The Final Empire

The world of Mistborn is Scadrial, a blasted, desolate planet bathed in the rays of a red sun. Its lands are harsh and brutal — mostly arid, cloaked in thick volcanic clouds, and dusted by falling ash. The earth is hard and barren, and great labor is required to nurture even pitiful crops. The brackish mire of the seas, if that’s what you care to call them, are as dangerous as they are devoid of life; their broad, stormy expanse swallowing ships whole in a matter of seconds. At the edges of the hospitable world are the appropriately named Burnlands, where temperatures rise so high that only the hardy, desperate, and foolish dare to tread.

The only protection against the cruel elements is the Final Empire, a nation encompassing the whole civilized world in one vast territory. It is an oppressive and brutal regime, unrelenting in its domination of the people and unforgiving of dissent. At the head of the empire is the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity" — an immortal god-king who a thousand years ago defeated the dark all-consuming force of the Deepness and Ascended to the throne, thereafter dominating all the world and its peoples. It was the Lord Ruler who brought new order to the world through great military might and implacable magic, who gathered a fractious collection of warring nations into a unified domain he’s ruled ever since. Today the Lord Ruler is both head of state and religious icon, as revered as he is feared. His name is muttered as a curse and recited as a prayer. His every word is law, and his absolute dominion is cast in unyielding steel.

Keeping the Lord Ruler’s laws are agents of the Steel Ministry, a state- sponsored priesthood and also the Final Empire’s government and central bureaucracy. Ministry cantons keep careful vigil over every aspect of life in the empire: the Canton of Orthodoxy ensures the Lord Ruler’s laws are followed with religious fervor; the Canton of Finance confirms and grants trade contracts, maintains mercantile routes, and levies taxes against the nobility; the Canton of Re- source catalogues and rations the dwindling stores of food and other provisions; and the Canton of Inquisition hunts down rogue Allomancers and other enemies of the Lord Ruler. Through these bodies, the Ministry makes itself an integral part of every business deal, every marriage contract, every prayer, and every word whispered, written, or even thought by Scadrial’s hapless inhabitants.

The Ministry’s omnipresent eyes and ears are called Obligators, and they’re found nearly everywhere, from dazzling balls in the largest noble houses to streets winding through squalid slums. Obligators keep the Lord Ruler’s peace through quiet intimidation. Their shaved heads, ashen robes, and the intricate tattoos ringing their eyes are their badge of station, and the mere sight of their ilk is enough to put everyone in the area on high alert. Obligators speak with the voice of the Lord Ruler, an eternal reminder nothing and no one is beyond the reach of his law.

Those who defy the Ministry face its most dreaded operatives: the Steel Inquisitors. These looming, savage giants are known for the steel spikes driven through their eyes and jutting from the backs of their skulls, and the rasping voice one hopes never to hear. The Inquisitors may once have been Obligators but are now something else entirely: inhumanly fast, able to tear a horse in half with their bare hands, and wielding magic power beyond imagining. Many believe the Inquisitors are as unstoppable as the Lord Ruler himself — and those who’ve witnessed them in battle (and survived) speak of them casually tearing a dozen men apart and surviving wounds that would kill a man twice over.

The Inquisitors hunt criminal Allomancers and Feruchemists. They murder half-breeds born of nobles and slaves, break up thieving crews and organized crime syndicates, and head the armies that march against upstart nobles and self-appointed kings. Steel Inquisitors are the Lord Ruler’s dreaded and brutal blade, cutting away rebellion and heresy with bloody fervor. They’re also the last thing any hero of the Final Empire ever wants to see.

Scadrial hosts three main ethnic groups: nobles, skaa, and the Terris people. Though they’re all human and difficult to tell apart by sight (particularly the skaa and nobility), each forms a distinct social and economic class in the extremely stratified society of the Final Empire.

Skaa
The most numerous and diverse people of the Final Empire are the skaa, a wretched underclass indentured for life on farms, forced to toil in canals, and serving in squalor at city slums and factories. The skaa are a hardy people, though poorly-educated, superstitious, and condemned to abject poverty. Scholars believe they’re descended from those who opposed the Lord Ruler during the early years, whole bloodlines virtually enslaved as punishment for the sins of their ancestors.

In the cities, skaa work twelve- to fourteen-hour days at canneries, forges, and workshops, producing goods that prop up the army and nobility. In the manor houses, skaa serve at the whim of often inhumane noble masters. On plantations they clear and till desolate earth, growing what they can for their betters and languishing under the whips of uncaring taskmasters. Their men are pressed into military service against other skaa, and many of their women are taken as noble playthings, abused, and callously discarded. Skaa have no rights, no citizenship, and no property that cannot be taken away.

Considering these conditions, it’s little surprise that organized rebellion is a way of skaa life, but what’s truly remarkable is its record of failure. Though plantation revolts and isolated riots are frequent, not one uprising since the Ascension has posed a genuine threat to the Lord Ruler. His spies and informants are everywhere, making the question of each disturbance not whether it will succeed, but when it will fail. Ultimately what the skaa need most is an effective leader, but until they find one many are rebelling in other ways: they join thieving crews, flee their masters’ lands, or stay behind and carry out quiet acts of defiance. Docile skaa scold and avoid these rebels but one day... One day the rebels know they’ll find their leader — and woe to the empire when that day arrives.

Nobles
The nobility are a people unto themselves, invested by the Lord Ruler with the responsibility of ruling and administering his Final Empire. They’re a comely and intelligent folk, if generally less physically capable than skaa, and they benefit greatly from the vast wealth and power granted by hereditary and divine right. Outwardly, a noble’s life looks quite pampered, consisting of grandiose balls and elaborate political events, plentiful food and carefully guarded shelter in a land where both are scarce. Yet the savagery of all life in the Lord Ruler’s perfect order reveals itself in different ways.

