Red Sonja lived with her family in a humble home in the Western
Hyrkanian steppes. When she had just turned 17 years old, a group of
cruel mercenaries killed her father, her mother and two younger
brothers and burned their house and all their possessions. She survived
but at the cost of her own virginity after she was brutally raped by
the leader of the group, leaving her in shame. Answering her cry for
revenge, the red Goddess Scathach appeared to her, and instilled in her
incredible skill in the handling of swords and other weapons on the
condition that she would never lay with a man unless he defeated her in
fair combat.