Zane Venture

Zane Venture
by Laura MacMahon
House Venture Parents Straff Siblings Elend
Died	1023 FE
Abilities	Mistborn, Hemalurgist
Aliases	The Watcher
Birthplace	Luthadel
Ethnicity	Noble
Homeworld	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

Zane Venture was a Mistborn on the planet of Scadrial. He was the illegitimate son of Straff Venture and the half-brother to Elend Venture.

Appearance and Personality

Zane shares certain phenotypic characteristics with his family such as brown curly hair, which he tends to keep shorter than his brother. He has a wiry build with a narrow face and is of medium height. He often wears all black and, despite being a Mistborn, does not wear a mistcloak. Zane had a difficult childhood, as Straff kept his existence secret due to his skaa lineage. Because of his harsh upbringing, Zane has an unstable personality, and engages in dysregulated behavior, such as cutting himself.

Zane is a powerful Mistborn, the strongest Vin has met since Kelsier. This is, in part, thanks to a steel Hemalurgic spike in his heart, which grants him great precision when using Allomantic steel. Zane placed his own spike, presumably under Ruin's influence. However, a consequence of this spike is that Ruin can speak with Zane, and often tells him to kill everyone around him, leading Zane to believe he is insane. Zane refuses to let his insanity control him and he resists following Ruin's orders.

Without Ruin's influence, Zane would have been less crazy but more ruthless, much like his father, and would have been more similar to Kelsier.

• Images of Zane
• 

  by Laura MacMahonPortrait
• 

  by cccrystalclear Fighting Vin
• 

  by Ydunn Lopez

History

by Ydunn Lopez

At some point after he Snapped, Zane obtained, and stabbed himself with, a Hemalurgic spike.

First known as The Watcher, Zane was later identified by Vin when he came to the city with a message from Straff.

During their conversation outside of Straff's tent, Vin came to believe that Zane had Snapped in the Pits of Hathsin due to scars seen on his arms. However, this was actually just due to his habit of self-harm to block out Ruin's voice and make his father uncomfortable.

Straff, suspicious of his son, believed that Zane was constantly attempting to assassinate him. Whenever Straff thought he had been poisoned by his son, he sought help from his former mistress, Amaranta, who provided him with an antidote. Unfortunately for Straff, Zane and Amaranta were lovers and the woman was working with Zane to convince Straff he had been poisoned, while instead providing him with an addictive substance masked as an antidote. Zane capitalized on the substance's withdrawal effects to convince Straff he was repeatedly being poisoned. Eventually, Straff attempted to have Zane killed in his sleep, however, his plan failed, and Zane left Straff's camp to seek out Vin and take her away from Luthadel.

Zane, wanting Vin to himself, attempted to convince her that she did not belong in Elend’s world, and instead should run away with him. As an attempt to sway her, he sent several of Straff’s Allomancers to attack Vin and Elend during an assembly meeting meant to determine the future leadership in Luthadel. Zane later approached Vin regarding the attack and told her that Cett had been behind the assassination attempt. Zane offered to help Vin get revenge and the two descended upon the portion of Cett's army that was housed in Keep Hasting, killing roughly a third of the enemy soldiers. Vin hesitated when presented with the opportunity to kill Cett, prompting Zane to try and kill the man instead. Vin persuaded him otherwise, leaving Cett alive.

Zane visited Vin one last time to try and persuade Vin to leave with him, promising they could go wherever she wanted. Conflicted, Vin began to follow Zane before deciding that leaving was the wrong choice. She attempted to voice her concerns to Zane, however, he became filled with rage and attacked her, using atium to give himself an advantage. Several times throughout their fight, Zane repeated that Vin was supposed to save him, presumably from his insanity and Ruin’s voice. In the end, Vin used Zane's reactions to her atium shadow to give herself two atium shadows (changing her attack based on Zane's counteraction to her shadow) and stabbed him in the neck, killing him. As he died, Ruin revealed to Zane that he was never insane.

Relationships

Vin

“I thought, maybe, if you could fight and see just how powerful you were, you’d shake yourself free of Elend’s grip. ”

—Zane

Zane is intrigued by Vin from the start, as she is the only one the voice in his head doesn’t tell him to kill. He watches Vin from afar, and helps her slightly during a fight with a group of Allomancer assassins. Zane strongly believes that Vin is supposed to “save” him. Though they are on different sides of the conflict, Zane and Vin often duel in the mists together, engaging in chases and other games. Though they fight, they don’t actually try to kill each other. During these outings, Zane routinely tells Vin how she’s being used by Elend. When he tries to get Vin to run away with him, she refuses. Zane attacks her, serious this time, and Vin kills him despite his atium.

Straff

“A man shouldn't kill his own father. ”

—Zane

Zane's relationship with his father is somewhat antagonistic. Although Zane completes missions that Straff sends him on, he also commonly cuts himself in front of the man to make him uncomfortable--but he also does it in order to block out Ruin's telling him to kill Straff, as he believes that a man shouldn't kill his father. Furthermore, he believes Ruin's voice to be an indicator of his own insanity, and therefore wouldn't trust himself to be in Straff's place. Despite this, he doesn't stop one of Straff's serving girls from attempting to poison the man, and he lets him assume that Zane poisoned him whenever Straff experiences the withdrawal symptoms of Black Frayn.

Notes

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