Noble culture is a Byzantine web of contractual relationships, temporary alliances, sabotage, and outright deception, as houses jockey for position, wealth, and political favor. For the nobleperson, family is everything and all parts of a house — even one’s own flesh and blood — are merely pieces to play, use, or even sacrifice to better the family name. Children are routinely abandoned to loveless marriages, given over to the Steel Ministry to become Obligators, or beaten within an inch of their lives on the chance they might possess latent magical ability. Those who survive to adulthood endure a life of constant paranoia and abuse, in which close friends, lovers, and even family members may slit one’s throat (literally or figuratively) to get ahead in the great game of high society.

Nowhere is this cutthroat nature more apparent than in Great Houses, the ten most powerful organizations in the Final Empire. The families in question — Venture, Hasting, Elariel, Tekiel, Lekal, Erikeller, Erikell, Haught, Urbain, and Buvidas — remain locked in perpetual war against lesser houses and each other for control of trade, politics, and military affairs. Each day is a bitter game of brinksmanship as the Houses risk their unimaginable wealth, numerous political allies, and even their own families to retain or improve their standing. From time to time these dangerous games turn into actual battles accented by assassinations, raids, and even troop deployments targeting each others holdings. The Lord Ruler rarely interferes in these disputes, so long as the goods keep flowing and none of the houses turn their aggressions toward his regime.

Terris
The Terris are an ancient, peaceful people with a history predating even the Lord Ruler and his Final Empire. They’re comely and stand half-a-head taller than skaa or nobles, dressing in colorful robes woven in distinctive V-shaped patterns. For over a thousand years the Terris have lived in the high valleys of their name- sake mountains, where they keep the history of the world and protect the mystical secrets of Feruchemy. The pinnacle of their society is the Synod, a government- in-exile, which commits Keepers to preserving Terris culture and independence.

Today, the Terris are easily the most directly and fiercely subjugated people of Scadrial, victims of systematic cultural genocide by the Lord Ruler and his minions. The Steel Ministry attacks their villages without warning, their young men are gelt like cattle at adolescence, and many of their women are forced into service as "breeders" — all with the singular purpose of curbing Feruchemy and the Terris population. The reasons for these ruthless attacks — particularly in lieu of all-out war — remain a mystery to all.

The Terris people don’t question it anymore, and most who brave the world outside their mountains seek refuge as stewards or servants in the cities. It offers them a modicum of comfort and safety — even if it is under a noble’s roof.

The Metallic Arts

Magic is pervasive in Scadrial, influencing finance, manufacture, state affairs, and all walks of life. There are three known forms of magic in the Final Empire, each employing up to 19 different metallic elements and alloys: Allomancy, in which the metal is ingested and "burned" to create fantastic effects; Feruchemy, which lets a user store qualities or abilities in metallic objects to be withdrawn later; and Hemalurgy, wherein metallic spikes are used to steal the qualities or abilities of another, passing them along when the spikes pierce the user’s body. Together these three sets of abilities are referred to as the Metallic Arts.

Allomancy and Feruchemy aren’t learned through study; rather, they’re inherited through lineage and must be awakened. Anyone whose bloodline traces back to the first nobles can potentially be an Allomancer, and only those with Terris forebears may be an heir to Feruchemy.

Over time the bloodlines have been diluted, and the capacity for magic has both spread and weakened to the point that most humans have only the slightest potential for inheriting these abilities, though the potential is strongest with those having noble blood in the last few generations. Discovering these abilities has also become increasingly difficult — Allomancy, for example, requires some sort of trauma to awaken (like a near-death experience), plus years of training to master. Consequently, many folk capable of using magic go their whole lives without learning of their latent abilities, mainly due to lack of access to a corresponding metal or an event sufficient to bring their abilities to the fore.

Hemalurgy may be learned, though the knowledge is so fiercely guarded as to be largely unavailable outside the Steel Ministry. Even knowledge of Hemalurgy doesn’t convey ability — a user must apply it, killing another with a metallic spike and in the process imbuing the spike with one of the victim’s qualities or abilities. The imbued spike may then be driven into the Hemalurgist’s body, passing the characteristic on. Hemalurgists often use this black art to acquire Allomantic or Feruchemical powers, though attributes like strength, intelligence, and willpower may also be stolen.

The abilities afforded by magic aren’t unlimited — each metal provides a single ability that varies depending on the style of magic in play: an Allomancer using Steel can "push" against sources of metal to send them (or him, or her) flying; a Feruchemist can use Steel to store physical speed, slowing down for a time to allow for a big speed boost later; and a Steel spike used to slay an Allomancer will grant a Hemalurgist one of the victim’s physical Allomantic powers.

Most practitioners may only use a single magical style and metal, and so their prowess is measured by the ways they apply their abilities. Any Steel Allomancer knows about firing bits of metal as weapons, but the most skilled ones can use their powers to disarm enemies with metal arms, to deflect incoming projectiles, or to take bounding leaps by pushing on metals in the environment.

Despite all these limitations, magic remains one of the most powerful and dangerous abilities in the Final Empire, for with it one can bend emotions and steel bars, see the past and the future, and even defy the laws of time. The nature of magic, and in some cases its very existence, remain secret to all but the few committed, daring, or foolish enough to plumb its depths, as the Lord Ruler and his agents remain ever watchful for those who flaunt these abilities too openly, and are all too willing to silence them.