Gau Ban
Gau Ban's origins differ slightly between the OAV and anime.
In the anime, bandits attacked him home village when he was nine years old, slaughtering everyone, including Gau's parents. Over the next year, Gau exercised guerrilla-style attacks against the bandits for revenge. He eventually encounters Elle on the road by chance.
In the OAV, Gau is ten when the attack occurs. Seeing his parents murdered in front of him, Gau snaps and attacks the bandits. He kills most of them, but then his luck runs out. Elle shows up before he himself is killed, and finishes off the remaining bandits.
Since Gau is the only survivor of his village, Elle asked him, "Do you want to be strong?" and takes him with her when he answers yes. Originally, Gau only intended to follow Elle in order to steal all her money and discover the source of her powers. After some time, however, Gau came to care for Elle like an older sister.
Over the years, Gau has trained side by side with Elle in an effort to become strong. With his dedication and signs of promise, he quickly catches the attention of the 57th Sevalle, Scarface, who decides to help Gau improve, albeit only indirectly. Many incidents that Gau encounters are in some way or another engineered by Scarface, for the purpose of driving him to improve and become stronger.
He also catches the love-interest of Kyuo Lyu, however Gau is completely oblivious to her intentions. In an ironic turn of events, Scrib Lowengren, King Iba Sutra's apprentice in Open Skills and effectively Gau's counterpart in the race to become the next Sevalle, falls in love with Kyuo at first sight. A love triangle instantly develops, and so both Lowe and Gau become rivals in more ways than one.
The two of them battle each other several times, Gau eventually coming out the overall victor. In respect, Lowe gives Gau his earrings, which Gau wears during his most important battles.
During Solfan's initial invasion into Ashlianna, Gau is assigned by Scarface to protect Diaz Ragu, Gau's adopted older brother via Elle, and who Gau already considers to be a older brother figure to him. While this decision is tactically sound, Scarface is also testing Gau so that he will become stronger; Solfan itself desires to use the town of Blorahan, where Diaz lives, as a staging point, as well as Diaz' skills as a weapons crafter.
During what later becomes known as the Lightning Battle, Gau is given the Black Wing boomerang by Diaz to use, and so creates the nickname for himself, "Black Howling". During the other fights that come, Gau successfully defeats every opponent that came his way, including G, the insane former 58th Sevalle who had betrayed Kuruda and later sides with the Solfan forces.
