Cormac is born in Strovengar to Oddvar and Gudlaug Galescum. Oddvar worked as a technician at the airship docks while Gudlaug had been an apothecary’s apprentice before retiring after her second child was born to be a full-time homemaker. Cormac is the fifth of seven siblings. Living under the shadow of their infamous pirate ancestors, life is hard for the Galescums in the heritage-centric society of the Vikarahns. Cormac is raised speaking Common around the docks and markets and Vikan at home.
Cormac begins to apprentice under his father at the docks and quickly shows an aptitude for magic that outstrips the bounds of small-time airship repair. The family begins to save money for Cormac to attend Oslo Academy in Snowtop City.
Cormac is denied acceptance to Oslo University. The justification is thin but Cormac and his family are sure that the true reason is their dishonorable reputation. Oddvar spends the money that they had saved on materials for Cormac to study independently. Cormac continues to work at the docks and study magic at night.
With his apprenticeship nearing completion and fed up with the expectations of his family and Highwind society, Cormac signs a two-year contract on a passing airship as a junior mechanic and deckhand. The airship, Whisper of Silk, mainly trades in Olympusian textiles. Cormac learns conversational Elvan from its largely-fey crew.
To show the resiliency of the Calruni spirit, having survived civil war and dragon attack, the city begins construction of the magnificent Precipice District. Cormac is contacted by one of his former professors at the Academy, Hypaxius Antonais, to work under him as he spearheaded construction of one of the venues for the upcoming World’s Fair, work which could substitute his final year of schooling at the Academy and earn him his degree. Cormac agrees and begins, along with a few other classmates offered similar deals, to work on The Gilded Oasis, an amphitheater that is intended to feature prominently in the Fair. Cormac’s return to the Academy life (in this tangential capacity) is not the triumphant one that he had imagined for himself. Profoundly unsettled by his experiences over the past several years, Cormac makes mistake after mistake, culminating in the collapse of a platform while several other students and Professor Antonais are on it. The Professor is able to gain control of the falling masonry at the last moment and prevents any deaths but several students are injured. It is a bridge too far. With less than a year left to go in his studies, Cormac is expelled for Reckless Incompetence and Gross Negligence Unbefitting of a Wielder of Mystia and disbarred from studying or practicing magic within Calrune. Soon after, Cormac leaves the city, heading east.
