History Literature / MistbornTheOriginalTrilogy

* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: Surprisingly, the mist sickness in ''The Hero of Ages''. It was an effort on [[spoiler:Preservation's part to get every potential mistborn and misting to Snap and awaken their allomantic abilities]] to give humanity an edge once Ruin escaped his cage.

* RedShirtArmy: [[spoiler:Elend and his army of Seers were never meant to beat the Koloss, they were only meant to use up all the atium.]]

* TogetherInDeath [[spoiler:Elend and Vin.]]
* WeWinBecauseYouDidnt: [[spoiler:As Elend tells Marsh, it doesn't matter that Ruin had defeated Elend and his army. By burning away all the atium he already guaranteed that Ruin will never be whole.]]

** Elend's men, who hold back the koloss [[spoiler: by fighting with a limited supply of atium, knowing that when it's gone, they will die, but it being gone gives everyone else a chance to survive.]]
** [[spoiler:After seeing the future with a duralumium-atium combo, Elend allows himself to die because he knows that it's the only way to save Scadrial.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Ruin gets several in this book [[spoiler: but his biggest were killing Elend (which allowed Vin to commit a HeroicSacrifice, since she no longer had a reason NOT to), and creating mankind, which could both preserve and destroy, or destroy TO preserve, which is part of what allowed Vin to kill him]].

* HowDoIShotWeb:

** Averted, however, with [[spoiler:Sazed. As he takes in both Ruin and Preservation's power, he dumps the entirety of his copperminds into his expanding mind, giving him enough information to fix everything ''without'' creating unintended side-effects. The religions he'd spent his live memorizing and preaching, which he had recently dismissed as all false, all contain different "blueprints" which allow him to restore everything to the way it was before the Lord Ruler mucked it up.]]

* GodIsEvil Ruin, though he's less ''the'' God than ''a'' god.

** In Fadrex, Elend and Vin want to access the final cache and uncover the secrets within, as well as accessing the supplies so they can be distributed, while Yomen wants to drive off a heretical invader who by any measure can't be trusted. [[spoiler: Elend and Vin are actually the main ones being manipulated by Ruin here, while Yomen himself proves surprisingly uncorruptible (although Ruin is eventually able to manipulate him with steel inquisitors]. Once they both realize that despite their differences they both want the same things and are fighting an enemy much worse than each other, they put aside their fighting and join together in the city to stand against the koloss]].

* InevitableMutualBetrayal: Any alliance between the lower-class criminal gangs eventually ends in betrayal. The question is only who can profit more by turning on their onetime associates at the opportune moment. The alliance that Vin's crew forms near the beginning of the story is expected to end in betrayal, but Vin's crew decided to bail out way earlier than expected, accepting only the 3000 boxing down-payment offered by the obligators and then trying to vanish and let the other crew take the fall.

* SoupOfPoverty: The scene when Vin is introduced Soothing by Breeze is set in a "soup kitchen", where skaa, especially the poorest ones, eat cheap and really bad soup.

* VillainBeatingArtifact: [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] by the Eleventh Metal. Kelsier spreads rumors that it will defeat the Lord Ruler, but when Vin tries it, all it does is show her images of who people were in the past. [[spoiler: And then she realizes the Lord Ruler isn't who everyone thought he was, and uses that information to identify and remove his ImmortalityInducer.]] NoImmortalInertia [[HilarityEnsues Ensues]].

* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler: Vin defeats Straff, figures out the secret to controlling a koloss, ropes Cett, Straff's one remaining general Jenarle, ''and'' Penrod into backing up Luthadel, saves the city, puts Elend back in a position of power and becomes arguably the strongest Mistborn in the setting thus far. While its not without heavy sacrifice (a good portion of the cities' population, as well as Dockson, Clubs and Tindwyl), the day is looking up at least somewhat. Then Vin is called to the Well of Ascension and ends up setting Ruin free, Sazed realizes the full extent of Ruin's manipulations and forsakes all religion, and Marsh returns... [[FaceHeelTurn having turned on his friends.]]]]

