Elias

(any info that has not been repeated in Xekiv's bio will be italicized)


Elias in relation to his village:
Elias doesn't really have much of an important role in his village like Xekiv does. He does volunteer and do work in actively helping out, but mostly he's just helping around the house, doing work for his parents, and looking around for his siblings.

Horns:
Horns are only grown by the males in the village, and generally start at around age 7 and end at around age 21 (ages vary, sometimes can grow earlier or later, and sometimes can fall off earlier or later.) The horns grow during the beginning of every fall, stay throughout the winter, grow heavy and brittle, then fall off during the spring. Horns throughout the years grow back bigger and stronger, sometimes growing additional colors and patterns. No two persons horns are the same. They vary incredibly from person to person.

Horns generally do not grow back after they last fall off, although are a few exceptions. The wiser elders begin to sprout their horns again (permanently) at around 60 and are well respected and looked up to as leaders of the village.

Every spring they hold a ceremony for the young men in the village, stirring the crumbled pieces of the previous horn into a tiny mixture in a vial, which is then blessed by an elder. The vial is thought to symbolize strength and power, and recommended to be worn through tough situations. Previous vials are generally kept on a shelf as they are replaced with new ones throughout the years.

Backstory:
One day his peaceful village was struck by the sight of a single crow. Black has always been a rare color to them, and any sights of it strike as bad luck. The crow that loomed over them had the village chattering nervously in low whispers the entire day. Later on, they'd noticed the sky getting noticeably darker. One by one, they all peeked out from their houses to be bombarded by the noises of wild squawking above them and black clouds looming closer. Some kind of darkness had tried to invade them, and they were all scared to absolute death. Within the panicked chatter of villagers, Elias managed to talk to Xekiv, who was previously to him just a familiar face, and talked to him nervously about the happening. They chatted endlessly throughout the night and watched as the clouds came closer, and in those moments of conversation, they'd got this heavy sense that whatever it was, it was all on them to try to the bottom of. They'd slept maybe only a couple hours that night, and in the morning, they packed the few things they needed, said their goodbyes, and headed off. These two who were hardly a step above strangers were bound to set off on a journey that would take nearly a year to complete.

Extra:
Sometime during the journey, it was noticed Elias wasn't losing his horns. It'd initially be denied after Xekiv would ask, but he'd shrug it off "Just give it a couple weeks. It'll catch up."
Later on it turns out those sets of horns he'd grown had become permanent. When he'd returned back to his village after his journey with Xekiv, it was discovered he was the only one who'd had a temporary set become permanent, and was the youngest to have ever had a permanent set of horns.