ꨄ | Idia Shroud

Housewarden of Ignihyde. A gloomy boy who shies away from socialization and prefers to shut himself in his dorm room. At times, though, he gets unusually talkative and animated.

Appearance

Idia is a tall young man with pale skin and bright blue, fire-like hair. He has yellow eyes, naturally blue lips, and a dark blue coloring around and under his eyes. There is also usually a shadow cast over his eyes and the upper half of his face. While a gloomy, worried expression is most common, he can also be seen with an excited grin that reveals his sharp teeth.

Idia’s hair is considerably long and reaches down to his knees. While his long bangs fall loosely around his face and between his eyes, the hair on the top of his head seems to flow upwards. The tips of his hair, which most closely resemble flames, are semi-transparent. On some occasions, the color of Idia’s hair changes to reflect his mood. When he is relaxed, his flaming hair stays a soothing blue, but when he's enraged, it turns a vivid red-orange. Additionally, his hair tips can turn pink whenever he feels embarrassed.[2][3][4]

Dorm Uniform

As the housewarden, Idia’s dorm uniform somewhat differs from the rest of the Ignihyde students, the few distinguishing features being his padded belt, and several long strips of fabric that trail off of it. The uniform consists of a black textured jacket, a bright blue half-vest, navy-blue pants, and black and blue boots.

The jacket is mainly black with blue underlining. All over the outside of the jacket is a unique, geometric texture, consisting of evenly-arranged triangles. This texture appears to have a metallic shine. The jacket has a large, bright blue collar, resembling that of an aviator jacket, with black lines near the trim. Also along the collar are black zippers that go underneath the jacket. While barely visible, Idia also wears a navy-blue, crew neck shirt under his jacket.

On the right side of his chest is a bright blue half-vest that goes over his right shoulder, and is connected by a blue belt around his torso. The belt has a black triangle pattern and a dark-blue snap buckle, with the long end hanging down to his waist. The half-vest itself has one cargo pocket, above which is a large white button with the symbol of Ignihyde on it.

Just above Idia’s navy-blue pants is a blue padded belt, with a black belt strap and dark blue snap buckle. Hanging from the belt at both hips are blue, box-shaped pouches, with blue squares of fabric behind them, resembling the flaps on a tool belt. Worn over the navy-blue pants around his upper right thigh is a small blue belt with a black triangle pattern and dark-blue snap buckle. Both belts are connected by his black belt strap. Several long strips of fabric fall from the back of Idia’s belt and trail down to his ankles. The fabric’s outer sides are black, while the inner sides are bright blue.

The boots’ design resembles that of thick winter boots. They are mostly black, with bright blue tongues and heel counters. Over the tongues are four bright blue straps with black buckles, and the soles are white. Background

Hailing from a bloodline rooted in the Age of Gods, Idia's family operates the Jupiter Conglomerate. This massive corporation built its fortune through offshore oil and rare metals, and it acts as the parent company for Olympus Inc. Raised on the Island of Woe alongside his younger brother "Ortho" and his parents, Idia was recognized from a young age as a promising genius. He is destined to inherit his household and the responsibilities of the Director of S.T.Y.X, a private organization dedicated to the research of Blot, despite the boy's resentment of the role and the heavy restrictions on his freedom.[2][10][11]

As the heir to a blood curse cast by the Jupiter Family's main branch, Idia possesses the ability to rapidly burn through Blot. However, this is far from a blessing: the curse proceeds to deplete the user's own magical energy if no external Blot is available. Consequently, the Shroud family devoted generations to Blot research at S.T.Y.X and held onto the false hope of breaking the curse. Today, the family has accepted their destiny, having abandoned all attempts to defy it. Because of this condition, members of the family are usually gloomy and demotivated.[12][13]

During his childhood, he spent most of his free time together with "Ortho" and, despite his affliction and duties, his family has reportedly attempted to maintain a sense of normalcy, engaging in family activities such as walks and visits to the surrounding city. Influenced by the video games they would play, they both dreamed of becoming heroes and going on adventures together in the outside world. One day, Idia promised on a whim to have a real adventure with "Ortho", before he was forced to take up the family mantle.

The two then attempted to leave the island by shutting down S.T.Y.X.'s high-end security system. However, in doing so, this by collateral also opened “Tartarus” (or Underworld), a facility that housed overblot phantoms. Before Idia could turn the security back on, he and "Ortho" are attacked by an escaped phantom. Idia survived the accident, but upon waking up, he discovered that "Ortho" had vanished. Consumed by immediate guilt, he held on desperately to the need to keep the promise he had made to his younger brother. Over the next two years, Idia shut himself in his room, working tirelessly to recreate Ortho in the form of an artificially-intelligent robot. He eventually succeeded, but in the end, his efforts weren't enough to fully alleviate his grief, as he spends the following years continuing to shut himself away from others.

As a student at Night Raven College, Idia originally didn't want the housewarden position, but was later convinced that no one else in the dorm was more capable of being Ignihyde's housewarden than he is. He would also rather not abide by a housewarden less skilled than him. It's rumored among other students that Idia received special permission from the Headmage to attend classes remotely, in exchange for safeguarding the school's network environment.

