Ilari Vasiliev

"The morning is wiser than the evening."

- Ilari's favorite quote, from Vasilisa the Beautiful

Illarion Nikolaevich Stepanov, Tsarevich of Russia, (or known simply as Ilari Stepanov) [he/him] is a 2019-introduced and fanon-only character created and developed by  amatoresx . He is the oldest son and second eldest child of the current generation's Vasilisa and the tsar from the Russian fairy tale Vasilisa the Beautiful, collected by Alexander Afanasyev. He is currently attending his Yearbook Year (otherwise known as his third year) at Ever After High in the kingdom of Ever After and rooms with Cosmo Giroux.

When concerning the issue of the destiny conflict, Ilari, albeit halfheartedly, aligns himself with the royal side of the conflict. He has no major resignations about the destiny he's bound to, although on a deeper level, he knows that his destiny wasn't originally his in the first place. He's not actively engaged in the conflict and finds the whole debacle rather amusing to spectate, but still finds his place amongst the other royals. He has sympathetic sentiments towards the rebels, though his sympathy runs short for a certain individual.

Ilari is a curious individual who's found himself in an interesting predicament. Firstly, he's under extreme pressure from his mother (and the rest of his family) to become the next Vasilisa and carry on the family legacy, so he's an individual who is riddled with plentiful anxiety. To make matters worse, Ilari is plagued by the memories of his older sister and his final moments with her. Despite those obstacles he's encountered, nothing seems to deter Ilari from his unwavering and fierce loyalty to his circle of intimates, as well being a well-regarded and fairly popular student by his classmates and his teachers. No one would assume the extreme amount of stress Ilari is constantly under unless he'd explicitly mention it.

Personality & Traits
TBA

Physical Appearance
Despite his own opinions of himself concerning his visage, Ilari is a rather attractive and young, Russian man with pale yet rosy skin and glossy, platinum-blond hair (which appears snow white) that is coiffured and arranged so that some strands of hair are held neatly in place with black pins embroidered with red jewels. His eyes are an icy, blue-violet color, and unfortunately the would-be allure of his eyes are stained by the extremely heavy bags underneath them. His eyes also retain a certain sadness to them, one that seemingly can't be described. Continuing on, he's a very thin individual, though he's still somewhat fit due to the physical activities he's actively participating in. Towering at 6'4, Ilari is an extremely tall individual, and would also be easy to pick out from a crowd of students.

Ilari's platinum-blond hair isn't natural, though he's never dyed his hair. His hair used to actually be light ash brown in color, but over the years his hair has gone pale and eventually become a mane of near-white locks. This occurred due to the amount of stress Ilari has been put under from his childhood to his adolescence at Ever After High.

Doll-Repainting
A skill which he picked up from his older sister Tatiana, Ilari has become especially skilled in the art of repainting dolls and recreating them into completely different dolls.This also stems from his childhood hobby of painting and drawing, which instead of improving in his adolescence,  he decided to hone his decent painting skill and repaint dolls. He prefers repainting already beautiful dolls and making them even more beautiful. It's a hobby he enjoys quite a bit as well, as it helps with calming down his anxiety.

Poetry
TBA

Royal Politics
Being honored with the responsibility of ascending to the throne once his father's reign comes to an end, Ilari finds himself being intrigued in the matters of royal affairs. To be truthful, this "interest" is more of a burden on Ilari as there's simply too much to keep up with and Ilari isn't inherently a very political person by any means. He just feels obligated to study the ins-and-outs of the Russian royal court as well as its government. He's also well-versed in the affairs of the governments and royal affairs of other areas, especially in the Kingdom of Ever After. Ask Ilari to name every tsar who's ruled before his father, and he'll be able to answer as quickly as he can.

