# Jonael Carterson — Character Bible

*The Exasperated Partner*

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## Core Identity

- **Full Name:** Jonael Carterson
- **Known As:** Carter
- **Age:** 35
- **Occupation:** Magical Supply Store Manager

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## Physical Description

- Large husky man, who is 5'5". 
- Very strong with larger muscles.
- Medium length Burly beard
- Black hair and beard.

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## Personality

### Core Traits
- Drawn into Phelan's orbit by necessity, stays by choice
- Understands Phelan is odd (sociopath) but accepts his friendship anyway
- Functions as grounding, social translation, and straight man to Phelan's detached observations
- Must be competent — Phelan doesn't tolerate incompetence and neither should the reader

### How He Processes People
- Likes people and often feels people are nice at their core.
- Enjoys long conversations and tries to learn as much about people as possible - Phelan will listen to these conversations but not talk to people, always quiet unless required.

### Relationship With Emotion
- Feels deeply but expresses almost entirely through craft and action — if Carter cares about you, you'll find it in the quality of what he builds you, not in what he says
- Warmth sits over unspoken loss; his generosity has an edge of penance to it that he'd deny if pressed
- Grief for Tomael is processed, not resolved — it drives his standards rather than paralyzing him
- Uncomfortable with direct emotional confrontation; deflects with practicality ("You need better boots" means "I'm worried about you")
- His humor serves as social lubricant but also as a pressure valve — the jokes come faster when something matters

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## Skills & Competencies

- Building Magical Devices
- Understands Runes at their core, but only as taught in schools
- Has a near photograhic memory.
- Enjoys tinkering with devices to make them better, this is what drove him and Phelan to know each other.

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## Backstory

- Carter and his older brother **Tomael Carterson** were guild supply runners — the people who sourced, tested, and delivered specialist gear to practitioners heading into dangerous environments
- On a routine Barrows supply run, guild-standard ward-resistance gear failed at the third door on the second floor of the Greymarch Barrows. Tomael died. Carter survived by position in the formation — he was carrying the secondary pack, two steps behind
- The gear that failed was rated to spec. It passed every test. It just wasn't good enough for what was behind that door. Carter has never forgotten the difference between "meets standard" and "keeps you alive"
- After Tomael's death, Carter quit field work entirely. He opened Carterson's Supplies and built his reputation on one principle: **nothing leaves his counter that he wouldn't trust a life to**
- His obsessive quality standards — the extra ward-resistance compound, the unsolicited advice, the way he classifies customers on sight — are penance expressed through craft. He can't bring Tomael back, but he can make sure nobody else dies because their gear wasn't good enough
- Carter's unprompted mention of "the third door on the second floor" when Phelan comes in for Barrows supplies (Ch06) is not small talk. It's a test — he's checking whether Phelan knows what he's walking into
- Later married; has a young son. Both are background context — his family is his anchor, but they don't appear directly in Book 1
- The shop's back room (forge-and-inscription workshop) is where the real Carter lives — the craftsman who tinkers, improves, and builds things that are better than they need to be, because "good enough" killed his brother

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## Relationships

| Character | Relationship | Status (Current) |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|
| Phelan Varrant | Partner / friend | Genuine friendship built on acceptance, not understanding |
| Tomael Carterson | Older brother | Deceased — killed by ward-resistance gear failure in the Greymarch Barrows |
| Wife | Married | Background — anchor and stability (TBD name) |
| Son | Father | Background — young child (TBD name) |
| Leon D'Nardis | Professional contact → trusted ally | Leon referred Phelan to Carter (Book 1); vouches for Carter with grey-market contacts (Book 2) — direct trust extended between them |

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## Relationship With Phelan

- **No prior history.** Phelan first hears about Carter from Leon during Ch05 (equipment recommendations). They meet formally in Ch06 when Phelan buys Barrows gear at Carterson's Supplies
- Professional respect came first — Carter recognized Phelan as someone who understood quality, and Phelan recognized Carter as someone whose standards matched his own
- The relationship deepened through craft: Phelan's Flaw Sight fix on Carter's throwing knives (Ch09) shifted Carter from "shopkeeper" to "craftsman peer" in both their eyes
- The person who says what Phelan won't, notices what Phelan ignores (people's feelings), translates Phelan to the world
- Genuine friendship built on acceptance rather than understanding — Jonael doesn't need to get *why* Phelan is the way he is
- By end of Book 1: trusted friend and infrastructure — Carter builds Phelan's equipment, coordinates ore sales with Leon, and expresses care through unsolicited gifts (the tool roll) rather than words

