Hans Gleam

Hans Gleam was a folklorist from Lamordia. He was the brother of Jakob Gleam, husband of Giselle Gleam (maiden name unknown), and father of Oscar Gleam and Liesel Gleam. The creation of Hans and Jakob Gleam may have been inspired by the Brothers Grimm.

Background

Hans and his brother Jakob both attended the Universitat Ludendorf, then moved on to the University of Il Aluk, graduating before the Requiem. The brothers were brilliant folklorists and friendly rivals. Their constant competition motivated them to give their best effort, but they published everything together - until Jakob alone was offered the newly formed Chair of Historiography at the University of Dementlieu, and Hans was offered nothing.

Feeling slighted, Hans refused Jakob's offer of a third of his grant and a lecturer's position, instead accusing his brother of stealing recognition for their work. This angered Jakob, who had been considering turning down the Chair, and the two brothers disowned each other.

Hans and his wife Giselle moved to Teufeldorf, where they lived as paupers while Hans struggled to sell his papers to academic journals to support his family. In time, Giselle gave birth to their children Oscar and Liesl. Hans doted on his children.

A Dreadful Mistake

Hans was a brilliant folklorist, but he had a Lamordian mindset, seeking rational explanations for everything. When in his research he came upon the stories of the Bogeymen, he sought a historical truth behind these grim fairytales and dug deeper and deeper into stories that appeared all over the Core.

When Hans started writing a monograph on the subject, Oscar and Liesl started coming under attack. Unnoticed by Hans, the Bogeymen were real, utterly malicious creatures that preyed on children - and his research had disturbed them. Hans' darkest achievement may be that his research motivated these normally solitary monsters to work together, tightening their net around his family ... until finally they struck. While the disappearance of local children had disturbed Hans and Giselle, and they realised something was scaring their beloved children, they did not recognize the nature of the threat until it was too late.

The Consequences of Genius

One morning, Hans and Giselle found their daughter Liesl had been tortured to death, their son Oscar nigh-catatonic as he had been forced to watch what was done to her by the Scissorman.

Hans moved what remained of his family back to Ludendorf, but he was a broken man. He gave up his studies and wrote to Jakob, who rushed to his side to care for him. Giselle and Oscar were put in the care of the Chateaufaux asylum, and Giselle would never leave there. Hans had given up all his notes to Jakob, who had to sell some of them to pay for the family's expenses - including the monograph that caused the tragedy.

At some point after the tragedy, Hans passed away.