Mistborn: The Final Empire

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue and Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 1, Chapters 6-8

Part 2, Chapters 9-15

Part 3, Chapters 16-21

Part 3, Chapters 22-25

Part 4, Chapters 26-34

Part 5, Chapters 35-38 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 5, Chapters 35-38 and EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 5: “Believers in a Forgotten World”

Part 5, Chapter 35 Summary

In this chapter’s epigraph, the Hero of Ages must not take the power of the Well of Ascension for himself, lest it corrupt him.

In the chaos after Kelsier’s death, hundreds of skaa are killed by the Lord Ruler’s soldiers. Vin hangs in the mists using Allomancy, in shock after Kelsier’s death and seeking to hide from the world. Sazed calls Vin to land. He still believes in Kelsier and what Kelsier represents; Sazed will collect stories of Kelsier from the skaa, as he has become a religious figure among the population.

Skaa go out in the mists and call for others to join them, claiming that Kelsier’s inspiration should motivate them to act. A skaa man claims to have been visited by Kelsier himself after his death in the city’s square. As the skaa begin collecting on the streets, the crew gathers in astonishment. Kelsier’s plan of inspiring a skaa rebellion using himself as a martyr has succeeded. The crew visits the warehouse Kelsier rented and in which he stored ample weapons for a rebellion.

There, they are approached by Lord Renoux. Vin learns what a kandra is and that this kandra’s binding contract was set to move to Vin following Kelsier’s death. Kelsier’s final instructions to the kandra are to consume his body and appear to the skaa as Lord Kelsier of the Mists. The kandra gives the crew the instructions Kelsier left with him: Ham, Breeze, and Dockson are to administer various parts of a new government. He left Vin a small pouch of atium and the Eleventh Metal.

Part 5, Chapter 36 Summary

Vin walks to Kredik Shaw, intent on fulfilling Kelsier’s wish of using the Eleventh Metal against the Lord Ruler. She breaks into the palace and goes directly to the chamber where the small room resides, finding two Inquisitors waiting for her there. She distracts the Inquisitor with Allomancy long enough to make it inside the room. The room is decorated with memorabilia and cozy furniture. The Lord Ruler, looking much older than when he killed Kelsier, sits in a chair at the center of the room. The Inquisitors enter the room and hold Vin. They intend to use her as an example of the corruption of the obligators in a Ministry meeting scheduled for later that evening. Vin burns the Eleventh Metal and sees the Lord Ruler in his past when he was the packman Rashek.

Vin’s metal reserves are depleted as she is imprisoned in Kredik Shaw. The Inquisitors take Vin to the throne tower where the Lord Ruler and his obligators are assembled. Vin’s father is present. The Inquisitors petition the Lord Ruler to change the leadership of the Ministry to their Canton and away from the obligators. They reveal Vin’s parentage as proof that the obligators are too corrupt to lead. The Lord Ruler grants their request; the Inquisitors kill Tevidian. The Inquisitors keep Vin a prisoner to torture her into giving information on Kelsier’s crew.

While Vin is imprisoned in Kredik Shaw, Elend confronts his father about House Venture fleeing the city. The skaa fight together against the nobility and Lord Ruler’s soldiers. Elend insists on staying in Luthadel. Straff assigns him five soldiers as a personal guard, plus a small force for defense. Elend orders these men to march to Keep Lekal and form an alliance.

Part 5, Chapter 37 Summary

Elend finds the headquarters of the rebellion and turns himself over to Dockson. They negotiate a truce, agreeing to work together against the Lord Ruler. Elend recognizes Ham from the execution. They tell Elend that Vin is in Kredik Shaw.

Vin is brought back to her prisoner’s cell. The Inquisitor in charge of her, Kar, reveals that the Ministry had captured Reen and tortured him to death. However, Reen protected her by lying to the Inquisitors. Sazed is dragged into the prison after intentionally letting himself be caught. Once Kar leaves, Sazed uses the strength stored in Feurochemical metals to break them out of the prison. They attempt to escape the palace, running into Elend and his personal guard. They are attacked by the lord Ruler’s guards. Vin finds her clothes in the guardsroom along with a vial of metal solution and her earring. Using Allomancy, she defeats the guards and reunites with Elend. Vin tells Elend to steal the Lord Ruler’s atium stores while she attempts to assassinate him.

