Noah Vines

> The first answer that comes to mind is kill myself to reset my body.
>
> - Noah, Contemplating on how he would fix Todd's problems if he were suffering.

## Noah Vines

### Aliases

Vermil Linwick
Magus Vermil
Spider (To Father)
Teacherman (By Todd)

### Relatives

Father
Brayden

### Affiliation

Arbitage
Father's branch of the Linwick family

## Biographical information

### Marital status

Engaged (Karina) (Arranged by Father)Dating (Moxie)

## Noah Vines

> “Where are you from, then? What are you?”
>
>
> “Honestly, I’m not so sure myself. Do you consider the place you’re from the place you spent the most time in?”
>
>
> Emily sent him a baffled look. “Yes.”
>
>
> “Then I’m from the afterlife,” Noah said. “I clawed my way out of it and I’ll never go back.”
>
>
> Emily stared at him, but there were too many pieces starting to click for her to deny it. “You’re… what, then? A god? A demon?”
>
>
>
> “Neither. I’m Noah – and I’d thank you for keeping that between us.”
>
> - Emily and Noah, Talking in Emily's mindspace.

Noah Vines is the main character of Return of the Runebound Professor. He was born on Earth and died at the age of 26 after working as a music teacher for 4 years. After dying, he had to wait in line for a great period of time until he made it to the front and spoke to Renewal, one of the goddesses of reincarnation. Renewal is attacked by a strange man and Noah manages to reincarnate. Instead of losing his memories upon reincarnation his memories remain and instead of obtaining the body of a new-born child he possesses the body of Vermil Linwick, a poisoned magic teacher. Noah is able to comprehend the language that Vermil used and can utilise the runes Vermil had in his soul. He does not tell people that he possessed Vermil and instead claims amnesia so that people would not suspect him for lacking basic knowledge.

## Appearance

Noah's original body is not mentioned. Vermil is described as a “greasy, black haired man” with sharp features. When drawing on Sunder's power, Noah's veins turn black.

## Personality

> If you partook in at least a few more primal desires, then maybe I’d at least have something to enjoy. But no. All you do is sit around, fight, or fiddle with your damn runes. You barely remember to eat. You don’t laze around. You don’t act on lust. You barely even murder anyone. Live a little, you boring little shit.
>
> - The Demon, Azel, Talking to Noah

Noah is a very impatient person. After spending thousands of years dead waiting in line to be reincarnated he refuses to waste time and will instead rush headlong into things. He is also a kind person trying to help Vermil’s, now his, students. He was very disappointed with the afterlife just being a massive waiting line. He was considered an influential person for 84 of his students on Earth. Noah is considered a great improvement considering Vermil’s wretched personality. Noah cares for his students to a significant degree, wanting them to learn how to succeed but he was willing to cheat them into passing their exam if they lacked the skills. He is very protective of his students. Noah is also quite clever, or perhaps cunning, as after he first arrived in his new world he managed to trick his students into informing him about how magic works. Noah also acts like a smartass and jokes with Moxie. When he needs to he can put on a very uncaring and callus persona making others believe him to be a demon. His main solution to problems is to kill his problem even if it is himself and hope it fixes the issue. When people anger him, by hurting Moxie or threatening his students, Noah becomes murderous and very intimidating. He appeared cold with empty, expressionless eyes to Karina after he tried to kill her. He considers death a mild annoyance usually. Noah keeps having extreme bursts of anger which Lee claims smells "dangerous" and it is a physical change. This anger was revealed to be the result of the demon, Azel, trapped in Noah's soul that Noah had unintentionally shredded with Sunder and unintentionally healed with Fragment of Renewal. Azel claims that Noah would have been a great demon as he thinks like one. Azel realised that a huge amount of Noah's emotions were suppressed from waiting in line for reincarnation and has been messing around so that Noah can now feel things more strongly.

## Relationships

Moxie - Moxie is another teacher at Arbitage. Originally, Noah and Moxie had a very antagonistic relationship as Moxie did not know that Noah had replaced Vermil, who she greatly disliked. However, as the series has progressed, they have become increasing close, with Noah beating (and being an inch from killing) Contessa after she slapped Moxie.

Todd - Todd is one of Vermil's two students. Noah is determined to help Todd grow and ensure he succeeds. After Todd's neck was damaged, Noah has started looking for ways to heal him. Todd trusts Noah to a great deal.

