if their hearts, they don't change before long

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Elias Ainsworth
CANON: The Ancient Magus’ Bride
AGE: Unknown; at the very least 300 years, though possibly much older
APPEARANCE: Variable. He typically takes this humanoid form, though he can also create illusions over himself so to look purely human as well—he’s taken both older and younger likenesses, patterned after humans he knows. In addition to magical glamours, he can also take his “true” form, which is much more monstrous in appearance. Finally, he has a canine-like form he uses occasionally.
CANON POINT: After being awoken in Ch. 32

BACKGROUND:“My master told me about a mage. Someone who could have walked out of a fairy tale. Someone who might help or harm, as the mood took him. An incomplete thing—a beast that enjoyed playing at being human.”
The world of The Ancient Magus’ Bride closely mirrors our own but for the fact that magic is a very real and pervasive form of energy throughout the globe, described as the “life-blood of existence itself.” In addition, fairy-tale creatures are just as real as the people telling the stories about them (even though the details in those stories might not be completely accurate). Though it doesn’t affect most of the human race that go about their day-to-day lives, there are a select few who are gifted with magical power and the “sight” to be able to see these fae “neighbors,” and even bond with them and borrow their magical ability to create “miracles” that can alter the very laws of nature. Throughout the centuries, as technology has been becoming more integral to everyday life, children with magical gifts have been becoming more and more sparse, and mages and the fae alike have been noticing the growing rift between the core of humanity and the other creatures that live alongside them.

In a word of these creatures, Elias refers to himself as a “half-baked thing, neither human nor fae,” and even he himself has no idea where he came from or for what purpose. The first thing he remembered was coming to his senses in a snowy forest in Europe, soon meeting a wandering mage named Lindel who would become his mentor and friend. Before then he says he remembers nothing but the color red, and a sense that he might’ve preyed on humans.

After meeting Lindel he began to learn more about magic and living among humans—though usually at quite a distance. After several years he and Lindel split ways and Elias ventured to England, a land of old magic, where he could live in solitude and peace. He remained solitary and reclusive, though occasionally leaving to do small errands to further his erudite pursuits. He would also create medicine to aid the nearby denizens of the countryside and occasionally do tasks relating to the magical world that the church asked him to (in return, they would “turn a blind eye” to his living there).

At the start of the story, he travels to a black market auction where he purchases a girl named Chise, a sleigh beggy (a human with an abnormal ability to absorb enormous amounts of energy), with the intent to raise her as an apprentice but also to keep her around to study her and attempt to further understand human emotion—as well as try to find a way to save her from her condition, as, due to what she is, she would only naturally live three or four more years. And there’s also that he says he plans on making her his bride, but… how serious he is about that or how much he knows about what that actually entails is kind of up for debate.

At his current canon-point, he and Chise have faced many dangers and wonders, each learning more about magic and what it means to be human (with plenty of confusion and errors along the way).

PERSONALITY: Elias is a fascinating contradiction, a juxtaposition of the maturities of an ancient sage and a naïve child. He can seem very aloof and erudite on first impressions, holding himself with an air of distinction and speaking in a way that seems to mark him from a slightly different time. Intellectually, he is very confident and has a strong ability of critical thinking to quickly solve problems, learning and adapting quickly to new situations. He is knowledgeable enough in the field of magic to provide decent enough instruction on it (when he actually makes the effort to teach). Throughout the series he is shown reading and continuing to check in on things that interest him, showing that magic is something he sees as a constant pursuit, and that he is unwilling to rest on his laurels as an accomplished mage of many centuries’ living.

By nature, Elias is reclusive and avoids social interaction, particularly with humans. He remarks that for centuries he found them to be hassles and annoyances. Often when chanced upon by one he will hide on someone’s shadow or glamour himself into a human so to do whatever he can to hasten the conversation to its end. When forced into conversation it’s plain to see why he tends to avoid it—he can come off as “wooden” to new acquaintances due to either lack of emotion or by feigning it, and he can be downright prickly to people he knows better (even individuals he might call “friend”). He seems to be on his best behavior around Chise, however—she reiterates several times that she feels she has no reason to fear him or dislike his company. This kindness and readiness to be around him and even be close to him is something he seems to still be adjusting to, after centuries of people's instinctual fear and disgust.

Taking more from his partially-fae nature, Elias claims he does not benefit from telling lies. What he does do quite often, however, is lie through omission, keeping plenty of secrets until a time he deems better that they be known. He neglects to tell Chise of many important topics, such as her pending mortality and his past; though when she confronts him about it he says he planned to tell her at a later time, when she was less likely to flee. In conversation Elias is extremely direct, sometimes cutting to very hurtful topics without any apparent comprehension that they might be painful. When asking about Chise's parents, he immediately adds on, "Are they dead? Did they abandon you?" which elicits an understandably dull response. He has no tact, tends to be very blunt, and sometimes his lack of social skills makes him rather ridiculous.

Though he struggles greatly with understanding people and one-on-one relationships with other individuals, Elias seems to have a great understanding of the world and its creatures and how they live in harmony. After he begins teaching Chise magic in earnest, she expresses that much of what he is teaching her is how to interact with the world and its creatures in a way that contributes to that harmony.

