What Is Elias Ainsworth’s Human Form? Explained!

The Ancient Magus’ Bride is a fantasy shōnen manga by Kore Yamazaki, whose anime adaptation is still ongoing and is one of the most popular fantasy titles at this moment. The story of Chise Hatori, the apprentice, and bride of Elias Ainsworth, the titular Magus, and her adventures in a beautiful fantasy world have been popular for years, and in this article, we have decided to talk about the series a bit. The article’s focus will be the Magus himself, Elias Ainsworth, whose peculiar appearance both scares and amazes fans. We’ve seen Elias’ regular and true form, but we’ve also seen him in human form on several occasions. In this article, we will explain Elias’ human forms so that you know what he actually looks like.

Although Elias Ainsworth was made of both Fae and human elements, he is not human. He is a Mage with a somewhat humanoid appearance, but he is not a human, as far as it is known now. He has the ability to transform into a human, as he has done on several occasions in the series, but that is just a transformation and not a permanent shape. His true form is actually quite monstrous.

As you might assume, the article will be dedicated to Elias Ainsworth, the titular Magus and the male protagonist of the series. We will tell you everything you need to know about him and his appearance, as well as how that fact is related to his history and abilities. We are going to expand on the answer we have given above. If you’re new to the world of The Ancient Magus’ Bride, we have to warn you that the article is going to contain spoilers, so be careful how you approach it.

Elias Ainsworth has a very peculiar appearance

Elias Ainsworth’s most typical appearance is that of a humanoid walking on two legs with glowing red eyes and a horned skull where his face should be. Humans can only reach his chest because he is much taller than them. The only visible area of his body is his neck, which is colored purple. Chise says that his eyes alter in response to his feelings. His three-piece outfit consists of a flowing, knee-length black suit jacket with long embroidered sleeves, a blue vest, and a white T-shirt.

He was given a particular style of bolo necktie by the person who named him; it folds just below his neck. A rope that hangs from his neck and ties to a scarlet cloth on his horns. He frequently pulls the red scarf over his face when he is outside; he usually keeps it behind his head. He can control and transform into shadows and utilize glamor to disguise himself, and when he becomes sufficiently enraged, he assumes a hideous shape. He can even use magic to transform his head into a human.

His genuine look becomes more beast-like. He is thinner and taller, and he has a collar full of black feathers. He gets claws and a tail. A torn black cloak covers his back, and it seems like it is an integral part of his body. A further set of horns bend toward his face, fine spines that twist everywhere, and ribs wrap over his torso.

As you can see, Elias Ainsworth is not a human. Many fans have discussed his actual appearance, and while he does resemble several mythological beasts or creatures from folklore, there is no consensus on what he is actually based on.

The dominant theory is that he is based on a Wendigo. The Wendigo is a supernatural, evil, and cannibalistic creature originating from the mythology of the Algonquian First Nations of Canada, which has spread throughout the folklore of North America. Several Native American nations share this legend and may refer to the physical transformation of a human after eating human meat as a spiritual possession. The wendigo also reinforced the taboo around the practice of cannibalism among these peoples. They live in the forest’s depths and appear in tales where the supernatural rubs shoulders with inhuman and atrocious things.

And while we cannot deny that Elias resembles a Wendigo, this has not been officially confirmed by the author, and his role in the story is not really related to the role that the Wendigo has in folklore, although we have to be fair – a lot of Elias’ story is still a big mystery. Another possible source is the Ophiotaurus, an obscure creature from Greek mythology whose insides are said to give someone the power to defeat the gods (the only mention of this creature anywhere is in Ovid’s work Fasti).

As you can see, there are several theories about the origins of Elias’ look, but we don’t know anything officially; Elias’ past is still a big mystery, so we assume that at least part of it is going to be revealed later, but until that happens – this is what we have. What we can confirm based on this is that he is definitely not human, as far as we know, but fans might be confused by this statement, as Elias was definitely seen as a human on several occasions. So, how is that possible? We are about to explain that!

Elias has the ability to change his appearance

Among Elias’s many abilities as a Mage is the ability to shapeshift. Sometimes, he can just change his size, but he can change his appearance on other occasions. This is not a surprising skill when such a powerful mage is concerned, but it is interesting to observe all of these changes from the perspective of this article, and that is exactly why we are going to do it here in this article. We are going to go over his human transformations and some others we’ve seen in the series.

The source of this power is Elias’ magic. His magic is very powerful, and he can use it for various purposes, including his shapeshifting ability, as we have said. Using this ability, he can take on various forms, with the most important ones for this article being his human forms.

Namely, as was demonstrated over the course of the series, Elias Ainsworth can take on the appearance of any human he has encountered and knows. It is unclear how long he can maintain this shape, but the transformation is usually quite realistic regarding physical appearance, although some details might differ.

For example, his transformation into Simon Cullum, the priest who watches over Elias and is his friend, is quite realistic, although Elias’ hair seems to be a shade darker than Simon’s original hair. The rest, save for the clothes, of course, was completely identical. On the other hand, when he shifted into Chise Hatori, his hair was white instead of red, and his eyes seemed lighter in color than Chise’s original eyes.

On the other hand, the physical likeness was absolute, and there were no differences at all. He also shifted into a long-haired person once. In this form, he also had white hair and kept his red eyes, but since that person’s identity is not known, we cannot tell you how good this transformation actually was from that perspective. There also seems to be another manga-only transformation, but due to the lack of color in the manga, we cannot really give you any precise information on that one.

But yes, Elias seems to have some talent when shapeshifting is concerned, and the transformations are more or less spot-on, although a keen eye can easily tell the difference.

But, as we have said, his abilities are not limited to humans. He is also not limited to simply changing his size. Namely, Elias has a lot of other skills, and he can take on various beastly forms as well while using his shapeshifting magic. The manga has shown us a very specific reptilian form, which was seen only briefly, but showed us that he could also take on this shape. It was a truly intriguing shape that combined Elias’ usual look with some snake-like elements, making it so specific. This one has not yet been shown in the anime series.

We cannot, of course, forget his true form, which we’ve described above, and that actually embodies his essence. It turns Elias into a beast and gives him some additional powers, and enhances his usual ones. Finally, a special form seems to be a mixture of sorts. It is an animalistic transformation without a doubt, but if you look at it, you’ll notice several different animals in that exact shape, so we don’t really know how this one came to be, but it does exist.