Ilias cel Frumos ("the Beautiful") was a Tzimisce Sinner and koldun during the Dark Ages, and a lover to Myca Vykos.
Biography[]
Ilias "the Beautiful" explodes many of the myths of the Tzimisce as a cold, unfeeling, monstrous clan. He laughs freely and with genuine pleasure, enjoys the company of mortals whom he appears to genuinely value, and displays no calculating behavior or greed for domain whatsoever. He seeks no advantage over his fellow Cainites beyond the hospitality of a good host, and the willingness of those whom he aids to foster the survival and regrowth of the "old faith". A priest of the pagan god Jarilo, he takes his duties as a minister to the kine quite seriously, and like many of his brothers and sisters among the traditional kolduns, he has melded his religious devotion and pursuit of sorcery into a harmonious whole.
Seed of the Eldest[]
While visiting the haven of teraboste Damek Ruthven, Ilias stumbled upon a long colonnade of stone and wooden columns that led down from a threshold, widening into an enormous circle at its far end. Standing in the middle of that circle was a tree – a massive, wide-spreading tree, a true grandfather of the forest, still in leaf despite the winter, the wind hissing softly through its branches with a sound like distant whispers. Ilias almost thought he heard a voice in it.
He instinctively knew a god dwelt there, or a being close enough to divinity that the differences hardly mattered. Ilias experienced the sensation of walking down to the tree distantly, nearly outside of himself. He knelt among the roots of the tree, the ground filled with fallen leaves that smelled like dried blood. The bark was warm to the touch and felt like skin.
Ilias laid himself against its bole and the god welled up within it – welled up within him – like sap rising with the spring. He felt it touching him from within, moving in his blood and soul, running its fingers through his thoughts. Then, it spoke, softly, urgently, the same voice he had heard in his dreams. The same voice, and the same unfathomable tongue, the same sense of insistence, of an urgency so strong it was nearly fear. He begged it, silently, to make what it needed of him clearer. But it did not seem to know how. When the god-tree released him, Ilias was left with a small crimson seed, which he kept closely.
He ultimately ate the seed when his coterie was confronted with the methuselah Dracon. After making use of the seed Ilias was possessed by the Tzimisce Antediluvian in a Obertus Monastery in the outskirts of the city of Brașov in the Carpathian Mountains. His body was used to destroy Markus Musa Giovanni and to impart the young Tzimisce Myca Vykos with the dragon-seed of his ancestor. Ilias' body could not withstand the force of the being that had spoken and acted through him and dissolved itself into fine ash.
V20 Timeline[]
Beckett's Jyhad Diary states that Ilias survived possession of the Eldest (or was restored by him). Since the Camarilla took control over New York, he has posed as the Toreador Elias Athanasios. He is now the patron of an exclusive gallery containing Kindred artifacts and memorabilia. Some of these objects were wheedled from the private collections of politically and socially significant Kindred as donations to the cause of increased awareness of their shared past. Some are new creations of Kindred artists inspired by modern artistic modes and sensibilities. More than a few are actually artifact of power and significance belonging to the traditions of Kindred blood magic that predate Tremere thaumaturgy by thousands of years. This fact is not lost on either Athanasios or on the residents of the Chantry of the Five Boroughs.
Appearance[]
Ilias is a very beautiful young man with a sharp chin and high cheekbones. Eyes of such a lively brown as to appear a fiery auburn gaze about him with gentle amusement, and a cascade of long, thick red-gold hair flows loosely across his shoulders. He dresses sensibly for the road, but the quality of the cloth and thread is fine.
Character Sheet[]
Gallery[]
