Noa Kim

He who increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. This article contains spoilers, meaning it has information and facts concerning Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple. If you do not want to know about these events, it is recommended to read on with caution, or not at all. This template should be removed from the article 05 June 2024.

Noa Kim (김노아) is a Korean-American descendant of the British Assassin Edward Kenway and the Joseon scholar Yun Pyeong-Gyu.

In 2023, Noa was kidnapped by the Templar company Abstergo Industries, who were interested in his genetic memories due to his Assassin heritage and lured him to Macau, China on the pretense of a vacation prize trip. Following his abduction, Noa was forced to relive Edward's memories in the Animus under the supervision of Doctor Shimazu Sei, with whom he soon striked a deal, being given some degree of freedom to act as he pleased in exchange for his cooperation.

Biography

Early life

"I swear, mom... I'll never be anything like my dad!"

―Noa to his mother, following his father's disappearance.

Noa fighting back bullies in his school years

Noa was born in Korea to an American Assassin father and a Korean mother. When Noa was still young, his father mysteriously vanished. Returning home one night, Noa found his mother crying and asked her where his father had gone, to which she simply replied that he would not be coming back. This angered Noa, who vowed to never become anything like his father.

In his youth, Noa was frequently teased or bullied by his schoolmates due to his mixed race, which increased his resentment towards his father, blaming him for being different from his peers and unable to fit in.

After getting into college, Noa was forced to work a number of part-time jobs to pay for his tuition. Sometimes, he had to take time off school in order to work, as the money he was earning was barely enough to cover his tuition and living expenses. Despite this, he always hoped he would one day get the chance to travel overseas.

Abduction by Abstergo

First Animus session

"Don't be ridiculous... No matter how much money you make... It's too late for you to be a good father! No amount of money... Can fill the empty space that a father leaves behind!"

―Noa's reaction to hearing Hendrik's story, c. 2023.

Noa kidnapped by Abstergo agents

In 2023, after using the genetic genealogy site WhyYou developed by Abstergo Genetic Research Lab, Noa was lured on a vacation prize trip to Macau. There, he was kidnapped by Abstergo agents and brought to their facility in the city, where he was forced to relieve the memories of his ancestor Edward Kenway during his time in Southeast and Mainland Asia.

During his first session in the Animus, he caused several synchronization errors due to being unaware that the events he was witnessing were someone else's memories. The first major one occurred when Noa heard the story of Hendrik, who had abandoned his family to pursue riches, which reminded Noa of his own father's abandonment. However, the Animus managed to resync by bypassing factual information and the simulation continued.

During the second desynchronization error, which occurred when Noa tried to warn the villagers Edward had been hiding with about cholera, the Animus reacted more violently and electrocuted Noa, causing his heart rate and adrenaline levels to spike. Doctor Shimazu Sei attempted to warn Noa, but due to his stubbornness, she and her team were eventually forced to end the session.

A deal with the Templars

Sei: "The Animus isn't some VR game. All it does is recreate the memories of people who existed in the real world. So there's no point in doing anything that goes against the actual flow of history. It simply won't have any effect. If you keep causing errors like that..."

Noa: "Shut up! Don't tell me what to do!"

—Noa refusing to be told what to do by Shimazu Sei, c. 2023.

Noa was taken to another room where Abstergo doctors managed to stabilize his condition. Awakening some time later, he recalled Edward's memories and assumed he had been playing a VR game until Sei entered the room and informed him of the truth. After telling Noa about the Animus and Edward, including the latter's role as a member of the Assassin Brotherhood, Sei revealed what she sought: information on a Piece of Eden that Edward had found in Southeast Asia.

Noa making a deal with Sei

While Noa was processing all this information, Sei told him that Abstergo had made sure no one would search for him and that it was in his best interest to be cooperative. Enraged at being told what to do, Noa pulled Sei by her lab coat collar but was quickly subdued by Abstergo security. As he was being dragged away, Noa decided to offer Sei a deal.

Admitting that he was also interested in viewing Edward's memories due to the similarities between him and his father, Noa asked that he be given free rein to do what he wanted while in the Animus, as well as his freedom once he helped Sei acquire the information she sought. Though reluctant, Sei agreed to the terms, but reminded Noa of interfering with his ancestor's history. She pointed out that constant interference could make the subject experience the Bleeding Effect and may even have Noa forget his own memories. Choosing to ignore her advice, Noa returned to the Animus to continue reliving Edward's memories.

Conversations with Shimazu Sei

"I thought you said the Assassins are a gang of ruthless criminals. And now you tell me he didn't kill a single enemy when he broke in there. He sounds awfully nice for a criminal, doesn't he?"

―Noa teasing Sei over her comments about Edward and the Assassins, c. 2023.

