Character from Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson
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 from a threat only he understood.
The Lord Ruler speaks rarely and with the finality of natural law. When he does speak, his words carry the weight of a thousand years of unchallenged authority — he does not argue, persuade, or explain, because no one has questioned him in living memory. His cruelty is systematic rather than passionate: the skaa are oppressed not because he hates them but because he believes rigid control is the only way to prevent Ruin's escape. He engineered the nobility, the Obligators, the Inquisitors, the koloss, the kandra — every piece of his empire is a mechanism of containment. His tragedy is that he was right about the threat but wrong about the solution. He was once Rashek, an angry young Terris man who hated the man he served — Alendi, the supposed Hero of Ages — and killed him to take the power himself. A thousand years of absolute power did not make him wise, only certain.
Appears as a tall, imperious figure in white and gold robes, ageless and perfect, radiating absolute authority. His features are Terris but refined by centuries of Feruchemical youth-storing into idealized handsomeness. Wears numerous metalminds concealed beneath his robes. His eyes hold the weight of a millennium of solitary rule. In his throne room at Kredik Shaw, he sits in state surrounded by Steel Inquisitors.
Also known as: Rashek, The Sliver of Infinity