Iliya Engman

!Note!

His story happens in RoutArt's world - please go check out her characters and worlds!!

Personality

Calm, and sensible, though can loose his cool very easily if provoked correctly, rational and down-to-earth. Tends to be emotionally distant and a bit serious at first. Stubborn, a bit judgemental and jealous, sometimes too straightforward from his words. Protective and loyal. VERY repressed.

Backstory

Iliya, the middle child of the family, was born to a farmer couple living in a small town in the Mountain Area. Iliya had a tough, strict and religious raising as a child. His parents tried to fit him into the narrow mold of what a man should be like – a mold he could never quite fit. He wasn’t strong, self-assured, highly ambitious and bold like his brothers were, but rather the quiet and serious kid who was by himself most of the time. Like the rest of his siblings, Iliya attended a religious school, which started to shape him as a person early on – both in good and bad. Regardless, he seemed to be more interested in school rather than the demanding farm work his parents wished him to continue in the future. He achieved excellent grades in all the subjects, particularly the ones dealing with arts, culture and history.

As Iliya grew older, he started to realize that his parents didn’t care as much about him as they did about his big brothers and little sister. His brothers were the model examples of what young men were supposed to be like, and his little sister a model example of a Mountain Area woman. As Iliya didn’t fit the mold he was being forced into, he was left in the shadows while his parents focused on the futures of his siblings. They were still strict with him, sometimes stricter than with his siblings, and he started to resent them for it. He rebelled against them especially in his teens, often skipping work and sneaking off to the closest big city with his classmates – still always putting effort into his studies, especially the subjects he liked. He got caught every now and then and was punished for it, sometimes even physically. At some point he had finally had enough and he started dreaming of a life in the city, far away from his parents and the farm.

His plan was to move to the city once he was of age and had saved up some money to afford living on his own. However, this plan never happened as the civil war between the north and the south broke out when he was 20 years old. Iliya didn’t want to go to war, but the shame it would’ve brought to his home and his family would’ve been too great. Thus, he was forced to enlist along with his father and brothers.

War was living hell and Iliya hated every second of it. He wanted out, day and night, but knew he couldn’t leave. Even then, amongst all the death and suffering, he managed to find one spark of hope. One day, he met a higher class man called Níqlas. The two got to know each other and found that they shared many interests and outlook on life. They became very close and always spent whatever shared time they had together. They started planning their future after the war, their dreams of moving to a large city to pursue history and arts, leaving all the horrible things they witnessed far behind.

But even that was only fleeting joy. During one invasion, nearing the end of the war, Iliya got shot in his right leg and was badly injured. Níqlas, who was in the same squad as Iliya during the invasion, carried him away from the battlefield and brought him to the field hospital. Iliya’s leg injury was very severe and his leg had to be amputated from the knee up. Later on, he was sent to a hospital outside the battlefields where he could properly recover from his surgery and injuries.

After the war was over and Iliya – deemed too injured to return to the battlefield – was dispatched home, he wanted to find Níqlas again. He searched and searched and asked around, only to find out that Níqlas had died in a bombing. Hearing that broke Iliya’s heart and a part of him died with Níqlas. He also found out that his father had been shot and that the rest of his family was missing. Iliya tried to stay in his home country, rebuild what was left to honor those who had died, but simply couldn’t. He was too broken from everything, all the familiar sceneries reminded him of everything he had experienced. The war made him question many things about his home, about himself, the way people had been treated before and during those four years. He despised his home and decided to start anew in the neighboring country of Charelea.

And so, at the age of 25, Iliya moved to Charelea. He got himself a prosthetic leg so he could eventually work again and started learning the local language. Life in a new country with a prosthetic leg took some adjusting, but eventually Iliya got his life – mostly – back on track. He studied to become a librarian and later on expanded his skills to managing archives. He found himself happier, freer than before, but that didn’t mean the horrible memories from his past and the social programming of his childhood didn’t have a hold of him. They did, and still do, and Iliya tries his best to live with them.

Extra

• Has been keeping a journal for years. Some of his entries even date back to the war times as it helped him stay somewhat sane while stuck in the trenches.
• Iliya has always taken interest in pottery, ever since he was a child in fact. However, it wasn't until after the war that he finally found the time to get properly into it and hone his skills. Nowadays he visits the pottery studio few times a week to relax and take his mind off things.
• Has dimples when smiling