Elend Venture

Elend Venture
by Shuravf
House Venture Spouse Vin Parents Straff, Mother Siblings Zane
Born	1000 FE
Died	1025 FE
Abilities	Mistborn
Titles	King of the Central Dominance (formerly) High Emperor of the New Empire Last Emperor
Groups	Kelsier's crew, Venture army
Residence	Luthadel
Ethnicity	Noble
Homeworld	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

Elend Venture is a noble in Scadrial. After the Collapse, he becomes King of the Central Dominance, and later, High Emperor of the New Empire. After swallowing a bead of Lerasium, he becomes Mistborn. He is married to Vin.

Appearance and Personality

by Bernardo Curvello

For more images, see /Gallery.

Appearance

Elend has curly brown hair. Before becoming king, Elend usually kept his hair dishevelled and used clothes too big for him, with the buttons undone. He didn't wear clothes as fine or as bright as those of other noblemen. He did that to set him apart from his father and to spite him. After Elend is king, prompted by Tindwyl, he starts wearing a military uniform. The uniform is completely white, and is composed by trousers, a shirt, and a stiff jacket with wooden buttons. He also cuts his hair and starts wearing a wooden crown. His uniform is made of special ash-resistant fabrics, but they still have to be scrubbed clean of the ash every day. He considers the white uniform a symbol of purity.

Personality

“That’s what I am. An idealist. A melodramatic idealist who, despite his books and learning, never did make a very good nobleman. ”

—Elend before the vote for king.

In his early life, Elend was an idealist. He was curious about the conditions of the skaa and their intelligence and believed in creating a coalition of houses to exert pressure on the Lord Ruler. However, he struggled to be forceful and to impose his will in others. He saw himself as a friendly and a comfortable man, but also a bit of a fool. He considered running an empire mostly as an academic exercise. However, he had a buried desire to lead, and the skills to become a king, if he learned to use them. After Tindwyl's coaching, Elend became more forceful and realistic. He still wants to follow his ideals of freedom, but he also knows sometimes he must impose his rule on others, for their own good. He tries to find a balance between the man he thinks he should be and the man he needs to be, but he considers himself a hypocrite for speaking of democracy, but taking the throne by force. Even after becoming Emperor, he considers himself a scholar rather than a king. Eventually, Elend comes to terms with his choices, recognizing himself to be an amalgamation of scholar, nobleman and soldier. Elend is the type of person who is always preparing, up until the last minute.

Religious Beliefs

Before the Collapse, Elend believed the Lord Ruler to be God. However, he didn't worship him; he believed the Lord Ruler had too much power over the noble houses and read books that defamed the Lord Ruler and pointed out his mistakes. After the Collapse, Elend became a member of the Church of the Survivor. He joined the Church as a political move, to gain leverage amongst the skaa Assemblymen and backing from the Church's followers. He has doubts about the Survivorist's doctrines, but he believes it to be better than the alternatives, as the Lord Ruler is dead and Sazed's religions have been dead by centuries. It feels wrong to him to worship Vin as divine, but he trusts her as more than a human being, almost like a force.

Attributes and Abillities

Elend was born with no Allomantic abillities. After swallowing a bead of Lerasium at the Well of Ascension, he becomes Mistborn. His Allomantic power, not weakened by interbreeding, is stronger than that of contemporary Allomancers. Though his raw power is bigger than Vin's, she is more skilled in its use. He is more comfortable with Emotional Allomancy than with Physical Allomancy. He could learn how to pierce weaker copperclouds, though he does not do so in the books.

Though his roots are in philosophy,, Elend has extensive knowledge on many different subjects. He is proficient in political theory, economics, and military theory. He claims to be no statistician, but he has worked with numbers in his research.

History

Early History

As a child, Elend was beaten to near death to determine whether he was an Allomancer. His mother is presumably dead, since he speaks about her in the past tense, but she had a great influence on him. When he was thirteen, his father forced him to sleep with a skaa woman. He was horrified after discovering that she would be killed afterward. He started a drinking group with Jastes Lekal, Telden Hasting, Kevoux, and another young noble, to talk about philosophy and form an alliance to exert pressure on the Lord Ruler. The group was also at least in part formed to annoy Elend's father.

by Stephanie McCrea Rainosek

Pre-Collapse

Elend met Vin (disguised as Valette) at a ball at Keep Venture. After returning from getting a drink, he found she was in his reading spot. He began a casual friendship with her, often sitting with her at balls and reading. Vin spread the rumor that he's a friend of her family, showing her the ways of the court, so that potential dancing partners aren't intimidated by her. When the house war is imminent, Elend decided that "Valette" had to leave Luthadel, because the war would be too dangerous for a little house with no allies. When she ignored him, he broke off the relationship, hoping that it would encourage her to leave the city.

