Kelsier
The man behind the Survivor — the Ghostbloods' founder, still alive in some form three centuries after the old world's end and the patron the Basin cell answers to. Speaks to his people through the floating spheres and crosses worlds in his own ways; the Bilming cell knows him as the master who promised he would come, and is now twelve hours out by airship. MB2:TLM:Ch 40
The Survivor of Hathsin — Mistborn, crew leader, and architect of the rising that took Luthadel in a single night. He died on the Lord Ruler's spear in the square that now bears his name, having quietly arranged a kandra to wear his bones and a contract transferred to Vin when he was gone. The skaa have begun to call him a god, and Marsh will never forgive him either for succeeding or for not surviving it. MB1:TFE:Epilogue superseded at MB2:TLM:Ch 40
The Survivor of Hathsin: the Pits-scarred Mistborn who built the crew, lit the house war, shattered the atium crystals, killed an Inquisitor in single combat, and walked knowingly to his own death under the Lord Ruler's spear to give the Luthadel skaa a god to rise behind. He contracted a kandra to take his bones afterwards. MB1:TFE:Ch 35 superseded at MB1:TFE:Epilogue
The Survivor of Hathsin — the Pits-scarred Mistborn who built the crew, lit the house war, shattered the atium crystals, killed an Inquisitor in single combat, and was struck down by the Lord Ruler in front of the Luthadel skaa with a spear through his chest. MB1:TFE:Ch 34 superseded at MB1:TFE:Ch 35
A travel-worn skaa stranger who walks onto Tresting's plantation asking after work. Quick of tongue and easy in his bearing — too easy for what he is. His arms are covered in layered, lengthwise scars: the old-timers in the hovels recognise them as the mark of a man sent to the Pits of Hathsin, a place no one is meant to leave alive. MB1:TFE:Prologue superseded at MB1:TFE:Ch 34
Known facts
- survived-pitsKelsier survived the Pits of Hathsin — a sentence he and his wife were both sent to. He came out. She did not.MB1:TFE:Ch 7
- trained-by-gemmelKelsier was trained in Allomancy by a man named Gemmel, who once had to physically push him off the top of a city wall to get him to make his first Steelpush.MB1:TFE:Ch 8
- half-skaa-half-nobleKelsier and Marsh grew up considered illegitimate but noble: their mother was a high nobleman's mistress who hid that she was skaa until their father eventually found out.MB1:TFE:Ch 8
- survivor-of-hathsinKelsier is being styled, on the street and from the rebellion's own pulpit, as the Survivor of Hathsin — the one man known to have walked out of the Pits alive.MB1:TFE:Ch 10
- snapped-at-pitsKelsier Snapped into his Mistborn powers the night Mare died at the Pits — a year into their shared sentence — half-believing it was his doubt of her loyalty that had broken her.MB1:TFE:Ch 17
- vow-restore-mares-worldIn the Pits the night after Mare died, Kelsier resolved to finish her dream for her — a world made the way she had wanted it: green growth on the hills, blossoms on the trees, an ashless sky.MB1:TFE:Ch 17
- cave-army-planKelsier tells Ham how the army is actually meant to be used: roughly a thousand to seize the lightly-garrisoned Pits and retreat with the stockpiled atium, the remaining nine thousand to take the Luthadel walls and palace and hold them just long enough that the atium can bribe the Garrison out of the fight.MB1:TFE:Ch 21
- plans-to-replace-yeden-with-breezeOnce recruitment is mostly complete, Kelsier intends to send Breeze up to the caves to take command of the army from Yeden and recall Yeden to Luthadel to work the last of his contacts. Breeze thinks the idea of himself as a general absurd; Kelsier does not.MB1:TFE:Ch 24
- met-mennis-at-tresting-plantationKelsier sat once with Mennis on Lord Tresting's plantation, the night before he killed Tresting and walked back out — a meeting he half-remembers. Mennis led the survivors up to the caves afterward and has been quietly running their logistics since.MB1:TFE:Ch 25
- garrison-removal-and-house-war-pivotKelsier re-presents the plan to the crew over the executions: part one — pulling the Luthadel Garrison out of the city — is now done at the cost of the cave army. With the Garrison chasing rebels for months and the Great Houses poised on the edge of open war, a recruited smaller force will seize the Lord Ruler's treasury during the chaos and hire the returning Garrison out from under him with his own atium.MB1:TFE:Ch 26
- lord-of-the-mists-epithetBy the time Vin follows him into a Luthadel skaa tenement, Kelsier is being greeted at the door as Lord Kelsier and whispered of as the Lord of the Mists alongside his older Survivor name. He visits a couple of houses a night, promises food, and lets parents push their children forward to be blessed.MB1:TFE:Ch 32
