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aka: The Bands Of Mourning

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This page is for characters from Brandon Sanderson's first Sequel Series to the original Mistborn trilogy, Wax and Wayne. See here for characters in the prior series.

For characters from the other worlds of The Cosmere, including characters that appear in Mistborn itself, see here for the central Cosmere page.


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The New Crew

    Wax 

Lord Waxillium "Wax" Ladrian

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wax.jpg

The main character of the book. Wax was formally a lawkeeper in the Roughs, but after he accidentally killed his wife, he returned to the city. Due to his uncle's untimely death, he becomes the head of the Ladrian House. However, due to the crime wave in Elendel, he takes up his guns and prepares to fight crime once again.


  • All Your Powers Combined: As a Twinborn, he has one Allomancy power and one Feruchemy power. In particular, his Allomantic and Feruchemical powers synergize really well, with Allomantic steel allowing him to Push on metals based on his weight, and Feruchemical iron allowing him to manipulate his own weight. By storing weight to make himself lighter, he can push himself farther and faster, or on smaller bits of metal, than most Coinshots, and by tapping weight to make himself heavier, he can put more force behind his pushes. In the first book, he increases his weight so much a push basically flattens a building. Come The Lost Metal he becomes a full Mistborn.
  • Back from the Dead: After Wax succumbs to his wounds in The Bands of Mourning, Harmony gives him a choice. Wax can choose to move on to whatever comes next, or he can return to the land of the living. Wax chooses the latter.
  • Badass Longcoat: His mistcoat, which is similar to a duster. He wears it when he's on duty to the point it becomes synonymous with him by the end of the series.
  • But I Read a Book About It: In his early days as a Lawman, Wax was woefully naïve about how life in the Roughs actually worked and based all of his efforts on fictional novels he read about lawmen and outlaws. Lessie is rightfully exasperated by his belief in all of the clichés he takes at face value. Fortunately, he gets Taught by Experience and shapes up.
  • The Chains of Commanding: Wax is painfully aware that, as head of a house in financial trouble, the livelihood of a great number of people hangs on his being able to balance the budget. It's not a responsibility he wanted or that he feels particularly qualified for, but he has to manage it all the same.
  • Character Tic: Wax's left eye twitches when he feels something is wrong or unjust, especially if he isn't acting to correct it.
  • The Chosen One: Harmony has been guiding his development at least since he left Elendel for the Roughs, and possibly longer. He ordered one of his kandra to induct him into the Pathian religion personally, and the woman Wax would later marry was a kandra bodyguard.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: It seems he tried to be this to Wayne, but by the time of the story proper, he's more or less given up and instead tried to channel his odd behavior.
  • Combat Pragmatist: From his time out in the Roughs, Wax is not above fighting dirty to win a fight:
    The brute smiled. Doors still rattled around him — he was a Coinshot, obviously, Pushing out with a bubble like the one Wax used. It even pressed a little on the metalminds Wax wore on his upper arms, which were resistant to Allomancy.
    This man could have ended the fight at any moment by grabbing a bit of metal and shooting it. He preferred the hand-to-hand fight. Indeed, the man raised his fists and nodded to Wax, still grinning, inviting him to come in for another round.
    To hell with that.
    Wax turned and slammed his shoulder against a door into an empty second-class compartment and made for the window.
    “Hey!” the man said behind him. “Hey!”
    Wax leaped at the window and increased his weight. He hit the window shoulder-first, arms covering his face, and smashed through—then barely managed to catch the bottom window frame as he fell outside.
    Fingers dripping blood from the broken glass, he pulled himself up, stood on the windowsill, and scaled the outside of the train, finally heaving himself onto the roof. Wind rushed around him, and he was shocked to see that he wasn’t alone up here. Ahead about four cars, a group of armed men pressed toward the front of the train, bearing something large and seemingly heavy. What in the name of the lost metal was that?
    “Hey!” the large bandit said again as he climbed the side of the car.
    Wax sighed, then kicked the man in the face as he tried to pull himself onto the top. The man growled. Wax kicked him again, then stomped on one of his hands. The man glared at Wax, then dropped back down to the window and climbed inside.
    You can beat anybody, Wayne always said, so long as you don’t let them fight back properly.
  • Cultured Badass: Cultivated the appearance of a noble dandy despite being out in the Roughs. And, ironically, cultivates the appearance of a ruffian while in civilization. He admits to Steris that he likes messing with people's expectations.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In his first scene, Wax comments about how his gun feels like part of his hand, is careful about relying on his powers too much, gets into a Friendly Rivalry chat with Lessie (arguing about which of them has saved the other's life more times), and muses that a manhunt has grown so difficult that he wants to leave but he gave his word to bring the prisoner in "and that was that." Consequently, his Mage Marksman skills, fondness for cowboy cliches, and status as an Experienced Protagonist and Hero Protagonist are all clear well before the end of the first chapter.
  • Experienced Protagonist: Wax is already an accomplished lawman by the time of Alloy of Law and is known for his deeds.
  • Famous Ancestor: He's a direct descendant of Lord Ladrian - better known to us as Breeze - and, presumably, Allrianne Cett, from the original trilogy.
  • The Fettered: While he chafes under his duties as head of a house and initially rebels slightly against them, he accepts that he has no choice but to do what he can to care for and protect the people who need him. Harmony eventually casts doubt on this self-perception, pointing out that if Wax had really wanted to escape responsibility, he could easily have done so - no matter how much he grumbles, deep inside he wants to be The Hero.
  • Gentleman Adventurer: It's an In-Universe Old Shame, but when he first left Elendel for the Roughs, Wax styled himself as the Gentleman Adventurer. The harsh reality of the Roughs beat the behavior out of him. While he quickly grew out of that mentality, his insistence on dressing finely even when dragging in outlaws has given him a similar reputation. He dislikes the implication that he's doing it all as a hobby. He fights crime because someone has to.
  • Guile Hero: Wax is not only an excellent gunfighter, he also has a keen mind for putting together evidence and figuring out motives.
  • Guns Akimbo: In several scenes in the book. Including once with shotguns.
  • Happily Married: Was a common-law variant of this with Lessie, and then officially marries Steris in The Bands of Mourning.
  • Heartbroken Badass: For most of the story, after Lessie's death and her final death. Steris helps him move past it and becomes his Second Love.
  • Heavier than It Looks: Zig-zagged with his feruchemy. He habitually stores some of his weight in iron metalminds, so he has a lot to draw on when he wants to increase his weight instead. Unleashing it all at once lets him cannonball straight through a building.
  • Hero Protagonist: Helps people because he genuinely wants to do the right thing. Though he does mention that he got into the business because he needed the money.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Wayne. They're close friends that have worked together as a crime-fighting duo for years.
  • Human Weapon: TenSoon calls him Harmony's "Ruin." While the implications of this initially unsettle him, he accepts it by the end of Shadows of Self.
    Wax: I'm not Harmony's hand. I'm his sword.
  • I Let Gwen Stacy Die: His confrontation with Bloody Tan in the beginning ends with Lessie's accidental death.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Miles notes that he's seen Wax repeatedly pull off shots he'd have sworn were impossible. Near the end, he has to use a speed bubble to shoot his own bullet mid-flight to change its trajectory and hit an enemy hiding behind a hostage. He gets a headshot.
  • The Lightfooted: He habitually reduces his weight by 25% using feruchemy and can become completely weightless at will. His fighting style takes full advantage of the extra mobility, especially combined with steelpushes.
  • Living Emotional Crutch: To Wayne. For most of Wayne's life, Wax was the only person that forgave and believed in him. When Wax is killed, Wayne almost goes catatonic.
  • Living Legend: Waxillium Dawnshot is known far and wide as the man who helped bring order to the roughs, taking out some of the meanest and most terrifying criminals in history. Marasi grew up on his legends, and there are numerous papers on him.
  • Mage Marksman: He has a combination of a Coinshot and a Skimmer in his Twinborn powers, making him capable of shoving his bullets much harder after firing them to add a lot to their impact.
  • Named Weapons: Ranette gives him the custom revolver Vindication, named after the Ascendant Warrior herself. Notably, Wax always mentally refers to Vindication using female pronouns.
  • Not Quite Flight: Wax often uses the combination of his steel pushing allomancy and weight manipulation Feruchemy to soar great distances.
  • One Hero, Hold the Weaksauce: Wax is a Coinshot Savant without the usual drawbacks of savantism. Sanderson's admitted he isn't happy with how this turned out, and Wax's steel bubbles are now either his Crasher Resonance power or due to light savantism with both his Coinshot and Skimmer powers.
  • One-Man Army: During the wedding, he kills 19 heavily armed mooks by himself without any innocent bystanders being killed. In the climax, Miles states explicitly that he's wasted as anything but a killer, because he's just that good.
    • The confrontation with Telsin in The Lost Metal takes this to a whole nother level. So many zealots fall to Wax's ascent that Wayne simply asks the guards at the top if they want to go home or fight two men who just killed over a hundred heavily armed soldiers...and the guards pick the former, to a man.
  • Properly Paranoid: Wax is always worried about being attacked, watching for snipers, and keeping an eye on exits. Once he leaves the Roughs, he still goes about armed with three revolvers, one of which is loaded with hollow points to let him Steelpush. And every single one of these precautions is fully justified by the bandits and assassins he fights.
  • Red Baron: His Improbable Aiming Skills and reputation in the Roughs earned him the nickname Dawnshot.
  • Revolvers Are Just Better: To the point of carrying two, or even three - the first two are his dual Sterrions, the third is Vindication, which typically fulfills any of his needs for Abnormal Ammo.
  • Sherlock Scan: Though not quite as adept as the Trope Namer, he still comes up with some amazing conclusions with little evidence, although his skill is subverted when Marasi is invited into the lab: "You realize I spent all night coming to those conclusions? You just reached them in all of... what? Ten minutes?" Marasi does point out that Wax is sleep-deprived, and would likely have come up with it just as fast if he weren't.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Accidentally being tricked into killing his wife Lessie by Bloody Tan, and finding out his uncle and sister are dead is barely the beginning of personal tragedy for Wax, he also has to deal with:
    • The Alloy of Law: His fiance being kidnapped by criminals, and finding out that his not-dead uncle was behind it, and has kidnapped his also-not-dead sister.
    • Shadows of Self: Sees Bloody Tan seemingly come back from the dead and start haunting Wax about what happened to Lessie, and then the final confrontation has him find out it was the still-alive Lessie haunting him...after he shoots her, resulting in her dying in his arms AGAIN. And then he finds out that Lessie survived because she was a Kandra sent by Harmony, Wax's god, with it being planned for her "death" to happen in order to harden Wax to be a better servant for Harmony.
    • After that emotional haymaker he only goes on another adventure in The Bands of Mourning to try and rescue his sister, only for his sister to turn out to be behind his uncle, at the same time he gets shot by his sister and (almost) dies. His (not quite) death does at least give him a conversation with Harmony to help sort out some of his issues.
    • By the time of The Lost Metal he's quite understandably just plain tired and wants to retire, only becoming a hero again thanks to sheer necessity. And sees his partner, and best friend, die in a Heroic Sacrifice as one last gut-punch.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: During his days as a lawman. He hung them up for a while.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Wax spends most of his time with Wayne complaining at him for whatever mischief he's gotten into at the time. This trope is in effect so strongly that Marasi wasn't even sure they were friends.
  • Waistcoat of Style: Rocks one of these during the book as common clothing, and is depicted with it in a lot of fanart.
  • Walking Armory: Even when trying to retire as a lawman, Wax never goes out with less than two guns on his person at all times. His usual loadout is two revolvers, at least one shotgun, and the special revolver Vindication.
  • Walking Disaster Area: It's a Running Gag that people remind him things tend to explode around him.

