Born during the last years of the prosperity of Astrya, Cliff grew on a very poor environment due to The Fading. For others, that thought that process was a curse or an incurable disease; in his mind, he refused to accept that mysticism. For him, the impeding doom werent neither ghosts nor whims of gods, but rather a test for him, and later, inspired by old alchemy texts, Cliff discovered his obsession: Find the perfect form of existence, the energy.
When the new expeditions to the new continent of Alphos started, Cliff, knowing that staying at Astrya would mean staying on a deprecated land, would imply that he will always be a nobody. He got by contraband on a boat and got to Headsted Encampment, but at some point he would get bored of that life and would decide to explore by his own the continent.