In the Mistborn series, obligators are minor functionaries, serving the Lord Ruler to keep watch over the nobility. They are the most common official in the Steel Ministry, the Lord Ruler’s government. Essentially, they function as the Lord Ruler’s bureaucracy, approving contracts, collecting taxes, and running public works projects in the Final Empire.
Appearance
Obligators are identified by the tattoos around their eyes. The more intricate the tattoo, the higher the rank an obligator has within the Steel Ministry. They are all shaved bald and wear dark gray robes.l
Power
Most of the higher-ranking obligators are Mistings of one sort or another. According to Sazed, they are quite powerful, and “the most efficient and well-trained bureaucratic force in the Final Empire” (1.639). They also tend to favor their own kind.
Government
The Steel Ministry is broken down into several jurisdictional bodies, called Cantons.
Cantons
There are several cantons implied to be part of the Lord Ruler’s government, but the following are the only four mentioned in the novels:
- Canton of Inquisition – Polices the Final Empire
- Canton of Orthodoxy – The Religious Authority of the Final Empire
- Canton of Resource – The Commercial and Logistical Authority of the Final Empire, charged with running trade, transport, and taxation
- Canton of Finance – the Bank of the Final Empire
The Canton of Inquisition is run by the Steel Inquisitors, while the other Cantons are run by obligators of varying authority levels. Notably, the Canton of Inquisition and the Canton of Orthodoxy have something of a rivalry, as the Canton of Orthodoxy holds the highest level of power at the outset of the Mistborn novels.
Obligator Hierarchy
Within each Canton, the obligators have different rankings. A Prelan is considered a leader of some part of the Steel Ministry, while a High Prelan is an even more prestigious position, and the Lord Prelan rules over all of the Obligators as their leader.
Members of the Steel Ministry are thereby ranked into the following hierarchy:
- Lord Prelan
- Steel Inquisitor
- High Prelan
- Prelan
- Obligator
While the Steel Inquisitors are different from the other obligators, both in their human form and function, they are still answerable to the Lord Prelan. In the novels, Vin’s father, Tevidian, holds this position as the head of the Canton of Orthodoxy.
