I. Introduction
I dunno I wrote some college AU stuff and yet I also wanted to make another meta-fun fact like the vexan fact creation thing, “The End”, and that one time in the original campaign where I just rambled about Monroe for like, pages. This one is about Elian and Illiam and how they got into this nightmare and why this universe in general, though it has a lot of original characters, seems to be a place where all my characters exist for who knows what reason. Like, for example, Monroe and VW were sent here from two seperate universes but they also were in a story together because I have an infinite amount of AUs.
So Elian was created in 11th grade. I had a dream shortly before Nanowrimo that ended up being the basic plot of Mind over Matter, and Elian’s personality was designed, I guess, to clash with Ulmer’s as much as possible. At some point or something I started talking about the book and how I got it published and David Kakos (and others) kept calling Elian Eliam or Illiam and so I created Illiam.
I drew a lot of pictures of Elian that year, mostly in Japanese class, mostly with silly and pointless concepts, and so there were a few Illiam pictures. (There were also a baffling amount of pictures of Elian wearing dresses… I have no idea why) Illiam in his original conception was simply Elian’s evil twin, he had no personality other than that. Sometimes he had horns and teeth and evil eyes (?), sometimes he looked identically to Elian to the point where people couldn’t tell him apart.
99% of early Elian humor was based on literally everyone being awful to Elian. Considering how I’ve since recognized that Elian has a lot of similarities to my actual self, to the point of him being used in place of me in certain stories, this probably needs to be looked into further? Like, for example, Elian’s parents being horrible to him. Like, for example, Ulmer ignoring him. Elian is one of those characters who makes his first friends later in life (teenage/young adult years) which is somewhat unrealistic but seems to be a common trait of my characters. (Ex: Ulmer, Illiam in some AUs, Xander in some AUs, Messel, Anya, Monroe) Anyway, I brought up that to sort of point out how awful it was that a lot of my early Elian stuff dealt with Ulmer barely tolerating Elian’s presence. I guess it was written so that it would be a surprise when Elian and Ulmer in the actual book became “Best Friends”? Who knows?
Anyway, back to the concept of Elian’s parents, I had a vague idea that they were not very good parents but primarily used it for humor, because idk, coping mechanism or something, and so some of the ideas were stuff like Elian getting an internship with some sort of computer company and Illiam getting an internship with the literal devil, and everyone gushing over Illiam and getting mad at Elian because computers are evil, people mistaking Elian for Illiam humorously, Illiam just showing up in Elian’s life and everyone treating it as normal (in universes where Elian didn’t have a random brother) and Illiam just being the literal devil. The last one is kind of hilarious considering his current self.
Elian’s ultimate fate also changed. The original plans for Mind over Matter was to follow it with a sequel (Mind over Matter II: Monica and Tel Go To the Moon) where Elian and Ulmer are in college and then are drawn into Xelcorp bullshit again. Here’s what I remember of the plot: Ulmer comes to college after a year of being on tour (he wrote a book or something about his experiences? I think the original end of Mind over Matter was that it was that book? Or he just goes around talking about them?) and he and Elian are roommates. Ulmer is tired of being famous, and he and Elian are kidnapped by Dr. Red who somehow uses his psychic powers to make everyone forget about Elian and Ulmer, even though psychic powers are explicitly not that powerful in the Mind over Matter universe (and aren’t even really mentioned explicitly in Mind over Matter I, though there is a lot of weird stuff going on) until thousands of years later (humans become more powerful psychics over time). However, there is now an ulmer-sized gap in reality. I think that people on the moon were immune to forgetting about Elian and Ulmer’s adventure, also there may have been a part where Ulmer forgot about what he and Elian did, because I dunno, bad stuff keeps happening to Ulmer’s perception of reality. Also at some point they traveled back in time and were trapped in the age of the dinosaurs? Who knows. It was followed by a sequel I actually wrote a bit of, “Lavender’s Blue” which was explicitly not canon and involved Monica and Ulmer breaking up, and Elian and Ulmer’s feelings towards each other, as well as Elian trying hopelessly not to be gay.
