Oh, they come in many shapes and sizes and temperaments, much like they do in most worlds, I'd imagine. And some led hard lives, but many did not. Some had pleasant, unremarkable childhoods. Some were orphans. Some had to contend with cruel step parents, witches, lost parents, powerful curses... But it was different, once:

When I was much younger, long before many people I know alive now were born, there were wars to be fought. The Ogre Wars. When over the years the tide would not turn, when times were their most desperate and miserable, the soldiers made it all the worse when they began to forcibly take children from the poorer villages to serve on the front lines.

[He speaks in a very slow, controlled tone, choosing his words carefully so as not to give too much away, but to still make the message clear]