Li the Poet had grown up in the estate of his Father Shang Li Trill, a renown administrator for his province in the Northern part of the Eastern Empire. As second son, he concentrated on the skills of running the estate. He learned much about the land and saw the plight of the lower classes. When his father was assassinated his older brother was unprepared to become an administrator and returned to the estate. His brothers mismanagement of the estate in a vain attempt to acquire the position that would have been his had his father lived soon ruined the estate. Then Li left his home to wander to the active temples, the few left unclosed by Imperial Edict. He became the Humble Critic, in the time when any Critics were out of favor. The treatment he received became harsher as the tide of War for the Green Lands turned against the East. Eventually the Eastern Throne grew tired of him and Exiled him to the Sorrow Mountains.