Character Development Questionnaire - Johannes 2018

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• Name: Johannes Honeysong 
• Nickname(s) (to whom?): Johan/Hans/Hannes (to everyone, most well known as Hans) 
• Gender: He/Him 
• Age: equivalent of 21 (his species lives much longer than humans)
• Occupation: healer/medic 
• Economic status: lower middle class 
• Home community: n/a 
• Residence: he drifts around a lot, and doesn’t stay in one place for long 
• Who else lives with them (people/pets): His dog pitters, his bunny peebo, and his older brother Asvald 
• Main relationships (partners/children/friends/parents): Son named Björn, older brother named Asvald, Father named Odder, Mother named Dorothea (deceased), ex husband named Viktor (deceased) 
• Sexuality: Homosexual 
• Relationship status (if in past, why are they over?): Widower. Asvald killed his husband because he was beating him 

Physical

• Weight/height/build: 5ft tall, pear shaped, curvy
• Eye colour: left brown, right blue (uses a magical illusion to make them appear golden)
• Hair colour (and if it’s natural): blonde (natural)
• Hair style: long, usually with a lot of braids
• Overall appearance (e.g. handsome, weak): beautiful, ethereal, angelic, cute, babyface
• What others first notice about them: he carries himself gracefully and gently, as if every movement is calculated, he smells like herbs and flowers, he is very small and feminine.
• Physical differences: he is trans and presents himself femininely, but prefers to use male pronouns, he has long, tall elf ears that flop slightly (he is only half elf), he has monolids and a generally mongolian shaped face (asian) but has blonde hair and pale skin.
• Clothing style: white and gold mostly, flowy, silks and satins, sheers, fairly revealing
• Facial hair/tattoos/piercings/scars: small faint scars littering his body, and small meaningful little tattoos mostly on his arms and torso. His brother is a tattoo artist so whenever he gets a good idea he gets him to tattoo him.
• Mannerisms/gestures/body language: elegant, graceful, calculated
• Ethnicity (and can others tell this?): half elf, half human (Swedish). It’s fairly easy to tell he’s not all human by those big ol ears.
• Language(s) spoken: elvish, common
• Way of speaking (e.g. slow/fast, loud/soft, authoritatively/tentatively, rarely/a lot, diction, accent): Slight Swedish accent, graceful and soft spoken, yet doesn’t really speak elegantly-- is very simple with his words and vocabulary and uses a lot of slang.
• Health/mental issues or addictions: depression, anxiety, BPD (borderline personality disorder) and PTSD.
• Who they appears to be to others: A beautiful, ethereal half elf healer-- manic faerie pixie dream boy.
• Who they really are: A damaged young man who has a lot of problems and healing to do.

Background

• Birth date: June 6
• Birth place: Sweden
• Parents (e.g. occupations, education, economic status, names, ages): Odder Andersson (business owner, upper middle class, in his late 40s), Dorothea Andersson (stay at home mom, deceased in early 40s)
• Siblings: Asvald Andersson (mercenary, tattoo artist)
• What were the family dynamics?: Odder was abusive in every single way, physically, sexually, and emotionally. Asvald would try and protect Johannes from his abuse but would end up getting beat up in the end. Asvald and Johannes were very close to their mother, who was too timid and scared to do anything about her husband. She taught them the old ways (Paganism), to pass down the family tradition.
• Other important relationships: Johannes’s son, Björn is one of the most important things in his life. He’s from Johannes’s last marriage, and is his best friend. He is what keeps Johannes going, and what keeps him healing. He and Asvald take turns taking care of him.
• Early friends: Johannes’s best friend during his childhood, a young irish/swedish girl, had her mother offer to take custody of Johannes to get him away from his terrible father. They went back to Ireland and that is where Johannes spent the remainder of his childhood.
• Home community: He didn’t have many friends in Ireland, just the friend that brought him there. His life growing up was much better, but he missed his brother and his mother dearly.
• Childhood residence: A small farmhouse in Ireland where he shared a room with his friend. His friend’s mother drove them to school every weekday.
• Education: High School
• Keepsake from the past and what it represents: He owns a necklace from his mother, with an old Norse rune on it that he cherishes.

Formative events that shaped who they are today—may include:

• best thing that ever happened to them
• worst thing that ever happened to them
• what/who has disappointed them and when/why

Traits

Potentially good stuff

• Most obvious skill: Healing magic, medicine
• Hidden skill: Sewing, sneaking
• Values/beliefs: Norse Pagan, believes in honor and living an honorable life, being kind to others
• Attractive/redeeming trait: Confident, flirtatious

Potentially bad stuff

• Unattractive trait: unpredictable emotions
• Vices: (former) heavy drug problems
• Most obvious weakness: if anything happened to his son he’d give up, is easy to give in when faced with an enemy stronger than him
• Hidden weakness: people finding out his past without him telling them
• Fatal flaw: cares too much for everyone
• Why/when would they lie?: only if it was necessary, or to protect someone
• Capacity for physical violence: very low. he never fights unless he needs to. he’s a healer, not a fighter.
• Rule-abiding? (how did they justify their behaviour? ever been caught?): Unless he can tell that the rules are corrupt, he always does his best to follow them.