** [[spoiler:[=TenSoon=]]] defects to Vin's side after [[spoiler:she showed him kindness despite the hatred he received from all other humans he had met.]]

* SealedEvilInACan: [[spoiler:The Well of Ascension was keeping the God of Evil locked up.]]

** One of the first things Vin learns about the Allomatic metals is that the first eight are paired, with one paired metal being an alloy of the other and the metals affecting the same thing in opposite ways. [[spoiler:Toward the end, after burning the Eleventh Metal, Vin realizes that Atium and gold, seemingly the odd ones out, are paired too; gold is paired with the Eleventh Metal, while Atium must be paired with some undiscovered twelfth metal.]]
** The Lord Ruler doesn't run everything in his empire himself, leaving most of the day-to-day minutinae of commerce and the economy to the noble houses. It turns out this also applies to [[spoiler:the Pits of Hathsin, whose running is overseen by House Venture.]]

** Though Kelsier never converts to any of Sazeed's numerous religions, he does show interest in them, particularly the ones that endured for centuries even after the Lord Ruler rose to power and began trying to quash them. [[spoiler:Part of his BatmanGambit to start a real skaa revolt involves essentially starting a new religion by setting himself up as a Messiah-like figure for the skaa and then allowing the Lord Ruler to martyr him, giving the skaa something to believe in that isn't the Lord Ruler.]]

* AchievementsInIgnorance: Seems to be where a lot of Vin's Allomantic power comes from. Even though the rules were laid out for her by Kelsier, she has no problem trying to break them just to see if the rules aren't as steadfast as he thinks. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Notably, [[spoiler: she tries combining Allomancy and Feruchemy by burning a metal Sazed had stored some strength in, to see if she could tap into it. While it doesn't work, Sazed compliments her on a well-thought out experiment.]]

* AngstDissonance: In-universe example: Vin's reactions to reading the Lord Ruler's logbook that she found in Kredik Shaw. She decides that he sounds far too whiny for a man who conquered the world and became a PhysicalGod. Turns out [[spoiler:she's right. The diary belongs to someone else.]]

** Vin learns about the Mistborn assassination plot minutes before it goes off, giving her just enough time for an ActionDressRip and NotQuiteFlight to the rescue.

* ThouShaltNotKill: The Kandra's own law forbids them from killing humans. Those who break it are confined for life. Importantly [[spoiler:it does not extend to a kandra killing another kandra, which makes for an important [[TheReveal reveal]] late in the second book. Whether this particular point needs to be expressly stated in their laws, and what legal precedents it might set, are discussed early in the third book.]]

-->'''Allrianne:''' I know. That makes us practically sisters! *Vin facepalms*

** Tindwyl also says "I think" sometimes. Either this is a common trait of Tarris people, or she picked it up from Sazed when she was his student.
* VitriolicBestBuds: The refined Soother Breeze and the easygoing Thug Ham are always sniping at each other, but place great value on their friendship. They also have the PunnyName "[[HamAndCheese Ham and Breeze]]."
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Kandra, which can turn themselves into anything with a few restrictions -- they can't produce a rigid skeleton of their own, and they can't reproduce an individual's features exactly without [[{{Squick}} digesting them first to see how all the pieces go together]].

** Once again, the Lord Ruler; justified: [[spoiler:Ruin's thousand years of psychological torment wore on the Lord Ruler pretty badly.]]

* PostAdventureAdventure: The backstory was started by the Hero of Ages destroying an evil entity called The Deepness (at great cost to the world). Unfortunately, his StandardHeroReward got to his head and he became a tyrant, setting the scene for the story of the rebels looking to overthrow him.