    Wayne 

Wayne

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wayne.jpg

Waxillium's partner in crime... fighting. After Wax heads to the city to take over House Ladrian, Wayne follows him there. Once he arrives, he continues to provide Wax with staunch support.


  • Achilles' Heel: Wayne's fixation on hats ties into his talent at disguise. He needs a hat to get into the right mindset for his character. In The Bands of Mourning, he mentally struggles to fit into the mindset of an engineer because he has no hat. After spiraling in his thoughts for a while, Wayne finally compensates by putting a pencil behind his ear to act as his "hat" and is instantly back in form.
  • All Your Powers Combined: As a Twinborn, he has one Allomancy power and one Feruchemy power. Come The Lost Metal he becomes a full Mistborn.
  • Amazon Chaser: Wayne admits to Marasi that he prefers the kind of woman who can kick his ass, and he takes quite a liking to Ranette precisely because she's apparently shot him repeatedly. When he finally admits she'll never accept him, he starts a relationship with MeLaan.
  • Asshole Victim: At least Marasi thinks so. As she puts it in The Alloy of Law, he deserves to get blown up every once in a while. Wayne says that's cruel, but he can't argue it isn't true.
  • The Atoner: Wayne accidentally killed a man in his early thieving days. Wax saved him from the hangman's noose, and Wayne has been helping him fight crime since. Wayne sends half of what he makes to the family of the man he killed. Notably, the family does not forgive him, doesn't really want the money (though they'll take it since he insists), and the dead man's daughter makes a point to rub both these things in his face whenever he does. He accepts this, knowing that actual atonement isn't about trying to earn forgiveness from those you've wronged, but doing what you can to make things right, even if those you've wronged will go on hating you and wanting nothing to do with you.
  • Awesome by Analysis: His gift for accents works very well for disguises, but also allows him to recognize governor Innate as a fake during Shadows of Self.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: Wayne has always had an aversion to guns, his hands shaking when he so much as draws a picture of someone holding a gun. But at the climax of The Bands of Mourning, Wayne briefly forces down his feelings for guns to do a job. With Wax temporarily dead, Wayne picks up one of Wax's shotguns, forces down his shake, and goes out to shoot Wax's killer in the back and face. He later admits he could only pull the trigger because he suspected she would heal from the injuries.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: By using the right clothes and attitude he can manipulate nearly anyone into helping him.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: He's eccentric and isn't always in touch with reality, but he's a master of disguise, extremely versatile with his powers and a very deadly fighter.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Wayne's confusing and has an odd definition of personal property, but is still a damn good constable that saved Wax's life a countless number of times.
  • Casual Kink: He mentions casually to Wax that he and MeLaan experimented with bondage. Naturally he was the one being tied up, since it's kind of pointless to use ropes to restrain a Kandra. Wax doesn't want to know any of this.
  • The Charmer: Even with his eccentric tendencies, Wayne can talk his way in and out of most any situation, whether or not he's wearing a disguise.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Has rather... odd... ways of thinking. And mild kleptomania.
  • Crimefighting with Cash: Both of his metals are expensive, almost prohibitively so for his bendalloy. Fortunately for him, he has rich friends and state sponsors. Once he's become Secretly Wealthy in The Lost Metal he's started buying tons of the stuff himself, to the point he's one of the few, if not only, Sliders to reach near-Savanthood.
  • Disguised in Drag: At one point, he impersonates an old woman. He apparently has to do this enough that he interrupts an interrogation to find out where a woman got her heels, since the ones he has at home hurt his feet.
  • Does Not Like Guns: With good reason. He can't hold a gun, and holding bullets or even sketching a gun makes his hands shake. It takes thinking Wax is dead to temporarily let this drop. By the Time Skip to The Lost Metal, while he still doesn't favor guns, he is okay with having one.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: It's probably for the best that someone like him, who's scored pretty high on the Superpower Lottery, doesn't use guns - someone with incredible healing ability and Time Master abilities would be terrifying with ranged weaponry.
  • Duel Boss: One of the two ways his Time Stands Still ability is used in combat. By getting close enough to an enemy, Wayne can throw up a speed bubble to ensure the two can fight one-on-one without anyone interfering.
  • Dual Wielding: His primary weapons are a pair of dueling canes.
  • Dull Surprise: Used when Tillaume tries to kill Wax. Considering how many ways he's avoided dying, discovering a new attempt on his life would be rather mundane.
    Wayne: Huh, tea's poisoned.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Despite his talent for reading people, he doesn't interpret them all correctly. Most prominent is how he viewed Steris. He is overly suspicious of her because everything she does seems scripted and fake, and interprets her attempts to get closer to Wax as her trying to manipulate him. In actuality, she is really just socially awkward and comes up with what she says to people in advance to try to "be normal" as she feels that being herself drives people away, and her trying to get closer to Wax is her just genuinely falling in love with him (and Wax reciprocating). Thankfully by The Lost Metal him and Steris are on friendlier terms, and he admits to Wax that he was wrong about her.
  • Experienced Protagonist: Similarly to Waxilium, he's an already accomplished lawman and fighter by the time of Alloy of Law.
  • Flash Step: A clever application of his speedbubbles in combat is for Wayne to throw up a bubble just as someone shoots at him. He can then safely walk to the side where the bullet won't reach him then drop the bubble. From the outside, it looks like Wayne just instantly blurred to the side.
  • From Shame, Heroism: Years and years before the story starts, he was a petty thief Wax saved from the hangman's noose. He brushes off the notion that he's any kind of hero until he gets it from Harmony himself, but still tries to be the kind of person he sees in Wax.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Wayne suffers enough injuries to kill him many times over if not for his Bloodmaker powers. By later books, he gets pretty blasé about volunteering as a Bulletproof Human Shield for his less durable friends.
  • Healing Factor: As a Bloodmaker, Wayne can store health in gold metalminds to heal himself at later times. Sometimes he goes around with a sniffle, or will leave himself bedridden for weeks feeling miserable to build up enough health to survive all manner of fatal injuries.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Dies to save Elendel in The Lost Metal, using duralumin and his Slider abilities to contain the explosions of the bomb..
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: It isn't obvious under his strange mannerisms and cheery attitude, but Wayne hates himself very much. Several of his best friends try to convince him that he's a much better person than he thinks he is. It takes Harmony to finally convince him of this.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Wax. They're close friends that have worked together as a crime-fighting duo for years.
  • Hidden Depths: Wayne can be surprisingly insightful at times, and according to MeLaan, he's just The Gadfly.
  • Insane Troll Logic: "I bought a ward against [logic] off a traveling fortune-teller. It lets me add two 'n' two and get a pickle."
  • Living Emotional Crutch: For most of Wayne's life, Wax was the only person that forgave and believed in him. When Wax is killed, Wayne almost goes catatonic. Then he grabs a shotgun, forcibly overcomes his phobia of guns, and heads out to find Wax's killer.
  • Loveable Rogue: As a Reformed Criminal with kleptomaniac urges, he definitely fits the rogue part. He's also very likeable.
  • Master of Disguise: He is great at disguises. In fact, he could have easily been a professional actor. His entirely mundane quick change skills combine with his speed bubble ability to let him get in disguise so fast someone not looking for it will see it as instantaneous. He can even give Kandra, ageless shapeshifters with centuries of practice, tips on how to properly sell an accent.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Him and MeLaan. It starts as a Friends with Benefits situation but develops into a full relationship. They ultimately break up after six years due to the lifespan issues, which was heartbreaking for both of them.
  • Method Acting: invoked His disguises don't usually last long enough for this to go into depth, but he thinks in character while in disguise.
  • Noodle Incident: He claims in The Bands of Mourning that he once had to remove someone's appendix. How? Why? Good question.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Inverted. According to Wayne, the right accent is the most important part of a disguise. Although he does drop the accent on purpose when he wants to be exposed.
  • Reformed Criminal: Once a kid on his way to the gallows, now a near-legendary cop.
  • Secretly Wealthy: In The Lost Metal, his various very smart investments made him extremely rich, and he hates it. Especially considering the various investments were attempts to go broke that completely failed due to him understanding what people would actually like and trying to give it to them, which just makes him more money. He wants to help give homes to people, so he creates an affordable housing company right as a boom starts, making him a lot of money. He wants to help out a friend, so he invests in their company, which becomes something akin to Westinghouse or GE. By the end, he's founding the first pro-sports league, thinking it will be fun for people, and finally make him go broke.
  • Sex God: According to six-hundred-year-old Hard-Drinking Party Girl MeLaan, he was her "best lay ever."
  • Sherlock Scan: He's very good at learning about people's character and history just by observing them, particularly focusing on their accents. By later books, he can build up a detailed profile of someone's character and recent actions just by looking at their apartment.
  • Shipper on Deck: Deconstructed. He believed that Wax and Marasi belonged together. However, while they did have some attraction to one another during Alloy Of Law, Wax rejects her, and in the following books they are completely over each other and are Just Friends, but Wayne still insisted that they belong together and that Steris, Wax's actual fiancé, isn't good for Wax, even going as far as ruining their wedding at the beginning of The Bands of Mourning. It's implied that he thinks this way due to Marasi being similar to Lessie, Wax's deceased first wife, so he thought that she could be a replacement, which Wax doesn't want. By the end of The Bands of Mourning he seems to finally accept that Wax is happy with Steris, as he helped give them space so that Wax could officially marry Steris, and by The Lost Metal, he admits that Steris is good for Wax.
  • Sticky Fingers: Seems to be a clinical kleptomaniac, as Wayne habitually pockets whatever he happens to notice while leaving behind something of equal value in "trade". Or what he thinks is the same value: he often leaves things mostly-worthless to others in exchange. Later, near the end of the book, he leaves an aluminum bullet, worth more than its weight in gold, in exchange for a minor item. Wax is quick to realize that, ironically, the person receiving the bullet won't know its value and likely throw it away.
  • The Social Expert: While fairly competent at combat, where Wayne really shines is in disguise, investigation, and manipulation.
  • Time Stands Still: Wayne can burn bendalloy to create a bubble around him where everything inside moves far faster than what's outside. There are a lot of limitations to it, but he does pretty well given those limits. It's not quite stopping the outside, but it's close.
  • The Unchosen One: Wax is Harmony's chosen sword, the wrath of God come to strike down the wicked. Wayne's just along for the ride. So when Wayne's ultimately the hero who saves the world in The Lost Metal even Harmony is surprised.
  • Uncle Pennybags: He becomes this for Sophi Tarcsel, giving her pretty much all the money he can spare (and he can spare a lot). They met when Wayne was impersonating the man who drove Sophi's father to death, which hit Wayne very hard. In The Bands of Mourning, he steals an aluminum spearhead from a statue under the logic that Sophi probably needs more money by now. Since that spearhead is actually the Bands, this ultimately saves the entire planet. By The Lost Metal, accidentally smart investments have made him one of the wealthiest people in all of Elendel.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Waxillium. They like to make fun of each other, but work very well together and have been partners for years.
  • Wholesome Crossdresser: Disguises himself as a woman at times, and gets into character without a problem. It's the reason why he's so comfortable with MeLaan's Sex Shifter abilities - like her, he considers gender to be mostly a state of mind.
  • Wig, Dress, Accent: Most of his disguises are a simple combination of body language, a different set of clothes, a change of accent, and a nice hat.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Wax tries to convince him of this in The Lost Metal, but it takes Harmony telling him this to believe it.