Preferences/behaviours

• Intelligence level: High when it comes to magic, but fairly low when it comes to everything else.
• What they care about most: his son and his brother
• Things they hate to do: he hates to cook (not very good at it) and hates fighting
• Political affiliation: n/a
• Heroes and role models: his older brother is his biggest role model
• How they spend their days: he is usually sewing, cleaning, taking care of his son, or working at his clinic.
• What they would prefer to be doing: he would probably prefer to be sitting on a beach with his son and a handsome hunk, drinking coolers and looking out at the ocean.
• Habits/quirks: taps his fingers against things a lot, giggles when he’s nervous
• Hobbies: sewing, knitting, a small amount of alchemy
• Favourite things (e.g. food, songs, clothing, places): his son, his home of Uppsala, stories from his faith and anything with caramel in it.
• Possessions (quantity? favourites?): He doesn’t own many things, but he is very partial to his very fancy clothes (made by himself) and his two pets.
• Relationship to food: he’s had eating disorders in the past, and so his relationship to food is strained-- he hates cooking and isn’t very good at it

Emotions/psychology

• Type: thinking/feeling/intuitive/sensation feeling, emotional
• Frightened by: his father, certain men, undead creatures
• Angered by: dishonesty, shadiness
• Hates: to be teased about his past, his upbringing, how young he looks
• Vulnerabilities: is very soft and small, has issues dealing with his past, and with certain men
• Finds humorous: people who are so nervous around him that they stumble
• Finds attractive in others: he prefers men who are much bigger than him, muscular (but also enjoys some softness), with hearts of gold who are assertive but kind and sensitive
• Finds annoying in others: cowardice, pride
• Capacity for intimacy: now that he is older, he’s very enthusiastic about intimacy and affection, and is very confident in how he expresses this.
• Most proud of: his son, and his sewing skills
• What emotions do they express often?: joy, kindness, worry
• What emotions do they hold back?: anger
• Main moods: calm, gentle, happy
• General temperament:
• Cheerful and optimistic
• Depressed and melancholic
• Aggressive and impulsive
• Cold and indifferent
• Introvert or extrovert?

Archetype

• Wise old man/woman
• Little professor
• Perfect child
• Femme fatale
• Hunk
• Amazon woman
• Witch/bitch
• Wallflower
• Dictator
• Rebel
• Big shot
• Madonna
• Victim
• Little prince/princess
• People-pleaser
• Joker/prankster/clown
• Perfectionist
• Warrior
• Rescuer
• Pygmalion
• Martyr
• Critic
• Judge
• Vulnerable little child

Conflict

• Enemies?: his father?
• How they deal with conflict – e.g. fight/flight (denial, overcompensation, addictions): depending on the situation, hes normally one to run or avoid confrontation/conflict
• Do they think/feel one way but behave another?: Occasionally, due to his personality disorder sometimes he doesn’t even know what his emotions are doing.
• Inner conflict?: he wonders if he should forgive his father, or be angry at his brother, but in the end he knows that neither of those things should be true.
• Top secrets: he is nearly infertile due to his father’s abuse. His son was a miracle. He’s had many miscarriages.

Present status

Needs/motivations

• Internal need: Love, affection, care
• External need: He rarely makes his needs apparent on the outside.
• Top fears: losing his son or brother, father finding him.
• What they are waiting for: a handsome man to sweep him off his feet.
• Hopes for: a good life for his son, without having to ever deal with his father.
• What’s missing from their life: a second parent for his son, maybe even a more financially stable home, in ONE place.
• Where sits on hierarchy of needs:
• Physiological needs (food/clothing/shelter): 2
• Safety and security needs (free from physical endangerment): 1
• Affiliation needs (belonging, acceptance): 3
• Esteem needs (be recognized as outstanding in some way): 4
• Self-actualization (maximize own potential): 5
• What would they fight for?: His son.
• What would they die for?: His son.

Other

Other things about them (optional):

• He is transgender/nonbinary. Appears incredibly feminine but uses male pronouns
• He is a character I’ve had for at least 4 years!

Arc

• Over the arc of Johannes’s story, you see him grow and change, and learn to heal and learn from his experiences. You see him at his lowest point, doing hard drugs and being beaten by his father, and get to watch him overcome his experiences and life to become a bigger person and give his son a good life, and give himself a good, healthy life.

Summary

• What two words best describe them?: Graceful, damaged
• Overall, should the reader like/dislike them?: The reader should like Johannes, but also realize that he is learning and changing as they read. And that he doesn’t always make the best decisions, but he’ll learn from it in the end.