* ProphecyTwist: The Terris prophecy of the Hero of Ages uses a gender neutral pronoun to refer to the Hero, which Sazed takes to mean the Hero could be male ''or'' female, allowing for Vin to be the one. [[spoiler:It actually refers to Sazed himself, who as a eunuch since infancy is technically "gender neutral" himself.]]

* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: The Koloss can be seen as a parody of this. The entire race has only two modes- apathetic (when they just lie around in apparent boredom) and homicidal (when they try and kill anything within reach, including other Koloss if they can't get anything else). The only reason the Lord Ruler was able to use them as shock troops was [[spoiler: because he knew an allomantic trick that let him control their minds]]. Notably, one koloss will suddenly violently attack another, and the two fight to the death. If the attacker wins, he only has to provide ''some'' kind of justification ([[DisproportionateRetribution even something as flimsy as "he looked at me funny"]]) and none of the other koloss will care.

* RequiredSecondaryPowers: Played straight and discussed with allomancy, as Kelsier explains to Vin that allomancers can swallow metals to fuel their powers without any fear of metal poisoning. However, he clarifies that that only applies to specific pure elements and alloys; if, for example, a Mistborn eats pewter that's not alloyed to the allomancy-grade ratio of 91% tin and 9% lead, the outcome always ends quite nastily. Also applies to allomantic powers themselves, for instance, burning pewter not only increases strength and reflexes, but also makes the body more durable in order to handle the increased strength without tearing itself apart. Burning atium not only allows the allomancer to see the immediate future, but also lets them process and react to that information almost instinctively.

** [[spoiler: The entire third magic system, Hemallurgy, is hinted at several times before it becomes relevant to the plot of ''The Hero of Ages''. Examples include the brief aside we get from the perspective of a Steel Inquisitor at the end of the first book as well as Zane's mysterious spike embedded in his chest. The fact that khandra and koloss can also be directly controlled via Soothing and Rioting also implies that they are made with similar methods- an observation that comes true later.]]

** During ''Well of Ascension'', Vin gets into a contractual relationship with a khandra named [=OreSeur=]. [[spoiler: After [=OreSeur=] is canonically killed and replaced by [=TenSoon=], one may notice several key differences between the two. [=OreSeur=] is much more overtly mean and cynical, while [=TenSoon=] is more somber. While [=OreSeur=] keeps Vin at arms length, [=TenSoon=] seems to sympathize with her. The biggest hint you get that O[=OreSeur=] has been replaced is that Vin brings up some small details to him about events he was there for, and he expresses confusion about them. Vin chalks it up to a number of different factors, but in hindsight, it shows that [=TenSoon=]'s impersonation is not nearly as foolproof as he proclaims it to be.]]
** It becomes increasingly obvious in hindsight that [[spoiler: Sazed is the real Hero of Ages all along, as numerous elements of the prophecy speak about him instead of Vin. Sazed was rejected by his people but ends up saving them, is not a warrior but fights to protect his allies, was not born a king but became one through action, and bears the future of the world on his arms ''literally'' as feruchemical bands.]]

* ScryVsScry: Atium vs. Atium. Notably in [[spoiler: Vin's duel to the death with Zane]]. Atium normally gives you the ability to see a couple seconds into the future, causing you to see ghostly images of something happening shortly before it happens for real; when two Mistborn burning atium engage, though, the ability gets scrambled. In the third book it's revealed that [[spoiler:electrum has a similar effect, allowing you to see your own future, where atium shows everything else. It's less useful because it auto-scrambles, but it can counter atium and is much easier to aquire.]]

* SoulFragment: [[spoiler:The hemalurgic spikes which empower the inquisitors, koloss, and kandra (and possibly the Lord Ruler) are created from a piece of metal used to kill someone. They retain some kind of strength or ability from the victim, as well as a part of their soul.]]

