Jonathan Sims

**Jonathan Sims** is the Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. He takes over the position after Gertrude Robinson, his predecessor, passes away in the line of duty.

Gertrude has left the Archives in a state of chaos and John is faced with the monumental task of organising and recording several decades worth of statements about encounters with the paranormal.

## Personality

John initially comes across as rude and short-tempered. He is dismissive and condescending toward written statement givers as well as one of his assistants, Martin Blackwood. When faced with statement givers in person, John is initially rude and rejects their experiences as tricks of the mind. However, over time, he softens and offers genuine compassion to those that have been traumatised or scared by what they have experienced. He eventually admits that he, too, is afraid of the monsters and supernatural subjects of statements, but covers it up with a scornful exterior.

John shies away from violence and does not have much courage. He often panics when intimidated or threatened, causing him to stutter. He claims that he is not a brave man, but he is, in certain circumstances, a very stubborn man. Despite this, John is very persistent and will push past his fear when doing what he thinks is right. He feels intense guilt for his actions as The Archivist and mourns both the mistakes he has made and the loss of his humanity.

## Description

John has prematurely greying hair and looks older than he is. He often looks very tired and is physically unfit, as other characters refer to him as scrawny and he tires easily from physical tasks that others perform with little exertion.

Over time, John has acquired several scars from various encounters. He has extensive and visible scarring from worms burying into him during Jane Prentiss's attack on The Magnus Institute. One of his hands was severely burnt after accepting a handshake from Jude Perry and he required five stitches after being stabbed by Michael. He likely has a scar on his neck from Daisy after she tries to kill him. Melanie stabs John after he performs surgery on her, leaving another scar on one of his shoulders.

## History

### Early History

John was born circa 1987 and comes from Bournemouth. His father passed away when he was two years old and his mother died a few years later, leaving him to be raised by his paternal grandmother.

John was a smart but difficult child. He got bored easily and would wander off. His grandmother found books were helpful for keeping him in one place, but he hated to read anything he felt like he'd already read before, meaning most authors could only provide him with one book.

His first experience with the supernatural occurred when he was 8 years old, around 1995/96 – an early encounter with a Web-related Leitner book that claimed the life of an 18-year-old that bullied him. He has had a fear of spiders ever since.

A long time before 2017, he was in a relationship with Georgie Barker, though they did not part on the best terms. Both he and Georgie attended Oxford.

He took a job with the Magnus Institute's research department in 2011 and was made Head Archivist in 2015. When promoted, John requests Sasha James and Tim Stoker as assistants. Without telling John, Elias Bouchard also transfers Martin Blackwood to the Archives. He meets Martin on his first day in the Archives, just after Martin has accidentally let a dog into the Archives.

John used to smoke but quit in 2012. That same year, his grandmother passed away.

### Season One

John starts out cranky at Gertrude and dismissive of many of the cases, believing that reports of the truly arcane or esoteric are few and far between, though events of late are starting to seem worrisome. He has done almost all of the audio recordings for the Magnus Archives. He is helped by archival researchers Martin Blackwood, Sasha James, and Tim Stoker, though he seems to hold Martin in particularly low regard, at least until after the latter’s encounter with Jane Prentiss. Jonathan Sims is keen to digitise the Archives; however, attempts to record certain cases onto his laptop have caused significant audio distortions, so he has had to settle for recording onto an archaic tape recorder.

Following Martin's encounter with Jane Prentiss and her subsequent siege of the Institute, he has become more and more concerned about the dangers of his job, including a sense that he and his co-workers are being hunted.

John survives the Prentiss attack with scars from the worms and significant mental trauma. He is convinced that Gertrude Robinson's death was not natural and there is some deeper mystery about the statements. He believes that she was murdered by someone at the Archives for what she knew, and is determined to find the truth.

### Season Two

After the attack on the Archives, John is forced to take a month off to recover. His paranoia builds after the reveal of his murdered predecessor, and John becomes suspicious of all the Archives' employees. He starts keeping two tape recorders - a normal one, and second supplemental to record his suspicions as he begins spying on the staff. Martin notices John's agitated behaviour and gives him a jar of Jane Prentiss's ashes in an attempt to assuage him.

During some of his time off, he sneaks into work at night to explore the tunnels under the Institute. He chronicles his explorations, finding evidence of someone living in the tunnels, but eventually pauses exploring after a harrowing encounter in one of the lower levels.

