The man called Striding Wind was orphaned at a young age when bandits slaughtered his small village.  He was taken in by a wandering adventurer named Whispering Frost who took the young boy under his wing and raised him.

Frost was a Swordsage who instilled within Striding Wind the skills and knowledge of the sword.

Unbeknownst to Striding Wind, his mentor was on the run from a society of assassins whom he'd been a part of.  No one fully leaves the society and they pursued the two relentlessly.  Tired of the constant running after long years, Frost made a stand and was killed but not before providing a fight that the bards would sing of for years.
With little direction now that his mentor was gone, Wind took to wandering the land and decided to travel to the far lands.