#Lore [Jonas Webber]

[charonean]

Talk about a Lore drop (get it, 'cause his name is Lore [Jonas Webber]).

Latest 'Man of All Time.' I am very obsessed.

[freckleshine007]

Szereban-Webber family portrait!

Characters:

Partisan/Niles (@doonthestair), Lore/Jonas (@charonean), Alterity/Magnus (my character :3), and Agency/Evangeline (@viridianvales)

[charonean]

I've seen the art of Szereban-Webber family and so far only understood they are characters from your dnd campaign? Like honestly they look very cool and I would love to know all about them so I hope I did not miss some post with their backstories or anything because I would just love to ask in very generic sense who they are? What's their story? Who are they? Sorry if you'd like to get some more specific questions I've just came here, saw your cool little guys and I'm intrigued

Thank you for your ask!!

We haven't actually posted any proper lore for them yet, so I'll share it here.

For context, my character is Jonas Webber, otherwise known as Lore. His husband is Niles Szereban (aka Partisan), created by @doonthestair. They have two kids: Magnus (Alterity) by @freckleshine007 and Evangeline (Agency) by @viridianvales.

From the point of view of my character, he was a tiefling born to human parents in a formerly aristocratic family. Tieflings weren't uncommon in their family, so he was raised pretty normally. His mother died when he was a young teenager, and he later moved out to pursue a degree in history. From there he went on to a Masters and then a PhD. During the last year of his PhD, as he was repressing a lot of things at that point (specifically the fact that he was gay), he ended up in a relationship with a young woman named Cordelia (Prudence) who was working on her Masters in Business. She became pregnant with their first child, a daughter named Antonia (later, Resolve). He became a professor of history, and later also had a second child, a son named Wesley (later, Loyalty). However, Prudence was having an affair with her boss (she was a secretary) for most of their marriage, and both were incredibly unhappy in their relationship, but didn't divorce one another because of societal expectations. At some point, Jonas has a bit of a midlife crisis and starts studying magic, finding himself making deals with a genie named Manahimeko (as a dnd character, he's a mix between a wizard and the 3.5 prestige class Malconvoker that has been modified a bit).

Eventually, Niles Szereban was hired as a professor of Criminal Justice at the university Jonas taught at. Niles was a former prosecutor who was disbarred following a public affair with a judge in a high profile case. When Jonas first met Niles, he was rather annoyed because he realised that he quite liked the other man, but he was still repressing a lot of things at that time, so they didn't interact. Later, however, they had to work together as they were often called to meetings to discuss requirements for the Politics degree (where their fields overlapped) and they got to know one another.

One night, Niles and Jonas go out to a bar, just drinking and talking, and Jonas gets really drunk and kisses Niles. However, Niles doesn't do anything further and Jonas forgets about that night. A couple of weeks later, they're talking late into the night again, and Niles notices that Jonas is looking intensely at his lips and they end up making out one more time. This progresses into something more and ultimately leaves Jonas with the conclusion that he has to leave his wife.

From here, Jonas and Niles eventually marry one another once Jonas' divorce has gone through (he got custody of Resolve; Prudence got custody of Loyalty and eventually married her boss with whom she was having an affair). Through surrogacy, Jonas and Niles have their first child, Magnus (later, Alterity). When Magnus is a year old, Jonas decides to put away his serious pursuit of magic and binds Manahimeko to a cane he created, sealing her away in a demiplane. This leaves him with what is known as the Fantasy Cataract™ which blinds him partially in general (for context, he has shit vision already, so he's Not vibing) and to things within Manahimeko's domain (namely water, but also anything currently imbued with her magic, such as the cane itself). When Magnus is 7, he sneaks into Jonas' office and steals the cane and becomes blind and bound in a pact to her.

When Magnus makes the pact, he wishes for a sibling because he is lonely, and eventually the Szereban-Webbers adopt a young girl named Evangeline (later, Agency) who was a tiefling born to human parents but cast out. She went from home to home, facing much discrimination, before making a deal with a genie named Idalia so that she could find a family. Jonas and Niles adopted her, and they all became a family.

The story then follows Alterity and Agency as they learn more about magic and the genies. At some point, Manahimeko breaks lose and wishes to cause chaos upon the world, and Jonas needs to stop her. In sealing her away, back in the cane, he dies. This leave Niles, Alterity, and Agency scrambling to pick up the pieces and actually solve the problem as Manahimeko has only been delayed, not stopped entirely.

This is essentially the whole story. We've all worked out some more, and, personally, my current obsession is this au we made where Jonas doesn't actually die but is rather sealed away in the cane for a year before he breaks out and returns to his family. But that doesn't fit within the larger narrative, so it's only an au.

Yeah! That's the story! Hope it makes sense lol. I am ever so slightly tipsy right now (coming out of being properly drunk), so I can only hope this is coherent.

[charonean]

Husbands <3

Lore [Jonas] and @doonthestair 's character Partisan [Niles]

[charonean]

If I post about the au enough, maybe it can become canon.

[charonean]

9, 15, 43 from the questions list for Lore!

9. What emotion does your character feel most frequently?

Proud. He's proud of himself and his work. He's proud of his husband and how far he's come as a professor. He's proud of his eldest daughter and the work she's put into her studies. He's proud of his eldest son and how he's willing to leave all that he has to pursue the life he wants. He's proud of his second daughter and how they've grown up and into herself, despite everything. He's proud of his second son and their dedication to their passions. He's proud of his students even... sometimes... when they remember his strict typewriter policy.

