Final Empire

Final Empire
by Isaac Stewart
Capital	Luthadel
World	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

This article is about the Lord Ruler's empire. For the first book in the first Mistborn series, see The Final Empire.

The Final Empire was the major state on Scadrial for over 1000 years.

Geography and Ecology

by Isaac Stewart

Map of the Final Empire

Geography

Location

The Final Empire was located in the northern hemisphere. It was bordered on all sides by the burnlands, inhospitable deserts with temperatures to hot for survival. The border areas between the Final Empire and the burnlands were sometimes referred to as the "wastes".

Notable lakes and seas inside the Final Empire include the Tyrian Sea, Lake Luthadel, the Black Lake and North Seran. There are a number of large mountains in the Final Empire called Ashmounts. The Empire also contains a number of mountain ranges, the most notable of which is called the Terris range.

The Final Empire also included multiple islands like the Southern Islands and The Shrouded Isles.

Climate and Weather

The Final Empire experienced mild winters, with snowfall every few years.

The Final Empire also experienced ashfalls, the raining down of the ash in the scadrian atmosphere. The ash was released into the atmosphere by eruptions of the Ashmounts. There were seven of these Ashmounts; Tyrian, Zerinah, Faleast, Doriel, Morag, Kalling and Torinost. These seven mountains spewed ash into Scadrial's atmosphere, cooling the world down. This was the Lord Ruler's solution to his alterations of the planet's orbit.

Every night, shortly after sunset, the Mists appeared. These Mists seem natural, but are in fact Preservation’s gaseous investiture. The Mist is important to the cultures of both the Skaa and the noblemen.

Ecology

Flora

The Final Empire contains many different types of Flora. Most of the Flora was created and designed to survive the Ashfalls.

The Lord Ruler designed new plants that could break down the falling ash in order to prevent the ashfalls from covering the world. The plants in the Final Empire are usually brown. This was due to the Lord Ruler altering their physiology to be able to use more wavelengths of light (such as green light, which is normally reflected) to compensate for the loss of light caused by the ash. Since the plants' light absorption still wasn't fully efficient, the plants became brown instead of black.

Fauna

The Final Empire has many different types of animals. Most of these animals were created after Rashek’s Ascension, and were designed to survive and thrive in the ash. Some species from before the ashfalls are still around however, such as horses and some types of dogs.

The most notable animal in the Final Empire was the mistwraith, a creature made of mostly muscle, which uses the bones of deceased animals to create unique skeletal structures for itself. They were created from all the living Feruchemists at the time of the Lord Ruler's Ascension. The Lord Ruler also created microbes that broke down the ash as part of their biological processes, in order to prevent the ashfalls from covering the world.

The Final Empire also contains multiple species made through Hemalurgy. These species are the kandra, koloss, and Inquisitors.

Notable places

• Luthadel - The capital city of the Final Empire and seat of the Lord Ruler.
• Urteau - The capital city of the Northern Dominance and hereditary home of House Venture.
• The Pits of Hathsin - A large mine that produces atium.
• Austrex - The capital city of the Southern Dominance.
• Conventical of Seran - The home of the Inquisitors.
• Tremredare - The capital city of the Western Dominance.

Geography

by Isaac Stewart

Map of the Final Empire

The Final Empire consisted of ten Dominances:

• Central Dominance
• Northern Dominance
• Western Dominance
• Eastern Dominance
• Southern Dominance
• Crescent Dominance
• Farmost Dominance
• Southern Islands
• Remote Dominance
• The Terris Dominance

The lands surrounding the Central Dominance, which held the capital, Luthadel, contained the seven Ashmounts; Tyrian, Zerinah, Faleast, Doriel, Morag, Kalling and Torinost. These seven mountains spewed ash into Scadrial's atmosphere, cooling the world down. This was the Lord Ruler's solution to his alterations of the planet's orbit.

Canals were used extensively, as the ash built up quickly away from civilization.

Culture

The Lord Ruler suppressed most technological advances, killing everyone who discovered gunpowder and the knowledge associated with it. He did allow some advances such as the implementation of canneries, allowing for the easy storage of food. The currency includes Boxings and Clips.

The Final Empire had somewhere around a hundred million citizens. A couple million of those lived in Luthadel.

Military

The empire had a standing army around Luthadel including a number of garrisons. The Luthadel Garrison consisted of twenty thousand troops, mostly skaa, and many of the smaller towns in the Central Dominance had smaller Garrisons of their own, such as Valtroux and Holstep. There is also a substantial army of koloss who can be under the control of the Lord Ruler or a remote Inquisitor. The Canton of Inquisition itself is trained to have formidable warriors, each member more than capable of overcoming any target. The Noble houses operate guardsmen, militias and armies when necessary.

