Elend Venture is a noble-born boy to House Venture in the Mistborn series. He becomes king of Luthadel and later emperor to all citizens within the Final Empire.
See below for a table of contents on Elend’s character analysis:s
Background
House Venture
When we first meet Elend in the Mistborn novels, we learn that he is the young, eligible heir to a powerful house. We know he doesn’t like his own family, describing them as “an ostentatious lot,” and he has a troubled relationship with his father. We come to understand that House Venture is quite wealthy, with the lavish balls they regularly throw.
“They’re an ostentatious lot, even for high nobility. They can’t just have a part, they have to throw the best party. Never mind that they run their servants ragged setting it up, then beat the poor things in retribution when the hall isn’t perfectly clean the next morning” (1.230).
Later, we learn that House Venture’s wealth comes from mining the Lord Ruler’s atium, the most valuable substance in the Mistborn world. Elend confides in Vin that their house stability depends almost completely on the Lord Ruler’s whims. That “he doesn’t like to bother collecting the atium himself, but he gets very perturbed if the delivery schedule is disrupted” (1.464).
Moreover, he says that their atium supply had been having troubles ever since Kelsier survived the Pits of Hathsin. He says that ever since then, things had been different, and that his father could no longer meet the Lord Ruler’s quotas.
This dependence on supplying the Lord Ruler’s atium for power is highly risky, making House Venture rather one-dimensional. Later, the great house go to war with itself, with Elend pitted against his father.
Family Matters
Elend is a rebel amongst his own family, and against the nobility in general. He has a tense relationship with his father, too.
For one thing, his father had had him beaten as a child in an attempt to get his allomantic abilities to come out, but nothing happened, as Elend never Snapped.
This is a common practice among the nobility in the Final Empire, as nearly all noble children are beaten at adolescence to make their allomantic abilities come out. It’s a well kept secret, and, oftentimes, the children die from the beatings (3.197).
Furthermore, Elend’s father made him sleep with a skaa woman when he was just thirteen, because he thought it would “make him a man.” Elend says that he didn’t know they were going to kill the girl afterwards. By the time Vin meets him in the novels, she is supposedly the only skaa woman he has ever slept with (1.386). At this point, he has also recently broken off an engagement with a woman named Shan Elariel, a high-born noblewoman.
Personality
Elend is a scholar and an academic, with a deep love for reading. He is an idealist who is honest to a fault. He is anything but intimidating, nor is he the bravest, but he does what needs to be done in any given situation. He has a free-spirited, endearing nature about him, and he is a humble person who cares deeply about creating a better world.
Slovenly & Rebellious Nature
Elend Venture does not dress or act like a nobleman. When Vin first meets him, she notes:
“His suit wasn’t the finest she had seen, nor was his vest as bright as most. Both coat and shirt seemed to fit loosely, and his hair was a bit disheveled” (1.227).
The rest of the nobility are aware of his sloppy appearance, and consider him to be undignified. For example, Lord Renoux says, “I met the lad perhaps four years ago, when his father visited the west. He struck me as a bit undignified for one of his station” (1.233).
Part of the reason for his appearance is that Elend simply does not care. He concerns himself more with his books than his appearance, which really does make him an authentic and endearing person in many ways.
“Elend was a man who put great stock in learning, but little in appearance. He only bothered to comb his hair when he attended an important function, and he managed to wear even well-tailored outfits with an air of dishevelment” (2.23).
Even Vin notes this endearing nature. When he changes to look more like a king, she suspects a part of her would miss “the tangle-haired, disheveled Elend. There had been something endearing about that mixture of earnest competence and distracted inattention” (2.193)
Elend the Rebel
When Elend first meets Vin, he simply stands next to her and reads a book instead of talking her. It seems like a ploy to rile her up, and we are led to believe that maybe he is a smooth talker. He apparently does this at other balls, too, and when he asks if Vin is going to let him get back to his book, and she says no, he asks her to dance instead. She thinks:
“Lord, he’s either incredibly smooth or socially incompetent” (1.229).
Of this interaction, Sazed notes the following to Vin:
“Lord Venture is infamous for his unconventional, disobedient attitude. Many people dislike him–precisely because he does things like this.”
Elend bucks the norm when it comes to the nobility. He thinks balls are “fluff and distraction” and a waste of time (1.207). Later on, however, he will realize that he cannot avoid the politics of the court.
This rebellious nature about Elend is mainly a means to distance himself from his cruel father. His disheveled clothing and appearance as well as his disdain for ostentatiousness and lavish balls marks a sharp contrast between he and his father, and it is likely intentional (3.312).
As we will see later, his turbulent relationship with his father is the driving force behind this rebelliousness. At first, he is simply involved in playful antics; later, however, he will have to learn to rule the remains of a real rebellion, and this is quite different than his own, personal rebellion against the nature of the nobility at court.
Scholar & Academic
Verbal Philosopher
When we first meet Elend, he reads rebellious books that are critical of the Lord Ruler. He doesn’t consider himself to be a rude man, but he thinks of himself as a verbal philosopher, one who likes to test and turn conversation to see how people might react. He looks up to the great thinkers of old, and tries to push boundaries and experiment with unconventional methods, like they would have (1.470).
He reminds one of a quixotic, aspirational college kid who is just learning some controversial things for the first time:
“That was what his books had done to him—they had changed him from a rebellious fop into a would-be philosopher” (1.475).
In the first Mistborn novel, reading is changing Elend Venture, for he thinks he had been a fool for so long, and now he was only starting to realize his newfound wisdom (1.475). However, he does show some insecurity and self-loathing when he thinks about how he stacks up against the philosophers he reads.
“That’s the difference between you and them, Elend, he thought. Those philosophers you read—they were revolutionaries. They were willing to risk execution. You can’t even stand up to your father” (1.476).
Despite his insecurities, Elend shows his wisdom when giving Dockson advice at the end of the first book—he tells him that if he starts his rebellion with chaos and bloodshed, that he’ll lose it—that the momentum of the initial conflict will run out, but people will keep looking for things to destroy. He advises him to keep control of his armies” (1.608). This wisdom likely came from his studious reading.
Elend the Political Scholar
Elend Venture is well-read, astute, and a student of the world and politics. He shows this when he is thrust into a position of power in The Well of Ascension.
“He figured that he knew as much about political theory as any living man. He’d certainly read more about economics, studies more about governments, and held more political debates than anyone he knew. He understood all the theories about how to make a nation stable and fair, and had tried to implement those in his new kingdom” (2.21)
However, he soon comes to learn that what works in theory and what works in real life are two very different things.
“He simply hadn’t realized how incredibly frustrating a parliamentary council would be” (2.20).
As he comes into power, many see him as weak, not confident nor commanding enough, even if they respect his ideas or intelligence. A big part of his character development comes from eschewing being an idealist in favor for being a more practical ruler.
Idealist
In the first Mistborn novel, Elend seems to genuinely want to change things, to defeat Lord Ruler for the good of the nobility. He is not interested in the good of the skaa, however, but they do intrigue him.
“We can change the way our houses work…if the houses would stop squabbling, we might be able to gain some real power in the government—rather than just bow to the whims of the Lord Ruler” (1.393).
He is aspirational for change, but he is stuck where he is because of his father being in power.
“There were so many things Elend wished he could do. But his father was healthy, and young for a lord of his power. It would be decades before Elend took up the house title, assuming he survived that long” (1.531)
He doesn’t believe, like Kelsier does, that they have a chance at overthrowing the Lord Ruler in the first Mistborn novel. In his eyes, the Lord Ruler is God, and they can’t do anything about him being in charge.
Instead of completely overthrowing the status quo, he and his friends just “wish the Final Empire could be a little different” (1.467), They can’t change things now, but hope to change things some day, and that they will be able to influence the Lord Ruler, rather than outright overthrow him.
In this way, Elend is perhaps more realistic than Kelsier, but more cowardly; he still wants to hold onto his wealth, his position of power, and so a half-measure like this, like “influence,” is enough for him.
Later in the series, however, Elend will be thrust into a position of power and will rule the world Kelsier had created in overthrowing the Lord Ruler.
