Pharean is the son of what would be considered, by human terms, a middle class elven family.  Not a poor family, but by far from the noblest of the elves.  He has one older brother that has always been an unintentional pain in his side.  Pharean's older brother,  Nalfein, is gifted with the abilities of a sorcerer, the ability to bend raw magic to his will by his very force of personality alone.  Pharean's father had always aspired to be a mage himself, but could never manage more than a few cantrips, and finally resigned to being a craftsman and artist.  When Nalfein's power manifested, he instantly became the favored son of the family.  While the brother developed his raw magical power, Pharean was left feeling slightly outcast.  Oh, his parents were attentive to whatever he had to say, but their thoughts were never far from his brother's latest exploit in sorcery.  In order to compete for his parent's attention, as siblings always do, Pharean turned to one of the elve's most ancient artforms, the bow and the sword.

    Pharean quickly discovered that he had a skill with the bow exceeded that of the sword, so he focused the majority of his energy there.  In fact, over time, he became very good with the bow.  Seeing as how he was always practicing with a bow, Nalfein took up calling him "Archer" in jest.  Pharean was quick to take up this nickname himself, as he had never been overly fond of the name Pharean to start with.  As Archer brought home prize after prize, his parents always congratulated him on his accomplishments, but never with the enthusiasm as they congratulated his brother whenever he mastered a new spell.  While at least one parent was frequently absent from Archer's tournaments, they always made sure to attend Nalfein's lectures on magic and spellcraft to the magic academy.

    Eventually, "Archer" El'leran realized that he had learned as much of the bow as his homeland had to offer.  He would have to either give up bettering himself with the bow, or leave to find new techniques and continue his own training.  The decision of wether or not to leave gnawed at him for months, until one day when his brother learned his latest spell.  Yes, Nalfein had learned to fly.  One would think there had been a birth or a wedding from the size of the party thrown on this occasion, all in his brother's honor.  Archer, of course, was all but ignored, his father only happening to remember to even tell him the party was about to begin while passing in the halls.  The day after the party, Archer announced that he was leaving.

    Only his mother seemed taken aback at this, but his father gave his blessing, it wasn't as if the good son were leaving, after all.  His mother gave Archer a small bag of gold coins, "Just in case you need them" she said.  Archer returned to his rooms, and took the few things he thought would be of the most use to him in the outside world, a sturdy composite longbow, a well balanced longsword, and a chain shirt of fine metal links, all prizes from archery contests that he had won.  He doubted that his father ever even noticed where they had come from, although his father had commented that they were "all good looking pieces".  With these and a few other assorted things, Pharean "Archer" El'leran set out to see what the outside world had to offer him.