Caden grew up with his older sister and younger twin siblings in a small village on the border of the Rhyll Dominion. His parents were former Rhyll warriors who rebelled against the Dominion, and were executed for their treachery. Caden's sister, not wanting the same fate for herself and her siblings, fled with what remained of her family. They hid themselves away in Kizen, a secret mountain village made up entirely of escaped rebels, "deserters" , or other refugees from the Rhyll Dominion.

Caden's youth was relatively peaceful, but it was not to last when Kizen village was discovered by a hunting party led by Ghost, one of the top Rhyll generals. Many of the villagers were killed, including Caden's sister. Even though most of the children were spared, Caden's younger siblings were trapped inside when their house was burnt down and hence perished as well. Having witnessed the brutal massacre of his family, Caden was enraged and attacked Ghost in a vain effort for vengeance. He ended up with nothing more than a scar on his face, but his fiery spirit piqued Ghost's interest, who decided to take him on as an apprentice.

Together with two of his childhood best friends, Kiye and Lyen, Caden was taken to Ghost's citadel. For the next couple of years, they lived together with the Rhyll general, despite Caden's extreme unhappiness. Their training was harsh, but they were never mistreated, and even lived in relatively luxury for they enjoy the amenities of Ghost's personal living quarters. Eventually, Caden developed a grudging respect for Ghost, as the general seemed to care for them as if they were his own children. 

Once they became full-fledged Rhyll warriors, they earned their titles as lieutenants in Ghost's army. They served alongside him in patrols and the occasional raid parties. To seek out more territory for the Rhyll, Ghost led raid parties to invade small tribe villages outlying the Dominion, seizing their land. Anyone who resisted would be killed. 

On one particular raid, Ghost ordered a group of rebellious villagers be rounded up and killed, but Caden could not bring himself to inflict upon them the same suffering he had been through. Caden, unable to put up with Ghost's growing brutality, turned on his former mentor and renounced his warrior hood, departing from the Rhyll Dominion. He fully expected the general to send a patrol to recapture or kill him, but it soon became apparent that Ghost had simply let him walk away without resistance. His only regret was leaving Lyen and Kiye behind.

Caden spent the next few years travelling around the fringes of the Rhyll Dominion. He befriended a few other Rhyll deserters on the run as well as a few villagers from mountain tribes that had lost their land and sovereignty to the Rhyll. They formed a small party of their own and called themselves "rebels". Then one fateful day, they encounter and rescue a Lunarian Feli on the run from a Rhyll patrol.