Coup of Urteau

Coup of Urteau
Part of the Skaa rebellion
Era	New Empire
Participants	Quellion, Spook, Sazed, Breeze
City	Urteau
Dominance	Northern Dominance
World	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

The Coup of Urteau was one of the major events on Scadrial, in the city of Urteau between the end of the Final Empire and Sazed's ascension.

When Straff Venture left Urteau to besiege Luthadel, the skaa overthrew the government, placing Quellion as their new leader. Emperor Elend Venture sent Sazed and Breeze to bring the city under his control. After failing to negotiate with Quellion, Sazed and Breeze met with Spook, and the group decided to incite a rebellion. After a confrontation between Spook and Quellion, Spook discovered that they have been playing into the hands of Ruin, who has been subtly influencing both Spook and Quellion via Hemalurgic Spikes. After a fire broke out, threatening to destroy the town, Spook removed the spikes and flooded the canals, saving the city.

Previous History

Urteau is the historical home of House Venture, and the capital city of the Northern Dominance of the Final Empire. It was the location of one of the Lord Ruler's storage caverns. The city used to have canals crossing the city until, unbeknownst to most of the city's residents, the Lord Ruler had the water drained into an underground lake in the storage cavern. Most of the former canals were left unfilled and the city's residents began calling them "streetslots" and using them in the place of ordinary streets and sidewalks, with ladders and even a few ramps or stairs in place for people to climb in and out of them. In wealthier parts of the city, however, the canals were filled in and paved with cobblestones.

Lead Up

In the years after the Collapse, Straff Venture retreated to Urteau to regroup before he went to besiege Luthadel. While he was gone, Quellion, an unstable skaa, spiked himself, making himself a Seeker. He than began to see Ruin, as Kelsier, who influenced him in his actions. He went out in the mists, and claimed that anyone who was a true follower of Kelsier would be spared by the mist. He killed anyone who was affected by the mistsickness. He also killed all of the nobles except his sister, even though they were not affected by the mists. He then took control of the city, and taking the title of the Citizen—the leader of Urteau. He set up his own government, and renounced Kelsier's crew as impostors.

Importance of Urteau

Historically, Urteau was of rather great importance as it used to be situated upon the canals, which means that House Venture, who had ownership of the city, had control over every shipment of merchandise that needed to get to other cities (particularly Luthadel). Since ships are one of the only ways to transport heavy merchandise at a reasonable speed, through taxes and other fees, the city had quickly risen to become one of the most important ones in the area. However, during the time of Quellion's rule, the canals were dried and used as roads, as places for merchants and beggars, and as a location for homeless skaa to spend the night.

Even more importantly, Urteau is the location of one of the Lord Ruler's storage caches. It contains not only food, resources and equipment, but also information about electrum, one of the previously undiscovered metals. The information left there also discusses the upcoming danger that Ruin represented. It is later discovered that the Lord Ruler redirected the canal's water to the city's storage cavern. This causes the canal to dry out but ensures a fresh water supply for the cavern.

These are reasons why Elend sent Spook to the city of Urteau to gauge the political climate.

Political Climate of Urteau

With the collapse of the Final Empire, the people of Urteau followed the rebellion along with many cities. A skaa named Quellion took power of the city, and gave himself the title The Citizen.

The Coup

Following an encounter with Quellion, where the Citizen refused to join Elend’s empire, Breeze and Sazed met with Spook, who had been residing in Urteau and gathering information for several months. The crew took up residence in an abandoned Ministry building, and Sazed, Breeze and Spook discovered an underground reservoir of fresh water among the supply cache underneath the building. They determine that this reservoir was responsible for drying the canals of the city. The crew began planning how to deal with Quellion and his government.

After an earlier encounter with the Citizen and his guards, Spook came to believe that Quellion was a Coinshot. Since all citizens with noble heritage in Urteau were being put to death at the Citizen’s order, revealing Quellion’s Allomancy would destroy his reputation. Spook believed if he could get Quellion to use his Allomancy in the open, the people would turn on him. He had Sazed and Breeze begin spreading rumors of Quellion’s Allomancy and noble heritage. Spook had gained a reputation among the people of Urteau as the Survivor of the Flames, and the crew planned to use this reputation to bring Urteau into Venture’s empire. Sazed planned to flood the dried canals of Urteau to bolster the reputation of the Survivor of the Flames. While planning their coup of Quellion’s government, Beldre, the Citizen’s sister, went to the Ministry building to convince the crew to spare Quellion’s life. Spook decided to take her hostage, and he spread a rumor that she defected from her brother.

While Sazed was developing the mechanism to flood the canals, and while Spook was planning how to get Quellion to expose his Allomancy, riots began around the city. During a speech from the Citizen, denouncing Spook and his allies, Spook and Goradel’s soldiers attacked the stage. Spook engaged Quellion and nearly killed him before he was stopped by a coin from Beldre. Spook realized that she was the Coinshot, not her brother. Spook realized that he and Quellion were both being manipulated by an apparition of Kelsier. Spook removed the Hemalurgic spikes from himself and Quellion, and understood that the riots had gone out of control and the city was burning. Beldre revealed she killed the guards that were to release the water to flood the canals, which could’ve been used to stop the fires.

Spook, Beldre and Sazed traveled to the ministry building in order to release the water, but they find the building engulfed in flames. Spook entered the burning building, found the lever to trigger the mechanism, and flooded the canals. The people of Urteau then used the water from the canals to stop the fires around the city, though around a third of the city was lost.

Following the riots and the fire, Sazed appointed Breeze in charge of the city. Following the confrontation with Spook and the removal of his Hemalurgic spike, Quellion became more civil, and he was willing to consider an alliance with Elend. After the departure of Sazed, the mists began to behave strangely, and Spook told Breeze to gather the people of Urteau into the storage cavern. The people who gathered in the cavern were protected from the world being reborn, and were gathered with the other survivors from around the Final Empire.

Notes

History of Scadrial
Battle of Luthadel	Coup of Urteau	Siege of Fadrex City

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