Sarissa was raised in a monastery from birth, learning the ways of the monk from an early age. She was a very good student and willing to take on any job they made her do to increase her monastic abilities. She loved reading, and spent days reading the doctrines and edicts of her faith. The monastery she was raised in was The Brotherhood of the Wind. A nomadic group of monks who usually kept clear of town, save for basic needs they couldn’t make or grow themselves. A few of the monks would travel to town once a month to get basic supplies, such as metal, sugar, and various sundries. Sarissa was never permitted to travel as the roads to town were dangerous and would also expose her to ‘unneeded interference from training’.

On one such of these travels, her main instructor was one of the ones chosen to travel into town. Sarissa took it upon herself to follow, unseen, to see where this town was and how her master (Brother Ahten) handled himself with the general population. This was unwise for her, as she witnesses the murder of Ahten. Rogues besieged the monks and an unseen attacker brought down Brother Ahten.

The remaining brothers, upon return, informed the rest of the monastery of this. And to Sarissa’s great disdain, did not immediately go out and rectify the situation. They informed her that Brother Ahten’s death was not reason to go out and act irrationally, that is not the way of the monk. Patience and faith are the ways of the monk. Sarissa contemplated this for months; she increased her training, theological, scholastic and physical. She would eventually find this killer, as she was sure that God would eventually cross their paths.

When she felt that she needed to travel, the brothers reluctantly let her go, insisting that she carry the ways of The Brotherhood with her. She ventured out looking for traveling companions to learn the ways of the outside world and expose them to the ways of the brotherhood.