Karl Hjort

Karl Hjort

Basic Info

Name: Karl Hjort
Nickname: N/A
Gender: male
Age: 17
Sexuality: heterosexual
Personality:
Karl is riven by guilt due to his past, and is slightly mentally unstable due to this. He is quite paranoid, and can misinterpret pretty much everything as a threat to him.

In battle, he seems determined to redeem himself, but also to lose himself. It is only when he is concentrating on something important, such as engineering or fighting, that he can forget the memories that haunt him.

He sees himself as a test subject to a degree, and wants to push the boundaries of the 3D manoeuvre gear, which is why he was so eager to join the Survey Corps. Therefore, he is always assessing his performance (if not while in battle, then immediately afterwards), so he can seem quite self-absorbed at times.

However, he also tries to learn from others so he can improve his skills, so often attempts to befriend, or at least gravitates to, the strongest soldiers he can find. The desire to improve himself, driven by a deep sense of inadequacy and his aforementioned guilt, will often lead him to seek out the most dangerous challenges, too.

He has few friends due to his suspicious nature and his fear of his own past, and finds it hard to forge bonds with other people due to this, but he is very loyal once befriended. He often wonders what his living companions have done to survive, provoking dark speculation in his mind.

He knows he needs to have close allies so that he can keep his mind grounded in reality as he would often rely on these allies to help him forget about his memories, but he loathes himself for seeking them out when he does, as he fears having anything to lose will push him past his mental breaking point, having lost so much already.

He might not see himself as open to having a relationship, considering them as only potential vulnerabilities from a distance, but one could easily develop without him noticing it at first due to his abnormal personality. This, however, is also a reason why he hasn't had a relationship yet.

Lastly, Karl's intelligence allows him to size up most tactical situations very well when calm. However, in the rare instances when paranoia seizes control of him, he can a useless tactician temporarily, seeing a threat around every corner. His powers of deduction, which are usually very reliable, are also hampered when this occurs.

Physical Traits

Rank: basic soldier
Special title: N/A
Group: Survey Corps
Job: combat engineer
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 140 lbs
Hair Color/Length: hair falls to just below his ears, blond
Eye Color: green
Appearance: being relatively short, Karl does not cut an intimidating figure. He often has a haunted look in his eyes, and clearly suffers from many sleepless nights. He has been spotted muttering to himself frequently about the life he left behind when he fled Wall Maria, but usually stops when he notices that other people are watching him.

His muscles are well toned but not enormously large, and when he is afraid he clutches a small keepsake which he keeps in his coat pocket, a small blue crystal which reminds him of the life he left behind when he joined the military.

Often he stands in the shadows or hidden locations, from which he can rant to himself and observe the abilities of others relatively unnoticed.

At times, he will shut himself off from the world and stare into the distance. Those who do not know him well may assume that this is due to boredom; in fact, it is a sign of an unwanted memory taking hold of his mind for a time.

Stats

Toughness - 4
Intellect - 8
Dexterity - 5

Character Information

Likes:

Engineering - he is convinced that progress in the field of mechanics will facilitate humanity's efforts to defeat the titans, and hence is constantly modifying 3DMG in an attempt to improve it.

New military situations - he is excited by what terrifies many soldiers, as he sees new kinds of threat as rare opportunities to test his engineering hypotheses and environments in which to learn about how to improve human military capability.

Distractions - his whole life is an attempt to distract himself from the memories of his past, which greatly distress him.

Dislikes:

Memories - his life is defined by a tragic past which he has never come to terms with. He keeps running from it, afraid to confront it, and hates himself when it comes to haunt him.

The will to survive - whilst recognising this as useful, he knows it can force people to do terrible things to each other. Karl loathes it for this reason, knowing it turns humans into monsters.

Mystery - Karl does not like being kept in the dark, even about insignificant matters. He sees the shadow of danger in every unknown place, object, plan or concept, and can get very paranoid about the smallest of secrets.

Fears:

Justice - he thinks this will eventually catch up with him and punish him for what he did to survive in his childhood, and lives in constant fear of retribution for his wrongdoings.

An early end- he feels the need for time in which to atone for his past crimes, and knows an early death would cut his attempt to redeem himself off before he could succeed (according to his criteria). Similarly, he is afraid humanity will be wiped out before it can develop the means to defeat the titans, although he is confident that, if humanity is given time, these means will exist in the future.

Failure - it holds a special significance for him. Each failure becomes another memory to haunt him, each friend who dies another strain on his crumbling sanity. He is afraid that if he fails too often and too significantly, he will lose his mind entirely and permanently.

Motivations:

Procrastination of the destruction of the human race: Karl wants to buy humanity more time to find a way to defend itself against the titans, before it is wiped out by them.

Redemption for previous crimes: having spent his whole life running from his past, Karl wishes to neutralise its bite by carrying out enough good deeds to alleviate his longstanding sense of guilt.

Test subject: as previously mentioned, Karl fights partially to test human and technological limits, so that he can aid in the development of new and improved weaponry to increase the power of the military.

Character History

Background:

Karl Hjort was a bright boy living a comfortable life nestled deep within Wall Maria who thought rarely of anyone but himself in his youth. His parents caught on to the fact that he was extremely intelligent and reacted by giving him the best education they could afford, sending him from his village to a nearby town on a regular basis to receive an advanced education alongside some of the most clever children within Wall Maria.