Vin sums up his idealism quite well at one point, saying that his dreams were entwined with who he was as a person:
“She hadn’t ever seen Elend depressed, but he did get discouraged. He had so many ideas, so many plans and hopes, that she sometimes wondered how he kept them all straight…Elend’s dreams were so entwined in who he was. She doubted he could discard them” (2.162).
Views of the Skaa
Elend’s idealistic nature plays a major role in his views of the skaa. At first, he is fascinated with them, yet still ignorant. He comes to learn that they are normal people like the nobility, and he ends up championing their cause throughout his rulership of Luthadel and the dominances of the Final Empire.
In the first Mistborn novel, Elend has a curiosity and fixation on the skaa. He is still ignorant enough to believe that they are practically a different species than the nobility, however.
“Did you ever hear them talk to one another? Did they sound like ordinary people?” (1.294).
He shows this ignorance when he asks Vin if the skaa are intelligent, and assumes that even the ones that are, are not like them, the nobility. Of course, he doesn’t know that Vin is skaa-born under her guise as Lady Valette.
Despite his ignorance, Elend is eager to think that the skaa could be like the nobility. He becomes disappointed, for example, when Vin pretends that the skaa are unworthy and uninteresting, like any other noblewoman would.
He even gets excited when he learns of the possibility that Vin was a Skaa thief. He is not at all upset about her guise as the Lady Valette.
“I had a real skaa thief with me!” Elend said. “Think of the questions I could have asked her.” (1.527).
Finally, he is able to draw the conclusion that if she was a skaa successfully masquerading as a noblewoman, that means the skaa can’t be all that different from them:
“If we can’t tell the difference between a skaa and a noblewoman, that means they can’t be all that different froim us. And if they’re not that different from us, what right do we have treating them as we do?” (1.527)
He starts to change his views on the skaa, or at least works on his own ignorance, towards the end of the novel. When he is shocked at the news of the skaa rebellion, at first he thinks it impossible, that there is no way they could be this bold. But he has to remind himself that “Valette is skaa,” and that he has to “stop thinking like other noblemen” and that he has to open his eyes (1.594).
He becomes one of the select few people that can see that the nobility and the skaa are on the same side, and that they should be united.
“The rebellion could do some good, but only if the skaa don’t insist on slaughtering their allies. And that’s what the nobility should be—their allies against the Lord Ruler. He’s our enemy too.” (1.595).
At the end of the novel, Elend is coming into his own as the ruler of the nobility, and handles the skaa quite well.
When he gives a speech to them, Sazed tells Vin that he thought the skaa would kill him, “but…the things he said mistress…his dreams of a new government, his condemnation of bloodshed and chaos…Well, mistress, I fear that I cannot repeat it. I wish I’d had my metalminds, so that I could have memorized his exact words” (1.641).
Honesty & Humility
Elend is humble, at least according to Sazed. Tindwyl seems to think this, too, when she first meets him.
He is also unassuming, and honest to a fault. This honesty is mistaken for weakness by a lot of the political players around him, but it is a quality loved and cherished by Vin.
At several points throughout The Well of Ascension, he loses both his own council and his throne due to his honesty. Later on, in The Hero of Ages, Elend learns to conceal his honesty when it is expedient. He learns to favor confidence over blunt honesty when it suits him, but still, he never becomes false or deceitful at any point.
Relationship with Straff
Elend’s father is both cruel and emotionally abusive with him. He had him beaten as a child to get the allomancy out of him, and he forced him to sleep with a skaa woman at thirteen to prove he was a man. In the first Mistborn novel, Straff even attempts to assisinate Elend so that his nephew can rule instead. Then, when House Venture is threatened to fall, he plans to have Elend take the fall in his place.
Later on, in The Well of Ascension, when Elend gains power in Luthadel, he marches to take it from him, expecting Elend to hand the city over to him. When they meet to parlay in his battle camp, Straff taunts Elend and Vin, playing mind games with them in an attempt to gain control over Luthadel.
Through all of their interactions, we can see that Straff never really cares for his son.
“Elend looked into those eyes—eyes that were angry not because his father cared for Elend’s safety, but because Elend dared defy him” (1.595)
Sadly, Elend has normalized his father’s emotional abuse. He thinks of himself as a bad son, but not as a traitor. He also falsely believes that his father’s cruel nature had limitations when it came to him, that he enjoyed hurting others, but not him, because of some false sense of “propriety.”
The only value Straff had ever placed on Elend was the possibility of him becoming an allomancer, and this makes Elend feel guilty that he is not one.
“Of course, he had also wondered what it was like to feel the strength of pewter or to fight with atium. Allomancers were uncommon, even among Great Houses. Yet because of the way Straff had treated him, Elend had always felt guilty that he hadn’t been one” (1.736).
A major part of Elend’s character arc will be learning to stand up to his cruel father. In the end, when Vin kills Straff in battle, Elend shows little to no mourning of this loss, showing that there truly was no love between he and his father.
Relationship with Vin
The Final Empire
Elend is quite taken with Vin as soon as he meets her, and he seems to genuinely like her for who she is. They have a natural chemistry and rapport with each other, as if they are long lost friends who have known each other their entire lives.
When he first falls for Vin, he speaks highly of her behind closed doors, showing that his feelings are genuine. For example, Hoid, Kelsier’s informant, at one point tells him:
“Does everyone know that Lord Elend Venture spoke quite highly of the girl to his friends, the group of nobleling philosophers that lounge at the Broken Quill?” (1.316).
He likes her for not only her attractiveness but her kindness. Behind closed doors, with his friends from the rival houses, he says:
“She’s more than that, Jastes…she’s kindhearted—she helped skaa runaways on her plantation. I think we should bring her in to talk with us” (1.392).
He is taken with her personality as well:
“Valette was different, true—but she was also innocent, in a way. Eager, full of wonder and spunk” (1.473)
And, ironically, he is taken with her honesty, despite her guise as Lady Valette:
“I don’t know, Jastes…I feel like I know this girl. Her emotions…they just seem too real, too honest, to be false” (526)
Even though Elend thinks he is falling for Lady Valette, they share this sort of authentic trust, where they are naturally themselves around each other, and this has nothing to do with the persona Vin has put on.
“He wished he could go to Valette, talk to her, explain his frustrations. She’d understand what he was thinking; for some reason, she always seemed to understand him better than others” (1.531).
Later in the series, both Vin and Elend question whether it was Lady Valette he fell in love with, or if it was Vin. However, their genuine connection holds true despite Vin’s false persona.
The Well of Ascension
In The Well of Ascension, Vin and Elend’s relationship is tested the most, but they overcome the odds, stronger than they were before.
At first, Vin is concerned that he only loved Lady Valette, the noblewoman she pretended to be, and not her true self. However, the personality lying underneath Lady Valette only endears Vin to Elend more. He notes that “he had fallen in love with her courtly side without ever knowing the nervous, furtive Mistborn side. It was still a little difficult to see them as the same person.” (2.28). Despite her oddities, or more likely because of them, he loves her even more.
“She was like no one he had ever known—a woman of simple, yet honest, beauty and wit” (1.28).
Furthermore, Elend loves Vin’s vulnerability:
“Despite her powerful skill as an Allomancer and her stubborn determination, Vin was frighteningly vulnerable. She seemed to need Elend. For that, he felt lucky” (2.30).
Despite his unwavering feelings for Vin, their relationship is strained when Vin rejects his marriage proposal. There is an ambiguity of what sort of couple they are, and Elend constantly struggles to figure Vin out.
“Of all the people in the palace, Vin was the last one he needed to be paranoid about. But every time he felt like he was beginning to figure Vin out, he realized exactly how little he understood her” (2.273).
Zane further puts a strain on their relationship, as Vin questions whether she belongs with people like him, who are Mistborn, and who are rougher around the edges, and who aren’t like nobleborn or academics like Elend.
Zane plants ideas in Vins head, unbeknownst to Elend. For example, Elend is unaware that Zane has told her that he is just using her for her powers and abilities to assassinate. As they’re leaving their parlay with Straff, Elend celebrates her powerful nature, and she reasonably is upset by that. He doesn’t understand what we, the reader, know, and he gets further frustrated at being unale to figure her out:
“Every time I begin to think I’ve figured out what’s going on in her head…”(2.331).
