Florian Hohenberg

"All love is basically the same, no matter the type or the people involved. It is an investment in someone from whom you may receive nothing in return. It is to receive a return that can disappear at any time. Whatever one does, there is the potential of losing. Yes, love is loss. Immeasurable loss."
—Florian Hohenberg

A first cousin of Greta's father, Ambrosius, Florian is the chief music director of Sinfonieorchester an der Ilm, as well as Greta's mentor and overseer in her career as a professional violinist. Two (significantly different) versions of him appear in stories, one being older (canon) and one younger.

Appearance Florian stands at 181 cm tall. In settings where he's older, he appears as a heavyset middle-aged man with half-rim glasses, pale skin, jet black hair parted on the right, and golden eyes that appear light brown in neutral lighting. While not as confined to a particular style as the rest of the core cast, Florian seems to prefer sharp clothing in monochrome — black and white, with exceptions for dark shades of blue and grey. His wardrobe, like Greta's, consists of mostly natural fabrics from luxury brands, especially pieces made from high-quality wool and cotton. He wears his old wedding ring to remind himself of his deceased wife, Sonja.

In his younger form, Florian is noticeably more fit, preferring sleek shirts and suit jackets with padded shoulders to accentuate his form. While he similarly wears his wedding ring, he wears other accessory rings as well, including one inlaid with obsidian and a signet ring that serves as a family heirloom for the Hohenberg family.

Personality In both forms, Florian is a serious, exacting man with perfectionist tendencies and a bullheaded attitude that often leads him to butt heads with other, similarly strong personalities. Quick to correct and hard to please, he holds himself — and others — to high standards of morality and behaviour, even when the standards cannot possibly be met. As such, Florian is a divisive figure both personally and professionally, with several family members deciding to cut ties with him and numerous performers in the classical music industry describing him as nightmarish to work with. Despite this surface rigidity, a vulnerable side exists to Florian that few people ever see: one that depends on others to live a worthwhile life, that sees in people at their lowest the potential they may someday reach.

NOTICE: Spoilers below. Much of the hostility and anger that Florian expresses (at least in canon) is a protective shield for his grief — over the life he might have had, over his deceased wife, Sonja, over having to give up his infant daughter, over Ambrosius's early retirement, over the loss of his relationship with his ex-partner, Ramón. Florian is a man who feels deeply and who, consequently, feels love and hurt deeply. For better or for worse, he feels compelled to steer himself and others on "the right path," to help them find their own destiny and guide them in accomplishing whatever they dream of accomplishing. Unfortunately, years of lashing out at minor perceived slights have only led to more suffering, more lost relationships, and more missed opportunities, and Florian recognises — at least subconsciously — the common denominator in those severed connections. Thus, he chooses to see his losses as inevitable and his existence as cursed, a destiny he has to fulfil and shoulder alone. Major conflicts with others usually have their root in this exquisitely tense duality of character: his desire to connect with and help others, and his desire to be alone to retain some semblance of dignity in his pain.

Unfortunately, emotional and mental isolation often only lead Florian to make worse and worse decisions that are increasingly removed from reality — as is often the case with his favoured pupil and younger cousin, Greta. Only in universes where Florian is younger (and without some of the major traumatic experiences of his older self) is he capable of interacting with her in a healthy way, and of conceptualising her as an equal rather than an extension of her father that needs to be prevented from going the same degenerate way.

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