History Literature / TheBandsOfMourning

* ThisIsReality: Wax thinks that the temple is suspicious because it's too much of a ClicheStorm. It's exactly how he'd think treasure in a fairy tale or pulp novel would be hidden, from the traps right down to the [[spoiler:false, ostentatious chamber hiding the real Bands in a simple chamber]].

* RageAgainstTheHeavens: Wax to Harmony, for keeping him in the dark about who kandra Paalm really was and as a result, making him kill [[spoiler:his beloved wife Lessie. Again]]. He gets over it.
* RecoiledAcrossTheRoom: Happens a few times thanks to the massive new shotgun Ranette built for Wax, designed to take down Pewterarms and koloss-blooded. The first time, a bandit just breaks his hand trying to fire it from the hip during a TraintopBattle. Moments later in the same battle, Steris tries firing it from a properly braced, kneeling position, and is thrown clear off the train. Finally, near the end of the book, Wax fires it at a Coinshot, who gets BlownAcrossTheRoom without even touching the bullet when he tried to Push it away. Ranette specifically states it was designed to be used in conjunction with [[AnchoredAttackStance Wax increasing his weight with Feruchemy]] to handle the recoil.

* KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler:How the Bands are hidden. The ornate chamber behind the trapped hallway looks like it's been ransacked, but inspecting the rooms reveals that it's a trick. Inspecting the room some more reveals a hidden room with a set of bracers, making Suit think that he beat the con. In fact, the real con was making explorers endanger themselves by entering the temple at all; the Bands are right next to the entrance]].

Shortly before the wedding, Wax was approached by a kandra mentioning that Harmony has been conspicuously silent, and they want Wax's help to find out what's going on. He refuses, but kandra are not known for giving up easily...

And then of course there are the Bands of Mourning, the metalminds belonging to the Lord Ruler himself, said to give any wearer the godlike Feruchemical/Allomantic abilities that he used to rule the world for over a thousand years. Most people dismiss them as superstition, but some scholars and adventurers have found some promising leads, and Wax's uncle might be after them as well...

* AllThatGlitters: Subverted. [[spoiler:The room behind the trapped corridor is an opulent room with a velvet and gold pedestal, smashed long ago. That's a decoy. Further along is a small, plain room where the corpses of the builders sit in reverence around a simple set of bands. That's ''also'' a decoy. The real Bands are the 'aluminum' (read: more valuable than gold) spearhead on the statue in the front]].

* AmusingInjuries: Downplayed with [=MeLaan=]. As a kandra, injuries can hurt, but aren't fatal, and can be ignored if she shuts off nerves. Her being able to reduce everything into AmusingInjuries lets them [[spoiler:set off traps in the Bands of Mourning's temple with impunity]].

* BloodMagic: We get another glimpse into Spook's hemalurgy research. Beyond the basics of [[MegaManning killing someone for their power]] by tacking their soul onto yours, hemalurgy can also rewrite a soul depending on how the spike is used, explaining some of the creatures the Lord Ruler and Bleeder were able to create. [[spoiler:The Set has also advanced their own research into hemalurgy, although we don't see dead victims, just the results. They have learned the upper limit of "How many spikes before Harmony takes over", namely, three hemalurgic boons. Most of the Set leadership has access to stolen powers now.]]

* CainAndAbel: Discussed. When Marasi and Wayne discuss [[spoiler:how Marasi moved on from Wax]], Wayne encourages Marasi to be like the Ascendant Warrior, who didn't give up on the Last Emperor. Marasi adds that Vin killed Elend's fiance, and Wayne is suggesting that she kill her own sister.

* CranialProcessingUnit: Averted for kandra, even if they're shapeshifters instead of robots. Kandra generally keep their brain anywhere on their bodies but their heads, since they know that's where people aim. [=MeLaan=] prefers a metal container in her thigh.