On top of all of this, both Vin and Elend have the recurring belief that they are not good enough for one another.
For example, after Elend loses the kingship, he thinks “How could she love a man like me?…I couldn’t even hold my throne. I wrote the very laws that deposed me” (2.514).
It’s not until Vin realizes that Zane doesn’t trust her, while Elend does, that she finally chooses Elend and accepts their relationship. Even if she doesn’t deserve Elend, she realizes she can still be near him, and that is enough.
The Hero of Ages
By this point in the series, Elend and Vin’s relationship is much stronger, and they are at a point where they understand each other implicitly, without even the need for words.
Elend’s new allomantic abilities also creates interesting developments in their relationship. Elend begins to compare himself to Vin more often, wondering what she would do in any given situation.
For example, he chides himself for not doing something brash to rescue her after Yomen captures her, and here he recognizes there is a big difference between them.
“Had their situations been reversed, Vin would have found a way to get into the city and rescue him. She’d have assassinated Yomen, would have done something…but Elend didn’t have her flair of brash determination. He was too much of a planner and was too well acquainted with politics” (3..439).
Then, when he’s getting ready to use the koloss to attack Fadrex and free Vin, he wonders what she would do. His first instinct was to think that she would attack. But then he remembered how she had been crying after she had killed so many of Cett’s men a year before.
“No, he thought. No, she wouldn’t do this thing. Not to protect me. She’s learned better” (3.604).
Here, he makes the crucial decision not to attack, and thereby doesn’t play into Ruin’s wishes.
Furthermore, Vin’s almost god-like nature has an interesting effect on Elend. He notes that “the deep truth was, he really did trust Vin as more than a person. She was more like a force. Almost a god? It seemed silly, thinking about that directly. She was his wife. Even though he was a member of the Church of the Survivor, it felt wrong to worship her, to think her divine. And he didn’t, not really. But he did trust her” (3.512)
Despite any personal changes, like allomancy, Elend and Vin’s relationship remains strong throughout this novel, and it is built upon a foundation of trust.
Allomantic Abilities
Allomantic Skillset
At the end of the Well of Ascension, Elend gains Allomantic abilities when Vin shoves a bead of gold metal down his throat to save his life. By the events of The Hero of Ages, his skills in Allomancy have grown considerably.
“Elend flared pewter. A warm sensation—now familiar to him—burst to life in his chest, and his muscles became taut with extra strength and energy. He’d swallowed the metal earlier, so that he could draw upon its powers for the battle. He was an Allomancer. That still awed him sometimes” (3.25).
Notably, he is better with Soothing & Rioting than with Pushing and Pulling. He shows this during the battle against the koloss in Fatren’s village. He is able to successfully use allomancy to make the men more confident in battle:
“Elend could see his men growing more confident at their initial success, and he encouraged them by Pulling on their emotions with Allomancy, making them braver. He was more comfortable with this form of Allomancy—he still hadn’t gotten the hang of leaping about with metals the way Vin did. Emotions, however—those he understood.”
Later, during Yomen’s ball, Vin takes note of Elend’s great soothing powers as well:
“Other Allomancers—Breeze or even Vin—would have had trouble Soothing an entire room at once. For Elend, with his inordinate power, it took barely any attention” (3.292).
Comparison with Vin
Elend has more raw allomantic power than Vin, and she notices that he is able to affect far more people with his allomancy than he should have been able to.
“Vin always said that Elend’s Allomantic power was unusually strong” (3.27).
Despite his raw power, Elend’s physical allomancy still needs some polishing in the beginning of the final novel. During a battle with the koloss, Vin thinks:
“He carried a dueling cane in one hand; the other rested against the earth, steadying him from his Steeljump. His physical Allomancy still lacked polish” (3.36).
Whereas Elend has more allomantic power, Vin has more skill He is aware of this, and thinks of her as the true allomantic master because of how naturally her skills came to her.
“Of couse, Vin had less time than that to practice before she killed the Lord Ruler. But she was a special chase. She used Allomancy as easily as other people breathed; it was less a skill to her than an extension of who she was. Elend might have more raw power—as she always insisted—but she was the true master” (3.52).
Funnily enough, he feels guilty for having more raw allomantic power than Vin.
When they both have to use allomancy to get a door open in the ministry of Lord Fatren’s city, for example, Elend notices how much easier it is to open for him than for her.
“Finally they let go. Vin exhaled in exhaustion, and Elend could tell that it had been more difficult for her than it was for him. Often he didn’t feel justified in having more power than she—after all, he’d been an Allomancer for far less time” (3.56).
Even though he feels guilty, Elend still envies Vin’s inimitable allomantic abilities. He thinks about how impossible it is to kill an Inquisitor, and about the fact that Vin has already killed three of them.
“He didn’t begrudge her the abilities she had, but he did feel occasional glimmers of envy. That amused him. It had never bothered him when he’d been an ordinary man, but now that he was Mistborn too, he found himself coveting her skill” (3.510).
How Allomancy Changes Elend
At one point in The Hero of Ages, Vin notes that Elend has become hard and rugged, and that allomancy was a part of that.
“A year of solid training with Allomancy and the sword had strengthened his body, and he’d needed to get his uniforms retailored to fit properly. The one he wore now was still stained from battle” (3.59).
His allomantic skills also improve over the course of the novel. Towards the middle of the story, when they are planning to break into the cache of supplies at Fadrex, Vin notes Elend’s improving skill:
“Elend dropped beside her, then fell into a crouch, asking no questions. She smiled, noting that his instincts were getting better” (3.392).
As he gets more comfortable with allomancy, Elend starts to become more comfortable with the mists, whereas before, he had been afraid of them. Like Vin, he starts to find enjoyment in “cruising through the mists.”
“I can see why Vin would find this intoxicating, he thought, dropping another coin and bounding between two hilltops. Even with the stress of Vin’s capture and the threat to the empire, there was an exhilarating freedom about cruising through the mists. It almost allowed him to forget the wars, the destruction, and the responsibility” (3.475).
However, now that he finally trusts the mists, Vin does not trust them because of Ruin.
“It felt that after a lifetime of finding the mists unsettling, he would now find them so comforting. Vin didn’t see them that way, not anymore. Elend could sense it in the way she acted, in the words she spoke. She distrusted the mists. Even hated them” (3.439).
Character Arc #1: Standing Up to His Father
One of Elend Venture’s arcs in the Mistborn series involves standing up to his cruel father. He has rebelled against Straff and the rest of the nobility in his small and somewhat childish ways up until now, but he has never had to truly stand up to his father.
As he gets to know Vin, or rather, “Lady Valette,” he gets bolder, and his views of the skaa begin to change. When the full-blown skaa rebellion breaks out towards the end of the novel, he stands up to his father for the first time. He tells Straff that he is not fleeing the city with him in the face of the skaa rebellion, and here, he “didn’t feel the least bit cowed” (1.594).
He further stands up to Straff in The Well of Ascension, as Tindwyl’s kingly lessons are beginning to take root. As he meets his father for a parlay in his camp, he stands up to him like a man, telling his father the truth as he sees it:
“You might take Luthadel,” Elend said, “but you’ll lose it! I may have been a bad king, but you’ll be a terrible one. The Lord Ruler was a tyrant, but he was also a genius. You’re neither. You’re just a selfish man who’ll use up his resources, then end up dead from a knife in the back” (2.323).
At this point, Elend notes that he’d grown up with the man, had been raised and tortured by him, but he had never spoken his mind until now. He’d “rebelled with the petty timidity of a teenage boy, but he’d never spoken the truth” (2.323).
Even Straff notices that he has changed, too, and that Elend “had become strong somehow” (2.330).
This is just one step on Elend’s broader arc in learning to stand up for himself and be confident in who he is. It’s a crucial skill he will need when he becomes ruler of Luthadel and emperor of the world.
Character Arc #2: Becoming King
Kelsier’s Shadow
Elend’s Insecurities
In the beginning of The Well of Ascension, Elend has been thrust into power, becoming the defacto ruler of Luthadel. As a result of being in this position, he naturally compares himself to Kelsier and how he stacks up against him a leader.