    Marasi 

Marasi Colms

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/marasi.jpg

The cousin of Steris Harms, Marasi teams up with Wax when he saves her from a kidnapping attempt by the Vanishers. Her knowledge of criminals is a great help in figuring out the plans of their foes. Originally a university student studying to become a lawyer, after the Vanishers case she changes tracks and becomes a police officer in Elendel's constabulary.


  • Affectionate Nickname: Wayne occasionally calls her "Mara" after they become friends.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: She develops a crush on Wax over the course of the first book, causing him to gently let her down near the end. Some feelings persist in subsequent books, though by The Bands of Mourning she seems to have largely gotten over him.
  • Ascended Fangirl: Hearing about the crime-fighting exploits of Wax and other lawmen like him was the main motivator for wanting to become an attorney and fight crime in her own way. She's ecstatic when she gets to work alongside Wax and Wayne personally, though much of the luster of their profession gets lost quickly in the face of all of the violence and immorality she's forced to witness.
  • Awesome by Analysis: She frequently quotes crime statistics and uses the conclusions drawn to help with the situation.
  • Badass Bookworm: She's a Criminal Law major and learned sharpshooting in her university's rifle club.
  • Badass Driver: Capable enough behind the wheel of a motorcar to almost keep up with Wax's Not Quite Flight abilities. She also seems to take a bit of perverse glee in the discomfort of passengers who are more used to horse-drawn carriages.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • She's almost always polite and soft-spoken and tries to avoid violence whenever possible, but is both willing and able to use a gun when the situation demands it.
    • During the Train Job in The Bands of Mourning, one of the bandits grabs a female bystander to try to get her to stand down. Marasi's response is to immediately Shoot the Hostage Taker, then check to make sure that the rest of the nearby passengers are alright.
  • Blessed with Suck: As a Cadmium Misting, she can create a bubble of slowed time around herself (the exact opposite, power and metal-wise, as Wayne's bend alloy ability). This ability is publicly perceived as so useless by Metalborn standards that Lord Harms advised her to act as if she has no powers whatsoever. But with Character Development and some encouragement from Wax and Wayne plus some allomantic grenades which she can charge and throw, she eventually finds a number of uses for it.
  • Brainy Brunette: Dark-haired and consistently shown to be very intelligent, capable of rattling off a variety of statistics at a moment's notice and piecing together a criminal's motive even despite lacking formal training. By the later books, her detective skills have started to rival Wax's.
  • Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Downplayed. Marasi is a Survivorist, so meeting Kelsier is like meeting a God for her, despite the Survivor being just the Cognitive Shadow of what's technically a normal man and not a Shardbearer.
  • Friendly Sniper: She's a kind and good-natured young woman, and an excellent shot with a rifle.
  • Girls with Guns: Zigzagged in the first book. She's a good shot with a rifle, but that doesn't make her a fighter. Becomes a straight example in subsequent books.
  • Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Primarily uses a rifle at long range, with Wax and Wayne opting for more close-quarters style of fighting. Wax tends to use guns more at short range.
  • Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her ability to freeze herself and the immediate area in time seems pretty useless at first blush. Turns out that it's actually Difficult, but Awesome.
  • Hero-Worshipper: Wax's exploits are why she wanted to work in law in the first place, so she's very happy to meet him. She mostly gets over it by the second book.
  • Heroic Bastard: She's actually Steris's illegitimate half-sister.
  • It Never Gets Any Easier: Though she becomes more comfortable in life-or-death situations the more she hangs out with Wax and Wayne, Marasi never really gets used to the concept of taking another person's life. Even by The Bands of Mourning, she cringes internally whenever she shoots one of the Set's minions.
  • The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Once she meets up with her idol, Wax.
  • Luminescent Blush: Her constant blushing whenever something even slightly embarrassing or improper occurs is a Running Gag throughout the series.
  • Mundane Utility: One of the few uses she got out of her Allomancy before meeting Wax was to accelerate time around her so that from her perspective, a several hours wait for a theater performance only takes a few minutes.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Averted. She's very supportive of Steris and Wax's relationship, albeit in a quiet way, once a genuine romance starts to blossom between them.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: By The Bands of Mourning she's become frustrated at how everyone assumes Wax got her to where she is now. Every time she succeeds at something people think he was involved somehow. Even worse, they aren't always wrong.
  • Pals with Jesus: In The Lost Metal, her colleagues in the police department are a bit weirded out by how casually she mentions asking Harmony (God) whether a Kandra (angel) is available to help on a mission.
  • Ship Tease: With Allik in The Bands of Mourning, after she gets over Wax. She's much more physically affectionate towards him than most other male characters, and Wax internally notes that she holds onto Allik's parting gift of his cracked mask very tightly. By the start of The Lost Metal, they've been dating for a few years.
  • The Smart Guy: Not much of a fighter (at first), but her knowledge of criminology comes in handy.
  • Time Stands Still: Inverted: She can make herself, and the room around her, move very slowly compared to the outside world. She (and her father), don't think it's a very useful ability.
  • Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She's a rifle-toting Action Girl in a male-dominated profession and often wishes her work uniform came with trousers instead of a skirt... but she still likes makeup and doing her hair from time to time, and expresses discomfort when events in The Bands of Mourning leave her wearing a pair of pants for an extended period.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: This is the crux of her conflict in The Lost Metal: the Ghostbloods offer her the chance to make a difference across the Cosmere and achieve the changes she wants to see, but they're a secret society working outside the law, against the establishment she works for. Despite her temptation, Marasi can't abide by the secret keeping and deception the group requires and decides to stick to the law.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In the Time Skip between The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self, she's lost most of her problems with violence, even shooting the head off of a man holding her hostage with a pocket pistol. She's also taken up a more up-front profession, as a lieutenant in the constabulary rather than a law clerk.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?:
    • Finds this driven home after seeing how Wayne makes such good use of his opposite power. She still makes good use of it in the climax of the first book and proceeds to continue to use it well in the second.
    • In The Bands of Mourning, they discover a device that can be Allomantically charged, then thrown. They quickly realize that this makes Marasi's power suddenly invaluable, as she can trap people in a slow bubble without actually having to be in it herself.
    • By the time of The Lost Metal, Wayne has created yet another use for her thrown bubbles - by controlling the size of his own bubbles, he can cancel out sections of hers to allow time to run normally. Wayne can now fight entire groups of enemies trapped in the bubble as he chooses, making him even more dangerous in group combat.

    Steris 

Steris Harms

Wax's fiancé, a minor noblewoman whose marriage to Wax is intended to improve the social and economic standings of their respective houses. Kidnapped by the Vanishers early on, causing Wax, Wayne, and Marasi to set out to rescue her.