* CrystalDragonJesus: The Survivorist religion has always looked very similar to Christianity, and their weddings are no exception. They have pendants instead of rings, girls spreading ash instead of flowers, and the guests are segregated into bride and groom sections. Even their wedding clothes are very similar, though there doesn't appear to be any superstition about seeing the bride before the ceremony. [[spoiler:Oh, and their Crystal Dragon also managed to come back to life somehow, and [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade left behind a spearhead-shaped relic]], and hid it in a temple heavily armed with traps, guarded by the faithful behind a trap where runes spell out something significant to the Crystal Dragon, with the relic hidden in plain sight to be found only when the hero seeking it puts themselves in the mindset of the Crystal Dragon to decipher where the relic is really hidden.]]
** Not to mention that [[spoiler: The same Crystal Dragon [[Literature/TheBookofMormon traveled to a distant continent to teach another civilization after his apparent death and resurrection.]]]]

* DurableDeathtrap: Enough of the traps in the TempleOfDoom work fine after three hundred years. The only ones that don't are the scythe traps (which were just poorly designed) and the acid trap (which froze in the uninsulated stone temple).

* FantasticRacism: The Set clearly [[spoiler:don't see the Southerners as human, and have no problem torturing them in order to discover the secrets of their technology]]. They also disparagingly refer to kandra as "creatures".

* GameChanger: One of the biggest limitations of Mistborn's Metallic Arts was that one had to be born with the power to access them, and the potential is inherited. Most of the lucky gifted are then only given access to one Art with one metal, and further feruchemical metalminds can only be drawn on by the person who stored power in them. The only exception to this was killing and stealing another's power via hemalurgy. Now, research into nicrosil, long included in the metal charts but never explained, allows for the creation of open metalminds, usable by any random person who picks one up. Nicrosil also allows the storage of allomancy powers, breaking open those magics for anyone to use as well. A source of the original magic is needed, and there seems to be new limits with combining magics, but this one metal can potentially change everything in the Elendel Basin. The Southerners and their {{Magitek}} are a taste of things to come.

* GoodIsNotNice: Being Harmony's servant, kandra [=VenDell=] is by definition one of the good guys. However, he is also highly irritating, obnoxious, patronizing and has no people skills. Wax has a very strong urge to punch him, and [=MeLaan=] admits she feels the same.
* GreaterScopeVillain: All the members of the Set and their servants appear to bow to a pre-Final-Empire god named Trell, whom Marasi has been trying to get details on. [[spoiler:The epilogue shows that Trell is very much an active god who hails from some other world (he could possibly be [[OhCrap Odium]] from ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'' or Autonomy from ''ComicBook/WhiteSand'') and seems to be finding ways to manifest power on Scadrial despite Harmony keeping him at bay. One of its servants implies that their original plan for the Set takeover is no longer stable enough, so the new plan is destroying all life on Scadrial.]]

** When they discover the {{Magitek}} device that can essentially function as an Allomantic grenade, Marasi's power becomes quite useful, as she can now throw the device and capture someone ''else'' in a slow bubble. A Leecher with the Set uses the device in a similar manner earlier, draining Wax of his Allomantic Reserves.

* HiddenInPlainSight: [[spoiler:Kelsier hid the Bands of Mourning in the form of a spearhead on the statue of him in front of the temple (which appears to be aluminum at first glace). Then, he armed a corridor with booby-traps galore, only for the room at the end to contain a shattered case, as if the bands had been stolen. A second decoy is in a lower room along with the bodies of the ones who constructed the temple, all to distract from the spearhead. He ''is'' a con-man, after all.]]
** What's more, [=ReLuur=] claims to have seen the Bands, but doesn't have any pictures of them. [[spoiler:He does, but no one else recognizes them. He got a good one of the statue]].

* TheyDo: [[spoiler:Having been through hell and back on this trip, and finding much more in common with each other than their [[MarriageOfConvenience initial agreement]] suggested, Wax dispenses with Steris' contract arrangements, and flat out proposes to her with a priest standing by. [[ShutUpKiss She emphatically says yes]].]]

* TheTheTitleConfusion: A victim of it on Wiki/ThisVeryWiki. There ''is'', in fact, a definite article in the title.