Noa talking with Sei from inside the Animus

Noa continued to converse with Sei during his time in the Animus, mainly on the topic of the Assassins and their actions. While Sei viewed them as nothing more than self-righteous criminals that brought chaos wherever they went, Noa remained doubtful and wished to learn the truth by viewing Edward's memories. When a later memory required Noa to remain synchronized by staying undetected and avoiding casualties, he pointed out that this did not match Sei's description of the Assassins, teasing her and jokingly saying that Edward seemed "awfully nice for a criminal."

After completing a sequence of Edward's memories, Sei decided to deliver on her promise to teach Noa about the Assassins forebearers mentioned by Edward, and used the Animus to send him information about the most notorious of them, Ezio Auditore. Noa then became determined to discover everything he could about his ancestors through the Animus and, thus, learn more about his roots.

Upon the completion of the next set of Edward's memories, Noa found himself stuck in the Animus' loading screen, unable to progress. He asked Sei for help, to which the doctor proceeded to tease him over his previous stubbornness and refusal to be told what to do. She then brought up a journal that had belonged to a ceramic merchant in Macau who had encountered Edward, allowing Noa to use the information to synchronize with his ancestor's memories and progress to the next sequence. As he did so, he said that Sei could occasionally be helpful and addressed her by her first name, irritating the doctor.

A half-asleep Noa fighting off Abstergo guards

Later, Noa began showing signs of the Bleeding Effect, leading Sei to demand that he be removed from the Animus and taken to rest. As two guards grabbed him, Noa experienced a Bleeding Effect-induced hallucination and mistook the guards for ninja, attacking them. However, he fell asleep shortly afterwards and woke up back in his room, with Sei at his bedside.

After the doctor explained the Bleeding Effect to him, Noa was excited by the prospect of becoming as strong as his ancestor. However, an enraged Sei responded that she had seen people lose their minds due the Bleeding Effect and that she would not let that happen to Noa until she obtained the information she sought. Noa teased Sei for caring about him more than she let on, and deduced that her family was in trouble if she needed to rely so much on him. He then asked that he be taken to Macau, claiming to know where Edward had gone next, and Sei reluctantly accepted.

Trip to the A-Ma Cultural Village

Noa: "Like it or not, if you people hadn't sent me here... I might have never set foot outside Korea in my life. Not that someone high and mighty like you could ever understand. I'll bet you've never had to bust your ass at a part-time job to pay your tuition, have you?"

Sei: "I guess not..."

—Noa criticizing Sei's wealthy upbringing, c. 2023.

While waiting alone in his room, Noa was surprised by a Bleeding Effect-induced apparition of Edward, who attacked him. Noa briefly fought the apparition until it vanished, at which point Sei walked into the room. The doctor gave him a blindfold and a pair of headphones to put on, as he was not allowed to see the rest of the Abstergo facility.

Noa and Sei on their way to the A-Ma Cultural Village

After they left the facility, Noa began to complain that he would not get to enjoy his first vacation abroad and Sei allowed him to take his blindfold and headphones off. The doctor then questioned why Noa had never traveled overseas before, to which he explained how he had never been able to afford it; something he was sure Sei could not understand given her wealthy upbringing. However, he was surprised to learn that Sei had dedicated her entire life to serving the Templars and her family, meaning she had no time for vacations.

Once they arrived at the A-Ma Cultural Village in Macau, Noa told Sei that the information they sought was located inside the old Zhang residence. However, when Sei went to speak with the security guards, they denied her entrance, claiming that Abstergo's request to perform fieldwork in the area had been rejected. While an enraged Sei called on her guards to try and force their way in, Noa noticed that he had developed Edward's Eagle Vision, which directed him to an alternative way into the building.

Running away from the Abstergo guards, Noa circled the building and climbed a wall to lose his pursuers. He then used his Eagle Vision to find a secret entrance, which led to an office where Zhang had kept a book entrusted to him by Edward. Noa retrieved the book, but then heard the sound of gunshots outside and went to investigate.

Noa and Sei surrounded by the dead Abstergo thugs and the subdued thugs

Finding Sei and her Abstergo guards surrounded by armed thugs, Noa wanted to help, but was stopped by two men who claimed to have come to his rescue. Assuming the men to be Assassins, Noa refused to leave with them, stating he had unfinished business. In response, one of the men shot Noa with a tranquillizer, but he was unaffected. After a brief scuffle, Noa was eventually let go and rushed to Sei's aid, using all of Edward's skills he had developed as a result of the Bleeding Effect to dispatch the thugs.

