Maximilian Norcross

Maximilian Norcross, also known as The Collector, is an antagonist in Dishonored: The Return of Daud.

Biography

Norcross is a middle-aged man with a thin face, razor-sharp cheekbones, and dark wavy hair. He is often seen wearing a dark blue cloak, a monocle, puffing on a clay pipe, and walking with a silver-topped cane-sword which he wields with considerable skills. Norcross is not exactly famous but well-known to certain people for being the owner of one of the largest private museums in the Empire. He collects art, treasures, and other items for his enjoyment and also trading them to further enhance his wealth. He also appears to know a great deal about heretical artifacts, the legend of the Outsider, his origin, and his Mark. An Overseer's report claims that Maximilian Norcross is likely not his real name, and his origin as well as the the source of his wealth is unknown.

Norcross has a habit of posing as his own agent, meeting and vetting potential clients in the Empire's End pub in Porterfell. Those who wish to do business with him would need to find where he often sits, which is in front of a portrait of Finlay Morgengaard I, and exchange certain code words with him. He would then decide whether to accept the proposition and take the client to his estate or not.

Norcross' estate, which actually is the Morgengaard Castle, the former ancestral home of the Morgengaard dynasty, is where he houses the entire collection. He considers himself as a "curator of history" and collects a great variety of items from throughout the Isles. Objects in the collection include arms and armors from various eras, art, gems, minerals, and skeletons of a whole pod of whales. Most notable of all, however, is a selection of arcane artifacts which include hundreds of runes, bone charms, a fragment of the Black Mirror, and the Twin-bladed Knife itself. To protect the castle and the collection, Norcross employs a group of guards who wear dark blue long coats with high square collars, dark blue pants, and black boots. They are armed with powerful-looking pistols, which have strangely short barrels and stocks made out of weight-saving hollow metal frames.

The Return of Daud

It is revealed that Norcross' darkest secret is a collection of human bodies, perfectly preserved using a process of his own devising. There are nearly a hundred "specimens", from the lowliest thief to aristocrats and even children. Many of them are clothed and posed, frozen in various scenes. Daud met with Norcross in order to acquired the Twin-bladed Knife, but Norcross instead captured him, wishing the add the Knife of Dunwall himself to the collection. In the end, Daud managed to escape, killed Norcross and burned the entire castle to the ground.

Trivia

• When Daud met Norcross, the code words were about Finlay Morgengaard I. Norcross began by saying "Morgengaard the Elder. A fine ruler, by all accounts.", and Daud replied "The just and noble lord who came to an early end." Upon which, both men said "Sad to say."
• The monocle worn by Norcross is actually an artifact made of Pandyssian crystal. It allows him to detect real runes, bone charms, as well as Mark of the Outsider.
• Norcross' interrogator was a Dunwall city watchman.
• After the destruction of Morgengaard Castle, the remaining runes and bone charms were acquired by King Briam of Morley and Anton Sokolov.