Woodworking
TBA

How the Story Goes

 * Main Article: Vasilisa the Beautiful

How Does Ilari Come Into It?
After the current generation's Vasilisa married the tsar of Russia, they had four children. Among those children was Ilari, who was the eldest son born to the royal couple. One year before Ilari was born, however, his older sister Tatiana was born. Because the family had a female child—who in this case was Tatiana—who was also the eldest among her siblings, it meant that the role of the next generation's Vasilisa would be assigned to her. With this is mind, it meant that Ilari was actually born free of destiny, and in fact it was his sister who was meant to fulfill the role of the next Vasilisa.

Eventually, due to deeply unfortunate and tragic occurrences in Ilari's childhood, the weight of destiny would find its way to Ilari instead. However, the destiny was reserved for the next female child in the family, which would've been his youngest sibling and sister Aleksandra, but Ilari volunteered to take up the role of the next Vasilisa. Because of his intervention, Ilari ended up becoming the current generation's next Vasilisa and consequently began attending Ever After High the next couple years after his sister's death.

Opinions on Destiny
Ilari isn't able to shake off the fact that this destiny was never meant for him. The destiny becoming his was a rather rushed affair as well, so in the first couple years he was made aware of his responsibilities, he didn't think he was prepared at all.

Now that he's three years into his education at Ever After High, Ilari feels honored to be able to carry on his family's legacy. He wants to make his mother proud in following in her footsteps, as well as fulfilling the promise he made to his sister before she passed. As previously stated, Ilari is royal-aligned and is intent on following his destiny, though he still feels undeserving of the destiny he is bound to. However, whatever he can do to make his mother proud and honor his family's legacy, he's intent on doing it right.

Parallels

 * Vasilisa, in Vasilisa the Beautiful, is given a doll by her mother before her mother dies; in the duration of the story, Vasilisa keeps the doll with her and goes to it for comfort and in times of need. For Ilari, before she died, his sister gave him a doll she repainted to match the appearance of the original doll from the story; like his mother, Ilari keeps the doll with him and refers to it for comfort.
 * Ilari's interest in dolls and repainting them is a nod to the major role the doll plays in Vasilisa the Beautiful.

Bookball Team
TBA

Royal Student Council
TBA

Track and Shield
TBA

Trivia

 * Ilari's first language is Russian, though he can fluently speak French and English as well (to the point where he can speak without an accent).
 * Most Russian individuals of royalty and/or nobility learned and spoke French to show their status—something which Ilari has been keen on doing for some time (but not as much now).
 * He is capable of reading and writing English, Russian, and French as well.
 * "Ilari" as a name is the diminutive of the name "Illarion"; both names are Russian for "cheerful" (which is a term one would not use to describe him at all).
 * His surname "Stepanov" is derived from "Stepan", which means "crown" (a nod to his status as a prince/heir apparent to the Russian throne).
 * His patronymic, which also serves as his middle name, "Nikolaevich" is derived from his father's name, which is Nikolai.
 * His friends, peers, and teachers know him as "Ilari", while other individuals such as members of his family and the Russian court refer to him as "Illarion".
 * Glaucio, however, opts to refer to Ilari as "Hillary" either directly to his face in conversations or in passing.
 * He has a tendency to misspell the name of his destined role to "Vasilia" instead of correctly spelling it "Vasilisa".
 * This may not be a reference to my own common misspellings of "Vasilisa".
 * Ilari's school counselor is Baba Yaga, who usually advises the students fated to become their story's next villains, but considering his ties to her in his story, it makes sense why she'd advise Ilari.
 * In his youth, he was able to get his hands on vodka (not legally by any means) and has secretly considered it his favorite drink.
 * Because of the limitations in Ever After, Ilari dearly misses vodka.
 * He's rather content with settling for earl grey tea, however.
 * Ilari shares his birthday with the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin.

Quotes
"The morning is wiser than the evening."

- Signature

"I'd rather join my sister in the ground than be separated from you for such a long time."

"Do not speak ill of the dead."

"My loyalty is forever yours."