John seems genuinely baffled at Martin's worry for him. He even goes so far as classifying his behaviour as suspicious, wondering if Martin is trying to hide something from him by making John take time off.

John stalks his assistants at their homes and spends a significant amount of time after work exploring the tunnels. He gets Basira Hussain to bring him tapes recorded by Gertrude from her murder investigation to understand what Gertrude was involved in.

John meets with Melanie King a few times. After learning from her that there is something wrong with Sasha James, he realises that Sasha has been replaced by Not-Sasha. John takes an axe to the web table held in artefact storage, knowing it is tied to what has taken Sasha and hoping to destroy it but finds that the table was actually binding and limiting its power. John flees from the freed NotThem before he is rescued by Jurgen Leitner, who was living in the tunnels. Leitner tells him about the existence of The Entities; John that the Institute is a place of power for the entity known as 'Beholding' and that he belongs to it too. John is overwhelmed and leaves for a cigarette, but Leitner is murdered by Elias Bouchard before he returns.

### Season Three

Wanted for Leitner's murder, John hides out at Georgie Barker's house and gets Melanie King to find info for him from the Archives while he's unable to return.

He goes to Jude Perry and Michael Crew for statements. As Michael Crew finishes his, police officer Alice "Daisy" Tonner knocks on the door and tries to kill John. Basira Hussain saves him, and they go interrogate Elias about Gertrude's murder.

John and Daisy later capture and interrogate Sarah Baldwin about The Unknowing, which gets the attention of Nikola Orsinov, who first tries to get him to find the ancient gorilla skin Gertrude stole, but later kidnaps him, intending to use his skin for the ritual herself. Michael shows up to kill him before she can, but is replaced by Helen, who is now The Distortion and decides to rescue John instead.

John travels to China and America. In the latter, he meets Trevor Herbert and Julia Montauk. He talks to Gerard Keay in the Catalogue of the Trapped Dead and learns about the entities in greater detail. After being away from the institute for weeks, he finds out he has a "physical dependence" to statements, ending up sick if he goes too long without them.

John stops The Unknowing with the help of his assistants but ends up in a coma.

### Season Four

While in a six-month coma, John is visited by Oliver Banks, who reveals that death is the final step required to become an avatar of an entity. John flatlines, then wakes up from his coma. He subsequently starts referring to himself as "The Archivist," marking his acceptance of being an avatar of the Beholding.

After he gets out of the hospital, he resumes his position in the Archives and comes back to find Melanie and Basira have moved into the Institute as it's too unsafe outside, Tim is dead, Daisy is missing, and Martin is absent. He's worried about Martin working with Peter Lukas, but stays away after Martin asks John to leave him alone.

John finds out Daisy is still alive - trapped in the coffin. Breekon breaks into the Archives meaning to attack John but ends up fleeing after John forcibly extracts a statement from his mind, leaving the coffin. John discovers he could go into the coffin and have a chance of coming back if he has a physical anchor - a body part - left behind to come back to. After attempting to chop off a finger for an anchor and healing supernaturally, Melanie takes John to Jared Hopworth the Boneturner, who is trapped in Helen's door after his attack on the Archives. In return for his freedom, Jared agrees to take one of John's ribs out. John offers another rib to Jared for his statement. He goes into the coffin and finds Daisy, but is stuck inside with her. They only escape when John is guided back by the dozens of tape recorders replaying statements on top of the coffin. The tape recorders are later revealed to be left there by a worried Martin.

John and Basira travel to Ny-Ålesund to stop what they assume is the Dark's ritual, The Extinguished Sun. They meet Manuela Dominguez, who is guarding what is left of the Dark Sun. John looks at the Dark Sun despite Manuela's warnings, and he collapses after looking at it. The star is extinguished.

Martin gets a statement from a woman claiming to have been harassed by John. After finding out John forced the statement from her and subsequently appeared in her dreams, Martin delivers the tape to Daisy, Melanie, and Basira. The three hound John, and he admits to forcing and 'feeding' on the statement of five people total, including the woman from Martin's statement. Basira calls John a danger and a monster, and John admits he's not sure he can control it. He worries he might be being controlled by the web.

After going to the house on Hill Top Road and reading a statement from Annabelle Cane, John confessed he's not being controlled. Taking live statements feels good and even though he could stop, he doesn't want to. He feels guilty feeling that way. Under the watch of the girls, he stops taking live statements and records more 'stale' ones. It doesn't feed his hunger, but it stops him from starving. Similar to post-coffin Daisy, he goes through withdrawal and is constantly weak and hungry.

