Haldiir was born and grew up in the north-eastern mountains of The Spine in Epressa, and north east a day's walk from a village called Diirten. His mother, a human named Ellydra, left when he was very young, though his father, Wulfric, never told him why. While this was hard for a child to not know, his father did explain to him that she wanted to stay, but for reasons Haldiir couldn't understand she couldn't be with them. It wasn't the best answer he could get, but it was enough for the child to at least keep him from constantly asking.

His father, a very large man by all standards, was a Nordenfiir, though this was never revealed to Haldiir, and still remains a mystery to the young man. Wulfric had left Eretejva for some reason when he was younger, and decided to not live as one of them since then, though he still bore the marks of his people, as well as would (without anyone knowing) turn into a bear to travel faster. Haldiir always just thought the marks on his father were tattoos, hence why he decided to get some.

Wulfric would go on to train his son how to be a woodcutter, as well as hunting and general survival skills. They lived alone most of the time in the forested mountains, only leaving if they needed supplies from Diirten, and even then it wouldn't be more for a few hours they would stay there. The locals were kind enough, but they always found it strange how horses and dogs would get nervous around the two.

Haldiir grew large quickly, and was always taller and bigger than other boys his age, but his father would insist that he would never use his strength to harm the others. So Haldiir was always gentle with the other children, unless they started a fight, in which case, he would reciprocate, which his father had no problems with. He was never a skilled fighter, however, even as he got older he started to find himself at a skill disadvantage, even if he was a head taller than the other boy. He asked his father to teach him how to fight, but Wulfric would always refuse, saying a woodcutter had no business knowing how to hit someone properly.

Life was going well when the young man he turned 18; Haldiir was almost as strong as his father, he had found a young woman in the village who he fancied and who fancied him, and he was planning on building his own house soon and starting his own life. But as it does in many the start of an adventure, tragedy struck.

One day, while they were working near home, Wulfric started to sniff the air. It wasn't an uncommon thing, they both did it, but the young man's fathers' senses were always stronger. A change immediately came over the middle aged man and he turned to his son, and in his his most authoritarian tone, he told the young man to run higher up the mountain, and hide in a nearby cave until the next morning. Haldiir argued with his father, but when the older man shouted back at him, he knew that he needed to listen, despite not knowing why. His father handed him a key and asked that he'd figure out what to do with it if anything were to happen to the old man.

Haldiir, confused and concerned flew up the mountain. He didn't know why he was running, but when his father told him to do something, he had a way of not wanting to disobey his dad. It usually didn't end well for him.

After a long night of waiting, he returned to his home, or what was left of it. Immediately fear took him as he saw the charred embers of the cabin, and his father lying in front, barely breathing. He rushed to his side. Wulfric was dying. The young man tried to patch the various gashes across his father's body, but it was too late, more blood lay on the ground than in his father.

Wulfric, as his son tried to save him said two things: The key was used in the house, and with his last breath he said "One...of them...Dalak". With that final word, the old Nordenfiir passed on.

Haldiir was frozen in that spot, kneeling in his father's blood for some time, the warmth of the freshly burned house barely noticeable.

When he finally moved, it was almost dark, and he walked into the home. It was still smoldering, but he didn't care. He moved around, looking for a keyhole, finally locating it under a bed that hadn't moved since he was little. There he unlocked a secret door.

He climbed into the small space below the cabin he had lived his entire life, and found sitting in a chest three things: A leather bound tome (which he couldn't read because he never learned to read), a leather chest armor with a metal pauldron with a round sigil of some kind on it, and a pair of battle axes inscribed with runes.

Almost without thinking, he took the things he found, packed anything that had survived the fire, and left to the south west of his home the next day. He knew what the task his father had left him was and he wasn't going to stop until he killed the men who killed his father.

Deep inside him, without him knowing, a bear that had been slumbering was starting to awaken, though whether or not he would see that bear soon was up to the gods.