Groff Compton was the captain of a Silver Eagle Duchy's border patrol, in charge of a dozen border patrolmen who guarded the frontier at Sotimi.
He was a graduate of Valla Empire's knight academy. Although being the second son of a baron meant he was not inheriting his father's title, he was at least appointed a minor official of the White Quill Guards, slowly accumulating achievement in his rise as a noble.
However, soon after he graduated as a training knight, his family was the victim of reprisals for picking the wrong side in an imperial political struggle and after their supporters were taken out of the equation, leaving the whole family in deteriorating fortunes.
Groff was naturally targeted in revenge—not only was he denied his place amongst the White Quills, he was directly dismissed from the imperial army and thrown to the remote reaches of the North.