OOC - Character Info
May. 18th, 2013 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
littledeathbringerName: Gilligan Blaylock Regis
Nicknames: Giles, Gilly, Lilly, little git
Age: 23
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Asexual
Birthday: October 4th
Like(s): Sweets, girls, nice clothes, his siblings, music, attention, technology, cats.
Dislike(s): Bitter food, his eldest brother, a large portion of his family, being ignored, broken things.
Hobby(ies): Fixing things, inventing, pulling pranks, "dark magic" (necromancy), being a git
Fear(s): Gorey deaths, cannibalism, vengeful ghosts, his ex-best friend slash cousin, rats, insects, spiders, poisonous snakes and large dogs.
Family:
- Parents: Arcadio Regis and Calida Regis
- Siblings: Octavius, 34. Elodia, 32. Aristeo, 29, banished. Permelia, 26.
- Wife: Luella Regis, 20.
- Children: N/A.
World Info: Giles’s world is very similar to ours at the brink of industrialization, yet it has been changed by the presence of magic. Some places are advancing more rapidly than others not just due to advances in technology but in magic as well. This is the beginning of what might become a steampunk world.
While some styles of magic, say healing, are well-accepted, necromancy is frowned upon, they are treated with suspicion and wariness. This is partly due to the small, but memorable percentage of necromancers who go mad and then proceed to go on rampages with hordes of murdering zombie-like corpses. It happens very rarely but everyone knows at least one such story. Necromancers are permitted to work their magic as long as they don’t break any other laws. For example, if a family asks them to communicate with a corpse, they may dig it up with their permission, but it is forbidden for them to use graveyards as a self-service store. There are many places, especially traditional and rural ones, where necromancers aren’t welcome. Nevertheless it is possible to make a comfortable living plying your trade as a necromancer.
Giles’s world is basically two worlds, two sides of the same coin, the world of the living and the world of the dead, called the netherworld. The netherworld is the realm of the dead of his universe. While it can be entered and left again by necromancers, visiting it is solely a journey of the mind and soul. To master these travels is the greatest art of a necromancer. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors, to bridge life and death is the core of their art. The necromancer can walk and talk in the netherworld, they will have a body there, though their true body remains comatose at home. While time doesn’t pass differently in the netherworld, it will feel that way to a visitor. The netherworld is addictive, it gives you a feeling of being free of all mortal worries and constraints, including a sense of time. You could spend a century talking to an interesting deceased or a decade admiring the smoothness of a stone. This is why it is so important for necromancers to have an anchor in the world of the living, a reason to keep track of time and tear themselves away from the netherworld time and again. It is painful to leave this place and gets harder the more time you spend there. Thus, visits to the netherworld should be the exception, not the rule for a healthy necromancer. If your body dies while your mind is in the netherworld, you are stuck between life and death. Your soul remains the soul of a living being since you haven’t died properly and the netherworld isn’t made for the living. With not even the shortest break from the effects of the netherworld, the soul will wither and decay quickly there, you will deaden to sensations, feelings and memories until you are nothing but a shade without a sense of self.
Personality: Giles is a bit of a tricky fish. He has many sides of himself, all built to best interract with what he's used to. Because of this people who fall into the cracks tend to confuse him, and the unknown makes him uncomfortable. He tends to categorize people according to what they seem most like, And then become offended if they act different than he expects them to.
The category that most people go into is "peasants". Mostly males in this category, as ladies have their own, but particularly unpleasant women may find themselves in here as well. While it includes actual peasants by default, this is basically just how he views anyone who isn't of at least a standing as high as his family's. Which is to say, deeply inferior. These are the sort of people he will address pointedly as peasants, or simply "hey you". As far as he's concerned, they are completely beneath him unless they do an absolutely flawless job of proving otherwise. Giles tends to only associate with these types if he absolutely has to, although he makes no effort to hide it if he does make a friend among the peasants. Usually they are scapegoats to his pranks.