At the last ball before the Collapse, Elariel assassins, including Shan Elariel and another Mistborn, try to kill Elend, as well as Jastes and Telden. Straff is collaborating with them, by posting less guards outside Elend's room so that the assassins can attack. Vin learns about the attack from Kliss, and stops the assassination, killing Shan. Elend only noticed the assassins when one of them fell through his skylight. Even then, he thought they were only spies, but worried about some of his books, which were forbidden by the Ministry, he fled in a carriage with Jastes. When he returned, Straff told him it was an assassination attempt, but said his guards had killed the assassins.

When the Renoux household is riding for execution, Elend sees them and, presuming that "Valette" is with them, attacks the wagons. An Inquisitor almost hits him, but Kelsier, knowing Vin loves Elend, attacks the Inquisitor and saves his life.

The Collapse

“But… the things he said, Mistress… his dreams of a new government, his condemnation of bloodshedand chaos… Well, Mistress, I fear that I cannot repeat it. I wish I’d had my metalminds, so that I could have memorized his exact words. ”

—Sazed to Vin

After the skaa riots started, Straff Venture decided to leave the city. Elend, predicting the skaa rebelion would result in a mass bloodshed, decided to stay to try to quell the skaa, to prevent mass slaughter. His father let Elend stay, hoping he would be killed by the rebellion or by the Lord Ruler. Elend sent the Venture guards and servants to Keep Lekal, not caring about political differences, to join forces to defend against the skaa upheaval. With five soldiers, he turned himself in, and told Dockson not to attack the noble houses. Elend explained to him that the nobles wouldn't attack, they would just keep to the safety of their houses. After learning that Vin had been captured by the Ministry, he and his soldiers, as well as Goradel, attacked Kredik Shaw, buying time for Vin to find a metal vial and saving her life.

Afterward, when seeking help for Vin, Elend and Sazed found skaa rebels slaughtering palace soldiers. The soldiers would try to surrender, but the rebels ignored it and kept slaughtering them. Elend, revolted by the sight of the mass slaughtering, stood up and started his speech. He spoke of the dangers of bloodshed and chaos as a basis for a nation, of the need for a stable system, and of his dreams for a new, fairer nation in the Central Dominance. Instead of killing him, the rebels listened to him and stopped fighting, acknowleging that the bloodshed wouldn't accomplish anything. This speech was ultimately the reason Elend was crowned king. Breeze also helped by Soothing away the skaa's anger.

The Siege of Luthadel

King of the Central Dominance

After the Collapse, Elend established himself as King of the Central Dominance. He drafted a law code that applied the philosophies of his books, but had also a strong element of realism. The law code established a parliamentary council called the Assembly, which was composed of twenty-four Assemblymen, including Elend himself: eight noblemen, eight skaa workers, and eight skaa merchants. A few months later, Elend proposed Vin in marriage, but she refused, feeling that he deserved a better woman. Unfortunately, their army was relatively small and weak, with only about twenty thousand soldiers, and peace didn't last long.

A year after the Collapse, Straff Venture lay siege to the town with an army of fifty thousand soldiers. Elend passed a proposal for the Assembly to wait to decide anything about the future of the city until he had parlayed with Straff, and they accepted it. Soon later, a second army with forty thousand arrived at the city, led by Ashweather Cett. Breeze had persuaded Cett to march on Luthadel so that a three-way standoff was created; if either Straff or Cett attacked Luthadel, he would be weakened enough that the other could beat him easily. Afterward, Tindwyl arrived and (forcefully) started coaching Elend in the art of leadership. Later, a third army of twenty thousand koloss led by Jastes Lekal arrives to the city.

A few days later, Elend went with Vin inside Straff's camp to parlay. Elend offers an alliance against Cett's army and bluffs, saying they have the atium cache. Elend argues Straff can't win without his help, but Straff says he already has a treaty with Cett, and he'll only agree to the alliance if Elend goes to the city's walls and surrenders the city. Elend says that if Straff killed him, Vin would kill Straff, and they demonstrate Vin's powerful Emotional Allomancy, ending with Vin burning brass with duralumin and soothing away all of his emotion. Straff is frightened and agrees to let Elend return to the city. However, during the meeting with Straff, the Assembly had invoked a no-confidence clause, deposing Elend from the position of king.

