Creator questions
What's your name (real or screen, your choice)
Ian Robertson, aka Ubernoner.
Tell me about yourself, age, where you're from, what you do, anything you want others to know about you, sex, etc.
I'm a former Airman Airforce Brat of a former Airman Army Brat. Pronouns are he/him. I did a lot of traveling while my mom was in the service, and a lot more once I joined, most of it in Germany. Once mom got out and came Stateside, we moved to the DelMerVa area where I got involved in Civil War Reenacting, both sides (17th Va. Co. A/20th Me. Co. E) as opposed to Boy Scouts.
I've always been fascinated with Science and History, so fantasy and science-fiction were natural evolutions of those interests. I used to haunt used book stores, scouring for anything that might be an interesting read. Between this and mom reading me 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings' as bed-time stories, I developed a taste for good storytelling.
This has led me to Table-top Role Playing Games, and writing Fanfiction.
What did you do in the air force?
I was a knuckle-banging aircraft mechanic from start to finish. I worked on A-10's, KC-135's and C-5's.
What brought you to the Zootopia fandom?
Oddly enough, YouTube clips from the movie sent me to to read what stories were out there before I ever saw the movie.
Who is your OC today?
My 'flagship' OC, Jacob Emanuel Raibert.
What animal are they?
He is a European Brown Hare.
So what made you decide on using a european brown hare?
In the prototype for my story, the main character was originally going to be a down on his luck cougar named DuPrey. A side character I had originally intended to create for that story was "Momma Abunya". She was going to be one of those 'Neighborhood Grannies' that have the whole 'old world' vibe about them and would help DuPrey find his center and purpose again. As I developed 'Momma', I started looking for rabbit pictures to help me visualize the character when I came across a video of hares boxing. Once I intended for Momma and her kin to be utterly unimpressed with the shape of the world and everyone in it, I decided they would be hares. I wanted them to have a distinct cultural identity, so I modified the Warren of Effrafa from Watership Downs into a city state. The site I used for developing the language has a lot of words already, and to my ear they all sounded a little near-eastern, so I put Effrafa in Capadocia on the Anatolian plateau. The only hare in that area are European Browns, so that's who the Effrafans became. From there, I just went Bat-$#!7 crazy creating their history.
What do they look like? Special markings, colorations, etc.
He's melanistic, so just black.
Can you tell us what melanistic means?
Essentially the opposite of Albino: Jet Black. So Jacob is a solid black hare.
What inspired you to create them?
Frustration. As I said before, I've traveled a lot, so I've seen a lot of different cultures. Even here in my native USA, you can see and experience vastly different cultures from state to state, and even within a state. So when I read my ump-teenth story talking in terms of 'species as culture' I got frustrated.
Not to belittle any other creators out there; serious kudos to anyone who puts figurative pen to paper, but my mom had some advice once while trying to self publish: no one is going to tell the exact story you want to read except you. So I did.
It snowballed real quick from one character, to the history of the culture he came from, to the world and history that shaped that culture. That eventually became my "Sons of Efrafa" series.
What are they like?
Not like me except for two details: he's a former service member, and he's estranged from his father from a young age. He's very hot headed, but self aware of that fact. He's a former gangbanger who was given the Court option of Service or Prison.
What's their family life like?
Very traditional: Eastern Orthodox, speaks on the 'Mother Tongue' (in this case, a variation on the rabbit language developed by Greg Adams for his 'Watership Downs' novel), and his mother Katarin is in charge, no questions asked. He has one littermate, his sister Amelia, and four younger siblings: Joseph, Michael, Cynthia and Annalise.
He also lives with his grandfather.
Do they have a love interest?
Yes, another hare from a sister culture by the name of Valerie Esperanza Coneja, who works for the ZNN as a field reporter.
Do you have any stories written about them or that they're included in?
Yes, as I said he's the centerpiece of my "Sons of Efrafa" Series, though he and the Efrafan culture both make an appearance in Oh Shoot's "Fantastic Foxes of Zootopia" series.
How much does your character vary from story to story? For example, does their outlook on the world change depending on the timeline the story takes place in?
He evolves throughout the main SoE story, but he only appears briefly in the other two parts that are currently in the series so he doesn't really have a chance to develop any further.
How do you feel about hybrids in Zootopia? Do they occur naturally, require an outside force or don't happen at all?
Absent a story about superscience or magic, I feel like hybrids would be rare, limited to closely related species, and not be able to breed true. That is as with Tigons, Ligers, Niels and such, they are infertile.
Narratively, if you want them in your story then more power to you. I've read quite a few stories with the infamous "Box/Funny" kits, and they aren't a deal breaker.
Ultimate Zootopia question. Are you a WildeHopps shipper or do you prefer them with a different ship?
I'll admit to being a sucker for a good sappy love story, so I do enjoy the ship, but again it isn't a deal breaker for me if the story isn't WildeHopps compliant. Most of my stories aren't, but that's due to narrative need, not an aversion to the dynamic.
For the purpose of the OC interview the setting is the creator's OC is about to be interviewed by my co-owned OC Vicky Chola. A north american grey fox vixen in her mid 20s. They're both in a studio booth with headphones on and microphones to speak into. The interview we did earlier about the creator and their OC is considered a pre conversation between these two before going on the air. Vicky will ask questions based on the answers provided by the creator. Enjoy!
"Welcome everyone to another edition of the Characters of Zootopia show! I'm your host Vicky Chola and with me today is Jacob Raibert. Jacob, thank you so much for coming on."
"Thank you for having me, and please; call me Emanuel."
"Of course, so emanuel, tell us where you're from?"
"I'm from the Vulpington Commons neighborhood of Happytown."
"Is that where you grew up?"
"Yes it is."