John looks through a box of Gertrude's old tapes and tries to focus on the ones he isn't drawn to. One particular tape he has trouble forcing himself to press play. The tape is the statement of Eric Delano and details his method to escape the hold the Eye has over him - to remove his eyes. John curses, but confronts Martin with the idea, asking him to gouge their eyes out and run away together. After being rejected, he presumably tells the girls the method, of who only Melanie ends up going through with it.

Finding a tape left on his desk, John discovers Martin has gone with Peter Lukas to the centre of the tunnels under the Institute. He tries to get help from several different people, but ends up going alone after the Institute comes under siege by Julia Montauk, Trevor Herbert, and Not-Sasha. John is guided to the panopticon in the centre of the tunnels by Elias, who tells him Peter has taken Martin into the Lonely. John goes in after them.

In the Lonely, he finds Peter Lukas, who tries to dissuade John from finding Martin and convince him that if he stayed in the Lonely, he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. Not fooled, John compels a statement out of him. Peter refuses to tell John what Elias' plans are though. John compels him so hard that the act of defying the Archivist kills Peter. John finds Martin and together they leave the Lonely.

After John and Martin leave The Lonely, they go to one of Daisy's safe houses in Scotland. John reads one of the statements Basira brought him while Martin goes for a walk. The statement starts with the usual - name of the statement giver and description of events - but it's revealed that Elias put that there as a front, and the real statement is Jonah's Magnus retelling of events. John is compelled to read the letter and is physically harmed if he tries to stop. Jonah reveals that his ritual required the Archivist to have an encounter with every Fear entity, and lists the ones John has had, the Lonely being the last one. Jonah explains that every other ritual has failed because they attempted to bring just one Fear into the world when all the Fears are connected. John is forced to read an incantation, and all Entities are brought into the world at once.

### Season Five

After the Change, John and Martin shelter in the cabin for an indeterminate amount of time. They eventually leave and head toward the Institute, looking for a way to undo the Change.

John eventually kills Jonah Magnus and becomes the pupil of The Eye. Martin arrives and after a last-ditch debate, stabs John to release the powers into new worlds. Once the world returns to normal, neither John nor Martin are found in the rubble of the panotpicon and it is unclear what has become of them.

## Known Powers

* **Persona** - When recording a written statement, the Archivist takes on the voice and persona of the statement giver, reading the story with audibly different tones of voice and occasionally changing pitches to match the statement giver's. The Archivist is notably absorbed in the statements, becoming irritated if interrupted. John has shown worry over Martin reading multiple statements, possibly insinuating it's the statements themselves that affect the reader.
* **Receive Statement** - While reading a statement, John knows any languages necessary in order to understand the statement; while he has never needed to do this with a statement given directly by the subject, he *has* taken at least one statement while unable to physically hear the statement-giver, implying that this more power more broadly overcomes difficulties that would prevent John from taking a statement.
	+ **Archivist's Presence** - Statement givers are able to eloquently and coherently tell their stories in a narratively interesting statement, regardless of their background or emotional state, provided the Beholding is aware of the Archivist's location. This is highlighted when John is kidnapped by the Stranger in a place the Beholding can't see. The statement givers tell short, curt statements, often going off-topic and needing encouragement to share details. This power makes statements more receivable by everyone, not just the Archivist.
* **Compulsion** - The Archivist is able to compel others to answer a question or give a statement. It is implied that it can be taken a step further and compel someone to physically do something against their will. It is possible to resist the compulsion, but almost everyone who has successfully resisted has been affiliated with an Entity or is an Avatar themselves. Elias describes the feeling of being compelled as 'quite nice' and 'tingly.'
* **Knowing** - The Archivist is able to Know certain things without having prior knowledge of them. This most often happens with relevant information to statements or the situation at hand. John has experienced pain while purposely trying to Know what an Entity is planning.
	+ **Understanding** - John has been shown to understand written and spoken languages he has never learned. It is unclear if he can respond in those languages, as he has only ever spoken English.
* **Inhuman Healing** - The Archivist recovers from physical wounds remarkably fast. The more powerful the Archivist becomes, the quicker the wound heals. When John tries to cut his finger off, the cut heals as soon as he withdraws the knife.
	+ **Feed Your Patron** - When the Archivist records or takes a statement, wounds heal faster. John was able to recover enough from his coma to be able to leave the hospital after reading just one statement. It is a double-edged sword, however. After John stops forcing live statements from people, he gets weak and hungry, going through a sort of withdrawal. Jude Perry used the phrase "Feed [your god]... or it will feed on you." Similarly, when John is away from the Archives for weeks without reading a statement, he reports feeling sick, dizzy, and confused, and feels better after reading one.
* **Reliving Nightmares** - After statement givers tell their story to the Archivist, they frequently relive their experience in a nightmare, sometimes taking on the roles of the creature they saw. The Archivist shares these dreams and is always present to the dreamer, observing events but never interfering. Elias Bouchard reveals in a statement that John has these dreams every night, cycling through those who have given their statements. Institute employees and other avatars are exempt from these dreams.
* **Convenient Tape Recorders** - Tape recorders frequently show up and start recording on their own when important things are happening, or a statement is being given. This most frequently happens around John but has happened to several others associated with the Beholding as well. John has stopped manually turning on recorders, assuming they will record on their own if it's important. Unclear if this power stems from the Archivist or some other source.
* **Knowledge Insertion** - John demonstrates a similar power to Elias' when he forces Not-Sasha to experience the suffering she inflicted on her victims.
* **Role Reversal** - In the post-Change world, John has the power to shift The Eye's focus; turning a watcher into the watched, the feared to being afraid, and vice versa. Revoking someone's watcher status destroys those whose existence depends on being feared. Turning someone into a watcher releases them from being tormented and makes them feed on fear instead. This ability is reliant on the Eye being able to focus on the subject, something that makes beings with shifting forms (such as The Distortion) difficult for it to target. However, focusing in on a detail about the creature that it cannot change can seemingly bypass this.