Isabel - Isabel is Vermil's second student. Like with Todd, Noah tries to help ensure Isabel succeeds. Isabel has great faith in Noah.

Lee - Lee is a demon who has allied with Noah. She and Noah have a good friendship with her eating Noah's numerous dead bodies.

Tim -

Allen -

Edward -

Brayden -

Father - Father (actually named 'Father') is Vermil's father. Noah and Father have a negative relationship. Father confused by Noah and seeks to remove him, ordering anti-demon poison to deal with him and recruiting Inquisitors to kill him. Noah has no way to strike back at Father. They have worked together with Father needing Noah to remove Dayton but Noah prefers to be away from Father. Father owes Noah a favour.

Karina - Karina is Noah's fiancé. She and Vermil had an arranged marriage set up by Father and Karina's mother. In basically every encounter with Karina, disguised on not, Noah has tried to kill her due to her threatening his students or annoying him. Noah now has a Rune Oath with Karina so that he will kill her if she fails to protect Todd and Isabel. Karina is terrified of Noah thinking "*That isn’t the creature I knew"* as she doesn't know that Noah replaced Vermil.

Azel - Noah accidently destroyed and devoured the soul of the demon, Azel that Vermil summoned. They have a soul connection that Noah can mess with to hurt the demon. Noah and the demon can determine if the other is lying. Azel said that "I *will* take something from you, Noah Vines. I already have, even if you haven’t found it yet. The longer you push me to the side, the more I am going to take." Azel has surrendered to Noah, knowing that Noah would kill them both to solve his problems but has demanded that Noah keep it entertained. Azel can push Noah's emotions of anger, and threatened lust, but can not control him. Noah does not find Azel likable.

Mascot - Mascot is the strange "cat" that follows Noah around and aids him by pulling monsters towards him. The red-horned cat has shown Noah how to use Fragment of Renewal. Mascot is a part of the team and has demonstrated teleportation and has a great habit of annoying powerful people like invading Father's lair and shitting on Jalen's paperwork. It has been revealed (to the readers, not Noah) that Mascot is actually an avatar created by the goddess Renewal for the purpose of finding Noah but Mascot has been changed and now is Noah's.

## Abilities

### Runes

**Sunder (Master Rune)**

Sunder feels similar to the man, Decras who attacked Renewal. Noah stole a fraction of Decras' power and it formed the Rune Sunder. It has the ability to sunder anything Noah touches but it deals horrific damage to his own body and drains power from all his other Runes when active. When Noah activates Sunder greyness spreads through his veins. The passive effect of Sunder is to ‘bind’ Noah to his gourd meaning that every time he dies, he comes back to life in a copy of Vermil’s body that is formed by the gourd. However, he has soul damage and takes a few hours before he can use magic again. The Rune forcefully pulls his soul back to the gourd once he dies. He managed to resist this once and used Sunder to form a black spear that carved an enemy up. He can now create the black spear whilst he is alive. Resisting the pull of Sunder as a soul caused unhealing soul damage. When he did this he revived in his current body rather than forming a new body. Sunder can break down high rank Runes into their component Runes. Noah managed to use Sunder to break a monster's soul down to get it's Runes. Whilst fighting Evergreen, Sunder grew stronger and formed black ropes from Noah's body that continually pulled and stitched him back together even as he lost limbs and even his head. Noah can also use Sunder to cut through domains from more powerful mages.

**Fragment of Renewal (Master Rune)**

Noah managed to take power from the goddess Renewal using Sunder after she refused access to her power and Noah formed the Rune Fragment of Renewal. Noah can use this Rune to heal soul damage for others by touching them and channelling the Rune which helps improve soul recovery. Apparently the effect feels "like a warm hug." When used on someone without soul damage it makes them energetic. Noah managed to form this Rune by tapping into the goddess Renewal’s energy when he died one time. Using this ability drew attention to himself from both Renewal and Decras and both send their mortal agents messages. Renewal's passive effect is Rot which Noah can activate at will, releasing a pink mist that flows towards his target.

**Combustion (Master Rune)**

Noah obtained the Combustion Master Rune by killing the Hellreaver. Combustion allows him to cause things to combust but gives him no control over the fire. Because the Rune is Imbued into his soul he can use the passive effect at will which is to render the air inert making everyone within range unable to breathe.