“Kelsier was central to it all. He was the one who organized, the one who took all the wild brainstorming and turned it into a viable operation. He was the leader. The genius” (2.4).
He worries that he is going to lose the revolution that Kelsier had created to his father, who is marching with his soldiers to the gates of Luthadel.
His insecurity with being compared with Kelsier shows in how he reacts to Dockson’s treatment of him. In the beginning of the second novel, Vin tells him that nobody expects him to be Kelsier. To this, he responds:
“That’s why Dockson doesn’t like me. He hates noblemen; it’s obvious in the way that he talks, the way he acts. I don’t know that I blame him, considering the life he’s known. Regardless, he doesn’t think I should be king. He thinks a skaa should be in my place—or even better, Kelsier. They all think that…They accept me—the people, the merchants, even the noblemen. But in the back of their minds, they wish they had Kelsier instead” (2.54).
His insecurity of being in Kelsier’s shadow causes him to make some political blunders as well. When Penrod, a merchant at one of Elend’s assemblies, argues with him about why they shouldn’t surrender the city, Elend notes that “The Survivor would never have given this city away without a fight” (2.103).
This doesn’t play well with Penrod, however, because he is an old school lord, not fond of a revolutionary like Kelsier. Many of the noblemen, in fact, feel threatened by Kelsier’s influence with the skaa. This shows how deep Keslier’s shadow penetrates, causing Elend to make political mistakes like this.
Later, as Cett’s army arrives outside the city walls, Elend starts to feel powerless, unsure of what to do. He thinks to himself that Keslier would have found a way out of this, again showing the huge shadow he casts over Elend in how he constantly compares himself to him, thinking he needs to live up to his legend.
Then, as the crew are talking about the old charcoal board they once had, that Kelsier had once written upon, they mention that Kelsier had atrocious, yet distinct handwriting. Even something as small as this evokes a reaction out of Elend:
“Kelsier, the Survivor of Hathsin, Elend thought. Even his handwriting is legendary” (2.147).
Kelsier’s shadow even pushes Elend to be illogical. When he proposes his plan to pit Cett and his father’s armies against one another, Ham notes that it sounds like one of Kell’s plans—foolhardy, brave and a little insane.
Here, Elend wants to be foolhardy. After Breeze says this, he thinks, “I can be as foolhardy as any man,” (2,153). He comes back to his senses, however, wondering if he really wants to follow this line of thinking through.
Even behind the scenes, Kelsier is a recurring problem and insecurity for Elend.
When he tells Vin he is worried their plan to pit the two armies besieging Luthadel against one another is ludicrous, she mentions that they fought the Lord Ruler, which was ludicrous in and of itself. To this, he says, “you had Kelsier then,” to which Vin responds, “Not that again” (2.163). This shows that this isn’t the first time this insecurity has cropped up.
Elend further shows his insecurities in his lessons with Tindwyl, as he tells her, “I’m not the best man for this position. He got himself killed by Lord Ruler” (2.240). Tindwyl tells Elend that he is the best simply for the fact that he holds the throne now, and it would be chaos without him.
Eventually, Elend will learn to overcome this insecurity and be a great leader.
Kelsier’s Legacy
Once Elend gains confidence in himself as a leader, he accepts that he will never be able to emulate Kelsier, or be him in any sort of way. Instead, he decides to use Kelsier’s legacy to his advantage. At one point, as the crew meets, he defines what role Kelsier has played for them and what they are to do next.
First, he states that the only reason any of them had any power was because of Kelsier’s sacrifice.
He then notes that the Survivor is a legend already, one they cannot hope to emulate,
Then he comments that they are jealous, even insecure of the power Kelsier still holds over the people, even in his death. He notes that these are natural, human feelings, ones that leaders feel as acutely as other people.
Finally, he states that they cannot continue on thinking like this. The Survivor was their progenitor. They need to focus on his legacy. Primarily, Vin, and the power she holds over Straff (2.375).
He will later intentionally associate himself more strongly with the Survivor to help him strengthen his position.
He notes that “he was simply going to have to get over his insecurity; Kelsier had been a great man, but he was gone. Elend would have to do his best to see that the Survivor’s legacy lived on. For that was what would be best for his people” (2.376).
By the end of the novel, we can see he is no longer insecure about Kelsier, as he looks up to the legacy he left in moving forward. At the end of the novel, when Vin asks him what they are going to do about this thing she has released at the Well of Ascension, he says:
“We’re going to do what Kelsier taught us, Vin. We’re going to survive” (2.785).
Invoking the Survivor
In The Hero of Ages, Elend is no longer trying to be like Kelsier, nor is he insecure at being compared to him. In fact, Elend actually uses Kelsier’s larger-than-life legacy to lift up the crew’s spirits, showing how far he’s come as a ruler.
Early in the novel, he asks the crew what they think Kelsier would say, if he were with them now, to which they respond that he would want them to laugh again, to smile more. And so, Elend tells them:
“We can survive this…but the only way that will happen is if our people don’t give up. They need leaders who laugh, leaders who feel this fight can be won. So, this is what I ask of you. I don’t care if you’re an optimist or a pessimist—I don’t care if secretly you think we’ll all be dead before the month ends. On the outside I want to see you smiling. Do it in defiance if you have to. If the end does come, I want this group to meet that end smiling. As the Survivor taught us” (3.125).
At other points in the novel, Elend invokes Kelsier’s legacy when it is neccessary. An example of this occurs when he has to immunize his soldiers against the mists as they march to Fadrex. He says to the men:
“I do not know why the mists kill. But I trust in the Survivor! He named himself Lord of the Mists. If some of us die, then it is his will. Keep the faith!” (3.169).
Elend has gotten over his insecurity in regards to Kelsier so much that he uses his legacy to motivate the people around him when it is expedient, showing that he has become a strong leader and that his arc in overcoming Kelsier’s shadow has been completed.
How Others See Elend
Any good character arc involves the character going from one place to its near polar opposite; in essence, it involves a high degree of change. Before we can see how much Elend changes to become a strong leader, it’s important to see how others view him before this change occurs.
When Elend first becomes the leader of Luthadel, he is not respected as a ruler, and many of the characters around him see him as weak or too idealistic to be in the position he is in.
Below are several examples of how other characters in the Mistborn series view Elend when he first comes into power in Luthadel.
Jastes Lekal
His old friend Jastes Lekal sees him as nothing more than a placeholder:
“Elend doesn’t control Luthadel—he’s simply a placeholder waiting for someone more powerful to come along. He’s a good man, but he’s an innocent idealist. He’s going to lose his throne to one army or another, and I’ll give him a better deal than Cett or Straff will, that’s certain” (2.227).
He also thinks of Elend as being self-righteous.
“That’s always been the problem with you, Elend. So certain, so optimistic, so self-righteous” (2.534).
Philen the Merchant
One of the men vying for power in Luthadel is a merchant named Philen. Just before Elend meets with the assembly that deposes him, Philen mocks Elend in his head, imagining how his speech would go: saying,
“Um…now, see, this wasn’t fair. I should be king. Here, let me read you a book about why. Now, um, can you all please give some more money to the skaa” (2.370)
He calls him a weak man and a fool to another merchant named Getrue. Getrue disagrees, however, saying he is not a fool because “he has good ideas” (2.370). They view him as a weak, albeit astute reader, but not a true leader.
Dockson
Dockson thinks he isn’t bold enough.
“He is a decent man; I can acknowledge that. He has some faults as a leader: he lacks boldness, lacks presence” (2.398).
Ashweather Cett
Lord Cett thinks Elend is too honest to be a good leader.
“You’re honest—I happen to like that about you. Unfortunately honesty is very easy to exploit—for instance, I knew that you’d admit Breeze was Soothing that crowd…honest men weren’t meant to be kings, lad. It’s a damn shame, but it’s true. That’s why I have to take the throne from you” (2.426).
Penrod
Penrod remarks to his father that Elend is too much of an idealist to be an effective ruler.
“Your boy isn’t a fool, Straff. He’s merely an idealist. In truth, I’m sad to see his little utopia fall.” (2.486).
