Originally an NPC, but later elevated to Player Character in the Voyager campaign. Wizard/15, Archmage/5.
Bigby's father was a man named Dellpol, or simply “Dell” by his friends, of which there were many. He ran a small alchemy shop in the city of Taikim, the capital of the kingdom of Teleme (known to the outside world as “The Southlands”).
The shop was a modest success and kept the family living in a comfortable, middle-class life for most of Bigby's childhood. His mother, Edane, had a variety of medical problems that prevented her from having more children, so Bigby was an only child. Providing Edane with healing herbs and other necessary potions was also a contributing reason why Dellpol began his study of alchemy and opened his shop.
Bigby grew up in an environment steeped in magic and alchemy. While Dellpol was more of a shopkeeper than a magician, he was still able to conjure up the occasional parlor trick. That, combined with his magnanimous nature, made him well-loved by his family and the larger community.
As Bigby grew, Dellpol groomed him to take over the shop. However, Bigby had his eyes on a larger prize: He wanted to learn magic and become a registered wizard. How he would turn this into a profitable profession was a matter he didn't dwell on, but was one that his father persistently chided him about. Even so, Dellpol and Edane tried their hardest to provide Bigby the education he needed to become a wizard.
In the Autumn of 1092, an 18-year-old Bigby was studying at a local school of magic and trying to convince one of several city wizards to allow him to become an apprentice when his father died of a sudden heart attack. As Edane was unable to run the shop on her own and needed its income to survive, Bigby was forced to abandon his studies and return home to care for his mother.
As fate would have it, Bigby found he had a real knack for running a business. While his father would often prefer friendly relations over making a profit, Bigby was much tighter with the finances, yet not so much that he alienated his customers or vendors. After a few years, Bigby's shop was more profitable than it had ever been and he and his mother began to enjoy the fruits of the “good life”.
The price Bigby paid for his success, though, was high. Ten years after his father's death, he found that while he had plenty of business associates, he had no true friends - and certainly no lovers. The toll on his psyche was growing and he began thinking about retirement strategies. The economic downturn that followed the Ourai uprising of 1102, though, forced him to abandon his plans yet again.
Bigby took another economic hit when the Dark Mage's undead army raged through the city in December of 1104. And then, the following summer, Edane fell ill and Bigby spent much of his time caring for her. When she finally passed away in the spring of 1106, Bigby's relief triggered intense guilt and depression.
During these dark years, Bigby had never fully given up on his desire to be a wizard and had been studying on his own in his spare time. The setbacks of the last few years were disappointments, but when he found himself truly alone in the summer of 1106, he turned to his studies for salvation.
Business at his shop picked up, and without the added expense of caring for his mother, Bigby soon found himself with enough savings to close the shop for a month and take an exotic vacation.
It was his first time out of the city since he was a teenager.
He hasn't been back since.
Bibgy believes that he can extend Melf's Guidance of Symmetry (of the elements and positive and negative energy), with that of the ethicants (Law and Chaos). The operating theory which led him to this decision is the large volume of insanity found in Wizards of great power. He is widely ridiculed for these ideas, and had them disproved on several occasions. This does not seem to dissuade him overmuch, as he now seems to be a creature of Chaos itself, which to him is both a boon and a bane. The ability of his good friend Roderick to wield similar powers to his without being considered insane,and the orderly mindset of Kesi both intrigue him,and will be added to his great Treatise on the Octect of True Balance. No one believes this, and his sanity is often questioned, even when he's right (see numerological calculations post-Godsland-return)