"You're chasing certainity in a place built on lies."
Okay, since we got the comic outta the way, I'm finally gonna talk about Ilian's ability and how it works more or less.
RAMBLING UNDER THE CUT!!
Gosh, where to start...?
Like some of you noticed, in the comic I made you could see multiple versions of Ilian chasing the intruder. That's because he was using an ability I like to call mirage. As the name suggests, it's an illusion-based ability.
I actually mentioned it only once before, in my very first post about Ilian, but he's capable of creating copies— or rather, mirages— of himself. These copies can appear incredibly realistic, to the point where it's often difficult to tell which one is the real Ilian and which one is merely an illusion (especially if you're someone that does not know how his ability works, which is likely for most).
Especially when he uses his special ability. As -c noticed in their lovely reblog on my comic, the intruder actually bumped into one of the copies. And no— it wasn't the real Ilian. It was one of his solid mirages.
Normally, his copies are intangible and exist purely to deceive the eye. However, Ilian can temporarily make one of them physically tangible, allowing it to interact with the environment as though it were his real body. It can touch objects, open doors... and, of course, hurt people.
The downside is that maintaining a solid mirage consumes a tremendous amount of energy. It also requires a lot of his concentration, making it harder for him to divide his attention elsewhere.
That's actually one of the reasons he was caught sneaking into Crownus' chambers in his backstory. At the time, he was simultaneously controlling a solid copy performing his role on stage while his real body was elsewhere. Back then, he wasn't nearly as experienced with balancing his attention or managing the energy required to keep the illusion stable.
After the theatre closed, however, he had something he never really had before: Time. Years of it.
With no performances to distract him and no king to control him, he spent that time mastering mirage, to the point where he's now exceptionally proficient with it.
Back then, creating even one convincing copy was exhausting. Two was pushing his limits, and neither would last very long.
Nowadays, I'd say he can comfortably maintain up to four high-quality copies at once, maybe even more. Of course, there are trade-offs.
The more copies he creates, the lower their overall quality becomes. As of now, four is probably the maximum number of mirages he can maintain while still making them look, move, and speak convincingly. Beyond that, they become progressively less realistic, especially if someone gets close enough to inspect them.
That said, even those less convincing copies are still useful. From a distance, they're more than enough to distract, confuse, or mislead someone into making the wrong decision.
Because Ilian isn't among the physically biggest or strongest puppets in the theatre— his greatest physical advantage is actually the strength of his grip rather than raw power— I wanted to give him an ability centered around deception, positioning, and control instead of brute force.
[Of course that does not mean he is physically weak. It's just that in my canon there are stronger puppets like Jestyn or Knighter in that sense. Ilian is still quite strong, definitely stronger than a human as they are supernatural entities]
And over the years, he's learned to use it to his full advantage. Naturally, mirage isn't without limitations.
One of its biggest weaknesses is that all of Ilian's ordinary copies disappear the moment his opponent spots his real body. Because of that, he usually keeps his distance during confrontations or usage of his ability, carefully making sure that his true position remains hidden.
That's another reason he devoted so much time to mastering his solid mirage. Since it can physically interact with its surroundings, it allows him to act through a copy while remaining hidden himself.
The longer he keeps his abilities active, however, the more energy they consume. That's also why, in the comic, his right pupil disappears. (And yes, -c, you were right: he was injured by the intruder. Nice deduction! Didn't reblog but loved reading your analysis on that one <3) The crack to his face had already thrown him off balance, and chasing two intruders while maintaining multiple mirages drained him even further.
Even so, his stamina and control over mirage are leagues beyond what they used to be. Also, there's one final aspect of the ability. Technically, Ilian can create mirages of other people as well.
However, those are much more difficult to produce, so he rarely relies on them. Creating convincing copies of himself became second nature only because he spent years studying and practicing every little detail of his own movements. Replicating someone else requires just as much familiarity. He'd need to know their appearance, mannerisms, posture, and behavior well enough to recreate them convincingly, which would take a great deal of observation and trial and error.
So far, his most successful attempts have been copies of members of the main cast (perhaps even Crownus himself, though that's tied to a small story change/idea I'm still considering). These impersonation mirages work best from a distance. Up close, the imperfections become easier to notice, so he mostly uses them as brief tricks of the eye rather than perfect disguises.
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I'm still working on his abilities and how exactly they work as I am very particular about the pros and cons of them. There's a bit more to them I'd say but for now I think these are good enough basics for those curious of what he can do.
Gah I'm not entirely proud of the art though. I wanted to make something cool and pretty looking but my motivation run out mid-working on this..
Like, first half I was like: omg the profile turned out so good he looks so pretty and handsome! And then I started adding colours and it all went downhill. I can either do lineart without colours or colours without lineart, but apperantly I'm not capable of doing both ToT
Also his eye turned out way more... yellow/orange than I wanted to be honest.. his eyes are usually this smokey-brown like in the aesthetic template I made.
Here are other versions:
I mean look how much better it looks without colours ToT
Okay that's all of my ranting!
