Jonas

> Hehe... But it is knowable. Knowable to ME! And why, you ask? Because I... am JONAS!
>
>

A strange middle-aged man who wears outdated clothing from a bygone era. Often spouting aphorisms of varying levels of coherence, his usually nonsensical comments and behavior tend to vex the rest of the crew.

## Appearance

Jonas has dark skin and wine-red hair that varies in tone from dark magenta to maroon. He wears a white fedora decorated with a twine tie that partway hangs off the brim of his hat. Jonas’ face is usually partly shadowed by the brim of his fedora, and there are slight creases under his eyes. He has a light chinstrap beard and mustache. He usually wears “old-fashioned” clothes, donning a dress shirt and black bow tie beneath a sequined vest, messily tucked into his white dress pants that are cuffed at the foot. His shoes are similarly old-fashioned, matching his pants and suit. He is usually seen holding a black overcoat over his right shoulder.

He wears a brace on his left arm, spanning from above his elbow to his fingers. The brace begins with a sleeve around his elbow, and connects to a sort of cuff on the dorsal side of his wrist that splays into five cords, ending with metal sheets around the fingernails. It appears to be worn permanently.

## Personality

Jonas's defining trait, as pointed out by a majority of the cast, would be his insanity (which Stella speculates to be some result of prior brain trauma). While it is unknown to what degree Jonas's insanity affects his general personality, one thing stands true: often times, his priorities for those around him are skewed as a result, with him choosing to focus more on his own whims of beauty.

Beauty itself seems to be a core ideal from which Jonas exhibits his many quirks- especially the preservation of beauty, something he laments is a "miracle" for a man his age. He is also a lover of video games and the arts, citing his centuries of experience as something he takes pride in, as well as his occasional Elizabethan accent.

While declared insane by the Space Federation, Jonas has moments of clarity or awareness which seem initially uncharacteristic for his selfish and sometimes erratic behavior, such as his decision to save the crew on Liu-An. He also has a hidden romantic side, perhaps a remnant of who he was before.

As Gnosia, Jonas's insanity is warped to egregious bloodlust. He seems to take a great deal of pride in being a Gnosia- perhaps intensified through his control of the ship, though he does seem to display some amount of idolatry for his victims, referring to them wistfully as "the one" if asked by the player on who to eliminate.

## Playstyle

**Max Abilities:**

* Charisma 38.5
* Intuition 25
* Logic 34
* Charm 21.5
* Performance 43.5
* Stealth 37

Jonas is an interesting character. His abilities are overall very high, making him theoretically a force to be reckoned with. However, it seems everyone's default Trust, Amicability, and/or Hate values are set in such a way that no one particularly likes him. On a Day 1 where not much happens aside from claiming roles it's likely that he'll just get voted into cold sleep by default from no one having any better ideas. However, if he makes it past that first day his abilities become quite apparent.

Jonas' best ability is his Performance; he has the highest Performance in the game after Yuriko. This stems not necessarily from a proficiency at lying, but rather his personality and speech patterns being so bizarre that it's hard to tell what the hell he's going on about even in the best of times. This is a huge boon to him, as it not only lets him lie proficiently but means he's good at tearing down the Amicability of particularly likeable characters. His good Logic lets him damage Trust as well, his Stealth helps keep everyone from hating him too much to dismiss him, and his Charisma lets him convince many others to follow his lead. Despite being generally unliked and not seeming very trustworthy, Jonas is capable of dramatically shifting the course of the debate.

However, Jonas does have his weaknesses. His Charm is very low, and this is the key to getting rid of him. Offensively he's great, but he struggles to defend himself from the attacks of others. To combat this he often makes use of Small Talk and Obfuscate to throw attackers off, but this can't work forever. His poor likeability also means that if you see people rush to his defense it's reason to be suspicious. Finally, his Intuition is only okay, meaning that if he's human and you're an antagonistic role he might not catch you lying to his face.

If you're playing as the Gnosia and Jonas is a human, it's a good idea to encourage his elimination on Day 1. Given his low initial standing, one shred of doubt is all anyone needs to shrug and go "sure, might as well" and vote him off. If you're both Gnosia, you've got a strong ally around. He'll often fake claim roles, but thanks to his high Performance he has little trouble maintaining it unless his reports end up showing a logical inconsistency.

Overall, while Jonas is no Yuriko he's still highly capable. He's held back by his unpopularity and chaotic habits, but it would be a mistake to let him slip past you just because his goofy personality begs to be underestimated.

## Story

Jonas, whose full name is Jonas Esteban, was born millennia before the rest of the crew on Planet Earth, where overpopulation and environmental crises drove mankind to explore space as a means of self-preservation. Jonas was among the first crew to go on a deep-space mission, having been selected to trailbraze the frontier aboard the legendary ship Argo. Sometime before he left, he met Arya, who he fell in love with. Eventually, the two were separated, and Jonas began life as a spacefarer, never forgetting the memories of Arya's eternal beauty.

Eventually, Jonas was declared legally insane by the Space Federation after years of space travel alone, and Stella became his steward, tending to the ship in Jonas' stead. Sometime before the events of Gnosia, Jonas found a doll bearing extremely similar qualities to the long-gone Arya- this doll being Kukrushka, and brought her aboard the D.Q.O. due to her striking beauty.

## Trivia

* Jonas may be named after Hans Jonas, a philosopher who was one of the most prominent writers on the subject of Gnosticism.
* Jonas' full name was revealed to be Jonas Esteban according to the "Jonas' Dogtag" merchandise revealed September 2023.
* Jonas' dogtag also revealed his blood type, B Negative. Individuals with this blood type are commonly referred to as 自己中, or 'selfish.'
* Jonas' dogtag listed him as an 'Aphrodite Follower.'
* Jonas is associated with the Western zodiac sign Aquarius.
* Jonas is the first character to claim the Doctor role in the game.
* Jonas's name may additionally be an anagram of Jason, the protagonist and hero of the Argonautica. Supported by the additional detail that the expedition that deemed Jonas a hero was via a ship named the Argo; the namesake of the Argonautica.
* Kukrushka's relationship to Jonas may be inspired by Jason's pursuit of the Golden Fleece within the Argonautica. Kukrushka's hair color and astrological sign (Aries) may be representative of Chrysomallus, the ram who provided the Golden Fleece to the land of Colchis.

## References

1. ↑ https://gnosia-game.com/
2. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/Gnosia\_/comments/stkzz2/gnosia\_character\_stats\_dump/
3. ↑ https://twitter.com/playismJP/status/1700840820444897550
4. ↑ https://steamcommunity.com/stats/1608290/achievements