Nomen

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"Pass the blade of the knife across your palm. Let the blood fall into the lacre. Something will arise: though it will not survive the winter."[1]

Nomen are simulacrum made of blood mixed with lacre.

Mistborn

"The present life of man, O king, seems to me like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged."[2]

A Noman is created by mixing blood from a person with lacre.[3] This ritual must be performed either at the Bazaar's lacre pits or other places of sufficient cold, such as the Avid Horizon.[4] Nomen can arise naturally from the lacre-pits as well.[5] It seems that most of the time this does not work, and the half-formed Nomen melts back into the lacre.[6] The Bazaar broke several cosmic laws in order to facilitate their creation.[7]

A fully formed Noman will have both the appearance and memories of the person they were made in imitation of. Since they are made from lacre, they have knowledge of other secrets as well.[7] Its body is chalk-white, its eyes hollow pits,[8] its skin cold, smooth, and waxen to the touch. It can feel,[9] it can move without tiring,[10] and under certain conditions, may even pass as a particularly pale human.[11] Nomen seem to be immune from the effects of alchohol, but they will take the color of red wine if they do drink it.[12] A Noman can also be created from a dead person. The physical remnant of the dead[13] is buried in a mound of lacre-snow.[14] Human blood must then be spilled onto the mound;[15] blood from any other source will fail to animate it.[16] From this, a Noman forms bearing the memories of the deceased.[17]

All Nomen are doomed to melt after a time.[4] As they dissolve, the Nomen lose cohesion, and even begin to lose memories.[18] This decay can be delayed by providing the Noman with lacre, whether as snow,[9] liquid,[19] or words.[20] There is, however, a way to halt a Noman's end, possibly permanently. The Noman must first possess knowledge of a grudge, something bitter enough to linger. Then, a heart of Heartmetal must be embedded within it. The grudge anchors the Noman; the Heartmetal preserves it.[21] With both in place, the Noman ceases to melt and will even begin to heal.[22]

Special Nomen

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?"

Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.

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There are some Nomen that are different from others of their kind:

  • The original Mr Sacks is said to be the first Nomen. His replacements are made from the blood of the Masters and took over the Mr Sacks mantle at Christmas when the original stopped showing up one year.
  • The Lacreous Astronomer is a half-human, half Noman. She was originally a human from the First City, but was turned into a Noman by Mr Apples in one of its immortality experiments.[23] Curiously, she can have children, and her progeny are not consequently not fully human.[24] She requires the blood of her descendants to sustain herself.[25]