Zane
Zane thinks that Elend is too pure to be a good ruler; or rather, to even be right for Vin.
“It’s not his fault that he is what he is,” Zane said, “As I said, he’s pure. But that makes him different from us. I’ve tried to explain it to you. I wish you could have seen that look in his eyes” (2.498).
Tindwyl
Tindwyl teaches Elend how to be a good ruler, and she sees his faults with his inability to seize power over other men. She thinks his goodness prevents him from becoming the leader that he could be.
“You lost the throne because you wouldn’t command your armies to secure the city, because you insisted on giving the Assembly too much freedom, and because you don’t employ assassins or other forms of pressure. In short, Elend Venture, you lost the throne because you are a good man” (2.516).
Sazed
Sazed, unlike the others, believes Elend is a good political strategist. Of course, he thinks this after Elend has more or less come into his own as a leader.
For example, as the new leaders of the different forces argue about what to do next after their victory over the koloss and Straff, Sazed notices how Penrod acts like a mediator, making himself seem above all the issues, putting himself in control by standing between the arguing leaders. He notes that this is what Elend had done, too:
“Not all that different from what Elend tried to do with our armies, Sazed thought. The boy had more of a sense of political strategy than Tindwyl had ever credited him with” (2.745).
Vin
Vin cherishes Elend’s honesty, even if it comes at his demise as a ruler.
“That was what she loved: his goodness, his simple honesty….Even among all the good men of Kelsier’s crew, even amid the best of the nobility, she had never found another man like Elend Venture. A man who would rather believe that the people who had dethroned him were simply trying to do the right thing” (2.492).
She realizes that what many see as Elend’s faults, or weaknesses, are actually strengths in making him a good leader. She realizes that he inspires people because of his goodness, because of his respect for them, and that’s what makes him strong:
“I always focus on the wrong things, when it comes to him…it wasn’t his ability to fight that made him great—it wasn’t his harshness or brutality, or even his srength or instincts…it was his ability to trust…it was the way that he made good people into better people, the way that he inspired them. His crew worked because he had confidence in them—because he respected them. And in return, they respected each other. Men like Breeze and Clubs became heroes because Kelsier had faith in them” (2.616).
She then points out that Elend has this sort of talent in spades, even more so than Kelsier:
“And you are far better at that than Kelsier ever was, Elend. He had to work at it. You do it instinctively, treating even weasels like Philen as if they were good and honorable men. It’s not naivete, as some think. It’s what Kelsier had, only greater. He could have learned from you” (2.616).
Honesty to a Fault
As others around him have noted, Elend Venture is a good person, and he is honest to a fault. His honest nature ultimately costs him his throne to Luthadel. But it’s part of what differentiates him from others who want the power for themselves, and it’s why he ultimately makes a fair and just emperor once he wins back power.
In The Well of Ascension, his thoughtful nature becomes his demise. He gets deposed by his own law, the very one he wrote, that allows the Assembly to overthrow a king. This is where the rubber meets the road in his idealism vs. raw power – Elend learns, harshly, that idealism doesn’t always win through.
Still, there is a chance for him to retain the throne, as the Assembly must pick a new king by a certain date, otherwise the throne will simply fall back to Elend. After the vote for a new king is held, no one has a clear advantage. The assemblymen ask him if they can switch their votes for someone else, so that person can win over Elend.
Only Elend and an old obligator named Noorden know the answer. There was a clause allowing for men to change their votes, assuming that the chancellor hadn’t officially closed the voting, which Penrod hasn’t done at this point. He could easily lie to them and hold onto his power, but he doesn’t. He tells them the truth, and the assemblymen vote for Penrod, deposing him as king (2.479).
Even after he’s lost the kingship to Penrod, he isn’t upset that he lost his own power, he is only upset that he could’ve possibly given the throne to Cett instead; that in his own arrogance, being caught up in his scheme, he didn’t ally with Penrod from the beginning to keep the throne out of Cett’s hand. “I wasn’t thinking of the people,” he says (2.491).
He is almost too honest, too noble; he is only thinking of the people and not of his own power. However, his honesty is what actually makes him more fit to rule than others, and his genuine care for all the people he rules over differentiates him from other, power-hungry men.
As the skaa are beginning to freeze in the cold winter, he thinks “I should have been able to do more for them…I should have found a way to get more coal; I should have managed to provide for them all” (2.511).
Here, he shows his selflessness. He thinks of the whole city as his family, and he feels a deep satisfaction—even a thrill—from doing something, anything, to help them, despite not having power.
It’s these reasons why Elend is the rightful king of Luthadel and a good fit for being the emperor. However, he will have to learn how to be more confident, commanding, and charismatic before he can become their ruler again.
Tindwyl’s 10 Kingly Lessons
Tindwyl, the Terriswoman Sazed sends to help Elend with ruling, teaches him several key things and helps him to become a better king. Below are her ten kingly lessons for Elend.
- Be Strong with How You Speak
Tindwyl teaches Elend that he must be stronger in the way that he speaks. She says that “presentation—words, actions, postures—will determine how people judge you and react to you. If you start every sentence with softness and uncertainty, you will seem soft and uncertain. Be forceful!” (2.158).
She explains to him that a king commands, he doesn’t ask; this is how people perceive a king as having authority.
“Kings don’t argue, Elend Venture,” Twindyl said firmly. “They command.” (2.184).
- Learn that Theory and Practice Are Different
Tindwyl teaches Elend that what you learn in theory and what you practice are two very different things. That “understanding theories of politics and leadership…is not the same as understanding the lives of men who lived such principles” (2.160).
- Form Good, Small Habits
Tindwyl teaches Elend how to form small, imperceptible habits, like good posture, and to step out of his “slovenly” habits (2.184).
She even teaches him how to walk properly, and how to fix small speech patterns, like saying “um” too much (2.188).
- Dress for the Job You Want
Tindwyl teaches Elend how to dress properly, giving him a uniform to wear. Of this, she says:
“You want your people to believe that you can protect them? Well, a king isn’t simply a lawmaker—he’s a general. It is time you began to act like you deserve your title, Elend Venture” (2.185).
Like Vin and her ball dresses, the clothes themselves help Elend to act more like who he aspires to be.
As he looks in the mirror, he notices that, “The man he saw now was no dandy of the court. He was a serious man—a formal man. A man to be taken seriously. The uniform made him want to stand up straighter, to rest one hand on the dueling cane.”
It’s at this point that he asks Tindwyl to cut his hair.
His hair—slightly curled, long on the top and sides, and blown loose by the wind atop the city wall—didn’t fit. Elend turned. “All right,” he said. “Cut it” (2.187).
Tindwyl also gives him a dueling cane and a crown. Of the crown, she says:
“The crown isn’t a symbol of your wealth, but of your authority. You will wear it from now on, whether you’re in private or in public” (2.187).
When Elend comments that the Lord Ruler never wore a crown, she reminds him that “the Lord Ruler didn’t need to remind people that he was in charge.”
- Learn How to Handle Weapons
Tindwyl tells Elend that he needs to learn how to handle weapons. She says that it’s embarrassing for Vin to be protecting him, and that his people—his soldiers—will expect him to be able to fight alongside them. She says that he doesn’t necessarily be leading the charge, but that he should at least be able to handle himself if his position gets attacked (2.188).
- Be Trustworthy
Tindwyl tells him that a good king is one who is trusted by his people, and one who deserves that trust (2.190).
- Change Your Attitude
Tindwyl tells Elend that he needs to change his attitude for other attitudes about him to be changed.
“You are a king, Elend Venture,” Tindwyl said, arms folded. “Nobody let’s you do anything. The first change in attitude has to be your own—you have to stop thinking that you need permission or agreement from those who follow you” (2.238).
Elend, of course argues that a king must lead by consent of his citizens, to which Tindwyl replies that a king should be strong, and that he should only accept counsel when he asks for it. The final decision is his, not his counselors.
- Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself
Tindwyl tells Elend that needs to stop being sorry for himself. “Guilt does not become a king,” she says. She tells him that he needs to feel confident that his actions are best, that no matter how bad things get, they will always be worse without him.
“When disaster occurs, you take responsibility, but you don’t wallow or mope…guilt is for lesser men. You simply need to do what is expected” (2.240).
