Eli

Spoilers ahead. Are we okay with that, kid?

Eli
Pronouns	He/Him
Age	23
Affiliations	Crew Horned Riders (formerly)
First appearance	Issue 3
Voice actor	Hayden Mclean

Eli is a newer addition to Pax's crew in Dustborn. His status as a post-Broadcast Anomal provides a major hint to Justice's true intentions regarding Protolanguage.

History

Before the heist

Eli was born on around 2007, but was adopted or kidnapped by Justice, who raised him in an underground school where he and other children were subjected to Justice indoctrination, though the Caretaker robot made sure to take good care of him and his friend Ophelia. One day, he and Ophelia gained Vocal powers from the whispering room, an attempt to recreate the conditions of The Broadcast on a local scale. The two noticed that children who displayed powers were taken away to a different location, so they hid their abilities. After the school shut down, Eli and Ophelia were separated and taken to different Justice academies, which continued the indoctrination while also teaching them martial arts. However, Eli eventually left and joined the Horned Riders, forming a relationship with their leader Patsy in the process.

Issue 3: Caretakers

Eli defects from the Horned Riders and explores the underground school in Nevada that he was raised in, but the Horned Riders follow him in order to punish him for his disloyalty. Fortunately, Pax and Ziggy arrive in time to save him as fellow Anomals, with Ziggy developing a crush on him. Unfortunately, Eli is separated from the two when a steel beam collapses, so he looks for another route through the school in order to catch up with them. Inside his old dorm room, Eli looks for the Bituman doll Ophelia made for him while revealing that Justice has been converting children into Anomals using the whispering room, which is why he has Vocals despite being born after the Broadcast. After a fight with more Horned Riders and the Fireman, Eli reunites with Caretaker and returns to the surface with everyone. Unfortunately, the Horned Riders show up with Noam and Theo as hostages, and although Eli tries to surrender for their safety, Pax insists that Eli is now part of the crew and that the crew cannot let the Riders take him. After the fight, Eli apologizes to Patsy for breaking her heart and the two groups make peace.

At Signal Hill Campground, Eli summons an illusion of Bituman for the sake of explaining how the Asphalt God brought him to the Horned Riders when he was on the verge of death. During a conversation with Pax and Ziggy, Eli declares his intention to search for Ophelia. He also discusses his past in the school and the Horned Riders, and how he wishes the riders would stop robbing innocents. At the campfire, Eli states that CT was likely created from a generic robot model for the sake of allowing Justice to keep the Anomal schools a secret.

Issue 4: Promised Lands

In the Betty's Diner parking lot in Utah, Eli and Ziggy talk about his bike, with Eli insisting that it is more enjoyable for him to ride his bike than have the bike mounted on the back of the bus, though he is open to having Ziggy as a passenger on his bike. Inside the diner, Eli explains the subjects taught in Justice's schools, as well as his participation in school plays. Unfortunately, two Justice officers arrive to question the crew, and Eli and Ziggy are unable to give matching answers about the crew's band activities. After returning to the bus, Eli discusses how Justice is more antagonistic than the Horned Riders and learns about the cover story from Pax.

In the New Jerusalem abandoned mall, Eli and Ziggy take a photo together at a photo booth and play Paddlepong at the arcade with Pax and Theo. While Pax hangs out with other friends, Eli somehow manages to get a negative score in Galaxy Mauraders. Although it is not shown, he summoned a Bituman illusion to scare Theo while he was praying in the chapel. This respite does not last, since the Puritans attack the mall, forcing Eli, Pax, Sai, and Ziggy into a desperate fight, which they only win because of Theo disabling the cyborgs' barriers with an EMP grenade. The crew then escapes while the Puritans are busy evading the Mormon Guard.

The crew arrives safely at Texas Beach Campground, where Eli gets exited about their fights against Justice and the Puritans. Eli then inquires about the Puritans and shares rumors he heard about how the world is a simulation they control. Eli also talks about the conflict between the Weave resistance and the authoritarian state. When Eli hears about tomorrow's performance at Main Street, he jokingly asks if he can throw tomatoes at the performing crew members to motivate them.

Issue 5: Yellow Brick Road

At the Palisade, Colorado checkpoint, Eli listens to Ziggy's explanation about her mechanical eye and compliments its aesthetics. At Alpine Visitor Center, Noam senses a distressed Anomal, prompting Eli, Pax, and Ziggy to get out of the bus and search the premises. The trio find and rescue a nameless Anomal, Girl, from Justice's clutches, but Justice's reinforcements attack an old civilian couple. Eli insists on rescuing the couple because the trio's earlier fight caused the innocents to get targeted by Justice, and Pax can choose whether or not the trio will fight the reinforcements. On the bus, Theo has doubts about bringing Girl along, but Eli insists that she needs the crew's protection because she was likely kidnapped and experimented on by Justice. At the Standard Energy Service Station, Eli plays Crypts and Cultists with Girl and Noam while waiting for the rest of the crew to finish acquiring food and fuel. After the crew evacuates Sol from the Yellow Brick Road Motel, they flee to Peaceful Valley Campground. While camping, Eli and CT tell Girl about his childhood, and Eli also decides to tell her about Ophelia, in the hopes that this will help Girl find common ground with him.

