Demitri is a half-elf with a large burn scar running down his left side. It spans from the side of his face, along his left arm, and down his left side to his thigh. He has fairly pale skin and unruly dark brown hair. The red crystal earring he wears used to belong to his mother, and now acts as a focus for his magic. He has Drow lineage on his mother's elven side, while his father is completely human.

When Demitri was 12 years old, a wizard left their spellbook in his family's pub. His parents kept it hidden away, waiting for the person to return for it, but they never did. Demitri's curiosity got the better of him one day and he stole it from the lost property box, pouring over the pages while hiding in his room. Magic was always something he was fascinated by, but the family couldn't afford to send their children to the kinds of schools that taught magic.

He eventually managed to cast a basic cantrip from the book, but in the process the curtains of his room caught fire. Worried about his parents finding out, Demitri tried to stifle it himself, trying to figure out how to do it magically before desperately trying to put it out with anything he had in his room.

But the building was old, the wood was dry and brittle, and it was the peak of summer with no rain for many weeks. The fire spread until it was noticed by his family but by that point Demitri had inadvertently trapped himself in a flaming room whilst the fire continued to consume the rest of the tavern.

His mother ran in to save him, but after managing to get the both of them out, she sadly succumbed to her injuries. Demitri survived, but was left badly scarred. Half of the tavern was burned down. Thankfully his father and older brother survived mostly unscathed.

Demitri has held onto this guilt for his whole life, developing quite a morbid and self-deprecating opinion of himself, determined to control the flames he started learning about. He never went to any kind of magic school, learning off of his own merits and texts he picked up along the way. He grew distant from his family, because despite anything they told him he knew they blamed him for his mother's death.