The Bands of Mourning
also known as Bands of Mourning, The Aluminum Spearhead
A multi-banded metal spearhead held in trust by the Faceless Immortals under treaty between Elendel and the Malwish — and, as of the Elendel crisis, *drained.* When TenSoon presents them to the senators no one can activate them, and his own touch confirms it: something has emptied the relic of its stored power, leaving an ornamented antique. How they were drained — and by whom — neither TenSoon nor Steris can yet say. MB2:TLM:Ch 48
A legendary Feruchemical artifact long believed to be the lost metalminds of the Lord Ruler himself. Recovered six years before the present from a wrecked airship and currently stored, ostensibly safely, in the Elendel Basin. MB2:TLM:Ch 1 superseded at MB2:TLM:Ch 48
The lost weapon of the Lord Ruler himself — not the legendary bracers of myth at all, but a single palm-sized triangular spearhead of sixteen interwoven metals melded together like the folds of a sword. It is a metalmind, storing all sixteen of the Lord Ruler's Allomantic and Feruchemical attributes at staggering reserve, sufficient to make its bearer briefly a god. It was hidden in plain sight at the Sovereign's temple as the spearhead in the statue's hand, with two layers of decoy bracers below to satisfy thieves. MB2:BoM:Ch 28 superseded at MB2:TLM:Ch 1
The palm-sized aluminum head of the spear held by the temple statue, wrapped on a wooden shaft and screwed on loose enough that Wayne is able to twist it free with his fingers after a few well-placed kicks. Worth more, by itself, than most houses; Wayne pockets it for Sophi Tarcsel. MB2:BoM:Ch 23 superseded at MB2:BoM:Ch 28
A legendary set of Feruchemical metalminds, said by myth to be the lost bracers of the Lord Ruler himself, which would grant their wearer the powers of a Full Feruchemist. VenDell presents them to Wax and Marasi not as fiction but as a thing the kandra explorer ReLuur claims to have actually seen — and whose pictures, taken on the new evanotype cameras, ReLuur brought home in his pack from somewhere in the mountains near the Southern Roughs. MB2:BoM:Ch 3 superseded at MB2:BoM:Ch 23
Known facts
- lord-rulers-own-bracers-with-all-thirty-twoAllik confirms the legend VenDell only hinted at — the Bands are the Sovereign's own bracers, a single set of metalminds storing every one of the sixteen Allomantic and sixteen Feruchemical abilities. Possible only because their maker already had all the powers himself: a god making a god-key for his own use.MB2:BoM:Ch 21
- missing-from-temple-someone-was-here-firstWhen Wax passes the inner door and enters the central chamber of the Sovereign's temple, the dais under its column of white light holds only a velvet pedestal and the shattered glass of a display case. The traps, the door, Edwarn's careful arithmetic — all of it for an empty rack. Someone got here first.MB2:BoM:Ch 25
- temple-is-multi-layered-decoyThe empty pedestal in the upper chamber was a deliberate ruse — broken glass and an absent rack to convince an intruder they were too late. A second, deeper deception sat behind it: two ordinary bracers on a pedestal in the lower chamber, guarded only by frozen temple keepers and a ceiling trap, attractive enough to satisfy a thief sharp enough to see through the first lie.MB2:BoM:Ch 27
- given-to-kandra-for-keepingBy a treaty brokered with Captain Jordis of the Malwish outside the Sovereign's temple, the recovered Bands pass into the keeping of the kandra as impartial trustees — to be drawn on only if the southerners attack the Basin. Wax hands the relic to MeLaan, who absorbs it into her flesh.MB2:BoM:Ch 30
- held-by-kandraAfter recovering the Bands in Southern territory and bringing them North, Wax delivered them to the kandra by agreement, to be held by no single nation. The Malwish Consortium disputes this disposition through Admiral Daal, who considers the artefact theirs by right.MB2:TLM:Ch 9
- kept-by-faceless-immortals-under-treatyAmbassador Daal reminds the Elendel council that the Bands of Mourning were entrusted to the Faceless Immortals on the strict condition they would never be used by the people of the Basin — the Malwish side of the agreement is that they sit untouched in Malwish keeping, period; the unspoken caveat (which Steris knows) is that the Basin may reach for them only if attacked by the Malwish. Any other use, however dire, would be received as an act of aggression.MB2:TLM:Ch 43
- drained-of-powerIn the senators' chamber TenSoon opens the Bands' case and lets the room try them in turn — Adawathwyn first, then everyone present. None can activate them; TenSoon's own touch tells him they have been drained. Without their power they are *essentially just a heavy piece of history.* No one in the room knows how it could have happened.MB2:TLM:Ch 48
Events
- MB2:BoM:Ch 3 Appear only as photographed murals — spirals of delicate intertwined metals on a pedestal — and as a painted figure with hands raised toward a glowing spear, the bracers around his wrists.
Backreferences
- factMarasi
- factReLuur
- factFull Feruchemist
- factThe Southern Roughs
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 11
- factKelesina Shores
- factGave Entrone
- factEdwarn Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 17
- factMedallion
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 21
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- factAllik Neverfar
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 22
- factThe Hunters
- factThe Hunters
- factThe Sovereign's Temple
- factThe Hunters' Wreck
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 24
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 27
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 27
- factThe decoy bracers
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 28
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factMarasi
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 29
- factJordis
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 30
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 31
- factTrell
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 1
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 9
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- factAdmiral Daal
- factMalwish Consortium
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 18
- factAdmiral Daal
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 25
- factWaxillium Ladrian
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 35
- factHazekiller Round
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 43
- factTenSoon
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 48
- factSteris Harms
- factThe Bands of Mourning
- factAdmiral Daal
- factConflux Transport Theory
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 60
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 61
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 67
- factTenSoon
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 69