Illus Niratap

"'Disobey me in life, serve me in death.'"

{{Playable|title = Illus Niratap|name = Illus Niratap|age = 14 (Base) 16 (1st Job)

17 (2nd Job)

19 (3rd Job)|height = 5'4" [163 cm] (Base) 5'7" [170 cm] (1st Job) 5'11" [180 cm] (2nd and 3rd Job)|weight = 117 lbs. [53 kg]|dob = November 24th|eyes = Black Pure White Pupils (During Awakening/Transcendence/Specter Forms)|hair = Dark Grey Pale Blue (Specter Form)

Platinum Blond (Rebellion Path)|weapon = Twin Sickles Spell books (In Rebellion Path)|element = Shadow, necromancy, ice, and siphoning magics Light, prescient, holy, and slowing magics (Rebellion Path)|class = Necromancer|imperial = The Reaper (Deadly Ritual → Deadly Acolyte → Deadly Servant)|rebellion = The Blessed Reaper (Holy Cleric → Holy Augur → Holy Angel)|transform = The Cursed Reaper (Soulless Apparition → Soulless Phantom → Soulless Wraith)|stats = Illus' Stats.png|voices = None|themes = [TBA} }}

Illus Niratap is a Human necromancer, equipped with the ability to change his physical form into that of a powerful Specter, changing his spells and combos, effects, uses, and overall play style.

Appearance
Illus is described as a boy paler than snow, and has been all through out his life, with dark grey hair like a dove's darkest feather. His hair is always wild and messy like he just pulled himself out of bed, and his eyes have the same darkness as that of a clear night's sky, possibly even darker. Illus can haunt you with every passing gaze, but within that gaze, he has a small charm. Like an unseen void within them is desperately attempting to draw you in.

His base attire consists of some form-fitting Human and Elven pieces of clothing, colored black with some sleet grey for the accents, and an added hood that shrouds his eyes when it is worn up. However, he only wears the hood up when he wishes to remain unseen, incognito, or wishes to instill fear in a victim, which isn't very often. Over time, the clothing is given specific additions depending on the job path the player chooses. Examples include chains, tattered and dark fabrics, jewelry, and even entire color revamps (in Rebellion Path, "The Blessed Reaper").

Human Form/Specter Form
Illus ascends past his Human form into a powerful Specter, altering his abilities, his combos, and his overall play style. Some combos will shift you back into Human form.

Illus descends from his Specter form back into his Human form, altering his abilities, his combos, and his overall play style. Some combos will shift you back into Specter form.

(Deadly Ritual → Deadly Acolyte → Deadly Servant)
- This job path is meant for those who can control all aspects of Illus' kit, and can utilize his Human and Specter form with ease. His weapon remains the dual-wielded sickles in this job path. This is the canonical path that Illus takes.

- Being only a child, Illus had no clue what he did wrong when he felt his life force begin to slip away. The young necromancer wished upon every star in the night sky that he would not be killed, and begged for life from whatever deity could hear him. With this, he narrowly avoided Death's clutches. A spell book miraculously fell from his book shelf as his breath's grew short and his pleas grew loud. And inside, it contained a ritual to keep himself in control of his growing instability. Upon casting it, he gained back the parts of his spirit that he thought were lost, and this new surge in his powers to bend and manipulate the Balance would be one of many. That is, until he couldn't live without it...

- The necromancer quickly became very dependent on the ritual from his past to keep his form together, and it wasn't long after before he was unable to cast it again without harm. His physical body slowly began decaying, and it wouldn't be long before he became a pile of dust. However, before he could fully wither away, his spirit's will to live acted upon his powers...and something within Illus allowed him to cheat Death yet again. His soul restored his damaged body to normal, and he carried on his quest to help the El Search Party without a second thought to it. However, it didn't go unnoticed, and his self-proclaimed master now made plans for the near future, to prevent this from happening again.

- Illus has neared his limits a final time. Before he was able to even feel a presence in his sleep, Death itself had pulled him into Cocyton, the spirit realm from which necromancers like him drew their power. However, Death only explained to Illus his predicament. It explained that he had grown far stronger than his spirit should have ever allowed, and to keep it stable for so long was an impressive feat on it's own, not even mentioning how he kept himself from dying. But the Reaper said that he wouldn't be punished, and that this has allowed him to see his potential. Death said after developing to where he was at, none of his power should've gone to waste. Death was able to point Illus to a ritual much like the one from when he was young, to give him the capability to seemingly last forever. The necromancer was returned to Elrios under Death's close watch to hastily gather what was necessary to cast the spell. And once he did, his power was finally stabilized for good

(Holy Cleric → Holy Augur → Holy Angel)
- This job is meant for those who specialize in the physical combos, ticking damage, and speed of Illus' kit. Upon reaching his 2nd job, Illus' Human and Specter forms will no longer be options to choose from, and you become locked in Human form for good. Cold damage becomes Holy damage once the job path is taken, and Illus no longer wields his dual-wielded sickles from his base form.

- Illus, shrouded in a burst of mystical light, is shown a vision of many possible futures by something he could only describe as beautiful, and calming. He is shown a future where he himself chooses to become Death's obedient servant. Seeing this as a terrible omen, Illus swears off his dark and inherently dangerous powers, and began to learn the basics of Holy magic and being a Priest. And, with his change in magics, he abandoned the twin sickles that channeled his tenebrous energies, trading them in for a spell book to read upon the scriptures that gave him his Light.

