Matrim Quain is a minor Boraelan nobleman with holdings just eleven miles north of the city of Sarra.

Matrim Quain was born in approximately 480 AT to Lord Besel and Lady Celestria Quain. The couple had the child while late in life, an event which came as a pleasant surprise to them. As a result, young Matrim was spoiled early on as a child and came to see his station as simply what was due him by right of birth. Lord and Lady Quain died in 491 AT. Lord Quain had acquired the wasting sickness and Lady Quain died soon after, it is said, of a broken heart.

At age 11, Matrim had inherited his family lands under the stewarship of one Bardulf Shadedge. Shadedge was the family chamberlain and was also a wizard of moderate skill. Matrim was fascinated by magic and eventually became Shadedge’s apprentice in 493 AT.

Matrim came into his full inheritance at the age of 18 in 498 AT. At this point, having learned all that he could Shadedge, he dismissed the wizard from his service and sought a new master. A pair of travelers had paid his keep a visit some months previous, a Southron wizard called Bulsara and his apprentice Almaric Amberscale. Bulsara would not take Matrim on as an apprentice, saying that he was “too old to start training a new boy”. Matrim, used to getting what he wanted, vowed revenge.

During their stay, Matrim overheard the old man talking to Shadedge about a grimoire of power that Bulsara was holding in safe keeping. Matrim pledge himself to taking this grimoire, and whatever power came with it. Some three months later, Matrim held the very tome in his hand, the result of a perfectly executed road crime that ended in the old man’s death. Suspecting that the apprentice would be seeking him, and the grimoire, out, Matrim ensured its safety by moving the tome periodically from the keep and to his winter residence in southern Borael.

So far he has been thwarted from the promised power of the grimoire by the various protections lain upon it by Bulsara. These protections have kept the book shut for nearly ten years now.

In 500 AT, Matrim was introduced to Lady Ilsa Swaffeld, a minor noblewoman of that house. Thinking of his legacy and lack of heirs, Matrim courted Lady Ilsa heavily and the two were married some six months later.

in 508 AT, his keep was burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances. Some attributed it to a servant revolt. Several of his household staff were executed. The exact cause was never determined.