Marasi Colms

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Marasi Colms
Marasi composite.png
Family
Parents Jackstom Harms
Siblings Steris Harms
Abilities Pulser
Profession Constable
Residence Elendel
Homeworld Scadrial
Universe Cosmere

I have a theory that a gentlewoman should never need to resort to something so barbarous as violence to achieve her goals. Wouldn’t you agree? Yes indeed. A true gentlewoman uses the threat of violence instead. So much more civilized.

—Marasi[1]

Marasi Colms is a Pulser[2] on Scadrial. Marasi is a constable in the Elendel constabulary under Constable-General Reddi. Marasi previously studied law and is a friend of Wax, Wayne, and MeLaan, among other important cultural figures of the time.

Appearance and Personality

Marasi is very intelligent and level headed, but blushes deeply whenever anything remotely involving romance or sexuality is brought up.

She chose to study legal justice and criminal behavioristics due to her fascination with human morality. She believes that most people are generally good by inertia, as that is what society expects them to be. Thus she is intrigued by the people who stand out as much more or less moral than average without any clear motivation to be. She knows many facts and statistics about criminal behavior and often cites them during times of distress. When she is in shock from almost being kidnapped, she immediately mentions that "7 out of 10 kidnappings can be foiled by appropriate resistance on the part of the target."[3]

In contrast to her level-headed approach toward danger, Marasi is easily embarrassed by romantic and sexual topics. In her anatomy class at university it was very common to watch her reactions when learning about the male body. She is embarrassed about studying criminal behavior in school as it is not considered very lady-like. Whenever Wayne jokes about her being attractive she stammers and does not properly reply.

As she continues to follow Wax and Wayne, Marasi begins to have feelings for Wax. While she never openly admits them, Wax gently refuses her. Wax eventually marries her sister, Steris, while Marasi herself gets over the romantic feelings for Wax.

Attributes and Abilities

Marasi is a Pulser, she has the ability to burn cadmium to slow time down in a bubble around herself. She considers this ability to be practically useless, although she admits to having used it to make anticipated events come faster. She is jealous of Wayne's Slider ability as it has far more practical applications than her own. In the final confrontation with Miles Dagouter, Marasi uses her pulser ability to slow time down around herself and Miles, thus allowing a large group of constables to surround the place while Miles is fighting with Wax.

Marasi has also shown that she is a very good shot with a rifle and is part of the ladies' target club at her university.[3]

She can speak some 'ancient Terris'.[4]

History

Marasi Colms was born as the illegitimate child of Jackstom Harms and is half sister to Steris.[5] Through most of her childhood she was constantly reminded that she was useless to her family, useless as an heir due to her illegitimacy, and useless as an allomancer due to few uses for slowing down time. As a result, Marasi has a strong desire to be important and accomplished in the world so she would feel less useless.[6] Marasi also finds criminals and law keepers fascinating, explaining that she is interested in how a person from a normal background can grow up to be so much more or less moral than the people around them. These two desires culminated in her deciding to go to university as a legal justice and criminal behavioristics major. After learning about Waxillium and Wayne as two famous law keepers from the Roughs, she convinces her father to let her accompany him and Steris to discuss a possible marriage between Steris and Wax. She hides her illegitimacy by pretending to be Steris' cousin. In one of these meetings, the criminal group called the Vanishers attacks and kidnaps Steris, and attempts to kidnap her, but Wax saves her. She then follows Wax and Wayne and helps them defeat the Vanishers and save Steris.

Afterwards, she becomes a constable serving under Constable-General Claude Aradel as a crime analyst. After Aradel is elected governor of Elendel, Constable-General Reddi, whom Marasi has not always been on good terms with, finally stops being bitter toward her and accepts her as a constable in her own right.

Following the wedding of her sister to Waxillium, Marasi acccepted a mission from the kandra VenDell on behalf of Harmony to go to New Seran to recover the missing spike of the kandra ReLuur who had returned from a research mission in the area after losing the spike in suspicious circumstances. VenDell also tasked Marasi to look for the Bands of Mourning, which ReLuur had been investigating. Marasi traveled to New Seran with Waxillium, Steris, Wayne and MeLaan. Enroute the Nightstreet Gang attacked the train the group was traveling on and Marasi participated in the battle that followed. Using Allomancy and her skills with a rifle she was instrumental in saving the lives of passengers on the train and Waxillium. Upon arriving in New Seran, she and Wayne investigated the whereabouts of ReLuur's spike. The information they gleaned led them, along with Wax and Steris, to the Set's base in Dulsing. During the raid on the base, Marasi and MeLaan broke into Professor Irich's study and recovered ReLuur's spike as well as several medallions from a safe. Marasi also discovered Allik Neverfar being held hostage in a cage in an adjacent room. Against MeLaan's advice, Marasi freed Allik and the three of them joined the battle in the main room around the crashed Southern Scadrian airship Brunstell. Marasi fought using the Allomantic grenade, but was shot in the abdomen in the fight. Marasi and the others took refuge inside of the wrecked Brunstell and Marasi convinced the others to follow Allik to Wilg. As the group was escaping aboard Wilg, MeLaan performed surgery on Marasi using her kandra abilities. Due to a miscommunication, Marasi thought she was dying during this exchange. After recovering Steris, who had not participated in the raid, the group set off for the Sovereign's temple. During the journey, Marasi spoke with Allik about his people and their technology. Upon arriving at the Temple Marasi kept guard at the entrance with Wayne and Steris while the others dealt with the traps. During this time she had a good conversation with Steris. After Mister Suit and the Set arrived, she and the others entered the chamber where the Bands of Mourning supposedly were. Marasi was captured when Telsin and Suit attacked the group. As she sat outside the temple some time later as a captive of the Set, she realized that the spear point in her purse was actually the Bands of Mourning. Marasi tapped the immense power of the Bands and used them to free herself, attack the guards, and locate and revive Waxillium beneath the temple. She then gave Wax the Bands and returned to Elendel with the others.

Criminal Justice Theories

Marasi has many theories on criminal behavior and justice that she talks about with Wax throughout her time with him.

  • The city actually has half the amount of law keepers per population than in the Roughs, and there are more unsolved murders and petty crimes.
  • Broken Windows theory: The best way to lower crime in an area is through renovation. A man is more likely to break a window if he sees broken windows around him.
  • Deviations: When exploring a crime scene, finding the deviations from typical patterns, then finding out why they deviated will often yield something on the criminals.

Notes

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