( songerein app )

Player: Mad
Age: 25+
Contact: koohii
Current Characters: N/A

Character: Noé Archiviste
Canon: The Case Study of Vanitas; chapter 18
Age: 19


Background Information:

Noé's history can be found here, but since it's quite long and doesn't cover chapters from 12 to 18 (the end of Hunters of the Dark arc), here's a summary.

Youth. Noé was born into the Archiviste clan known for their unique skill—reading people's memories upon drinking their blood. At some point, vampires of this clan faced eradication, leaving Noé as the lone survivor. Eventually, he had been found by an elderly human couple who decided to take him in. While he was under their care, Noé learned about humans and vampires alike and considered these humans to be his grandparents. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, his adoptive grandfather and grandmother passed away. Later on, Noé was caught by a group who hunt for humans to take them to the vampires' realm—Altus—and make them serve vampires. After realizing that they captured a vampire rather than a human, the group tried to auction Noé off multiple times until the Teacher finally bought him.

The Teacher brought Noé to his castle in Averoigne and started teaching him about vampires and their history. This castle also happened to be the place where Noé met the Teacher's grandchildren: Louis and Dominique de Sade. They quickly became friends and spent their days together in the castle, learning and playing outside with the vampire children from the nearby village. After some time, Noé realized that something wasn't right with Louis, but couldn't figure out what it was exactly.

Learning that Mina, one of the girls from the village was a curse-bearer was a turning point. Curse-bearers are vampires who suddenly become violent due to mysterious affliction. After finding out that a vampire is a curse-bearer, the usual procedure involves the execution of said vampire. Noé, shocked by the news, cooperated with Dominique and the children from the village to hide Mina somewhere safe. However, their efforts turned out to be futile when she attacked her friends. As a result, Louis killed Mina to protect Noé, yet it became apparent that he had been a curse-bearer himself all this time. Louis' last request was to be finished off by Noé, but since he didn't want to agree, the Teacher took him out.

A few years after these events, Noé received a letter from the Teacher to determine the Book of Vanitas' true nature.

Parisian Excursion arc. After receiving the letter, Noé set for Paris immediately. On his way to the city, he met Amelia Ruth while traveling on an airship. Eventually, Amelia began to act strange and turned out to be a curse-bearer. A human who had forced his way into the airship and introduced himself as Vanitas chased after Amelia, who had become quite aggressive by the time. Noé, unsure of what Vanitas' intentions are, decided to protect Amelia despite the risk. When things became dire for Noé, Vanitas intervened and used the Book of Vanitas' to cure Amelia. That prompted Noé to follow the human who calls himself the vampire doctor. After jumping off the airship, they got arrested and released a couple of hours later at the request of Count Orlok who was supposed to maintain the balance between humans and vampires to avoid conflict. After meeting the count, he revealed that Amelia would be executed. Noé offered to chase and cure a curse-bearer roaming the streets of Paris and attacking people to save Amelia. As a result, Noé teamed up with Vanitas and began investigating the case. Upon finding the curse-bearer, they also met two vampires: Luca and his bodyguard Jeanne. A fight between Noé and Jeanne ensued, and with Vanitas' help, they both managed to scrape by and force Jeanne to retreat.

On the next day, it turned out that the curse-bearer had been found dead sometime before. Much to Noé's relief, Amelia's execution was suspended and she would be monitored for the time being. The count saw this as an opportunity to reveal that Noé is an Archiviste. To find out who was behind the increasing curse-bearers cases, Noé drunk some of Amelia's blood and realized that the entity behind it was known as Charlatan.

Then, Dominique de Sade stormed into the room.

Bal Masqué arc. After a short explanation that she had been invited to a masquerade ball, Dominique dragged Noé outside and guided him to The Border between the human and vampire realms. Despite the danger, Vanitas followed them to Atlus, and the three of them attended the ball. Vanitas didn't fail to bring everyone's attention to himself—standing on a chandelier, he announced that as a vampire doctor, he would save all the vampires. As a consequence, that brought unnecessary attention and hostility towards Vanitas, so Noé had to step in and protect him. At one point, some of the vampires who had gathered in the ballroom started acting aggressive and attacking the others. Noé engaged in a fight with a black figure who introduced themselves as Charlatan. During the battle, due to Charlatan's influence, Noé recalled the memories of Louis that made him unable to fight back. Vanitas came to his rescue and forced Charlatan and their accomplices to run away. Then, Lord Ruthven (a high-ranked vampire) approached Vanitas and Noé. Despite showing hostility towards Vanitas at first, he took them both under his protection.

As a token of gratitude for saving the vampires at the ball, Noé and Vanitas got an invitation to Lord Ruthven's castle. During that meeting, Vanitas managed to offend the Queen of the Vampires. As a result, Lord Ruthven casting both him and Noé back to the human world.

Shortly after their return to Paris, one of Vanitas informants reported that the Chausseurs (a vampire hunting unit working under the Church) abducted a curse-bearer and had been holding them captive in the catacombs of Paris.

Hunters of the Dark arc. While Vanitas wanted to investigate alone for personal reasons, Noé insisted on joining him after seeing the man's reaction to the chasseurs. In order to sneak into the catacombs, Noé and Vanitas neutralized two chasseurs and grabbed their clothes so they wouldn't raise suspicion. During the exploration of the underground labyrinth, they bumped into Roland—one of the twelve captains of the chasseurs. Shortly, Roland saw through their disguise and attacked Noé, who found himself in great danger. Once again, he managed to escape thanks to Vanitas, and they began looking for a route to the deepest part of the catacombs. In the meanwhile, it became clear that Vanitas knows the area quite well. The vampire doctor revealed bits of his past—according to him, the suspect behind kidnapping curse-bearers was Doctor Moreau, who experiments on humans and vampires alike. Vanitas happened to be one of the subjects, too.