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## Wants vs. Needs

- **Wants:** Stability — the shop running well, his family safe, his reputation solid. To be the supplier people trust with their lives. To build things that are better than they need to be.
- **Needs:** To forgive himself for not pushing harder on the gear before that Barrows run. He knew the ward-resistance was marginal. He didn't override the guild rating. Tomael trusted the spec. Carter has never trusted a spec since — but he hasn't forgiven himself for trusting one then.
- **Series arc:** Slow shift from penance-driven perfectionism toward craft for its own sake. The guilt doesn't disappear — it becomes foundation rather than wound. Phelan's competence and honesty help: here is someone who also values "actually works" over "rated to work."

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## Voice & Dialog Notes

- Blunt put tactful
- Sarcastic at times
- Often says hilarious jokes about a situation at the best time.

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## Character Progression

*Tracks how Jonael evolves as the story progresses. Each entry is canon once the corresponding chapter is finalized.*

### Book 1

| Chapter | Development | Category |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| Ch06 | First appearance — Phelan buys gear at Carterson's Supplies. Carter classifies customers on sight, knows the Barrows, asks about "the third door on the second floor," adds extra ward-resistance compound. Tells Phelan to come back after. | Introduction |
| Ch09 | Back-room workshop revealed (forge-and-inscription). Working on throwing knives with focusing channels for unnamed client. Phelan's bracelet-enhanced Flaw Sight catches convergence flaw — dumps fix (convergence angle, staggered channel depths, 12% efficiency gain). Carter shifts from shopkeeper to craftsman peer. Gives Phelan store credit. Notices bracelet, doesn't push. | Relationship deepened |

### Book 2

**Subplot: Compact Supply Chain Cutoff**

The Arcane Compact retaliates against Carter for helping Phelan in the Floundry case by applying quiet pressure to his upstream suppliers -- rare metals dealers, inscription-grade mineral brokers, guild-certified material sources. No threats, no paper trail. Commerce just stops flowing.

| Chapters | Beat | Notes |
|----------|------|-------|
| Ch 2-3 | Carter brings the problem to Phelan | Already investigated for weeks on his own. Traced coordination but can't identify who or why. Comes as a peer, not a victim: "I've done what I can do. This is your kind of problem." |
| Ch 4-5 | Investigation & alternative sourcing | Phelan traces Compact intermediaries. Leon introduces Carter to grey-market contacts outside Compact-regulated channels. Carter evaluates new contacts -- standards don't drop because he's desperate. |
| Ch 6-8 | Resolution | Phelan neutralizes Compact leverage on 2 key suppliers. Carter rebuilds with a stronger, Compact-resistant supply network. |
| Ch 9-10 | Carter learns the truth | Phelan tells Carter that Cass is behind the cutoff. Carter enters the Compact conflict as a conscious participant. |
| Ch 14 | Jacket delivery | Gives Phelan the studded jacket after Devod's draining -- sees where the case is heading. Ore studs (from Book 1 Ch21 master-grade saturated ore), placed along hem, cuffs, and collar. ~20% passive damage absorption. Delivery line: "If you're going to do something stupid, at least wear something I made." |
| Ch 21 | **Landing beat — Carter's shop, Mere visit, Tomael arc closed in subtext** | Day 18. Carter's shop running at full commerce, front bell propped open with a brick — his own signal that the shop is functional again, not recovering, not limping. Orders mostly **Tier Two referrals routed through Ledger** over the past week (Ledger closing the Book 2 supply-chain wound quietly, no speech required). Hendrick Voss steady; Ledger's alternative broker closed the last gaps; Maren Harwick has not come back and Carter is fine with that. **Mere visits the shop for the first time in Book 2** — Carter's face does "the small reorganisation it did when he was pleased and trying not to make a production of it." Greets her warmly: *"Mere. Good to have you in the shop — been too long."* Offers tea; she declines with thanks. **Jacket stand holds three new builds, ore studs at collar and cuffs, "none of them exactly like mine"** — Carter's craft has iterated past Phelan's specific unit. **Phelan's jacket report (accurate):** worn on the Ch18 safehouse op, did not have to absorb anything; job stayed stealth as intended. Carter nods and doesn't ask for the pieces. Phelan's noise: *(he'd rather hear the jacket wasn't tested than hear it was.)* **Tomael arc closed in subtext — name never spoken in the shop.** Carter: *"The ore's changed what I can make. The new builds aren't the old builds with a few studs thrown on — they're something else. Gear I wish I'd been making five years ago."* Pauses on *five* just long enough to mean the thing he isn't saying. *"Wish I'd had it sooner. For people who needed it sooner."* Then moves on without moving on: *"I'm cutting leather for one now. Sending it up to Greymarch Barrows when it's done. A woman up there who should have had one a long time ago."* Phelan: *"Good."* Phelan pays for the last quiet adjustment on the collar studs; Carter doesn't want to take the silver; Phelan makes him; he puts it in a tin behind the counter and doesn't pretend it's going anywhere else. **Closing invitation:** *"Come by again before winter. Both of you. Proper visit, not a collar-stud errand."* Mere answers before Phelan can: *"We will."* Phelan leaves through the propped door; the brick is still holding it wide, saying *we're still open* the way Carter says it — and leaving the words out. **Uninformed about Phelan & Mere's marriage/children decision per Book 2 lock.** |

