Mistborn Characters – The Complete Guide

The complete guide to the characters of Brandon Sanderson’s original Mistborn trilogy.

Protagonist

Vin

Vin is the protagonist of the Mistborn series. She is a skaa living on the streets when she is taken into Kelsier’s crew. She is a highly gifted Mistborn allomancer, and she is instrumental in defeating The Lord Ruler, the armies besieging Luthadel, and Ruin, the god of destruction.

She is described as a street urchin, being small, thin, and having short, dark hair. She is quiet and likes to hide in the background, but she has an intense personality.  Furthermore, she is cautious, paranoid, determined, clever, and intuitive, but has low self-esteem and suffers from trust and abandonment issues.  

Growing up on the streets with an abusive brother, Reen, Vin had to be clever and hardy to survive. She had been abandoned by her crazy skaa mother, who had killed her baby sister when they were young. Her father was a high prelan in the Steel Ministry, working as an obligator for the Lord Ruler. 

So, Vin is a half-breed, part skaa, part noble, and a highly gifted Mistborn allomancer, Snapping (gaining allomantic powers) at the age of ten. She has natural allomantic abilities that even the best Mistborn allomancers could only dream of having

Antagonists

The Lord Ruler

The Lord Ruler is the main antagonist in the first Mistborn novel. His real name is Rashek, and he notably killed someone named Alendi, who was believed to be the Hero of Ages, and took up power at the Well of Ascension. 

He ruled the Final Empire for several centuries, achieving immortality through a combination of Feruchemy and Allomancy. To keep his power safe, he created several tools to use at his disposal, including the Steel Inquisitors, the Kandra, and the Koloss through the practice of Hemalurgy.

Straff Venture

Straff Venture is one of the main antagonists of the second Mistborn novel. He is the father of Elend Venture, and is one of the most powerful nobles in Luthadel. He is notably cruel and proud. He is also a Tineye, meaning he is a misting who can burn tin, giving him enhanced senses. He doesn’t miss much, according to Elend.

His house, House Venture, is a very powerful house in Luthadel. This is mainly due to the fact that they hold an exclusive contract to oversee the Lord Ruler’s Atium mines, making them incredibly wealthy. 

Straff is emotionally abusive with his noble-born son Elend, and he is domineering over his bastard son, Zane. He keeps a harem of women around so that he can potentially produce Mistborn sons, adding to his power. He is cruel and misogynistic towards these women, and he is likewise cruel to the staff around him. He is all about power and posturing, and he has an acute fear of betrayal.

Ruin

Ruin, the god of destruction, is the main antagonist of the third Mistborn novel. He has one very simple desire – to see the world come to its end. He has very human-like emotions, such as pride and fear, and acts as a logical, thinking creature.

As a god, Ruin is nearly omnipresent. It can observe the words you speak and the actions you take, but your thoughts are still safe from it. Ruin is opposed by Preservation, the god of life and preserving things. 

Main Characters

Kelsier

Kelsier is the leader of the skaa rebellion in the Mistborn series. He is known as The Survivor for being the only one to have survived the Lord Ruler’s Pits of Hathsin. He is a skilled Mistborn allomancer and the leader of the thieving crew central to overthrowing the Final Empire.

He is described as being tall and “hawk-faced” with light blond hair and is in his mid-thirties. Before the events of the Mistborn novels, Kelsier was known as the best crew leader in Luthadel, having robbed some of the wealthiest great houses of the city. 

His mother was the mistress of a high nobleman, and he grew up with his brother Marsh as privileged yet illegitimate. His wife, Mare, was a thief like him, and she suffered her demise at the Pits of Hathsin–the same ones that he survived–and had supposedly betrayed him to the Lord Ruler there. 

Kelsier has a larger-than-life personality; he is a troublemaker, known for being grandiose, boisterous, gregarious, impulsive and intelligent, brave and kind, lovable and unpunctual. His charisma is the stuff of legends, and he uses it to help lead his thieving crew to success and inspire a rebellion among the skaa that likewise would have never occurred in a thousand years. 

Elend Venture

Elend Venture is a noble of House Venture and son of Staff Venture. He becomes king of Luthadel and later emperor to all citizens within the Final Empire.

When we are introduced to him, he dresses slovenly and rebels against the norms of the nobility in Luthadel. He is a scholar and an academic at heart, and he loves reading books. He is also very honest, humble, and idealistic. However, he is somewhat timid and unsure of himself.

He learns how to stand up to his father in the first novel, and he learns how to become a leader and a king in the second novel and he marries the protagonist, Vin. At the end of the second novel, he gains allomantic powers and becomes Mistborn. In the third novel, he plays a key role in helping to defeat Ruin, the god of destruction.

