Joel Saxon

Joel Saxon is the focal character in The Rithmatist. He is the son of a chalkmaker and a cleaning lady, and the only poor student of Armedius Academy. He shows no Rithmatic ability in the book, but has an uncanny head for Rithmatic defense construction and theory, able to draw even nine-point circles perfectly without a cheat sheet. He has little artistic ability for chalklings, however. He is a man of science and is frustrated when something cant be reduced to a formula. for example,when Melody is talking about chalklings, he gets frustrated because he doesn't understand it.