* SupernaturalSensitivity: A Misting who can burn bronze (known as a "Seeker") can detect Allomancy, but a Misting burning copper (a "Smoker") can hide it. [[spoiler:Copper clouds aren't a perfect form of defense, though, because under certain rare circumstances, a Seeker can punch through them and find you anyway.]]
* SuperReflexes: Available by burning atium, in the form of getting to see what your opponent is going to do seconds before he does it and being able to react accordingly. To a lesser extent, burning pewter increases ''all'' of your physical abilities, including speed, reflexes, agility, and balance.
* SuperSenses[=/=]TheNoseKnows: Tin grants this.
** It also allows one to see through the pervasive mists to the stars above.

* TheMagocracy: Kinda-sorta. The ruling class can inherit Allomancy, while the commoners shouldn't be able to. But not all of the nobles have such powers, nor are all of the commoners without, (due to nobles not killing their commoner lovers/prostitutes like they're supposed to.)

* MetaPower: The four enhancement metals: Aluminum (erases all the burner's metal reserves), Duralumin (when burned simultaneously with another metal, consumes the entirety of the other metal for a massively amplified effect), Chromnium (as Aluminum, but affects someone you were touching rather than yourself), and Nicrosil (as Duralumin, but affects someone you were touching rather than yourself). There is also Lerasium, which if burned by a non-Allomancer permanently makes them Mistborn.

* NobleTongue: The Latin-like High Imperial

* NotSoDifferentRemark: Zane's pitch to Vin [[spoiler:much more right than he knows, down to Ruin poking them.]] Lampshaded in ''The Hero of Ages'' with Emperor Elend Venture, ''second'' Emperor of the Final Empire, whose [[spoiler:newfound undiluted Allomancy]], extreme pressure and desire to protect his subjects and save the world leads him to change from a wannabe democrat to someone mistaken for The Lord Ruler in a matter of two years. His response? "Close enough." [[spoiler:The Lord Ruler after all having been a well-meaning human at the start as well, and gone to ''extreme'' lengths to prepare for the same apocalypse Elend is confronting.]]

** [[spoiler:And it's not just Allomancy, either. Those 16 metals have uses in all three systems (we just don't know all of them). Also, exactly 16 percent of people exposed to the Mists during book 3 fall ill, and they "snap" and become Mistings. 16 percent of ''those'' fell ill far longer than others, and they become ''Atium'' Mistings. It's explained that the number 16 was used as Preservation's way of showing that he was giving them a hand after he died, basically a big sign saying "this number is not natural, pay attention when it comes up!"]]
* OffingTheOffspring: It's revealed towards the end of the first book that [[spoiler:Straff Venture is conspiring with House Elariel to have Elend assasinated, though Vin finds out and foils the attempt in the nick of time. In the second book Straff also attempts to kill his bastard son Zane, deeming him too dangerous and out of control]].

** "Lord Ruler!" -- Most people (Including several of Kelsier's crew. The implications of swearing by the name of a man you intend to overthrow are bought up a couple times in the first book.)

* OneGenderRace: The Koloss are all male. [[spoiler:Because they're an artificially created race and don't reproduce naturally, this is not an issue for them]].
* OneManArmy: Invoked by Ham in the second book: "A Mistborn... well, they're like an army in one person." Also invoked by Elend in the third book: "(talking to a local beseiged by koloss, pointing to Vin dropping from the sky) The first of those armies I promised you."

* PlanetaryRelocation: When using the power at the Well of Ascension, [[spoiler:the Lord Ruler attempted to destroy the Deepness by moving Scadrial closer to its sun and burning away the mists. This unfortunately caused the planet to overheat, so - since he had no reference for where the planet should be - he moved it into a wider orbit which made it too cold, and then back into the too-close orbit where he settled with creating the ashmounts and other adaptations to the heat to maintain life on the planet.]] At the end of the trilogy, [[spoiler:Sazed takes up the Shards of Ruin and Preservation, using the knowledge from his metalminds he is able to revert the changes Rashek made and return to planet to its correct orbit.]]

