Helios Whitequill

By Driz

• December 18, 2016




Age: 35

Gender: Male

Species: Pegasus

Appearance: <p> Helios has a quite bulky and robust size for a Pegasus, standing taller than most other ponies. He's got spiky, short mane and tail, accompanied by sideburns and a goatee. He's got a tribal tattoo on his right hind leg from the zebra tribe that adopted him. </p>

Cutie Mark: <p> His Cutie Mark is of a scroll with a magnifying lens scanning it. It represents his thirst for knowledge, diligence towards studies and overall curiosity. </p>

Personality: <p> Helios is a polite, eloquent gentleman. As a typical Canterlotian, his manners harmonize well with his calm, composed demeanor. He’s a calculating, somewhat pragmatic strategist, tending to think of longer term consequences rather than the short term need to do something or help someone. Often disregarding feelings and emotions in order to achieve that, his character can be perceived as cold-hearted by some, although he mostly means well.<br /><br /> He’s studious and knowledgeable, displaying a humongous interest towards the origins of things, primordial history, artifacts and ruins alike. Once he comes across said artifacts and ruins, more often than not, he may momentarily forget about his manners and focus wholly onto his work - although rarely, he becomes daft, crazy, and loses his calm composure for a few seconds. </p> <p> The works of the mind also fascinate him. In regards to controversial subjects such as religion, politics and general beliefs, more often than not, he chooses not to have formed opinions of his own in order to take other’s opinions into consideration for research purposes. </p>

Backstory: <p> Even though Helios’ physical appearance doesn’t show, his blood is actually half zebra. He was born in a small zebra tribe named Elsu(*), near the border of the Hayseed Swamp: his mother was a Pegasus historian on duty, and his father was a local - one of the brightest students to the tribe’s witchdoctor. Being educated by the zebras, Helios was taught some survival basics in the wild, as well as botany and herbal medicine, ever since birth. Immediately, he displayed great interest towards education and researching.<br /><br /> During his early teenage years, he made his first trip to Canterlot along with his mother. There, he learned about the existence of the many renowned academies, and instantly fell in love with the city. However, his tribal roots conflicted with the proper Canterlotian lifestyle. For that reason, Helios took on himself the task of learning how to become a decent gentleman in order to fit in with the capital’s norms. Soon enough, he achieved that goal, and was able to join a prestigious institution there as a true member of the high-class society.<br /><br /> After coming back from one of his trips to school, upon arriving at the tribe - his home -, he discovered that it had been attacked and pillaged by a group of mysterious creatures that resided within the depths of the swamp, leaving behind only ruins and very few survivors. His father, unluckily, had fallen victim to this event, and lost his life.<br /><br /> Taken over by grief, Helios and his mother moved to Canterlot definitively, where he doubled the efforts on his studies, and also joined a military training camp in order to apply for the job as a royal guard. Having grown into a young adult, after graduating from the camp, he was able to find work under Princess Celestia as a Solar Guard for a couple of years. During his services, he had an affair with a beautiful young mare from the upper class. Very little is known about that short lived episode, but it eventually made him resign and, thus, focus back on his learnings.<br /><br /> For the following years, Helios spent all of his time in recluse, researching and studying on his own. He was always extremely diligent, becoming well-known for his efforts. He eventually majored in History and Philosophy and became a professor at the same institution where he studied when he was little. During his free time, he studies the deepest, most mysterious secrets of the Everfree Forest, and plans to, one day, discover what truly happened to his tribe. </p>