Since Roland might interrupt them during the apprehension of the Doctor, Noé attempted to convince him to join their cause by explaining the situation. Roland, quite surprised by how straightforward the vampire was, whimsically agreed to help them out. Once the group reached the hidden laboratory, Noé tried to capture the Doctor, upset by his attitude towards Vanitas and his general conduct. Unfortunately, he managed to run away, leaving the abducted curse-bearer behind to finish Vanitas and Noé off. After curing the curse-bearer, the group escaped the catacombs after the laboratory had exploded.

Noé decided against asking Vanitas about more details of his past. Soon, they will set on another journey together to Gévaudan.

Personality:

Curious. Noé is known for his remarkable curiosity that resulted in both good and bad things happening to him. It's not only limited to new places but people as well. Taking his somewhat sheltered upbringing in the Teacher's castle into consideration, he gets distracted almost all the time once he arrives in Paris, truly amazed by the wonders of the city; let it be the numerous sculptures, art galleries, restaurants, or the Parisians themselves. The Book of Vanitas, the reason why he was sent to Paris in the first place, is something that leaves him starry-eyed and starving for learning more about its nature. Noé eventually finds himself curious about the person in possession of the book, Vanitas. Although they were off to a rocky start and Noé openly expressed his dislike for Vanitas on multiple occasions, as time passes by, he grows more and more intrigued by the vampire doctor and his past. Noé always strives to get to know the whole picture, unafraid of being inquisitive or making an effort to learn about one's circumstances. This adamant attitude about getting to the bottom of things might be a consequence of Noé not figuring out that Louis was a curse-bearer in time.

Childlike. One of Noé's few friends, Dominique de Sade, describes him as naive quite often. He's oblivious to various aspects of social life, such as politics in the vampire world—for example, he has no idea who Lord Ruthven is, despite him being a very important figure in the Vampire world. On top of that, he's confused about concepts such as romantic love, for example. In consequence, Noé decides to ask Vanitas about at some point, much to the human's bewilderment. While in Paris, he's easily distracted by the impressive sights that Dominique puts a leash on him to make sure Noé won't simply wander off somewhere. His forgetfulness often results in his cat Murr being left behind. Additionally, Noé gets excited about various things quite easily, no matter whether it's his favorite Tarte Tatin or an opportunity to visit an art gallery.

Idealistic. His drive to help people and vampires is commendable. Despite being attacked by Amelia during his trip to Paris, it doesn't deter him from helping her as he deeply believes she's a good person. Noé has a strong sense of justice and always follows his hunch to figure out what is right. Even when the situation is hopeless, Noé isn't willing to give up if it means saving someone. This might have its roots in the fact that he was helpless when his friend Louis needed him. Besides, Noé refuses to kill humans or vampires, even if he finds himself in grave danger. Although Roland the chasseur is hostile towards vampires and his intentions are clearly murderous, Noé takes the risk and tries to talk it out with him. In this case, explaining the situation pays off, and they gain an important ally in the catacombs. Also, since drinking blood isn't necessary for vampires to survive and Noé's memory reading abilities, he always makes sure to receive explicit permission to drink someone's blood.

Impulsive. Noé is known for his temperamental reactions that don't always account for being positive ones. While he's very expressive when something interests him, he can be quite blunt and hot-headed when he thinks the situation calls for it. Usually, the inability of analytical thinking doesn't work in Noé's favor—he always follows his sense of justice and acts fast instead of carefully mulling over all of the options to pick the most reasonable one. The most notable example could be Noé's decision to explain their intentions to Roland the chasseur. In order to get an opportunity to do that, he doesn't hesitate to put Vanitas at the risk of getting injured. While it worked out in the end, it shows that as long as he believes his actions to be just, he might make the most impulsive decisions.

Kindhearted. As long as the circumstances allow for that, Noé always goes all the way to learn everything he can about the person to understand them better and help them. He deeply cares for other people's well-being; it applies to both everyone he knows and strangers alike. Preventing Count Orlok from executing Amelia is one example, but it also shows in his relationship with Vanitas in the long term. At first, Noé was rather cold and cranky towards the vampire doctor finding him to be rude and whimsical, only to find himself worried about him (without realizing it) and earnestly apologizing for judging him without knowing his circumstances.

Abilities & Inventory:

Abilities:

Enhanced strength, speed, and endurance. As a vampire, it is possible for Noé to enhance his own strength, speed, and endurance. While he can do it freely, it requires changing the world formula, a concept specific to his canon. Basically, the world formula gives structure to everything in existence, and tampering with it might result in obtaining enhanced abilities or magical abilities. In Songerein, Noé could regain these skills through dreamotion energy.

Memory reading. While Noé doesn't need to drink blood to survive, he possesses a unique skill that allows him to read memories and emotions connected to them when he ingests the blood of a person.

Inventory:

■ Murr the cat
■ Everyday clothes

Suitability & Plans:

Noé will be thrilled to explore Songerein due to his natural curiosity. Getting to see all these new places and meeting new people will surely keep him busy for a while. Noé is said to have only a few friends back home, so he'll definitely put some effort into making connections and help anybody in need. Besides, he's most certainly the type of a country bumpkin who gets in all kinds of trouble, he can take care of himself at the end of the day.

Enjoying learning new things will definitely help him kick things into gear when it comes to learning how dreamotion energy works. In canon, his powers as a vampire come from changing the structure of the world, so this will be an interesting experience for Noé.

Since he's so eager to help others out, he'll make sure to check the task board often. Also, being a hard sleeper might make him suitable for dream world adventures, too.

Test Drive Sample: TDM top-level

Questions: N/A