Stephen Sokar was born in 1840 IE, the second son of Raymond Sokar and his wife Danielle. As the nephew of the "Dragon Lady" Isabel Sokar, family life was often tense while Stephen grew up, though his immediate family was close and pleasant enough. With two older siblings and two younger, Stephen was the very definition of the "middle child." Perhaps the only oddity seemed to be that Stephen seemed to accept being overlooked and underestimated in stride. As he grew, he watched his father and his interactions with the Duchess Isabel, and quickly came to realize that while Isabel was rarely if ever pleasant (though she did SOMETIMES soften just a bit for her youngest extended family members, or at least showed a sensible ability to excuse youthful behavior from small children), it was possible to at least avoid unpleasantness if you simply did what you were expected to do when you were expected to do it. It was a lesson he would take to heart.
Early in life, it almost seemed that Stephen would be a bookish child. While not frail, he seemed enamored of books and learning, and took natural to lessons of numbers and showed a clever mind for unravelling puzzles and riddles. It seemed relatively clear that he would never be a knight, as he showed little interest in such pursuits. He did, however, take enough interest in combat training and defense that he was not deemed particularly lacking in such skills, even if he did not look to be the most mighty warrior of the Sokar particularly soon. By the time he was 12 years old and the need to choose a path became more urgent, it was not terribly a surprise to his family when he asked if he might apprentice with one of the Sokar Lawkeepers. It did not take long to find a cousin who was quite willing to take young Stephen under his wing, a minor lord by the name of Malcolm Sokar. Of course, but a year into his apprenticeship, the Succession War broke out, and while he remained in his apprenticeship, the nature of the work took on a very different tack.
While certainly in times of war it is still necessary to maintain law, for the Lawkeepers of House Sokar the Succession saw them turned to pursuits of scouting and information gathering as much as investigating crimes. Surprising even himself, Stephen's strength in body grew quickly as his teenage years continued, and even these lessons he absorbed well. He was, by necessity, forced to become a more competent combatant, and gained some wisdom in operating in the wilds, but his mind remained his greatest weapon, and as the war ground on he and his teacher provided a considerable degree of valuable information to the forces of the Rose, even if Stephen was quick to avoid any special recognition for his efforts (not hard to do in the midst of a conflict like the Succession War). Unfortunately, in 1859, as Stephen neared the end of his apprenticeship, he and his mentor were captured by the forces of the Thorn.
In some ways, Stephen was fortunate, in that his captors did not know who he was, and despite being loyal to the Thorn, his captors were men of House Tarris who had little appetite for torture, even of Sokar men. For the first few months it was an uncomfortable but liveable imprisonment…he and his mentor were treated as commoners even though several of their captors suspected their noble origins (it's hard to completely hide that level of education and mannerisms). Then, unfortunately, a new commander arrived. Lord Alphard Tarris did not have the compunctions that many of his men did, and with a deep and abiding hatred of House Sokar, he was quite eager to see a couple of Sokar lawkeepers "thoroughly" questioned. Stephen survived the ordeal over the next few months, though not without plenty of scars. His mentor Malcolm, however…was not so fortunate, and eventually succumbed to the combination of poor nutrition and injury incurred in his torture. Perhaps more important however, was the fact that neither of them divulged any information of value to their captors.
When the Battle of the Betrayer occurred, Stephen was released from his captivity almost immediately upon the battle's closure, as part of House Tarris' attempts to prove their good faith. It took several months afterwards for Stephen to recover from his ordeal, but recover he did. His family was overjoyed to see him alive, though, and contributed much to his successful healing. He did not speak of his ordeal…the scars told the tale easily enough, for those that saw them, but life had to go on. As seemed to be his way, one day Stephen simply asked to return to his Lawkeeper duties, and his request was granted.
For the next few years, he took satisfaction in his work, and proved to be a more-than-capable Lawkeeper, capturing or killing bandit-cells and investigating several crimes within the Sokar lands that successfully led to the perpetrators. Life went on, and Stephen continued along with it, seeking neither accolade nor pity. Most of his siblings wed, but Stephen showed little inclination towards it, burying himself in his work and generally avoiding the Sokar Court altogether save for the occasional family function. Thankfully his middle-child status made marriage far less a priority for him (or so he thought). Of course, when incidences of Banditry started to pick up across Galenthia in 1865 IE, and it began to appear that the forces of the Thorn might be resurgent, Stephen was quick to take to efforts to try rooting them out, eventually being assigned to a group of Lawkeepers sent by Isabel to serve her son Thaddeus in his role as Knight-Marshal for Galenthia.