Isar was born to a pair of poor, hardworking elven parents. Although he didn’t have much growing up, his parents always tried to ensure that he and his two younger siblings didn’t suffer. Due to their hard work and inability to afford a healer when needed, Isar’s parents died well before a typical elf should have, leaving him and his siblings alone.
Although they were young, they worked hard to try and earn a living. Isar helped his siblings earn an apprenticeship so that hopefully one day they could build a better life for themselves. In the meantime, he needed to find work, though it was scarce in their village at the time. Running out of options, he approached a newcomer to town – an old, grizzled veteran type, who’d come to town to sell some kills – and begged for some kind of work, or to be taught a skill. For reasons known only to himself, the old guy took to Isar, and began teaching him the skills to survive in the surrounding forest. Hunting, fishing, recognizing what was safe to eat from the poisonous, as well as how to turn the skins of the animals he’d hunted into treated hides and leather to be crafted.
Over time, Isar became more competent at his new skillsets and was able to make decent enough money to help his siblings get a start in life, heading out of their village to larger and hopefully better prospects. With them well on their way, Isar finally took to living his own life. In time, he took a wife, and they had a child together. He was fiercely devoted to both of them, and because he worked hard, he was able to give them a more comfortable life than what he’d had growing up, though it was by no means a rich one.
A few years after the birth of his son, a hunting party was formed to take care of a threat to the village. While successful, they were ambushed, and several of them captured, and hauled away to be slaves in the deeps of the Underdark. Not many of the ones captured even made it to the Drow stronghold they were led to in fact, it was just himself and one other. His companion, however, died during imprisonment. After some days, Isar was pulled out of prison, and forced into slavery for one of the Drow households.
Without the aid of the sun, it was difficult to tell how much time had passed, but it was long. He grew weary, and more disheartened the more he saw how difficult escape would be. As luck would have it, however, one night he was rescued from his cell by another Drow. Skeptical, he looked at the man, who simply gestured for him to be quiet and follow. They joined up with a few other men, some of them also Drow, and they began their escape from the city.
In the process of escape, several died. Isar managed, on a couple of occasions, to rescue his Drow liberator, whom he learned was named Nym. In turn, Nym taught him some tricks to look out for in the Underdark, as well as explain why he was escaping. Though he was a man of questionable morals, he explained that Drow society was Matriarchal, and they worshipped an evil goddess. The combination of the two caused them to look down on males as worthless, and he had simply tired of it and had decided to cause chaos by liberating as many male slaves as he could.
Eventually, they escaped the Underdark and parted ways. Isar made his way back to the village, only to find that in the time he was gone, things had changed for the worst. Before they had been left relatively alone by the governing ruler of the surrounding land, however that individual had been overthrown, and replaced with a tyrant, who sent his agents out to oversee all the settlements, and ensure they paid exorbitant taxes and heeded his ideals. When he managed to trudge his way within the walls of the village, he found a small handful of villagers cowering at the feet of a few jeering male humans, with the rest of the village summoned to watch, afraid to act.
The villagers at their feet were being condemned to death for a crime, it was announced. That crime was fraternizing with a race not their own. It was against nature, they claimed, and by the law of their tyrant lord, the criminals were sentenced to immediate death. Too late, he realized that among the group of criminals was his human wife and their son. He screamed, yelled and tried to make it to them, but he did not make it through the crowd before they were run through with swords, and left to die there in the center of the village. Looking around, he could see it was not a lack of desire that kept others from acting, but fear.
Out of anger, he ran, getting to a better vantage point before raising his bow, firing several shots that took down these cruel men. The other villagers were in shock, but they also thanked him. They knew though, that someone would find out eventually, though it was likely to be quite some time. He was asked by the village leaders to leave, to lessen any judgment that might come down on them. He agreed but asked for a day to mourn and bury his family, which he was allotted. He was given supplies before he headed off on his travels, aimlessly making his way through the world. He hoped one day to take down the tyrant that stole his family away.