Straff Venture
The head of House Venture in Luthadel. Convinced after the night of Kelsier's raid that three full Mistborn were sent to kill him personally. MB1:TFE:Ch 6
Known facts
- tineyeLord Straff Venture is openly known to be a Tineye; he stands unbothered in the mists for his informant meet at Ahlstrom Square, his guards a step behind.MB1:TFE:Ch 19
- tineyeElend notes in passing that his father is a Tineye — sharp enough of hearing to pick a carriage out of the night across the Keep Venture grounds.MB1:TFE:Ch 28
- tineyeIs a Tineye — strong enough to scent the birchbane in his tea through the cinnamon Zane uses to mask it, and able to feel the poison moving in his own veins after he has swallowed it. He keeps several herbalists on retainer and can identify the work of each by taste.MB1:WoA:Ch 18
- spy-inside-keep-ventureHas a spy inside Elend's palace who leaves messages for Zane under a cobblestone by the outer keep wall. The spy reports being worried that he is starting to be suspected and has, so far, learned nothing about whether Elend is holding the Lord Ruler's atium.MB1:WoA:Ch 18
- probes-luthadel-walls-as-warningSends a force of thousands at Luthadel's Tin Gate and a second column at Pewter Gate in a single day's test attack — battering ram (carried by Thugs under shield), hooks shot up by Coinshots, no scaling ladders. Not an actual storming: a deliberate professional skirmish to measure the defenders' response. The undisciplined garrison fares badly. The message Elend reads from it afterward is the message Straff intended: that he can take the city when he chooses, and that Elend should remember it before the parley.MB1:WoA:Ch 25
- uses-obligators-to-administrateStraff is using obligators to run the logistics of his besieging army — Vin and Elend spot tattooed obligators directing soldiers among the neatly arranged tents. Elend reads it as a tell: most kings threw off the Ministry at the Collapse; his father has kept them, because he likes powerful tools and believes he can control them.MB1:WoA:Ch 26
- is-a-tineyeStraff is a Tineye, using his enhanced hearing to eavesdrop on guests inside his own tent — Elend tells Vin this openly during the parley, knowing his father is listening from across the canvas.MB1:WoA:Ch 26
- breeds-allomancers-from-his-mistressesStraff keeps dozens of mistresses not out of indulgence but as a breeding program: more children of a high noble line means more Allomancers, and over time he has produced one Mistborn (Zane) and many untraceable Mistings he can field as an Allomancer strike team — exactly the resource Zane asks him for the night he orders Vin killed.MB1:WoA:Ch 27
- has-a-kandra-spy-inside-luthadelStraff is being fed real-time information out of Luthadel by a kandra spy run by Zane — the spy warned him ahead of the parley exactly what feint Elend would attempt, and is the only reason he was not taken in by it.MB1:WoA:Ch 27
- decides-zane-must-dieReturning from the night meeting with Penrod under Luthadel's walls, Straff flares tin and feels the next poison Zane has slipped into him taking hold, gallops back to camp ahead of his own guards, and Amaranta saves him with her catch-all draught. He concludes that the Mistborn he has spent so much atium bribing into obedience can no longer be controlled and must be killed.MB1:WoA:Ch 39
- kills-amaranta-and-drinks-random-antidoteOn learning the truth about the addiction, Straff strangles Amaranta to death on the floor of his pavilion, then — without knowing which herb in her cabinet was the addictive one and which would poison him — scoops random handfuls from the antidote drawers into cold water and drinks the mixture before collapsing.MB1:WoA:Ch 49
- survives-amaranta-and-orders-retreatStraff wakes after three days. The random handful of herbs he gulped happened to include the one Amaranta had been addicting him to. With Zane gone, no rival in camp dares move against him; the army has stayed loyal under General Janarle only because they assume Zane would avenge any betrayal. Straff orders an immediate retreat toward the Northern Dominance, following the plan Zane gave him.MB1:WoA:Ch 50
- killed-by-vin-at-luthadelStraff Venture is killed by Vin at the head of his army outside Luthadel after he refuses to attack the koloss in the city — intending instead to wait for them to burn it down and make the Venture atium easier to recover. His surviving generals swear the army to his estranged son Elend Venture over his body.MB1:WoA:Ch 55
Events
- MB1:TFE:Ch 19 Meets Kelsier's beggar-informant persona at Ahlstrom Square with a pair of guards and a dueling cane, dismisses the offered house gossip, and presses instead for what is known about the Survivor of Hathsin and the Eleventh Metal.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 28 Receives Elend in his Keep Venture study, orders him to a political luncheon at Lord Tegas's table, and is goaded into snapping by Elend's casual leak of the Hasting withdrawal rumour.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 30 Hosts the head table with Elend seated next to him — the public sign that House Venture has unified for the coming house war (and the cover under which Straff has arranged to step his own son aside).