II. Illiam in AUs
In some AUs Illiam was Elian’s clone. In others, he was his guardian angel or vice versa. I think there was one where Elian was an angel or Illiam was a demon? Oh, there was definetly one where Elian was a regular person and Illiam was his twin half-brother and his real father was the devil. LBR; almost all these AUs are horrible! In others, Elian made him with his psychic powers because he wanted a brother. I think there was some sort of horrid AU where Elian was a robot or something and it involved CYO, was definetly some baffling coping mechanism. Another AU I remember making up was the Bad End AU, where Elian and Ulmer didn’t end up together and Ulmer married Monica and then divorced her and then married and divorced a bunch of other women and then ended up becoming a washed-up celebrity and Elian had a clone, Elian Jr, and lived a regular life, and they stopped being friends in college. Despite my jokes about this being an overdramatic and bad AU, it actually ended up becoming canon, mostly. Also I don’t really see it as being bad, because it gets a lot better after the end. But the main AU from this era (end of high school) was A Vision of Heaven.
I am never going to release A Vision of Heaven, even as a joke. It is extremely, amazingly horrible. I could give examples, and did in the original version of this, but you don't need them. It's. Just. The. Worst.
In these days Elian had a power known as “The Psychic Rage”. It’s not really a power I view Elian as currently having. In this story, Illiam is actually mentioned (his first time in a serious story) and considered Elian’s “Dark Half”, which Elian created to restrain his dark emotions, apparently a practice of some psychics. Apparently Elian fucked it up and Illiam somehow became a real fake person, with his own psychic powers, psychomentabolism.
A Vision of Heaven gave birth to a normal AU where all of the characters work at one of two companies, Xelcorp or the Aber Group, A-List characters for Xelcorp and B-List for the others. Monroe and Von Wolff were on the B-List back then (I wouldn’t rank characters as A or B list now, though honestly if I did some A-Listers then would be major B-listers now). I don’t know if Illiam was there, but I do remember that this is either the origin of Monroe and Von Wolff being pals, or at the very least a very early story where they buddy up.
In some AUs Illiam was Elian’s clone. In others, he was his guardian angel or vice versa. I think there was one where Elian was an angel or Illiam was a demon? Oh, there was definetly one where Elian was a regular person and Illiam was his twin half-brother and his real father was the devil. LBR; almost all these AUs are horrible! In others, Elian made him with his psychic powers because he wanted a brother. I think there was some sort of horrid AU where Elian was a robot or something and it involved CYO, was definetly some baffling coping mechanism. Another AU I remember making up was the Bad End AU, where Elian and Ulmer didn’t end up together and Ulmer married Monica and then divorced her and then married and divorced a bunch of other women and then ended up becoming a washed-up celebrity and Elian had a clone, Elian Jr, and lived a regular life, and they stopped being friends in college. Despite my jokes about this being an overdramatic and bad AU, it actually ended up becoming canon, mostly. Also I don’t really see it as being bad, because it gets a lot better after the end. But the main AU from this era (end of high school) was A Vision of Heaven.
I am never going to release A Vision of Heaven, even as a joke. It is extremely, amazingly horrible. I could give examples, and did in the original version of this, but you don't need them. It's. Just. The. Worst.
In these days Elian had a power known as “The Psychic Rage”. It’s not really a power I view Elian as currently having. In this story, Illiam is actually mentioned (his first time in a serious story) and considered Elian’s “Dark Half”, which Elian created to restrain his dark emotions, apparently a practice of some psychics. Apparently Elian fucked it up and Illiam somehow became a real fake person, with his own psychic powers, psychomentabolism.
A Vision of Heaven gave birth to a normal AU where all of the characters work at one of two companies, Xelcorp or the Aber Group, A-List characters for Xelcorp and B-List for the others. Monroe and Von Wolff were on the B-List back then (I wouldn’t rank characters as A or B list now, though honestly if I did some A-Listers then would be major B-listers now). I don’t know if Illiam was there, but I do remember that this is either the origin of Monroe and Von Wolff being pals, or at the very least a very early story where they buddy up.
