Daniel is the larcenous black sheep of the Nockleys, a local clan that seems to possess at least some magically gifted members: the talent runs in the blood, and Daniel is now a wizard quite probably worthy of the White Council (technically if not ethically). Perhaps more significantly, the Nockleys also had the wherewithal to not only acquire an artifact worthy of Absersnikity’s attention, but possess enough of an idea of the significance of that to refuse to sell to him at any price.

It is Absersnikity’s chosen method of acquiring that artifact, an amulet, that stands between Daniel and the Nockley clan to this day: Daniel played on ties of blood to gain access to the amulet while it was kept by his uncle, then betrayed those same ties and stole it.

What significance the amulet may have had, Daniel does not know. However, either for the amulet itself or the symbolic significance of the betrayal, Abersnikity rewarded Daniel with a deadly Spirit focus, the Silver Needle.

In addition to the obvious barrier this poses to any reconciliation between Daniel and his family, a second, more subtle bar exists: for some reason, the Nockleys never told Daniel of any other world lurking behind the mundane everyday, nor about his own potential power. It was left to the Gnome to draw back that curtain and suggest to the impressionable young Daniel the potential he contained. What’s more, unlike many young would-be practitioners, his power never manifested until he met his mentor.

To Daniel, the explanation appears clear: the Nockleys sought to deny him his birthright. They locked his power away, kept him ignorant, and would have left him that way indefinitely if the Gnome had not intervened. He does not know why, but finds it difficult to believe that their reasons could have been adequate for this betrayal. His anger, and his shame over his own treachery, has prevented him from asking.

Seven years on, the wounds continue to fester.

Before going to work for The Gnome, Daniel was a student at OCC; prior to that, another bullied local high schooler. Bullies continue to hold a special place in Daniel’s distaste for humanity in general and Bremerton residents in particular, and people (or beings) that strike him this way are apt to receive a particularly vicious reprisal if Daniel thinks he can get away with it.

His introduction to other characters has generally been “on the job”: Theo and Maria after accidentally venturing into the Nevernever early in his career; Theo again, under more controlled circumstances, when the curmudgeonly ghost-talker needed help solving his father’s disappearance; Nefi when a nest of supernatural nasties managed to set up camp right on a key portion of the city’s arcane superstructure, requiring someone to stabilize the carefully-balanced weave while the beasties were dealt with.

… And, more recently, the Warden-trainee Vivian, during a hunt for a Red Court vampire and the Outsider lore it was pursuing.

About the only friend Daniel has that he didn’t meet on the job was Avery Quinn, whom Daniel has known since childhood. Their families are on good terms, and Daniel was therefore already familiar with Avery when the younger man became involved with the Gnome. Since, even though Avery lacks both Daniel’s close bond to the Gnome and his darkened view of humanity, the two have shared a bond of shared fascination with the arcane, and of friendship. For a long time, Avery was the only person against whom Daniel did not maintain a mental ledger of favors done and received. More recently, Nefi has acquired a similar status.