Ilias Katopodis

### Dislikes

Being lied to, deceived, mistreated, falsely accused, criticized, and reprimanded
Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline
Hurting others
False friends
Military academy
Broken promises
School uniforms
Tofu
Being an outcast
Anyone making him angry
War
Elias causing trouble
His negative emotions taking over

### Weapons

Sapphire Sword of Absolution
Slingshot

### Quote

"My names Ilias, not Elias!"
"I'm not afraid of you!"
"I'm warning you! You don't want to make me angry!"

**Ilias Agapito de la Cruz Katopodis** (**Ηλίας Αγαπίτο ντε λα Κρουζ Κατωπόδης**) is the main protagonist of *Ilias and the Sanctuary of Swashbucklers*. He is an 11-year-old Filipino-Greek American boy who entered a portal to the Celestial Seas in the Ocean Realm, a dimension where pirates roam the oceans, and mermaids live in the oceans below. He entered the Celestial Seas to get away from his unhappy life on Earth.

## Appearance

### Body

Ilias is an 11-year-old Filipino-Greek-American boy with olive-tan skin, a slim body build, slightly longer legs and wider hips than the average boy his age due to having Klinefelter syndrome, blue monolid eyes, and shiny black hair in a medium-length style and parted on the top of his head in the center, creating curtained bangs that flip out at the sides and bottom back. He also has a beauty mark near his left eye.

### Clothing

On Earth, he was first shown wearing a school uniform that consisted of a white dress shirt, a yellow necktie with thick black diagonal stripes, a gray V-neck sweater vest and matching blazer with a black crest embroidered on it, a pair of matching pants, a black belt, black dress socks, and a pair of black dress shoes. He also wears a pair of round glasses.

His standard clothing, which he kept hidden until his departure, consists of a navy blue sleeveless racerback hoodie, short dark gray jean shorts, black over-the-knee socks, and white top-sider boat shoes, starting when he leaves Earth. He also retains his glasses.

His pajamas consist of an oversized off-white long-sleeved shirt, maroon shorts with white trimming on the bottom, and goes barefoot.

His swimsuit consists of a pair of light purple colored swim shorts and wood sandals called *Bakya*, historic sandals from the Philippines before rubber sandals were introduced.

## Personality

Ilias is an introverted, lonely, timid, and emotionally sensitive boy, but when provoked, he can get angry, especially when someone goes too far with saying things or doing things in front of him that he doesn't like. His rebellious nature and temperamental manners are caused by the verbal and emotional abuse inflicted by Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline, the people who killed his parents and the bullying from the general public since his parents' murder. In the first episode of the series, he ran away from their house after being threatened to be sent to a military academy so as to force him into submission to their harsh and unfair rules, which scared him to death and brought him to tears, which shows that he cries when he is scared to death. He has been aware of his own environment since the incident, and has since considered himself an outcast on Earth due to being bullied by his peers, school staff and McCoy and Cline, leading to him having no friends.

Ilias is often reluctant to properly expressing his feelings to other people because he feels he doesn't know how people will react when he tries to do it, albiet thinking everyone will react negatively if he does, given the rejection has faced in school and in the public eye since his parents' deaths. He has often fought back against his bullies and dectractors when they provoked him, and when fighting back got violence involved, he felt terrible afterward. In addition, his refusal to show conformity and hesitance to properly express himself contributes to his lack of a proper social life. This is slowly changing for him during his life transition to the Celestial Seas after being taken under the Captain's wing.

Despite these issues, beneath the self-conscious exterior, Ilias is compassionate, empathetic, intelligent, and loving at heart. When he is allowed to spend time with himself, seen in quieter scenes where he writes in his diary, he has some calm composure, and has a sense of fascination about many things uncommon for boys to be interested, such as mermaids, nature, fashion, the three suns of the Celestial Seas, and how clean the ocean is compared to Earth's oceans. Despite being typically shy and nervous, Ilias learns to stand up after Gretel insulted him and denied his ideas about having a fair trial on the ship. Ilias has also been shown to utter small phrases in Greek, and Filipino, when experiencing certain bouts of emotion.