The Elections for King

In a later meeting, Elend nominates Ferson Penrod to be Chancellor to preside over the meetings on the absence of a king, and the motion passes. Nominations for king are held; one of the skaa workers nominates Penrod. After Elend nominated him for Chancellor, Penrod feels obligated to nominate Elend as king, and he does so. Finally, Philen Frandeu nominates Cett, who turns out to be hidden within the crowd. Cett takes residence in Keep Hasting with a thousand soldiers. After a week, Elend meets with Cett in his keep to parlay. Elend says he hasn't found the atium cache.

In the day of the election for king, Elend announces his conversion to the Church of the Survivor. He hopes to convince some of the skaa workers to vote for him, in order to create a deadlock so that he keeps the position. However, half a dozen of Straff's half skaa misting children attack Elend and Cett, and Vin fights them. After that, the election is held on the same day in Penrod's mansion, because it's the last day in a 30-day deadline to choose the new king. There are 15 votes for Penrod, 2 to Cett, and 7 to Elend; that would create a deadlock that would cause Elend to remain king. However, after being asked, Elend revealed that Assemblymen can change their votes. Then, the two who voted for Cett changed their votes to Penrod, making it 17 votes for him, enough to win the election and become King. It is later revealed that Straff had bribed the skaa merchants with the promises of titles if they voted for Penrod, and convinced Penrod to ally with him against Cett. However, he doesn't march onto Luthadel immediately for fear of Vin.

The Trip for Terris

Elend decides that even not being king anymore, he will keep helping the city. He works on keeping the citizens from freezing, and tries to discover who poisoned the city's water supply. He meets with Jastes and warns him the koloss cannot be controlled. On the way back, he attacks one of the koloss and discovers Jastes is paying the koloss with fake coins.

Believing the city will fall, Sazed, Dockson, Breeze and Clubs conspire to send Elend and Vin away, along with Spook and Tindwyl. Vin fought and killed Zane, and then asked Elend to marry her, and Sazed married them with a Larsta ceremony. He tells them the Well of Ascension is on Derytatith, in order to send them away from the city. They agree to go there with Tindwyl and Spook. When they depart, Tindwyl decides not to go, and Allrianne convinces them to take her with them. Shortly after departing, Allriane parts ways with them.

A group follows them, and they discover it is led by Jastes, who is fleeing from Luthadel. Enraged that Jastes left an uncontrolled group of koloss outside Luthadel, Elend executes him. Then, Spook reveals that Sazed had tricked Elend and Vin to get them to safety. Vin realizes the Well is in Luthadel, and they immediately return, with Vin going ahead on a pewter drag and later by Pulling and Pushing on horsheshoes and Elend and Spook following on horses. Elend and Spook encounter a group of Terris refugees on their way to Luthadel. They only arrive after the Battle of Luthadel is over, and Vin informs Elend he is Emperor.

The Well of Ascension

by Eleonor Piteira

Vin at the Well of Ascension

Vin and Elend find the storage cache in Kredik Shaw, where the Well of Ascension is located. When they enter it, Leras appears as the mist spirit, intent on dissuading them of giving up the power and freeing Ruin. Kelsier encourages Leras to stab Elend so that Vin uses the power of the Well to save him, and since Leras, being Preservation, can't do it, Kelsier moves his arm, stabbing Elend in the gut. However, Vin gives up the power anyway, trusting that that is what Elend would want for his people.

The New Empire

After the foundation of the New Empire, Vin and Elend set out to recover the five storage caches of the Lord Ruler. They find the second one in Statlin City, containing large amounts of lumber, and a description of aluminum. The second cache is in Urteau, and though the city is in control of Quellion, Vin manages to sneak into it and discover the location of the third storage cache, Vetitan, as well as a description of the metal electrum. They conquered Vetitan, taking control of a group of ten thousand koloss that were attacking the city, and took its people further towards the center of the empire, where food could still be grown. In the cache, they discovered large quantities of the first eight Allomantic metals, as well as a description of malatium and the location of the fifth and final cache, Fadrex City, which was held by Yomen.

