Lilia Vanrouge| A Very Unfortunate Study Partner

Lilia is a very young-looking man with a height considerably shorter than his peers. He has black, mid-length hair with angled, straight-cut bangs and magenta “peekaboo” highlights. Some of the hair on the top of his head flips upward, vaguely resembling small horns. His eyes are deep red, with vertical-slit pupils and long eyelashes. He has pointed, elf-like ears, as well as small fangs. He usually has a wise, benevolent smile on his face.

Lilia is easygoing and friendly with most of the students. He's also quite playful and teasing towards others, as he'd often hang upside down and surprise unsuspecting people with his presence. He is also, in contrast to Malleus, adept with technology, and is an avid gamer like Idia Shroud. Lilia often collects souvenirs from his travels (which leads to a great deal of clutter in his dorm room).

Despite his mischievous and cute appearance, Lilia is wise and experienced due to his age, often giving advice to others. However, whenever Lilia is serious, he becomes somewhat strict and his words are sharper than usual, such as when he berates Leona Kingscholar during the Interdorm Spelldrive Tournament.

Centuries in the past, Lilia held the title of General of the Right and was a guard of Briarland's royal family. An orphaned bat fae, Lilia was taken in by Maleficia Draconia, the Queen of Briar Valley (then known as Briarland). He was raised a warrior and grew up alongside Maleficia's willful daughter, Princess Maleanor, and Raverne, a fae nobleman. Despite her stubborn, mischievous behavior and quick temper, which often got him into trouble, Lilia fell in love with Maleanor as they grew up, even eventually asking for her hand in marriage. However, Maleanor turned down his proposal, ultimately marrying Raverne. Regardless, Lilia, Maleanor and Raverne remained close friends even into adulthood. As with other fae, Lilia despised humans, especially as they began invading Briarland and exploiting its resources. Raverne's tragic disappearance did not help matters, especially as Maleanor was left to care for her son, Malleus, on her own.

Lilia, alongside Baur Zigvolt, fought endlessly on their behalf in a war against humans, and was both highly revered and feared. It was said the Queen herself placed immense trust in Lilia. At some point during the war, Lilia returned to Castle Wildrose where Maleanor, under siege, entrusted him with Malleus's unhatched egg, giving him the task of delivering her child to Castle Blackscale and Maleficia. Lilia was hesitant to do so, as dragon eggs can only hatch with its parents' love and affection, and Lilia claimed that he was unfit for this task. However, he had no choice in the matter and was sent away by Maleanor, who bought him time by accepting the Dawn Knight's challenge to single combat. Humans descended on the castle shortly after Lilia's departure, and Maleanor fell in battle at the hands of the Dawn Knight. At one point, the Dawn Knight encountered Lilia as he was fleeing with Malleus, but the Knight let them escape. Vowing to honor his bond with Maleanor and Raverne, Lilia managed to reach Castle Blackscale with the egg in hand. He was reprimanded by the Senate for failing to protect the princess, and in order to protect those around him from a similar punishment, Lilia gave up his title as General of the Right and began living a simpler life.

A decade later, Baur called upon Lilia for an important task: hatching Malleus. Maleficia had been the one putting magic and love into the egg, but the egg began to reject her efforts. Due to Lilia's close relationship with Malleus' parents, Baur believed that he would be the best candidate to save Malleus. Lilia would travel the world for two centuries trying to find a way to hatch the egg, occasionally returning to the castle to visit Malleus. Ultimately, Lilia realized that Malleus was crying from inside his egg, in danger of dying. To save the prince, Lilia sacrificed his own life force, which successfully hatched the egg, freeing the draconian baby Malleus, moving Lilia to sobs. In spite of his sacrifice, the Senate once again intervened, separating Malleus and Lilia.

As Malleus matured, Lilia would occasionally visit, moments the young Draconia enjoyed. During a birthday dinner, Malleus was disappointed by the absence of his grandmother (who was attending to business). In his grief, Malleus's power accidentally caused the palace and everyone in it to freeze. Fortunately, Lilia appeared, saving the palace staff, and using the ice to make a treat for Malleus, which moved and cheered the young boy. Although Malleus did not learn until years later the sacrifice Lilia made for him, the two share a very strong bond; Malleus would take Lilia's praises, teachings and scoldings alike to heart.