Issue 6: The Bad Lands

In the bus ride through the Great Plains Exclusion Zone, Eli discusses rumors about the region with the crew and states that the Horned Riders believe Bituman the Asphalt God was born there. When the bus crashes into a bionic lifeform and Girl runs off into Lebanon, Eli initially stays at the bus, but later climbs down the ravine to accompany Pax. As the two make their way through, they fight a bionic enemy and drive them off despite the confined space. He and Pax find Girl at a Betty's Diner, along with a masked Anomal woman. While walking towards the Kennedy Institute, Eli tries to reason with the masked woman and convince her that GPEZ is not hell, but to no avail. After a tough fight with a horde of bionics, the party reaches the top of the Kennedy Institute and finds a giant squid that is passive towards them, but hostile towards Justice. In order to earn the squid's trust, Eli conjures illusionary musical instruments, allowing the group to play a song to soothe the beast. A bionic creature takes the group to a whispering room containing a crystalline tree, and after Pax touches it and frees the Tree of Tongues from Justice, the masked woman is freed from the Echo and is revealed to be Eli's friend, Ophelia. At the bus, Eli watches Girl and Ophelia sleep and decides to get some rest too.

At Camp Oakwood, Eli, Ophelia, and Girl discuss life in the Justice school, such as how Eli and Ophelia messed with Mr. Garvey by changing their names. Eli states that he does not have experience with kids, but notes that he can still do kid activities with Ophelia and Girl. If the player interacts with the guitar, Eli will ask the initial crew members to perform for Ophelia and Girl. At the bus, Eli talks to Pax about the possibility of bringing Ophelia to Nova Scotia.

Issue 7: Let There Be Light

During the bus ride through Iowa, Eli plays Crypts and Cultists with Pax, Ziggy, and Ophelia. He acts as the game master of the session and uses his Vocals to visualize the gameplay. If the crew incurred too much suspicion, two Justice officers will pull over the bus and force the game to end abruptly. Otherwise, the game continues for a short while and Eli uses his illusions to obscure the text of his TTRPG book, preventing Ziggy from cheating with her own Vocal. The bus eventually breaks down and the crew stays at an abandoned house until Ziggy and Caretaker can find a way to repair the heatshield. The crew is faced with a dilemma when Ophelia loses control of her powers due to an Echo infection, causing her to become an unwilling danger to her friends. Eli will advocate for Ophelia to stay and becomes upset that anyone would consider kicking her out, declaring that he will stick with Ophelia even if it means he has to leave the crew too. During Girl's hide-and-seek competition, Eli hides behind a broken shelf in the basement and jumpscares Pax. During dinner, Eli asks about the heist in Purity, but afterwards, Sai blows up at everyone for not taking the danger seriously and leaves. Eli and the rest of the crew tries to look for her, but to no avail.

Issue 8: Battle of the Bands

Upon arriving in Chicago, the search party splits into pairs, with Eli as a possible partner for Pax. At the Bad Lands Bar entrance, Pax can ask Eli to use his illusions to put the Dust Born on the guest list, allowing them to enter. Although the crew manages to avoid alerting the cops inside of their true identities, Eli, Noam, and Ziggy get drunk before the Battle of the Bands and have to compose themselves in time to perform. Afterwards, Eli and the crew party despite the presence of cops, and at one point, Eli yells "death to Justice" without repercussions. Eli, Theo, Caretaker, and Ziggy return to the train station first, but Pax and Noam return later and report that Justice now knows what they look like and about the bus.

Issue 9: Rotown

In Rotown, Eli talks about the inactive robots in the area and wonders if it is ethical to disassemble what could be CT's family. Eli and Ziggy stand outside the factory building to keep watch, but Justice invades Rotown with armored vehicles and tiltrotors. When Pax takes Praetor Walker hostage, Eli and Pax uses the loudspeaker of Walker's mech to create a massive Bituman illusion, which causes two tiltrotors to collide and crash. This creates an opening for Eli and friends to escape to the getaway truck, but Pax is severely injured by Prefect Kim. Eli and Ziggy carry Pax to the truck, but it does not look like Sol can heal her.

