Noah Arnaud

At the age of 13, in 1559, Noah's father, a landowner by the name of Gervais, died. In modern times that meant nothing, but in the days of Noah's youth, this was tragic. His mother had long since past in childbirth so his father's death left the farm land, which was on the outskirts of the small French village, to Gervais' only son. There was a small problem, however: The custom was, in those times, that only a man could own land - not a woman or a child. Noah, born and raised a Catholic, was unmarried and so, considered a child. The next in line for the land was Gervais' brother, a long time exiled man who was thrown from the village for converting to a protestant faith. The Catholic priest of the village insisted that Noah be married and within the week. He did not care to who or how, but the land needed to be kept Catholic. Being a boy of 13 who had just lost his father, Noah refused. The child was first pleaded with, but when he still refused, they forced marriage upon him, giving him no choice but to wed. His 'wife' was five years older than him. Nicolette was a sweet woman, but he felt nothing for her. At eighteen years of age, she became more of a mother to the 13 year old than a wife. Six months past with the priest pleased with the situation until it became painfully apparent that Nicolette was not pregnant. In the Catholic religion, a wedding must be consummated to be valid and with no pregnancy, the threat arose once more than Noah's uncle, a protestant, could claim the land. Confronting Noah about it, the priest took a more direct route this time and whipped the child thirty-nine times for not fulfilling his husbandly duties. Unable to stand without extreme pain, Noah was released back into the custody of his wife. An understanding woman, Nicolette did not push him to anything, but merely aided in nursing him back to health before mentioning the fact they had to have a child, if he liked it or not.

Feeling lost, betrayed by the religious figure he'd known his whole life and now his own wife, Noah took the first opportunity to leave. Once he was well enough, he left the village in the cover of night. He had nowhere to go and no money to speak of and so, he joined a group of soldiers and joined in the religious war that was raging. He, however, fought on the side of the Protestants, the Huguenots, converting to a new religion and growing to despising most things Catholic. He met another boy while serving. Pascal, who was fifteen, and he became quick friends, sharing much of the same interests. Other soldiers called them inseparable. He was the first real friend Noah ever had. Pascal was never judgmental, never cruel and always protective during battle. He was also one of the best fighters they had. He taught Noah almost everything he knew and yet, still would leap in front of his friend during battle to protect him.

In 1560, when Noah was fourteen, Francis II died (Charles IX) and Catherine de Medici took power. She tried to remain impartial, but all Protestants knew she wanted a Catholic France. No one was impartial. Years of bloody battle passed.

In 1567, things changed. Being now a man of twenty-one, he was offered a job - aid in kidnapping the queen. Deciding he didn't like the odds of survival, he declined. As in his past, declining was a mistake. He was beaten once more as a traitor and thrown in an underground prison. The Catholics hated him and now, the Protestants hated him as well. Noah felt completely alone as a year past until Pascal, now 24, showed up and attempted to free him. Noah did not want his one and only friend to risk his own career by springing him from prison and so he asked Pascal for a favor instead. He wanted his friend to go back to his village, to find his wife and tell her he was sorry. Noah wanted to come home once he was free. He asked Pascal to go and let them know he was coming. His friend took his hand, swore he would and then disappeared into the shadows.

Disenchanted with religion as a whole, Noah managed to wait out his sentence once more. The Huguenots needed more men and so, after a short imprisonment, they released him. He was twenty-four years of age. He once more, took off in the cover of night and headed home. He had land there, a wife and while he knew they would all be disappointed in him for leaving when he was a boy, they'd be happy enough to see him: He could reclaim the land for the Catholics. While he did not care for any labeled religion, he just wanted to go home. He believed in God and Christ, the son of God, but he did not believe in any man wearing a robe and reading from the Bible. He could read the book himself. Sects of religions were now pointless to him.

