Ashweather Cett
also known as Lord Cett, King Cett
One of the warlords who carved a kingdom out of the wreckage of the Final Empire — self-styled king of the Western Dominance, ruling from Fadrex City. The assassins who tried for Vin in Luthadel were Western nobles of his houses, not Straff's men. MB1:WoA:Ch 3
Known facts
- enters-luthadel-publiclyWalks into the Assembly chamber in a skaa cloak among the audience and reveals himself when Philen nominates him for the crown of Luthadel. He has come into the city he is besieging with roughly thirty disguised soldiers around him; if he does not return to his camp by nightfall, standing orders send his army at the walls regardless.MB1:WoA:Ch 31
- crippled-from-childhoodCrippled since childhood — a disease left his legs useless, per Breeze — and so is carried in his chair wherever he goes, including onto the Assembly dais. He wears a worn jacket rather than a Central nobleman's suit, keeps a full bristling beard, and runs his court without regard for Luthadel etiquette because his region of the empire never required it of him.MB1:WoA:Ch 32
- forty-thousand-armyBrought roughly forty thousand soldiers to the siege of Luthadel — twice the size of the city garrison, and half the size of Straff Venture's army on the other side of the walls. His openly stated offer to the Assembly is that, combined, his forty and the city's twenty could hold the walls against Straff and even against the advancing koloss.MB1:WoA:Ch 32
- takes-residence-in-luthadelGranted residence inside Luthadel for the two weeks before the kingship vote, with a thousand of his soldiers as escort, by a nineteen-to-near-unanimous vote of the Assembly — Elend Venture dissenting. He declares he will use the time to meet each assemblyman in turn and bribe him personally for the throne.MB1:WoA:Ch 32
- knew-breeze-was-spyTells Elend over dinner in Keep Hasting that he had recognised Breeze as one of the Survivor's crewmembers from the start, courted him in camp anyway because the man was useful, and only tried to kill him when an attempt to turn him failed — Breeze's story to the Luthadel crew that he was driven out over Allrianne was a face-saving lie. The whole episode reveals that Breeze had run Cett himself — spreading the atium rumors that drew Cett to Luthadel so that the warlord would block Straff.MB1:WoA:Ch 35
- has-canned-food-stockpileBrought a stockpile of canned goods to the siege — long-lasting and packed in the Lord Ruler's new method — and dangles them at Elend over dinner: the city is starving, the refugees from Suisna make it worse, and he will hand the food over the moment the Assembly gives him the crown.MB1:WoA:Ch 35
- accepts-no-atium-in-luthadelAccepts at last, over dinner with Elend, that the atium rumors which drew him to the city were Breeze's manufacture — that Elend has searched the city a dozen times for the Lord Ruler's stash, checked the statues and the spires, deployed Allomancers to scan for hidden metal, and found nothing.MB1:WoA:Ch 35
- sent-assembly-assassinsZane tells Vin from her bedside that the Assembly Hall assassins were Cett's — he recognised the corpses from Keep Hasting, including the Thug who had peered out of the kitchen during the Vin-and- Elend dinner there. Cett had got wind that Philen and the merchants were going to switch to Penrod for Straff's money, and his only play to take the throne was to have his Allomancers kill both Elend and Penrod in the chamber while a second crew of ordinary men staged a fake attack on himself to clear him of suspicion.MB1:WoA:Ch 40
- never-had-mistbornCornered in his own keep, Cett tells Vin outright that he never had a Mistborn in his service — the Mistings he sent to kill her months ago, and the Assembly assassins, were every Allomancer he had ever owned. His own house has been corrupted by skaa blood and Allrianne is the only Allomancer it has produced in centuries.MB1:WoA:Ch 43
- came-to-luthadel-to-kill-vinCett admits to Vin that his entire campaign on Luthadel was a gamble: kill her early with his Mistings before Straff could come for his own city, and failing that, take the capital and its atium so he could buy Allomancers of his own.MB1:WoA:Ch 43
- withdraws-from-luthadelMorning after the Hasting attack, Cett marches his surviving men out of Luthadel with Penrod's leave — Vin and Zane inflicted roughly thirty percent casualties on his one-thousand-man garrison in under ten minutes, a loss that breaks most armies even over a full day's fighting.MB1:WoA:Ch 44
- swears-self-to-elend-ventureHelped down from his saddle in the bloody snow, Cett bows and swears himself to Elend Venture — provided Elend can take the Western Dominance back from the obligator now holding it. Vin has openly told him she will kill him if he refuses; he concedes that he is not the man Elend is.MB1:WoA:Ch 55
Events
