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Lars Jäger Blog Entry |
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May 31, 2024, 12:00:11 AM 5/31/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's characters from my anthro WWII storyline are more of the Jäger children: twins Lars and Lara (about six years old), and Lothar (about four); Lars and Lothar are the only boys in the bunch. You can see their older sisters Lisbeth and Liesl HERE, and their eldest half-sister Leopoldine HERE. Their personalities aren't very developed yet. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, again, the younger they get, the bigger I draw the ears and eyes, and the shorter and chunkier the snout and neck. The male rats in my story don't have hair but females do (I dunno why). I have the three youngest Jäger children left to draw now. TUMBLR EDIT: I have even less to say about these three younger Jäger siblings, the first pair of twins and younger son Lothar, than about Lisbeth and Liesl. They seem cheery enough, and not as insecure as the art of the two older full sisters hints; I suspect their younger age has to do with it. The rest of this entry, which has mostly to do with Jäger anyway, will be truncated in following entries to save repetition. Something I've learned recently, bits of Jäger's family history are emerging, albeit slowly and haltingly; he isn't giving up his past too willingly. I've learned for sure that he himself comes from a big family, father, mother, grandmother, and Jäger is the youngest of seven siblings: He has six older sisters. So this helps explain why he knows how to deal with groups of women and why he even seems to prefer their company; he explains to Otto Himmel, the only male secretary he hires, that women have much better heads for office work and communication, they're calmer and more rational and deal better with facts and details, whereas men are physically stronger yet, given their predilection toward brute violence, are more suited as "cannon fodder." Himmel has never heard men referred to as the more emotional and less rational sex, so Jäger's theories dumbfound him a bit. (It doesn't get past him, either, that Jäger seems to be hinting that he considers Himmel more feminine in temperament than masculine, but he has nothing to say about that, he just accepts his desk job with furrowed brow.) Jäger's office is full of young, beautiful Helferinnen (helpers); additionally, he has his beloved wife Magda, and his large (and growing) litter of children, all but two of whom are girls, plus before he met Magda he was a participant in the Lebensborn program (a weird, semi-anonymous sort of "stud service" to help boost the birth rate)...so yes, Jäger is pretty used to being around lots of women. Another detail which emerged lately. Jäger informally considers his large band of secretaries his "Walküren," or Valkyries. They obey his every command without question, are fiercely loyal to him, and are unafraid of the same bureaucracy that intimidates most of his fellows because he takes good care of them and, despite his rather middling rank and his self-professed unglamorous status as "just another cog in the great war machine," he's actually quite powerful and, at times, downright terrifying. You don't mess with Jäger. Especially considering that he's a batsh*t fanatic. Jäger's early history is coming in bits and pieces that sometimes contradict each other, so I'm unsure of the truth of some of it. Twins, however, seem to run in his family; he and Magda have two sets of them, Lars and Lara, and Lilli and Lotti, and I believe Jäger himself is a younger twin. Hold on though, didn't I mention he was the only son, and youngest child, in a family of six daughters...? Yes, I did. Jäger's mother gives birth to Ludolf and Luitpold, yet both sons are a difficult birth and are weak and sickly, especially the younger. Frau Jäger is desperate to save her only sons from dying, so turns to her mother-in-law, Herr Jäger's mother. Why? Because the older Frau Jäger is rumored to have powers; she, and when he was younger, her son, practice the old ways, honoring the Germanic gods rather than the Christian one. Herr Jäger gave up these beliefs and converted to Catholicism but his mother is still a believer, and despite being Catholic herself, the younger Frau Jäger appeals to her for help, because she'll do anything. The older woman mulls over the request before stipulating that the boys themselves be raised in the old ways; Frau Jäger haggles that she raise them in her own faith, BUT, if they decide to go seeking such knowledge on their own--without her mother-in-law prompting them--she won't try to stop them. MIL agrees, goes to the sick boys, and spends some time murmuring incantations and pleas and making offerings of wine and burnt items. She places a hand on each boy as she prays. Then...something neither woman expected happens. Ludolf starts to grow weaker...while Luitpold grows stronger. MIL tries what she can, yet in the end, Ludolf succumbs, and only one of the twins, Luitpold, is left alive. Frau Jäger is distraught--this isn't what MIL promised her, she promised to save BOTH her sons. MIL retorts that she made no such promise, she simply said she would do what she could. She saved one boy; the other was obviously destined to die. It's Schicksal, fate. That doesn't mean he's gone, however...doesn't she see? The way Luitpold grew in strength as his brother Ludolf grew weaker. Ludolf's soul still lingers with them. With his twin brother. Frau Jäger isn't sure what to think--surely a body can house only one soul?