15. What habits does your character have?

He has a habit, every morning, of waking up, turning over to grab his glasses, and then rolling back to look at his husband. Partisan always gets up in the morning before him, and he always wakes up just to watch him.

He has a habit of adjusting Alterity's tie for him, like any good parent fretting over their kid.

He has a habit of cleaning his glasses whenever he doesn't know how else to fill an uncomfortable moment.

43. What does your character see as the greatest injustice?

That Manahimeko wants to take out her anger against him on his son instead. A lot of what she does is to spite Lore specifically, and he hates that she torments his child instead of him directly (though, technically, she's unable to; that's a part of the deal he made, and he's pissed about that too.)

He's also pissed at Aberforth Fitzroy, the judge that Partisan had had an affair with thus costing him his career as a prosecutor. He thinks that the way Abby came forth about the situation was a great injustice to Partisan.

[charonean]

for the character ask game: 22, 30, 48

specifically about Lore

22. What regrets do they have, if any? (From any part of the story, not just exposition.)

His biggest regret is - and always will be - that his actions affected his son in the way that they did. He had gotten into magic and began doing dealings with the genie Manahimeko, and he had tried to give that up. However, he wasn't capable of actually getting rid of her, and so when Alterity was young, they broke into his office, took the cane she was bound in, and released her. This resulted in Alterity going blind and being bound in a warlock pact with her. Lore feels immense guilt over this because it wouldn't have happened if he hadn't messed with magic originally.

30. Is your character hiding something from other people, if so, what?

To quote @freckleshine007 when I was reading this question aloud: "His queer identity for 50 years." And yeah, that's it. Right on the money. He was trying to hard to repress that and not think about it and hide it from other people.

He's also trying to hide some other things on occasion (like when he first got the Fantasy Cataract™; he changed the style of glasses frames that he wore to attempt to make it less obvious lol), but he doesn't go through the active effort to hide things from people.

Hiding the cane from Alterity counts as well too, I suppose. He does not want his son to have that, and nevertheless they persist.

48. What event in your story altered your character the most?

I think there’s a lot: when he met Partisan and they got together; when he decided to end his dealings with Manahimeko the first time; when Alterity broke into his office and took the cane; when he decided he had to be the one to go stop her again.

I think meeting Partisan was the most important moment of his life though. It presented him with the opportunity to be himself for the first time in his life, it gave him something (someone) he decided wanted more than anything else, it prompted everything else in the story (because otherwise Alterity wouldn’t exist and they’d never adopt Agency). Meeting his husband the first time had the more impact on him than anything else in the world.

[charonean]

Sorry if it’s already been asked, but is there a reason they all got two separate names? Tiefling thing or?

It's a tiefling thing, yeah.

Lore prefers to go by Jonas; he only uses that name in more professional settings (it's cool to be a history professor named Lore).

The others all have their preferences on what they prefer to be called and when, but they all use both names, I believe.

Lore chose his name when he was 13. His mother got sick when he was 12 and wanted to know what he would pick for his virtue name, so he chose that before she died. It was from the title of a book a tutor of his gave him - "The History of Noven: Fact and Lore" - which inspired him to study history in the first place.

[charonean]

Has anything changed about Lore or the Szereban-Webber family since their initial conception?

Hmmm... I think, for me, at least, the way Lore acts towards both of his families has changed a bit.

I initially wanted him to be a much sterner parent and more of an obstacle to the two kids in their adventures (and he still is at times; they don't always agree on magic and whether or not they (Alterity in specific) should be practicing). He was a much stricter, tough-love kind of person, but now he's much softer and shows that he cares for his family a lot more. He's demanding in his standards, but understanding and willing to help his kids to meet those high standards.

In regards to his relationship with his elder children, that's kinda stayed the same. I've always imagined him having a really close relationship with Resolve; she was definitely his favourite kid for a while. His relationship with Loyalty is much more strenuous, but like how he was with the younger two, what was tenser has softened. Now they just are a father and son who have never really been able to connect with one another, rather than him not really caring for Loyalty like the initial idea was.

[charonean]

How do Lore’s different families each react to his death?

Not well.

For his first family, Prudence doesn't really care. She's sad, of course, they were married for 16 years, but they didn't love each other and haven't talked in, like, 20 years at that point. She doesn't go to the funeral, but simply because she's busy at that point.

Resolve is pretty upset. She was really close to her dad. Initially, she's mad at Partisan because he tells her a couple of days after the fact, but she steps up and helps plan the funeral and all. She misses him a lot.

Loyalty hadn't talked to his dad in several years at that point, so the news that he died came kinda out of the blue. He was sad, for sure, but didn't end up grieving for too long. He was more upset that they never got close before his dad died.

For his second family.... Not Well. I'll let the others add their bits in full if they want (cause, god, have we discussed this) but in short:

Partisan is incredibly depressed. Takes to drinking and sleeping around. He's not in a good place. Spends a long time trying to avoid the problem.

Alterity is both upset because they miss their dad and also very angry at him. He blames himself; he's also mad that Lore wouldn't let him come with when he left for the final fight.

Agency was sad but understanding. She really stepped up and helped her brother, trying to be there for the family.

(The funeral was the place where Alterity first found out he had half-siblings... it did not go over well. Another reason he was mad at Lore after his death)

[charonean]

I am begging you, please ask me questions about the Szereban-Webber family. Please ask me questions about Lore [Jonas Webber]. Please!!