- MB1:WoA:Ch 31 Sits hooded in a skaa cloak among the audience until Philen nominates him for the Luthadel crown, then throws the cloak back and lets his disguised soldiers carry his chair onto the Assembly dais.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 32 Carried in his chair onto the Assembly dais by his disguised soldiers and delivers a blunt pitch: he has forty thousand men at the walls, he intends to take the city, and the Assembly should hand it over or fall with it. Confronts Elend on the Soothing of the Assembly earlier, secures a vote to take residence in the city with a thousand soldiers, and sends his son across to Elend with a dinner invitation.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 35 Eats messily through the dinner in Keep Hasting and runs the conversation: dismisses his daughter as a topic, admits he had recognised Breeze as one of the Survivor's crew in his camp, promises to assassinate Elend if elected, dangles canned food, and at last accepts there is no atium to take in Luthadel.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 38 Sits on the front bench surrounded by twenty of his soldiers, waves off the offer to make a closing speech, and is targeted by the third group of attackers; half his soldiers die around him before he is dragged wounded back to Keep Hasting.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 43 Found alone in a wooden chair on the fifth floor of his keep, unarmed, weary; thrown about the room by Vin, bleeds from a head wound, and tells her in plain language that he never had a Mistborn — his only Allomancers were the ones he had already sent to kill her months ago.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 50 Argues over his planning table while Allrianne sweeps in, grouses about her bandit escort and her insistence on Breeze, and ultimately accepts her case for riding back toward Luthadel.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 55 Rides into the parted koloss suspiciously, accepts Vin's open threat to kill him if he refuses, allows that he is not the man Elend is, is helped down from his saddle, and bows in the snow, swearing himself to Elend Venture — provided he can take the Western Dominance back from the obligator now holding it.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 57 Pounds the table for permission to march west and retake Fadrex; accuses Janarle of planning to favour the Northern Dominance over his own.
Relations
- fulfillswell-of-ascension/037-ch38 — Zane's bedside reveal to Vin retroactively identifies Cett as the source of the Assembly Hall attack on Elend and Penrod, with the parallel attack on himself staged as cover. MB1:WoA:Ch 40
- relatedVin — Vin chooses, on the fifth floor of Keep Hasting, to leave Cett alive in front of his terrified son — and then puts herself between him and a Zane who came to finish what they had started. MB1:WoA:Ch 43
Backreferences
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 8
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- factNew Empire
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- factElend Venture
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- factAradan Yomen
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- factElend Venture
- factNew Empire
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- factFadrex City
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- factZane
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- factBreeze
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- factElend Venture
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- factLuthadel
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- factElend Venture
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- factBreeze
- factAllrianne Cett
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- factKoloss
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- factVin
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- factGneorndin Cett
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- factLuthadel
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- factVin
- factAshweather Cett
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- factAllrianne Cett
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- factKoloss
- factElend Venture
- factTindwyl
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- factLord Penrod
- factPhilen
- factLord Habren
- factHaws
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- factLord Penrod
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- factAshweather Cett
- factZane
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- factVin
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- factAshweather Cett
- factAshweather Cett
- factZane
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- factWellen
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- factAshweather Cett
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- factZane
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- factAllrianne Cett
- factHobart
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- factBahmen
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- factAshweather Cett
- factAllrianne Cett
- factHarmony
- factHarmony
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 57