- Know that Love is Not Easy for Kings
Tindwyl tells Elend that love is not easy for kings, that affection for a girl can cause far more trouble than anything else. But she tells him it’s not a reason to give Vin up, and that they must allow the occasional exception (2.243).
Perhaps this is a reflection on Tindwyl more than anything else, but it is awfully convenient for Elend, isn’t it?
- Learn That There is No Mold For Kingship
Tindwyl’s final lesson for Elend is that there is no one mold for kingship. Elend would not be like the kings of the past, any more than he would be like Kelsier. He would need to be himself, and he would need to define his kingship on his own terms.
Ultimately, Elend does this, and proves that honesty and respect are his style of leadership, and that they work.
Applying Tindwyl’s Lessons: Becoming a Leader
As Elend begins to apply Tindwyl’s lessons, he becomes more confident and commanding, and people begin to take notice. He becomes more respected and taken seriously as a leader.
Taking Leadership of the Crew
Elend first takes leadership of the crew. When they argue that he shouldn’t go out to meet his father in his camp, he finally tells them, after much protest, that “I’m afraid that this isn’t a discussion…I’ve made a decision.” (2.231). Here, he is authoritative. He commands.
The crew further argues that meeting with his father would be a mistake, as it would officially count as a parlay. If this was the case, it would break his resolution with the assembly to delay action until he met with his father.
Elend, however, tells them that this is happening, whether they like it or not. Again, he commands here. Vin notes here that he is “more decisive indeed” and that “he’s changing.” (2.234).
The rest of the crew respond to his newfound confidence as he starts applying Tindwyl’s lessons. They respect him more and begin to look up to him.
For example, when the crew asks what they are to do with Cett’s daughter seeking asylum, he is surprised that they all turn to him for the decision. Weeks ago, they would have simply kept on arguing. He has a moment of questioning himself:
“Who was he? A man who had haphazardly ended up on the throne? A poor replacement for their brilliant leader? An idealist who ahdn’t considered the dangers his philosophies would bring? A fool? A child? An impostor?”
But then, as Tindwyl has told him he is the best King simply because he is in the position he is in, holding the chaos at bay, he thinks,
“The best they had” and he makes his decision firmly – Cett’s daughter would stay, at least for the moment (2.249). He is fully ready to accept whatever consequences come of this decision.
At this point, the crew begins to call him your majesty, showing that he has transcended being their peer to becoming their leader.
Standing Up for His Principles
Eve though his principled nature is perceived as weakness by others, Elend gains confidence in himself and how he wants to rule when he stands up for his principles.
When he is deposed as king by his own written law, Tindwyl and the others push him to simply seize power, institute martial law, and reign the Asembly in. However, Elend stands firm in his convictions:
“No,” Elend said, more firm. “We will do none of that.” (2.339).
He even chastises Tindwyl for calling him a fool. He tells her she can criticize his ideas all she wants, but he will not be belittled. He says that he “will not be like the tyrants who would take Luthadel from us! I will not force the people to do my will, even if I know it is best for them.”
Moreover, he says, “You can change my clothing and my bearing, but you can’t change the soul of who I am. I’ll do what I think is right—and that includes letting the Assembly depose me, if that is their choice.” (2.340)
Here, Elend begins to define the kingship on his own terms.
Gaining Confidence
How Others Perceive His Confidence
Elend’s political enemies notice his change in confidence as he comes into his own as a leader.
When he walks up to the Assembly to discuss his deposition, for example, Philen the merchant notes:
“Who would be awed by Elend Venture—even if the Elend Venture in question was clean-shaven, had styled hair, wore new clothing and…? Philen frowned. Was that a dueling cane the king was wearing? And a wolfhound at his side?” (2.371).
He has to remind himself, at this point, that Elend is not king anymore. His presence makes Philen nervous. He notes that “there was none of the jovial, dismisssible boy that had attended these meetings before. Standing in militaristic suit, firm instead of hesitant…he almost seemed like a different person” (2.372).
The other members of the crew also take notice of his newfound confidence.
Tindwyl, for example, notices that he is starting to learn that being a good leader comes from experience, from action, from doing, rather than reading and theory.
Breeze, who’s been Soothing Elend the whole time to make him more confident, notes that he no longer has to try to make him uncertain, that it was becoming unnecessary.
Ham notes the changes, too, saying that the soldiers were starting to see Elend as a commander, and that they stand a little straighter when he is around, and that they polish their weapons if they know he’ll be stopping by.
Vin notices that people start to call him “Your Majesty” and that he Elend no longer tries to stop people from saying it, that he lets them use it.
She also notes how much he has changed, thinking:
“He’s changing so quickly. How long has it been since Tindwyl arrived? Two months? None of the things Elend said were that different from what he would have said before—but the way he said them was completely different. He was firm, demanding in a way that implied he expected to respect” (2.412).
Finally, Sazed remarks that Elend has become a king in place of a scholar. When Elend seeks out Sazed for advice about Vin, Sazed notes how he’d gone back to wearing his white uniforms, and stood with a commanding posture despite his obvious frustration. He marvels, “Someone stole away my friend the scholar…and left a king in his place” (2.574).
How Elend Perceives His Confidence
Internally, Elends thoughts begin to change as he gains confidence. He perceives leadership in a different way than he did before.
He starts to learn that in order to be a good leader, he needs to lead with confidence, with what he thinks of as “necessary arrogance.” When he’s talking to Ham about the subject, he says, “it’s an understandable arrogance. I don’t think a man could lead without it. In fact, I think it’s what I’ve been missing through most of my reign. Arrogance.”
At this point, he is starting to see himself as the best man for the job, and that he just needs to be able to prove it to the people. He becomes more secure, or perhaps more certain, of his newfound path and growth as a leader:
“I won’t go back to the way I was, Elend thought. I won’t continue to fret and worry. Tindwyl taught me better than that, even if she never really understood me” (2.518).
Tindwyl’s lessons have clearly had the intended effect on Elend, and they make him a better leader.
As they are discussing the final stand of Luthadel at the end of the second novel, Elend thinks to himself, “Be firm…you can afford to seem worried, but you musn’t ever seem uncertain (2.555). This thought sounds like it could have come directly from Tindwyl’s mouth.
Elend’s Defining Traits as King
Once Elend has made his transformation to being a king, he thinks about Tindwyl’s final lesson: that there was no one mold for being king. He thinks about what would define his own kingship.
“He would be Elend Venture. His roots were in philosophy, so he would be remembered as a scholar. He’d best use that to his advantage, or he wouldn’t be remembered at all” (2.460).
Then, when he’s evaluating his strengths and weaknesses, he thinks:
“Yes, he was a scholar—and an optimist, as Ham had noted. He was no master duelist, though he was improving. He wasn’t an excellent diplomat, though his meetings with Straff and Cett proved that he could hold his own.” (2.461).
Finally, he asks himself, “What was he?”
To which he thinks, “A nobleman who loved the skaa.”
This, along with his scholarly nature, are his defining traits as king. He was always fascinated with the skaa even before becoming king. But now, he is in a position to empower them. He sees them differently than the other nobles do. He decides that he will not abandon them. They become part of his base for power. He rules them nobly, as a scholar or philosopher might.
Rather than taking Tindwyl’s lessons verbatim, or seizing power like she had wanted him too, Elend defines his kingship on his own terms.
Not only does he end up regaining the crown in Luthadel, but he becomes something more with the help of Vin: the Emperor of the world. His noble nature serves him well in this role.
Character Arc #3: Being Emperor
Once they defeat Straff and the koloss with Vin’s help, she declares Elend the emperor of the Final Empire. Elend steps into this role and thrives as a strong leader.
Between the events of The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages, he has become hardened by war. He wears a beard now. He is a mistborn allomancer, no longer vying for power of Luthadel, but in control of the entire Final Empire. He bears the responsibility of ruling the whole world on his shoulders. He has become a different man altogether, one who shows not only kingly qualities, but the qualities of a just emperor.
Command & Authority
By this point in the Mistborn series, Elend Venture has become a commanding figure, one who effuses authority.