  • Ascended Extra: While never exactly an "extra", The Bands of Mourning hugely expands her page time and role in the main plot, after spending most of the prior two books as a strictly supporting character and/or Damsel in Distress. This is even more present in The Lost Metal, where she is the primary viewpoint character for what's going on back in Elendel.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Steris' role gradually increases over the course of the series, until finally be promoted to a viewpoint character in The Lost Metal.
  • Crazy-Prepared:
    • Steris comes to the meeting with Wax in The Alloy of Law with a multipage prenup of their future marriage that goes so far as to account for Wax taking mistresses in the future.
    • This trait gets a little more elaboration in Shadows of Self, and comes into focus as a major skill in The Bands of Mourning. She has tools on hand for virtually any situation, from metal vials to a vomiting agent, and smuggles a gun into a party where she guesses Wax will be disarmed.
    • In The Lost Metal she reveals she has multiple plans for how to evacuate Elendel in case of varying types of disaster (earthquakes, fire, tsunamis etc.) but mentions there are still seven scenarios she hasn't got around to making plans for yet. Her plans are so thorough and efficient that the Governor offers her the position of Disaster Preparations Officer for the city.
  • Defrosting the Ice Queen: She's very analytical and brusque with how she treats Wax, but she warms up to him after he rescues her from the Vanishers.
  • Distressed Damsel: Her kidnapping kicks off the main plot.
  • Fetish: She really likes flying, not that you can blame her. Which makes it fitting that she and Wax have their first kiss suspended above the Mists.
  • Geeky Turn-On:
    • Not being an Allomancer herself, she gets very excited whenever she gets to witness a Metalborn's powers up close. Wax's Steelpushing abilities in particular tend to interest her the most.
    • In The Bands of Mourning, she also gets very enthusiastic when Wax is able to spot an error in his house's financial accounts that Steris couldn't figure out.
  • Happily Married: to Wax by the end of The Bands of Mourning.
  • Hidden Depths: The sequels flesh her out more, portraying her as very socially awkward with a bit of an adrenaline addiction. She compensates for her flaws by planning everything—which, of course, everyone finds even more off-putting.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: She's not exactly trying to hide it, but her bluntness and desire for order distract from her better qualities. She's actually quite sweet to Wax, in a strange way, showing she cares by doing things like researching his past enemies and practicing witty comments for hours beforehand. And even changing her plans for him. Not to mention that she is the only person that seems to know how to comfort Wax after he kills his wife Lessie for the second time.
  • The Load: Perfectly aware that she qualifies as this, and doesn't particularly mind. She is working on becoming a bit more useful when adventuring, though.
  • No Social Skills: By her own admission, Steris has never been good with interacting with people and tries to compensate for it by learning proper behavior, but she finds it both difficult and exhausting.
  • Properly Paranoid: Most of her planning that we see falls into this, and has been very useful.
  • Relationship Upgrade: She and Wax gradually fall in love over the course of three books.
  • Second Love: She gradually becomes this for Wax over the course of the first three books, after the death (twice) of his first wife Lessie, culminating in their Relationship Upgrade at the end of The Bands Of Mourning.

    MeLaan 

MeLaan

The kandra who gave Wax his Pathian earring when he first moved to the Roughs. A major character in the second and third books. She had previously played a minor role in the original Mistborn novels.


    Allik 

A member of the airship from the southern half of the planet that the Set captured. He is one of the few survivors of their "questioning."


  • Human Alien: He comes off like this, despite being from the same planet. In the thousand years of the Lord Ruler's empire, his people had adapted to the boiling temperatures of the south, so when Harmony reshaped the world they started to freeze to death in mildly cold temperatures. In The Bands of Mourning, one of the running problems is that he needs to choose between his duralumin metalmind (which lets him understand the others) and his brass metalmind (which keeps him warm in the chilly temperatures of the high altitude).
  • Servile Snarker: He is religiously required to scrape and bow before all Metalborn (such as Wax) and use a different title for them every time he refers to them. There's no rule about the titles getting vaguely insulting, or mentioning that if he follows Wax's suggestion it would require him ignoring most of the obvious evidence in front of his own eyes.
  • Ship Tease: He clearly has a crush on Marasi, and gives her his broken mask when he leaves. We don't know exactly what that means in his culture, but judging by the reactions of his crewmembers, it's not normally something you do with someone you just met. By the start of The Lost Metal, they've been dating for a few years.
  • Sweet Baker: The Lost Metal reveals that he's a damn good pastry chef who enjoys cooking for people.

Allies

    Ranette 

Ranette

A gunsmith ally of Wax's who hates Wayne. Also a lurcher.


  • Chekhov's Gunman: Early in the story, Wax notes that his guns were made by Ranette, and that she's in town. Slightly later, Wayne tells Wax Ranette's exact address. It comes as no surprise that they pay her a visit before the story's end.
  • Dude, She's A Lesbian: Wax explains that "She's not interested in him [Wayne] that way. In fact I'm not sure she's interested in men at all." It's confirmed by Word of God and by her own confirmation of having a girlfriend in Shadows of Self that she's a lesbian.
  • Happily Married: To Jaxy in The Lost Metal.
  • Mundane Utility: She uses her Lurcher abilities to help her smith weapons by pulling tools off walls. She's even got levers set up in her house to open doors with Ironpulls so she can walk around with her hands full.
  • Ultimate Blacksmith: Of the gunsmithing variety.
  • Wrench Wench: She's a master gunsmith.

    Tillaume 

Tillaume

The Ladrian family butler.


    Telsin 

Telsin

Wax's sister; she goes missing in the first book thanks to the machinations of Mister Suit and serves as his motivation to hunt down the Set, and appears in person in The Bands of Mourning.


  • Berserk Button: The Set in general and Mister Suit in particular.
  • Broken Bird: A year and a half of imprisonment and implied rape have done a number on her. Not really.
  • Distressed Damsel: Held captive by the Set in an attempt to force Wax's cooperation.
  • The Mole: Turns out to be a leader of the very group Wax is trying to take down.
  • Rape as Drama: Heavily implied to have been raped during her captivity by the Set. Except not.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: A dedicated rule-breaker who eventually ends up staying with the Terris people, while her brother is obsessed with rules and laws who leaves them. She is also a high-ranking member of an evil Ancient Conspiracy while Wax is The Hero.
  • Sixth Ranger: Like Allik, she joins the group partway through The Bands of Mourning.
  • Spanner in the Works: Due to inexperience and her own anger, often messes up Wax's plans.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Filled with fury towards the Set and Suit in particular.

Elendel

    Lord Harms 

Lord Harms

The father of Steris and Marasi (with different women), who works to arrange a marriage between Steris and Wax.


  • Cool Old Guy: His reaction to Wax bursting into his office late at night with weapons drawn? To pull out his own pistol and declare to Wax that he's ready to take on whoever Wax is after.
  • Hidden Depths: He's not as bad as Steris. In fact, she's more in charge than he is.
  • Jerkass: At first, until Steris is kidnapped.

    Constable-General Brettin 

Constable-General Brettin

An Elendel constable who heads up the octant where most of the first book's action takes place.


    Aradel 

Constable-General Claude Aradel

Head of the Fourth Octant constables. He originally retired when he hit the glass ceiling caused by his non-noble bloodline, but was re-hired and promoted after Brettin retired. He is Marasi's direct superior.


  • Reasonable Authority Figure: His only goals are peace and law. He's willing to work with anyone who helps with that, from quasi-vigilantes like Wax to Faceless Immortals sent by God. After he becomes governor of Elendel, this trend continues. When Wax shows up with an airship from the other side of the planet, he complains a bit, but ultimately honors the deal Wax made.
  • Vague Age: His birthdate is unknown, due partly to the fact that he grew up poor and didn't pay attention to that sort of thing. He's estimated to be in his sixties, but no one knows for sure.
  • You Are in Command Now: Twice. First, after Brettin's sudden retirement, he gets tapped to head the Fourth Octant. Second, when he helps expose massive corruption in the noble houses (including the sitting governor), he is immediately elected interim governor. In the third book, he retains the position, meaning that he must have been elected at least once more.

    Sophi 

Sophi Tarcsel

Daughter of Remmington Tarcsel, an inventor who had his ideas stolen by Professor Hanalaze. She is at least as smart as her father and is fighting to continue his work and get him recognition for his achievements, after his death.


  • Gadgeteer Genius: She's one of the first people in Elendel to use electricity for anything more than light. She provided Governor Innate with loudspeakers, and she appears to be behind the invention of the telegram.
  • You Killed My Father: She accuses Professor Hanlanaze of this, calling him a monster who drove her father to his death. She is unaware that this is actually Wayne in disguise, and the accusation hits him very hard.

     Jak 

"Allomancer" Jak

A moronic, shortsighted yet well-intentioned Gentleman Adventurer who frequently appears in the various newspapers included in the books, and the Allomancer Jak short story in Arcanum Unbounded.


  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Invoked by Brandon:
    Whether he is actually the blowhard that his “faithful steward” implies he is, or whether he’s more of a quixotic adventurer with boundless optimism, he is supposed to present a certain level of inauthenticity.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his many embellishments, his extravagant foolishness, and being a complete fop, he does in fact manage to survive his adventures. Somehow.
  • The Fool: As Handerwym notes in his annotations, while Jak embellishes most of his stories, he does somehow manage to blunder his way to some true discoveries and victories despite the odds.
  • Gentleman Adventurer: A foppish Elendel dandy who writes about his escapades all over Scadrial. To his credit, he does go on his adventures (even if he embellishes them) compared to other so called "adventurers" who just hang out in smoking lounges telling false stories to each other.
  • God Was My Copilot: He repeatedly mentions a 'spirit guide' that visits him in the form of animals, which Haderwym notes that conveniently no one else has ever seen. It's likely that he's actually getting help from a Kandra... if it's true at all.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Maybe. Handerwym notes that many of his claims - for example, happening to find a tin deposit in the wall of a cave which he accessed by licking it - are complete nonsense. And yet he clearly did get out of the situation in question on his own, which raises the possibility he is playing the lying fool to cover his methods.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: In one of his writings he claims to absolutely hate Wax and consider him a great rival. Wax mentally dismisses Jak as a fop only better than other so called "Gentleman Adventurers" because he actually goes adventuring.
  • Stylistic Suck: His writing... is not nearly up to the same level as much of Brandon's usual work. Especially considering that according to Handerwym, he thinks that "Koloss" looks better with an exclamation point in the middle.
  • Super-Senses: He's a Tineye allomancer, which lets him heighten all of his senses at once.
  • Unreliable Narrator: Both Handerwym and Jak's lover Elizandra have called bullshit on his claims.

     Handerwym 

Jak's long-suffering, irritable, snarky, Beleaguered Assistant of a Terris steward. Also his editor.


  • And the Adventure Continues: He eventually has enough of Jak and leaves him, taking on a similar role to a different adventurer.
  • Beleaguered Assistant: Every annotation he leaves in the short story simply bleeds sarcasm.
  • Sarcastic Devotee: Considering his utter irritation with Jak, it can be hard to understand why he stays with the man.
    • Sometime in the six years between Shadows of Self and The Lost Metal Handerwym has finally had enough, and is now helping out another adventurer.
  • Servile Snarker: The snarkiest Terrisman in the series - and considering that this is even compared to Wax, Wayne, and Sazed, this is some stiff competition.
  • Translator Microbes: He is a Connection Ferring, the most obvious application of which is instant translation and adaptation whenever in a new land. It even works on Koloss.

The Roughs

    Lessie 

A fellow partner in crimefighting in the Roughs of Wax, as well as his wife. Wax gets tricked into accidentally killing her, resulting in him moving back to Elendel at the start of the series.


