When the Qunari left Kirkwall after the death of their Arishok at the hands of the Champion, not everyone left. A Karasaad and Tamassran stayed behind to raise the child born between them just a few short years prior. The lack of love between the pair would prove fatal, as the Tamassran attempted to kill the Karasaad. She failed, leaving the now self dubbed Kara to raise little Kardena on his own on the outskirts of a city that despised him. Luckily, he had made friends with a traveling human merchant, one Estella Laidir, who became something of an aunt to Kardena.
This peace wouldn't last long however, not after Kara was ambushed and killed by a man attempting to seek justice for what the Qunari did in Kirkwall. When Estella had returned to find him dead and Kardena hidden away, she took the young girl under her own wing. It was on the road through the Free Marches that Kardena grew up, until a caravan they joined was attacked by Tevinter slavers. Estella was killed, and Kardena was taken by them to be enslaved on a galley ship.
Five grueling years on the ship passed, until the day the ship was raided by what seemed to be a group of pirates who freed the slaves. Without a home to return to, Kardena joined this group, and she began to call the Lords of Fortune family. During her time with the Lords, she entered into a whirlwind relationship with a young Rivani nobleman, who hired her and the Lords to retrieve an artifact. To her surprise, the nobleman double-crossed her, leaving her to die in a ruin. She managed to escape, killing the nobleman and ensuring the relic didn't fall into the Venatori's hands, as he had intended. What he had failed to tell her was how close he was to the Queen of Rivain, and how much Kardena's actions would enrage them. She was soon advised to step away from the Lords for a time, but her luck would strike again when Varric Tethras pulled her for another job even more wild than the last...