In the beginning of the last novel, for example, a man named Fatren notices his commanding qualities.
“Well, Fatren thought with dissatisfaction as the soldier ran off, this newcomer certainly knows how to command people. Fatren’s soldier didn’t pause to think that he was obeying a stranger without asking for permission. Fatren could already see the other soldiers straightening a bit, losing their wariness. This newcomer talked like he expected to be obeyed, and the soldiers were responding. This wasn’t a nobleman like the ones Fatren had known when he was a household servant at the lord’s manor. This man was different” (3.11).
Not only is Elend commanding at this point, but he is authoritative, and he uses his authority when neceessary. When they make camp at Fadrex, for example, he has to put Cett in his place. Cett complains that if they make an alliance, he won’t be getting his city back. To which Elend responds:
“You seem to be forgetting yourself, Cett…You did not ‘team up’ with me. You knelt before me, offering up oaths of service in exchange for not getting executed. Now, I appreciate your allegiance, and I will see you rewarded with a kingdom to rule under me. However, you don’t get to choose where that kingdom is, nor when I will grant it” (3.221).
Cett concedes to this, saying, “Damn, boy. You’ve changed a lot in the year I’ve known you.” (3.221).
Appearances & Regality
Throughout his rule as emperor, Elend understands the importance of appearances, as Tindwyl had taught him. At all times, he makes a show of being regal, and others take notice of this.
When he orders Fatren’s men to organize at the city gates, and not all of them obey, Fatren notes that “the newcomer didn’t seem offended that his orders weren’t obeyed. He stood quietly, staring down the armed crowd. He didn’t seem frightened nor did he seem angry or disapproving. He only seemed regal” (3.14).
It is not an accident that Elend looks regal. It’s a conscious decision on his part, especially with how he dresses himself:
“Sometimes he felt guilty at all the work it took to make him look regal. Yet it was necessary. Not for his vanity, but for his image. The image for which his men marched to war. In a land of black, Elend wore white—and became a symbol” (3.112).
Furthermore, appearance is something more than physical looks to Elend. At all times, he makes a point to project confidence to those around him.
He learns how to confine his worries away from the eyes of his men, for example. When he has to immunize his troops to the mists, he notes the importance of not showing his uncertainty:
“Elend had learned something very important about himself: he was honest. Perhaps too honest. If he was uncertain, it would show in his face. The soldiers would sense his hesitation. So he’d learned to confine his worries and concerns to when he was alone with those closest to him. That meant Vin saw too much of his brooding, but it left him free at other times to project confidence” (3.168).
Even Vin notices that he doesn’t brood now, either.
“Elend stood at the prow as usual, staring westward. He did not brood. He looked like a king, standing straight-backed, staring determinedly toward his goal. He appeared so different now from the man he had once been, with his full beard, his longer hair, his uniforms that had been scrubbed white” (3.192).
Not only does Elend project confidence, but he knows the importance of when to be seen. As he rides through his camp while his army is besieging Fadrex, he remembers Tindwyl’s lesson on this particular point:
“Elend raised an eyebrow, riding his stallion through the center of his camp. Tindwyl had taught him that it was good to be seen by one’s people, especially in situations where he could control the way he was perceived. He happened to agree with this particular lesson, so he rode, wearing a black cloak to mask the ash’s smudges, making certain his soldiers knew that he was among them” (3.328).
Responsibility
Not only is Elend confident, commanding, and regal as an emperor, but he is truly kind and responsible. He is good to the people he rules over.
For example, he sells and burns most of his lavish trappings so that his people could have food and warmth during the winter (3.42). He understands that his position as emperor is to make everything better.
When Vin tells him the crew are losing their faith and are troubled by the world collapsing around them, he tells her he will do something to fix it.
“After all, that was his job. The title fo emperor carried with it only a single duty. To make everything better” (3.113).
He also comes to think of all the people in the empire as “his” people, and he grows frustrated with being unable to protect them.
After Ruin takes control of the koloss, for example, he visits several men who had survived the initial clash with the koloss, and he grows frustrated by this inability to protect them.
“Still, it came back to his continuing frustration at his inability to protect his people. And despite Yomen’s rule of Fadrex, Elend considered its people to be his people. He’d taken the Lord Ruler’s throne, named himself emperor. The entirety of the Final Empire was his to care for. What good was a ruler who couldn’t protect a single city, let alone an empire full of them?” (3.639).
He also doesn’t care for the atium when they finally find it at the end of the novel, saying, “my people are starving, and they can’t eat metal. This cavern, however…it might prove useful” (3.719)
Here, he is only thinking of his people, not the power atium could provide him. This shows that Elend is just as an emperor, since he cares not for his own power, but the wellbeing of the people he rules over.
His kindness and responsible nature has an effect on the people he rules. As Cett points out:
“The people like you. Your soldiers trust you, and they know you have too kind a heart for your own good. You have a strange effect on them. Lads such as those, they should have been eager to rob villages, not matter how impoverished. Especially considering how one dge our men are and how many fights there have been in camp. Yet they didn’t. Hell, one of the groups felt so sorry for the villagers that they stayed fora few days and hlepd water the fields and do repairs to some of the homes!” (3.441).
Uncertainty
Despite being a strong ruler, Elend struggles with this new persona, and he lets Vin know that he is worried about his true personality coming out when they’re at Yomen’s ball.
He is worried that he was too informal during his conversation with Yomen, that he was so stiff that his old instincts came out—the ones that made him respond to people like Yomen with mockery.
Vin tells him that he is acting like himself and that’s a good thing, to which Elend responds, “My old self didn’t make a good king” (3.306).
She reassures him that the things he learned about kingship didn’t have to do with his personality, but rather other things, like confidence and decisiveness. She tells him he can have those things and still be himself.
Elend isn’t so sure about this, to which Vin tells him that he’s been so determined to be a good king that he has let it quash who he really is.
At the ball, Elend and Vin have a redemptive moment for who they truly are beneath the persona they portray. They dance together, and for a moment, they are nothing more than a couple at a ball, being their truest selves.
Despite Vin’s reassurances, she notes that he hadn’t decided yet whether “he needed to be more of a hard warrior than a kind scholar” but that he was thinking, and that was enough at the moment (3.307).
Later, as they discuss hemalurgy and the true nature of the koloss, he does move back towards his more scholarly self:
“Elend, however, had drifted a bit, staring out the open tent flaps, losing himself in thought. It was something he’d done once frequently, back when he spent more time on scholarship. He wasn’t addressing Cett’s questions. He was speaking his own concerns, following his own logical path” (3.369).
Elend comes to understand that he can be both a kind scholar and an effective ruler all at once, and that he needn’t worry that these things are mutually exclusive.
Character Arc #4: Dictator vs. Democracy: Internal Struggle
Lord Ruler Comparison
Oftentimes, it is said a good villain will hold up a mirror to our protagonist. By inhabiting the position of emperor that the Lord Ruler had once had for a thousand years, Elend is often shown this mirror as he tries to rule in the Lord Ruler’s shadow.
The Well of Ascension
Early in this novel, Elend is confronted with the possibility that the Lord Ruler’s way was better – that extreme oppression, while bad, can also create stability, and that more democratic methods can create power vacuums and instability.
“Sometimes Elend wondered if the Lord Ruler had been right. Not in oppressing the people, of course—but in retaining all of the power for himself. The Final Empire had been nothing if not stable. It had lasted a thousand years, weathering rebellions, maintaining a strong hold on the world” (2.21).
Later, he notes that despite the Lord Ruler’s tyranny, he had managed to keep stability within his empire. Elend must confront that perhaps his tyranny was’t always for the worst. He notes this as he worries about the skaa freezing in winter, thinking to himself:
“It was humbling, even depressing, to admit that the Lord Ruler had done better than Elend himself. Despite being a heartless tyrant, the Lord Ruler had at least kept a significant portion of the population from starving or freezing. He had kept armies in check, and had kept crime at a manageable level (2.511).
Elend knows the importance of doing things differently than the Lord Ruler, however. When the Assembly rejects one of his proposals, Vin asks him why he can’t just make them accept it. He is the king after all, and he should trust himself more. To that, he responds:
“It’s not about trust. It’s about what’s right. We spent a thousand years fighting against the Lord Ruler—if I do things the same way he did, then what will be the difference?” (2.31).
