small shrine to Aragen in Procyon's house, he became intrigued with the religion and with time, was converted into a devout follower believing that it was fate that brought him into contact with the Deity and worships him while travelling to protect him . Despite his past, Procyon managed to raise him as a well-adjusted young man when he left at the age of 42 to explore the world, settling in Alber shortly after leaving and being hired as a guard for a travelling merchant, who traded in Alber and the near-by town of Holstead.