Like many before him, Mandelbrot began his career in a fairly low-key fashion, drifting from job to job and filling the gaps with petty crime. Expelled from the city of Cursiter with his sub-normal axeman 'friend' Carnan Lug, Mandelbrot sailed for Bisha where the pair resumed their activities. It was in a Bisha tavern that they had the misfortune of bumping into the deranged heretic Mace, the Pain Messiah. Lug judged the moment to be right to fill Maces' lap with vomit and Mandelbrot covered for this social gaff by pledging fealty to the Pain God, Loviatar, a decision which he was to regret for some time after.

Mandelbrot and Lug eventually parted company,and Mandelbrot devoted himself to his new faith. All of his work however, was to come to nothing after Mace, with Loviatars' scrolls still unwritten, surrendered his neck to the executioners' block. Realising that all was lost for Loviatar, Mandelbrot abandoned his faith and fled the city with a new companion, the deadly assassin Vvlad. They were rumoured to have had business with the pirates of the Shoals area. Some days later, shell traders brought tales to Bisha which spoke of great bloodshed amongst the Shoals pirates. Two rival factions had clashed at sea and one, with the assistance of a brutal mainland champion, had triumphed. Other traders spoke of a spirit which haunted the pirate lair and struck fourteen dead in their beds.

In terms of appearance, Mandelbrot is very much the 'grey man'. There is nothing striking about him. In his mid twenties, six foot in height and of average build, his blue-grey eyes gaze disinterestedly from a uniformly undistinguished face. Most who meet him struggle later to recall his short untidy brown hair or the details of his clothing. He wears a grubby piece of cloth around his neck to keep out the wind, a thick brown woolen shirt beneath a heavy fur-lined navy jacket, a broad-buckled belt supporting thick black leggings, boots and a dark weatherproof cloak. He carries a cutlass with a serrated blade, a longbow and a vicious triple-headed flail. A shield and full-face helm are strapped to his pack.