  • Battle Couple: She and Wax are married, and fight crime together.
  • The Lost Lenore: Her death haunts Wax throughout the story, serving as his Cynicism Catalyst even before he ends up killing her a second time.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: She dies in the prologue of the first book, without much focus, although the second book's prologue details her and Wax's first meeting, developing her a bit more. Outright Subverted in the rest of the second book as she turns out to be the not-so-dead Arc Villian Bleeder.

    Bloody Tan 

Bloody Tan

The villain of the prologue. A former mortician who turned to gruesome murders to create displays of "art" out in the Roughs. He was the last outlaw Wax brought in before returning to Elendel.


  • Axe-Crazy: Extremely violent and dangerous.
  • Dead Guy on Display: His M.O. Given his use of spikes, he could very likely be aware of Hemalurgy.
  • Mad Artist: He makes "art" out of the various corpses of his victims. He also does performance art, as in the "art" of tricking a husband into shooting his wife.
  • Serial Killer: Kills people and hangs them up in his lair.
  • Starter Villain: Not exactly Wax's first, but rather the first one the audience is introduced to.

The Set

    In General 

The main antangonistic force of the series. A conspriacy of many, generally upper class, figures pooling their resources together in an attempt to wrest control of the Basin for themselves. They worship a god named Trell, who plans to forge a new world out of Scadrial, a more disciplined and advanced world...that just so happens to be ruled by their chosen followers.


  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: Downplayed, as the Set is not overtly an allegory for Nazis, but they do have some noticable similarities, most apparent in The Lost Metal. They follow a strictly dogmatic ideology that promotes conformity into the greater whole, while death comes to those not part of that whole. They have a paramilitary arm that are portrayed as jackbooted fanatics. The Set also engages in human experiments, at one point on Southern Scadrians that they deem savages, and another point has them plan to use gas to execute unwanted test subjects.
  • Deck of Wild Cards: While it's not delved into deeply, given that the Set are generally mysterious and seen from the outside, it is made clear that pretty much every Set member is in some way trying to advance their position, most apparent amougst the higher-up members. The main rivalry depicted is between Mr. Suit/Edwarn Ladrian and Sequence/Telsin Ladrian
    • In The Bands of Mourning Edwarn attempts to find a way to upstage Telsin who mostly considers him an idiot, leading to both of them abandoning the other and trying to escape on their own at the climax. Edwarn ends up (physically) dying at the end of the book.
    • In The Lost Metal, Telsin has become the leader of the Set, and pushes forward their own plans in an attempt to become a god, while Gave Entrone tries to continue some of Edwarn's plans, attempting to keep themselves in Autonomy's good graces while expecting Telsin's plan to fail and get them killed.
  • Elite Mooks: The Hidden Guard, the most fanatical believers in the Set. They are most well-equipped and trained soldiers they have, and are used for guarding high-ranking Set members, and important locations.
  • Nebulous Evil Organization: The Set is a vast conspiracy across the Basin, having many schemes supporting various more minor antagonists throughout the series. They are ultimately working towards becoming the rulers of the Basin.

    Trell (Spoilers for The Lost Metal) 

Trell

Trell is a mysterious figure backing the Set, and a rival god to Harmony. The Lost Metal reveals it's an identity created by the god Autonomy, who intends to have her chosen avatar of Scadrial, Telsin Ladrian, inherit the identity when the ascend to godhood.

For more details on Telsin see her folder below under "Sequence", for more details on Autonomy see her folder here.


  • Ambiguous Situation: While Autonomy/Bavadin clarifies it's a created identity in The Lost Metal, much of the mythos around Trell is still unclear, particularly why Autonomy uses it in the first place, why they tried to insert the mythos into Ancient Scadrial, what is Trell's brother Nalt that was in that version of the mythos, and what, if any, connection does the foreman on Taldain, the planet Bavadin directly rules, has to the mythos.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Trell is a mysterious god backing the Set, and what they even are is a running mystery. The Lost Metal reveals Trell is an identity of Autonomy/Bavadin, who is responsible for many other things across the Cosmere.
  • Legacy Character: Autonomy/Bavadin used the identity when first contacting the Set, and they intend to give it to Telsin Ladrian who will use it once they become a god and rule Scadrial for Autonomy.

Leadership

    Mister Suit 

Mister Suit / Edwarn Ladrian

The man who helped finance the Vanishers, he is somewhat put off by the Masked Man's theatrics, but goes along regardless.


  • Aristocrats Are Evil: He's behind the events of most of Era 2, kidnapping women with Allomantic abilities or descended from Allomancers, attempting to assassinate the governor of Elendel and so much more.
  • Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Unwillingly. One of Trell's spiritual servants kills him, but assures him that he will continue to serve in other realms. He isn't reassured.
  • The Chessmaster: He's behind several major plots throughout the series, generally using proxies for his grand plans. He also manages to use his planning skills to outplay Wax on multiple occasions. He is himself contributing to the large plans of the Set, which have timetables in centuries.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Thanks to Hemalurgy he is a coinshoot, leecher and bloodmaker.
  • Demoted to Dragon: After being the Greater Scope Villian of the first two books, being set up as the Big Bad, he turns out to be subordinate to his own niece in The Bands of Mourning, the actual Big Bad.
  • Empowered Badass Normal: He has several misting abilities granted through Hemalurgy by The Bands of Mourning.
  • Expy: Bears a resemblance to Mr. Morton from Once Upon a Time in the West, an ordinary determined to progress with his railway, served by a henchman with motives of his own and who has a past with the hero.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He assumes that everyone is exactly like him—selfish, manipulative—and that he's just better at it. He muses at length about the Originators, thinking that they did everything they did out of greed and lust for power. He thinks Wax went out to the Roughs not for justice, but because life in the city was "too hard." He also thinks that all lawmen are just murderers who found a way to kill people legally. This last one proves his downfall, as he gets into a pistol duel with Wax. He is caught off guard when Wax just tanks Edwarn's shot and captures him. According to Wax, a lawman's real job is to take the hit so someone else doesn't have to.
  • Evil Uncle: Wax already had issues with his uncle, Edwarn, before he became known as Mister Suit, and started backing many destructive schemes.
  • Fantastic Racism: He hates everyone who doesn't fit into his narrow view of what is right and proper. He hates poor people, non-nobles, people from outside Elendel, Terrisfolk... He even refers to the Southern Scadrians as savages despite the fact that he is stealing their superior technology. His dislike towards Terrisfolk bites him back during his final confrontation with his nephew: he Leeches Wax's Allomantic reserves, but fails to consider that the latter can also use Feruchemy.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He can certainly turn up the charm, but it's all a front.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: For the first two books, as he stays in the background as the man behind The Vanishers and Bleeder. The hunt to catch him only comes to a head in the third book.
  • Karma Houdini: Escapes the first book unscathed, and is a recurring villain for two more. While he does get caught, and blown to bits by his superiors, its indicated that they had his soul preserved, so he's still at large.
  • Mad Scientist: His journal implies he is sponsoring Hemalurgy experiments.
  • The Man Behind the Man: He's the Greater-Scope Villain who enables the ArcVillains in the first two books. Though he turns out to be part of a larger conspriacy, and part of the middle ranks at that.
  • Nerves of Steel: He qualifies through the entire series for his willingness to stare down armed men while unarmed himself. But what really cinches it is his standing up to Wax when he has the powers of a Physical God.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: As per his pseudonym, he looks very striking in his (expensive) suits.
  • Smug Snake: He spends every second of his screen time looking down on everyone. If they're good, honest people, he looks down on them as naive fools. If they're even slightly morally gray, he ascribes them dark motives and mocks them for trying to hide such things. The worst part is that he genuinely is extremely competent, and gets away with everything he does. It is very satisfying in The Bands of Mourning when Wax first captures him, then he gets blown up by one of Trell's immortals.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He's fond of this one.
    • The Vanishers were never meant to last long. The stolen metals and the insurance fraud were both covers for kidnapping Metalborn women for breeding, and some of his moles planted among the Vanishers testified that Miles raped and murdered the women.
    • A minor noble in an outlying village is killed when Wax discovers her involvement, and a servant instantly starts crying that she saw Wax do it.
    • He himself suffers a variant of this. His immortal employers thank him for not breaking while imprisoned, then blow him up. But he had merely outlived his usefulness in the Physical Realm. He will be quite useful in the Cognitive and Spiritual Realms.

    Sequence (Spoilers for The Bands of Mourning) 

Sequence / Telsin Ladrian

Wax's sister, who far from being kidnapped and in need of rescue, is in truth the Big Bad of the entire series, a high-ranking member of the Set who is Mister Suit's superior. Making in first appearance in The Bands of Mourning she comes back as Wax's biggest and most personal threat for the finale in The Lost Metal.


