Jonathan (Son of Morgoth)

(WIP- please do not edit) Jonathan is one of the main protagonists of the Tapestry of Dark Souls novel. To date, he has not been mentioned by name in any game products in the Ravenloft line. However, he is referred to in Brother Dominic's entry in Champions of the Mists as Morgoth's "own son" whom helped the Order of the Guardian to overcome Morgoth and the Tapestry of Dark Souls (also known as the Gathering Cloth).

History

Jonathan (718 BC-735 BC) is the son of an outlander woman named Leith. She was a mother Jonathan never got to know, as her lycanthropy and influence from Maeve led her to sacrifice herself to the Tapestry of Dark Souls following his birth. It is with this dread artifact that Jonathan's paternal origins laid, for the imprisoned warlock Morgoth had somehow reached beyond the Tapestry to impregnate Leith prior to her imprisonment. Jonathan also inherited lycanthropy from Leith, the latter having been infected by Maeve.

Left in the hands of the Order of the Guardians, he was at first left in the hands of a family known to be trustworthy and seeking the care of a child, Andor Merriwhite and Dirica, both residents of Linde and the caretakers of the Nocturne inn. However, the boy did not bond with his would-be foster parents, leaving Dirica greatly traumatized. The monastics took Jonathan back in, raising and giving him instruction for the first seventeen years of his life. He learned how to play the flute and the harp from Brother Peto, how to fight from Brother Hektor, and magic (if very sparingly) from the disciplinarian Brother Leo. During this time, the existence of the Tapestry was [concealed]] from him.

At age 17 (in the year 735 BC) under the partial influence of Leith communicating to him from the Tapestry, Jonathan became interested in the hamlet of Linde after rescuing Sondra by inadvertently but instinctively leading some wolves to attack a band of goblins assaulting her. They grew close. In addition, he came to train under Ivar, a friend of Leo (and the other Guardians) but whom differed from Leo in how he approached tutorship. Whereas Leo was slow and reluctant to give secrets of arcane lore to Jon, Ivar hardily and proudly encouraged his development. With Ivar's help, Jon's skills in wizardry bloomed.

At the same time he was flourishing, several forces ate away at his attachment to the Order of the Guardians. He encountered the bestial sacrifices the hamlet performed in order to generate good fortune, which began to awaken his bestial nature. With the assistance of Maeve, he came into the full knowledge of his nature as a werewolf. And as he drew closer to Sondra and earned praise as a musician at the Nocturne, he drew the enmity of Miysha, Sondra's jealous would-be suitor. Miysha and Jon's mutual antipathy built to the point that Miysha employed Aldern and Josef to ambush Jon, beat him to near death, and leave him for the goblins to feast upon. However, with the intervention of Maeve, Aldern and Josef were both themselves murdered.

By far the greatest thing that led Jonathan down the path of corruption was the influence of the Gathering Cloth, a collector and magnifier of Evil. Morgoth spoke through the Cloth, making out the Guardians as liars and deceivers, especially after Jonathan discovered the existence of the Cloth and what happened to his mother. Through promises of truth and power, and later the coercion for the safety of Sondra, Morgoth manipulated Jonathan into freeing him and even the murder of Brother Leo.

The tide of public opinion began to turn against Jonathan, and along with his new bride Sondra, he tried to escape from the town and break away from Morgoth at the same time. Morgoth removed his protection and imbued mystical power from Jonathan, allowing the townspeople to capture them. Jon was to be sacrificed to the spirits of the land for the benefit of the town, but Morgoth intervened, taking Jonathan by his side once again.

During Morgoth's second final siege against the Monastery in Markovia, Jonathan a final redemption by working in tandem with Ivar to destroy the Cloth and Morgoth all at once. However, this act required the sacrifice of both Jonathan and Ivar's lives.

By the epilogue ToDS, Sondra was left despondent over the loss of her husband, but then she came into contact with spiritual entities she recognized as Jonathan and his mother, Leith.

Skills and Abilities

Jonathan showed himself to be something of a polymath and child prodigy. His skills as a performer (flutist, harpist, singer but not dancer) at one point gathered large crowds for the Nocturne, and he was regarded as the best hunter-tracker in Linde. He amazed Master Leo and Brother Matthas in his schooling with the ability to almost instantly memorize entire passages of information. Although somewhat sickly and slight of stature, he bore some fighting skill from his time with Hektor.

Jonathan's skills in the arcane arts proceeded rapidly. By the end of ToDS, he knew how to throw fireballs and even how to teleport. However, apparently much of this power depended upon his connection with Morgoth after their life forces became linked, for Morgoth could remove much of Jon's power if he wished.

Jonathan was also a werewolf, able to use the shapeshifting powers of such a beast. In addition, he had a level of influence over wolves and such lupine entities. Although he was the sun of a vampire or vampire-like entity, Jonathan never showed the abilities typical of a dhampir, such as fangs or the special ability to shrug off damage from mundane weapons.