Cyril grew up in the heart of a shallow reef trade outpost. While he was taught the typical trades of Athamaru, such as coral and pearl collection, he was much more interested in terrestrial offerings. The community found his interests odd, but he was accepted nonetheless. Cyril hung out around ships anchored around the outpost whenever he could and begged the terrestrials aboard to let him travel with them, which they usually laughed off. Years later, as a teenager, Cyril finally set off for the surface on their own, on a self-ordained mission to find terrestrial treasures never seen before. Cyril surfaced at a port-side fishing town and immediately went ashore. He found the town interesting but was much more interested in the forest surrounding the town's less-developed outskirts. He wandered the countryside and became a nuisance to those who resided there; farmers would wake up to find him sleeping on straw bales, trudging through their fields, and even helping himself to produce from their gardens. They ushered the out-of-place Athamaru away, which made Cyril realize that, on the surface, he had to work to live. He reluctantly took a job on a fishing vessel as it was the only place that would take him, with the proprietors assuming Cyril would be knowledgeable of the ocean and, therefore, beneficial to have aboard. Unfortunately for his boss, Cyril didn't have an innate love for the sea. He'd spent his whole life underwater, so seeing more of the water wasn't something he cared for. He worked with bare minimum enthusiasm, only doing it to afford a place to live. Cyril hated working on the ship, so whenever he had time off, he took full advantage of it and spent days at a time in the woods. In the forest, he discovered his love for bugs. Cyril found insects to be completely different from other terrestrial animals, and the seemingly unlimited variety of them kept his attention. He dedicated himself to learning more about insects: he bought encyclopedias, studied them in the wild, and caught them with a homemade bug net. Always doing his best to respect nature, Cyril released any bugs he caught – unless he managed to befriend them, in which case he stowed them away in his jacket pockets or in elaborate terrariums at home. As years passed, he spent more time adventuring and worked fewer shifts. Eventually, he stopped going to work altogether without as much as a warning. He became a part of the rather small bug-catcher scene in town, where he made a couple of friends. Cyril's entire life revolved around catching, pinning, and trading bugs, until one day he returned to the forest to find that much of it had been destroyed in a logging operation. For months, Cyril was a full-on emotional wreck as he mourned the loss of the ecosystem. His mourning lasted until, in the middle of another restless night, he had a vision of a fiery spirit that told him the world is coming to an end. It insisted that ruin will befall the entire world just as it did the forest. The spirit disappeared before Cyril managed to get in a word of his own, leaving him alone to fret. After several more days of inaction, Cyril decided that if the world would be ruined like the forest, he should find a way to preserve as much insect life as possible. After confiding in books by certain conspiracy-minded authors, he determined his best course of action was to dig a vast underground bunker where he could ride out the end of the world and preserve his terrariums. Cyril began digging below his downtown home right away, spending years carving out a tunnel system that linked several large rooms. With no idea he needed to consider the structural integrity of the tunnels, they eventually collapsed, causing Cyril's home, nearby buildings, and roads to all cave in. It didn't take long for the townsfolk to determine he was responsible for ruining their homes. They chased him down, where he pleaded with the (understandably) angry townspeople. He told them about the spirit and the coming end of the world, but the townspeople were not swayed by his argument. They drove him out of town, forcing him to leave many of his belongings – and bug friends – behind. Homeless and alone, Cyril remained more worried about digging his bunker than he was about meeting his basic needs. He traveled from place to place, starting to dig new bunkers, before always being stopped for one reason or another. By the time the world began to crumble, he was only just beginning to excavate a new home.