Sarai is a massive, intimidating woman, her arms and legs thick with muscle, but with enough curves that there is no doubt of her gender. She is the product of enduring tragedy. Raised for the most part outside the walls, her mother died in childbirth, and her father was unknown. She was adopted by her mother's brother who raised her for a while, but resented her for taking his sister. He was a single man, a warrior and not a particularly maternal figure, and she grew up almost freakishly big and strong perhaps because she had to be to survive his tough love, perhaps because of her father's heritage.

Her uncle died when she was a young teenager, killed in violence in the countryside and she was taken into the city as a slave, and trained as a pit fighter. She earned her freedom and now serves as a mercenary.