"What was it like growing up there?"
"Pretty bad really, though not for lack of the community trying. The neighborhood used to have several mills and factories in the turn of the century, so it drew a lot of immigrant labor. When industry started to move to Waterfront of Savanna Central, it took a lot of the prosperity and opportunities with it, but not the immigrant labor. It's been in decline ever since until recently, so I grew up around shuttered industrial buildings and subsistence living mammals, and gangs. About the only thing that kept the neighborhood together was Abrams Square."
"Abrams Square? What's that?"
"Well the Square itself is just that; it's a one block green park with a pavilion in the middle, but all around it are half a dozen churches, from the Shalom-el-Shabat Synagogue to the Catholic Basilica of Our Martyred Lady. Everybody goes to one of them, and they're all in the same place so everyone meets everyone else."
"Sounds like the neighborhood is very religious despite its problems."
"It is. It's caused a little tension during some times, but given how secular the rest of the city tends to portray itself it helps give the neighborhood a sense of commonality."
"I understand you didn't make some of the best life choices while growing up."
"No, no I didn't. In fact, I made a very bad choice and it nearly cost me my future, to say nothing of my life when I joined a local gang called the 'Sons of Efrafa'. "I could lay the blame on circumstances, but ultimately I chose my path. It started with listening to Timo Andraste when I was 13."
"Who's Timo Andraste?"
"He was the leader of the Sons. Runty little bastard played up the 'reclaim our warrior heritage' aspect of being ethnic Efrafan in Zootopia. He wanted me for my coloration. I don't know if you know, but a lot of hare and rabbit cultures around the world have legends about either a Black or White rabbit or hare as a messenger of death. He figured I could be used to intimidate his crew and the other hare gang in the district; the Lapin Kings. Turns out I was more than a little scrappy, and I was one of his chief enforcers by the ripe old age of 14. Kept it up like that until I was 17 and got stabbed in the kidney and left in the street for the cops to find. The little pest threatened my family if I talked, which pissed me off even more than being dumped. So I turned state's evidence in return for time served as a juvenile, and now he's doing 15 to 20 for everything under the sun."
"So you took a plea. Were there any other conditions?"
"Yeah, Enlist or else. It was a no-brainer, and ironically I ended up an MP. Or not: I'm too big for the RAT Corps, too small for the line infantry, and too ornery not to be in a combat arms field."
"And how did that work out for you?"
"I ended up stationed in Incerlik with the Peacekeeping Corps, which put me in spitting distance of the Efrafan homeland. Got my ego slapped hard by some Born and Bred Efrafans, which was a wake-up call I needed. It also let me reconnect with my family history once I got over myself. I really could have done without the Arab Spring and the border fights with the Syrians, but what can you do? You pay your dues, you take your chances. I survived, I learned a lot, and I met my fiance, though neither of us knew it at the time."
"How did you meet?"
"My MP Battalion was providing security for an engineering unit setting up a series of Redoubts on the Syrian border just east of Antioch. My squad was at the northernmost. She was in the country as a part of a work/credit deal while getting a Journalism degree through the International University in Paris. She rolled up in her little van minutes before a group of insurgents tried to take the redoubt out before it was finished so they could funnel fighters into the Anatolian peninsula. She kept her cool, I kept the Redoubt, she finished her degree and I finished my tour of duty. I went home on Terminal Leave just as the whole 'Savage Mammal' crisis kicked off. When it was all over, I found out she'd been hired by ZNN straight out of Uni due to her field reporting while in Anatolia."
"So you reconnected during the savage mammal crisis?"
"Just after it actually. Like, three days after the news about Bellwether broke. I'd lucked into an 'all inclusive' for my family at one of the restaurants at the Palms. She was there with another buddy of mine from Incerlik. He was her boss, and she had just finished her one year internship and had been picked up full time."
"Do you two have a date set for the wedding yet?"
"Not yet; her family and mine are both old blood, so her mother and mine have to set everything up. Her family's all back in Castile-Leon and this isn't something you do over a Zoom meeting. Plus, her family's all Catholic, while mine are Orthodox, so it might take a while to sort out."
"Are you worried your differences could cause problems down the road?"
"Not really. She's pretty much moved her life to Zootopia, and I was born and raised here. If we were back in Andalusia with her family, or Edirne with mine then the Catholic/Orthodox, Efrafan/Lapino things could turn into an issue. But Valorie's sister Esmerelda is the firstborn, so she's got the responsibility of carrying on the family traditions just like my sister Amelia with mine. Aside from keeping and passing down my grandfather's sword, we don't have any of the family politics to get in the way of our relationship."
"So you haven't met her parents yet. Do you think being melanistic will be a problem for them?"
"They know my name, so they know that much already. It can be a bit of a cultural shock if you're unprepared, but Efrafans and Lapinos have traditions for this sort of thing. I'm more worried my mom and Valorie's might come to blows over some bit of family politics from the Fifth Century or something. We tend to collect grudges."
"I'm guessing genealogy plays a big role as well?"
"A very big role, but mother hasn't brought up anything outstanding from our family history that would cause any issues, so it should be fine. Add to that, that the Coneja's, that's Valorie's family, are working on setting up the meeting means there's likely nothing from their end either. It's just that Efrafans and Lapinos tend to be hot-blooded. It's probably why there are so many dances at formal family get-togethers: if everybody's tired from dancing, they're less likely to pick a fight."
"So what are your plans for the future?"
"Climb the Police promotion ladder, support my family and bring us honor, help Valorie's ambitions, and learn how to fish."
laughs "Leaning to fish that's a big one. Well I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. Thank you for coming in Emanuel."
"Thanks for having me, and best of luck in your career."
"And thank you to all the mammals put there who joined us today. Till next time."