- Although he had abandoned his unholy ways, the Light still showed him the same visions as before. He continuously gazed upon the future out of fear and desperation to not be claimed by that dark fate. And consequentially, gazing into the future so frequently had blinded Illus to the present. This prompted him to adopt the title of Augur, as all he could see was the strings of what fate could possibly weave. He adopted more spell books into his arsenal, adding more pages with each consecutive use of this Holy magic. He must use his future sight to see just a few seconds into many futures to predict what will happen in the present.

- Illus' holy power grew with every passing moment. After quite some time with his ever-evolving energy, he could not contain the light within just his human form, and Illus was claimed by Death. But instead of being trapped in Cocyton, like he thought he would be, he had instead transformed into a being of Light, and hope. An angel. The future he had so often worried about had faded away out of his visions, and he instead became known as Illusyius, the Angel of Fate and Prophecy.

(Soulless Apparition → Soulless Phantom → Soulless Wraith)
- This job path is meant for those who specialize in the magical abilities, siphons, and de-buffs of Illus' kit. Upon reaching his 2nd job, Illus' Human and Specter forms will no longer be options to choose from, and you become locked in Specter form for good.

- Illus could feel his body has started to weaken, but simply demanded more and more energy. More power. All he wanted was more, and he became fairly greedy. He eventually forgot what made a necromancer; the balance of Life and Death. He took on too much of one thing, and that stole all the life within him, and it sent him to Cocyton. Upon arriving, he believed that the spirit realm was supposed to be portrayed rather differently to him, but it was because he belonged there that it appeared as a warped reality of Elrios. He quickly realized that nothing he did could help him escape it either. He could feel his power's now diminishing, and eventually, his hopes for escape slowly began to do the same.

- Illus had been attempting to drag himself back to the real Elrios so often, he had begun losing count of his attempts. His power could only wane in this hellish landscape, and he desperately clung to the idea that destroying the other lost spirits inside of the spirit realm would have brought him the strength to return home. And yet still, no avail. He had begun losing his sanity as the spirits of Cocyton cried out in terror as he banished them from existence. And being unable to do anything to return to his friends or his family, he had fully lost his mind.

- Illus was faced with one final idea to escape Cocyton. It was risky, and any sane man would cower at the thought of confronting Death itself. Especially when bargaining "If I win the game, I must return to Elrios, no matter what. If I lose, you may take my soul, and do with it what you will." Death accepted the deal and purposefully threw the game. Death revealed to Illus a small flaw in what he had bargained for. He never mentioned he had to be alive on his return, and had quoted Illus' words, " no matter what. " It's final words to the once loyal servant before him was, "There is always a price when you deal with Death." Death had ripped his spirit from his human form and placed him back on Elrios, where he helplessly was forced to watch his friends and family grieve over him, so many years later. Since that day, he has wandered Elrios in eternal despair, kept there by his desire for revenge against Death itself. He is known by those who see him now by one name and one name only: The Wraith, a spirit that instills death and fear among the people of Elrios, and wreaks havoc wherever he goes...lashing out in rage at those who dare to try and stop him.

Specialty
Although Illus does not have much health or very much Physical defense at Base, he makes up for it with his debuffing of his enemies, siphoning magics, slowing his enemies down with Cold damage, and his speed. His magic isn't extremely powerful, but it's enough to sustain him decently in a battle, whether it be in open-world or a dungeon.

A tip is that his Magical damage, siphoning, slowing effects of Cold damage, and de-buffing is more effective in Specter form, while his speed, Physical damage, and Cold damage overall are more effective in Human form. If you want to maximize the full power of his kit, it is recommended that you balance the two out for a better experience in playing him.

Etymology

 * His first name, "Illus," comes from the Byzantine general, Flavius Illus, killed in 488 AD in Isauria. There is no special reason that this name was chosen, other than the author thought it sounded cool. Pronounced, "Eel-us"


 * The last name of Illus, "Niratap" is meant to mean, "The one who constitutes/is filled with shades and shadows." Pronounced, "Near-uh-tay"
 * His name "Illusyius" in his Rebellion job path is meant to be pronounced like "Elysium" if the 'm' was an 's'.

Trivia

 * The character, Illus Niratap, was heavily inspired by Malthael, the previous Archangel of Wisdom, and the self-proclaimed Archangel of Death in the game "Diablo III: Reaper of Souls". Specifically his sickles, clothing, Cold damage, and his Imperial job path, "The Reaper" were huge indicators to this fact.
 * The differences between Malthael and Illus are very numerous. Illus is a young child, does not wear his cowl up often, is playable, is not a villain, does not have wings (in lore), and is seen to have a face.


 * Illus' blood type is Type AB Negative, and his astrological sign is Sagittarius.


 * Illus, Add, and Ain's 3rd job forms: "Deadly Servant", "Holy Angel", "Soulless Wraith", "Mad Paradox", and "Herrscher" are the only four 3rd job characters that aren't physical beings.


 * Illus' liking of chess and cats was inspired from Death and Antonius Block's chess game in the film, "The Seventh Seal," and the old superstition dating back to ancient Egypt that cats could see and interact with spirits of the dead.
 * Illus' ability to swap between Human and Specter forms originally came from Lu/Ciel's ability to swap between each other in Elsword. However, since Illus wasn't bound with someone like they are, the author experimented with the idea that he could transform into something unholy, and eventually settled upon a Specter Form.