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Rickon led what he believes was a fairly ordinary childhood for Norey. He was born to a Dentorian man and the daughter of a wealthy merchants, and therefore had a good childhood with all the education he could ask for. Rickon had personal tutors in every subject, being the only child of his parents, and though their attentions were often otherwise diverted, he lead a rather scholarly childhood. He picked up languages of Eire with ease, as well as politics, history, and literature.

While this is the story Rickon often tells of his childhood, or would often tell if he were often asked, there are facets he often leaves unspoken. His mother, a woman named Katarina, was the son of a Kanemorian and an Atsirian, and picked up her own mother's tendency toward men. She was immensely controlling of both Rickon and his father, Nathaniel, and often lost her temper if not given her way, however. While Rickon has foggy memories of his father fighting back in earlier years, by the time Rickon was old enough to form memories, Nathaniel's fire had faded. Katarina's, however, had not, and Rickon found himself being told what to do, how to speak, what to think. His father was given the same commands, but he never fought back, and it infuriated Rickon even when he was young.

He began practicing the defiance that his father had given up, refusing to learn how to use the lance as his mother wanted, refusing to learn magic when that became her second choice, picking up the bow and later the sword instead. He dove into politics in his teens, attending speeches and debates that involved a government his mother hated, all for the sake of spiting her. His father would not fight back, but Rickon would, and did.

It was at a debate that his deeper involvement in politics began, and he soon became a name among the people, then an advisor to one of the Council of Twelve, and then that Councillor's successor, all to the spite of his mother.

It was also at a debate where he met Julietta, a woman he fell in love with and married when he was eighteen. Julietta was the daughter of a merchant, had no Atsirian heritage, and most importantly listened to Rickon, which gave him some small release from his mother's harping demands. Julietta was quiet and meek and everything Rickon's mother was not, and therefore everything he'd ever wanted in a woman, and they married. For years they were childless, until at last Julietta gave birth to a son, whom they named Lucas.

Julietta died of an illness when Lucas was ten, and Rickon blamed almost everyone, including his own son, for his wife's death. What was even less fair to him was that she passed away before his (weak) father, who died a year later, and even worse, both died before his (harpy) mother, who died when Lucas was fourteen. Rickon involved himself more in politics, angry at the doctors, angry at his parents, and angry at Lucas, who one day simply vanished into thin air after an argument the two of them had.

The rage was strong at first, and directed at the entire city of Norey, but it burned out quickly and left Rickon to realize that he was alone. The months passed, and then the years, and Rickon took up drinking and smoking to try and make himself disassociate or make himself hate his son, but Lucas was all that he'd had. His moods switched wildly from intense anger to severe depression, and he found himself losing interest in everything, which only made him more upset because it reminded him of his father.

And then, out of nowhere, after Rickon had long resigned Lucas to dead... his son reappeared, unchanged but for longer hair, a long scar on the side of his head, and a patchy memory. The memory made its slow return, and Rickon resolved that it would be different, though little changed in the time that he had Lucas back again; he was still involved in his politics, and Lucas was distracted with something Rickon couldn't name, and then, as quickly as he had returned, Lucas was gone again, killed by the peasantry.

Rickon struggled to control his rage, blaming the king, the commoners, the soldiers, anyone that it made any sense to blame, and then an attempt on his life, months after Lucas' death, sealed his disposition: the king was incompetant.