## Marks from Entities

John has been marked in one way or another by every Entity. Almost every mark has been orchestrated by Elias Bouchard. Marks take the form of scars, injuries, or encounters. Elias has called John a "chronicle of fear" in reference to the gathering of these marks.

* The Web - John's childhood encounter with A Guest for Mr. Spider. He would have been eaten if not for his childhood bully taking the Leitner away and getting enthralled in John's place.
* The Corruption - Jane Prentiss's attack on the Archives, which left John with pockmark scars where the worms burrowed into his skin.
* The Spiral - Helen Richardson's statement drew the Distortion's attention to John. He has gone through the doors several times and been stabbed once by Michael. He has had multiple encounters with both Michael and Helen. Elias commented that John is deeply marked by the Spiral.
* The Stranger - Not-Sasha's infiltration of the institute and John's close encounter with her, as well as The Unknowing.
* The Desolation - Jude Perry, an avatar of the Desolation, gave John her statement and shook his hand, burning him.
* The Vast - Mike Crew, an avatar of the Vast, gave John his statement and let him experience the sensation of the Vast firsthand.
* The Hunt - Daisy's attempted murder of him, interrupted by Basira Hussain. Planned by Elias in that he "[left] the matter of Jonathan Sims up to [her]", and requested she kill him quickly.
* The Slaughter - Melanie King, infected with a bullet that fuelled her with rage, stabbed John when he attempted surgery to remove it. Elias hired Melanie as a way of keeping her in the Archives until she could mark John.
* The End - John's attempt to stop the Unknowing left him in a coma where he was "all but brain dead," during which he was approached by Oliver Banks, an avatar of the End, and then died before fully becoming the Beholding's avatar.
* The Flesh - John had two ribs removed by Jared Hopworth, an avatar of the Flesh.
* The Buried - John's descent into the coffin to rescue Daisy. Elias purposely sent Basira away to give John a chance to go in.
* The Dark - In Ny-Ålesund John looked upon the Dark Sun, a star left behind from the Dark's failed ritual, and destroyed it. It was said that only powerful followers of the Dark could safely look at it.
* The Lonely - Peter Lukas, an avatar of The Lonely, had taken Martin into a pocket dimension of the Lonely. John went in after them and killed Peter in the process.

## Non-Appearances

As the main character of the show, John appears in almost every episode - thus it is easier to simply list the episodes he *hasn't* been heard in. Asterisks\* mark episodes he still features prominently in as the subject; **bold** marks episodes where he is not even mentioned.

