Brotmin was born in the volcano of Kiadana-Rah. His father, Bronail was a career soldier, who was skilled both in the use of his weapons, maces, and in devising tactics. However, Bronail had never moved above the rank of grunt, the lowest rank in Lord Kiadana-Rah's army, for one simple reason. Bronail was a coward. While he might give useful advice to his leaders, his cowardice on the battlefield earned him nothing but contempt. Bronail never understood why he was not promoted, but he did realize his skills. He decided to teach them to Brotmin, in hopes that Brotmin would find more success. At the mere age of 15 years old, quite young for a fire giant, Brotmin began learning the technique of fighting with maces.

Brotmin proved quite skilled with maces, and a good student of the tactics his father taught, as well. At the age of 40, he was drafted into the army as nearly every other giant was. In his first days, older giants taunted him with comments about his father. They called his father a fool and a coward. Brotmin grew angry and fought them, as they had hoped for, but proved more than a match after his training with his maces. He heard their bones crunch under the maces, and found a great pleasure in causing these sounds. However, as he thought later on the fights, he came to realize that their judgements of his father had to be right - with his skills, Bronail should have been easily promoted unless there was a good reason, and this was a good reason. Brotmin decided he would not make the same mistake. He had been blessed to be taught a weapon which he now found quite enjoyable, and he would use it.

During the battles which came, Brotmin showed ferocity in his attacks which made most other giants look timid. However, he did not attack blindly... he used his tactical knowledge to see the best ways and places to attack, and caused great damage in the battles. The officers of the army recognized what he did, and were pleased. He was promoted relatively quickly, reaching the rank of squadron leader in a mere 20 years. He was now in command of 25 fire giants, guiding them powerfully with his tactical knowledge. Growing to any higher rank was nearly impossible for any giant not related at least remotely to Lord Kiadana-Rah, but Brotmin enjoyed leading his squadron into battle. He felt powerful, and did not believe their army could ever be defeated... true, there were battles which they lost, but the army continued on. He gained new insight, however, at one enormous battle.

This battle had been anticipated for some time, and it was well-known that the storm giants were bringing an unusually strong force against them. Because of this, Lord Kiadana-Rah negotiated with the Matron Mother of the drow, and managed to convince her to send five drow invokers to aid in the battle. A select number of officers were called to Lord Kiadana-Rah's tent just before the battle, and told to stand still while the invokers surrounded them with elemental shields. Brotmin was among those given these shields. They surrounded him with odd energy, but he was told they would protect him, and when battle began, he flung himself into the fighting. He felt how much the shields lessened the impact of blows to him, letting him fight even harder. As the battle went on, he saw the invokers flinging balls of fire, shards of ice, and bolts of lightning into the opposing army. He saw how the spells felled storm giants instantly, split squads into isolated soldiers, and otherwise turned the battle in his army's favour. He also saw, for a moment, a point where a storm giant managed to break through to the mages. With a single blow, a mage fell dead. The fire giants managed to close ranks and hold off the storm giants again, but Brotmin saw how easily that mage had been killed. When the battle was finished, Lord Kiadana-Rah's army was victorious. Brotmin decided that he should definitely give the magic used some further study, but the remaining drow invokers left the army's camp right after the battle, not even giving Brotmin a chance to speak with them. He would not be put off so easily, however... though he had never seen such an enormous impact from them, he had seen gains from the magic used by Tohr Nacktin-Rah and the few other anti-paladins among Lord Kiadana-Rah's army.

Brotmin found some time with Tohr, and convinced him to allow Brotmin to watch and study the magic he used. Brotmin even tried to learn some of it, but found he could not channel a lick of magic. Brotmin did learn much from Tohr and the other anti-paladins, both about the magic they used and from their speaking of other magic which they did not know, such as the elemental shields the invokers had cast. Brotmin was also amazed at how little study the anti-paladins did. He knew how he always worked to find new techniques and tactics in warfare, and trained the grunts in his squadron to learn new methods and to show him if they found something he had not taught them. The anti-paladins seemed remarkably complacent in their magic, happy with what knowledge they had. Brotmin once mentioned this to Tohr, and Tohr was quite offended. He said that the time it took to try to learn such things was not worth using. He spoke of a group called the Scions of Eternal Night, who spent quite a lot of time on such study, but said that it was a waste of their time. Brotmin did not say so, but he did not agree. He had seen how much their army had gained from only five invokers casting magic into a battle with a thousand storm giants. He felt that the more this magic was developed, the stronger the army that had it would be... but Lord-Kiadana's army could never be that strong as long as its only permanent mage members felt time developing magic was a 'waste'. Brotmin thought perhaps these 'Scions of Eternal Night' could be convinced to join with Lord Kiadana-Rah's army.

Brotmin went through the chain of command and managed to get an audience with Lord Kiadana-Rah. He proposed that he be allowed to leave this army, in order to join the army of the Scions, and to convince them to become part of Lord Kiadana-Rah's army. Lord Kiadana-Rah saw what power could be gained if this plan worked, and remembered how costly the aid of the drow had been, for just one battle. He gave Brotmin permission. Brotmin did not say so, but he thought that if such an alliance could not be formed, the army of the Scions must either be or could become more powerful than Lord Kiadana-Rah's army, because they had so many mages. If they were mostly mages, however, that might be the reason they were not strong enough for him to have heard much about them. Mages could be killed quickly if forced to participate in physical combat, as Brotmin had seen. He felt that the strongest army would be one with a good number of mages who were hungry for new forms of magic, but also with strong fighters who would keep in front of the mages and allow them to use their magic fairly safely. He also knew, from his time in the elemental shields, how powerful a warrior could himself be, when given the benefits of magic. Brotmin left the volcano in hopes of joining the Scions of Eternal Night, and seeing how great an army they could make Lord Kiadana-Rah's... or could become themselves. He knew that he had been guided this way by the various events of his life, and that his skill and his courage might let him rise in the Scions just as they did in Lord Kiadana-Rah's army.