He is an intelligent gentle giant that was orphaned at a very young age by poachers. Okja was unharmed yet left all alone to fend for himself, until he stumbled upon and was taken in by a clan of gentle Mystics who raised him as their own deep in the mountains. He is unpredictable to those he feels are a threat and appears to be untamable. He was captured and sent overseas to be sold to the rich as a mount or carriage tokota but the ship sank in a storm during the voyage and he ended up stranded on a island with a boy who had set him free so he didn't face the same fate as the ship. They spent months on that island and soon the boy and the Dire became bonded and spent their days galloping through the incoming tides with the boy on his back until their rescue.