Description
Hair - that's the first impression, most of the time, when catching sight of Illyas. He's certainly got quite a bit of it: a thick mop of brown-black curls, covering his neck to the shoulders and hiding his forehead from sight. The features the thicket frames are generally unobjectionable: warm brown eyes, barely visible eyebrows, an affable mouth, and a nose that is large but well-formed. The broad, square set of the face around them precludes him from being handsome, precisely - though he can comfortably claim a certain boyish charm. The body attached to hair and face is nothing particularly remarkable: a ropily athletic young man, maybe a tich underfed, he is none too tall at 5'7", with a tan complexion deepened several shades by sun. A manual laborer's thick calluses line his fingers and palms.
There's an elderly feel to his clothing, not quite threadbare but certainly none too far from belonging in the rag heap. Shades of brown are dominant: a loose leather vest, left undyed, over a pale tan shirt, russet-colored trousers, and dark brown boots. The only variation in color comes from a jangled bunch of hemp bracelets over his left hand, the hemp and the beads woven within covering a wide spectrum of colors. Though not… precisely… dirty, there's a hint of grass stains and road dust, visible here and there. No knot resides on his shoulder, though an unbleached splotch on the vest suggests one may have, until relatively recently, existed.
History
Ilyas was trouble from the start: he came into the world the illegitimate son of a previously respectable holder's daughter, end result of an ill-considered tryst. With his father Cirsh a constant traveler of highly dubious profession - and quite uninterested in marriage, besides - Filya opted to foster her son out as soon as he was weened: though not an unaffectionate parent, she was still nearly a child herself, and unprepared for parenting. Her aunt Alaka and uncle Lhim at nearby Lemos Hold would suit, so it was with them that Ilyas was deposited shortly after his second turnday.
By the time he had reached his pre-teens, they were starting to regret their generosity. Ilyas was a constant troublemaker, without the courtesy of even being cute about it. A lazy and self-centered child, he was a routine skipper of Harper lessons, and an even more routine shirker of chores. Once he was old enough to understand the bare bones of his background, he irritated his family by being fascinated by his father, whose rambling lifestyle and troublesome reputation seemed extremely glamorous to a young boy. Cirsh made matters worse by making occasional appearances at Lemos (after, Filya's family cynically observed, the girl he had gotten into trouble had given up on trying to get him to marry her), when he would indulgently allow his offspring to tag along. Compared to the well-intentioned strict scheduling of his foster parents, Cirsh's nomadic lifestyle as a gambler and petty trader seemed amazing.
He was shuffled off to the Woodcraft as soon as he was old enough to apprentice, with his foster family hoping a craft would give him the structure he needed. In some ways, it was a good pick for him: he enjoyed working with his hands and having something to show for it at the end of the day, and the labor involved plenty of time out of doors, in the forested surroundings he loved. Despite this, though, Ilyas' personality flaws were often on display. He chafed under the restrictions and structuring of apprenticeship, skirting the edge of being kicked out on several occasions.
Only sevendays before a long-promised promotion to senior apprentice was going to occur, a message from his father arrived, unexpectedly bearing an invitation to join him. Acting on impulse, the boy was out and away from the apprentice dorms like a shot, abandoning his good prospects with great cheer.
The experience of joining his father proved far less exhilarating than expected, however. Far from the romantic figure Ilyas had supposed him to be, actually living with Cirsh turned up the fact that the man was just as inclined to rules and discipline as his foster parents and masters had been. They were different rules, to be sure, but life on the road proved to be just as much work as the Woodcraft had been, and with less guarantee of a warm supper at the end of it.
So he didn't stick with that, either.
Two months' meandering travel on his own led to him ending up on a ship bound for Xanadu Weyr. Out of marks and ready to take a break, he's wrangled a job as a woodsman. Of course, he doesn't intend to stay for long: just enough to put a few pounds onto his ribs and his markpouch.
Family
| Name | Relation | Location | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cirsh (NPC) | Father | Unknown | Traveler |
| Filya (NPC) | Mother | Lemos Area | Holder's Daughter |
| Lhim (NPC) | Great-Uncle | Lemos Hold | Hold Worker |
| Alaka (NPC) | Great-Aunt | Lemos Hold | Cook |