** Also emotional allomancy: while soothing or rioting the emotions of people can be very useful outside of combat, Brass and Zinc are mostly useless in a fight... [[spoiler: unless you use them to take control of koloss]]

* HighlyVisibleNinja: The Mistborn cloaks clearly identify them as such, however, considering how powerful Mistborn are, this acts as a signal to most people to stay the hell out of the way.

* InformedAbility: Every time hazekillers are introduced, the author reminds us that they are "trained to fight allomancers". The reason behind the repetition is probably that, given that hazekillers routinely get their assess handed over to them when they fight one of the main characters, the reader might need to be reminded that they are actually supposed to be better than that.

* LamarckWasRight: Allomancy is heritable, though the original Mistborn became that way through AppliedPhlebotinum.
** Debatable if this trope applies since [[AppliedPhlebotinum Lerasium]] changes your SPIRITUAL genetics rather than your phyical genetics..
* LiquidAssets: Around half of Feruchemy is this. Store or tap weight, physical strength (causing your muscles to deflate or bulge), health, age...

** The allomantic external pushing and pulling powers are a very down-to-earth version. People who burn Iron or steel can push or pull on metal objects (two separate powers; only Mistborn have them both). The force goes either straight toward or straight out from their own body, and it allows very little fine control (making stunts like a BulletCatch or forcing one person to shoot another like Magneto does exceedingly difficult). Finally, if the metal object is strongly anchored or heavier than the person doing the pushing or pulling, then the person will be moved, not the metal object (Unless they're also pushing or pulling on something else on the other side of them). These abilities can still be used in lots of impressive ways, but they require a lot more care and thought than similar powers do in other settings, and many uses of SelectiveMagnetism are completely impossible.

* FlightStrengthHeart: Mistborn's varied abilities include SuperStrength, NotQuiteFlight, SuperSenses, and EmotionControl. They also have the abilities to wipe out their own metal reserves and to see what their lives might have been like if they'd made different choices, generally resulting in severe emotional trauma.

* DemocracyIsBad: The second and third books don't say that democracy is inherently bad, but as unsuitable in the particular situation[[note]]The [[GodEmperor Lord Ruler]] just got defeated after 1000 years of rule, TheEmpire is split up to multiple factions that each try to reconquer the entire territory[[/note]]. Elend, the idealistic nobleman, tries to establish a constitutional monarchy, giving each social class[[note]]nobility, commoners, and merchants[[/note]] an equal representation in the Assembly. As their capital city is besieged by multiple usurpers, the Assembly promptly dethrones Elend and is ready to surrender to the enemy who is known to be a ruthless ruler who would rule with an iron fist anyway. [[spoiler:At the end, Elend decides to become Emperor himself and reconquer the territories himself.]]

** What happens when Vin combines duralumin with zinc or brass. Straff Venture describes it as feeling "as he imagined death would."

* EmotionControl: Zinc and brass allows an Allomancer to enhance or dampen emotions, respectively. Zinc Mistings are known as Rioters, and Brass Mistings are Soothers. Note that the Allomancer can't actually tell what emotions a person is feeling (aside from the normal methods), but with practice they can become very adept at knowing which emotions to adjust to get the desired effect. Breeze (one of the most skilled Soothers ever) and Allrianne (one of the most skilled Rioters we see) can achieve basically the ''exact same results'', even though their powers supposedly are exact opposites. Breeze dampens all but one emotion he wants the target(s) to feel, heightening that one emotion relative to the others, Allrianne carefully selects one emotion to Riot, making it more prominent than all the others. The end effect in both cases is basically the same.

