Merin was born on Dread Mountain and lived there with the other Kin. However, one day the Dread Gnomes who also inhabited the mountain began to coat their arrows in poison provided by the Ooze Toad Gellick. This venom was fast acting, and killed with even the smallest of contact. This allowed the Dread Gnomes to kill off hundred of Kin until the few survivors banded together and fled to their winter home at the Dreaming Spring and use its water to view the mountain in their dreams. However, they could not thrive at the spring because they required the cones of the Boolong trees to breed.