In many ways, Elias is very naïve—especially when it comes to matters of emotions. At the beginning of the story, he claims to grasp human emotion (like why a human might laugh or cry), but he also claims has only learned these through observation, doesn't have the ability to empathize, and has never felt them himself. One of the reasons he obtained Chise and offered to apprentice her was to study human emotions first-hand and try to make further sense of them, so he might understand humans better. A jarring example of his sudden childishness was when Chise found him after he had gone into the woods to recover his humanoid form—in telling him she didn't like being kept in the dark about certain things, she gets upset, and he completely breaks the mood for a moment by exclaiming excitedly she had made an expression he had never seen before. He does return to attempting to field how she was feeling at the time, albeit very awkwardly.

Very slowly throughout the story, particularly due to the galvanizing force of his complex relationship with Chise, he has begun to feel various rudimentary emotions. At one point he expresses confusion at feeling something “thudding against his ribs,” or an incurable coldness he felt when Chise was absent for an extended period of time. His reactions to these emotions are sometimes very childish. For example, after growing jealous at Chise spending time with a friend, he runs off into the woods and ends up drawing her into a void with him after she pursues, keeping her there for many hours. He is learning, though—he expressed some remorse after she explained jealousy and said that she had been pretty angry he’d done that. It’s in times like the aftermath of that event that she realizes he is very much like a child, despite how long he has lived and his wisdom as a mage.

It is worth mentioning that throughout the series, Elias' intentions are constantly challenged by other characters and Chise's own doubts. Renfred, an alchemist, accuses him of taking Chise on as a charge only as a "guinea pig," and he and other characters repatedly call him a monster due to his past and what he is capable of. Chise, on the other hand, has far less concern for his reasons for taking her and many more for him eventually growing bored of her and discarding her. Elias himself admits that he only took Chise on as an apprentice to study her and to fulfill other mages' expectations for him having one. He also admits that he still struggles against darker impulses in him, such as a vague and lingering craving for human flesh, despite how much he says he despises the idea. Therefore the truth is that others' incendiary words about his nature are not entirely unfounded, but despite his thorny nature, he no longer seems to want to cause harm.

At one point Elias encourages Chise by telling her that she must “love the world. It’s true that the world in which you grew up was not kind, but it was not your enemy. There is already a key in the lock that holds you. All you need do now is open it.” When she asks whether he loves the world or not, he replies that it was a, “good question,” though he seems to smile with his eyes. Because of how he interacts with it, Elias does seem to have good will for the world he lives in, though for decades upon decades it has treated him with trepidation and fear. Despite some moments of hesitation, he seems curious to move forward with these, as it might lead to more understanding and possibly a feeling of belonging in the world.

ABILITIES: Elias is known as a “mage,” which in his world means he is a being gifted with the arcane ability to alter the laws of nature using spells. Mages are known for absorbing magical energy from either their surroundings or borrowing from helpful “neighbors” (fae creatures who can be asked to help with magical feats).

Mages can use magic to accomplish anything they can think of, though Elias himself urges that they must constantly resist this impulse. Using magic to create miracles subverts the very laws of nature themselves, and in excess this can be very dangerous. Mages are also limited by the amount of energy they can expend at one time, though that limit is significantly raised when borrowing energy from fae neighbors. Aids such as spoken spells, staffs, and wands can also assist in the process. One example of Elias’ limits and how he got around them was when he teleported from one continent to another with Chise—he wouldn’t have usually been able to do this, but with a spoken spell, the use of his staff, and heavy borrowing of Chise’s reserve of magic, he was able to do it. It is also worth noting that Elias’ innate talents center in shadow and thorns, leaning heavily to destructive magic. In this way, he can’t do any kind of purification spells and struggles with creation spells, though he is very proficient at anything involving destruction (including removing memories). All of this makes magic very variable: he has cast spells which cause shadowy thorns to pin down his enemies but has also cast much more mundane spells such as one to dry someone who had fallen into a lake and another to make a totem to guide them out of a forest.

Elias is very proficient at making medicine called “panacea” from natural reagents through a magical process. These medicines can treat anything from the common cold to much more advanced stages of disease (though they are not infallible). Panacea is typically much easier on the body than typical medicine and is very effective.

As previously noted in the appearance section, Elias can both shapeshift and cast illusions over himself to change either his form or how he appears to people. Taking his “true” form gives him monstrous strength and destructive capabilities, but it can make him unstable and unable to hold together other forms, particularly if the transformation is sudden and unexpected. To regain control, he usually has to rest for and regain balance for several days. His quadruped form is much nimbler, faster, and has shown the ability to climb trees with ease. The illusions he takes are also worth mentioning, as they aren’t just visual—one could reach up and touch his face when he is glamoured as a human and wouldn’t sense anything amiss. It should be mentioned, though, that people with supernatural sight (or sometimes children, who are keen to magic and the fae) can see through his illusions.

Elias can also turn himself into a shadow and move along walls and the ground, sometimes even “hiding” in other people’s shadows to avoid people noticing him. His manipulation of shadow also extends in strange ways. He can also pull people into shadows after him, bringing them to a small, cramped space that seems to almost be a part of him. He has also done this to entire rooms, filling them with aspects of himself (shadow, matted fur, thorns).

INVENTORY: Just the clothing and staff depicted in the first appearance image.