In the Mistborn series, the kandra are amorphous beings that can mold their appearance to look like any person or animal. Because of this ability, they make for great spies, and some of the noble houses hire them on occasion for this reason.
History
Creation
The Lord Ruler created the kandra many years before the events of the original Mistborn series. As the story goes, the First Generation of kandra were the Lord Ruler’s friends, the ones who traveled with him to the Well of Ascension. They were powerful Feruchemists, and they knew what he had done to Alendi to take power at the Well of Ascension. Because of this, they were a threat to the Lord Ruler.
So, the Lord Ruler offered these friends of his a bargain: they could have immortality in exchange for their Feruchemy. The friends agreed, giving up their Feruchemy along with their humanity, and so they became the First Generation of the kandra. The Lord Ruler then turned the other Feruchemsits of the world into mistwraiths.
“We call them the First Generation,” TenSoon said. “The founders of the kandra people. The Father transformed every living Feruchemist into a mistwraith, beginning that race. His good friends, however, he returned to sapience with a few Hemalurgic spikes” (3.584).
After the first generation of kandra, subsequent generations were created through “Blessings,” in which a pair of hemalurgic spikes were given to mistwraiths to bestow upon them sapience.
Blessings
A “Blessing” is a bestowal on a mistrwaith that brings it to wakefulness and true life and makes it a kandra.
Each kandra gets one of four blessings:
- Presence
- Potency
- Stability
- Awareness
It doesn’t matter which Blessing a kandra gains—any one of the four would give him or her sapience, changing the mistwraith into a fully conscious kandra. Some kandra, in fact, can gain more than one blessing by taking them from others.
It takes two hemalurgic spikes to form a single Blessing. Because they only have two spikes, the kandra are less susceptible to the influence of Ruin than the other creations of the Lord Ruler, who have more spikes (like koloss and Steel Inquisitors, for example). However, because of these spikes, they can still be controlled by Allomancers.
The Lord Ruler provided the hemalurgic spikes to the kandra each century, in the number they requested, so that they could create new generations.
Post-Ascension
After the Ascension, the Lord Ruler took little thought of the kandra. They tried to be independent for a time, but humankind resented and feared them. They had tried to meld into normal society and become unseen when the Final Empire was still young, but the Mistborn hunted them down and killed them.
When the ancestor kandra considered their options, they ended up choosing voluntary servitude to the humans, as opposed to forced slavery. And so, they created the Contract to protect themselves. The Contract saved their existence because it forced them to do things at the command of Mistborn and humans in general. Because of this, they were no longer a threat to humanity.
The Contract
The kandra are bound to a sacred contract of their own creation. This contract has three main tenets:
- They will not kill men
- They will take bones only when they are commanded
- They will serve their masters with absolute obedience.
If they break contract—for example, by killing a man—they must return to their own kind to be executed.
In following this contract, the kandra are incredibly loyal to their masters, and it is unheard of for them to break their contracts with those they serve. It is everything to them.
“It demands more than simple service. It requires diligence and devotion. It is the kandra. By serving it, we serve our people” (2.116)
The Resolution
The Resolution, also known as the Trust or the First Contract, was a set of instructions given to the kandra by the Lord Ruler for what actions to take when the world began to fail. It commands the kandra to remove their Blessings and effectively kill themselves. It explicitly states that when Ruin, the god of destruction, returned to the world, the kandra were to “seek out the Father to serve him” (3.363) (the “Father” in this case, being the Lord Ruler).
The Resolution is not just a ceremony, nor is it just a metaphor. It explicitly states that the kandra must take their lives. For this reason, it frightens some of them. For many, it’s better for the First Contract to be a philosophical, abstract thing—if it were still concrete, still relevant, it would require great sacrifices of them.
In the end, some of the kandra follow the resolution, and some don’t. By following the Resolution and removing their spikes, the kandra are able to avoid being controlled by Ruin.
Kandra Gods
Ruin and Preservation are the kandra gods, and according to them, they created the world and its people. They believe that neither of them could create alone, “for to preserve something is not to create it—and neither can you create through destruction alone” (3.645).
Additionally, the kandra refer to the Lord Ruler as “The Father” since he created them. Kandra theology about the Father is complex. According to OreSuer, it is difficult for them to sort through sometimes.
The Homeland
One of the cave complexes that abuts the Pits of Hathsin is where the kandra homeland is—several passages run into the Pits, and had to be kept closed off, lest workers in the Pits found their way into the homeland.
It is here that they have been storing the world’s Atium for so long, hidden from the rest of the world. In fact, they were created by the Lord Ruler to gather the power of Atium and protect, hide, and keep it.
“The other children had a purpose…The koloss, they were created to fight. The Inquisitors, they were created to be priests. Our task was different…‘Gather the power,’ Haddek said. ‘And protect it. Hide it. Keep it. For the Father knew Ruin would escape one day. And on that day, he would begin searching for his body.” (3.648)
Generations
There are several generations of kandra, and the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs of each generation varies widely.
The First Generation
The First Generation of kandra are described as “old, forgetful, and impotent” (3.188). They and the Second Generation of kandra are described by TenSoon as having a “tired complacency” (3.360).
As noted earlier, the First Generation of kandra are the friends who had gone to the Well of Ascension with the Lord Ruler, agreeing to exchange their Feruchemy to become kandra.
The Second Generation
The Second Generation of kandra are described as having bones made of the purest crystal. Despite it being impractical in many ways—for example, the bones don’t stand up to much punishment—the weakness is an acceptable tradeoff for the bones’ sparkling beauty.
They are described as “lazy,” “old,” “and “crafty.” They have spent centuries preaching that the Third Generation of kandra (TenSoon’s generation) is filled with miscreants.
“They’ve tried all this time to overcome their mistakes with us—mistakes such as giving us too much freedom, letting us think that we were as good as they were” (3.90),
They feel threatened by the Third Generation because, according to TenSoon, it had taken the Thirds but a single generation to understand their mistakes.
The Fourth & Fifth Generation
Both of these generations of kandra are loyal to the elder generations and to tradition, with only a few deviant members. However, in The Hero of Ages, TenSoon hopes they might be more amenable to change. Despite his wishes, they come to spit at the ground in front of his cage, showing their unwavering devotion to the Seconds.
The Sixth and Seventh Generation
This generation of kandra makes up the bulk of active Contract fillers in the current world of the Mistborn novels. They come to TenSoon’s cage to pity him and shake their heads at their fallen friend.
The Eight and Ninth Generations
Not much is known about these generations, but they come to TenSoon’s cage out of curiosity, amazed that one so aged could have fallen so far.
