Vlad Normanov was born in Vesrturia in the Age of the Broken Sword to a slave-owner and his slave. He had what they called "depleted rune blood," meaning his mother was a rune-slave whose power was given to her master, and he was born with the weakened physicality of such slaves. He was left for dead, but his mother nursed him in secret for long enough to get him somewhere safe. Vlad grew up never knowing his mother nor father, not til far after both were dead. He grew up in an orphanage in the outskirts of the Vesturian realm instead, snuck there by a trail of slaves. Vlad never knew much of them, either. What he knew was the hardships of the orphanage and the cruelty of the Vesturian winters. When he was old enough to spit and curse, he ran away.

He made it as far as Idangar before he had to ask for help, over 1,100 miles of hard northern summer roads and rains. He begged for work in a country that resented him for his Vesturian accent, but he found work eventually. He learned quick enough that the work an immigrant from a nation known for cruelty could get was hard, ugly work. He did the work, because he was hungry, but he couldn't find it in himself to like it. He snuck off once he had enough food in his belly to do so.

He ended up on a ship, and eventually, on the streets of Merukis. There, he met a soap salesman who needed someone willing to do a bit of softshoe. It wasn't long until Vlad became this oddly accented man's second apprentice.