Martillius Rex was born in a small farming village deep within the Allir Reach. Fourth son out of nine other children, Martillius had little hopes or expectations for his life other than a marriage to some farm girl if he was lucky, but more likely, simply growing old and working on the farm his older brothers would inherit from his father. Growing up on the farm, Martillius took the greatest joy when he could travel in to town with his father to sell some of their produce to the merchants, where Martillius would get to play with children outside his family.

It was during one of these trips that he came across the mage Orinak Westerly. There were dark rumors around the villages healer, with many saying that his talents lay not in the field of medicine and health, but in the darker schools of thought and learning. As a child, the dark mystery surrounding the cloaked individual always intrigued Martillius, and whenever he could get away he would go to see Orinak, talking with the old man on the things he knew. Martillius's drive to escape tradition and complacency of a life he was expected to grow old and die in kept bringing the youth back to the man, and in time, Martillius began to learn and study with the old man.

By the time he turned twenty, Martillius was widely accepted as the apprentice of Orinak, though few people went out of their way to speak with him anymore. He had left his families farm long behind years before, and now permanently lived with the mage, whom Martillius had since learned was truly a necromancer as many believed. He was part of a larger cult, with ties to other isolated necromancers across their region of the Reach. Martillius fully joined their ranks on his twenty fifth birthday during a gathering of the cult.

Not long after he joined though, the peaceful times came to an end. While many people suspected the cult of their darker side, the cult itself was careful to practice its preferred magic in secrecy and solitude, and provide aid to the villages they resided in to help keep others at bay. This set up had been in place for decades when a wandering group of knights and mages came to bring their 'tyranny' to an end.

One by one the cult was tracked down and slaughtered in their own homes. Orinak and Martillius fled their village mere hours before the adventurers arrived, and gathered in a meeting place the cult used for their gatherings. There, the gathered necromancers set up wards and raised undead warriors to defend them as the adventurers arrived, now supported by hundreds of enraged farmers they had driven into a frenzy to support them. Outnumbered, surrounded and with little hope of escape, the cult turned their collective magic towards escape. Pooling their knowledge, talents and strength together, they hope to transport themselves across the land far away from their pursuers. They had no portal stones to their names, and so instead attempted to craft a spell that would replace the need for one.

Their hubris proved their downfall. Just as they began to cast the spell, the wards surrounding their chamber were shattered by mages with the adventurers group. The backlash of raw magic, and the act of breaking the laws of magic themselves slammed into the assembled group of necromancers. At the time of the casting, most of the necromancers, including Martillius's old master, were wanting to simply escape. For punishment for attempting breaking the laws of magic, the cult of necromancers were decimated. Of the collective group, only two survived the resulting explosion. Martillius and other necromancer named Jurios survived the explosion, though their bodies were left torn and battered. The rest of the cult wee killed, their spirits trapped within the chamber. The adventurers and their mob departed from the scene, the chamber itself being sealed by debris, thinking their job done.

It took almost a week for Martillius and Jurios to dig themselves out of the chamber, and when they emerged they went their separate ways. Jurios turned back, determined to try and revive their fallen compatriots, while Martillius set out into the wider world, intent to place as much distance between himself and the scene of his near death.