- shatters-pits-atium-crystalsThe night Marsh is killed, Kelsier returns alone to the Pits of Hathsin — opens the prisoners, climbs down a rift, and uses iron to find every atium crystal pocket he can, shattering them with Allomancy. The plan has been with him since the morning he killed Mare's taskmasters, when he first felt iron point him at the crystals. He calls it ending the empire's only supply of atium for roughly three centuries.MB1:TFE:Ch 32
- kills-an-inquisitorKelsier is the first Mistborn anyone present has ever seen kill an Inquisitor in single combat. He pins the creature's head to an overturned cart by the spike-tips through the back of its skull, then takes its head off with an obsidian axe scavenged from a corpse.MB1:TFE:Ch 34
- killed-by-lord-rulerThe Lord Ruler backhands Kelsier off his feet in the crossroads and drives a spear through his chest in front of the Luthadel skaa, then walks back to his carriage and orders the executions to begin.MB1:TFE:Ch 34
- planned-his-own-deathThe crew were never the rebellion Kelsier was counting on; the Luthadel skaa were. He needed the great houses knocked down to leave a political void, the Garrison absent so the skaa would not be cut down, three secret warehouses of weapons bought under Renoux's name — and, at the end, a martyr the city could believe in. The letter he leaves Vin says the Pits only ever lent him the years between, and he was ready to spend them.MB1:TFE:Ch 35
- appears-as-figure-in-the-flames-to-spookWithin the burning mansion in Urteau Spook sees and is commanded by a tall figure standing untouched in the fire, who guides him out of the room he is dying in, up the stairs to a noble's study, into the desk drawer where vials of metal are hidden, and through the Snap that gives him the pewter he needs to live. When the figure steps forward into the light it is Kelsier — and he tells Spook he gave him the blessing of pewter not just to escape but to take revenge.MB1:HoA:Ch 19
- kelsier-appeared-to-luthadel-survivorsSoldiers at the Pits camp tell Elend that the Survivor himself appeared in Luthadel in the hours before the city emptied — warned a small group of soldiers and citizens of disaster, told them to lead the people out and to come to the Pits. The eyewitnesses include Rittle, a Church of the Survivor convert from the day of Kelsier's death. The mass evacuation worked because the witnesses had supplies prepared.MB1:HoA:Ch 80
- twelve-hours-out-by-airship-during-crisisSpeaking through the sphere at the Knightbridge safehouse, Kelsier tells the Ghostbloods' Bilming cell he is twelve hours out, moving as quickly as he can by airship over open ocean — Steelpushing off dropped weights is no help with nothing beneath but water — and that he should never have left for the South in the first place.MB2:TLM:Ch 40
- planning-to-confront-harmonyAfter Marasi leaves and Dlavil is sent away with strict orders not to move against her, Kelsier tells TwinSoul plainly what he believes: something is wrong with Sazed, and it is getting worse. The events of the night should never have come this close. He is going to have to have, in his words, a conversation with the man currently going by *God.* It is the first time the Ghostbloods are shown turning their attention squarely on Harmony himself.MB2:TLM:Epilogue
Events
- MB1:TFE:Ch 4 Arrives late to his own meeting, pitches the heist to the crew, and reveals the Eleventh Metal.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 6 Runs the planning meeting at Clubs's shop; confirms his impostor-Renoux play.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 8 Catches Vin off the wall, rides with her to Fellise, confers with the impostor Lord Renoux about her new courtly cover.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 9 Training-spars with Vin in the Fellise streets, then pulls Sazed aside to plan the next move on Venture's coming ball.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 10 Speaks from the kitchen floor in plain skaa working clothes; rolls up his sleeves at the end to show his Pits scars.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 10 Chairs; announces he intends to pay the Lord Ruler a personal visit in the next few days.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 12 Drops onto the carriage's footman rest in his mistcloak mid-trip, reminds Vin why she is being put among the nobility, then vanishes back into the mist before they reach the keep.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 13 Catches Vin tailing him to the city walls and, rather than send her home, brings her along toward Kredik Shaw and gives her her first bead of atium to burn.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 14 Leads the raid into Kredik Shaw and fights the first Inquisitor long enough for Vin to escape; throws her clear of the chamber with a Steelpush on his own coin pouch.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 16 Sits beside her bed by lantern-light, apologizes for nearly getting her killed, gives a brief progress report — the army grows, Marsh will infiltrate the Ministry himself — and confirms when she asks that they are far from invincible.