Noé Archiviste has the super rare ability to see the memories of people whose blood he consumes. This makes him an Archiviste but what is an Archiviste? Why does Noé specifically have this power? And what does it mean for our beloved ball of sunshine?

Our entire saga kicks off with Noé being sent to Paris to procure the Book of Vanitas on behalf of his mysterious mentor. This is the same mentor, Teacher, from a noble Vampire family that took in the orphaned, human-raised Noé for undisclosed reasons. So that begs the question of who is this individual? Why the mystery around his identity and what are his plans for Noé and the Book?

Vanitas came out of nowhere, wielding an ancient power of unmeasured danger to Vampires (and by extension, humans too). He’s told Noé that he would kill him if Noé partook in his blood because he doesn’t want anyone seeing his memories. He’s an ex-Chasseur, which none of us saw coming, given his mission to save Vampires rather than exterminate them and his general misanthropic demeanour. So it’s no wonder that we’re burning with curiosity to see what skeletons lie in Vanitas’ closet.

According to the lore of the anime, the original Vanitas, the Vampire of the Blue Moon, created the grimoire, aka, the Book of Vanitas to destroy Vampires out of vengeance for their persecution (by Crimson-eyed Vampires) due to the nature of their birth. The Book of Vanitas is incredibly valuable to literally any person due to the sheer amount of power it possesses over Vampires. That begs the question of how a human ex-Chasseur came into possession of said tome that’s been sought after for centuries, who then randomly showed up in Paris with the book itself, and full ability to wield its power.

While Vanitas and Noé may have met because of Noé’s mission and Vanitas’ one-man quest to save all Vampires from Curses, they both take issue with Charlatan. Charlatan is an eerie organisation, made up of eerie individuals for undisclosed but probably eerie motivations. They’ve been attacking innocent members of the Vampire community by introducing maladies to their true names and turning them into bloodthirsty, crazed, out-of-control curse-bearers. Yikes.

The entire purpose of Chasseurs is extermination of the Vampire race. Humans of the Church took up arms to fight against the proven physically-superior Vampires, and to be honest, who can blame them since humans are the main food source for Vampires. Roland Fortis is an enthusiastic, zealous, and more-than-accomplished Captain in the Chasseurs. However, he is also surprisingly open-minded and fair, and when he and Noé totally hit it off with their bromance, he actively keeps himself open to the notion of non-evil Vampires. Possibly at the cost of his role in the Chasseurs as suggested by his buddy and fellow Chasseur, Olivier.

Come on, it’s the will they/won't they romance of the season and we’re deeply invested. We need answers!

When we first meet Luca’s uncle, Lord August Ruthven of the Vampire Senate, he was quite a welcome addition since he saved Vanitas and Noé from Veronica de Sade’s misplaced fury. He takes both men under his wing and provides them with shelter and protection in Altus Paris. Until Vanitas in typical Vanitas fashion pisses him off.

Still, Ruthven seemed to be a stand-up guy but now we’re wondering if we were right about that, given that A) Teacher despises him and B) He did drink Noé blood and place a command in his mind which binds him to obey Ruthven without question for a single instance when called upon.

While enjoying Lord Ruthven’s hospitality, as we mentioned previously, Vanitas in his own classic, antagonistic brand of annoying brought up Queen Faustina, the First Vampire of the Crimson Moon. And when Ruthven clearly displays his displeasure (a chokehold does that, you know) at his repeated needling regarding her mysterious seclusion from the public eye and whether she truly even is alive, he and Noé are promptly ejected from Altus, albeit after confirming Vanitas’ suspicions. So that got our attention too, raising questions like what’s the deal with the Vampire Queen? Why all the secrecy about her situation? And how did she wind up in such a hopeless state?

We think we can make an educated guess with this one: it’s probably a No.