Nolan

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Nolan Artwork of Nolan in Radiant Dawn. A member of the Dawn Brigade. His experience living in the shadows makes him a shrewd and cautious warrior unlikely to make mistakes.

Gender Male Race Beorc Starting class Fighter Appearance(s) Radiant Dawn

Nolan (Japanese: ノイス Noyce) is the leader of the Dawn Brigade and the oldest member of the group.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Role

At an unspecified point in time before the events of the game, Nolan was a successful merchant, until he was betrayed by a business partner and financially ruined; he then spent several years aimlessly wandering in Daein, training his skills with an axe. He later met Leonardo and Edward during the Begnion occupation, and the three founded the Dawn Brigade. When the trio met and recruited Sothe and Micaiah to their cause, Nolan remained the leader of the Dawn Brigade, while Micaiah became the figurehead of the resistance.

In game, Nolan first appears at the beginning of Part I, and he helps find an escape route for the Dawn Brigade to escape Nevassa. He next aids in retrieving medicine for Laura's abbot, and when Micaiah is captured, he leads the operation to rescue her. He plays no major role in the story after that, but continues to fight with the Dawn brigade for the rest of Parts I and III. In Part IV, he can be allocated to any of the three armies.

Starting stats and growth rates

Fighter Level 9 Affinity Constitution 13

Recruitment: Part I, Chapter 1, automatically from the start Stats Growth Rates Max HP 29 Speed 10 Strength 12 Luck 7 Magic 0 Defense 9 Skill 11 Resistance 3 Movement 6 Weight 13 Max HP 60% Speed 60% Strength 45% Luck 60% Magic 20% Defense 35% Skill 70% Resistance 40% {{{content3}}} {{{content4}}} {{{content5}}} {{{content6}}} {{{content7}}} {{{content8}}} {{{content9}}} {{{content10}}} {{{content11}}} {{{content12}}} {{{content13}}} {{{content14}}} {{{content15}}} Inventory Skills Steel Axe Vulnerary Nihil Shove Weapon Levels -- -- C -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Biorhythm Best Good Normal Bad Worst

Promotion stat gains

Class	HP	Str	Mag	Skill	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Con	Mov	Skills	Weapon level
Warrior	+2	+1	+2	+1	+1	+0	+1	+2	+1	+1	--	(x to D) (+Crossbows)
Reaver	+4	+2	+4	+2	+2	+0	+2	+4	+0	+0	Critical +5 Colossus	(x to A)

Availability

Part I												Part II					Part III															Part IV
P	1	2	3	4	5	6		7	8	9	E	P	1	2	3	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	E	P	1	2	3	4	5	Endgame
						1	2																															1	2	3	4	5
	R	R	R	A	A	A	A	A	A		A												A	E					A	A	E	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S	S
Legend R: Required for deployment A: Available for deployment E: Appears as an enemy unit N: Appears as an NPC unit P: Appears as an partner unit S: Available if selected into the relevant army F: Joins after preparations U: Cannot be deployed, but inventory can be managed

See Availability chart/Radiant Dawn for more details on availability.

Analysis

This character analysis section may not be accurate to every player's experience.

Nolan is a fighter who joins Micaiah's army in 1-1 with a notable level advantage on your other three units. His base stats are balanced and acceptable for his level, with particularly impressive HP. This makes Nolan essential for tanking hits in the early maps. His Steel Axe will initially weigh him down and may cause some accuracy issues, although these will be offset by his stellar growth rates in skill, speed, and luck. He will typically reach doubling thresholds without issue outside of Hard Mode. While his strength growth is only average, he can still wield a Hand Axe without penalty at base, and benefits from a forged Iron Axe once it is available.

With good growths and access to powerful and cheap Axes, Nolan has very high long-term potential. However, he competes directly with Jill for investment, who shares many similarities with Nolan in terms of base stats, growths, and weapon type, but has the incomparable advantage of flight. Training Nolan alongside Jill is a viable option, especially on Easy or Normal Mode, but as she is the superior recipient of investment, Nolan will be Jill's sidekick, not her equal. If the player chooses not to invest in Nolan, promoting him early is recommended to make him a more solid filler unit. Nolan is a great unit in theory, but unless Jill is deliberately neglected, he can't achieve his full potential, and has to settle for merely being good.

When Nolan returns in Part III, he should already be promoted to Warrior. He will receive a personal weapon, Tarvos. With 18 might, 100 Hit and a +4 defense bonus, it will help patch up any issues caused by his strength and especially defense growths. Unless he has received little to no investment, he can still put in some work in Part III as a result. If invested in, an alternate choice is to use his new Crossbow access in combination with Beastfoe to one-shot Laguz easily at the cost of some durability. Nolan will also be able to make proper use of bonus experience once he has capped his skill and resistance. As a unit receives 3 guaranteed stat increases from bonus experience levels, Nolan can drastically improve his weaker stats. However, his inferiority to Jill means that, especially on Hard Mode, investing in him can be hard to justify. It is simply more practical to centralise the more limited resources onto their best recipient, Jill, at Nolan's expense.

In Part IV, Nolan should typically avoid Micaiah's army, as he is ill-suited to the desert. He performs better in both Ike and Elincia's armies, notably being able to defeat Feral Ones in 4-5 easily with the Crossbow Beastfoe tactic. It is up to the player where to use him. If he has been trained, Nolan fills out his excellent Reaver caps extremely well, giving him plenty of levels to boost his strength and defense, even without bonus experience due to the lack of empty levels in Radiant Dawn. A trained Nolan, even alongside Jill on a lower difficulty, typically makes one of the strongest arguments for endgame selection out of any unit due to the lessened importance of movement and his exceptional stats, although there is no shortage of quality combat units by this point.

Nolan's innate skill is Nihil, which is seldom useful until endgame, where it allows Nolan to nullify the Mastery Skills of the last bosses as well as the damage reflection of Ashera's Aurora. However, this should not factor into a decision to invest in Nolan, as Caineghis and Tibarn have the spare capacity and stats to use it about as well. In Part I, Leonardo's Cancel can slightly improve his overall bulk. He makes solid use of Resolve due to his decent durability and already high speed, as well as Adept and Wrath, particularly in the event he is having issues with his damage output. Paragon is primarily coveted by Jill in Part III, but it also benefits Nolan to a slightly lesser extent. His Mastery Skill, Collossus, takes up only 25 capacity, granting him an extremely versatile range of skill combinations.

Nolan has the excellent Earth affinity, granting a large boost to Avoid. Nolan benefits most from a Support with one of his fellow Earth units, Zihark or Volug. Zihark is the slightly better option due to having similar movement to Nolan compared to Volug. At A Support, Nolan will gain +45 Avoid, which combined with his Speed and Luck will make him extremely difficult to hit, although prior to capping those stats as a Warrior he may still be at some risk from Laguz. If the player chooses to also invest in Edward, pairing them may be a viable option, as Nolan benefits from the defense given by Edward's Light Affinity and Edward greatly benefits from the increased Avoid.

Personality

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Nolan is an experienced man and a leader who has seen life’s trials, but has a gentle demeanor and does not act superior to the others.

Supports

Bond supports

Nolan Fighter Default bonds: None. [[{{{supportd1}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonusd1}}} [[{{{supportd2}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonusd2}}} [[{{{supportd3}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonusd3}}} [[{{{supportd4}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonusd4}}} Extra bonds:* None. [[{{{supporte1}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonuse1}}} [[{{{supporte2}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonuse2}}} [[{{{supporte3}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonuse3}}} [[{{{supporte4}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonuse4}}} [[{{{supporte5}}}]] Bishop Bonus: {{{bonuse5}}}

See Support § Radiant Dawn for more details on supports.

Endings

Nolan, Wise Champion
Nolan wandered across the kingdoms, saving those in adversity. Stories of his altruism eventually became legends.

Quotes

Battle quotes

“	Nolan: No one escapes from their past, Numida. We all have to answer for our crimes one day. Today is that day for you. Numida: Silence, cur!	”	— Nolan, when fighting Numida in Part IV, Chapter 3 of Radiant Dawn.

Death quotes

“	We’ve done what’s right. We must continue to believe. Soldier on...	”	— Nolan, in Radiant Dawn.

“	Blast! They’re better than I expected! I’m sorry, Micaiah. I need to turn back for a while.	”	— Nolan's retreat quote in Part III, Chapter 7 of Radiant Dawn.

“	They’ve got superior numbers on their side. Sorry, Micaiah... I’m retreating for now.	”	— Nolan's retreat quote in Part III, Endgame of Radiant Dawn.

Other appearances

Fire Emblem Cipher

Nolan is featured on one card in Fire Emblem Cipher.

Fire Emblem Cipher data for Nolan
	Wise Champion, Nolan
		"Even when smeared in mud, if you continue to live you can rise up."
		Attack: 30	Support: 10	Range: 1	Deploy Cost: 1
		Class: Fighter		Tier: Base	Class Change Cost: --
		Warrior's Knowledge: [Always] During your turn, this unit gets +20 attack. Attack Emblem: [Support] Until the end of this battle, your attacking unit gains +20 attack.
	Card #B05-061N • Artist: Senri Kita
Some card information translation provided by Serenes Forest. For more detailed strategic information on these cards, see their TCG wiki article on Nolan .

Flavor text

Game	Text (English)	Text (Japanese)
Radiant Dawn	A member of the Dawn Brigade. His experience living in the shadows makes him a shrewd and cautious warrior unlikely to make mistakes.	【暁の団】の戦士。 影の暮らしをしている割に 博識で振る舞いにそつがない。

Choose Your Legends placement history

Round	Placement	Character	Votes

CYL 1 (2017)

439

Nolan Radiant Dawn

297

CYL 2 (2018)

475 (+36)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

274 (−23)

CYL 3 (2019)

509 (+65)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

196 (−78)

CYL 4 (2020)

486 (−40)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

207 (+11)

CYL 5 (2021)

374 (−112)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

211 (+4)

CYL 6 (2022)

361 (−15)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

228 (+17)

CYL 7 (2023)

294 (−67)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

203 (−25)

CYL 8 (2024)

312 (+18)

Nolan Radiant Dawn

190 (−13)

Total results		This character has 8 entries across all Choose Your Legends polls.	1,806

Trivia

• According to Tellius Recollection, Nolan was designed with an apparent age of 34.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology, and notes
English	Nolan	A name of Gaelic origin meaning "noble" and "famous'".
Japanese	ノイス	Officially romanized as Noyce.
Spanish	Nolan	As above.
French	Nolan	As above.
German	Nolan	As above.
Italian	Nolan	As above.
Portuguese	Nolan	Mentioned in Heroes.
Traditional Chinese	諾伊斯	Noyce; mentioned in Heroes.

Gallery

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  Artwork of Nolan from Radiant Dawn.

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  Portrait of Nolan in Radiant Dawn.

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  Nolan as a Fighter in Radiant Dawn.

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  Nolan as a Warrior in Radiant Dawn.

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  Nolan as a Reaver in Radiant Dawn.

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  Artwork of Nolan from Cipher.

References

This article is part of Project Characters, a project focused on writing articles for every character present in the Fire Emblem series.