Upon returning to Abstergo's facility, Noa pondered the impact the Bleeding Effect was having on his mind and whether, in time, he could succumb to it. At that moment, Sei arrived to retrieve him, as the book Noa had recovered contained information that could be used to continue tracking Edward's memories. Before Noa went into the Animus, Sei thanked him for saving her and warned him not to lose himself until their transaction was complete, to which Noa smiled and vowed to help the doctor obtain what she was after.

Later Animus sessions

After witnessing Edward's foundation of the Zhang Wei Union and hearing the organization's motto—"We do not abandon our family"—Noa became surprised as he recalled that one of his would-be rescuers had told him the same statement. Later, when he witnessed Edward recruit the Korean engineer Yun Pyeong-Gyu into his organization, Noa became excited as he realized that Yun was another one of his ancestors. Believing Noa wished to learn more about the man, Sei added an Animus database entry for Yun, containing details about his life.

Some time afterwards, Noa witnessed Edward recruit Shimazu Saito, a Japanese samurai and Sei's ancestor, into the Zhang Wei Union. When Saito revealed her perfect photographic memory, which helped the Union members in their quest for Angkor, Noa commented that he now understood where Sei had inherited her "Harvard-educated" brain from.

Shortly after completing this memory, Noa was removed from the Animus as the machine was unable to track Edward's memories any futher. As Sei told Noa that he needed to find a clue about his ancestor's later activities, Noa seemingly succumbed to the Bleeding Effect, believing himself to be Edward and mistaking Sei for Saito.

Ancestry

Noa's genetic heritage as shown by the WhyYou website

Noa Kim's genetic heritage reflects a diverse mix of East Asian and Southeast Asian origins, with a notable combination of Korean and Japanese ancestry, constituting 25% Korean and 24% Japanese heritage. Additionally, there is a West Asian influence, with 4% Syrian ancestry. The Western European component includes 16% British and 10% Italian heritage. Further contributing to the rich tapestry of Noa's ancestry is Native American lineage, specifically 19% Iroquois.

Among Noa's ancestors, the one of most interest to Abstergo was Edward Kenway, a Welsh-born British Assassin, privateer and pirate. Another notable ancestor of Noa was Yun Pyeong-Gyu, a Korean scholar and engineer and later member of Edward's Zhang Wei Union.

Personality and traits

The disappearance of his father very early on in his life had a profound effect on Noa, who, assuming his father had simply abandoned him and his mother, vowed to never become anything like him. As a result, he believed that family should always come first and that no amount of money could make up for a parent's absence. He also held extreme contempt for his father, blaming him for many of the problems he faced in his youth, such as the teasing and bullying he had to endure at school.

By the time he had become an adult, Noa had mostly left his past behind him, though he would still have an intense emotional reaction whenever something reminded him of his trauma. Even in situations that would be stressful for most people, Noa maintained his confidence and sense of humor as he would take every opportunity to tease Shimazu Sei following his abduction by Abstergo, much to the doctor's annoyance.

Noa also possessed a sharp intellect and critical thinking. He refused to believe Sei's comments about the Assassins being criminals, instead wishing to learn the truth by his own means, and realized early on that Abstergo could not achieve their goal without his consent, so he was able to easily strike a deal with Sei that benefited both of them. His stubbornness and many of his beliefs were likened by Sei to those of the Assassins, indicating that Noa already shared part of their ideology, even if unknowingly.

As a result of the Bleeding Effect, Noa began to assimilate several of Edward Kenway's personality traits, such as his confidence, but also his aggressiveness. After spending an extended period of time in the Animus, he also began to suffer from Bleeding Effect-induced hallucinations, which Sei believed could eventually make him lose his sanity.

Equipment and skills

Noa using Eagle Vision

After reliving Edward Kenway's memories, Noa gained his ancestor's fighting skills. He was able to easily overpower a group of trained Abstergo guards and was only stopped due to falling asleep as a result of exhaustion. Through these abilities, he was also able to subdue a guard from the Zhang Wei Union and defeat a number of thugs who were attacking Sei, though in the latter case he acted almost on instinct and had to restrain himself from killing the thugs.

Noa also became extremely proficient in freerunning, successfully scaling a wall at the A-Ma Cultural Village, which surprised him given his lack of parkour training. Like his ancestor, Noa also developed the extra-sensory ability dubbed Eagle Vision, which he used to trace Edward's past movements to a secret entrance into the former Zhang residence.

Gallery

• 
  Noa Kim
• 
  A young Noa finding his mother crying
• 
  Noa working in retail
• 
  Noa visiting landmarks in Macau
• 
  Noa in the Animus
• 
  Noa in the Animus' memory corridor
• 
  Noa being visited in his room by Sei
• 
  Noa refusing the Zhang Wei Union agents' help
• 
  Noa fighting the thugs threatening Sei
• 
  Noa in his room at the Abstergo facility

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple