Alteria was born in Elbion as the son of a city guard and a herbalist. They both wanted him to be more than a simple peasant, and so invested a lot into what education they could afford him, to the detriment of his interests. He had looked up to his father's daring tales of apprehending thieves and running bandits off of caravans, but he was never taught how to handle a sword.

That was until he met a young noble when they were both 10. Rezian, was lost in his part of the city and Alteria had brought him someplace he recognized, and that was the start of their friendship. As they grew up, Rezian was more than happy to teach Alteria a thing or two about the sword, but eventually his passions turned towards the arcane. A shift that Rezian had no interest in, though they still remained friends.

In his 20's, Alteria joined a new order of mages under the tutelage of Kirin Mertz. This order was imaginatively called the Order of Trances, and Kirin claimed that this was going to be the future of magic: Casting spells as fast as one could think, each one a different configuration. Seeing another's magic and flawlessly replicating it. Shattering any barrier with a flick of the wrist. These were the promises Kirin offered to those who would take up the challenge to actually research this new form of spell casting.

It proved too good to pass up. And so Alteria pledged allegiance to the new order and began experimenting under Kirin's wisdom. His meticulous nature allowed him to quickly understand the nature of runes, and soon the nature of the Trance. In the five years he's been with the order, he had grown close to one of the other disciples, a woman from another city named Triell.

Ten years after the order's foundation, it was suddenly set upon by an unknown group. Whether they were bandits or hired mercenaries, the outcome was that the order fell. They had raided the Order of the Trances' sanctuary, butchering the disciples and their leader. Alteria was one of the few survivors.

Triell died in defense of the sanctuary.

Driven by grief, Alteria used a spell that was banned by Kirin himself. It was a resurrection spell, needing only a single life to bring back another. He had found one of the people that attacked them, barely breathing, but still alive, so he was chosen as sacrifice. The spell had succeeded, for a while.

Something about the spell had an adverse effect on the subject, causing a horrendous shedding of the vessel to make way for a ghastly phantom to crawl forth. Alteria was too stunned to defend himself and with a single swipe of the phantom's claws, Alteria's throat was sliced open.

But as luck would have it, Rezian, now one of the guards himself, saw the conflict brewing outside the walls of the sanctuary and gathered a force to keep an eye on the situation, though they were too late to save the order.

Alteria survived with the help of healing magic, but feeling like he's lost everything, he just left town the moment he was able. Though there was also another thing that kept him from staying: the phantom of his lover. He couldn't bring himself to rest until Triell herself was laid to rest. No matter how long it took him, he wasn't going to stop until he freed her.