Higher up on the scale is the Regis clan itself. Giles has mixed feelings on his family; while their ideas aren't the best and their plans for him are sort of horrid, he has his fair share of family loyalty and is pretty proud of who he is. He would rather die than see his immediate family get hurt, and can at least be convinced to help the elders in their schemes. He mostly enjoys how his sisters and mother baby him, and the off-chance of being noticed by the main lines of the Regis clan. However, he is looked down on for his association with his elder brother Aristeo, the local misfiring rebel. And because of this he's sort of gained an inferiority complex, that his own actions don't matter as much as Aristeo's and that being a good boy won't be enough to gain him the respect he deserves or differentiate him from Aristeo. Which leads to occasionally pulling pranks on his family members.
Aristeo gets his own section in here, due to Giles's complicated feelings on him. Aristeo is the middle brother, meaning he gains respect simply on account on being his big brother, but also meaning Giles is affecting by their eldest brother into poking fun at him. Like most of the family, he sees Aristeo as something that interferes with everything else, a crease that needs to be smoothed out. But since he is Aristeo's family, he also knows he isn't just a rebel, knows he has a good heart underneath that. And, being Aristeo's little brother, he's grown up with the rebellious git, so he doesn't see it as as big a deal as others do. In fact, Giles is prone to imitating Aristeo's behavior, and has since he was little. Aristeo is someone that he respects to a large extent, partly because Aristeo stands up for himself even when he might lose everything because of it. Being a rebel in a family like the Regis is hard work, and the toil gains him a few secret followers, Giles being the most obvious of them. However, because Aristeo sees him as nothing more than another Regis, Giles is also constantly looking for ways to force Aristeo to pay attention to him. This ranges from trying to impress him with his skills, to giving him gifts of bones, to telling everyone he's a lousy git and trying his best to start fights with him. Typical sibling rivalry.
His other siblings also have their own, less complicated category. His big sisters, Permelia and Elodia, are fun to be around as long as they continually pamper him. Since Permelia is closest to his age (three years older), she is pretty easy to get along with and will occasionally lend him supplies or tips for his pranks. His eldest brother Octavius, however, is completely done with Aristeo's behavior and spares no interest in Giles, either. And because of the cold shoulder treatment given to him, Giles has a fair bit of resentment for Octavius. Which leads to acting more like Aristeo, which leads to Octavius liking him even less. It's a vicious circle, that.
Another important category is those of higher standing to himself. While he is polite in polite company, he comes off as pretty sarcastic even around royalty. Without his sisters or mother there to slap him into shape, he usually regards those higher than himself with an air of "I'm never going to be as good as you, and because of that I don't care to act like your position matters to me". He is prone to teasing others, or simply ignoring them, unless there is a very good reason for him to act better. But, under the right circumstances, he can be the spitting image of a gentleman, able to charm a woman with white gloves into buying a ketchup popsicle.
Heres the last truly important category: Girls. They're an enigma to him, but a very interesting problem all the same. Although it's not the same problem most boys are faced with; his is that he really has no interest in flirting with them. He is married, but sees his wife as a friend. He acts toward women universally as ladies, regardless of status or race, but does it simply because he was taught to do so. In truth he has no opinion on them, and doesn't really understand why every man cares so much about being paired off with girls. Mostly he sees them as the sex that is easier to befriend. In fact, he does a good job of coming off as "one of the girls" when he's around them, and is frequently teased by males with a rather prominent nickname of "Lilly".
Lastly, there is a special category for his closest friends. As of yet, no one has actually accessed this category, since he keeps most people at a respectable distance. Around his friends he is a soft and caring person, totally different from the reckless prankster who kicked up girls' skirts when he was younger and sets fire to doors now as an adult. He has a soft spot for animals of all sorts (except for insects, spiders and rats), and will often mourn the loss of pets while he will be totally unaffected by the deaths of humans. His favorite animal is the cat, because cats always know how inferior and petty humans are. He has trouble sympathizing with dogs, though, both because of his phobia and because he sees them as stupid creatures. When alone with his friends, he will even act a bit like an animal; he enjoys being petted or stroked, and will often show loads of physical affection, which is rather odd in his society. In some ways he also comes off as girlish; he has a mothering personality to those younger than him, and enjoys mending things and looking stylish. He is afraid of gore, despite his abilities in necromancy, and prefers using his talents in ways that look pretty instead of heroic.
