Whereas some are born to difficult lives, Shikaree was raised in a hellish one. After an already difficult childhood in a tiny fishing community well beyond the reach of the crown, he was found to be a Marked and was subsequently brutalized by his village and father. Left for dead, he was saved by Ystilla, the Wild Woman of the Woods, and found some solace in being raised by the kind if somewhat unpredictable woman. Taught to use his newfound magical abilities in a gentle manner to enhance the world, he was then thrust into the realm of vicious, revenge-fueled magic by the wanderer called Argarus when Ystilla was murdered. With his newfound ability to inflict incredible violence, he swore revenge on the village that had cast him out, but these plans went horribly wrong and left him a bitter, angry man, incapable of fully moving beyond his origins. When the mercenary, Durayl, offered him employment, he took it partly as a means of taking wealth from the world he despised, and partly as a method of striking back at anyone and everyone around him. While he respects his colleagues in his way, Shikaree does not and cannot consider them friends, as he has found friendship means nothing more than betrayal and loss.