E'lass

E'Lass

E'lass was a thief.

History

E'lass had partnered with Turg, who served as the muscle of the operation. E'lass preferred to use finesse rather than force, which could put him in awkward situations when force was obviously the preferred option. He claimed to be five-foot-eight in height.

E'lass and Turg were attempting to learn the location of the treasure of the Temple of the Black Sun from a dying man. While following him to Iest, the pair witnessed the man imparting the location to Cerebus before passing away. To make Cerebus pliable and reveal it to them, E'lass put a hypnotic drug in Cerebus's drink. To test its effectiveness, he turned Cerebus' attention to the tavern dancer, Jaka, in whom Cerebus had previously expressed no interest. The drugs worked, and E'lass' boasting about Jaka's beauty caused Cerebus to fall madly in love to the point where he refused to do anything by spend time with her. E'lass repeatedly tried and failed to pry Cerebus away from her, leading to his own bodily harm. He even threatened Jaka to get the information from Cerebus, as he had once used her to get a priest to break a ten year vow of silence. This also leads to more physical injury. E'lass never did discover the secret of the location, soon running afoul of three Black Sun Priests.

Later, E'lass appeared in Palnu, where he stole the fabulous Wyndmel Diamond during the Festival of the Petunias. Unaware that a larger plot was unfolding around him, he fled through the secret tunnels of the Pits, thinking that Cerebus and Lord Juilius were pursuing him, when they were actually pursuing the leader of a secret society. E'lass believed they were about to capture him, so he threw away the diamond. They ignore him, though, so he escaped.

Dave Sim on E'lass

• "The relationship between Turg & E'lass was one that I enjoyed quite a bit. You see, I used to be short in high school. We're talking s-h-o-r-t, people -- Lollipop Guild, knee-high to a grasshopper. When you are shorter than everyone else, you think a certain way. You become a smart-ass. You cut them off at the knee-caps verbally. When you are short, tall people seem incredibly stupid. Their arms are too long. They say "uh" a lot. They can never hold still while they talk. They grin at you like Great Danes standing on their hind legs, begging you with their eyes to not make them feel so.. so... TALL!

But that was high school. Since then, I've grown to a towering 5' 10. It happened within four months of dropping out of school -- I think they were stifiling more than my creativity. The strangest thing happens when I'm around those of the diminutive persuasion (like a certain Marvel inker featured in this issue who shall be nameless). I become incredibly slow-witted. My arms seem to grow longer and heavier and sway when I walk. I say "uh" a lot. I shift from one leg to the other.

Old prejudices die hard, though. I notice re-reading the story that the characters are competent in direct proportion to their relative size.

Turg is obviously run by E'lass. E'lass does his best to stay on top of the situation, to adapt to changing circumstances and improvise new solutions to sudden problems.

His mistake is in not being the shortest person in the book.

Even drugged and preoccupied, Cerebus manages to make a shambles of his best laid plans (when it comes to mice and men, my money's on the mice). He is more than a match for Turg and the Borealan mercenary."