However, there is the matter of pride. And when it comes to pride, Giles can get pretty violent. He was raised being told specific standards of "manliness", detailing heroic mannerisms and chivalrous actions. This hasn't fully sunk in, because he prefers kindness over force and beauty over strength. He is constantly teased, and usually takes it with a grain of salt. But if it hits a vein, if something hits too close to home, he snaps. He can prove just how "manly" he is, by using his talents as violently as possible, or by using his fists if nothing else is available. He has even caused two deaths in the past, due to his habit of bloodthirsty grudges, and makes no small deal of it when threatening others. It's not unlikely for one to walk away with broken bones and undead cat bites after driving Giles to the edge.
History: He was the youngest of five children born to Arcadio and his wife Calida, in one of the lesser lines of the Regis Clan. In order of birth the children were Octavius, Elodia, Aristeo, Permelia and finally Gilligan. As far as children went, Gilligan was rather normal; he started out sweet, and was soon molded into the snooty, well-mannered puppet the clan would want him to be. He had his fair share of pampering in the family, babying even, including being put in pretty dresses by his sisters and tricked into near-death experiences by his brothers. And then things got serious.
As Aristeo became more and more rebellious, Gilligan followed in suit. But unlike Aristeo, Gilligan was easily beat down and forced to conform, becoming to some extent more like Octavius before long. Once he was acting like a proper Regis, he had the chance for a few friends in the form of his closer cousins. One of these was a boy around his age (8) named Elliott. Elliott and Gilligan became instant best friends, the sort that are rarely seen apparent and whose parents wonder if they've accidentally adopted a new son.
However, there was a large flaw to this brilliant friendship, and it boiled up the time they were 12. Elliott was, of course, a Regis. And Regis are bred to look down on anyone who causes trouble. When word spread of Aristeo's wife dying, Elliott turned on Gilligan and his immediate family just as fast as the rest of the clan. Heartbroken by the loss, Gilligan started an argument with him over his ideals, calling him a puppet as he'd heard Aristeo call many of the family. Elliott rebutted by saying Gilligan was nothing but a puppet for Aristeo, followed by many slanders about his brother. With this, Gilligan snapped for the first time.
Elliott was beaten within an inch of his life. He was taken away, but being unconscious he could not say who his attacker was. Gilligan decided he had to cover up the evidence, and that he didn't actually want Elliott alive anymore. After all, he could always be around him still if he died, he was a necromancer. Thus, Gilligan snuck into Elliott's hospital room, and strangled him.
What Gilligan had not counted on is that, while unconscious, a soul is actually waiting in the Netherworld for its body to be safe again. Having been beaten so severely, Elliott's soul was, for all intents and purposes, on the same trip as a normal necromancer would take to the Netherworld. When he died he was trapped there, and began decaying quickly into a shade. This left Gilligan with no best friend, and plenty of blood on his hands. He was discovered in the room shortly after Elliott's death. Elliott's mother traveled to the Netherworld, and it was confirmed by the remaining part of his soul that Gilligan had killed him.
Interestingly, lot a lot of the blame was put on Gilligan. He was young, after all, and had genuinely believed Elliott's soul was still in his body. More blame was put on Aristeo, instead, as the cause of the rebellious attitude that had caused Gilligan's actions. And on Aristeo's wife, a woman with a worse temper who had probably only kept the lot of them alive due to a lucky break. This was, of course, around the same time that Aristeo's wife died in a fire. This struck a sour chord with Aristeo, causing him to look down on Gilligan, as did his family at large. But after a while this died down. After all, children are but glorified provisions to the Regis, and there were enough mouths to feed already. Gilligan began living with Aristeo, something that his wife had suggested before her death, and kept the house after Aristeo had a meltdown and fled the clan. There he gained his own wife, a cousin as usual, named Luella.
Luella was at first rather happy with the match; Gilligan was handsome, charismatic and friendly. The only time he even showed a temper is when he corrected others in calling him Gilligan, when he insisted his name is Giles as it had been since Elliott had chosen the name. However, she was disappointed to learn that he had no attraction to her, not even in a contempt sort of way. He simply saw her as a friend. He had no interest in flirting with her, or any girl for that matter. In the years that followed, she failed to even bargain a kiss out of him. She was, thus, stuck in a dead-end marriage that couldn't even fulfill the family's expectations of them. At the age of 23, he has yet to have even one kid, which is downright blasphemous in his clan. He has, instead, become a tinkerer who may as well be perpetually single. Luella blames his lack of interest in her on a mix of her unattractiveness, his shock over Aristeo and his wife, and his fear of Elliott somehow haunting him. At least two of these are true, to some extent.