He did not return their kind favour to him when the Armoured Titan breached the wall, however. His village was small and so the fleeing troops did not deem it worth the risk to warn its people that the titans were coming before retreating to Wall Rose.

It was due to this reason that the titans came to his village first. Once they were sighted, the alarm was raised and the panicked villages took the belongings most precious to them and fled in short order. However, they did not flee quickly enough - Karl amongst them - and so many of them were devoured by titans whilst others escaped.

It was then that Karl committed his first crime. When a titan trod on his house, he let his fear and his will to survive overcome him. Knowing his little sister and parents were trapped in that house, knowing that he should have tried to save them from its ruins, he ran away instead, hating himself for his act of self-preservation. In retrospect, it was all he could have realistically done, as trying to save his family would have resulted in his death as well as theirs. However, he could not forgive himself for abandoning those he cared for.

His second crime was soon to follow. As a starving but extremely intelligent refugee, he analysed the patterns of the guards' patrols within Wall Rose at the time of the refugee crisis, waiting until he saw an opening to pilfer a small amount of bread. It enabled him to survive, but the shortage of food at that time meant that others died instead of him. Thus, he had knowingly deprived others of the basic means to survive so that he could live to see another day, effectively causing their deaths.

His third was feigning weakness and illness when the mission to recapture Wall Maria was launched. He was instantly suspicious as soon as it was announced, and, being knowledgable about specific illnesses due to the education he had received as a child, he feigned pneumonia and did his best to simulate its symptom (his methods included self-induced vomiting, among other distasteful practices). He was declared seriously ill and unfit to serve as part of the force retaking Wall Maria, and so was not involved in the massacre of the refugees that occurred when the offensive begun.

He was clever, but not clever enough to outrun the law forever, however. The doctors sent to treat his pneumonia soon recognised he was not really very ill at all, but by the time they had discovered this, the offensive had already begun. Avoiding conscription through falsifying illness was a crime, and one punishable by imprisonment, but the conscription officer, when consulted on whether or not he wished to press criminal charges, instead opted to offer Karl a choice: join the military, or face a court of law.

Karl, who was afraid of the titans and put self-preservation before all other objectives at this point in his life, was tempted to choose to face a court of law and some years' imprisonment instead of a life in the dangerous military. Doubt niggled at his mind, however, as he started to come to terms with the horror of what he'd done; the inhumane actions he'd taken to survive.

The conscription officer asked him why he wished to face the court instead of joining the military; Karl responded that he wished to survive. The officer asked him why this was.

Karl had no answer. He hadn't even considered it. He'd just like his instincts take over.

The officer took him to the top of Wall Rose, and they looked out over it together. The officer explained that once upon a time, most of his soldiers had thought the same way as Karl; most humans had. Survival instinct, after all, came naturally.

But then he asked Karl, knowing the boy was intelligent from the reports of how he'd so cleverly feigned illness, if he thought humanity had advanced to where it was today in terms of technological and military progress due to doing just what came naturally.

Once again, Karl had no answer.

The officer supplied it for him: that following basic instincts only made people no better than titans. He pointed out over the wall, where they both watched as the offensive force was massacred. He explained to Karl that, in fact, they had been sent out because the nobles were acting out of another instinct: fear. Fear that they would have to give up their privilege to feed the refugees. As the boy and the man watched the massacre unfold in front of them, Karl felt powerless. The officer asked Karl why one would wish to survive, in a world where survival could only be guaranteed by inhuman actions, in a world ruled by monsters called titans outside the walls and monsters called oppressors within them.

This time, Karl had an answer, but one answer only. The doubts about why he'd done what he'd done, the guilt at the crimes he'd committed, and the haunting memories were starting to dismantle the order of his mind by now, but the answer remained clear to Karl. "To change it," he replied.

Once he'd said those words, the officer smiled grimly and offered Karl a place in the military again. This time, the boy accepted without hesitation and joined the 103rd trainees squad. He had realised, by now, that he was but a monster within the walls, and that his life was currently pointless, and so he had dedicated the rest of it to changing the terrible status quo, so that future generations would not have to be ruled by monsters inside and outside the walls.

Over the next few years as a trainee, he was exposed to death and suffering in every Survey Corps patrol he watched returning from their expeditions, but he became more and more resolved to outrun his guilt by joining it to dedicate his life to the liberation of humanity from the monsters that he had once been one of.

He graduated amongst the top ten in his class due to his fierce intellect although he wasn't the best of fighters, and his use of experimental, personally modified 3DMG gave him the edge in several of his training exercises, which drew the attention of the Survey Corps top brass.

Whilst still unreliable, this gear was valuable and he was entrusted, as a combat engineer, to develop and test it. Having survived for a year within the Survey Corps, he has gained a reputation as one of their brightest soldiers; his excellent grasp of military tactics led to his promotion, but his tendency to experience bouts of paranoia has, so far, held him back from becoming a full squad leader.

Extras: Karl is attempting to modify his 3DMG to improve it (as a combat engineer). Whilst it is still being tested (largely by him), I hope to add this to his profile once I acquire enough gems to create a weapon.