Temperance was born on Aerilon, the only girl in an extremely large mining family. Though they had a small farm, a house, all seven of her brothers, her father, and her uncles worked the mines to make ends meet. Temperance stayed with her mom, helping with everything as soon as she was old enough. All the cooking, the cleaning, the farm chores - everything that needed to be done so that their family and homestead functioned smoothly, she did.
When she was ten, the priest from the local temple came by for a visit. Her father was faithful every week, and the priest knew the family was struggling. Temperance had never attended a service, because she'd never been allowed to. But when the priest sat down and started talking to her, he knew that there was more to her than boiling potatoes and mending socks. After a few years of pushing her father to enroll her in school, and her father pushing her mother, she was finally allowed to attend. She caught up quickly, and by the time she finished, the priest and her father had come together with a plan, which they presented to her and her mother one night. Temperance would attend CFA, get a degree, and then work off the debt from that with a few years of military service. It was her only chance to get a degree, and she took it without hesitation.
Once at school, she couldn't stop thinking about the family and people she'd left behind. She changed her major to Political Science, intending to eventually get her master's and change the political and social climate surrounding everyone she loves.
When she graduated from CFA, she got her first posting and signed her contract for four years. She carries all the guilt around from leaving everyone behind in that hellhole, and it's only going to get worse when the Cylons come.