The Siege of Fadrex City

“Arguing philosophy will not remove the fact that you have an army camped outside my city, nor change the fact that I find you a hypocrite ”

—Yomen to Elend

by clarinking

Elend dancing with Vin

After discovering the cache's location, Elend marched on Fadrex City with forty thousand soldiers, twenty thousand koloss, and a contingent of allomancers. Because of the city's fortifications, and of a reluctance to loose the koloss upon people, he decided to lay siege to the city, and try to negotiate with Yomen. So, Elend and Vin went to a ball in Keep Orielle, inside the city, to talk with the obligator. Elend discusses about philosophy with Yomen, and is impressed by the man's arguments, that called him a hypocrite for taking the throne by force. After that, Elend and Vin dance, though he teases her by picking up a copy of Trials of Monument — the book he was reading when the two first met — and starting to read it.

At a suggestion from Cett, Elend ordered the wells of Fadrex City poisoned, and warned the city's people so that they wouldn't get hurt by it. Yomen sent a raid on the camp, but it was a distraction; simultaneously, his men threw rocks at the koloss, driving them to a rage that caused them to start killing each other, and half the twenty thousand koloss died. He and Vin went to another ball at the Canton of Resource. There, Elend distracted Yomen to gain time for Vin to search for the cache. However, Yomen believed he was the one distracting Elend, while Vin got trapped in the cache building. Fearing that Yomen might manipulate him again, instead of negotiating Elend decided to go searching for more koloss as a threat to use against Yomen. He took control of thirty thousand additional koloss.

In his trip back, feeling burdened by his responsabilities, he kneels down in the ash, and almost gives up. However, Leras appears to him. They communicated with Elend asking yes/no questions, and Leras answering by waving his arms to indicate a positive answer. He said Elend shouldn't attack Fadrex City, and pointed at Elend's metal vials. Elend asked whether Ruin can be beaten, and Leras waved his arms hesitantly, indicating "maybe". He had used his last bits of life to talk with Elend, and he died soon after.

Despite from what Leras told Elend, the emperor decided to launch a surprise attack on Yomen on the next morning. However, he realized Vin wouldn't have done this, and decided to pull back. However, Ruin took control of the koloss and made them start attacking Elend's army. Ordering her koloss to attack Yomen's army, Vin manages to convince the obligator to retreat and let Elend's army enter Fadrex. An enormous army of koloss begins to gather outside the city. Seeing a boy being taken by the mistsickness, he realizes the mists are snapping the skaa, and the mistfallen are in fact Allomancers. Even with the new Allomancers, the koloss army is too big for Elend's and Yomen's army to face. However, the koloss retreat, going toward Luthadel. Yomen gives Elend his last atium bead, and Elend goes toward Luthadel to find Vin.

The Battle of Hathsin

by Hunter Bonyun

“Lost? We've won, Marsh. ”

—Elend to Marsh.

In Luthadel, Elend finds Penrod's corpse, with a note saying that Elend's people went to the Terris Dominance. After hearing a whisper from Vin, he realizes Ruin must have changed the text, and deduces that they might have gone to the Terris people instead. Arriving at the Pits of Hathsin, he sees Demoux with a few soldiers he had sent back to help Penrod. Elend discovers that the people who stayed sick for longer were Seers, and gathers them to fight the koloss army, using the atium cache at the Pits. They fight the koloss for hours, until the atium in the atium cache begins to run out. Then, Marsh appears in front of Elend.

Marsh and Elend fought, with Marsh using the atium he got from a kandra. Marsh was winning, because Elend doesn't have any metals other than atium. However, suddenly, his metal reserves were filled again. He looked up, and saw a white figure: Vin, helping him fight. Then, Elend burned atium with duralumin. Suddenly, he saw Preservation's plan—he knew he had to die, to help to drive Vin to kill Ruin. He told Marsh that Ruin's body—the atium—was gone, and that Ruin had lost.

Legacy

After the Catacendre, Elend became known as the Last Emperor. The city of Elendel was named after him, and there are giant statues of him and Vin at the Field of Rebirth, and his body, fixed by Harmony, was buried there. The laws of Elendel, created by Spook, are based upon Elend's philosophical ideals.

Relationships

Vin

“She'd never trusted anyone this much. Not Kelsier, not Sazed, not Reen. That knowledge made her tremble inside. If she lost him, she would lose herself. ”

—Vin during the trip towards Terris.

At the beginning, Vin loved Elend, but she believed he deserved someone better, someone who shared his interests and ideals, someone who saw nobility in his decision of giving up the throne. She also thought she hurt his pride by being Mistborn while he was just a common man, that he deserved a woman he could protect. She thought she didn't deserve because she thought she didn't deserve to be happy at all.

