Palin Rao was a son of Gilon Rao, a woodcutter in the Dreadwood, and Rosamun Aelan Uth Matar, a sickly Rhennee witch who had been cast out of her tribe - along with her young daughter - for fear of the Evil Eye. His twin brother was Karalon Rao, his half-sister a full-blooded Rhennee named Katalana Uth Matar.
Karalon was born strapping and healthy, but Palin had to be nursed to health continuously by Katalana. His father, Gilon, died in an accident when Palin was only sixteen years old. Soon after, his mother Rosamun went into one of her delusional trances and never came out.
Palin was for a time a street performer in Silglen doing coin tricks and slight of hand, though he had a natural affinity with sorcery. He wished to become a wizard, but no freemage would accept a poor half-Rhennee as an apprentice. His sister Katalana told him a rumor of an ancient tower, Valadis, which was said to contain secrets of ancient magic. With his brother at his side, he found Valadis and broke into its keep.
The pair did find some treasures: a magical book, staff, and dagger. Unfortunately, Palin nearly died due to an attack by dark elves, and Karalon did die by Palin's own desperate treachery, for it delighted the drow to turn the brothers against one another as they tortured them. At the last moment, Palin was contacted by an ancient spirit of the tower, a Suel sorcerer who had once had the Eye of Vecna grafted to his empty socket, whose evil cursed him to remain within long after the Eye had left. The ghostly sorcerer promised Palin power over his enemies in exchange for some of his life energy. Palin promised, and the bargain was made.
When Palin exited the tower he was alone, and changed, his skin a strange golden hue and the pupils of his eyes like hourglasses. Weakened, without his brother, he nearly died again, rescued by a half-elf called Talis whom Palin had known in his youth, and a dwarf from the Flinty Hills.
It was not long after Palin's ordeal in the Tower of Valadis that the Flanaess was engulfed in what would be called the Greyhawk Wars. Palin, Katalana, and Talis played a critical role in Keoland's defenses against the Scarlet Brotherhood, coming into the posession of an Orb of Dragonkind. At the end of the war, Palin took up residence among the seers of the Silent Tower, where he studied ancient secrets for many years.
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