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 17 Joins the balcony meeting, agrees Vin may go to the next ball, and finds her again at sunset to show her Mare's flower picture and talk about Snapping.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 20 Stands in the courtyard with Renoux overseeing the loading of the supply caravan; tells Vin he is going to inspect the cave army in person and asks Marsh to take her aside for a lesson while the caravan finishes loading. He also burns iron on the courtyard so that Vin has a second pulse to read.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 23 Hangs from a window ledge above Vin's on the Hasting tower, listening to Elend's reading circle for the third time. Drops down beside her, walks her through what he has already concluded about the group (harmless), and sends her back to the ball with cover instructions before disappearing into the mists.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 24 Holds the kitchen against the cupboard with a wine cup, runs the crew through the night's intelligence, formally puts Vin back on Mistborn duty, and floats the plan to swap Breeze in for Yeden at the caves.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 26 Arrives behind the others with his usual show of cheer, takes Breeze's accusation in silence, and orders the crew to come watch the gathering at Fountain Square.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 26 Holds the crew's emotions clear against the Lord Ruler's mass Soothing — with Vin's help by the second wave — points at the nobles laughing in the bleachers, and delivers the speech that closes the question of whether the job is dead.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 27 Lays out the revised plan — break the Great Houses against each other inside Luthadel until the city snaps — then leaves with Vin to scout Marsh's meeting.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 27 Sits the dusk out with Vin in an abandoned room across from the meeting, finally tells her gold is the ninth metal, hears Marsh's report on the Soothing stations and the Inquisitors, and goes back into the mists.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 31 In the kitchen when Vin arrives bloody; presses her about Elend and is knocked silent by her accusation that the crew are skaa only by birth.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 31 Comes up to Vin on the rooftop with a cloak and his own grief over Mare; takes the atium secret she gives him and is forced to accept the coppercloud piercing she demonstrates.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 32 Arrives onto the rooftop to collect Vin for the second meeting with Marsh.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 32 Stops on the way to the meeting to visit a skaa tenement; lets the families touch his scars and promises another shipment of food.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 32 Freezes in the doorway above Marsh's mutilated body; bloodies his knees beside the corpse before Vin gets him moving toward the window.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 32 Stands at the kitchen cupboard in black, all the easy levity gone, and orders the lair evacuated before walking out into the mists alone.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 32 The stranger in the tattered black cloak who hauls Walin out of the rift, tells him the guards are dead, and names himself a survivor.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 33 Walks in haggard from pewter drag and tells the crew, calmly, that he has shattered the atium crystals at the Pits.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 33 Comes out rested in plain skaa clothing and says he will go bear witness at the executions because, indirectly, he caused them.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 33 Climbs a rain-gutter to the roof and refuses Vin's plea to back off; jumps to the street and runs after the prison carts.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 34 Stands ragged in skaa clothing under the Lord Ruler's Soothing, answers that he represents hope, and is struck down with a spear through his chest.
- MB1:HoA:Ch 19 Appears to a dying Spook as a tall, commanding silhouette standing untouched in the flames inside the burning Urteau mansion, talks him through the steps of escape — out of the burning room, up the stairs, into the noble's study, into the right desk drawer — coaxes him through Snapping on a second metal and burning pewter for the first time, then steps forward into recognisable form and tells him to use the blessing for revenge.
- MB2:TLM:Epilogue Sits in shadow in a deep enveloping chair, single spike through his right eye, half-smiling at Marasi's tests; lets her go with a quiet warning when she puts the card down.
- MB2:TLM:Epilogue Flips on the light, overrules Dlavil's instinct to *deal with* Marasi, stands at the window with TwinSoul, and declares that he is going to have to confront Sazed himself.
