Mistborn
by Brandon Sanderson
In a world where ash falls from red skies and an immortal tyrant rules with absolute power, a street thief named Vin discovers she is a Mistborn — able to burn ingested metals for superhuman abilities. Recruited into an underground crew planning to overthrow the Lord Ruler, she must master her powers and confront the question of what comes after you kill a god.
80 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.
Characters
- Allrianne Cett — A seemingly frivolous noblewoman who Riots emotions with the same ease she flirts — far sharper than anyone gives her credit for, hiding real intellig
- Ashweather Cett — A wheelchair-bound warlord with no patience for politics — a crass, pragmatic nobleman who says what everyone else is thinking and somehow becomes a r
- Breeze — A pompous Soother who hides genuine compassion behind layers of affectation — manipulating emotions so instinctively he sometimes forgets where the pe
- Clubs — A grumpy copper-burning Smoker whose perpetual pessimism hides the quiet pride of a man who shelters revolutionaries in his own shop.
- Demoux — A devout soldier whose faith in the Survivor sustains him through impossible battles — earnest, brave, and unshakably loyal to a religion built on a c
- Dockson — The crew's meticulous organizer who turns Kelsier's wild plans into operational reality — a non-Allomancer whose quiet resentment of the nobility runs
- Edwarn Ladrian — Wax's uncle and head of the Set — a calculating nobleman who sees family as leverage and conspiracy as the natural order of power.
- Elend Venture — A bookish nobleman who read philosophy while his empire burned — an idealist forced to become the decisive emperor he never wanted to be, transformed
- Felt — A worldhopper spy who appears across eras and worlds — quiet, forgettable, and aware of far more about the Cosmere than he lets on.
- Ham — A pewter-burning Thug who philosophizes about the morality of violence between punches — an easygoing warrior whose love of ethical debate masks a man
- Hoid — Ancient Cosmere worldhopper who collects magic systems and stories — appearing in Mistborn as a sardonic informant whose true agenda spans the entire
- Kelsier — The Survivor of Hathsin — a charismatic Mistborn revolutionary whose infectious smile masks a ruthless hatred of the nobility, and whose death sparked
- Kwaan — The Terris scholar who discovered the prophecy was altered — a man whose desperate warning went unheeded, preserved only as words etched in metal that
- Lessie — Wax's great love in the Roughs — a fearless woman who was actually the Kandra Paalm, making their genuine love the cruelest deception in the series.
- Marasi Colms — Cadmium Misting constable and Allomantic scholar — an illegitimate noblewoman who proves that understanding magic systems matters as much as wielding
- Marsh — Kelsier's humorless brother who infiltrated the Steel Inquisitors and lost himself to their spikes — a man fighting for control of his own body agains
- MeLaan — A modern Kandra who wears attractive forms and sharp humor — Wayne's unlikely love interest who provides centuries of perspective with zero tolerance
- Miles Dagouter — Gold-Compounding Twinborn turned criminal mastermind — a former lawman whose near-invulnerability and conviction that the system is broken made him th
- OreSeur — A Tenth Generation kandra bound by contract to serve those he quietly despises — murdered and replaced by TenSoon before Vin ever knew the real him.
- Paalm — Rogue Kandra who was also Lessie — a shapeshifter driven mad by Hemalurgy whose war against Harmony's control is fueled by a love for Wax that was alw
- Penrod — A cautious nobleman who represents political pragmatism taken to its limit — an opponent of Elend who becomes a puppet of Ruin, embodying how reasonab
- Preservation — The Shard of stasis and protection — a dying god who sacrificed its own mind to imprison Ruin, leaving behind the mists and Allomancy as final weapons
- Ranette — Era 2's finest gunsmith and Wax's armorer — a grumpy genius whose custom revolvers are lethal extensions of Allomantic combat theory.
- Ruin — The Shard of destruction given consciousness — a cosmic force of entropy that was once a kind man named Ati, now consumed by its intent to unmake ever
- Sazed — Terris Keeper who carries hundreds of religions in his copperminds yet cannot find faith for himself — a gentle scholar whose quiet doubt conceals the
- Shan Elariel — A beautiful, ruthless noblewoman Mistborn who hides lethal power behind ballroom elegance — Elend's former betrothed turned would-be assassin.
