Riley came from a family with strong academic roots. Although he was intelligent and could always perform well in his studies he disliked learning for learning's sake, the pretension of academia, and never put much effort into it, cruising on his natural brains and pouring all his attention into sports. His parents, arch-liberals, never criticised him for not following them into law or medicine, but always harboured a slight disapproval for his choices. He trained himself to become a multi-talented athlete, excelling at rowing, marathon running, football, basketball, baseball, the works. When time came for college he was so flooded with athletics scholarships he could have gone practically anywhere, but was nudged into choosing the university where his uncle Paul taught, perhaps to keep an eye on him.

Riley is secretly a voracious reader of both poetry and prose, and loves older music that would be considered appallingly retro by his friends. Riley is the university's star athlete and a big man on campus, never short of admirers or hangers on, and has slept his way though most of the cheerleading squad.

He stands 6'2” tall, with a perfectly honed body for every endeavour; not too muscular and bulky for track, not to lean for football... hard and toned all over. His hair is russet, long enough to slide through someone's fingers and tops a broad, handsome face with dark, deep eyes and straight features.