During his adventures, Lilia would come across the ruins of Castle Wildrose, which had since been overtaken by the humans and renamed Castle Bladevale. This castle had become the residence of the Dawn Knight and his wife, Queen Leah. The couple had been killed in the human-fae war, and their son was kept in an enchanted slumber for 400 years by the Dawn Knight's guardian faeries to keep the child safe. The spell of the faeries could only be broken when the boy was found by someone who would truly love him. Inside the castle, Lilia found the infant, who awakened upon the fae general's entrance. Lilia recognized the child as the son of Maleanor's foe and considered vengeance. However, in the end he could not bring himself to harm a helpless child and instead brought the child back with him to his home. As a blessing on him, Lilia changed the boy's hair from golden blond to silver, thus giving the child his name.

Lilia would raise Silver as his own son in a cottage in the forest, deciding to see if he could indeed love a human. Malleus would also later meet the child, and act as a fellow mentor and guardian to him; in turn, Silver, deeply grateful to Malleus, would be trained to become a retainer for Malleus alongside Sebek. Lilia was aided in rearing Silver in part due to Baur, his daughter and her husband (the latter of which was a human). They often babysat Silver and showed Lilia how to feed and take care of a human child, although Baur did question Lilia openly about his capabilities in doing so. As it would turn out, the pair would grow very close as father and son, although never being officially named such. Silver would try to cook meals for Lilia and once made a bracelet out of acorns for his father, a gift which Lilia genuinely treasured.

Lilia would later encourage and accompany Malleus to Night Raven College as a student; despite Malleus's immense talent and power, Lilia insisted he attend the school, as it would give him more experience with the outside world. Lilia also attended as a student, posing as a supposed 18-year-old and concealing his true age (though he would often hint at how old he might be. Only Leona suspected the truth, often referring to him as "old," noting Lilia's uncanny movements and picking up discrepancies in Lilia's narratives). At Night Raven College, Lilia would continue to mentor and protect Malleus, Silver and Sebek, as well as continue training the latter two, and the quartet are notably remarkable for their close proximity to one another.

Lilia's signature spell is called "Far Cry Cradle". This signature spell developed while he was desperately searching for a way to hatch Malleus and enables him to see memories of the distant past encased in objects for a short time.

He states that his surname was given to him by Queen Maleficia, due to his prowess in battle. However, initially Lilia would not give Silver this surname, as he did not want the boy to grow up burdened with such a bloody title. He later does give Silver this name when Silver turned 18, as a birthday gift.

According to Silver, Lilia is a terrible cook. Back when he was a general, Lilia did not care about how food tasted, seeing it solely as a means of survival. In the present, Lilia chooses to ignore recipes and experiments with ingredients, often resulting in questionable meals.

He gave Malleus a virtual pet as a gift.

He plays video games under the handle Muscle Red, often with Gloomurai [Idia Shroud]. The two are unaware of the other's identity in real life yet consider one another good friends.

Malleus mentions during history lessons that Lilia's portrait is in the textbook.

Lilia states that he does not remember his true date of birth, although he chooses to celebrate it on January 1st.

Despite his past, Lilia has an appreciation for human innovation and technical engineering.

Lilia has a talent for playing several instruments. He is also seen teaching others how to play multiple instruments. According to Lilia himself, he's good at singing lullabies that can make a crying infant sleep in a fraction of a second

Lilia has sharp eyesight as well as hearing

.Lilia is a night owl, which is fitting due to his nocturnal fairy heritage. He often stays up late playing games, catching up with online videos or practicing instruments.

Lilia has an aversion to strong sunlight, preferring overcast weather, even once referring to sunshine coming into his room as "disgusting". He states that opening curtains on a bright morning would "ruin his whole day."

Lilia likes sweets, but not marshmallows because they are not very filling and feel like eating air. He likes black licorice, often offering it to people, but Kalim says it has such a strong odor that it's hard to believe it's edible.

Lilia's assignation as a bat fae might stem from the designer of Maleficent, Marc Davis, who stated that Maleficent "was designed like a giant vampire bat to create a feeling of menace." Additionally, when she casts her curse on Princess Aurora, a bat (among other things) can be seen flying forth from her staff during the incantation scene. During his time as a general, Lilia used a massive cleaver-like blade as his main weapon. In the original film, one of Maleficent's minion, a bat-like one, is holding a cleaver as well, which might be an additional inspiration for Lilia.

Lilia states that he has difficulties finding things, which might be a nod to certain bat species who do not use echolocation to find food.

Lilia initially rejected his invitation to Night Raven College, believing it would be of no use to him. He tore up his acceptance, but found it pieced back together again years later; Lilia muses that Raverne was the one who saved it all this time for him.

Lilia raising Silver in a cottage in the forest is most likely inspired by how Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather raised Princess Aurora in a secret forest cottage.

Lilia cuts his own hair. His natural hair color is black. He usually dyes it pink but sometimes changes it to other colors