Roderick's a young 20-something Bosmer born in Solstheim. Due to this, the climate and culture of Skyrim is not that alien to him. He was born on the 8th of Heartfire (Nocturnal's summoniong day), which may explain his natural ability to be sneaky, even when he's not trying.
He ended up prving to be a decent scout for the native Nords during their hunting trips. Right around the turn of the century, he went to Cyrodiil to train more in the arts of scouting in the imperial city, which was still recovering from the war. As he grew up in the tundra of Solstheim (and the fact that Cyrodiil was a mess), he hated the sity and headed back home. However, on thew way back he was arrested by a group of racist guardsmen who were anti-altmer and bosmer and thrown into the imperial prison. The two other elves there, an altmer mage and a bosmer theif, helped him escape. The three of them fled to Skyrim to get away from the corrupt guards who were only out to arrest thalmor (word is the thalmor found out about them and punished them severely). Once they crossed the border, the altmer left and the bosmer offered to take Roderick to Morrowind, where he could get a boat back to Solstheim. They followed along the path and met up with a group of Nords escorting a well-dressed man. The other bosmer approached the group simply to ask directions to the nearest port, but at that moment a Nord theif started to try to steal her horse. Roderick yelled at the theif to stop, but the entire group was surrounded by the legion. After a brief bit of fighting where a few stormcloaks and the bosmer woman were killed, Ulfric called everyone to surrender. Roderick was taken hostage along with the horse theif and the remaining stormcloaks and brought to Helgen...