Human

Human was a koloss that was created some time before the Lord Ruler's death. He was a relatively minor character in the Hero of Ages, and had two small viewpoints in the final section of the book. Human, when pushed, showed Vin how koloss were made, and served Vin to a very limited degree for a short time, although hating her by his own admission. He is also one of the koloss that discovers the empty atium cache in the kandra Homeland toward the conclusion of the book.

The Hero of Ages

Human's first appearance in The Hero of Ages was shortly after Elend and Vin exposed villagers to the mists outside of Vetitan in order to inoculate them. He diffused Vin's assumption that all koloss were of a homogenous mentality - "just the same stupid beast repeated over and over", in her words - with his observations and remarks. This continues in following scenes with the two of them, where she discerns that he can use fair logic and somewhat keen observations. However, she is puzzled by Human's insistence that he is human.

Later, Human again insists that he is human, and expresses the desire for human things, such as a house. Vin attempts to explain that he can't, because human ways are not the same as koloss, saying that humans don't kill someone because they make them feel uncomfortable. Human observes that instead of killing each other, humans just use koloss to kill one another.

Vin questions Human about the mists, whether he and the other koloss fear them. He responds by stating that mist does not kill, thus it is nothing to fear, just like any other weather. But he continues his line of thought, and states that he hates the mists, because he can feel their hatred of him, and reckognises Vin feels the same; that the mists hate her. This is, of course, due to having hemalurgic spikes, but niether of the two realise this at the time.

Yet again later, shortly after Yomen's attack upon Elend's camp, Human surprises Vin with the first known indication of values from a koloss, stating that it's not right that he shows her how koloss are made. Vin Pushes Human allomantically to get him to reveal how koloss are created, and he screams, then proceeds to run into the human camp with a dead koloss, and immediately attempts to take the hemalurgic spikes from the koloss and place them into a wounded human soldier, but Vin stops him, and finally discovers how koloss are created. Human once again states that he is human.

At the final conflict between Ruin and Preservation, (Ati and Vin) Human lead koloss soldiers inside the underground tunnels of the kandra Homeland, all under the influence of Ruin. Human was aware that it was Ruin controlling him, and that Ruin was far more powerful than Vin was. Ruin forced Human and his soldiers to ignore the humans in order to find the atium, and he entered the kandra atium storage, only to find it empty of all the atium.

When Harmony (Sazed) took up the power and began to restore Scadrial to what it had been before the Lord Ruler took up the power at the Well of Ascension over one thousand years prior, Human and the other koloss soldiers with him were still in the underground tunnels, and survived the reshaping of the world. Harmony altered these surviving koloss to become true-breeding, although it is not known how this was achieved.

Origin

Before he was spiked to become a koloss, Human was a skaa rebel known as Vershad. He was the leader of a rebellion in the southeast of the Final Empire, in the same area where Clubs fought in his youth. Vershad lived in the desert outside the borders of the Final Empire, and crossed the border to raid outlying villages and steal supplies. His preferred methods involved converting the local skaa population to his side, and convince them to give him supplies. In return, he and his band would "raid" the village, only attacking the mansions of the nobility. This allowed the skaa to get revenge against the nobility, as well as earning more supplies due to the assumption that their food stores had been raided as well.

Vershad was a charismatic and intelligent skaa, managing even to keep his band alive when the Lord Ruler began to turn his attention to them. Eventually, however, the Lord Ruler sent a koloss army against Vershad and his men, with the aid of an Inquisitor, who set an ambush as well as betraying the rebels. For their crimes, Vershad's men were slaughtered, and he himself was turned into a koloss.

As a koloss, Human retained much of his intelligence and determination, which made him a noticably clever koloss at the time.