III. Illiam's Bad Decisions
Cecil, we do not care about any of this. Please give us the Illiam. Okay. Well, Elian and Illiam were originally introduced as guys to trade Mike’s Celestial Armor in for Celestial Plate Armor. I guess that Elian must have worn Mike’s old armor for a while, so magic armors in this universe (or at least some of them?) must somehow magically resize, or at the very least there must be a spell to resize them. In the very early days Illiam was called Eliam. I think that Illiam was his name in serious stories and Eliam was his name in silly stories, so I didn’t take the campaign seriously yet? I used to threaten people that if they kept coming late to sessions Elian and Ulmer would get their own subplot, and well, they never stopped showing up late (once Al and Jack even missed an entire side-session) so look where we are now.
Frankly, Illiam must be the most long-running villain in both campaigns. Like, he was a major threat for at least a good third of the original, and now he’s basically one of the main antagonists that’s on this plane. Imagine if Maelys would have sang “The Right Side” at Illiam. Would we all be at peace now? (no, Illiam would have probably just been his double and blown himself up)
Illiam was also the major antagonist in “And So This is Orredmas”. Like, you could claim it’s Xander, but what does he do in that story? Literally get it on with Illiam and think about how he wants to kill everyone besides Illiam while he does so. Xander is really OOC in this story, but I guess it was before he got his personality.
“Cecil, who was Illiam’s romantic interest before Xander?” Um, nobody/Ulmer. I think that his interest in Ulmer was somewhat based on the fact that Elian loved him, and he would love to crush Elian’s heart by getting with Xander. I’m sure there’s a picture somewhere of Illiam at the altar, wearing a wedding dress, pretending to be Elian like Elian did in that one Sniplet with Xander. I can picture Xander with other people, Eznar at least, but Illiam and Xander are definetly an OTP. I can also picture Elian with other people besides Ulmer, bafflingly. There was Eliane (Elian/Taine) in MoM 2, and there’s also Eldan (Elian/Osdan)
Cecil, we do not care about any of this. Please give us the Illiam. Okay. Well, Elian and Illiam were originally introduced as guys to trade Mike’s Celestial Armor in for Celestial Plate Armor. I guess that Elian must have worn Mike’s old armor for a while, so magic armors in this universe (or at least some of them?) must somehow magically resize, or at the very least there must be a spell to resize them. In the very early days Illiam was called Eliam. I think that Illiam was his name in serious stories and Eliam was his name in silly stories, so I didn’t take the campaign seriously yet? I used to threaten people that if they kept coming late to sessions Elian and Ulmer would get their own subplot, and well, they never stopped showing up late (once Al and Jack even missed an entire side-session) so look where we are now.
Frankly, Illiam must be the most long-running villain in both campaigns. Like, he was a major threat for at least a good third of the original, and now he’s basically one of the main antagonists that’s on this plane. Imagine if Maelys would have sang “The Right Side” at Illiam. Would we all be at peace now? (no, Illiam would have probably just been his double and blown himself up)
Illiam was also the major antagonist in “And So This is Orredmas”. Like, you could claim it’s Xander, but what does he do in that story? Literally get it on with Illiam and think about how he wants to kill everyone besides Illiam while he does so. Xander is really OOC in this story, but I guess it was before he got his personality.
