Once worked as an apprentice for a group of necromancers who were interested in animating corpses and skeletons to tend the fields. Worked out well for a time, but then the necrotic energy leaked out of the skeletons and ruined the fields. Shallows devised a method to capture the leaking necrotic energy so that it might be recycled, but was deemed too expensive. The necromancers continued for 6 more months before utter crop failure and famine ruled. The skeletons were then used as raiders, and Shallows quit. A fight broke out between him and some of the masters, and he managed to deflect their necromancy magic and escape. Shallow's warding magic was effective, and only managed to perform one offensive spell, a withering death in a moment of frustration for being called a traitor. One half of the enemy's face became as bone, and Shallow's viewed it grimly. Ever since then he prefers to disable targets instead of outright blasting them.

That was in his mid twenties. Then applied himself to being someone who might assist in war like situations against necromancers, but found that his studied only made him good for warding away terrible magics. An undead blight was plaguing a town, and the garrison regularly had to deal with creatures sent against it. Against other elements and domains he had little power or understanding, aside from basic physical defenses. There, he met a surgeon who he worked well with, an elven cleric of life. Together they worked in triage, Shallows providing protection for those who would venture into the unholy ground and try to remove curses and plagues that befell the people and their crops. He used his invention of warding and gathering stones, and found better ways of creating the pendants that could ward death that could be given as good luck charms.

Attended many funerals and learned the words from the life cleric. Grew in understanding of necrotic energy due to the theory behind life magic, but couldn't summon the magic. Learned basic first aid, replacing bandages and removing death magic from the wounds as he reapplied and cleaned them. Death magic is good at disinfecting.

Soon paladins came in to cleanse the corruption and were successful in a few short weeks. The cleric of life was elated, and joined them. Shallows continued his work to defend the towns people, and found that the paladins refused his aid despite his life cleric's assurance that Shallows was a benefactor. He decided to attend a mission where the life cleric was directly involved, to protect her.

Soon they cut into the heart of the corruption, finding a necromancer who would become a lich. It was one of the ones he had learned and trained from. In a fit of spite, the necromancer unleashed their experiments upon the group as they could not succeed in becoming a lich due to the paladin's interferance. The necrotic energy was warding successfully away from most of the group, but Shallows suffered a smothering of his life's essence in the process, a calming and chilling effect that had physical rammifications. His skin became cold and ossified in small effect, his personal warding pendant doing much to prevent the damage. A curse was bestowed upon Shallows in this moment as the paladin order killed him, that Shallows would he would find no comfort in the domain of life, and haunted him for some time.

The life cleric and he parted ways. There was no life magic that could affect him, but Shallows was fine with that. He wanted to study the curse on his own, and found the cost of saving his comrades to be a just one.

He found that while he could still weave death magic to his own ends, and that he found no actual job satisfaction from it anymore, it was the only thing he was good at. He was now at the age of 30. Furthermore, he could not be healed by life magic, but instead found that the curse had an unintended consequence. Necrotic energy could heal him, and life magic would undo him, as if the fundamentals of magic were reversed for him. Not wanting to be caught off guard by a healer trying to revive him, the white cloak was created over a period. It would absorb life magic that was cast around him, and turned into necrotic energy through his pendant, which would then heal him. His skin became even paler and more ossified due to this, but it saved his life a few times from not having healing energies undo him, due to the curse.

Beset by the spirit of his fallen necromancer, Shallows studied in a wizard's guild on how to handle such an occurrence. Life magic could not be used to remove the spirit, it would take an overwhelming necrotic energy to undo the haunting.