Balnor was left on the door steps of an orphanage as a baby never knowing who his parents were. He did take well to what little schooling he received, but he despised all the daily chores. After spending many a evening locked up for failing to finish his chores he ran away from the orphanage and took to living on the streets of Greyhawk City. Balnor quickly learned that he had to use his wits and calming smile to get by after being on the wrong end of a beating is several street fights. After a time he made a few friends and with his intellect and planning they soon thrived by pulling off a few minor burglaries. Balnor’s days as a thief were numbered. After a heist of a wealthy merchant, the group caught the eye of the thieves’ guild and as they were not members of the guild, they were not sanctioned to rob the merchant as he was paying protection money to the guild. Balnor’s three friends who burgled the merchant were hunted down and killed. Balnor was not under suspicion but decided that he needed a change of ways. Balnor wanted to pull off one last minor robbery to fund his change in life. He decided to burgle the home of Thraebard the Wizard, but was foiled through magical traps and rendered unconscious. This could have been the end of Balnor, but when he came to Thraebard was intrigued with Balnor and decided to take him on as an apprentice as he sensed some magical affinity within Balnor. That was eight years ago.

Even though Balnor had daily chores he soon was able to perform minor magical tricks and worked hard to grow his fledging ability. Soon he was able to generate his own light source from which to read at night, or grab an apple from across the room. Thraebard focused his research on finding new ways to draw power from and started researching the various cults of death in order to determine their source of power and possibly utilize it for himself. Word soon came to Thraebard of band of adventures making expeditions out of Fort Talmadge and encountering many cults worshiping different gods of death. Balnor felt this was a good opportunity to get out and test his mettle so he discussed with Thraebard to let him go and follow up on these rumors and will send him reports on his findings.