Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Nihlus was born inside his father's trading ship, Jewel of the Coast, and for that it is almost impossible to pinpoint the exact location, all that he can remember being told is that his mom never survived giving birth to him. His father, Edward, did all sorts of trading available in the sword coast and it didnt took a long time for Nihlus to see the harbours of cities like Luskan and Neverwinter, Edward's home was his ship and so he always took his son alongside him. The boat was big and the crew numerable, most of the trading took place in the sword coast and Edward was having a quite successful enterprise.

Such life continued until he was six, when in open sea a pirate raid boarded the Jewel of the Coast, the crew fought hard and Nihlus could hear the sound of battle through the wood of the barrel he was hidden. He could hear everything: be it the last breath of a pirate who got surprised by a crewman with a crossbow or the sound of longswords hitting wooden shields, but one sound was familiar enough: His father's scream. Nihlus was paralyzed, it didnt knew what happened but it woudnt be hard to guess, he stayed inside the barrel for two hours until the battle sounds had mostly stopped, when one of the ship's crew took him out he glanced at all the dead and found out: His father was dead and so were many of the crew, though the pirates were ultimately defeated and forced to retreat, not much was left for the six year old boy.

The ship wasnt that damaged and the crew managed to reach the shore north of Neverwinter. Nihlus was lost and alone while the most of the lads had no clue what to do. It was then where Tordek appeared. The shield dwarf was travelling back to the great mining city of Mirabar and as he glanced at the recent orphan, out of pity he decided to adopt Nihlus, something which Tordek himself didnt understood at the time. From there on Nihlus was basically grown as a dwarf, he learned their language, their habits and their hobbys, and some could say thats where Nihlus got his drinking problems from, he was even raised to follow Moradin but that was one of the few things from the dwarves that he didnt learn. Nihlus had already seen too much death to have any trust that any god could or would help people in times of need.

Because of the actions of Tordek, Nihlus feels very much in debt towards the dwarven race in general, and will always try to be helpful to any he encounters. From his six to his twenty five he stayed with the shield dwarf, but then decide to move on as he felt the time was right, he already had the strenght to fend upon himself, and at the first chance he got he left Mirabar, but not before taking a last glance at the Spine of the World on the northern horizon, as well as not before saying goodbye to Tordek, the most memorable moment of his life after the pirate raid. The dwarf had grown very fond of the lad as well and it was terrible for him to see Nihlus go, but he knew his place was elsewhere.

Since then he just went south, and had the time to learn the skills to fight with a sword, something which Tordek didnt teach him. He first went from Mirabar to Luskan along the river Mirar, then to the countryside near Neverwinter where he stayed for one year doing various jobs, but decided to go further south to Baldur's Gate as his fighting skill had progressed well enough to do mercenary work, which the availability of it in the region seemed higher and folks said the payment was better because of increasing bandit raids in the trade route. At his twenty seventh winter he arrived at Baldur's Gate after a long travel from the north, with nothing but a sword in his sheath, an old rusted armor (which he already found a much better replacement, though it aint shiny as well) and a few gold pieces to spent a couple of nights. Nevertheless, now he's already settled in and ready for any client who wishes to hire his mercenary services.