Issue 10: The Maine Event

Pax is eventually captured by Justice and taken to a hospital in New York City, leading Eli and Ziggy to team up with Sai to rescue Pax. They reach Ruth's getaway van in the parking garage and escape using Nainai's Vocal. Along the way to the final destination, Eli does an impression of Noam, but accidentally sounds like CT, so to change the subject he and Ophelia ask about the father of Pax's baby. At a Standard Energy Service Station, Eli teaches Girl how to fill the van's gas. At Betty's Diner, Eli, Ziggy, and Ophelia debate over who is Betty's favorite customer. with Eli wondering if he can charm her with his charisma, though he admits Sai would probably be the winner. At Schoodic Point, the crew is split into two in order to get past the Puritans and Justice, with Eli joining with Pax, Ziggy, and Ophelia while the non-combatants attempt to sneak to the docks. He, Ziggy, and Ophelia are immobilized during the battle with the Adjunct, but are freed when Pax wins. The Overseer captures the non-combatant group at the docks and uses them as hostages to bargain for the datakey. In order to give the group a burst a courage, Pax gives a motivational speech through her positive Vocal, telling Eli that he will succeed in any goal he has in mind. After Axiom is defeated, Eli makes his decision on whether to go to Nova Scotia or pursue different goals on the mainland, with Ophelia and Girl joining him.

Ending

• In the Optimist Coda, Eli, Ophelia, and Girl join Nova Scotia in the hopes that they can help with testing a cure for O's powers.
• In the Realist Coda, Eli, Ophelia, and Girl contact someone in the media so that they can expose Justice's Anomal experiments.
• In the Blood Coda, Eli, Ophelia, and Girl go on another trip through the Republic in order to search for their families.

Appearance

Eli has black hair with two blonde-dyed cornrows and shaved sides. His skin is covered in line and circle marks similar to Pax's and Girl's. His default attire includes a black sleeveless vest with an upturned collar exposing the yellow inner lining, black pants, black boots, and a black pouch. He also has various accessories from his days as a Horned Rider, such as a fur scarf adorned with baby doll parts, a horned yellow demon themed crotch guard, a gas mask, black gauntlets, and black shoulder pads, all of which have glow in the dark portions. In battle, Eli wields an illusionary broadsword, with two prongs that glow like fire, a green section of the blade near the guard, a black guard that resembles Bituman's face, and a white grip.

Eli's attire over the course of the game includes:

• In Issue 3, 4, 6, 9, and most of 10, Eli has his default attire. When he is introduced in the underground school, he has all his accessories, but removes the mask after introducing himself to Pax and Ziggy, and then removes the scarf after arriving at Signal Hill Campground. At Texas Beach Campground, Eli puts his gauntlets back on, but wears none of his other accessories. In the Great Plains Exclusion Zone, Eli puts on all accessories except for the scarf and gas mask, takes them off after returning to the bus, and puts those same accessories back on at Camp Oakwood.
• In Issues 5, 7, 8, and the final part of 10, Eli wears a white short-sleeved T-shirt and blue jeans. At Alpine Visitors Center, Peaceful Valley Campground, Chicago, and Schoodic Point, Eli also puts on blacks gloves and a yellow jacket because of the low temperature.
• Starting in Issue 9, Eli wears several gold colored earrings on his right ear and a single earring on his left ear.

Personality

Contrary to his status as an ex-biker gang member, Eli has a strong sense of honor and wants to help those in need even at his and the crew's expense, and will respond favorably if Pax agrees to help him save an old couple from Justice. At the same time, he is very protective of Ophelia and will be angered at anyone who tries to ostracize her. He is also very optimistic, allowing him to see the lesser known benevolence of the Horned Riders while hoping to convince them to change their ways for the better. He is upset at Justice for manipulating children and Anomals for their own ends, and his Realist Coda will have him prioritize exposing Justice's crimes. Eli has a great love for motorcycling and aspires to ride the highways with his kin, whether biological or found, and he can focus on this goal in the Blood Coda. When hanging out with the crew, he can be very theatrical and enjoys telling dramatic stories while using his Vocals for extra flair.

Abilities

Physical abilities

Eli received some martial arts training from Justice's schools, which he combines with his illusionary sword to fight enemies.

Vocal

Eli has the ability to manifest illusions, which he typically uses to create illusionary green flames or to summon Bituman. This ability is powerful against most organic enemies, but has no effect on robots, who cannot perceive his illusions. Outside of combat, he can use his illusions to alter other people's perception of text, allowing him to obscure stat sheets during tabletop RPG sessions and fake the party's place on a guest list.

Gallery

Early concept art

Work-in-progress concept art

Trivia

• Eli's sword was inspired by that of Cloud Strife from the Final Fantasy video game series.