Greycoat
was born Shier’tal, a name meaning ‘ashen-faced’ in the ancient
shadow-elf tongue of Lánt.
This moniker referenced how Shier’tal’s father - Kithlord Eironé of House Lánt - had shamed his ancient enemies, House Bel-Fen. Using the psychic gifts inherent to all Lántish royalty, Eironé had orchestrated the defeat of the Bel-Fen politically, and taken their ruling Lady, Yvett, as his concubine. Their violent union bore the child Shier’tal.
Ten years later, Shier’tal’s mother watched helplessly as he was bound to an altar, and his face marked by the Black Magi of House Lánt with glyphs reading 'sacrifice'; Eironé planned to trade his heir’s life for the Raven Queen’s blessing. Yet, just as those of House Lánt were gifted with psychic weaponry, the Bel-Fen royals, Shier’tal included, had the lineage of fire. While not yet instructed in this side of his ancestry, when the Black Magi ritualist raised a sacrifical dagger to him, Shier’tal’s instincts kicked in...
Moments later, as he fled the burning Lánt estates of Lus-Baph, his mother’s handmaiden grabbed him and secreted the boy away. The handmaiden, never gifted with a name, styled herself as Redcloak; using arts gleaned from Shier’tal’s mother Yvett, who loved to teach, the girl had become a gifted fledgling wizard and tailor. Over the years she’d created a hideout in Ardemai Woods, which her compatriots used mystically woven keys to access. She and Shier’tal became closer than siblings.
As the boy grew he took up the forest compatriots’ habits of minor theft and hunting, earning the roguish skills that ensured his survival for the next few years. However, still terrified that the Black Magi of Lánt would come to complete his sacrifice, he approached the Volary, a crime syndicate headed by the shapeshifter Mistress Okiko. Shiert’tal - by then simply Tal - first joined the Volary as a thief, proving his blade skills and psychic prowess until he became Okiko’s trusted bodyguard, getting close enough to steal that which he’d ultimately sought: the Fellfeather, a talisman allowing hidden escape from the Raven Queen’s realm.
Returning to collect Recloak, Tal found their hideout burned, with a note indicating she’d been found and killed by the Black Magi. Devastated, and with both Magi and Volary agents on his tail, Tal used the talisman - and found himself transported to Barovia.
There, weakened and narrowly escaping an encounter with the vampiric Count Strahd, Tal used his remaining power to travel to the Feywild. The talisman broken, Tal found himself at the mercy of Mab, queen of the Winter Court, to whom he swore servitude in exchange for protection from his pursuers: Magi, Volary, Barovian. He masked his true name with one that Redcloak had given him, a poor translation of the elven name for an ashen face or pale skin:
Greycoat.