Sazed

Sazed is a Terris Keeper and Feruchemist and an important member of Kelsier’s crew in the Mistborn series. He plays an instrumental role in bringing about the Hero of Ages.

He has a shaved head and wears the lavish, colorful robes of a Terris steward, and he has several earrings and jewelry. He is calm, wise, and carries a hidden strength inside of him, and acts much like a monk would. He is loyal, curious, cultured, and clean. 

As a Terris Keeper, Sazed has memorized details of all the forgotten religions. They are stored in his metalminds through the practice of Feruchemy. He believes in all religions, even if they contradict themselves. However, his religious beliefs are challenged greatly when he loses someone close to him in the second Mistborn novel. For the rest of the series, he goes through a challenging journey to regain his faith and ultimately help save the world.

Side Characters

TenSoon

TenSoon is House Venture’s kandra. He imitates another kandra, OreSeur, to infilitrate Kelsier’s crew, but ultimately turns on his master, Straff Venture. He then plays an integral role in rallying the kandra to his cause and helping the crew to defeat Ruin.

There are several generations of kandra, and TenSoon belongs to the third generation, which is old, even for a kandra. He is quite skilled at the art of imitation, and uses these skills greatly to his advantage throughout the series. He develops a close relationship with the protagonist, Vin, and plays a key role in helping to defeat Ruin at the end of the series.

Spook

Spook is a skaa-born Tineye and member of Kelsier’s crew. He is Clubs’s nephew and is known for being rather eccentric. He plays a pivotal role in saving the city of Urteau.

Spook’s original name was Jedal, after his father. However, he fashions himself a new name after his father disowns him. He calls himself “Lestibournes,” meaning “Lefting I’m born,” which is street slang for “I’ve been abandoned.”

Kelsier, however, decides that “Lestibournes” is too difficult to say, and so he calls him Spook instead, on account of his odd nature.

He is notably taken with Vin and several women during the series, and is filled with both ambition and self-doubt. However, he is able to overcome his insecurities and gains confidence with what he thinks is Kelsier’s voice speaking to him. He is able to recognize his own worth and delivers a key city, Urtea, to Elend and the crew.

Marsh

Marsh is Kelsier’s brother, known best for infiltrating the Lord Ruler’s ministry and becoming a Steel Inquisitor. He loses his autonomy to Ruin, the god of chaos, and turns against his former crew members later in the series.

He is a solemn and imposing figure, and he naturally has a disapproving nature of his brother Kelsier’s antics. He is also a misting Seeker, meaning he has the ability to burn bronze, allowing him to detect the presence of another allomancer nearby. He Snapped (gained his allomantic abilities) when the Steel Inquisitors took he and Keslier’s mother. This was when he vowed to destroy the Final Empire. He joined the rebellion and started learning everything he could about Allomancy so he that could use it against the inquisitors.

He infiltrates the inquisitors, and becomes one of them, and that’s when he loses his agency to Ruin. Ruin controls him by the end of the series, and he becomes an antagonist for Vin and the rest of the thieving crew.

Breeze

Breeze is a member of Kelsier’s crew and a talented Soother.

Unlike his fellow thieves, he didn’t grow up impoverished, nor had he been forced to live in the underground. In fact, Breeze had grown up in the aristocratic court and had a full-blooded noble origin. His fellow crew members don’t know this, however.

He is a dynamic character with many interesting facets to his personality. He appears to be a womanizer and a selfish person, but that is not exactly the case. While he is charming and personable, he does not care much for romance, outside of a relationship with a younger woman named Allrianne Cett. He is also more selfless than he appears, Soothing the emotions of people around them to make them more confident, or connected, or whatever it is he can do to help them.

Furthermore, Breeze loves his wine, and asks for Vin to bring him several glasses in the beginning of the series. He is lazy, likely due to his Soothing nature, preferring others to do things for him. He is sensitive to being poked fun at. He is also a natural orator, likely stemming from his charming personality.

Ham

Hammond (Ham) is a misting and a Thug in the Mistborn series. He serves on Kelsier’s crew and as a commander in Elend’s army. He has a strong penchant for philosophy and an honest nature. He is a family man, but he is not a natural-born leader, despite having firm muscles and the powerful build of a warrior.

He wears simple clothing, opting only to wear vests with no shirt underneath, and trousers. He is also a Thug, which means he is a Misting who can burn pewter. When someone burns pewter, it enhances their physical strength, and makes them more resistant to fatigue and pain. Pewterarms, like Ham, fight with brute strength.

Ham grew up in Luthadel, but not on the streets like Vin. He had skaa parents, but his grandfather was a nobleman. He was involved with the underground life in the city, but he still had his parents for a good portion of his childhood. He was a rather large boy growing up.

Ham also has a family that lives in a smaller city outside of Luthadel. He keeps their identity and location a secret so as to secure their safety. No one in the crew knows who they are or where they live.