* TheChosenOne: The Hero of Ages, played with in many, ''many'' ways before everything is through. Pretty much fully deconstructed before it's all said and done. For most of the books, the Hero of Ages [[spoiler:was thought to be Vin but she was just a random convergence of factors that Ruin needed. Ruin just needed someone insane enough to influence (Vin's mother) who also had access to a Seeker (Vin's sister) and Mistborn (Vin). Ruin then tweaked the prophecies to fit Vin.]] Subverted at the end when [[spoiler:Sazed, a character who had been there since the beginning and actually believed Vin was the Hero of Ages, ended up being the chosen one.]]
* [[ColourCodedForYourConvenience Colour-Coded For Your Convenience]]: Things associated with [[spoiler:Preservation]] tend to be white; things associated with [[spoiler:Ruin]] tend to be black. And yes, this ''includes'' [[spoiler: Vin and Elend]]

* CosmicHorrorReveal: The entire first novel is spent with the protagonists struggling to overthrow the EvilOverlord, [[spoiler: only to discover that said EvilOverlord is personally holding back a nasty EldritchAbomination from destroying the world (though Ruin isn't fully revealed until ''Hero of Ages'', something definitely starts going seriously awry during the climax of ''Well of Ascension''. Though the Lord Ruler's last words, " You don't know what I do for mankind. I ''was'' your god, even if you couldn't see it. By killing me, you have doomed yourselves," certainly hint at it.]]
* CranialPlateAbility: The Steel Inquisitors have several metal spikes driven through their body, with their most striking feature being steel spikes driven through their eyes. This process allows them to use all of the core allomantic powers, even if they weren't a mistborn to begin with. They're also immortal, with [[spoiler:Kelsier's younger brother-turned-inquisitor, Marsh, appearing in the sequel series to ''Mistborn'', which is set 341 years after the end of the original series]].

** The archetypal Evil Overlord is someone who is self-defeating by nature. Why on earth would any person want to rule over a total CrapsackWorld? Even the most insane of despots would be outed by their peers (as has happened many times throughout history), and the Lord Ruler puts none of his resources into actually improving the world in any meaningful way. As a matter of fact, he puts an unusual amount of effort into making things worse, such as by banning most religions. [[spoiler: As it turns out, this is because his hand has been forced- he needs to be a total monster due to the presence of Ruin, who is both corrupting his mind and struggling to break free of his prison. Ruin's ability to edit text also means that he could freely manipulate people from within his cage, making the Lord Ruler's seemingly dystopic ruleset make a lot more sense.]]
** The series deconstructs the Chosen One in three different ways. First, the central conceit is that there's really nothing stopping the chosen one from [[DarkMessiah taking over the world after he's done saving it.]] Second, [[spoiler: the "chosen one" is more like an arbitrary ruleset to adhere to rather than an individual person to be, meaning anyone can become the chosen one if they decide to take up the responsibility. Alendi was going to become the chosen one... which would end up freeing Ruin, so Rashek killed him and took his place to protect the world.]] Lastly, [[spoiler: the main character doesn't ''have'' to be the chosen one. The true Hero of Ages is not Vin, Elend, or Rashek- its the humble Sazed, who embodies enough strength of will to be both Preservation ''and'' Ruin at the same time. He's the one who ends up saving the day in the end.]]

* BlessedWithSuck: Many Misting Allomancers, who can burn exactly ''one'' random metal. After winning the genetic lottery, surviving a near-death experience and knowing enough to check, well you might be something cool like a Coinshot, Thug or Rioter. Odds are you (and your family, if you're noble) went through all of that for something that is some combination of likely to cause serious or fatal self harm, only useful in a coordinated team, or is worthless unless you're a full Mistborn. [[spoiler:Special prize to the atium Mistings, who have a fantastic combat ability no one can afford to test for and, moreover that the Lord Ruler has made sure no one knows exists. Then there are the aluminum and duralumin Mistings. Aluminum burns away any other metals you're carrying (pointless for everyone, except as a way for Inquistors to render Mistborn powerless), and duralumin gives a ''huge'' boost to any other metals being burned at the same time, useless if you can't actually burn any other metals.)]]
** Averted with Mistings who can burn the eight basic metals. Much is made in the first book of Vin briefly studying with each member of the crew who can burn a specific metal, and learning how they have specialized with their powers to make them more effective than most full Mistborn, with access to all of them. Breeze (who Soothes emotions) talks at length about how to subtly manipulate people's emotions, and how the first step is being able to read emotions, so you know what you have to work with, while Marsh (who detects Allomancy) talks about how to read the different pulses to determine not only that someone is burning metals, but which ones, and even how strongly. [[spoiler: It could be that Marsh's instruction is the most critical in the series, letting Vin realize that she can read Allomancy through "copperclouds," which normally prevent that, as well as allowing her to detect the Well of Ascension and trace the "mistspirit."]]

