Born and raised in the port city of Arjuf, Kavanagh Alastair of Mnemon was the youngest of seven children. Two of his brothers and two of his sisters Exalted at young ages and it was hoped that Alastair would do the same. His sister gave him his obsidian gauntlets for his fifteenth birthday. His primary education ended on that day without his Exaltation. He returned home and often helped his father by traveling with caravans and speaking to members of allied Great Houses on the Blessed Isle. Upon returning from a six week stay at Lord's Crossing, Alastair would find his home aflame and his entire family slaughtered save his Exalted siblings, who were off in secondary school. Running down the road away from his house, he found the three Dragon-Blooded who had razed his home. Sobbing, he asked why they had murdered his family. He was told that they were suspected of plotting an assassination of a House Mnemon official in an attempt to gain power. Upon learning that Alastair was of the Kavanagh offshoot of Mnemon, they turned their blades on him.
Outraged at these actions, Alastair Exalted--not as a Terrrestrial, but as a Solar. He easily slew the Dragon-Blooded and fled into the deep city to the home of one of his father's trading partners, a man from Nexus. Upon hearing his story, the man--who had but distaste for the Dragon-Blooded and their Immaculate Order--took Alastair to the Assassin's Guild in Arjuf for protection and training. His skills developed rapidly and the Guild bestowed a pair of kukri daggers--the favorites of many assassins--upon him. Thus, he received Arsenic and Old Lace.
By the age of twenty, Alastair was known as one of the greatest assassins in the Realm and one of the few who could stand toe-to-toe against Terrestrial Exalted. None of his siblings knew he survived his house's destruction. At this same time, he felt a calling from the North. He traveled by foot for eight months before reaching Gethamane and began to search the underground ruins. Alastair discovered a First Age temple of the Unconquered Sun containing what had been calling him: Naga, a massive orichalcum daiklaive with a moonsilver spine, capable of taking the form of either a massive blade or a wicked silver whip with gold blades attached. Wrath of Naga was the weapon wielded by the Essence now contained in his body. He trained for four months beneath the city, slaying monsters and honign his skills. Afterwards, he trekked to Nexus and sought housing in their Assassin's Guild, acceping missions once again until the day that the man called Donekai would hire him as a bodyguard...the day he met his Circle.
