Volka was born to parents living in an illicit poaching settlement just inside the Apostatic Caldera. The settlement trafficed in the rare lumber, meat and hide of the flora and fauna unique to the caldera. As soon as Volka was old enough to walk around on her own she was out help her father log, hunt and forage the wilderness for whatever could be fenced.

Her parents became aware of her Nostratic abilities at a young age. Rightfully fearing for her safety, they instructed her to hide what she could hear and do. Even if she seemed to be alone, the risk of discovery was too great. Meanwhile they quietly started putting away money to send her to a university in the Republic of Folliskog where she could try to learn about her abilities and how to control them under the guise of becoming a scholar; The University would have archival copies of old banned nostratic texts and she could read them on the basis of historical research.

Everyone working in the caldera learns how to navigate interacting with the many aberrant species living in the deep forests, but Volka in particular always had an affinity for them. She would frequently hike out and just sit quietly in the forest and observe