Stoyko came to the life of an adventurer later than most. He was never a man of means, having spent his youth, adolescence, and most of his adulthood eeking out the meager existence of a farmer. It was a simple life, though by no means easy. Stoyko had no formal education, but the decades of manual labor turned him into a specimen of physicality. Stoyko would have likely eventually settled down and raised a family, but Fate had other ideas.
The Orcs left almost nothing in their wake. His fields trampled, his flock carried off or slaughtered, his home ashes. Stoyko survived only by the grace of Illus having been investigating a strange light in the nearby woods at the time of the raid. Rebuilding was not an option, so Stoyko chose the path of blood and steel