--yet when the baby opens his eyes and blinks at her...she can swear she's looking at Ludolf, not Luitpold. It's unsettling, but the more she thinks about it, the more the idea worms its way into her. By the time Herr Jäger returns and demands to know what's going on, why is MIL here burning things, what happened to Ludolf, Frau Jäger has convinced herself that Ludolf died so Luitpold could live, Luitpold's body houses both the twins' souls, and oh, she's decided to give the surviving, younger son the elder son's name, because it only seems fitting. She declares that the boy she's cradling in her arms is both Luitpold and Ludolf, but from now on, he'll be known as Ludolf. Of course Herr Jäger, who renounced all this business ages ago, is incensed at his mother's meddling, and tells her off. His wife buying into it all mystifies him, but she's insistent, so, the surviving infant receives a name change. And when he's older, and spies his grandmother praying at her little altar which is nothing like the grand altar at the church the family attends, Oma Jäger is all too willing to fill him in on what she believes. Young Ludolf is full of awe and curiosity. Oma's talk of patron gods has him wondering, which god is his god? She replies that he needs to keep his eyes open for a sign. His god will let him know when he's been chosen. Ludolf is born roughly around 1910, so he's just a child when the Great War breaks out. At the time, his family lives near the border, and one day late in the war, Ludolf witnesses a German plane crash in a field. He runs to inspect it, taking note of a painting the pilot must have made on the tail--a lightning bolt--then realizes that the pilot is still alive. He spots Ludolf peering down at him--he's bloody and badly injured, one of his eyes missing--and holds up his hand; Ludolf grasps it and holds on for but a moment, before the airman's eye glazes over and his breath rattles and then falls still. He doesn't want to leave him, but flames start licking at the plane and he's forced to retreat, watching from afar as it's gradually consumed by fire. Men arrive to put it out and retrieve the charred body while Ludolf is taken home. He doesn't talk much to his parents, but privately, Oma asks him what he saw--she knows it was significant. He describes the incident in detail; by the time he's done, his grandmother is nodding, her eyes alight. Ludolf is twice blessed, she tells him--for not just one, but two gods have reached out to him: Donar the lord of thunder, and Wotan the Allfather. Ludolf now knows his patrons, and it's up to him whether he conducts himself accordingly. Ludolf grows up following his grandmother's teachings, ignoring how much it displeases his mother and father. They eventually learn to put up with it, hoping he'll grow out of it someday. Instead, he just grows even more devoted. When war rears its head a second time, and he learns of the formation of the Waffen-SS, he decides to apply to join. Nobody in his family is happy about this; his sisters cry, and his parents try to dissuade him, but he won't be deterred. His grandmother is the only one to urge him to follow his souls--she's told him by now of the sacrifice his older twin made for him--and although he doesn't care much for the racial business, he fully buys into the occult/mystical angle pushed by the Nazis. His father is just as adamant about the path the rest of the family will take: They're leaving the country, and will return only when the hostilities are over. Jäger's favorite sister makes a tearful appeal to him to come along; yet even this doesn't convince him. He feels like he has a destiny, and he rather hopes that, like the airman whose crash he witnessed so long ago, his souls might be borne away by the Walküren someday. He does decide not to part on bad terms, and wishes his family well, also hoping that they might reunite after the war, when things are better. Herr and Frau Jäger, Oma, and the six sisters depart Germany, while Jäger departs for the front. Despite their hopes, they never meet again. Jäger is wounded, and while lying half-conscious on the battlefield, he believes he sees a Walküre telling him it isn't his time yet (this is actually a nurse); he wakes in an SS hospital. Seeks a transfer to the Allgemeine-SS, participates in Lebensborn, meets young Magda in a maternity home...marries her, adopts her daughter Leopoldine, starts his own family, and starts the indoctrination all over again. The difference being that this time, there's a distinct Nazi slant, and everyone goes along with him, for better or worse. (Spoiler alert: It's worse.) That includes little Lars, Lara, and Lothar, and the rest of the Jäger children I haven't drawn yet...there are three more to go. [Lars Jäger 2024 [Friday, May 31, 2024, 12:00:11 AM]] |