Banehallow was born of nobility to the house of Ambry, the greatest of the property castes in the old kingdom of Slom. Before the fall, as the King’s desires grew strange, and his court grew full with sorcerers and charlatans, the house of Ambry was the first to rise against the materialism of the throne. No longer willing to pay reverence, they instead sent six-thousand swords into the centre, where they were wiped out in the Massacre of the Apostates. There they came to know the old truth: When you strike a king’s neck, you had better take his head. Incensed by the treachery, the king decimated the vast Ambry bloodline, sparing only the lord of the house and his youngest son, Banehallow. Before all the royal court, with the dishonoured lord chained to the marble floor, the King beckoned his magicians to transform the boy into a wolf so that he might tear out his own father’s throat. “Do this,” the king said, “so that Lord Ambry will know the bite of betrayal.”