Ilyavicz of Murom

One of the original members of the peasant mob that would become the Oprichniks, originally from the Scandian village of Murom. Ilya began his life as a soldier in the Blackguard, the order of specially trained and outfitted mortal soldiers in service of Razboynik, the Gryphon of Scande. There he met Dobrynov and Vladimir Svya, and together they left the Gryphon's service and swore to rally humankind in the name of Bleu (who had supposedly come to Vladimir in a vision and told him to do precisely that).

The three friends thus left the Gryphon's service, and recruited many men and women together into an angry peasant mob. The three former soldiers promised the peasants ultimate victory over the Gryphon, and said they would begin by sacking whole villages of supposed "loyalists of the Gryphon." The story goes that Vladimir lead the mob to one major success in the village of Tsengrad, but was then killed on his second campaign by Dalos, man-scorpion servant of Razboynik, during the battle of Marrecz. Not long after that Vashilov the Terrible is supposed to have assumed control of the mob. Under Vashilov, the mob would become an army, and after finally slaying the Gryphon of Scande, the Scandish Empire would be founded.

Ilyavicz was the sworn companion of Scandian hero Dobrynov the Dragonslayer. He was known to fight with peasants' tools (most notably a paired hammer and sickle), even well after becoming a General in Tsar Vashilov's Scandish army. In the stories, Ilyavicz is said to be Vashilov's most trusted friend, with never an unkind word to say to him.