- Spook — A shy tin-burning Tineye who burned his metal so fiercely he nearly destroyed his own senses — a boy desperate to prove himself who became the Lord Mi
- Steris Harms — Non-Allomancer noblewoman who plans for everything — Wax's wife whose precise lists and social awkwardness conceal one of the most loving and reliable
- Straff Venture — Elend's ruthless father who sees people as pieces on a board — a calculating nobleman whose cruelty is not passion but policy, and whose armies threat
- Telsin Ladrian — Wax's sister and Set conspirator — a woman who chose power over family and plays the victim while engineering her brother's downfall.
- TenSoon — A Third Generation kandra torn between ancient contracts and personal honor — a shapeshifter who chose loyalty to a human over obedience to his own pe
- The Lord Ruler — A Terris packman who seized godhood and ruled for a thousand years — a tyrant who genuinely believed his oppression was necessary to save the world fr
- Tindwyl — A Terris Keeper whose fierce practicality and deep knowledge of history's kings forged Elend into the leader he needed to become — and whose love taug
- Vin — Skaa street urchin turned most powerful Mistborn in history — a girl who learned to trust love after a lifetime of paranoid survival, ultimately sacri
- Waxillium Ladrian — Twinborn lawman turned reluctant nobleman — a frontier Coinshot who stores weight in iron, trading Roughs justice for Elendel politics while hunting c
- Wayne — Twinborn disguise artist and speed-bubble maker — a fast-talking former criminal whose odd moral code and absolute loyalty to Wax mask guilt deep enou
- Yomen — The last Obligator king, devoutly loyal to the Lord Ruler even after his death — a surprisingly competent ruler whose faith proves more complex than s
- Zane — Straff's bastard Mistborn son who hears a voice telling him to kill — a tortured weapon of a man who sees in Vin the only person who might understand
Locations
- Bilming — An Era 2 coastal port city and site of major Set operations. Location of The Lost Metal's climactic events, where the Set attempts to use ettmetal as
- Central Dominance — The political heartland of the Final Empire containing Luthadel, the capital. The most densely populated and economically powerful region, home to the
- Clubs' Shop — A carpentry shop in Luthadel serving as the Crew's secret headquarters. Run by Clubs the Smoker, its underground rooms house Kelsier's rebellion again
- Conventical of Seran — A remote fortress serving as a Steel Inquisitor stronghold. Contains Kwaan's metallic inscription — the unaltered prophecy of the Hero of Ages that Ru
- Elendel — The sprawling capital of the Elendel Basin in Era 2, built on Luthadel's foundations. A modern industrial city with canals, skyscrapers, electric ligh
- Elendel University — The premier academic institution of Era 2 Scadrial. Center of Allomantic and Feruchemical research, legal studies, and scientific advancement. Where M
- Fadrex City — A western dominance city controlled by the obligator King Yomen after the Collapse. Contains one of the Lord Ruler's supply caches hidden beneath the
- Kandra Homeland — A vast underground cavern system beneath the Pits of Hathsin where the kandra live as a society. Home to the First Generation and the repository of ka
- Keep Venture — The Venture family estate in Luthadel. One of the eight great keeps, known for its grand ballroom and extensive library. Where Vin first enters noble
- Kredik Shaw — The Lord Ruler's palace in Luthadel, called the Hill of a Thousand Spires. A dark fortress of twisted metal spires rising impossibly from a central hi
- Lake Luthadel — A large lake at the center of Luthadel where the River Channerel pools. A geographic anchor of the capital city, its shores lined with noble estates a
- Luthadel — Capital of the Final Empire and seat of the Lord Ruler's power. A massive walled city of noble keeps and skaa slums, perpetually blanketed in ash from
- New Seran — A southern city in the Elendel Basin during Era 2. Site of key events in the search for the Bands of Mourning. Connected to Set operations and politic
- Northern Dominance — The colder, more remote northern region of the Final Empire. Contains the Terris homeland and the city of Urteau. Less populated and harder to control
- Pits of Hathsin — Brutal mining camp where prisoners harvested atium crystals from geodes for the Lord Ruler. Where Kelsier was imprisoned, gained his Mistborn powers t
