Bio

Kaleb chose not to remember the name of his homeland, he had neither pride in it, nor a desire to return. Born into poverty and orphaned at an early age, Kaleb had to learn to look after himself from the beginning. Living on the streets, he discovered his natural aptitude for stealthiness and picking locks and pockets, and learned the secrets of the city and the subtle art of conversation from the beggars with whom he had become acquainted. Utilising these skills, Kaleb managed to survive and keep himself fed.
By the time he was 12, he had accrued a small band of followers, called the Shadowborn by locals (intended to be derogatory, but proudly adopted by the somewhat arrogant and vain group), who were all fellow orphans and street children inspired by his deeds, and a place to hide in an old abandoned building in the slums of his hometown. Together they performed increasingly greater acts of theft, sneaking into and robbing jewelry shops or the homes of the wealthy in the dark of night, selling what they found to black market merchants.
This way of life was working well for them, their dream of leaving the slums and poverty behind almost realised after just three years, when word got to the city guard of their location. All of Kaleb’s close friends were arrested and sent away to work camps, Kaleb only narrowly avoiding capture himself. He then lay low for a while, although stories of Kaleb, known only to citizens as “the Shadowborn”, went on being told, dismissed as mere rumour by city officials.
It was another three years later when Kaleb emerged again, now 18 years old, as a contract thief revelling in his infamy, taking jobs to earn money or gain possession of rare and valuable artefacts. It was this newfound greed that led to his, as, unknown to him, one of his regular contacts had sold him out to the city guard, offering him a false contract, stealing a pair of ceremonial magical daggers in return for a sizable amount of money, enough to get him away from this horrible place for good. It seemed too good to be true, but the words of this man had rekindled his old dreams from all those years ago, so he swore he’d do it, for the memory of his friends.
There was a great banquet in the palace that night, making sneaking in that much easier. There were very few guards stationed around the palace, far fewer than Kaleb would have expected, even with an event like this. In fact, yes, it all seemed a little too easy, but he had come too far to leave now, he was in the throne room, the daggers right there in front of him. As he lifted them out of their case, he admired the beautiful workmanship of the weapons, it was no wonder he was being offered so much to retrieve them.
Just as he turned to leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Stop right there, Shadowborn scum.” came a voice in his ear. As soon as he heard the guard captain’s voice, Kaleb realised the whole thing was a set up from the beginning. This was it, he was going to be killed. In his panic, as he thrashed around to try and escape the grasp of this man who was nearly twice the height of the thieving halfling, one of the daggers caught the captain’s throat. The grip around Kaleb relinquished as he dropped to the floor. He had killed a man. He had to flee the city, it was his only option. Abandoning all pretense of stealth or subtlety, Kaleb smashed one of the throne room windows and clambered out, down the walls, and into the back of a passing hay cart bound for Revelstone.
After much travelling, he finally arrived, leaving his birth name behind and adopting the name Kaleb Shadowborn, but he couldn’t settle down here, even if know one knew of his infamy, nor did he want to make a name for himself just yet. He travelled The Land for some time, hearing terrible news of demons being set free in the world, until one day as he was passing through the Plains of Ra, he was roped into finding some missing horses for the local village.