Because of his involvement with Elliott's death, and the fact that Aristeo's wife died soon after becoming close to him, Giles has gained the label of "the little death-bringer" among his family. A rumor has spread delicately through the clan that he has been cursed by Elliott's spirit.
Powers: Giles is a necromancer. His art is postly bridging life and death, communicating or animating the dead, and such practices as that.
Necromancers can infuse corpses with their spiritual power to animate them, however it requires full concentration to keep these zombie-like corpses under control. If they lose control, the zombies, once “programmed” to destroy, will simply wipe out all life until they run out of energy. Thus horde attacks are more closely associated with necromancers gone mad than with warfare.
Giles personally prefers animating animals, as they require less effort to control. His favorite subjects are birds, as they are useful messengers and look pretty even if made of nothing but bones. However, non-human zombies are more likely to crumble quickly than human zombies, due to the difference in soul vessel, so it takes an exceptional knowledge of the animal to perform this sort of art. Giles is, in that way, very easy to tell apart from his family members.
Necromancy as the Regis clan practices it is mostly communication with the dead. This can be done by being close to a corpse or leaving your body in a comatose state and travelling to the Netherworld. Giles also likes communicating with dead animals, but since he cannot speak their languages it's mostly for the comfort of hearing their noises.
Some necromancers will divine the future from the guts of the dead. Giles is disgusted and disturbed by this, and it serves as nothing but nightmare fuel to him. Guts are among his least favorite things on the planet, after all.
Nicknames: Giles, Gilly, Lilly, little git
Age: 23
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Asexual
Birthday: October 4th
Like(s): Sweets, girls, nice clothes, his siblings, music, attention, technology, cats.
Dislike(s): Bitter food, his eldest brother, a large portion of his family, being ignored, broken things.
Hobby(ies): Fixing things, inventing, pulling pranks, "dark magic" (necromancy), being a git
Fear(s): Gorey deaths, cannibalism, vengeful ghosts, his ex-best friend slash cousin, rats, insects, spiders, poisonous snakes and large dogs.
Family:
- Parents: Arcadio Regis and Calida Regis
- Siblings: Octavius, 34. Elodia, 32. Aristeo, 29, banished. Permelia, 26.
- Wife: Luella Regis, 20.
- Children: N/A.
World Info: Giles’s world is very similar to ours at the brink of industrialization, yet it has been changed by the presence of magic. Some places are advancing more rapidly than others not just due to advances in technology but in magic as well. This is the beginning of what might become a steampunk world.
While some styles of magic, say healing, are well-accepted, necromancy is frowned upon, they are treated with suspicion and wariness. This is partly due to the small, but memorable percentage of necromancers who go mad and then proceed to go on rampages with hordes of murdering zombie-like corpses. It happens very rarely but everyone knows at least one such story. Necromancers are permitted to work their magic as long as they don’t break any other laws. For example, if a family asks them to communicate with a corpse, they may dig it up with their permission, but it is forbidden for them to use graveyards as a self-service store. There are many places, especially traditional and rural ones, where necromancers aren’t welcome. Nevertheless it is possible to make a comfortable living plying your trade as a necromancer.
Giles’s world is basically two worlds, two sides of the same coin, the world of the living and the world of the dead, called the netherworld. The netherworld is the realm of the dead of his universe. While it can be entered and left again by necromancers, visiting it is solely a journey of the mind and soul. To master these travels is the greatest art of a necromancer. Everything else is just smoke and mirrors, to bridge life and death is the core of their art. The necromancer can walk and talk in the netherworld, they will have a body there, though their true body remains comatose at home. While time doesn’t pass differently in the netherworld, it will feel that way to a visitor. The netherworld is addictive, it gives you a feeling of being free of all mortal worries and constraints, including a sense of time. You could spend a century talking to an interesting deceased or a decade admiring the smoothness of a stone. This is why it is so important for necromancers to have an anchor in the world of the living, a reason to keep track of time and tear themselves away from the netherworld time and again. It is painful to leave this place and gets harder the more time you spend there. Thus, visits to the netherworld should be the exception, not the rule for a healthy necromancer. If your body dies while your mind is in the netherworld, you are stuck between life and death. Your soul remains the soul of a living being since you haven’t died properly and the netherworld isn’t made for the living. With not even the shortest break from the effects of the netherworld, the soul will wither and decay quickly there, you will deaden to sensations, feelings and memories until you are nothing but a shade without a sense of self.