  • Achilles' Heel: She has Complete Immortality by the end of The Lost Metal, thanks to Autonomy granting her some of their power. However, the rapid influx of that power means that Telsin's body is overstreched, and relies on that connection to Autonomy to keep functioning. Harmony is able to knock her out by disrupting that connection for a time. When Telsin fails all Autonomy has to do is simply stop granting Telsin their power, at which point she suffers a full on Death by Depower.
  • Ambition is Evil: She may have been a decent person at one point, but her own ambitions for power have completely consumed her. By the time she's trying to nuke a whole city for her own gain, it is clear her actions have gone beyond the pale.
  • Big Bad: Of whole series overall, as she was the one who recuited Mister Suit, even though she doesn't appear until late in the The Bands of Mourning alongside Suit. Becomes the primary villain of the The Lost Metal, while her superior Autonomy stays a Greater-Scope Villain to be saved for the next Mistborn series.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Wayne blasts her point-blank with a shotgun. She lives, though.
  • Cain and Abel: She's Wax's sister Telsin, and even shoots him and leaves him for dead.
  • The Chosen One: The Avatar of Autonomy, though downplayed - Autonomy is fickle and respects only success, leading her god to prefer her heroic brother in the end despite his opposition.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Thanks to hemalurgy, she can have any allomatic power, and can also change which spike she's using to get a different power.
  • Complete Immortality: Harmony speculates that by the climax of The Lost Metal, she has become so heavily invested by Autonomy that she just can't die via physical means. Disrupting her connection with Autonomy is the only way to kill her.
  • Control Freak: After talking with her, Wax comes to the conclusion that Telsin's primarily motivated by getting more control over others. Telsin herself is more than happy to discuss how much better things would be if only she was in charge, as well as frame herself as having a superior position to others.
  • Dark Action Girl: Not so handy with a gun, but deadly with her hemalurgic powers.
  • Death by Depower: Her beginning to ascend to godhood throughout The Lost Metal results in her physical body being pushed beyond its limits by the power, causing her body to fail when its disrupted, with Telsin ending up in a notably worse condition after Harmony distrupts Autonomy's power. After Telsin's plan fails, Autonomy deliberately withdraws her power.
  • Deity of Human Origin: Like most deities in the Cosmere. her transformation comes from becoming an avatar of Autonomy, gradually ascending throughout The Lost Metal. At least until Telsin's plan fails at which point Autonomy pulls the plug. That does not go well for Telsin.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She's got some affection for Wax. She had some reservations about shooting Wax, and she warns Wax away from her plans in The Lost Metal, claiming that she still cares for him and wants him to survive. While Wax does call her out as more just wanting him out of the equation, she still gives him a warning and opportunity to leave. At least, until Wax keeps going, and in their final confrontation, she snaps and admits that she's hated him for decades.
  • Evil All Along: Wax thought his sister was kidnapped by the Set, but she turns out to have been a high-ranking member.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Gets hit with a very specific type, not realizing that her brother has grown as a person and basing her plans on what the old Wax would have done is ultimately what gets her killed.
  • Evil Is Petty: Carried a decades long grudge against Wax because he judges the mischief she caused as a child.
  • Evil Versus Oblivion: In The Lost Metal, she sees herself in this position, conquering the world with a horrific cost to save it from obliteration by Autonomy's army. Emphasis on the sees herself portion of that statement.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Can put on a solid front of being benevolent or caring about her brother, but deep down she's fundamentally selfish and doesn't care about what she has to do to achieve her goals.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: She is a Bloodmaker, among other things. Wayne realizes after he shoots her, and as he decides to spare her, he just leaves and Telsin heals back.
  • Godhood Seeker: Her main motivation is to become a god, so she can prove herself superior to Wax and rule over the entire Basin.
  • The Heavy: Qualfies as both this and Big Bad, as she is responsible for most of what happens in the series, though doesn't truly become The Heavy until The Lost Metal, thanks to coming into full prominence and the one she serves, Autonomy, appearing but staying as a Greater-Scope Villain.
  • Hidden Disdain Reveal: At the climax of The Lost Metal she reveals she's hated Wax since childhood, because he judged the various antics she got up to as a child.
  • Iron Lady: Not as old as some, but she's getting on in age to the point where her hair is grey. She's still not a woman you want to mess with.
  • It's All About Me: Underneath all her pretensions she's just a Control Freak looking to settle a perceived grudge with her brother to prove to herself how much better she is than him, and, for that matter, everyone else.
  • Man Behind the Man: She is Suit's superior and the one who recruited him.
  • Manipulative Bastard: A pretty effective manipulator, especially where her brother is concerned. However, in The Lost Metal Wax begins to catch on to her tricks, and ultimately manages to outplay her.
  • Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: In The Lost Metal she claims that her plan to nuke Elendel is necessary to prevent Scadrial from getting scoured by Autonomy's armies. However the plan would also happen to impress Autonomy enough to make Telsin a god, and it becomes clear that is what Telsin is really after, with any benevolence coming from a place of proving herself right than actual care.
  • Nuke 'em: In The Lost Metal she plans to use what is effectively a nuclear bomb to wipe Elendel off the map, to impress Autonomy into selecting Telsin to become Trell. The plan isn't quite as insane as it first apears, as Telsin plans to frame Elendel for making the bomb, and amanging to accidentally blow themselves up, therefore not causing their allies to cut ties out of disgust at what the Set did, while the Set "recovers" the technology to use it to deter the Malwish from trying to exploit the crisis and invade.
  • Special Snowflake Syndrome: Her city shows mass produced individuality, which even Autonomy notes is missing the point. For example all the buildings are unique, but made by the same architect in the same Brutalist style, and fliers and advertisements promoting individuality are cranked out by the hundreds.
  • Supervillain Lair: The central skyscraper of her city. It even includes the traditional superweapon, meant to deliver a bomb to Elendel. It's actually a deliberately Invoked example, as it's meant to be a large presence Telsin uses as a decoy to try and burn time for her actual method of bomb delivery, via boat.
  • The Unfought: Wax realizes that he doesn't stand a chance in a fair fight against an avatar of Autonomy, without getting into her likely Complete Immortality making fighting her pointless, so he has Harmony incapacitate Telsin while he stops her plan. She dies when Autonomy withdraws her power as punishment for failure.
  • Visionary Villain: Like the rest of the Set, she deplores the current state of society and wants to overthrow the government in Elendel. Preferably with her in charge.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's a bit difficult to talk about her without mentioning that she is Wax's Evil All Along sister Telsin.

    Gave Entrone 

Originally appearing as a nobleman in The Bands Of Mourning, Gave Entrone returns in The Lost Metal as the mayor of Bilming, serving as a secondary antagonist in the book.


  • Chekhov's Gunman: In The Bands of Mourning he was just one Set-aligned nobleman amoung many, only really appearing in one scene, primarily notable for how much of a Jerkass he was. In The Lost Metal he shows up as the mayor of Bilming, where the main story takes place, and given several more scenes and plot importance, bumping him up to being a proper antagonist, and the most prominent one outside of Telsin and Autonomy.
  • Flat-Earth Atheist: Seems to think that since he's not a Pathian, the religion of Harmony, it means Harmony and their servants fabrications that can be ignored, even dismissing a Kandra showing themselves in front of him as a mere puppet. Though since he's a Set member, he knows Harmony is real, meaning this is likely an act to get under the heroes nerves. An act he keeps up even as what viewed as the incarantion of Death itself shows up in person to make demands. note 
    Entrone: I'm not of your religion...
    Ironeyes: Death is not a religion. It is a fact.
    Entrone: But-
    Ironeyes: How would you like to die, mortal? And when? Quietly? In the night, of a failing heart? Drowning, on one of your new ships as it sinks? Here? Right now? Crushed by the weight of your own stupidity?
    Entrone: As you demand Ironeyes, it shall be done.
  • Jerkass: Entrone does not seem to know how to not be a complete asshole to everyone around him. Every other line he says is some form of an insult, and he doesn't hesitate to go for low blows, not to mention his haughty attitude and prejudice.
  • Mayor Pain: The Evil. Aside from already being a Jerkass, he is a member of the Set, and mayor of a city where they are conduction major operations. So when the heroes come to that city investigating those operations, its no shock he takes great pleasure in being very obstructive. And thats without getting into the mysterious disappearances of his critics, and how they turn up as test subjects for Set experiments.

Operatives

    Bleeder 

Paalm/Bleeder

The Arc Villain of the second book, an insane kandra who removed one of her Hemalurgic spikes so that Harmony couldn't control her.


  • The Ace: She is the fastest shapeshifter alive (barring TenSoon) and was Harmony's personal agent, handpicked for her talent and devotion.
  • Arc Villain: While Mr. Suit remains pullling strings throughout Shadows of Self, it's Bleeder who serves as the main and most active threat. She intends to start a revolution in Luthadel against Harmony to "free" it from him, with combating her plan being the main thing the heroes put their efforts to in the book.
  • Blood Magic: Even more so than normal kandra. She removed one of her two spikes (which keeps Harmony from controlling her, but makes her a little crazy), and steals Metalborn abilities by using those spikes as her own. She even developed a new hemalurgic construct, which even the Lord Ruler never figured out how to do.
  • Bodyguard Crush: What her relationship with Wax developed into.
  • Bodyguarding a Badass: She was sent to the Roughs to keep Wax safe. He definitely needed the help in the beginning, but grew into it.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Subverted twice.
    • In the prologue of book one, Wax apparently accidentally killed her when Tan moved her head in the way of his shot. Of course, as a kandra, it was little more than mildly annoying.
    • In the climax of book 2, Wax shoots her in the head again. She's perplexed, as a bullet can't kill her... until she realizes it's a special bullet he forged out of his Pathian earring, meaning she now has a second spike in her, and Harmony can control her.
  • Cynicism Catalyst: For Wax. Invoked by Harmony, who needed some impetus for him to return to Elendel.
  • Discard and Draw: She can only use one Hemalurgic spike at a time, or Harmony could control her.
  • Driven to Suicide: She refuses to be controlled again, and lets her body self-destruct when Harmony tries to take her.
  • Faking the Dead: When Wax accidentally shot her. Kandra are good at that.
  • It's Personal: One of the things that confuses Wax is that she makes the case all about him for some reason, even taking on Bloody Tan's shape to draw his attention. Of course, since she's Lessie, the entire thing started because she didn't want him to be Harmony's pawn.
  • Mole in Charge: She took Governor Innate's place an unknown time before the events of book 2.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels: She was the Lord Ruler's personal kandra assassin, and served Harmony with equal loyalty. Except when he ordered her to bring Wax back to Elendel. She decided that Wax would be far happier out in the Roughs, and refused. Eventually, the Bloody Tan incident happened, and she came back with a spike made from an unknown metal to tear Harmony down.
  • Something Only They Would Say: She repeats one of the first things Lessie says to Wax while wearing her face. Considering that Lessie was supposed to be dead, the only way Bleeder could know that is if she was Lessie.
  • Super-Speed: She uses a Steelrunner spike for most of the second book.
  • Villainous Crush: Definitely cranks the Foe Romance Subtext through the roof whenever interacting with Wax. This is because she was his wife, and still loves him very much despite the crazy.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: She's the fastest kandra shapeshifter alive, short of TenSoon.
  • Walking Spoiler: Amazing what one book can do.
  • Wrong Context Magic: She somehow managed to get ahold of a godmetal made from one of the other Shards.

    Dumad and Getruda 

A duo of set members who deliberately mimic Wax and Wayne, who have been whole focused for years on ruthlessly training to beat them. They are an attempt by the Set to counter Wax and Wayne's effectiveness as a duo by creating their own superior versions of Wax and Wayne. They have several fights with their counterparts throughout The Lost Metal.