The Lord Ruler used the kandra as spies with the ability to accurately imitate and replace anyone whose skeleton is available.

Social Caste

The descendants of the people who originally supported the Lord Ruler during his rise to power are now the nobility of the Final Empire. The Lord Ruler and his allies had access to beads of lerasium, and gained Allomantic powers. Because of this, certain nobles gain the use of Allomancy. There is a wide range of nobles, from the high houses to the impoverished.

Skaa descend from people who did not support the Lord Ruler. When he ascended, the skaa were changed so they were more fertile. Skaa cannot become Allomancers unless they have noble blood recently in their lineage. Skaa are essentially slaves, property for nobles to exchange between them, although they are ultimately owned by the Lord Ruler. The best-off skaa will be craftsmen or tradesmen. They and their families will live in relative comfort, but this happens very rarely for skaa. Normally, even the highest skaa are subject to the whims of the nobility. However, far from the center of the empire, skaa can own land and achieve wealth.

Government

For more information, see Steel Ministry.

The Steel Ministry and its obligators are the main bureaucracy for the Final Empire. Despite officially being a religious institution, in reality the Steel Ministry was based on the bureaucratic mercantile system of the Hallant. The main purpose of this bureaucracy was to monitor the noble houses who engaged in financial activity under this system. The noble houses themselves were primarily financial organizations in nature. They also maintained the Lord Ruler's empire from their keeps. The Great Houses control most trade and enslave most of the Empire's skaa population.

The structure of Dominances, in Vin's time, involves provincial lords each with command of, and responsibility for, their own skaa. This organization has been in place for two hundred years and grants the nobility greater freedom than previous systems. The Lord Ruler seems to be uncomfortable with this and counteracts it with increased obligator activity .

Many of these noblemen live in the cities as well, controlling their plantations, if they have any, from far away.^{[citation needed]}

Economy

Most of the labour is done by Skaa. Skaa work on plantations, providing the empire with food, they also work jobs as builders, and clear ash from the city streets. Skaa also work as craftsmen and also operate canal boats.^{[citation needed]}

Atium control

The atium economy acts as one of the many ways the Lord Ruler takes a firm hold on the Final Empire. Its scarcity, along with its godly Allomantic use, makes atium an extremely valuable currency; a small bead being valuable enough to cover the cost of living for a skaa for several years.^{[citation needed]}

The only place atium can be mined is at the Pits of Hathsin, where skaa criminals are sent to work as punishment for their crimes until death. A noble house is in charge of the profitable mining camp, with House Venture being the last House to oversee the operation before the destruction of the mine. The fact that atium is mined here is kept top-secret. Not a single prisoner has escaped before Kelsier, hence his nickname "the Survivor of Hathsin".

A portion of the atium mined at the Pits of Hathsin is secretly transported to Luthadel by the Canton of Resource, mixed into and disguised as Ministry funds. Since metal coins radiate powerful light in the Cognitive Realm, the atium beads, when mixed with other coins, can be transported safely without being discovered by Ruin.

Kandra are known to only accept atium for their service. Their "contract", purchased with steep prices, provides the Kandra's absolute loyalty and their powerful imitating skills. However, the fulfilling of Contracts actually has another purpose. All the atium they earn is brought to their Homeland where it is stockpiled in a metal vault, the Trust. They do this on account of their First Contract with the Lord Ruler. For atium is condensed power of Ruin, by storing it in a place where Ruin has no influence, they deny him access to a part of his power.^{[citation needed]}

With enough atium, a Mistborn with its future-seeing ability is almost invincible. At the time of the Final Empire, the only known way to counter it is to have more atium than your opponent. The result of an atium match is almost always fatal for the one with less amount of atium. Therefore, it is essential for the Noble Houses, especially the Great Houses with one or more Mistborn, to maintain a steady supply of atium. The atium has to be bought from the Lord Ruler with very high prices. Usually, the uncertainty of who has the more atium forms a balance of terror, making none of the sides dare to start burning atium.^{[citation needed]}

The Lord Ruler Compounds atium to gain access to near-infinite amount of youthfulness. As he ages, he needs more and more atium to remain youthful. It is unknown how much atium he eventually needs to consume at the last years of the Final Empire.

Notes

History of Scadrial
Ascension of the Lord Ruler	Final Empire	Collapse

This article is still missing information. Please help The Coppermind by expanding it.