Appearance: Giles is about 158 cm tall, making him rather short for a man in his family. He is of rather feminine build; he has well-hidden muscles, a thin frame and small shoulders. His hair is black and straight, falling almost to his shoulders, and his eyes are dark hazel. His clothing style is usually pretty plain by the standards of his family; he is prone to dressing like a peasant, actually. The bulk of his wardrobe is several combination of white shirts with dark vests, and black trousers. The one thing that never changes is the black jacket once belonging to his best friend, which he is rarely seen without unless he's working or otherwise worried that it might get dirty.
He also has a large scar, along his left forearm, from a dog bite when he was younger.
He generally slouches a bit, but has a friendly demeanor as long as he's on his own. If any of his family members are around he still slouches, but has a more cold and regal look about him. He tends to grin a lot around people he likes, but will glare and sneer around those he doesn't. And, either way, he has the aura of someone who simply should not be trusted. Which is a good idea, since he often has several means to prank others on hand.
Personality: Giles is a bit of a tricky fish. He has many sides of himself, all built to best interract with what he's used to. Because of this people who fall into the cracks tend to confuse him, and the unknown makes him uncomfortable. He tends to categorize people according to what they seem most like, And then become offended if they act different than he expects them to.
The category that most people go into is "peasants". Mostly males in this category, as ladies have their own, but particularly unpleasant women may find themselves in here as well. While it includes actual peasants by default, this is basically just how he views anyone who isn't of at least a standing as high as his family's. Which is to say, deeply inferior. These are the sort of people he will address pointedly as peasants, or simply "hey you". As far as he's concerned, they are completely beneath him unless they do an absolutely flawless job of proving otherwise. Giles tends to only associate with these types if he absolutely has to, although he makes no effort to hide it if he does make a friend among the peasants. Usually they are scapegoats to his pranks.
Higher up on the scale is the Regis clan itself. Giles has mixed feelings on his family; while their ideas aren't the best and their plans for him are sort of horrid, he has his fair share of family loyalty and is pretty proud of who he is. He would rather die than see his immediate family get hurt, and can at least be convinced to help the elders in their schemes. He mostly enjoys how his sisters and mother baby him, and the off-chance of being noticed by the main lines of the Regis clan. However, he is looked down on for his association with his elder brother Aristeo, the local misfiring rebel. And because of this he's sort of gained an inferiority complex, that his own actions don't matter as much as Aristeo's and that being a good boy won't be enough to gain him the respect he deserves or differentiate him from Aristeo. Which leads to occasionally pulling pranks on his family members.
Aristeo gets his own section in here, due to Giles's complicated feelings on him. Aristeo is the middle brother, meaning he gains respect simply on account on being his big brother, but also meaning Giles is affecting by their eldest brother into poking fun at him. Like most of the family, he sees Aristeo as something that interferes with everything else, a crease that needs to be smoothed out. But since he is Aristeo's family, he also knows he isn't just a rebel, knows he has a good heart underneath that. And, being Aristeo's little brother, he's grown up with the rebellious git, so he doesn't see it as as big a deal as others do. In fact, Giles is prone to imitating Aristeo's behavior, and has since he was little. Aristeo is someone that he respects to a large extent, partly because Aristeo stands up for himself even when he might lose everything because of it. Being a rebel in a family like the Regis is hard work, and the toil gains him a few secret followers, Giles being the most obvious of them. However, because Aristeo sees him as nothing more than another Regis, Giles is also constantly looking for ways to force Aristeo to pay attention to him. This ranges from trying to impress him with his skills, to giving him gifts of bones, to telling everyone he's a lousy git and trying his best to start fights with him. Typical sibling rivalry.
