Arcansas is a Dunmer of Vvardenfell, recently shipped off to the Imperial City Prison after false claims that he was the reincarnation of Saint Nerevar, the Nerevarine. This is the second time he has been in the Imperial City Prison, having been taken from there to Vvardenfell to try and fulfill the Nerevarine prophecies, and now having been taken back after failing. He is so named Arcansas by his Redguard mother. He has never known his father, who supposedly fled to escape the responsibility of his wife and their child, instead choosing to become an assassin of the Morag Tong.
Not knowing any other name than Arcansas, he somehow had the good fortune to leave the Imperial City Prison with the company of the Emperor himself, assassins of the Mythic Dawn, and the Emperor's bodyguards, the Blades. When the Emperor was killed by the Mythic Dawn assassins, Arcansas was instructed to find Jauffre, the Guildmaster of the Blades, and with his help, find the illegitimate heir to the Septim throne. He agreed, but he would not actually do so until he became the greatest warrior in Tamriel first.