Part 5, Chapter 38 Summary

The Lord Ruler holds a meeting of his Ministry in the throne room to transfer power from the obligators to the Inquisitors. Vin breaks in through the large window of the circular room after the Ministry members have been sent away; the mists enter with her, attracted to her Allomancy. She burns the Eleventh Metal, sees the Lord Ruler’s past self, and tries to stab it. Her blades go through the image without affecting the Lord Ruler. Kar enters the throne room and grabs hold of Vin, beating her until another Inquisitor removes a metal spike, identical to the Inquisitor’s eye spikes, from the center of his back. This kills Kar. The Inquisitor is Marsh. Marsh has already removed the spikes of the other Inquisitors present and attempts to do the same to the Lord Ruler, but the Lord Ruler does not have a spike. The Lord Ruler removes his ripped shirt to reveal metal bracers piercing the skin of his arms.

Vin realizes that the Lord Ruler must be Rashek and, as a Terrisman, be both an Allomancer and a Feruchemist. Vin uses her last strength and the power of the mists to wrench the metal bracers from the Lord Ruler’s arms. She sends them out of the window. The Lord Ruler ages rapidly and then collapses. The Lord Ruler says, “By killing me, you have doomed yourselves” (631). Vin kills him with a spear.

Epilogue Summary

In the epigraph of the Epilogue, the Hero of Ages writes of his faith that there is a benevolent force watching over him and the people of Scadrial: “If I fail, another shall come to finish my work” (633).

Vin, Sazed, and Marsh sit on the rooftop of an empty building discussing the night’s events. The rest of the crew works to help Elend set up a new government in Luthadel with Elend as king. Sazed proposes that Rashek was originally a Feruchemist, but the power he stole from the Hero of Ages at the Well of Ascension made him an Allomancer as well. Potentially, the first Allomancer. Vin connects the appearance of Allomancy with the coming of the mists, also associated with the Ascension. The name Mistborn assumes a new meaning for her, particularly since she drew on the power of the mists to fight the Lord Ruler. Marsh leaves to participate in Elend’s meetings as the sole representative of the Steel Ministry. Elend was never able to find the Lord Ruler’s atium.

Vin goes to Keep Venture in the evening and watches Elend through the window. She is about to leave when Reen’s voice enters her mind. It has changed and urges her to return to Elend. Vin enters Keep Venture to embrace Elend.

Part 5, Chapters 35-38 and-Epilogue Analysis

By the conclusion of Mistborn, the characters solve most, but not all, of the problems they faced. However, Sanderson leaves some problems unaddressed—such as control of the empire’s atium—and presents new problems through the question of the mists and the Lord Ruler’s final words. This is a common technique for series writing, in which Sanderson satisfies the reader’s need to see closure among the characters and plot while also keeping them invested in future novels of this series.

The mists become an important factor in both the climatic events of the novel and Vin’s character arc. First, the mists give Vin access to some mysterious source of strength that allows her to defeat the Lord Ruler with Allomancy. The mists are connected to Allomancy, as Sazed notes that both the mists and Allomancy became influential components of Scadrial life when the Lord Ruler took the power of the Well of Ascension. The mists and Allomancy are connected, thus the name Mistborn for those who use Allomancy. Vin’s realization of this, both when battling the Lord Ruler and later when she speaks with Sazed, symbolize her full acceptance of her Mistborn identity. Once a skaa, briefly a noblewoman, Vin’s character arc has reached its fulfillment in her connection with the mists and being a Mistborn.

Though the Lord Ruler’s theocracy has fallen, religious belief and faith continue to influence the characters of the novel in potent ways. Kelsier’s plan succeeds precisely because he has created a new religion among the skaa, using himself as a martyr. Sanderson suggests that the passion found within true, heartfelt faith is powerful enough to inspire hope among a people long subjugated under a tyrant. Kelsier’s interaction with the skaa people mirrors the ways in which faith works in a society. Faith’s ability to inspire hope, change, and respect for the moral good is displayed in Kelsier’s compassion for the skaa people and his motivation to take action against their oppressor. Sanderson positions Sazed’s character close to Kelsier throughout the novel as a kind of acolyte or apostle. Sazed will preserve Kelsier’s memory and the founding of the first new religion to be observed since the Lord Ruler’s Ascension. Without Sazed, Kelsier’s religion might not be preserved and spread to others. Conversely, without Kelsier, Sazed would not have had the opportunity to realize his intellectual goals of preserving pre-empire religious belief.