In the events of Book 6, Idia returned to the Island of Woe to serve as the Action Director of S.T.Y.X. while his parents were away to conduct an investigation. Despite Ortho’s cancellation of the Lethe River configuration program, S.T.Y.X’s secrecy and the resulting information gap have kept the public in the dark, even as the press enters a feeding frenzy to uncover its secrets. Following this event, Ortho became determined to look after Idia, knowing full well that Idia lacks intimate friends who could support him or intervene when he dives headfirst into work and gaming. In turn, Idia now appears to be making an effort to move past his grief and the tragic loss of his little brother, though he is quick to point out that he's long considered Ortho to be his brother.[14][11] Trivia

Idia's name likely comes from the greek word «ἴδιος, -α, -ον», meaning 'private, personal, of oneself, reserved'. This could relate to his personality. "Idia" in the initial Greek meaning meant 'one who is removed from politics'. Later this word became the root of the pejorative term "idiot," which some students at NRC tend to see Idia as. His surname, Shroud, from the Latin word «sudarium», which originally means 'a cloth or handkerchief used to cover the face of dead people, to show them respect', which has relation to the story of Hades (or Pluto) being the god of the dead and taking care of the deceased souls of the Underworld. Idia's online nickname is Gloomurai, which is short for Gloomy Samurai.[2] According to Ortho, he has a decent number of fans in certain gaming circles, who tend to copy his in-game fashion sense. Idia has managed to make a few friends over the internet, one of which being someone nicknamed Muscle Red.[17] The two occasionally play video games together. Muscle Red is confirmed later on to be Lilia.[18] However, neither of them seem to be aware of the other's true identity. He has a fondness for cats, as he is once seen baby-talking Trein's cat, Lucius.[19] He once scared Grim to the point of fainting after mistaking him for a cat and attempting to pet him.[17] He also likes dogs and seems to have a fair amount of knowledge regarding dog care, but claims that he can't stand dog people like Crewel.[20] He generally shows a predilection for cute creatures, even when said animals defy normal semantic and physical laws. However, animals and creature like Grim or Zero appear to be afraid of him; something he seems to have gotten used to.[21][22][21] He was also highly amused to note, while testing Leona Kingscholar, the lion beastman appeared to be "beholden to his feline nature." Although, to Idia's chagrin, Leona is more like an "angry lawnmower" than a cute housecat. He is apparently good at sketching people from observation, or at least good enough that whoever he's drawing is recognizable.[10] At the same time, he claims he prefers just looking at art, rather than making it. He seems to be an appreciator of the craft.[23] Idia is an avid fan of a three-member idol group called "Precipice Moirai", or "Premo" for short. The group is likely inspired by the Three Fates from Hercules. He collects merchandise and gushes about them whenever possible. Once while watching a broadcast of one of Premo's concerts, Idia was caught performing a passionate, cheer-like dance that he calls "glowing".[24] This dance is based on a real practice called "wotagei", and the words used in his cheers are similar to that of a commonly-used wotagei chant. He once went through the trouble of standing in a crowded line for hours, just for the chance at winning an autographed Premo t-shirt.[25] He's also gone into a full fit of rage after Premo's website was vandalized, doxxing and hacking the computers of those responsible.[26] During the school's annual Beanfest, Idia covertly designs and builds high-tech gear to be used by both teams.[27] He gives these to Sam to trade off, and in exchange, Sam lets him hide in the Mystery Shop over the course of the tournament.[28] When trading, Idia goes by the nickname "Mr. Smith" to conceal his identity. In the Japanese version, Idia occasionally uses the pronoun sessha (拙者 or せっしゃ) to refer to himself. This pronoun has gone mostly unused in modern times, but it was used primarily by samurai in the feudal ages. He mostly uses the common pronoun boku (僕 or ぼく). He appears to switch to sessha when he's particularly passionate or prideful. He is good at singing, often singing anime and game theme songs in his room.[29] It is known that Floyd and Jade know a shameful secret of Idia, when they blackmail him into making a body that Ortho can race with. But it is not known what that secret is.[30] He seems to be better at talking to other people if he's going off a script.[10] Idia has used Ortho's Precision Gear arms to pick up things like pens which have fallen from his desk.[31] Idia once offered to make a waffle iron.[32] Idia has a Magicam account, but his feed is about video games and card unboxings.[33] Idia once made an offhand comment about his hair possibly being extinguishable, like actual flames, but it might have been an exaggeration. While the English localization translates Idia's favorite food as 'sweets', it's specifically dagashi in the Japanese original. These are very cheap snacks primarily intended for children, such as gummy candies or rice crackers. In particular, his favorite type of candy is the 'educational' kind (DIY dagashi kits), where you mix water and other ingredients to create something with your own hands.[34][35] Since Idia rarely attends events in person, very few photos of his school life exist. Regardless, Ortho consistently sends videos and pictures of him to their parents.[36] Idia finds out about it after almost four years.[36] If Idia had to switch dorms, if forced to, he'd choose Diasomnia, for the "gloomy atmosphere," though he admits he'd "BARELY get by" and he'd have issues with "peer pressure" over Diasomnia's ardent devotion to Malleus. However, Idia is heavily averse to switching to any dorm, as Ignihyde is perfect for him. In the Harveston Sledathon event he mentions he doesn't pay attention to peoples faces.[37]