Magri was born in Mouldtown, the third-eldest of brothel-owner Iasmin el Sabine's thirteen children and one of only three of them to survive into adulthood (his surviving siblings being bar owner and retired adventurer Ashraiah and priestess Nenet.) Upon his mother's death when he was seventeen, she was handed over to Crocodilid mob boss Hayk-ebasa-ged'wen in order to upkeep a deal about drug debt, and was forced to work as a legbreaker, a situation which left an already psychologically scarred Magri with severe trust issues and sociopathic tendencies.
During his time, Magri was partnered with Kadar Rachid, who at the time also worked for Hayk. While they originally were at loggerheads with each other, culminating in a fistfight in the street between the two following an assignment that ended with Magri burning down a house with innocent children inside out of pure spite (the house was the home of Ash's biological father and Magri was enraged that his legitimate children were living a happy life of relative comfort while Ash was not), Kadar helped Magri to see that Hayk might own his body but didn't own his spirit, giving Magri the resolve to push back against him. Together they helped Nenet out from Hayk's control, though Magri was discovered before they could rescue Ash. Kadar fled, with Magri taking the blame; his punishment was having his cheeks split with a shovel blade and then being beaten to a pulp by Hayk's goons. The now characteristic scars and resulting unnaturally wide grin added something of a lupine element to his appearance, only making him more terrifying to those he goes after.
Further disillusioned by this, Magri deliberately botched his next assignment for Hayk and allowed himself to get arrested, giving the Person Removal Union everything he knew about Hayk's operation in exchange for being put under their protection. After having evidence of his skills, Magri was rehabilitated and put to work as a field agent and assassin for the Union partnered with Kor-au-k'onijo-tenagarī, a role in which he has proven to excel despite his unorthodox methods, loudmouthed and violent demeanour and distrust for others regularly getting in the way. In civilian attire, he acts to be Kor-au's bodyguard as she travels playing music as a concert violinist. The two are also in the habit of regularly having sex with each other, though there is no actual romantic interest between the two of them, at least on the surface.