He is also honest about his self-esteem issues mostly regarding his past life, remembering how awful he felt after fighting back with bullies who picked on him in school. Ilias does not appreciate when others take advantage of their positions in life, and his experiences of being bullied on Earth leads him to show great resentment towards bullies and slavers. After thinking about how awful he felt about fighting back with bullies in school, he always wrote entries in his diary to document his life and keeps it handy with him about how each and every day treats him, and over time, he is learning to be willing to open up to Alexandra and his new friends about his feelings.

## Background

Ilias had trouble with three bullies in school, and all four of them recieved detention after school. The school did nothing to help him, standing up for himself was almost enough to get in trouble, and upon leaving school, Ilias cursed out the school for allowing bullying to persist in his presence, but returning home, he was harshly reprimanded and threatened by Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline to be sent to military academy to force him into submission to their harsh and unfair rules. He tries to reason with them that he is innocent to no avail, adding that his real parents would not want this. They sarcastically admit that Ilias was kidnapped the day his parents died, and arrogantly continue to threaten to send him there, but Ilias declares he won't have it, nor speak to them again. He packs and all his belongings in a suitcase and his bag and leaves the house, and runs all the way down to the end of the Breakwater out by the coast, never to return, but sits wondering what will happen to him, and breaks down crying in his loneliness.

## Relationships

### Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline

Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline were supposedly his guardians, but he hated them for their cruelty. In "The Boy Who Ran Away", after he walked all the way to their house from school after serving detention, they lambasted him for getting "his friends" in trouble, he retorts that they were never his friends to begin with and just bullies. They refuse to listen then threaten to send him to military academy "for his own good", but Ilias tearfully argues he won't survive a day there, his parents wouldn't want it and locks himself in his room until they are asleep, packs all his belongings, and leaves the house, never to return.

### Alexandra Piedrabuena

Alexandra is Ilias' teacher and mother figure. Upon getting used to sailing with her crew, he decides he want to become a pirate like her.

Ilias is at first hesitant to learn from her and express his feelings to her, but whereas Ilias believes he is unworthy of drawing the Sapphire Sword and keeps himself busy by washing all the dishes on the ship, Alexandra encourages Ilias to open up to her about his feelings when he is ready, and to believe that he is worthy of proving himself the kind of person he wants to be and not what others want him to be and to do. Going at her pace can leave Ilias impatient and he is struggling to do whatever it takes to control his emotions, such as trying to prove to Alexandra by engaging Gretel Siegel-Schleissler with a spare cutlass. He does not fault Alexandra for her flaws and instead tries to help her resolve them. To him, Alexandra is not just a teacher, but also a surrogate mother. Ilias does not see eye-to-eye on every one of Alexandra's ideas, as he was outraged by the thought of walking the plank as a means of testing how deep the water was, leading to him rebelling against her, though in the end, he realizes how much he needs her on the same amount as she needs him. In "Ship in the Sky", Ilias is shown to be afraid of Alexandra's trial judgments watching a fellow pirate being tried before the crew and tries to stick to her rules so as not to be punished.

In "The Boy Who Ran Away", Ilias was writing in his diary before having a panic attack, thinking he was dreaming, and ran off to the deck, trying to make sense of where he was now. Alexandra notices this, and starts to believe he was unhappy on Earth where he came from, and manages to get through to him about opening up about his feelings about life on Earth. When Ilias breaks down crying, Alexandra insists that her crew is like a family and no one is to be left behind or forgotten; and Ilias finally confides in her that he does not go back to Earth where he lived in misery. Alexandra pulls him into a hug and tells him she will be there for him from that point on, he wants to believe that but feels he can't trust anyone but she tells him she feels for him because she had been there when she was his age.