* MAG 84: Possessive
* MAG 86: Tucked In
* MAG 88: Dig
* **MAG 90: Body Builder**
* MAG 95: Absent Without Leave
* MAG 98: Lights Out
* MAG 100: I Guess You Had To Be There
* MAG 104: Sneak Preview
* MAG 106: A Matter Of Perspective
* MAG 108: Monologue
* MAG 110: Creature Feature
* MAG 112: Thrill of the Chase
* MAG 120: Eye Contact\*
* MAG 134: Time of Revelation
* MAG 138: The Architecture of Fear
* MAG 142: Scrutiny\*
* MAG 144: Decrypted
* MAG 149: Concrete Jungle
* MAG 151: Big Picture
* MAG 156: Reflection
* MAG 186: Quiet
* MAG 196: This Old House

## Trivia

* In official transcripts, the Archivist's name is shortened to John. This was an intentional choice by author Jonathan Sims in order to create psychological distance between himself and the character who shares his name. However, both John and Jon are considered acceptable spellings.
* John sings for just a few seconds in MAG 31 at the 13:25-15:00 mark (differs depending on where you listen).
	+ John's voice actor, Jonny Sims, was in the band The Mechanisms with fellow TMA voice actors Frank Voss (Basira Hussain), Jessica Law (Nikola Orsinov), and Tim Ledsam (Jordan Kennedy).
* John says "I love you" to Martin in MAG 161. Before that, The Admiral was the only character John had been recorded saying "I love you" to.
* John is implied to be asexual in MAG 106 and has shown romantic interest in both men and women. Writer Jonny Sims has confirmed that the Archivist was written as asexual in the Season 4 Q+A Part 1 and on Twitter, but he is not sure what the Archivist himself would identify as since he is not the kind of person to openly talk about feelings or sexuality.
* All characters refer to John as 'him' but the show notes for MAG 132 refer to John as 'they'. Jonny Sims has clarified on Twitter that the show notes are not written by him and this is not indicative of any deeper canon meaning, but as the Archivist's gender will likely be unimportant to the plot, there is also nothing to contradict a non-binary interpretation of the character.
* In the season 2 Q&A, Jonny Sims speculates that the Archivist might enjoy reading non-fiction and watching documentaries in his spare time.
* In D&D John would be a warlock who thinks he is a druid.
* Gertrude Robinson and Jurgen Leitner are voiced by Jonny Sim's real-life parents, Sue Sims and Paul Sims.

## References

1. ↑ MAG 13: Alone
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 MAG 22: Colony
3. ↑ MAG 26: A Distortion
4. ↑ MAG 47: The New Door
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 MAG 39: Infestation
6. ↑ MAG 78: Distant Cousin
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 MAG 81: A Guest For Mr. Spider
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 MAG 142: Scrutiny
9. ↑ MAG 185: Locked In
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 MAG 79: Hide and Seek
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 MAG 80: The Librarian
12. ↑ MAG 195: Adrift
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 MAG 89: Twice as Bright
14. ↑ MAG 53: Crusader
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 MAG 91: The Coming Storm
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 MAG 125: Civilian Casualties
17. ↑ MAG 2: Do Not Open
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 MAG 106: A Matter Of Perspective
19. ↑ MAG 63: The End of the Tunnel
20. ↑ MAG 1: Angler Fish
21. ↑ The Magnus Archives Liveshow
22. ↑ MAG 41: Too Deep
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 MAG 107: Third Degree
24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 MAG 132: Entombed
25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 MAG 143: Heart of Darkness
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 MAG 146: Threshold
27. ↑ MAG 147: Weaver
28. ↑ MAG 156: Reflection
29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 MAG 157: Rotten Core
30. ↑ MAG 200: Last Words
31. ↑ MAG 102: Nesting Instinct
32. ↑ MAG 100: I Guess You Had To Be There
33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 MAG 92: Nothing Beside Remains
34. ↑ MAG 158: Panopticon
35. ↑ MAG 105: Total War
36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 MAG 131: Flesh
37. ↑ MAG 122: Zombie
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 MAG 120: Eye Contact
39. ↑ MAG 165: Revolutions
40. ↑ MAG 187: Checking Out
41. ↑ MAG 160: The Eye Opens
42. ↑ MAG 82: The Eyewitnesses
43. ↑ MAG 159: The Last
44. ↑ Author commentary & Author commentary
45. ↑ MAG 93: Contaminant
46. ↑ MAG 161: Dwelling
47. ↑ Jonny's Twitter
48. ↑ Jonny's Twitter, again
49. ↑ Season 2 Q&A
50. ↑ MAG 160.02 - Season 4 Q+A Part 2