Brutus was born son of Baron Microscopius Prongus of Elredd. Unfortunately, in Elredd insults are resolved by violence, and with such a name Microscopius received many insults despite shortening his name to Scopius. Whilst this assisted him greatly in gaining considerable combat expertise, and even resulted in him gaining his position as baron, it was ultimately his undoing, and in anticipation of this he sent his son away to become a man, assigning a cleric in a northern village in his barony to watch over him and ensure that he "became a man" away from the snickers of the baronal court. As he was to find out, his grandparents' poor choice of name ultimately cost their son -his father- his life before Brutus could return. In his adventures since Brutus has also died once, though he was subsequently raised, and he longs to find out exactly how his father died.

Over time, Joan, his minder, has been exemplary in keeping Brutus well and healthy (and well fed), and Brutus has noticed she has other 'features' of interest to him. He suspects that his father had more than adventuring in mind when he sent him off with the single zealous preistess of Celestian, so he has shown more of an interest in her beliefs, out of respect for his late father, of course!

More recently Brutus had an unfortunate incident involving a Wish spell from a ring recovered from a pair of Vaimpires. Carefully he worded his desire "to have wings yet retain his intelligence, personality and ther mental faculties" however neglected to specify keeping his human body - he was turned into an owl.
With the help of a henchman, a low level mage in Northending was engaged to use a scroll of Polymorph Other and return him back to human form. Unfortunately the mage had only brief contact with Brutus before the Wish and so he is no longer quite the man he used to be. Additionally, if Brutus is ever subjected to a Dispel Magic or similar spell, he is likely to revert back to owl form (his new "true" form).

Only the power of another wish or very powerful deity will undo the damage permanently.