Born to a Human mother and Orc father, Karnak learned early on in life that many doors would always be closed to her. She was raised in her early years by her sickly mother. But she never fit in with the local Human children in her hometown of Hogsback. When Karnak’s mother died when she was just five years old, she fell in with a gang of local street urchins and proved her worth as a talented scrapper and defender of the gang’s territory. This was her life for the next decade or so, fighting, scrounging and scraping a living in the city streets.
 
Karnak has spent the last three years wandering from place to place, hiring her services out as a mercenary. Her cover story is that she was fired from the local town guard in Hogsback, but she is always looking over her shoulder, afraid that the past will one day catch up with her.
 

Career with The Copper Knuckles

 
As Karnak reached maturity, her street urchin gang had morphed into it’s own powerful criminal organisation, with fingers in many pies across the city and beyond, known by all as The The Copper Knuckles. Karnak continued to do their work as bodyguard, bouncer and general brawler for them. But as good as she was at beating people up, she never lost the powerful sense of right and wrong that she had gained from her unfair years on the streets. She never beat up anyone who couldn't defend themselves, and tried not to kill people who didn't deserve it. During her time working for The Copper Knuckles Karnak developed a peculiar friendship with a town guard named Irena Arbuckle. Karnak found herself repeatedly crossing Irena’s path in pursuit of her less-than-lawful activities in the town, and somehow rather than a rivalry, a friendship developed between them.
 
One day she was given an assignment to go and rough up a client who owed the syndicate money. Upon arriving there however she found the client to a poor old man who helped to care for local street urchins, just like she had once been. Knowing that she could not go back on her orders, but unwilling to finish the deed, Karnak fled the city, and the reach of her former shadowy companions.
 
Unfortunately this friendship proved to be Karnak’s undoing. A raid on one of The Copper Knuckles’s strongholds by the local guards turned out to be a trap and Irena and several of her fellow guards were captured. Lispeth Le Clerk, the shadowy and ruthless leader of The Copper Knuckles, decided to put the guards to death as a message to the local law enforcement not to meddle in their criminal activities. Karnak begged with Lispeth to spare the guard’s lives, as she did not want to see her friend Irena die. Lispeth agreed to Karnak’s pleas but only on the condition that Karnak would make the move from bodyguard and bruiser to paid killer for The Copper Knuckles, for a period of five years. Begrudgingly, Karnak accepted.
 
This series of events precipitated in Karnak realising that although she had been happy for a time in Hogsback, it was now no place for someone with a moral centre. Her first whack job assignment was to go and ‘teach a lesson’ to a client who owed The Copper Knuckles money, quite a serious sum of money. Upon arriving there however she found the client to be a poor old man who helped to care for local street urchins, just like she had once been. Knowing that she could not go back on her orders, but unwilling to finish the deed, Karnak fled the city.