“Cecil, who was Illiam’s romantic interest before Xander?” Um, nobody/Ulmer. I think that his interest in Ulmer was somewhat based on the fact that Elian loved him, and he would love to crush Elian’s heart by getting with Xander. I’m sure there’s a picture somewhere of Illiam at the altar, wearing a wedding dress, pretending to be Elian like Elian did in that one Sniplet with Xander. I can picture Xander with other people, Eznar at least, but Illiam and Xander are definetly an OTP. I can also picture Elian with other people besides Ulmer, bafflingly. There was Eliane (Elian/Taine) in MoM 2, and there’s also Eldan (Elian/Osdan)
IV. Elian and Illiam's Evolution
I think that one thing I’ve realized since those days is that I see Elian’s parents as being abusive to both Illiam and Elian, even though they certainly loved Illiam a lot more. You can’t really hate a child for certain reasons and then ignore those reasons in another child, at least for the Ashbur Parents reasons. In the old days Elian’s parents were mean to him and loved Illiam as a way to sort of step on Elian’s face and make things unfair for him. Elian was one of my favorite characters back then but I also kind of hated him, I sort of kicked him in the shins and then called him a loser for crying about it. Gosh, even I was unfair to Elian. I think that honestly Elian is one of the strongest characters I’ve written emotionally, not from a “I’m good at writing him” sort of way, I mean that Elian can take a lot of shit before breaking, at least visibly. In canon Elian took a lot of it from his parents and he gets through like half of the first act of MoM without crying about his parents having died a week or so ago. At least in some part Elian’s personality is “If I keep smiling, I will get through the pain, nobody will know how bad it is for me” and in some ways Illiam (in modern AUs, at least) challenges that. He knows how bad things are for Elian- he copes with it in his own ways- and while Elian sometimes unintentionally screw up Illiam’s life, I feel like in some ways, in the two modern AUs, Illiam’s sort of gotten over that or is on the path to. I mean, in the DisneyAU he and Elian are on pretty good terms, Illiam still has some resentment towards Elian but I think there could be a story written where he finally gets over the last of that. If I write more in the college AU that will be a major part of it. I feel like Elian and Osdan’s relationship is an ongoing joke but Illiam is probably going to finally be the one to help Elian see that Osdan is a bad person for him to be in a relationship with.
V. Conclusion
So in conclusion, Illiam comes from Elian. I think he comes from that primal loved-sibling/hated-sibling relationship I was playing with in my middle KttK fan fiction days (There are, pictures, somewhere, of Elian as Sunday and Illiam as The Piper- also as Clara and Hans). His current personality comes from roleplaying and sniplets and an accumulation of stories and stories, and if you get the title of this fun fact, you'll have another inspiration for him. He also comes from a mispronunciation of Elian's name, but less than I like to pretend.
I think that one thing I’ve realized since those days is that I see Elian’s parents as being abusive to both Illiam and Elian, even though they certainly loved Illiam a lot more. You can’t really hate a child for certain reasons and then ignore those reasons in another child, at least for the Ashbur Parents reasons. In the old days Elian’s parents were mean to him and loved Illiam as a way to sort of step on Elian’s face and make things unfair for him. Elian was one of my favorite characters back then but I also kind of hated him, I sort of kicked him in the shins and then called him a loser for crying about it. Gosh, even I was unfair to Elian. I think that honestly Elian is one of the strongest characters I’ve written emotionally, not from a “I’m good at writing him” sort of way, I mean that Elian can take a lot of shit before breaking, at least visibly. In canon Elian took a lot of it from his parents and he gets through like half of the first act of MoM without crying about his parents having died a week or so ago. At least in some part Elian’s personality is “If I keep smiling, I will get through the pain, nobody will know how bad it is for me” and in some ways Illiam (in modern AUs, at least) challenges that. He knows how bad things are for Elian- he copes with it in his own ways- and while Elian sometimes unintentionally screw up Illiam’s life, I feel like in some ways, in the two modern AUs, Illiam’s sort of gotten over that or is on the path to. I mean, in the DisneyAU he and Elian are on pretty good terms, Illiam still has some resentment towards Elian but I think there could be a story written where he finally gets over the last of that. If I write more in the college AU that will be a major part of it. I feel like Elian and Osdan’s relationship is an ongoing joke but Illiam is probably going to finally be the one to help Elian see that Osdan is a bad person for him to be in a relationship with.
V. Conclusion
So in conclusion, Illiam comes from Elian. I think he comes from that primal loved-sibling/hated-sibling relationship I was playing with in my middle KttK fan fiction days (There are, pictures, somewhere, of Elian as Sunday and Illiam as The Piper- also as Clara and Hans). His current personality comes from roleplaying and sniplets and an accumulation of stories and stories, and if you get the title of this fun fact, you'll have another inspiration for him. He also comes from a mispronunciation of Elian's name, but less than I like to pretend.
Author's Note. I wrote this overly long essay and maybe one day I'll edit it to be a sensible essay. I'd like to also make an essay on the origins of other characters in this campaign.
Word Count: 2187 Words
Date: July 8th, 2015
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