Santiago grew up in the slums of Desolation as an orphan, becoming a ward of the state after his mother, the widow of a fallen Imperial Marine, died soon after childbirth, having had just enough time to name him. Due to the abundance of orphans in that particular part of the city, he ended up staying as a ward of the state with little to no chance of being taken in by a foster family. So at a young age, he began to wander away from the orphanage at any chance he had, often picking fights with anyone he came across.
He quickly began to make a name for himself as a problem child, and earned the nickname 'Spaniard' from the other kids, despite the fact that his family hadn't set foot on Spain for more than a century. He embraced the nickname as well as his reputation, and at the age of 12, he was quickly sought out by a local gang, the Iron Skulls, in hopes he would join their ranks. It didn't take him long to think about it, joining eagerly out of a sense of arrogance and adventure.
While he started off as a simple errand runner and pickpocket, managing to just avoid getting caught by the skin of his teeth several times, he worked his way up the gangs ranks before becoming one of the top Lieutenants, alongside four of his closest friends, as well as becoming rather handy with a knife. They often caused the most trouble against the upper classes, railing against the Empire, and those that served it as oppressive lap-dogs, though Santiago occasionally disagreed.
It was shortly after his 19th birthday that he met the girl that he would come to love: Sophia Lange, the daughter of one of the Priests that held mass in the upper districts in Desolation. He met her while wandering the markets, having gotten into a particularly drawn out brawl the day before, and she took notice of his bruises as he passed by. Since she was both kind and pretty, Santiago didn't begrudge her a bit when she insisted that he be treated. As she bandaged him, they spoke, and while she had her suspicions about him, he had managed to charm her enough to get her to agree to dinner. For a few weeks they would have a get together, be it dinner, lunch, or simply spending time in the classier parts of the city, with Santiago becoming more and more infatuated with her after every meeting, though he kept his relationship with her a secret from the gang, while at the same time keeping what he did as an Iron Skull as much of a secret from her as he could.
It wasn't long before she found out, and confronted him about it. When she did, he didn't deny it, and told her everything. She was disappointed, saddened, and angry, then told him that if they were going to be together, he would have to move away from his life in the slums and become an honest, hard-working man, because she wouldn't be able to justify being in a relationship with a thug and a thief.
It was after a few moments that he agreed, and decided to cut all ties with his friends, and the 'family' he had made with his fellow Skulls. He applied for a job in one of the local clinics, knowing that they were often overworked and could afford all the help they could get. While times had gotten harder for him, he decided it was worth it so long as he was still together with Sophia. For almost a year, he was happy, despite the terror of having to meet her father, the Priest, and the looks of betrayal from his former friends whenever they rarely passed him on the street. He bought her what gifts her could, including a small, silver cross using several weeks of his saved wages, and he knew it was worth it by the look on her face.
Then Sophia had gone missing. After the first day, Santiago was only concerned, but after the second, he started to panic, going to her father in hopes that he would know what happened to her, and where she was. She was found the third day, naked, bloodied and brutalized in a filthy alley, still wearing the small silver cross he had given her. She had been raped, and murdered.
For two weeks, he mourned with her father, clutching at the cross all the while. When he finally left their house to return to the clinic where he worked, he was approached by his closest friends, the other Lieutenants of the Iron Skulls. They told him what they did to her, in detail, telling him that he shouldn't have abandoned his real friends for some Christian whore. Santiago couldn't control himself when he abruptly took one of their own knives from them, and brutally cut them all down, while earning himself a few nasty wounds of his own. As they lay dead on the street, he was rapidly bleeding out himself before one of his co-workers noticed him and dragged him inside to be treated. It didn't take long for Sophia's father to get word of his wounds before rushing over to see what had happened. When Santiago regained consciousness, a combination of guilt from both his murders, and the feeling of responsibility behind Sophia's death had him telling her father everything.
Despite the fact that he hadn't known him long, her father knew that Santiago had been in love with his daughter, and had tried to turn around. He could understand why Santiago had killed those men, and he felt responsible for him, seeing as Santiago was all he had, so he took him in in the hopes of nursing him back to health, in both body and spirit.
Due to his guilt, Santiago had little will to keep going, but it was thanks to Sophia's father that he did. It was his determination, kindness, and conviction in doing what was right that inspired him to truly turn his life around, so he had asked him to help teach him, to guide him into being a Priest, in the hopes of both redemption, and becoming a better man. The Priest was taken aback, and it took a week of insistence before he finally gave an answer. At the age of 21, he had finally recovered and was flung headfirst into study, with Sophia's father being a surprisingly hard teacher. But he learned. And he changed.
He embraced the lifestyle of a priest surprisingly well, seeing it not only as personal improvement, but also as a form of penance for his myriad of crimes, and to soothe the hard ball of guilt in his belly. It took several years before he was finally made a member of the Clergy, and his first step after that was to help Sophia's Father in his own church. It wasn't long after that that he decided to go his own way. Since churches in the Change Cage cities were becoming more and more unpopular, members of the Clergy had to go where they were needed, and he had heard rumors that there was a surprising few that would volunteer to go aboard Imperial Ships-of-the-Line to minister to Naval Officers and Marines.
After telling the Priest of his plans, he had wished him luck, before Santiago went to apply for a position on a ship. Some time later, he had been accepted, specifically aboard the HMS Kingmaker. For the next 9 years, he would spend time aboard IAN Vessels, getting to know their crews and doing what work he could to help them, either spiritually or simply with shipboard duties, before transferring to the next.
But it was aboard the HMS Dauntless that put a stop to that cycle. He had been stationed aboard it for several months, and during that time it had been attacked by pirates twice as often as any other ship he had been on. It was on the way for repairs and refitting when it was attacked once more by the pirate vessel Hell's Harbinger. In the attack, he had been captured along with several other officers while the rest of the crew were slaughtered, and the ship blown to pieces due to being too damaged to be worth salvage. Hell's Harbinger hadn't even taken much in the way of damage. After he was captured, he was promptly hogtied and tossed into the brig, likely to be left to rot unless they found a use for him.