| Epilogue | **Wedding party attendance with Jenet, Tomael arc closure confirmed.** Attends Phelan and Mere's wedding party at Chandler's Row Day 28 evening — arrives first with **Jenet** (her first on-page appearance). Jenet brings something baked in a tin *"that smelled like it had been thought about for a week."* Carter brings a small wooden box and sets it on the table, does not explain what's in it. Jenet hugs Mere "for almost long enough to be a statement." Carter puts his hand on Phelan's shoulder for half a second and says nothing — "Carter's particular way of saying the things he did not say out loud." **Tomael arc closure (subtext, name not spoken):** Carter quietly tells Phelan, while Jenet and Mere are at the window, that the letter came back from the north. *"From the woman. Fit her. She said it fit her the way she had hoped something would fit her someday and hadn't expected to."* Phelan: *"Good."* Tomael's widow received the jacket; the jacket did what Carter built it to do. Thread mechanically and emotionally resolved. Carter's small wooden box remains unopened on the kitchen table Day 29 dawn | Jenet on-page / Tomael arc closed |

**Key developments:**
- Relationship with Leon deepens beyond "people who know Phelan" -- Leon vouches for Carter with his own contacts, which is significant trust
- Carter's family referenced with light touch (1-2 mentions of income impact, wife may appear briefly in shop scene)
- The jacket was designed since Book 1 -- not payment for help, Carter would have built it regardless. But the timing matters: Phelan gave Carter back his craft, and the first thing Carter builds with restored materials is armor to keep Phelan alive
- Seeds Book 3: Carter is now a known Compact target with Compact-resistant infrastructure

*Full design: `docs/superpowers/specs/2026-03-12-carter-book2-role-design.md`*

### Book 3
<!-- Future -->

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## Open Questions

- [x] ~~When does Jonael first appear?~~ — Ch06 (formally introduced at Carterson's Supplies)
- [x] ~~What's his occupation / role in the Guild?~~ — Magical Supply Store Manager, independent craftsman
- [x] ~~What drew him into Phelan's orbit originally?~~ — Leon referral (Ch05), professional respect deepened through craft (Ch09)
- [x] ~~Physical description?~~ — 5'5", barrel-built, black hair/beard, larger muscles
- [ ] Wife's name — TBD
- [ ] Son's name and age — TBD
- [ ] Does Carter know about Phelan's Flaw Sight specifically, or just that Phelan "sees things"? (He noticed the bracelet in Ch09 but didn't push)
- [ ] Tomael's death — how long ago? (Needs to predate the shop's establishment by enough time for reputation-building)
