-Born in Icewind Dale's Dwarven Valley. His family migrated and resettled at Mithral Hall when he was 11, which had just been reclaimed by Clan Battlehammer after being lost for centuries.
-Father is a well respected blacksmith of Mithril Hall. Trevorious Glockenspiel. The work that he does is extremely fine axes, for nobility and the wealthy etc. He is not famous, but his axes are recognizable to a collector, they are so finely detailed and ornamented.
-Mother was a skilled archer and warrior. Mildred Glockenspiel. Unfortunately, she was killed in a Drow attack on Mithril Hall in The Year of Shadows, 1358 DR. This was 134 years ago in our story, Bart was only 13 when this happened.
-Bartholemew was a rebellious young dwarf. He saw a life for himself outside of his father’s strict regiment at the forge. Hearing tales of powerful wizards, he knew that he would have to leave the fortress to learn such magic, which was frowned upon in the dwarf culture. At age 50 he was deemed a full adult by dwarf society. He promptly left Mithril Hall to study magic with humans and other races. This also coincided with the end of the Spellplague when magic had been much more dangerous to use
-This drove him apart from his father, who were super involved in the clan and expected his son to do the same, as is traditional of dwarven culture. Bartholomew isn’t the typical dwarf though, he is inspired by humans’ ability to be self-sufficient, and uses magic and wit to put food on his table.
-His father and clan assumes that he lives by illegal means, that he’s a crook, and unfortunately that is often the case. Bartholomew is just trying to survive in this world, but his lifestyle and choice to use magic made him an outcast from his clan. Since since he left as a young dwarf over 100 years ago, he never became a significant figure in the clan structure.