**Natural Disaster (Rank 4 - Flawless) - Imbued**

Natural Disaster is a Rank 4 Rune formed from the Runes: Sandstorm, Tsunami, Cyclone, Earthquake, Volcano, Blizzard and Thunderstorm. This Rune is Flawless, meaning truly perfect beyond what is usually considered Perfect as the pressure does not change when used. The magic is easy to control and is easier to use. When using Natural Disaster, Noah can create a wide range of effects, such as: throwing lightning bolts, boosting his movements with wind, producing gusts of wind, grabbing things with snow, throwing balls of lightning, launching stones and inflicting destructive vibrations. Noah has imbued this Rune into his soul giving him a tremorsense ability.

**Wind Rune (Rank 1 - Greater)**

The Greater Wind Rune allows Noah to throw blades of wind and power his flying sword. The Greater Wind Rune allows him to manipulate wind. He can also use this Wind Rune to enhance his movements. He can also redirect his movements with wind.

### Formations

Formations are a complex way of stringing Runes together for a specific purpose. They take a long time to form but allow for multiple Runes to be used at once and to be given more complicated instructions. Noah has practiced Formations with music and as he plays the music it begins to form a magic circle above his head. A Formation must be completed entirely or it is useless and it must be formed perfectly otherwise it explodes.

**Fragment of Renewal Enhancement**

Noah practiced a Formation that uses the power of Natural Disaster to form a cage so that Sunder could use more power. Noah replaced Sunder with Fragment of Renewal in the Formation which then erupted with power in a pink wave of smoke. This caused Evergreen's armour to begin to rot as the Formation empowered the passive effect of Fragment of Renewal: Rot.

### Domain

Noah has reached Rank 4, meaning he now has a domain. His domain is so incredibly strong for only having a single Rank 4 Rune, with Jalen believing he had four or five Runes. A domain is like a sphere around the body that the mage can feel. Noah can feel things inside his domain. His domain automatically blocks the magic from weaker mages and Noah can stop this effect.

### Combat

Noah is immensely skilled in combat. Being mistaken for a Soldier on a number of occasions. He has bypassed magic shields by focusing on magic and then dispersing it and punching.

### Soul

Noah's soul is a massive void which holds his Runes. Noah passively recovers from soul damage at a very fast rate. Noah’s soul is so massive he can store a large number of Runes inactively and soul-damaging poison does nothing to him. Noah's soul is so massive because he unknowingly consumed the demon's soul.

## Equipment

### Gourd

Noah is bound to the gourd he found in Vermil’s possession. There was a poisoned healing potion inside the gourd that killed Vermil. Noah’s Sunder Rune means that whenever he dies he will come back to life at the gourd in an identical body.

### Flying Sword

Noah purchased a cheap flying sword which he can stand on to move around on. It requires a Wind Rune to use. This was a better replacement to the previous flying sword he had which was destroyed. It is not the best but it works. It is more responsive than his previous sword.

### Pipe

Noah purchased a pipe and flashgrass (which turns to ash easily) so that he would always have a source of ash on hand to use with his Pyroclastic Resonance Rune.

### Violin

Moxie got Noah a violin. Noah has bonded to the violin and he could sense the emotions that Moxie embedded within it. The violin will stay with Noah as long his soul lives - so when he dies, the violin will stay with him when he resurrects. The violin is extremely durable. The violin and its bow can dematerialise and appear as a tattoo on Noah's forearm. The violin vanishes when he dies and returns to its tattoo state. The violin has 7 connected circles near the base of the strings and when Noah drew on the thunderstorm aspect of Natural Disaster, one of the circles had the shape of the Thunderstorm Rune inside. The violin can repress its sound so it doesn't travel.

### Grimoire

Noah stole a massive grimoire from the Linwick family. This artifact book can project a tongue of paper and eat up catchpaper and absorb the Runes on the paper. The artifact can project its feeling, hunger, to others. It has a glowing eye. The book can eat and store Runes, and reveal them on its page when someone calls the name of the Rune it has stored. However, it eats some Runes permanently, so they can not be recovered. Only Noah can move the book around and he can carry it as if it doesn't weigh what it does. It can also eat books and reproduce the information on the books it eats. It ate the Records of the Deceased which recall all living and dead Linwicks.