He was once known as Rothead, the name given him--and actually put on his birthpapers--by the caretakers who ran the orphanage he was raised in. During his childhood incarceration, he often told the other children tales that his real parents had actually lost him (by various means). The story he often related was that they were lost at sea and he'd been discovered floating on a pile of driftwood, tied there by mermaid hair no-less, and that, any day now, his parents would find and rescue him from his orphaned fate. He was often called out on his fantastic stories, and those children soon found themselves with two black eyes. Still the stories were better than what the truth (probably) was... that he was the result of a whore's tryst, like so many of the other children.

When he was of a stronger age, he was made to work from sun-up to sun-down at the docks carrying cargo (mostly smuggled) and hanging off the rails of ships to scrape off barnacles. This earned his keepers 15 copper per day. There were many orphans wandering about the Portside doing the like.

Now and again, a good person would reward him with a farthing or more and he would secret the tips away for future use. Unfortunately, he'd be tattled on if seen and beaten by his caretakers, his tips taken away, and he wouldn't be able to work for a few days until the bruises and welts healed since he always came out looking like the living dead. Whatever terribleness he experienced, he learned much from his time as an enslaved orphan.

Then there came Zires. Like Rothead, Zires was also an orphan of unknown parentage, but had found a better fate as a ward of Pelor. Zires served faithfully as a wandering priest's assistant, and this was how the two met. Rothead had been beaten severely, and little Zires had healed him fully. Gangly little Rothead thought Zires was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen and immediately developed an infatuation, following the enchanting creature everywhere.

One day, on a mission to travel to another town, it was Zires that rescued Rothead by hiding him in the priest's cart all the way to the next village. The priest was somewhat miffed that Zires had conspired without his knowledge, but he eased off when Rothead the tongue-wagging Orphan explained his treatment.

The priest arranged for an old friend to house Rothead as a favor. The old friend turned out to be a local wizard, and a decently powerful one. Zires, before he left with the priest on their country-rounds, gave Rothead his new name: Rolfos, after a swashbuckling hero in a book the auburn-haired child had read. The hero had had much the same childhood as Rothead-Now-Rolfos, and had gone on to greatness, wealth and happiness in the end. Then Zires laid a swift, shy but sweet kiss on Rolfos' cheek before leaving. The innocent act forever left an indelible mark on the lad, and he watched the pair leave, speechless, until he lost sight of them.

As the years passed, Rolfos eventually showed talent for magical study after discovering some of the wizard's spells and trying them out himself (he lit a barn on fire!) and, after being fairly punished for a month, went from being the wizard's servant to his apprentice. His gangly-ness grew into tall, dark, and handsomeness, becoming the local village's most desirable bachelor by the girlfolk (and the most hated by the menfolk). Rolfos may have flirted with a few, but wasn't truly interested in a single one, no matter how much skin they flashed him. His standards were quite high, and he'd already vowed to find the girl he'd set on such a pedestal once his training was done.

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Rolfos is 6'4", trim and lean from his early malnourished days, and muscular from all the farm work he does for the wizard. He has shaggy black hair that falls into his hazel-brown eyes quite becomingly and a defined, aquiline nose that sits above long, cupid bow lips that often rest in a well-used devilish smirk.

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