Noorden
| Noorden | |
|---|---|
| |
| Profession | Obligator, Scholar |
| Groups | Venture army |
| Ethnicity | Noble |
| Homeworld | Scadrial |
| Universe | Cosmere |
Noorden is a scholar and former obligator in the Canton of Orthodoxy[1] of the Steel Ministry in the Final Empire on Scadrial. After the Collapse, he was employed by Elend Venture to act as a scribe and bureaucrat.[2]
Appearance & Personality
Noorden had the eye tattoos of an obligator of fairly high rank. He wore large spectacles to hide the tattoos, and they successfully covered most of them.[2] He renounced his loyalties to the Steel Ministry, but some people, such as Elend, still find the tattoos to be off-putting reminders of Noorden's past.[2] He often wore a simple brown robe.[3]
Though Noorden was a member of the Steel Ministry, his attitude was atypical of an obligator. He was very happy and cheerful, unlike most other members of the Ministry.[2][3] Noorden was a scholar; he had a brilliant understanding of the laws of the Luthadel Assembly[2] as well as a gift for mathematics, shown in his ability to collect and interpret data on the mist sickness.[3] He had a very logical and thoughtful mind.
History
Early Life
Noorden first joined the Steel Ministry so as to pursue his calling as a scholar; it was the only option besides from becoming a merchant.[2] He joined the Canton of Orthodoxy, whose obligators performed diverse bureaucratic functions.[4][1] He didn't fit among most other obligators; he spent most of his time working alone.[2][3] however, he was quite high-ranked among the Ministry.[2]
The Collapse and working for Elend Venture
The Collapse was a catastrophe for Noorden; it destroyed his entire way of life. However, he didn't leave Luthadel afterwards, perhaps as a result of his unusual personality for an obligator. He was then employed by Elend Venture, to work as a bureaucrat for Elend's new kingdom. Besides from needing scribes, Elend also hired Noorden for his different perspective as an obligator, rather than a skaa or high noble. Noorden would become highly loyal to Elend, believing his new laws were brilliant.[2]
When Elend was deciding what to do about the election for king, Noorden questioned whether it really would be so bad if Ashweather Cett won. However, Elend convinced him, explaining about how Cett was a tyrant who would just rule as he wanted, bringing chaos to the kingdom. Elend reflected that the other Assemblymen would not be as easy to convince as Noorden, since they weren't guided by logic.[2]
When the vote happened, Noorden acted as a scribe to witness the vote. Two noblemen wished to changed their votes, and only Noorden and Elend knew that the law said they could. But, loyal to Elend, Noorden said nothing. Elend himself was the one to reveal it to them, thus losing the vote.[5]
Working for the New Empire
Later, when Elend became emperor, Noorden continued working for him. He mapped the areas affected by the mist, and counted the number of people affected by the mist sickness.[6][3] Vin told Noorden to check the percentage of people affected by the mist sickness, and to his surprise, they discovered that that number was always exactly sixteen percent, a statistical anomaly.[3]
In a later conference, Noorden reported having found that the number of sick people was always sixteen percent, across multiple cases; they concluded that some intelligent entity was controlling who was affected. In that same conference, Elend's council discovered Hemalurgy, and Elend told Noorden to map the koloss' movements, suspecting they might be not random, but controlled by someone.[1] Elend later used the information collected by him to take control of an enormous amount of koloss bands.[7]