Gwen was born and raised in Delverne as the youngest daughter of a large and loving light elf family. Her parents, both supportive and retiring  people, raised all their children with a gentle hand and encouraged them grow into whatever they wished to be. With the strict traditions and expectations of their surrounding society already providing more than  enough direction for them, this overall worked out to be a good balance and all of Gwen's siblings grew into healthy, content and independent  adults with a strong sense of filial piety. Gwen herself grew up like this too, to an extent, but for whatever reason, Delvan society failed  to make an impression on her. Her behaviour and interests deviated wildly from the norm and, though this became clear at a very young age,  her parents did not have it in them to force their daughter onto  'better' paths. Thus Gwen was left to chase her desires with unrestricted abandon, which she blissfully did. After some time, Gwen's siblings, who were somewhat less soft than their parents, tried to school their sister into becoming a more 'normal' and respectable person, but all their attempts failed in the face of her unstoppable eccentricity and lack of caring.

Eventually, they all grew a bit resentful and avoidant of Gwen, finding her both embarrassing and ungrateful to their otherwise very well-reputed family. Gwen's parents continued to love her dearly, though they did sincerely worry about her  bizarreness, strange obsessions and general disregard of proper, worldly things (like advancing her class, getting a job or finding a partner). After letting Gwen live at home and pursue her fickle interests for 50-odd years, her parents finally, gently kicked her out a few years ago, telling her it was time she learnt to live on her own.

Gwen, never really put off by anything, took to this happily enough and moved to Miras, where she found a small apartment to live in. Due to her lack of useful skills and education, she worked many part-time cleaning jobs to cover her rent and food (or just her rent, if there wasn't enough for food), particularly window washing, gutter cleaning and any other unpleasant outdoor job that her fellow cleaners don't want to do. Mirian government support, trash-digging and gleaning restaurant leftovers also helped her get by, and often ended up very necessary due to her  blowing her income on impulse buys and hobbies. Like always though, Gwen  didn't mind any of this at all, and cheerfully scraped out her shaky living like this.