Ilium Reference

Whee, here we go, my first and already slightly disastrous attempt at an Original Character Tournament!



Name: Ilium
Nickname: (none)
Species: Arkandan (dragon, more or less, but from an alien planet I'm making up)
Gender: Male
Age: 11, which for his species is about as mature as a 17-year-old human
Height/Weight: 3 ft 3 in (0.99 m) tall in this pose (9 ft or 2.7 m long from tip of snout to tip of tail). 170 pounds (77.1 kg).
Personality: Ilium is a reclusive, scientific type. He readily shoos away anyone he doesn't think he has time for. He is somewhat witty but not socially skilled, intelligent but not hugely ingenious - he prefers discovering what's already there over coming up with entirely new things. Despite his unwillingness to be disturbed, he is not cold at heart. If he seems to dislike you, it's just out of disinterest, not resentment. He's perfectly warm and friendly with a few choice individuals - a cousin here, a childhood friend there - and is simply not eager to add anyone else to that list. Also, as little as he appreciates people entering his personal space, he's glad to aid those outside it (such as with his scientific research). If he is cruel to someone, it is because he sees them as a threat to a great number of people, or to himself or his few friends.
Abilities: Ilium's special gift (all members of his species have one) is command of blood magic. He can slowly drain the blood of a victim and gain it for himself (about ten seconds to fill up that half-foreleg he's used up in the picture), but only when making direct contact (even clothing will stop him), and his focus is easily broken. He can also consume the blood in his own body and use the mass to repair wounds, perhaps filling in broken bones or cuts. It has that magic-y glow effect for no reason that Ilium can discern. There's a high cost in blood from the surrounding area, and any place he drains is left uselessly numb, pale, and limp until his body returns blood to it with unnatural slowness (about two minutes for half a foreleg). That doesn't restore the overall level of blood in his body, so he needs to eat and drink, or steal it from a victim, to get it back.
Strengths: His blood magic abilities.
His teeth are strong and sharp, making for a pretty effective bite, even though he doesn't have much actual strength to put into it (see weaknesses).
Being adapted for sudden blood loss, his body tissues are good at dealing with oxygen deprivation. As a side effect, the consequences of not breathing are slow to strike him. He'll be hard to drown or asphyxiate, and being winded won't stop him too soon.
Weaknesses: His body is thin and weak, partly from consuming his own vital mass so regularly. His physical strength is well below what you'd expect from a creature his size.
His claws, bones, and horns are also weakened and are left dull and brittle. His light, frail bones will break under unusually little stress. Also, not only can he slash little more than tissue paper, but even just stubbing his toes can shatter a claw, leaving it to grow back gradually like a fingernail if not restored at the cost of blood. (He broke his left index claw in a recent experiment.) Break off a whole claw and he'll bleed from the exposed fingertip. His horns are almost as fragile as his claws and have the same consequences when broken.
He has terrible pain tolerance. He's glad he can heal his wounds, but it means he'll rush to weaken himself with blood loss if hit, which isn't much better. If he doesn't heal up, it doesn't take much to leave him severely unfocused or even stunned.
Other: Feel free to make the markings simple or approximated if you draw him. They don't mean anything; they're just cool decoration.
He has a smooth hide, without the scales, fur, or feathers some other Arkandans have.
Note that his hide is the same color all over; any dark areas are my amateur attempts at some quick shading. Hooray for light sources exactly above everything!
Yes, he has only two fingers plus a thumb on his foreclaws, and the knuckles can bend either way to switch between gripping and digitigrade standing. His back feet have three toes each.
Did you know? Ilium is an old alternate name for the city of Troy. That's why Homer's Iliad, which is about Troy, is named a lot like Ilium! But I really chose the name because I think it's also the name of a bone, which I thought was appropriately grim for a blood-centered character concept. Also, it sounds kind of cool.


I've made some edits to reduce his overflow of power. Hopefully he won't crush you as a spellslinging destroyer anymore.