* BoomerangBigot: The crew, particularly Kelsier, are rather hateful toward nobles. Most of the crew are also part noble [[spoiler:(and in Breeze's case full noble)]]
** [[spoiler:Lord Ruler ''appears'' to be one once it's discovered that the being responsible for oppressing the Terris for a millenia is a Terrisman himself. It's later revealed that he wasn't being hateful so much as ruthlessly practical.]]

* BreakingSpeech: Ruin does this to Vin when she is [[spoiler:captured by Yomen.]] He tries to convince her that everything she has done over the last two and a half books has ultimately served his purposes. He even gives her a nickname -- "Beautiful Destroyer".

* CapeBusters: Many nobles employ hazekillers, normal people trained specifically to fight mistings. They can even fight Mistborn: Kelsier had trouble with half a dozen, and he's one of the best alive. Against someone like Vin and Zane though, [[OvershadowedByAwesome they don't have a chance]].

* BattleStrip: When Vin finds out about that an assassination is about to go down when she is attending a ball, she tears off her ballgown and corset and fights in her underwear.

** If someone is both an Allomancer and a Feruchemist, he can burn metals that he's Invested with Feruchemical power. Instead of the usual Allomantic effect, this releases a massive surge of the Feruchemical attribute (roughly ten times what the Feruchemist originally put in). [[spoiler: The Lord Ruler]] was ''very'' careful to keep the two powers separate to ensure that only [[spoiler: he and his Inquisitors]] could do this (and they could only do it using Hemalurgy to give them powers that they weren't born with).

** Reen to Vin as he beat her a lot during her childhood

* AllThereInTheManual: A lot of things, even things mentioned in spoiler tags on this very page, are mentioned in Sanderson's liner notes on the website, or on forums etc. For instance, the name of the world, the name of [[spoiler:the god-metal which makes people into mistborn]], etc.

* AreTheseWiresImportant: [[spoiler:The easiest way to kill an Inquisitor is to pull out a single spike between their shoulder-blades.]].

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Averted. Though the Lord Ruler is a PhysicalGod, the most powerful nobles [[spoiler:after his death]] are a [[SuperSenses Tineye]] and a man who is not only not a Misting (much less a Mistborn) but also ''paraplegic''.

** The second and third books explore duralumin, a metal not commonly known to have allomantic properties. When a Mistborn burns duralumin while burning another metal, duralumin causes them to use their entire reserve of the other metal at once, resulting in a spectacularly powerful output. However, Mistborn are the ''only'' Allomancers who can use it, since they're the only one who can burn other metals. ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'' notes that duralumin mistings are called, "gnats," since their power is useless.

Part HeroicFantasy, part [[TheCon heist novel]], ''Mistborn: The Final Empire'' is the first novel in Creator/BrandonSanderson's ''Mistborn'' trilogy. It was followed by ''The Well of Ascension'' and ''The Hero of Ages'', dealing with the return of the Deepness and the ramifications of bringing down a thousand-year empire. There is also a sidestory [=eBook=], ''Literature/MistbornSecretHistory'', which details several important events that all the characters were unaware of. Note that this sidestory is full of spoilers, to the point that the author suggests that people not read it until finishing the original trilogy, and possibly the first three books of the SequelSeries as well, on the first page.