  • Crippling Overspecialization: These two have been preparing for years for their fights with Wax and Wayne, specifically for the one they are imitating, and nothing else. Combining that with their Hemalurgy-enhanced powers, Dumad and Getruda actually do pretty well against Wax and Wayne. Until the nothing else part comes to bite them. When Wax and Wayne start using atypical tactics, or fight the one that is not imitating them, their Evil Counterparts can't adapt.
  • Evil Counterpart: Invoked. They are the Set's own attempt to create a version of Wax and Wayne that works for them, in the attempt to outdo the original duo at their own game. Results questionable.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: When asked why exactly they are so determined to mimic strangers, they effectively answer that doing so is the way for them to gain positions of real prominence.
    Getruda: You ever been nothin', Dawnshot? No. You've always been somebody. Had two names. Even when you ran, you still had the money...the knowledge...a life spent knowin' that you were in charge of yourself. Running away was a luxury for someone like you. Well, we don't all have that. Some of us, we take the chances we're given. And becoming someone we're not? Well, that's temptin'.
  • Irony: Their entire purpose was to prevent Wax and Wayne from stopping the Set's plans. At the climax of The Lost Metal, Wax and Wayne need to make a massive jump onto a ship in order to stop the Set's plans. They are only able to do this because of Dumad and Getruda's existence, as the duraluminum spikes on their bodies allow Wax the power necessary to make a Steelpush strong enough to reach the ship. The Set would have actually succeeded if they hadn't made Dumad and Getruda.
  • Sucksessor: They are intended to be superior versions of Wax and Wayne to take their place in the new world under Trell. However, they only copy the surface of the duo, missing their Hidden Depths, making themselves pale imitations. Furthermore, while they are good at fighting Wax and Wayne, they are only good at fighting Wax and Wayne, specifically the one they are imitating and the versions of them they understand. When the more well-rounded Wax and Wayne start fighting differently than they usually do, Dumad and Getruda can't keep up and lose.

    Push and Pull 

Push and Pull

Two bodyguards on loan to the Masked Man from Mr. Suit.


The Vanishers

    The Masked Man 

Miles "Hundredlives" Dagouter

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/miles_8.jpg

The leader of the Vanishers, he hates nobles and everything they stand for.


  • Born in the Wrong Century: According to Wax, he would have been a hero if he'd been born in the Final Empire, somewhat like Kelsier.
  • Dragon with an Agenda: To Mister Suit.
  • Fallen Hero: Was once a heroic lawman until he decides the nobility are the real criminals.
  • Feel No Pain: He's survived so many wounds that would kill an ordinary person that nothing hurts him anymore. This is because he's Miles Hundredlives, famous Gold Compounder.
  • Glory Hound: Claims his over the top theatrical heists are meant to obscure the real purpose of the robberies. But he's clearly bitter about not being better regarded as a lawman, and feels a particular thrill at peoples awe at his crimes.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Pretty much everything he does relies on him being able to heal from almost anything. This includes jumping from a high building and instantly reknitting his bones upon contact with the ground, and detonating dynamite in his own hand to try to kill people.
  • Healing Factor: Due to his ability to Allomantically burn his Feruchemical stores of health, he has a truly ridiculous one. He doesn't need strong bones because they've already started healing before they've even finished breaking. He even shoot himself in the face to demonstrate his power to his men, using a shotgun. However, the power is also given a deconstruction. Since he needs to use gold to burn in order to use his abilities, he needs to have a job that is extremely high paying in order to keep himself alive, something that Wax is aware of and uses as his way of realizing that Miles is working for someone of exceptional wealth.
  • The Heavy: He's the main villain of The Alloy of Law. Though Mr. Suit/Edwarn Ladrian is the ultimate string-puller, The Masked Man is the one the protagonists are most concerned about dealing with in The Alloy of Law.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: While the nobles he opposes aren't the best of people, he and his gang are a lot worse.
  • Honor Before Reason: Or so he claims. His actions don't quite match up with that.
  • Hypocrite: Still looks down on Wax for showing mercy on repentant murderer Wayne, despite operating an entire gang of mercenary trigger happy cutthroats.
  • Implacable Man: Because he's Miles Dagouter.
  • Jumped Off The Slippery Slope: Became a criminal because being a lawman didn't stop criminals from existing.
  • Knight Templar: Left no survivors when he worked as a lawkeeper.
  • Lawman Gone Bad: Miles was once a good, if Knight Templar -ish, lawman but turned to evil when he decided that the political figures he worked for were the real criminals.
  • Logical Weakness: His Healing Factor makes him virtually invulnerable to harm, but it doesn't make him any physically stronger. He can be trapped by ropes or nets, which he is generally prepared for. He is eventually brought down by being swarmed by over a hundred constables who manage to wrestle him down until they can tie him up and remove his metalminds.
  • Make Sure He's Dead: Shot three times in the head postmortem by one of the constables who was among his executioners on the firing line, just to be sure. A Justified Trope due to his reputation and abilities.
  • Nigh-Invulnerable: With his healing powers active he can shrug off gunshot wounds to the head and dynamite wounds almost immediately.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Miles is a more brutal version of Kelsier. Wax even admits that Miles probably would have been considered a hero had he been born during the time of the Final Empire.
  • Obfuscating Disability: He fakes a gunshot wound so that Wax won't suspect him of being Miles, renowned Gold Compounder.
  • Rasputinian Death: Considering his nature, this is inevitable: the firing squad had to lay into him with five volleys before he finally died. But what makes it particularly impressive is that they stripped him of his goldminds first, meaning that he survived getting shot dozens of times at once, five times, using only his remaining reserves of ingested gold.
  • Red Baron: His alias in the Roughs is Miles Hundredlives, attributed to the fact that his compounded Healing Factor has allowed him to survive countless injuries that would be fatal to a normal human.
  • Shadow Archetype: Miles is what Wax could become if he let his drive to right wrongs convince him to be Judge, Jury, and Executioner regardless of the law. Both of them are aware of it, too.

    Tarson 

Tarson

A koloss-blooded pewterarm who is one of the top enforcers of the gang.


Harmony and Servants

    Harmony 

The current god of Scadrial, vessel of Preservation and Ruin


See here for his tropes now, and here for Sazed's time before godhood.

    Ironeyes 

Ironeyes/Marsh

Death himself. Named for the iron spikes still smashed into his eyes.


  • Ascended Demon: He's still the most powerful Steel Inquisitor ever made, and was the primary weapon of Ruin during the events of the original trilogy. Now he works for a far more benevolent God and is no longer under mind control.
  • The Atoner: He works with Harmony in the protection of Scadrial to make up for the damage he did as Ruin's pawn.
  • Combo Platter Powers: Due to his resistance against Ruin, he was given more spikes to control him more easily, more than 20 including at least the powers Allomantic steel, iron, pewter, tin, brass, zinc, duralumin, and atium, as well as granting him at least the abilities of Feruchemical pewter, steel, gold, and atium. Because Ferrings were unknown before the Catacendre, he likely has the full Feruchemist power set in addition, allowing him compounding for a great number of abilities.
  • Creepy Good: Works with Harmony, but is extremely off-putting. It's bad enough that he has railroad spikes where his eyes should be, and dozens of other spikes all over his body if you were in a position to look. He also uses emotional allomancy to interact with people without causing panic, and is VERY heavy-handed about it. For example, he first draws Marassi in with irresistible curiosity and then deadens all her emotions to stop her from panicking. She would have found it terrifying except she COULDN'T at the time...
  • Don't Fear the Reaper: While he's really creepy, he's working with Harmony on behalf of the people of Scadrial. In fact, he's technically not even the reaper at all.
  • The Dreaded: As one would expect. He uses his reputation in The Lost Metal to get Wax and friends out of jail and avoid all of the political drama.
  • Friendly Address Privileges: After bailing them out of jail in The Lost Metal, he tells Wax and friends to call him Marsh, saying that it's nice to hear his old name sometimes.
  • The Grim Reaper: Scadrian legend portrays him as the personification of Death, and by The Lost Metal the stories are spreading to other worlds.
  • In Place of an Eye: Like all Steel Inquisitors, he has hemalurgic spikes through his eye sockets, granting some of his powers. The effect is magnified by being Shrouded in Myth as one of the last relics of the previous age.
  • Last of His Kind: He's the last of the Steel Inquisitors, and due to the changes in Ruin following Harmony's ascension Khriss suspects that the human body simply isn't capable of holding that many spikes in it so none will follow after him.
  • Out of Continues: He is still alive due to manipulation of atium to change his age via Feruchemy, much like the Lord Ruler. Unlike the Lord Ruler, his supply of atium is very limited, due to it needing to be from the existing amount before Ruin was merged into Harmony, especially without Ruin's Shardpool. By The Lost Metal, roughly 300 years after that fall, he finally runs out, until Harmony learns of Wax's experiment in splitting Harmonium.
  • Psychopomp: Apparently, Harmony liked the mythology that developed around Marsh enough that he sometimes invests Ironeyes with the ability to greet souls as they pass through Shadesmar into the Beyond.
  • Rule-Abiding Rebel: Ironeyes disagrees with Harmony on how to solve the problems of the future, but also notes that Harmony's own rules mean that he won't stop him from interfering. Which is good for him, since (as we saw in Era 1) if Harmony really feels like stopping him there's nothing he can do about it.
  • Scars Are Forever: Still has the scars on his face from his last fight with the Preservation-infused Vin, particularly the damage to one of his eye spikes.

Kandra

    In General 

Shapeshifting hemalurgic creations of the Lord Ruler who require bones as a foundation to hold any reasonable shape. They serve Harmony now as his "Faceless Immortals."


  • Blood Magic: Created by it, using Mistwraiths as a base rather than humans.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Kandra that have managed to find their identity tend towards this in various ways, since the centuries give you plenty of time to accumulate eccentricities.
  • Cannibalism Superpower: For a loose definition of cannibalism, since Kandra consider themselves a different species. Kandra can perfectly mimic any body they've eaten.
  • Face Stealer: Kandra typically use people's corpses to assume their forms, unless they're using a True Body.
  • Gender Bender: Although kandra identify themselves as male or female, their True Bodies often reflect this and others refer to them as "he" or "she", they are unable to reproduce and they can change their sex at will. Sometimes it is necessary (when they need to impersonate someone), but some do it on a whim, to try something new, as MeLaan explains to Marasi.
  • Immortality: Kandra live forever until they are killed, though truly ancient kandra beginning to look opaque implies there may be a top end. But whatever that is, it's long enough that in well over a thousand years no kandra has died of old age.
  • Immune to Bullets: They can just reform their bodies around any wound, though they can still be inconvenienced.
  • Non-Action Guy: Many Kandra have a religious taboo, dating to their days under the Lord Ruler, against harming or killing any living thing.
  • Kryptonite Factor: Kandra can be killed by acid, and there is a chemical that paralyzes them while forcing them to revert to their natural semi-gelatinous state. Also, while their bodies are largely impervious to harm they are vulnerable to having their bones broken.
  • Loss of Identity: Kandra (especially older ones) often have trouble finding an identity for themselves when they aren't impersonating someone.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Harmony uses them as his hands among the people. They cover most angel tropes, except for the part where they were created through a dark art that requires bloody murder. The people of the Elendel basin are aware of this, but still revere them as "Faceless Immortals."
  • Stronger with Age: Not due to increasing powers per se, but shapeshifting is a skill that requires centuries of practice to really master.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: While skill varies on an individual level, they all have a lot of control of their anatomy. More skilled Kandra can design bodies at will, less skilled must replicate a body they've eaten.