References

  1. ↑ The Noman, Fallen London
  2. ↑ Noman, Fallen London
  3. ↑ The Noman, Fallen London "Pass the blade of the knife across your palm. Let the blood fall into the lacre. Something will arise: though it will not survive the winter."
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Heart of Snow, Sunless Sea "The chill of Avid Horizon runs deep [...], but even such primal cold cannot last forever."
  5. ↑ Mr Sacks, Fallen London "You inch forward, until you reach the end of the tunnel. Beyond, a crowd of faces, smiling to greet you. But the faces bob and roil in a vast sea of lacre. They shift, disintegrate, commingle; some are human, some are entirely not; but the smiles remain. Just below you, there is a ripple. A man rises from the lacre, fully formed from the snow: improbably tall and impossibly handsome, like Michaelangelo's David come to life. And as it reaches you, it plunges a hand into its chest and removes a small burlap sack; it drops it into your hand, and melts entirely into a perfectly formed puddle at your feet."
  6. ↑ Search the shore, Fallen London "The tide surges then ebbs, rivulets of lacre scrabbling at the shore-stones like fingers. Wait... they are fingers! Milky, globular, and frantic. Behind them, undulating backs push from the waves. They lift lacre faces – half-formed and grief-struck, their eyes only bubbling pits and their mouths pouring. They scream. The tide reclaims them. They collapse into hissing lacre-foam and are dragged back into the reservoirs. It was a spirited attempt to be born, but it failed."
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Sense of an Ending, Fallen London "Its eyes are bright. "I'm misborn," it says, as the dissolution begins. "You're sitting pretty. The Bazaar broke a law or two in making me, yes it did, but I wouldn't have lasted this long unless you had a foot snared in the Great Chain... I'll be free, very soon." (Its words are becoming harder to understand.) "You'll be tempted. Don't trust the Bazaar. Don't feel sorry for it. Love is a demand, not a solution. The Chain may go up to the stars, but it prisons us all. The Liberation of Night...""
  8. ↑ The Noman, Fallen London "It is pale, and its eyes are shadowed pits. When first it clambers from the lacre, it is as barely formed and inviting to the touch as snow new-fallen on the corner of a wall. But second by second, it looks more and more like you. When it looks up and smiles, its face is your own, albeit snow-coloured and fragile. [...]"
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Help me. Please.", Fallen London "You assist it in restoring patches of milky, deliquescent flesh. The texture of its body is tallowy and smooth: chilly to the touch. It seems embarrassed. "Not there," it says. "I'm, ah, sensitive, there. But thank you.""
  10. ↑ "Let's go shopping.", Fallen London "You climb well, but the noman climbs like a barometer: steadily, tirelessly, irresistibly. [...]"
  11. ↑ "Let's go out drinking.", Fallen London "[...] Your noman explains your mutual resemblance: it's your occasional cousin from the Surface."
  12. ↑ "Let's go out drinking.", Fallen London "You've never seen your noman drunk. Although when it consumes red wine, its whole body flushes faintly pink."
  13. ↑ The Third Delivery, Sunless Sea "Mr Sacks is staring at a small wooden box as you enter the hold. Inside, wrapped in a few pitiful scraps of velvet, is a lock of blonde hair and a set of teeth. Carefully polished. Barely used. “The winter was harsh. The fire went cold. Later, the mother wished to forget. A convenient tragedy.”"
  14. ↑ Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea "As soon as you dock, Mr Sacks lumbers ashore. It has been preparing for this. Plunging a hand into its cloak, it removes a handful of ammonia-scented snow. It places it on the ground and adds another on the top. Into this one it presses the teeth and the hair from the small box. Potential. Substance. [...]"
  15. ↑ Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea "You nick your hand with a blade and hold it above the frozen mound. A drop wells up and falls. More follow. They fizz in the lacre, which softens and melts into a puddle of snow; a puddle from which a hand emerges. Then a head. Then another hand; stretching as it clambers up from nowhere. The shape of a child [...]"
  16. ↑ Service at Avid Horizon, Sunless Sea "You move to cut your hand with your pocketknife, but the vial clutched in your palm keeps the blade safely from your flesh. You tip it carefully, dripping a few drops of the thick blood into the pile. [...] A hand emerges from it. Then a head. [...] The twisted face of a gargoyle, rippled with red blood. It screams. [...] Just as abruptly as the scream began, it stops. The shape collapses, melts."
  17. ↑ Ask the Snow Child about home, Sunless Sea "London? London! Yes! I wanted to play on the roof-tops, but it made mother cry. She cries a lot, but she says it's not my fault. She'll be worried. Wait - you're not a devil are you? Mother says to look out for devils." It gives you a suspicious sniff. "No. No eggy smell. You can take me back, right? I've always wanted to go zailing."
  18. ↑ An Incident: Watch Millicent tattoo a pale visitor, Fallen London "The visitor sits. Its face is marred by asymmetry; one cheekbone has slumped lower than the other. "I'm starting to forget things. What good is time if I can't remember it?""
  19. ↑ Give sustenance to the Noman, Fallen London "This may give it strength... but its effect will be unpredictable."
  20. ↑ "Help me. I beg you.", Fallen London "You whisper in its ear: words the sea spoke on its pebbled shores, beneath Penstock's, beneath the Bazaar. It relaxes at the touch of your breath. "The waves," it says. "The waves...""
  21. ↑ Seek help for Sacks and Snow: The Snow Child's Name, Sunless Sea "[...] Ice must melt and snow must thaw, but nothing lingers quite like a good, hard grudge. [...] The devil whispers something not for your ears. The Snow Child's face fills with captivated horror. The devil smiles. "Just so! Now, to hold it in place, I recommend... oh, what do you call it? Heartmetal. [...]""
  22. ↑ Find assistance for the Snow Child, Sunless Sea "Fitting the heart is an unpleasant matter for all concerned, but what must be done is soon finished. At first, nothing seems to have happened. Soon, though, the drips stop. The wound heals. [...]"
  23. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "The creature grinds a mountain into you and drowns you in memory-snow until you are filled with the sadness of the whole city."
  24. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London "You still look human, for now you find work. A husband. A kind man who asks no questions. He is unsurprised when you have a child, though you thought it impossible. You cannot tell him that your daughter is not faly human, that you are hardly human at all Years later, you collapse. The part of you that is lacre is melting at last. There is but one thing that will revive you. You can not ask for it our your daughter knows"
  25. ↑ Inheritance, Fallen London ""The fact that your children's blood would be forever required by a shivelled old woman" says the Lacreous Astronomer, gently. [...]"
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