Malika's mother was a Varisian woman taken north to Halgrim by an Ulfen mercenary after his war band raided the village she was staying in. He took her as his wife, and though she raged and wept at first, she gradually grew to accept her lot in life. Far from her old home, she bore her captor-turned-husband a daughter. He had wanted a son, and made no efforts to hide his disappointment in Malika. He left her care and upbringing almost entirely to her mother, who taught Malika her mother tongue and the history of her family.

As Malika came of age, strange happenings seemed to follow in her wake; candles would surge and flicker oddly, gusts of wind would whip up suddenly, and other stranger things. Her mother recognized these signs from her family's tales, and was quick to bring Malika into the fold. Tracing the threads of golden embroidery stitched throughout her kapenia, Malika's mother explained that their line was descended from the golden wyrm Morgol'Thuz. The strange happenings surround Malika were the echoes of their ancestor. Under her mother's guidance, Malika took dominion over the power in her blood, binding it to her will with ink.

Malika grew under her mother's tutelage and strengthened her control over her blood. She became a young woman, and she began to see that her mother's health declined daily. She spoke at length of her old home, Varisia, and their family there. Uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers that she hadn't seen in years. Knowing that she would never return there, she told Malika that her days left were few. Her last, sincerest wish was that Malika would leave the frozen north and make a pilgrimage to her homeland. Malika's father honored his wife's final request, and took Malika south with him during the next raiding expedition. When the longships came south enough, they diverted their course into the Varisian Bay. Malika was captivated by her mother's homeland even before they made landfall. They passed a massive runed wheel buried along the shoreline, though her questions about it were met with flat rejection. Chaffed by having to make the detour, her father hastily left her near Riddleport with the barest of supplies and directions. There, in as many days, she saw a second impossibility: the absurdly tall Cyphergate that spans the harbors of Riddleport.

Riddleport proved to be a very rough place, especially for an outsider without anyone watching their back. It was almost enough to stain the growing sense of wonder Malika felt for Varisia. Money came and went as she was robbed, found employment, was robbed again, and so on. All the while though she couldn't quell the excitement in her. What was the gate? Why was it there? What does it do? Who built it? No one was forthcoming with answers to any of these questions but the last: the Thassilonians. Speaking with whomever had the interest and the time to spare, Malika learned that the wheel she'd seen (the scholars called it the "Gruankus") was also thought by some to be a product of the Thassilonians. She learned that these amazing long-lost people had left marvels like these all across Varisia.

Her passion fully sparked, Malika hounded whatever leads she could find on the strange structures. She was quick to meet a wall in her efforts, however. The intellectuals who studied the Thassilonians were peculiarly insular and competitive with one another. There was a strange sort of paranoia between them; rather than just wanting to know, it was almost like they each wanted to be the only one to know. Thoroughly frustrated with their antics, Malika realized after speaking with a local bartender that it might be wise to distance herself from her new 'peers'. Rather than 'realize', perhaps 'cling to a passing comment while deep in her cups' would be more accurate. At any rate, she gathered up what money she had and purchased fare on a trade ship heading to Magnimar, and from there she caravaned to Sandpoint.