Tenfold Tennesar, as he has come to be known, was born in the western region of Sidheon, near the area of Highdale and the edges of the Celedryl Forest. He was reputed to be nearly 110 years old at the time of his disappearance, which was around 40 years ago.
Tennesar grew up in a forest village of simple means. His magical aptitude led him to studying the druids and alfar of the forest. INFO: He studied with the great elven sage Stardal Mealidil.
At some point Tennesar's immediate family was slain by mountain gnolls, which led him to discover that his family were actually nobility in Maderia. Spending some time with them Tennesar became disillusioned with nobility, city life, and specifically the policies of faith and religion as practiced in Vallista.
Tennesar spent many years in the western regions of Sidheon, honing skills as a battle mage while combating gnolls, minotaurs, and bandits. Many of his exploits led him to be highly regarded as a hero in the area. He turned the tide during the last great gnoll horde, and helped establish the fort in the gap to protect the western edge of Sidheon. INFO: It is believed Tennesar established a private vault in the area.
He became an advisor to the High-King in Rylandira, and established an arcane guild for wizards and naturalists called the Conservatory. Tennesar's thirst for knowledge and aptitude for the arcane led him to become a pioneer in arcane theory. He began to travel the continent, searching out knowledge lost to the ages and innovating new techniques. While he may not have invented all the spells known commonly today, his version of them are the more refined and widespread versions. (As an example, Tennesar's Tenfold Stride became the spell known as Expeditious Retreat today.
Tennesar had many rivals due to his casual disregard of anyone's lack of talent or aptitude, a factor which grew more significant as years passed. Paying no attention to his detractors, Tennesar not only mastered battle magic, but also the fields of artifice, summoning/binding, and planar theory, in addition to his studies of the natural world and the Primordials. He was an expert "Jack of All Trades" than also mastered those fields that fascinated him the most.
In the decades before his disappearance, he grew increasingly contemptuous of organized religion and blind faith in gods as all powerful beings. "Have a creed, or a philosophy, even faith" he would say "but don't blindly trust those with absolute power...remember power corrupts, and absolute power...well you know". He studied the Primordials even more extensively than he had before, and became certain that true cosmic power lay in the fundamental forces of the cosmos, digging deeper and deeper into the workings of reality.
INFO: certain writings have led Bargrim to believe that Tennesar had a falling out with the Tuathan Church, and may even have had a pitched battle with the Priory of Nuada just before his disappearance. Although this is not common knowledge, and Tenfold Tennesar is still currently widely regarded as a legend and a hero, Bargrim sees hints that he may have been branded a heretic, and had many of his later works banned and/or destroyed.