- Scadrial — The planet where the Metallic Arts originate. Shaped and reshaped by Shards — first by Rashek's thousand-year reign, then remade entirely by Harmony a
- Tathingdwen — The Terris capital city and seat of the Synod, the ruling council of Terris elders. A place of scholarship and Feruchemical tradition, ultimately dest
- Terris — Northern mountain homeland of the Terris people, birthplace of Feruchemy. The Lord Ruler subjugated its people through breeding programs to suppress F
- The Ashmounts — Massive volcanic peaks created by the Lord Ruler to counteract his repositioning of Scadrial closer to the sun. Their constant ashfall defined life in
- The Mists — The omnipresent atmospheric phenomenon of Era 1 Scadrial — Preservation's body made manifest as fog that blankets the world every night. Can Snap late
- The Roughs — The lawless frontier region beyond the Elendel Basin in Era 2. A vast, sparsely populated territory resembling the American Old West, where lawmen lik
- The Steel Ministry — The Lord Ruler's religious and bureaucratic institution headquartered in Luthadel. Staffed by obligators who tracked bloodlines and maintained records
- Urteau — A northern city built around a canal system, ruled by the revolutionary Quellion after the Collapse. Where Spook grows from a timid youth into a leade
- Village of Weathering — A small frontier settlement in the Roughs where Waxillium Ladrian served as lawman for twenty years before being called back to Elendel. The place tha
- Well of Ascension — A pool of concentrated Preservation deep beneath Kredik Shaw. Every 1,024 years its power gathers and can be claimed by someone who gives it up — or u
Items
- Allomantic Vials — Small glass vials containing metal flake shavings suspended in alcohol. Allomancers drink these to replenish their internal metal reserves, each vial
- Aluminum — The Allomantic null metal. When burned, it destroys all metal reserves in an Allomancer's body. It blocks emotional Allomancy and cannot be Pushed, Pu
- Aluminum Rounds — Bullets made of aluminum that cannot be Pushed or Pulled by Allomancers. The Era 2 equivalent of glass daggers — anti-Allomancer ammunition that makes
- Atium — Ruin's god metal, condensed from his power into crystalline beads. When burned Allomantically, grants the ability to see a few seconds into the future
- Bands of Mourning — The Lord Ruler's legendary metalminds, storing enormous reserves of both Allomantic and Feruchemical power. Lost for centuries after the Catacendre, d
- Bendalloy — An Allomantic metal that creates a time-acceleration bubble around the burner. Wayne's signature metal — those inside the bubble experience time faste
- Duralumin — The Allomantic amplifier metal. When burned simultaneously with another metal, it instantly burns all remaining reserves of both metals for one massiv
- Ettmetal — Harmonium — the god metal of Harmony, combining Ruin and Preservation's power. Explodes violently on contact with water. In Era 2, harnessed as an ene
- Glass Daggers — Obsidian or glass knives carried by Mistborn and trained Allomancers. Non-metallic weapons that cannot be Pushed or Pulled by Coinshots and Lurchers,
- Hemalurgic Spikes — Metal spikes that steal Allomantic or Feruchemical abilities when driven through one person and into another. The dark art of Hemalurgy, used to creat
- Koloss Sword — Massive, crudely forged swords wielded by koloss. Far too large for normal humans to use effectively, these brutal weapons embody the raw, unrefined v
- Lerasium — Preservation's god metal. Anyone who burns a bead of lerasium becomes a full Mistborn, regardless of bloodline. Only a handful of beads have ever exis
- Metalminds — Feruchemical storage devices — metal objects in which Feruchemists store physical and mental attributes for later retrieval. The foundation of Feruche
- Mistcloak — The iconic garment of Mistborn — a cloak of many long, tattered fabric strips that flutter dramatically during Allomantic movement through the mists.
- Sterrion — Wax's secondary revolver, a reliable Sterrion-model sidearm. A standard lawman's weapon, well-maintained and dependable, serving as backup to the cust
- Vin's Earring — A bronze Hemalurgic spike disguised as an earring, given to Vin by her mother. It grants Vin enhanced bronze Allomancy but also gives Ruin a direct co
- Vindication — Waxillium Ladrian's primary revolver, custom-built by the gunsmith Ranette. A precision weapon with special features tailored to Wax's Allomantic comb
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