His other siblings also have their own, less complicated category. His big sisters, Permelia and Elodia, are fun to be around as long as they continually pamper him. Since Permelia is closest to his age (three years older), she is pretty easy to get along with and will occasionally lend him supplies or tips for his pranks. His eldest brother Octavius, however, is completely done with Aristeo's behavior and spares no interest in Giles, either. And because of the cold shoulder treatment given to him, Giles has a fair bit of resentment for Octavius. Which leads to acting more like Aristeo, which leads to Octavius liking him even less. It's a vicious circle, that.
Another important category is those of higher standing to himself. While he is polite in polite company, he comes off as pretty sarcastic even around royalty. Without his sisters or mother there to slap him into shape, he usually regards those higher than himself with an air of "I'm never going to be as good as you, and because of that I don't care to act like your position matters to me". He is prone to teasing others, or simply ignoring them, unless there is a very good reason for him to act better. But, under the right circumstances, he can be the spitting image of a gentleman, able to charm a woman with white gloves into buying a ketchup popsicle.
Heres the last truly important category: Girls. They're an enigma to him, but a very interesting problem all the same. Although it's not the same problem most boys are faced with; his is that he really has no interest in flirting with them. He is married, but sees his wife as a friend. He acts toward women universally as ladies, regardless of status or race, but does it simply because he was taught to do so. In truth he has no opinion on them, and doesn't really understand why every man cares so much about being paired off with girls. Mostly he sees them as the sex that is easier to befriend. In fact, he does a good job of coming off as "one of the girls" when he's around them, and is frequently teased by males with a rather prominent nickname of "Lilly".
Lastly, there is a special category for his closest friends. As of yet, no one has actually accessed this category, since he keeps most people at a respectable distance. Around his friends he is a soft and caring person, totally different from the reckless prankster who kicked up girls' skirts when he was younger and sets fire to doors now as an adult. He has a soft spot for animals of all sorts (except for insects, spiders and rats), and will often mourn the loss of pets while he will be totally unaffected by the deaths of humans. His favorite animal is the cat, because cats always know how inferior and petty humans are. He has trouble sympathizing with dogs, though, both because of his phobia and because he sees them as stupid creatures. When alone with his friends, he will even act a bit like an animal; he enjoys being petted or stroked, and will often show loads of physical affection, which is rather odd in his society. In some ways he also comes off as girlish; he has a mothering personality to those younger than him, and enjoys mending things and looking stylish. He is afraid of gore, despite his abilities in necromancy, and prefers using his talents in ways that look pretty instead of heroic.
However, there is the matter of pride. And when it comes to pride, Giles can get pretty violent. He was raised being told specific standards of "manliness", detailing heroic mannerisms and chivalrous actions. This hasn't fully sunk in, because he prefers kindness over force and beauty over strength. He is constantly teased, and usually takes it with a grain of salt. But if it hits a vein, if something hits too close to home, he snaps. He can prove just how "manly" he is, by using his talents as violently as possible, or by using his fists if nothing else is available. He has even caused two deaths in the past, due to his habit of bloodthirsty grudges, and makes no small deal of it when threatening others. It's not unlikely for one to walk away with broken bones and undead cat bites after driving Giles to the edge.
History: He was the youngest of five children born to Arcadio and his wife Calida, in one of the lesser lines of the Regis Clan. In order of birth the children were Octavius, Elodia, Aristeo, Permelia and finally Gilligan. As far as children went, Gilligan was rather normal; he started out sweet, and was soon molded into the snooty, well-mannered puppet the clan would want him to be. He had his fair share of pampering in the family, babying even, including being put in pretty dresses by his sisters and tricked into near-death experiences by his brothers. And then things got serious.
As Aristeo became more and more rebellious, Gilligan followed in suit. But unlike Aristeo, Gilligan was easily beat down and forced to conform, becoming to some extent more like Octavius before long. Once he was acting like a proper Regis, he had the chance for a few friends in the form of his closer cousins. One of these was a boy around his age (8) named Elliott. Elliott and Gilligan became instant best friends, the sort that are rarely seen apparent and whose parents wonder if they've accidentally adopted a new son.