- MB1:TFE:Ch 31 Holds court in his Keep Venture study, gives Elend the official version of the assassination, and explicitly denies that any other Mistborn could have fought on his son's behalf.
- MB1:TFE:Ch 36 In the north entryway of Keep Venture, ordering up boats and abandoning the city — happily setting Elend to die in his place.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 18 Eats his late dinner without rising while Zane sits across from him, sniffs the birchbane out of his tea, sends the serving girl off to be executed for Zane's complicity, and tells his son flatly that he is insane and could not run a city.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 26 Meets Elend and Vin outside his tent in a sharp cut suit and new beard — much larger than his son in physical presence — and presides over the parley dinner: he catches Vin's Soothing touch with a Tineye's hearing, calls in Hoselle to needle his son, refuses the alliance against Cett, and orders Vin out at the end of the meal.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 27 Across the dinner table, presses Elend to admit the visit was suicide, lets out that he has already exchanged terms with Cett, calls in his guards when the boy stops cringing — and then has to let him go because of what Vin is doing to his emotions outside.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 46 Sweat-slick and trembling in his hard chair, waiting for Zane's death-march into the tent. Tries atium and named heirship in turn; is left alive, and handed an actual plan for the city, by the son he sent assassins to kill.
- MB1:WoA:Ch 55 Killed by Vin at the front of his own ranks — a single duralumin-fueled Steeljump drives a koloss sword through his head, and her impact cleaves rider and horse on the way down.
Relations
- relatedLord Penrod — Penrod secretly contracts to deliver Luthadel to Straff Venture in exchange for honouring the merchant titles and possibly retaining the crown as a subject king. MB1:WoA:Ch 39
Backreferences
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 6
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 9
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 19
- factStraff Venture
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 23
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 28
- factkandra
- factTenSoon
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 30
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 31
- factFelt
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 36
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 11
- factTenSoon
- factQuellion
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 29
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 30
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 43
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 52
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 57
- summaryMB1:HoA:Ch 59
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 1
- factElend Venture
- factVin
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 3
- factAshweather Cett
- factFadrex City
- factThe Luthadel Assembly
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 5
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 6
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 8
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 10
- factLuthadel
- factElend Venture
- factPhilen
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 11
- factBreeze
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 13
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 16
- factLuthadel
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 17
- factZane
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 18
- factZane
- factZane
- factZane
- factZane
- factAmaranta
- factBirchbane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 19
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 20
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 22
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 23
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 24
- factVin
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 25
- factStraff Venture
- factTin Gate
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 26
- factStraff Venture
- factStraff Venture
- factHoselle
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 27
- factStraff Venture
- factStraff Venture
- factElend Venture
- factZane
- factThe No-Confidence Clause
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 28
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 29
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 31
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 32
- factAshweather Cett
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 33
- factLuthadel
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 34
- factKoloss
- factZane
- factZane
- factSuisna
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 35
- factAshweather Cett
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 36
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 37
- factKoloss
- factTindwyl
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 38
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 39
- factStraff Venture
- factLord Penrod
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 40
- factAshweather Cett
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 41
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 42
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 43
- factAshweather Cett
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 44
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 46
- factZane
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 48
- factElend Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 49
- factVin
- factStraff Venture
- factAmaranta
- factGeneral Janarle
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 50
- factStraff Venture
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 51
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 53
- factBahmen
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 55
- factVin
- factStraff Venture
- factAllrianne Cett
- factGeneral Janarle
- factHarmony
- summaryMB1:WoA:Ch 57