Relations
- relatedMare — Mare's death at the Pits triggers Kelsier's Snapping into Mistborn powers. MB1:TFE:Ch 17
- relatedThe Pits of Hathsin — Kelsier's cave-army plan turns on seizing the atium stockpile at the Pits. MB1:TFE:Ch 21
- relatedMennis — After the caves, Kelsier sits with Mennis in the night camp and recognises him from a single shared evening years earlier on Tresting's plantation. MB1:TFE:Ch 25
Backreferences
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 12
- factSeran New District Cemetery
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 31
- summaryMB2:BoM:Epilogue
- summaryMB1:TFE:Prologue
- factThe Pits of Hathsin
- factLord Renoux
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 1
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 2
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 3
- factMilev
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 4
- factDockson
- factYeden
- factThe Eleventh Metal
- factMare
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 5
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 6
- factLord Renoux
- factLestibournes
- factMarsh
- factStraff Venture
- factThe Central Dominance
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 7
- factKelsier
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 8
- factKelsier
- factKelsier
- factManor Renoux
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 9
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 10
- factKelsier
- factCobble
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 11
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 12
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 13
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 14
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 15
- factRashek
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 16
- factMare
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 17
- factKelsier
- factKelsier
- factMare
- factSnapping
- factMare's Flower Picture
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 18
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 19
- factLord Renoux
- factLord Renoux
- factHouse Tekiel
- factKeep Tekiel
- factSootwarrens
- factAhlstrom Square
- factkandra
- factspikeway
- factThe Book of the False Dawn
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 20
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 21
- factKelsier
- factMare
- factDemoux
- factBilg
- factHammond
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 23
- factVin
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 24
- factKelsier
- factMisting
- factHouse Tekiel
- factThe Holstep Garrison
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 25
- factKelsier
- factDemoux
- factMennis
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 26
- factKelsier
- factThe Skaa Rebellion
- factRashek
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 27
- factThe Twists
- factGemmel
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 28
- factkandra
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 29
- factThe Valla
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 30
- factVin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 31
- factVin
- factVin
- factVin
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 32
- factKelsier
- factKelsier
- factMarsh
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 33
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 34
- factKelsier
- factKelsier
- factSteel Inquisitor
- factSteel Inquisitor
- factRashek
- factRashek
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 35
- factKelsier
- factLord Renoux
- factVin
- factkandra
- factkandra
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 36
- factVin
- factRashek
- factSquare of the Survivor
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 37
- factDockson
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 38
- factThe Eleventh Metal
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:TFE:Epilogue
- factThe Final Empire
- factVin
- factSteel Inquisitor
- factMarsh
- factkandra
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 5
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 8
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 10
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 11
- factSecond Generation
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 12
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 13
- factMarsh
- factMarsh
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 14
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 15
- factHammond
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 16
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 17
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 18
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 19
- factKelsier
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 21
- factAllomancy
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 22
- factThe Pits of Hathsin
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 23
- factLestibournes
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 26
- factLestibournes
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 27
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 29
- factQuellion
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 30
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 31
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 35
- factLestibournes
- factDurn
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 36
- factDemoux
- factMist sickness
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 38
- factSurvivor of the Flames
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 40
- factSteel Inquisitor
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 41
- factOstention
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 42
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 46
- factQuellion
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 47
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 49
- factQuellion
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 52
- factTenSoon
- factTenSoon
- factRittle
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 53
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 55
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 58
- factLestibournes
- factQuellion
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 59
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 60
- factVin
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 62
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 64
- factGoradel
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 66
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 69
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 72
- factMarsh
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 75
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 80
- factKelsier
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 82
- factMare
- factBennett
- factNelazan
- summaryMB1:HoA:Epilogue
- factLestibournes
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 28
- factMarsh
- factThree interlocking diamonds
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 39
- factTwinSoul
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 40
- factKelsier
- factMarasi
- factFloating Sphere
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 47
- factMarasi
- factGhostbloods Tenets
- factTwinSoul
- factTwinSoul
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 59
- summaryMB2:TLM:Epilogue
- factKelsier
- factMarasi
- factMarasi
- factDlavil
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 12
- factFather Bin
- factBleeder
- factLarskpur
- factBleeder
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 17
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 19
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 20
- summaryMB2:SoS:Epilogue
- factClaude Aradel
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 1
- factOreSeur
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 2
- factVin
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 3
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 5
- factVin
- factElend Venture
- factChurch of the Survivor
- factHeir of the Survivor
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 8
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 9
- factHarmony
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 10
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 11
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 13
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 14
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 17
- factAllomancy
- factZane
- factBreeze
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 21
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 22
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 25
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 26
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 27
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 31
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 33
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 34
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 35
- factAshweather Cett
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 36
- factClubs
- factDemoux
- factChurch of the Survivor
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 38
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 40
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 43
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 44
- factVin
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 45
- factVin
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 46
- factBreeze
- factHarmony
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 48
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 49
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 50
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 52
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 53
- factDockson
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 54
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 58
- summaryMB1:WoA:Epilogue
- summarySA:WaT:I-1
- factFelt