As the story goes, Ollie was born in the genetics lab at BioDyne Industries. He was set free by the kindly Dr. Lanz, and ended up growing up on the street, in a world mostly populated by humans. Throughout his career, he was adopted by various groups of superheroes and secret spy agencies (hey, we were kids), fought the evil Dr. Raze, visited alien planets, travelled through time, and did all the sort of stuff I wish I could have done as a kid.
"Man, my girlfriend was just run over by that big black getaway car. And if I'm not mistaken, that big black getaway car was getting away from that drive-by shooting just up the block, where that girl you were with was shot. Don't you find that to be an amazing coincidence?"
Ollie's abilities are limited. He knows some basic martial arts, and has very acute hearing and touch. He also has rather uncanny luck. Because he was often stuck with superhero partners (none of whom he took seriously), or matched against supervillian enemies (all of whom he made fun of), he was forced to rely on cunning, and a high mental affinity to survive. He also used big automatic pistols, one in each paw.
Unlike Ollie, Lairu was a slightly more serious concept developed during the first Rym campaign. Once little more than a work slave of the orcish nation, he led his tribe to freedom after decades of oppression and cruelty. His tribe gave him the name 'Hurricane', a symbol of destructive change in a dark and hopeless time for the lutrai. Adopting the ancient code of Kij's order of paladins, the Solinar, Hurricane left his tribe to join the battle against the world-devouring Eater.
"Praise Kij for seeing us through another day, and for the many days to come. May she, in her wisdom, grant us the strength to really kick ass here today, because we're gonna need it."
Like most paladins, Hurricane is a healer as well as a warrior. He is kind-hearted despite the horrors he faces on a regular basis, and forgiving to a fault. Unlike most of his kind, Hurricane is exceptionally clumsy and graceless, relying on sheer physical strength and stamina to see him through.