    TenSoon 

TenSoon

A kandra who appears at the end of book one impersonating a constable (only confirmed per Word of God) and is a major character in the second book.


  • Animalistic Abomination: He qualifies for this in all ways, except that he's a good guy.
  • Due to the Dead: Keeps his wolfhound body in the modern era in memory of Vin.
  • Famed In-Story: His wolfhound body is known as "the Guardian," and young kids are given stuffed "Soonie cubs" to play with a la teddy bears on Earth. He's not amused.
  • Not Quite Dead: His mind was repaired after the events of the original series.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: He is repeatedly cited as the best shapeshifter among the kandra.

    VenDell 

VenDell

A kandra assigned by Harmony to aid the crew at several points, particularly when MeLaan isn't available. He has a stuffy personality and a fondness for collecting skeletons


  • Aborted Arc: Kinda of. It is mentioned at one point that his jacket seems to have become lighter in color, which prompted a reader to ask if VenDell can use BioChromatic Breath from Warbreaker and was told by Sanderson to RAFO (read and find out), which would imply that VenDell is a worldhopper. However a month later Sanderson stated that the kandra had simply changed his jacket.
  • British Stuffiness: Not British obviously, but he has such a characteristic posh manner that he is instantly recognizable regardless of his current body. Wayne even offers to give him tips.
  • Collector of the Strange: He likes skeletons, the more unusual the better, and waxes poetic about their being a sign of permanence after death.
  • Master of Disguise: A rare aversion among the Kandra. While he tries his best, his natural stuffiness tends to bleed through.
  • Non-Action Guy: He holds to the usual Kandra taboo about refusing to fight or kill, in contrast to MeLaan. Though, if pressed, he is willing to be a Bulletproof Human Shield.
  • Running Gag: His nonchalantly offering to buy someone's skeleton. After they die, naturally.
  • The Smart Guy: He has made a detailed study of Investiture and its nature, and knows a great deal about both history and bones.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He backs away at the mere mention of acid — one of the few ways to kill a kandra efficiently.

Ghostbloods (Spoilers for The Lost Metal and The Stormlight Archive)

    In General 

A secret society of worldhoppers, led by Thaidakar, also known as Kelsier. They recruit talent from across the Cosmere, and their primary goals involve development and research into technologies and uses for Investiture, as well as the protection of Scadrial from existential threats.

Notably several members are characters seen before in the Cosmere, or who have direct connections to things introduced previously.


  • Covert Group: The Ghostbloods are heavily secretive with their activities and membership, only showing themselves to people they are trying to recruit. This actually pushes away one potential, Marasi, as she disagrees with how many secrets they keep, not finding it beneficial to the common good.
  • Dimensional Traveller: All of the organization's members are capable Worldhoppers who can travel through Shadesmar to other planets.
  • Fantastic Racism: Downplayed to Fantastic Nationalism. They don't have any ideology stating that people from Scadrial are better than anyone else. But their ultimate agenda is keeping Scadrial safe, and everything else is secondary. On other worlds this means they're likely to appear as villains.
  • Powers as Programs: One of their goals is to democratize Investiture-based powers, finding a way to allow anyone to use any ability. Any breakthrough in storing Investiture, or decoupling powers from Identity or a Shard's intentions is of great interest to them. Hemallurgy in its current state isn't enough. In addition to being cruel, the method is also profoundly wasteful; the Ghostbloods want the option to create Metalborn among the population in great numbers, without needing to sacrifice a person each time. This goal has led them to research the Investiture of other worlds, such as the Highstorms of Roshar. This is presumably all part of their goal to protect Scadrial; the more Metalborn the world has, and the more easily they can use their power, the more ready they will be when another Shard's world attacks.
  • Translator Microbes: They have a way to manipulate their Connection so that they can speak the language of the planet they are on.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Of the Heel–Face Revolving Door variety, mostly because of context. If you're Scadrian then they're a powerful alliance of secretive superheroes keeping you safe from otherworldly threats. If you are, for example, Rosharan, then they're a secretive alliance of otherworldly supervillains willing to do almost anything to further their own ends.
  • Wrong Context Magic: When certain members use Investiture or other power sources on worlds that are not their native ones, it comes across as completely foreign to the native inhabitants, who have never seen such a thing. Notably what they do is actually gets called magic, as Cosmere magic systems are generally referred to by the proper names of the magic system, those who live with them considering them normal. Moonlight directly points out how what's normal to one person comes off as magic to another, and vice-versa.

    Thaidakar 

Kelsier/Thaidakar

Thought dead, Kelsier found a way to come back. He has spent the centuries since saving the Southern Scadrians via showing them unsealed heatminds, as well as founding the worldhopping organization known as the Ghostbloods, with him as its leader, Thaidakar.

See here for him in Era 1.


  • Amplifier Artifact: Crafted a spearhead that lets the user become a Physical God.
  • Back from the Dead: After his physical death, Preservation allowed him to persist in the Cognitive Realm rather than be drawn into the Beyond, and he and Spook later got him back into a physical body through unknown means involving Hemalurgy.
  • Blood Magic: Appears to have come back to life with an unknown application of Hemalurgy, binding his spirit to a physical body.
  • Brought Down to Normal: His return to life didn't bring his Mistborn powers with it, and Hemalurgy doesn't work on him beyond keeping him alive.
  • Covered in Scars: Still has the scars on his arms from the Pits of Hathsin.
  • Eye Scream: Uses a single hemalurgic eye spike, like those of the Steel Inquisitors.
  • Hidden Agenda Hero: For a given measure of "hero", anyways. He is apparently looking to get his Allomancy back and find a way to mass-produce lerasium so that everyone on Scadrial will get access to Allomancy.
  • Messianic Archetype: He is this for Southern Scadrians, having taught them how to create unsealed brassminds and thus allowing them to survive the freezing temperatures that the Catecendre inadvertedly brought to their lands.
  • Pals with Jesus: They're still friendly enough to meet up, but their relationship has been strained by their differing philosophies. As of The Lost Metal, they're both keeping secrets from each other.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: He happily lends his aid to Marasi to help stop the Set. When she rejects membership to the Ghostbloods, he orders that she is not to be harmed, but complains that he might need to move their Elendel base.
  • Villain of Another Story: He's a hero to Scadrial and a major ally in the fight against Trell/Autonomy, but in The Stormlight Archive his Ghostbloods are seen as dangerous foreign agents maniulating events for their own benfits, and not without reason.

    Moonlight 

A member of the Ghostbloods who introduces herself to Marasi to try and recruit her. She acts under on outward identity of "Kim".

She is Wan ShaiLu the protagonist of The Emperor's Soul, for details on her appearance there see here.


  • Ambiguously Brown: On Scadrial, because it is not her own world, although she is less brown and closer to a real-world Asian (small stature, epicanthic folds and high cheekbones).
  • Death of Personality: Her Elantrian Essence Mark can stick permanently, effectively killing Wan Shai Lu as a person.
  • A God Am I: When she becomes an Elantrian she views herself as a divinity.
  • Split Personality: Her Essence Marks grant her a weaponized version of this.
  • Uncertain Doom: It is mentioned in the epilogue of The Lost Metal that she vanished after using her Essence Mark and that the Ghostbloods is trying to track her. While she is definitely still alive, in some form, it is unclear is she's suffered a Death of Personality from using her Elantrian Essence Mark.

    Prasanva and Silajana 

Silajana is an Aether, a crystalline entity that is claimed to predate Adonalsium, and Prasanva is their Aetherbound, an elderly gentleman. Their reason for joining the Ghostbloods is to gather allies to defeat the "dark Aether" that is infesting their world.

Notably, unlike his comrades, Prasanva is a newly introduced character.


  • Crystal Weapon: They can create roseite weapons at will. Or, with enough investiture on hand, a massive roseite golem with Prasanva embedded inside.
  • Imagination-Based Superpower: Prasanva can use his Aether to create constructs of roseite, although this draws on his body's water reserves. On Scadrial, which lacks an innate Investiture field, these constructs quickly disintegrate when not in contact with his body.
  • Martial Pacifist: Given the option, they prefer not to fight, and try to give enemies a chance to stand down peacefully. If that chance isn't taken, they're a force to be reckoned with.
  • Mundane Utility: Silajana can create cups, spectacles and maps.
  • Symbiotic Possession: Prasanva and Silajana seem to be in a healthy and friendly relationship.
  • Touched by Vorlons: He has a bud of roseite planted in his hand.
  • You Can't Go Home Again: His homeworld has been taken over by a dark aether and he cannot go back to it. His reason for joining the Ghostbloods is to gather enough allies to try and defeat the aether.

    Codenames 

A rather hyperactive agent working with Moonlight. While called Codenames, it's a shortened version of her full name, Codenames Are Stupid.

She is Kaise who intially appeared in Elantris


  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Word of God is that she has ADHD.
  • Continuity Nod: She is described by Marasi as "somewhat plump." In Elantris several characters comment on her being a big eater, and she constantly pesters Kiin for cooking, so it would make sense that she is on the chubbier side.
  • Cunning Linguist: She speaks at least six languages and considers Connection-based translation cheating.
  • Gratuitous Foreign Language: In-universe. She curses in foreign languages when she loses an argument.
  • Mission Control: Her role for the Bilming cell.
  • Noodle Incident: Her codename is Codenames Are Stupid, shortened to Codenames. According to her, it's a long story.


Alternative Title(s): The Alloy Of Law, The Mistborn Adventures, Shadows Of Self, Bands Of Mourning, The Bands Of Mourning, The Lost Metal

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