At the age of three Michael Dillon was found sitting huddled on the bank of the Wort River not far from the town of Providence on Scoriath's northern coast.  He was one of the few Scorians who survived a Sessymirian attack upon the small beachside village.  He was found by a Nessan wine-seller who had ventured into the region to sell his goods.  Michael warned the wine-seller about proceeding on to Providence, describing the bloodshed he had seen in more detail than was needed to convince the merchant not to to go on.  Grateful for the warning, the merchant took the small boy into his care and returned with him to Gobnet in the north of Nessa.

Disturbed by the horrors he had seen and greatly resentful of his misfortune, Michael grew up angry, vengeful man, marked by intense hatred of all others, especially Sessymirians.  One day he found out that his surrogate father had a crate of ale bound for Sessymir; Michael stole into the storeroom and deposited a potent poison in each bottle in the crate.  He discovered weeks later he had confused the shipments, and the ales had actually been sent to his homeland of Scoriath for the wedding of a young knight by the name of Sir Edgar Worseley to a noblewoman by the name of Lady Anne Miller.  Twenty-seven innocent Scorians died at the wedding, including Lady Anne.

Despairing his mistake, Michael Dillon fled Gobnet and eventually made his way to the Blue Cliffs of Nessa far to the south. On a dark afternoon, he stood upon the cliffs preparing to throw himself off to end his life when the sun broke through the clouds and fell upon a distant abbey.   He could see churchwrens hovering about the abbey's steeples.  In the pastures nearby, shelp bleated happily in the passing sunlight.  Overwhelmed by emotion, he fell to his knees and decided that he would redress his tragic mistake by committing to life as a holy man.