Noorden

Noorden is a scholar and former obligator in the Canton of Orthodoxy 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.
== Appearance and Personality ==
Noorden has the eye tattoos of an obligator of fairly high rank. He wears large spectacles to hide the tattoos, and they successfully cover most of them. Although he renounced his loyalties to the Steel Ministry, some people still find the tattoos to be off-putting reminders of Noorden's past. He often wears a simple brown robe.
Though Noorden was a member of the Steel Ministry, his attitude is atypical of an obligator. He is very happy and cheerful, unlike most other members of the Ministry. He has a tendency to be chatty and sometimes needs to be prodded to make his point. He tends to keep odd hours because he becomes so engrossed in his research projects.
==Attributes and Abilities==
Noorden was a scholar; he had a brilliant understanding of the laws of the Luthadel Assembly as well as a gift for mathematics, shown in his ability to collect and interpret data on the mist sickness. He is thorough and reliable, and his cheerful disposition tends to uplift others. He is thoughtful and thinks in a very logical manner; Elend appreciates the fact that Noorden values stability over wealth and power, unlike many of the politicians in Luthadel. 
== History ==
=== Early Life ===
Noorden first joined the Steel Ministry to pursue his calling as a scholar; he was not a high-ranked noble and it was his only career option aside from becoming a merchant. He joined the Canton of Orthodoxy, whose obligators performed diverse bureaucratic functions. He didn't fit in among other obligators; he spent most of his time working alone. Despite his isolation, he became quite highly-ranked in the Ministry. Noorden was a good man, and never fully understood the level of oppression that the Ministry helped impose on the skaa.
=== The Collapse and Employment by Elend Venture ===
The Collapse was a catastrophe for Noorden; it destroyed his entire way of life. However, he was one of the very few obligators that remained in Luthadel, perhaps as a result of his unusual personality. He was then employed by Elend Venture to work as a bureaucrat for Elend's new kingdom. Elend hired Noorden for his ability as a scribe, but he also appreciated Noorden's unique perspective as a former obligator, rather than a skaa or high noble. Noorden would become highly loyal to Elend, believing that his new laws were brilliant.
When Elend was deciding what to do about the election for king of the Central Dominance, Noorden questioned whether it really would be so bad if Ashweather Cett won. However, Elend convinced Noorden that Cett should not win, explaining that he 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.
Noorden acted as a scribe to witness the Luthadel Assembly's vote for king. After an apparent deadlock, Lord Habren asked if he was allowed to change his vote, and only Noorden and Elend knew that the law said they could do so before the voting was formally closed. However, Noorden said nothing out of loyalty to Elend. Elend himself was the one to confirm that votes could still be changed; Habren and Lord Hue changed their votes to Ferson Penrod, giving him the victory over Elend.
=== The New Empire ===
When Elend later became emperor of the New Empire, Noorden continued working for him. He mapped the areas affected by the mist, and counted the number of people affected by the mist sickness. Vin told Noorden to check the percentage of people affected by the mist sickness, and to his surprise, they discovered that the number was always exactly sixteen percent, a statistical anomaly.
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 Noorden relayed the limited information he had about the creation of Steel Inquisitors from his time in the Ministry. Elend also told Noorden to map the movements of the koloss, suspecting that they might be not random, but controlled by someone. Elend later used the information collected by Noorden to take control of many bands of koloss.
== Notes ==