It all seemed ideal. The perfect life to step back into. Which is why he was sorely disappointed when he arrived back at his home. Pascal had done as he had promised, he had rode into town to tell Nicolette that Noah loved her and would be coming back, but something had happened. The priest, not having seen Noah for so many years and guilt ridden for the fact he'd driven the boy away, mistook Pascal for Noah. The men bore the same hair color, eye color and shape of face. It was an easy mistake, but what upset Noah was neither Pascal nor Nicolette bothered to correct the man. Instead, Pascal took Noah's name, his wife and his life and began to live with his people as him.

Noah Arnaud was now someone else. Noah had no idea who he was. His one and only friend had stolen his life from him. The problem was by the time he'd realized what was going on, it was too late to leave. Every villager that saw his face knew right away he was the real Noah and was left ponder whom exactly was the man posing as him. The priest, attempting with his last ounce of fleeting dignity, to save face, proclaimed Pascal the devil, an impostor that put a spell on them all. He said Nicolette and the land was rightfully Noah's and that Pascal should be set on fire at dawn. It was not what Noah wanted. As angry as he was over losing everything from his name, his wife, his land, his best friend to his whole existence, Pascal was still the best friend he'd ever had. More than that, Nicolette was nine-months pregnant with Pascal's child. It was not fair for him to assume he could come back to the perfect life and expect everyone to take him back.

In an act of selflessness, Noah broke into the prison at night and freed Pascal before the sun could rise. He aided his friend in packing and taking Nicolette with him, Noah even gave them his horse to flee with. It left him in a bad position, however. Enraged by his actions, the priest once more took to beating him and locked him away. Noah noticed a pattern developing in his life: do the right thing, get beat and locked up. He was growing rather tired of it all. The problem was there was no one left to free him or aid him. His only friend had left with his wife. Every year on the anniversary of his act of freeing 'demon,' as the priest liked to call Pascal, the priest beat him within an inch of his life. By 1579, he felt doomed to spent his whole life in prison and so, he starved himself, growing weaker by the day, just waiting for the anniversary to come because he knew that this time, it would kill him.

And it did. Unfortunately, he was immortal. The priest had whipped him exactly thirty-nine times and as he lost consciousness, Noah recalled being almost happy about the fact he knew it was going to end. He woke up with a jolt, rather disappointed at the fact he was lucid. The priest was leering over him, mumbling about wounds healing and how 'this could not be.' Realizing Noah was awake, the man fled screaming and locked the door behind him.

Noah was alone for four days with no food or explanation before someone came to him. She was not the priest or Nicolette or Pascal. For a time, he thought she was an angel. The woman freed him from his prison in the cover of night, took him to some distant, hidden place where no one seemed to bother her. The prison, the whipping and the starvation had temporally driven him half out of his mind and coming in and out of lucidness, it took Noah several days, maybe even weeks to realize this woman, who he later learned was Jocelyn D'Arcy, was nursing him back to full health (being both underweight and deprived of food, water, sunlight and human contact) and helping him. When he finally asked why, she told him of immortality and what he was. He would never age again nor would he die unless his head was removed from his body. She trained him to fight once he was back to full health. She was impressed by what Pascal had already taught him, but she went beyond it and made him a fine swordsman. He had one flaw: He was easily distracted. She informed him of it often to which he'd always reply with nothing more than a nod. He never explained that it was her that was distracting him. In a fight with anyone else, he would do better.

Years passed by in droves and before long Noah was not only an excellent swordsman, but also happier and healthier than he had ever been. His miserable childhood was behind him now and there was something about his teacher's eyes that reminded him each day of why he was alive.

His new found bliss was not to last. Jocelyn became concerned with rumors that rose from Britain that tensions were building between King Charles I and Parliament. Her choice was to fight. Noah respected her decision, but for himself, it was not time. He had been born into conflict and had been subjected to it his whole life and, more often then not, against his will. While it was the nobler thing to do to fight along side her, he could not bring himself back to battle, back to blood. He'd fought his wars already and England was not his country. He had to do one thing, however, and that was tell this woman the day of her leaving that she was the first person he'd ever loved that had treated him with caring in return and that she was his whole world for their time together. It became apparent, however, the night before her departure that he did not need to tell her. She already understood. She came to him and brought a blade she had forged for him as a gift. Very few words were exchanged between them. Once she had first kissed him, it seemed as if all words were inadequate to explain to her how he felt. Instead, he made love to her. He knew that come morning, when he awoke with her in his arms that he was going to plead, and beg if he had to, for her to stay with him and forget the matters of war. Reflecting now on the situation, perhaps that is why she left before he awoke - she knew him too well and knew that was exactly what he'd do. He had gone to sleep holding her that night, but come morning, she was gone and he was alone once more.