In "Will of a Pirate", Ilias tries to read Alexandra's mind to see what is bothering her, when he discovers that the hex on the Celestial Seas is starting to get worse. When he is captured by Gretel, Alexandra comes to his rescue and furiously attacks Gretel both for kidnapping Ilias and upon finding out it was her who had betrayed them to the Duke, who broke out the hex under her influence, who then demanded a bounty on her. When Gretel threatens to kill Ilias, Alexandra is driven to her breaking point and strikes at her hard to save him, at the cost of losing her stamina, possibly quickly, despite Ilias' pleas for her not to lose herself to her anger. After Gretel starts overpowering Alexandra, Ilias attacks Gretel but is easily overcome; he also remembers that his parents would be proud of him for protecting the people that he loves, as he swore that he would take down Gretel if she kills Alexandra, and with his help, Gretel is defeated, and sent to the brig until the trial.

When Alexandra finds that Ilias has successfully drawn the Sapphire Sword in "Unconditional Love", and raised it high in the sky, but is falling down and loses his consciousness, she is forced to get him down, leaving her in floods of tears, thinking he has died. When Gretel Siegel-Schleissler learns of the news he has drawn the sword and has survived, she swears vengeance upon them and their crew after being banished from the crew with several cronies of hers. At the end of the episode, Ilias wakes up, and is welcomed with an abundant hug and a kiss, and is told that Alexandra looks forward to their adventures to come, and is told to bring his new friends. Ilias is elated and also offers to teach her some of the nicer things he has seen people do on Earth that are on parts of the islands.

## Behind The Scenes

### Name and Basis

The name *Ilias* is the Greek form of the Biblical Hebrew name Elias, which means “Yahweh is God”, referring to the God of the Hebrews, whereas *Ilias* means “sunlight” and “child of the sun” in Greek. His middle name, *Ágapito*, is of Filipino, Greek and Spanish origins, meaning "beloved". "De la Cruz," His surname, *Katopodis*, in Greek, means “the one who ran away”, which refers to the fact that he ran away from his unhappy life on Earth.

### Debut

Ilias will make his debut in the series premiere, "The Boy Who Ran Away".

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## Trivia

* Ilias was taught by his parents at home and at their office since after he was born.
* Ilias' teddy bear has been his most prized possession since he was a baby.
	+ He says it is the only thing that brings any happy memories or comfort in his life since he left Earth.
* Ilias' slim build is due to having Klinefelter syndrome, which is having an extra X chromosome, and not only does it affect his physical build, but can also affect some mental developments, including low self-esteem, having trouble paying attention,.
* Ilias has similar traits to Guybrush Threepwood from the game series *Monkey Island*. Both desire to become pirates despite having non-piracy backgrounds.
* He is also similar to Harry Potter. Both had parents who were killed at an early age and lived several years following raised by horrible people.
	+ Harry was raised by Vernon and Petunia Dursley after James and Lily Potter died because they were the only family he had left, but made him do all the chores around the house and tried to stop him from realizing his true identity as a wizard.
	+ Ilias was taken away by Alfred McCoy and Marjorie Cline because he was the witness of their crimes to his parents' deaths and in order to shut him up, they took him away from his home and forced him to undergo a false identity in public without paperwork to prevent him from bringing his case to the authorities and to live an anti-social life, which he would be bullied for.
* Ilias may be considered what can be called a tomgirl, implied by his steadily longer hair, body build, and some interests and behaviors.
	+ In "Bad Dreams", Ilias remembers being called a sissy by bullies because he carried his diary around in school and he fought back because they tried to destroy it to his devastation, bringing him to tears of anger.
* In the episode "A Window To the Past", Ilias admits that he wanted to be a lawyer since he was a child, as he spent most of his time devouring books about law and once watched a court trial, and books like his diary were amongst his sources of comfort on Earth during his time with McCoy and Cline.
* In the episode "The First Voyage", it is revealed and shown that Ilias is severely allergic to tofu.
* Ilias is multilingual, being fluent in Filipino and Greek given his heritage.