Egallion grew up in the town of Furthest in the Lunar province of Tarsh. His mother was a singer and contortionist in an all-night cabaret, where his father was a bouncer and knife juggler. Business was brisk, and mother's talent drew large crowds; she was often requested for private performances at dinner parties and other social events attended by minor Lunar nobility.

Life was good, and his parents' success allowed Egallion to attend schools some considered above his station. Classmates often joked cruelly about how his mother was actually a highly paid prostitute, and the "dinner parties" in which she performed were actually orgies. And how pop was really a trickster of the Murderer aspect, and killed for coin. But that couldn't be reality, could it?

When it turned out that the cabaret owner was involved in smuggling weapons and armor into Sartar, the wrath of the Lunar Empire fell on the entire cast and crew. The family attempted to flee to Too Far, just outside the Glowline, where Egallion's father grew up, but was arrested by a Lunar patrol outside of Slavewall when their "papers" were revealed to be forgeries (and not very good ones). The family was separated, and Egallion has no idea whether his mother and father survive.

He was sent to the salt mines, where he toiled for months before the miracle that aided his escape occurred. Now he's thrust amongst these others, and plots his revenge against the Lunar Empire.