However, there was a large flaw to this brilliant friendship, and it boiled up the time they were 12. Elliott was, of course, a Regis. And Regis are bred to look down on anyone who causes trouble. When word spread of Aristeo's wife dying, Elliott turned on Gilligan and his immediate family just as fast as the rest of the clan. Heartbroken by the loss, Gilligan started an argument with him over his ideals, calling him a puppet as he'd heard Aristeo call many of the family. Elliott rebutted by saying Gilligan was nothing but a puppet for Aristeo, followed by many slanders about his brother. With this, Gilligan snapped for the first time.
Elliott was beaten within an inch of his life. He was taken away, but being unconscious he could not say who his attacker was. Gilligan decided he had to cover up the evidence, and that he didn't actually want Elliott alive anymore. After all, he could always be around him still if he died, he was a necromancer. Thus, Gilligan snuck into Elliott's hospital room, and strangled him.
What Gilligan had not counted on is that, while unconscious, a soul is actually waiting in the Netherworld for its body to be safe again. Having been beaten so severely, Elliott's soul was, for all intents and purposes, on the same trip as a normal necromancer would take to the Netherworld. When he died he was trapped there, and began decaying quickly into a shade. This left Gilligan with no best friend, and plenty of blood on his hands. He was discovered in the room shortly after Elliott's death. Elliott's mother traveled to the Netherworld, and it was confirmed by the remaining part of his soul that Gilligan had killed him.
Interestingly, lot a lot of the blame was put on Gilligan. He was young, after all, and had genuinely believed Elliott's soul was still in his body. More blame was put on Aristeo, instead, as the cause of the rebellious attitude that had caused Gilligan's actions. And on Aristeo's wife, a woman with a worse temper who had probably only kept the lot of them alive due to a lucky break. This was, of course, around the same time that Aristeo's wife died in a fire. This struck a sour chord with Aristeo, causing him to look down on Gilligan, as did his family at large. But after a while this died down. After all, children are but glorified provisions to the Regis, and there were enough mouths to feed already. Gilligan began living with Aristeo, something that his wife had suggested before her death, and kept the house after Aristeo had a meltdown and fled the clan. There he gained his own wife, a cousin as usual, named Luella.
Luella was at first rather happy with the match; Gilligan was handsome, charismatic and friendly. The only time he even showed a temper is when he corrected others in calling him Gilligan, when he insisted his name is Giles as it had been since Elliott had chosen the name. However, she was disappointed to learn that he had no attraction to her, not even in a contempt sort of way. He simply saw her as a friend. He had no interest in flirting with her, or any girl for that matter. In the years that followed, she failed to even bargain a kiss out of him. She was, thus, stuck in a dead-end marriage that couldn't even fulfill the family's expectations of them. At the age of 23, he has yet to have even one kid, which is downright blasphemous in his clan. He has, instead, become a tinkerer who may as well be perpetually single. Luella blames his lack of interest in her on a mix of her unattractiveness, his shock over Aristeo and his wife, and his fear of Elliott somehow haunting him. At least two of these are true, to some extent.
Because of his involvement with Elliott's death, and the fact that Aristeo's wife died soon after becoming close to him, Giles has gained the label of "the little death-bringer" among his family. A rumor has spread delicately through the clan that he has been cursed by Elliott's spirit.
Powers: Giles is a necromancer. His art is postly bridging life and death, communicating or animating the dead, and such practices as that.
Necromancers can infuse corpses with their spiritual power to animate them, however it requires full concentration to keep these zombie-like corpses under control. If they lose control, the zombies, once “programmed” to destroy, will simply wipe out all life until they run out of energy. Thus horde attacks are more closely associated with necromancers gone mad than with warfare.
Giles personally prefers animating animals, as they require less effort to control. His favorite subjects are birds, as they are useful messengers and look pretty even if made of nothing but bones. However, non-human zombies are more likely to crumble quickly than human zombies, due to the difference in soul vessel, so it takes an exceptional knowledge of the animal to perform this sort of art. Giles is, in that way, very easy to tell apart from his family members.
Necromancy as the Regis clan practices it is mostly communication with the dead. This can be done by being close to a corpse or leaving your body in a comatose state and travelling to the Netherworld. Giles also likes communicating with dead animals, but since he cannot speak their languages it's mostly for the comfort of hearing their noises.
Some necromancers will divine the future from the guts of the dead. Giles is disgusted and disturbed by this, and it serves as nothing but nightmare fuel to him. Guts are among his least favorite things on the planet, after all.