Noah's life did not continue with the ease that the years with his teacher had brought him. The moment they parted ways, he managed to find himself in trouble again and continued to drift through life often just getting by. His extended stays in prison ended with the third, but he did find himself in jail over night more than once. Usually those events were triggered by him commenting about something inappropriate while in the company of upper class gentlemen. For the most part, Noah was an uncomplicated man. He didn't care for wealth or processions. Mostly, he made due without working. He was not a beggar, but always managed to be given a meal for free using his down-to-earth charm or after putting in a hard days work at this farm or the next.

He did not leave France, even as the guillotine made it's bloody way into French history. It was his homeland and he knew it well. It was not until France declared war on Germany in 1939 that he felt the need to relocate. Noah held tight to his aversion to battle and blood shed. He only fought other immortals when they attacked him and avoided war like a plague. What was occurring in Germany was murky in the press, but it did not look good. Before Paris fell in 1940, Noah managed to get a position with the government that placed him in Quebec, Canada. A free ship ride away and he was far from the horrors of the Nazis, happily obvious to the full scale of what Hitler was doing. Only after the war had ended in Europe did he fully understand what had occurred there.

North America was a new land to explore and the first thing he did was located the ancestors of Nicolette and Pascal, who were also now in Canada. While Nicolette and Pascal had betrayed him, he understood it. Perhaps Noah was too forgiving a person, but he knew that he had first wronged Nicolette. He had left her. How could she be expected to refuse a man closer to her own age who returned to the land, mistaken to be Noah himself? Pascal had no life of his own. He had been a soldier his entire life. Noah's old, abandoned life was ideal for Pascal and so, Noah did not blame his brother in arms for claiming it as his own. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, but he understood why and forgave them both. Their great grandchildren, five generations later, were plentiful and all of them bore Noah's last name. It was as if he had lived a mortal life at some point, just through Pascal.

In the late 1940s, he took up fishing, studying under a boat captain who left him his ship once he retired. Since then, Noah has lived off of the Hudson Bay and has fished for a living ever since.

He avoided ever going to war again, having a strong dislike for violence these days. He flourished in Canada, a place that was cold more often than warm, people mostly stayed in doors, were nonviolent and serene and a man like him fit in without issue. No major disasters, no horrors of war. It was peaceful and he remained there until 2002.

When the flu broke, Noah aided in the hospital ward, but was not much use beyond doing a few simple tricks and riddles for dying children. He had no medical background and all he could do was watch people die. He did not desire to be completely alone, in fact, he has almost as strong an aversion to being completely alone as he does to battle because of his cell bound days from his youth. Because of this, before the power cut out, Noah was struck with the idea to search for his former teacher. He had no idea where to start, but he knew her skills. She had made him a blade and there had to be others similar to it. He looked on the internet and followed the trail to a town where she last lived, Cut Bank, Montana. He was surprised that they were living rather close to one another and never knew it. There was a good chance she was already gone and a good chance he would not find her, but he had to go. Plus, it was on the way to Boulder, Colorado, a place his dreams kept calling him to. He was not sure if this was the gathering or something more. The old woman in the dreams did not seem immortal.

After reconnecting with his former teacher, now going by Brett Avery, the pair made their way to Boulder, Colorado. On the road, the found Faith Edwards and a young immortal named Johnny. A headhunter, Vanessa, followed them and used explosives to separate the group. Following two encounters, Vanessa was finally killed by Paige Brewster, an immortal.