Marcel “The Masked Mountain” Tano is a wolf and former professional wrestler born in 510 GD. Marcel was born to Ehr Tano and Bruce Tano. When Marcel was still an infant, his mother was drafted to fight in the Adenian-Tethish War, and lied on the draft response form in order to escape from Bruce, who was physically and emotionally abusive towards her.

Growing up, Marcel had the echoes of some memory ringing in his ears, as though a shout had erupted in a cave just before his hearing began. All he could pick out was a vivid memory of a skunk reaching for his face. He took this to mean that one day, he would meet a skunk who was important to him. This is his earliest memory.

As he grew up, his mother (15 at the time of his birth) would often bring him to a nearby park and make up stories to tell him. She had a habit of pausing to think of what happened next. She would preface these pauses with, “and then…”. When Marcel was around one year old, during one of these pauses, when his mother hadn't said those words before pausing, Marcel chimed in helpfully “and then?” These were his first words.

His mother fled from home when he was two, and did not return for four years.

When Marcel was four years old, in preschool, he met Rimas Nolie. Marcel, as a fat, quiet, and softspoken child, was often a target of bullying. Rimas, seeing that Marcel was cornered by a few children who were poking at him, bit one of the children on the face. The children ran away screaming, and in the few seconds before the teacher approached, Rimas also bit Marcel on the arm. Marcel simply said, “If you're hungry I have an apple sauce in my lunch.” Rimas thought this was hilarious, and declared “From now on, you're my appendice.” (She was trying to say apprentice.) This established their friendship.

When his mother returned home in 516 (when Marcel was six) his father's presence in his life diminished. His father would routinely spend days to weeks away from home, saying little about where he was going or what he was doing, so Marcel was at this point mostly raised by his mother. He occasionally had Rimas over to play 'wizards', which was a game that Ehr had made up. This generally consisted of Ehr pretending to be a dragon who was Rimas's familiar, and giving her and Marcel 'quests'. Usually the quests would consist of scavenger hunts, occasionally a game of tag, or putting together a puzzle.

As a natural consequence of this, Marcel also grew to know Rimas's mother and sister, and her father, when he was in the hospital.

Marcel would occasionally accompany Rimas to the hospital to visit Sam. On one occasion, sensing that he was near death, Sam asked to speak with Marcel alone. He gave to Marcel the