Backstory
Among the goliath clans, lineage is everything. Kael was born into a proud fire-blooded family known for fury in battle and mastery of flame. Yet he emerged different: the only frost goliath in a house of fire. Where his kin burned hot, he moved with patience and quiet control.
To his clan, that difference was more than unusual — it was a flaw. He was pushed into brutal training built for warriors who charged headfirst into battle. Axes, hammers, shields, and all the expected rites of fury never felt natural to him. The bow did.
He admired the hunters instead: the scouts who ranged beyond the clan’s territory, tracked prey across mountain stone, and struck with precision from afar. But in a family of fire-blooded champions, an archer was not considered a true warrior. He was mocked, pressured, and eventually pushed too far.
After years of humiliation, anger finally broke loose. A fight erupted inside the family home. No one died, but the shame was enough for the clan elders. That night they locked him inside the house and set it ablaze — a brutal attempt to erase what they considered a mistake from their bloodline.
He survived. Scarred and half-conscious, he clawed his way out through fire and ruin and vanished into the wilderness beyond the clan’s lands. There, survival forced him to rely on the skills they had mocked. He learned to live alone by reading trails, broken branches, disturbed snow, and the movements of beasts and travellers.
Over time his reputation spread quietly through villages and roadside inns. Some called him a tracker. Others called him a finder. He took jobs locating fugitives, following vanished trails, or finding people others had given up on. The coin mattered less than the trail itself.
Recently, one disappearance in particular has caught his attention. The clues are scattered, the tracks refuse to behave like any normal trail should, and every instinct he has says this is no ordinary case. Somewhere out there is a trail, and Kael knows trails always lead somewhere.