However, Elend loved her; he felt he needed her genuine realism to keep him grounded, and thought himself lucky that she needed him; he believed she was ten times as capable as him. He was sometimes frustrated by her idiosyncrasies, but he still loved her. Most of all, he trusted her; he defended her actions even when she attacked Cett, killing hundreds of men, and he trusted her to make the right decisions even when he didn't know what she was deciding.

When Zane called Vin to run away with him, she finally realized she had to stay with Elend, because he trusted and loved her; even if she didn't deserve him, she could be there to support him After they got married, she started trusting in him inconditionally, depending on him. At the Well of Ascension, however, she knew that Elend would want her to sacrifice him to save his people, and she loved him enough to trust his wishes and give up the power instead of saving him.

Kelsier

“Early in my career, I always compared myself to him. By the time I heard of Kelsier, he was already becoming a legend. It was unfair to force myself to try and be him, but I worried regardless. ”

—Elend talking to the crew about Kelsier

In the battle before Kelsier's death, despite his hate of noblemen, he saved Elend's life because he knew Vin loved the nobleman. But when he found out that Elend was king, he was angry for days. However, when Elend came to him in the Well, he wasn't angry, because he considered not Elend's fault that he became king, considering him "too oblivious to be dangerous".

While king, Elend compared himself to Kelsier on numerous occasions. He thought that if Kelsier were alive, he would be king instead of Elend, and that he would have been a better king than Elend. However, he later accepted that there was no one mold for a leader, and that he didn't need to be Kelsier to be a good king.

Tindwyl

“You have good ideas, Elend Venture. Regal ideas. However, you are not a king. A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them. ”

—Tindwyl to Elend.

Tindwyl came to Luthadel to instruct Elend on how to be a king. She thinks that he is slovenly and needs to be more forceful — that as a king, he should impose his will on others and impose respect on his subjects. She believes he should be more self-confident — feel that his actions are the best for the kingdom. She is mean and harsh to him, because she believes that after growing up as a pampered son of a lord, he needs some harsh truth.

Tindwyl says that love is not easy for kings, and that Elend's love of Vin may cause him trouble. However, once she was sure he did love Vin, the Keeper says he should not give up on her; she considers it an exception. However, she encourages the couple to get married, as it would be bad for Elend's reputation to be seen as having a mistress.

Straff Venture

“That’s what his books had done to him — they had changed him from rebellious fop into would-be philosopher. Unfortunately, he’d been a fool for so long. Was it any wonder that Straff hadn’t noticed the change in his son? ”

—Elend to Straff.

In his youth, Elend rebelled against his father, and acted to distinguish himself from the man. However, he only did it in small ways, that didn't matter much, such as wearing his clothes dishevelled and reading during balls. He ended up earning a reputation for being eccentric and arrogant. However, his books changed him; he stopped acting against his father's wishes to annoy him, and started doing it because they were unethical. His father didn't notice the change, and kept treating Elend like a rebellious child. Straff thinks Elend is childish and weak, and believes Vin didn't kill the Lord Ruler because he thinks it implausible that Elend has earned the trust of someone so powerful. Straff thinks he can control Elend, and that he can make Elend give him control of the city. Elend knows Straff well, and is confident he can manipulate his father.

Dockson

“And we put one of them on the throne. I can’t help but think that Kell would be angry with me for letting Elend rule, no matter how good a man he is. ”

—Dockson to Vin.

Dockson and Elend dislike each other; however, they're willing to work with one another for the good of the kingdom. Dockson acknowledges that Elend is a decent man and treats the skaa fairly, but he has resented noblemen for a long time, and he thinks Kelsier would be mad at him for letting a nobleman take the throne. Dockson also resents Elend because Dockson assumed he would be the leader of the crew once Kelsier was dead, but Elend became king instead. Elend knows Dockson is a good man, but he finds it hard to get along with Dockson because of his dislike of the king.

Trivia

• Elend means misery in German, but this wasn't intentional.
• Elend's character is inspired by Brandon's editor Moshe, and also by Alexander Hamilton
• Elend and Vin never gave much thought to the prospect of being a parent.
• Elend's speech in the Collapse was inspired by the French Revolution.
• Elend's Magic: The Gathering color alignment would probably be blue/white.

Notes

Preceded by Title established

King of the Central Dominance 1021 FE to 1023 FE

Succeeded by Ferson Penrod

Preceded by Title established

High Emperor of the New Empire 1024 FE to 1025 FE

Succeeded by Title abolished

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