Ogedei is the fourth son of the former Khan of the People of the Wolves, Yusugei. The day of his birth also saw the death of his eldest brother, Hirio, at the hands of orc raiders. What should have been a joyous occasion for the family of the Khan became a dark omen for the highly superstitious Aldsan people. The rest of Yusugei's life, he would remain distant and detached from Ogedei, creating a level of hatred between the two men they would not be able to bridge until the former's death.

As a son of a Khan and a child of the Aldsan, Ogedei was trained from an early age to become a warrior for his tribe and a potential successor of his father. At the age of five, he was locked outside of his family's ger during a snowstorm for over an hour before being allowed back inside, where a Shaman of the tribe was waiting. Ogedei was brought back from the brink of death, while Yusugei watched with an impassive glare at the shivering child. Many other children would not pass this test of the tribe, including Ogedei's younger sister. When he had recovered, it was his mother who comforted him, while his father departed to hunt with his warriors.

When he turned ten, Ogedei began his training with a sword and bow, fighting against his older brothers as well as his father's bondsmen, his closest and most trusted warriors. While he was a slow learner when it came to a sword, Ogedei quickly mastered the bow and arrow, and when he was allowed to claim his first horse, he became a prodigy at horse archery. He outpaced many of the other children of the tribe and was allowed to join hunting trips with the other warriors several years before his elder brothers had. Despite his accomplishments, and perhaps because of them, Yusugei grew even more detached from his son. The Khan of the Wolves believed a sword was the only honorable weapon for a warrior, and that the bow was a cowards tool.

It was only then that Ogedei began to notice the girl, a daughter of the tribe's most prominent Shaman family, Qulai. He could not understand why he felt drawn to her, but over the following weeks, he would spend what time he could spare from training and riding with the warriors, coming to know more about her. It was during one of these conversations that Ogedei learned she had been present during his trial as a child. On the eve of his fifteenth birthday, Ogedei was forced to rely on her once again. A raid from an orc tribe, organized during the worst winter the Aldsan tribes had seen in a generation sent the People of the Wolves into a panic. Outnumbered and surrounded, the Wolves fought with a desperate tenacity that saw the orcs driven away. During the fight, Qulai saved Ogedei's life once more, though the rest of his family did not emerge as unscathed.

His two older brothers were killed during the fighting, and as the eldest surviving child of Yusugei, Ogedei became to heir apparent. To strengthen the Khan's family line, it was decided, through prodding on Ogedei and his mothers part, that Ogedei and Qulai would be married. It was not uncommon for the Khan's family to marry with Shaman's of the tribe, bringing an aura of fear that was usually reserved for their kind to the blood of the Khan. As was the custom, Ogedei, Yusugei, Qulai's father and brothers all went on a joint hunting expedition away from the tribe. The objective of this hunt was for Ogedei to prove to his future wife's father that he could hunt and provide for her, while at the end of the hunt, Ogedei would fight her brothers in ritualistic combat, to show he could defend her. Such practices were outdated and of little real use. Women among the Aldsan people were warriors and hunters as accomplished as their husbands and sons, in some cases more so. However, for a Shaman's family, tradition had to be followed.

Upon their return, the marriage was set to happen the following year. The year in between would be spent with Ogedei and Qulai getting to know one another better, while specific marriage terms and costs were hashed out between the two families matrons. It was a pleasant year for Ogedei, though he did not always show it. Raised by a father who despised him, on top of the already difficult life in the Steppes, Ogedei came across as a brooding, and sometimes harsh individual. Despite all this, Qulai found a way to get through the walls he had built around himself, and he began to show different emotions openly.

The day of the wedding finally arrived, and as everyone was getting ready for the ceremony, Ogedei was having one of his regular arguments with his father. Blows were struck by the two before bondsmen were able to separate them, but going into the ceremony, people did not fail to notice the bruises across both men's bodies. Just as the ceremony was completed, war horns began to echo across the camp. Warriors from the People of the River, rivals of the Wolf tribe came riding across the plain towards the camp. With everyone focused on the ceremony for the Khan's son and heir, the tribe was quickly surrounded in their own home. Still wearing his husband's garb, Ogedei used the ceremonial sword of his family to fight side by side with his new wife against the raiders. In the end, the raiders were driven away, though Yusugei lay dead.

The funerals for the dead were carried out the following day, and Ogedei became the Khan over the still burning pyres of his people. It was this event, more than any other, that convinced Ogedei that change had to come to the Aldsan people and that he, and his new wife, would have to be the ones that brought it to the tribes.

In the years since Ogedei has slowly begun to train the People of the Wolves in new ways of war he has heard about through traders coming through his lands. Outcasts and rogues, Aldsan who have long since been driven from the tribes for various petty crimes have been recruited by Ogedei, increasing the size of his own army. Weapons and armor, purchased at first from traders and then produced by the Wolves own blacksmiths have begun to filter through the ranks, creating a new cadre of warriors ready to serve their Khan and his wife in the war that is to come.