The ghost of the Lord Ruler impacts the way he governs – at every turn, he must govern in such a way as to be different than the Lord Ruler. But, at the same time, he must maintain the same level of prosperity, if not more prosperity, than the Lord Ruler, and that oftentimes requires being more oppressive.
The Hero of Ages
In The Hero of Ages, Elend rules as the emperor of the world, and he struggles even more with how similar he must operate to the Lord Ruler before him.
For example, when they have to sacrifice some of the soldiers to the mists in order to make it to Fadrex more quickly, he remarks that this was something the Lord Ruler would have done:
“This is something he would have done…sacrificing his own men for a tactical advantage” (3.196).
He tells Vin that despite the necessity of it, it was still ruthless. That the problem isn’t that the men died, but that he was so willing to make it happen. He feels brutal. He notes too, how he is marching on another man’s kingdom to take it from him.
Vin tells him it’s for the greater good, however, and Elend makes a great point to this—it’s oftentimes what tyrants use to justify their cruel actions:
“Which has been the excuse of tyrants throughout all time. I know that. Yet I press on. This is why I didn’t want to be emperor. This is why I let Penrod take my throne from me during the siege. I didn’t want to be the kind of leader who had to do things like this. I want to protect, not besiege and kill! But is there any other way? Everything I do feels like it must be done. Such as exposing my own men in the msits. Such as marching on Fadrex City. We have to get to that storage cache—it’s the only lead we have that could give us a clue as to what we’re supposed to do! It all makes such sense. Ruthless, brutal sense” (3.197).
Despite his reluctance at the ruthlessness of his acts, he still realizes that some of these actions are necessary. He seems to sway, back and forth, between being more like the Lord Ruler and being less like him.
He seems to side more with the Lord Ruler, for example, as he regrets one of his own laws, where he had outlawed the beatings of noble-born children to create more allomancers (to make them Snap).
He tells Vin that Allomancers were their most powerful resource, to which Vin says, “Elend, you stopped the beating of children.” Elend responds, “And if those beatings could save lives?…Like exposing my soldiers could save lives?” (3.198).
Here, he leans more towards a utilitarian point of view, that serving the greater good is just, and that the ends justify the menas.
He tells Vin that the longer he’s held his throne, the more he’s come to realize that some of the things the Lord Ruler did weren’t evil, but simply effective.
“Right or wrong, he maintained order in his kingdom” (3.198).
He recognizes, however, that there must be a balance between sheer ruthlessness and idealism. He shows that he is unlike the Lord Ruler in this way.
“There has to be a balance, Vin,” he said. “Somehow we’ll find it. The balance between who we wish to be and who we need to be…but for now…we have to be satisfied with who we are.” (3.199).
Furthermore, he tells Vin that if he ever loses sight of giving up his throne in service to what is right, to tell him (3.199).
Later in the novel, however, he starts to act more like the Lord Ruler again, as he is seriously considering assassinating Cett because of the problems he is causing, saying that he’ll “make the decision that is best for the empire.”
This is an extreme, ruthless action, when just chapters ago, he was lamenting the ruthless actions this position of leadership had pushed him to.
As the novel progresses, however, Elend continues to make moral and just decisions, and he gets better at dismissing this comparison of himself to the Lord Ruler.
When one of his older friend’s, Telden, accuses him of becoming the Lord Ruler himself, Elend has a moment of hesitation, but ultimately decides to trust himself.
“Elend hesitated. It felt odd to have another confront him with his own questions and arguments. Part of him felt a stab of fear—if Telden asked thse things, then Elend had been correct to worry about them. Perhaps they were true…Yet a stronger impulse flared within him. An impulse nurtured by Tindwyl, then refined by a year of struggling to bring order to the shattered remains of the Final Empire…An impulse to trust himself” (3.293).
Even though Telden doesn’t believe Elend when he says he is a scholar and not a king, Elend isn’t bothered by this. There is something about confronting his similarity with the Lord Ruler and dismissing it that validates his confidence:
“Telden didn’t understand—he hadn’t lived through what Elend had. The young Elend wouldn’t have agreed with what he was now doing. A part of that youth still had a voice within Elend’s soul—and he would never quiet it. But it was time to stop letting it undermine him.” (3.294).
Doing What Is Right vs. What Is Necessary
Elend struggles with having to be this commanding, almost tyrannical figure in his role as emperor. He wants to be an idealist, and let democracy reign free, but the circumstances won’t let him—he must be a hard dictator and commander in the face of what they are fighting.
When Fatren tells him that if they survive the battle, that they will end up ruled by a tyrant, Elend tells him, “I used to think that I could do things differently. And I still believe that someday I’ll be able to. But for now I don’t have a choice. I need your soldiers and I need your city” (3.15).
Notably, Elend is troubled by his decision to turn to authoritariasm and autocarcy. Vin points out, “Your parliamentary assembly still rules in Luthadel, and the kingdoms you reign over maintain basic rights and privileges for the skaa” (3.59).
Elend thinks these are just compromises, however, that they get to do what they want only as long as Fatren doesn’t disagree with them.
Vin tells him he has to be realistic, and Elend laments that when he and his friends used to meet together, it was he that was the one who spoke of perfect dreams, of the great things they would accomplish, that he was always an idealist.
Vin notes that emperors don’t have that luxury, however. It begs the question – when does ruling out of necessity trump authoritarianism? Is a benevolent dictator truly best?
Vin notices this internal struggle, noting that she sees regret and disillusionment in him (3.59). She notes that his current problems seemed worse than the self-doubt he had struggled with in the previous novel. Despite all he had accomplished, Elend still saw himself as a failure.
Still, she notes that he doesn’t allow himself to wallow in that failure, that he moved on, working despite his regret. Vin notes that he was a harder man now; before, he had been easily dismissed as a genius who had wonderful ideas, but withno ability to lead. She notes that the idealist in him, the optimist and scholar, were all tempered by what he had to do.
The brutal part of him that needs to do what’s necessary vs. the benevolent part that wants to protect as many people as possible are continuously at odds with one another, especially as they decide what to do in regards to besieging Fadrex, where it all comes to a head.
“Elend fell silent. The two halves of him still warred. The man he had been simply wanted to protect as many people as possible. The man he was becoming was more realistic. That man knew that sometimes he had to kill—or at least cause discomfort—in order to save” (3.330).
Cett points out that he is trying to play both sides, as he opts to poison the wells of Fadrex, but warn their citizens that the wells are poisoned, as well as harassing the villages near Fadrex, but opting not to kill anyone. It’s as if he is trying to have his cake and eat it too.
The siege itself represents this internal conflict for Elend:
“He realized that this siege could tip the balance between who he was and who he feared he would become. Could he really justify invading Fadrex, slaughtering its armies and pillaging its resources, ostensibly in the name of protecting the people of the empire? Could he dare do the opposite: retreat from Fadrex and leave the secrets in the cavern—the secrets that could potentially save the entire empire—to a man who still thought the Lord Ruler would return to save his people?” (3.334).
Here, he is not ready to decide. It is not until the mists convince him otherwise that he decides not to attack, as this is part of Ruin’s plan.
Turning Point
He finally reconciles the different pieces of himself at the end of the novel. He decides that it is okay that he is a mix of a lot of different things. For example, he tells Yomen:
“I’m an amalgamation of what I’ve needed to be. Part scholar, part rebel, part nobleman, part Mistborn, and part soldier. Sometimes I don’t even know myself. I had a devil of a time getting all those pieces to work together. And just when I’m starting to get it figured out, the world up and ends on me” (3.638).
He realizes that he can be all of these things at once and still be a great leader.
Legacy
At the end of the Mistborn series, Elend realizes what Preservation’s plan is, and he knows he has to die in order to help Vin kill Ruin. He sacrifices himself towards this end and helps save the world. He was as selfless in death as he was throughout his entire reign as king and emperor.
Elend Venture gave himself up for the greater good, for the good of his people. He was the leader the people of his world truly deserved. Ultimately, his story is one of what it means to be king, of what it means to be a just ruler.