Dockson

Dockson is the thieving crew’s organizer and bureaucrat, and he is Kelsier’s right-hand man. He is integral to their toppling of the Lord Ruler, and is the only non-Allomancer of the crew.

Dockson is described in the first Mistborn book as having black hair and a short half-beard that he has worn for over 20 years, ever since he was able to grow facial hair. He is also stout.

He is highly organized, responsible, and protective, especially of Vin, the protagonist. 

Dockson grew up as a plantation skaa. His plantation lord, Lord Devinshae, took a woman he loved, Kareien, to bed, and killed her. This was keeping in with the custom that nobleborn men must kill the skaa women they sleep with.

Clubs

Clubs (aka Cladent) is a skaa-born Smoker, carpenter, and member of Kelsier’s crew in the Mistborn series. He is also Spook’s uncle.

He is an old, stout, grumpy, no-nonsense sort of man. He is also heroic, blunt, and wise. He used to be a leader in the Lord ruler’s army, but he rarely speaks of his past fighting in the Lord Ruler’s army, and the crew doesn’t often ask him about it.

Clubs is a gifted Smoker, which means he is a copper Misting, otherwise known as a Coppercloud. He has the ability to burn copper, the pulses of which cannot be detected from nearby Allomancers. This helps disguise one’s use of allomancy, essentially “smoking out” their allomantic pulses. This serves the crew well throughout the first novel, as his copper burning helps them avoid being discovered by Inquisitors.

Tindwyl

In the second Mistborn novel, Tindwyl is the Terriswoman Sazed sends to help Elend Venture rule the kingdom of Luthadel.

She is pretty, with graying auburn hair and keen eyes. As a Terris Keeper, Tindwyl specializes in biographies, having studied the lives of generals, kings, and emperors. She is a well-respected Terris leader, and it hadn’t taken her a long time to achieve a place in the Terris leadership, the Synod.

Tindwyl was also breeder, which means that she was forced to have several children under the Lord Ruler’s breeding program. This program was a means to breed Feruchemy out of the broader population, as Feruchemists threatened the Lord Ruler’s power. She had birthed more than 20 children over the course of her life, each with a different father, and she had her first child when she was only fourteen. 

Because she has raised a number of daughters, Tindwyl has a habit for treating people like children, especially Elend and Vin. She develops a close relationship with Sazed throughout the course of the novel.

Zane Venture

Zane Venture is the illegitimate son of Straff Venture and Elend Venture’s half-brother. He is an incredibly talented Mistborn allomancer, partly in thanks to a hemalurgic spike lodged in his heart. Because of this spike, he constantly hears the voice of Ruin in his head, telling him to kill everyone around him.

He looks similar to his half-brother Elend, in that they have the same wavy dark hair and muscular builds. He considers himself to be insane because of Ruin’s voice in his head, and respects action and authority above all else, thinking that the Mistborn should rule over regular people. 

He is envious of Elend and has a tumultuous relationship with his father. He loves Straff, despite trying to poison him several times throughout the novel. He also falls for Vin, thinking that she is the only one that can save him from himself. 

Allrianne Cett

In the Mistborn series, Allrianne is the daughter of Lord Ashweather Cett and a Misting Rioter. She is in a relationship with Breeze (a member of Kelsier’s crew) and is notably playful, manipulative, and a skilled horseback rider.

She seems to find everything to be a fun little game, and fashion is quite important to her. She is bold, and she rushes into battle to save her lover, Breeze, from sure destruction. 

Shan Elariel

Shan Elariel belongs to House Elariel, which is central to the politics of Luthadel, according to Kelsier’s informant, Hoid. She is in a failed engagement to Elend Venture in the beginning of the Mistborn series, and she is secretly a Mistborn allomancer. She is killed at the hands of Vin at the end of the first novel.

OreSeur

OreSeur is the kandra contracted with Kelsier in the first Mistborn novel. He imitates Lord Renoux and keeps an eye on Vin as she pretends to be Lady Valette. After Kelsier’s death, he then becomes contracted to Vin. In the second novel, he is killed and replaced by TenSoon to spy on Vin and Elend. 

Yomen

Yomen is a Misting who can burn Atium. He is the King of Fadrex city, and holds the city from being besieged by Vin and Elend, who desperately need the supplies to help win their fight against Ruin

Yeden

Yeden is the leader of the skaa rebellion who hires Kelsier’s crew to overthrow the Lord Ruler. He has a high moral compass and wants to defeat the Lord Ruler to liberate his fellow skaa. He regrets having to work with Kelsier’s crew, because he thinks of them as immoral for being thieves. He is a low-born skaa, through and through, disapproves of wealth, and is a hard, rugged individual. Over time, he becomes more open to risks as he works with Kelsier, and he is overtaken by his charisma.