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Rashek

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Rashek
Rashek movie concept.jpg
by Ben McSweeney
Family
Relatives Kwaan[1]
Born Classical Scadrial[2]
Died 1022 FE
Abilities Feruchemist, Mistborn, Hemalurgist, Sliver
Titles Lord Ruler, Sliver of Infinity, the Father, First Emperor[3]
Nationality Terris
Homeworld Scadrial
Universe Cosmere

“I did not make a mistake. I have never made a mistake. However, it is time for a change. ”

—Rashek's words after lord prelan Tevidian Tekiel's death.[4]

Rashek is a Terrisman from Scadrial. Known as the Lord Ruler, the Sliver of Infinity and the Father, he has access to the full range of abilities of both a Feruchemist and an Allomancer, and has Hemalurgic spikes in his body. As a result, he is an extremely powerful Compounder, and he was able to unify the world into an empire that lasted for one thousand years.

Appearance and Personality

Rashek is incredibly tall and handsome. He has pale skin and has black hair. He wears black and white clothing that resembles an exaggerated nobleman's suit, with a coat that runs down to his feet and trails behind him and a black vest accented with white markings. He also wears several rings, both as show of his strength and as Feruchemical storage.[5]

He is charismatic.

He enjoys playing and listening to music and keeps a small wooden flute among his Terris relics.[6][7]

Prior to his Ascension, he disliked the people of Khlennium, and was hostile and angry towards them, despite never having been to the state, because of their oppression of the Terris people.[8][9] Though he hated them, he also envied several aspects of their culture, later incorporating them into the culture of the Final Empire.[10][11]

Towards the end of his life he grew extremely weary of the world and appeared resigned in almost every interaction he had with others, likely due to his immense age rendering every experience trivial and taxing. Rashek treated those who stood against him with disdain and was unconcerned when a rebellion was approaching his palace, instead finding it annoying that he would have to go through the trouble of killing hundreds of skaa personally.

Attributes and Abilities

Rashek has the powers of a full Mistborn and a full Feruchemist. In addition to this, he has Hemalurgic spikes, filled with an unknown attribute.[12] With a combination of all three Metallic Arts, he was able to Compound all sixteen metals and pull off his most impressive abilities. By Compounding Feruchemical gold and Feruchemical atium, he effectively made himself immortal. However, as he aged, he required more and more stored youth to keep himself alive, and he would have eventually had to resort to other means to retain his immortality. After losing his atium bracers, he aged rapidly and died. Rashek has used his metals enough to become nearly a savant, if not a full savant, in every area.[13]

History

Pre-Ascension

Rashek was part of a growing number of young Terris who had more violent attitudes than was seen as typical of their people. They believed that their Feruchemy should have been put to greater use than it was as a tool for simple labour. Alendi believed Rashek and his fellows to be dangerous, given the opportunity.[2]

Rashek believed that Alendi was not the true Hero of Ages, and was resentful of him.[14] He thought that an outsider -- someone not pure Terris, as well as an oppressor of Terris -- could not be the Hero, and that Alendi had tricked the Terris philosophers.[15][9] He led Alendi to the Well of Ascension and killed him, under instructions from his uncle, Kwaan. He was ignored by Ruin up until the moment he murdered Alendi.[16] He then took and used the power of Preservation, ascending to become the Lord Ruler.

Ascension

As Rashek was using the power of the Well, he changed many aspects of life on Scadrial, in order to save the world from the Deepness. Many of his changes, however, created even more problems that needed to be addressed. He moved the planet closer to its sun in an attempt to burn the mists away. The new orbit was too close to the sun, and he created active volcanoes to produce large amounts of ash and smoke to cool down the world.[17] The climate of ceaseless ashfalls required some mechanism to break down the ash, that the world did not suffocate on it, so Rashek altered the plantlife to be able to survive the ash and created microbes to break it down. However, that was still not enough to save humanity. Rashek altered the physiology of humans on Scadrial to be able to survive the ashfall.[18][19]

Further alterations to the world and humanity were made to secure his rule over the world. The Terris mountains were flattened, and new mountains were raised in the north in order to hide the location of the Well of Ascension.[20] While he had adapted humanity to the ash, he made other changes, creating the nobility and the skaa of the Final Empire with slight alterations to their physiology. The nobility he made taller, stronger and more intelligent, but less fertile. The skaa he made more fertile, shorter and hardier.[21]

He offered his friends a choice to make on behalf of all living Feruchemists, to transform them into mistwraiths. His friends he further transformed into kandra to allow them to retain their minds and their memories. In this process, he failed to account for Feruchemy genes still dormant in the Terris population, an oversight which allowed more Feruchemists to be born into following generations.[22]

Though he had already created the kandra in his Terris friends, he gained much knowledge of the three Metallic Arts in the brief moments he held the power of the Well. With his knowledge of Hemalurgy, he was able to create koloss and Inquisitors. Despite all the knowledge gained from his holding the power of the Well, in a thousand years he was unable to create more than the three Hemalurgic constructs which he had already created.[23][24]

Finally, he rebuilt himself to be a Mistborn, rather than ingesting one of the beads of Lerasium at the Well of Ascension.[25] He was aware of the possibility of life on other planets in the cosmere, but had no interest or experience in leaving Scadrial. If he so wished, he could have left Scadrial during his Ascension.[26]

The Final Empire

The Lord Ruler, by Ben McSweeney

He formed the Final Empire, partly as a means of revenge against the people he viewed as encroaching on Terris land,[27] and conquered the whole of the world. He was obsessed with order, and he subjugated all but ten foreign kings, who he made Mistborn and allowed them to rule over the masses.[28] He made use of both Allomantic and Feruchemical powers in order to Compound to keep himself alive. Rashek was also called Sliver of Infinity by the people of the Final Empire.[29][30][31]

Rashek said his empire lasted a thousand years. More specifically, it had lasted 1024 years. [32]

He has had several children, who had some relation to his attempt to end the Final Empire. His children mixed among the population, and post-Catacendre, he still has living descendants.[33][34][35][36]

As a result of the revelations from the Well of Ascension, Rashek gained a profound understanding of the Deepness, as well as Scadrial's Shards, Ruin and Preservation. This led him to have storage caches constructed throughout the Final Empire, five in total, each containing a large supply of food and basic necessities as well as information about Allomancy and the weaknesses of his Hemalurgic constructs. The text was inscribed on metal plaques to prevent their alteration by Ruin. It is from these storage sites that Vin and Elend learn about electrum, although malatium, aluminum, and duralumin they had already discovered and utilized.

Only a few years before the Well of Ascension was due to refill, Vin kills him using the power of the mists, after his own powerful steel push ripped her Hemalurgic earring free, allowing her to access Preservation's power and use her new found strength to remove his atium bracers. His death leads to the Collapse, and the end of the skaa rebellion.

Quotes

“Let the executions begin. ”

—Rashek, after killing Kelsier.[5]

“My lord, look outside your window! Do we not have better things to discuss? The entire city is in rebellion! Skaa torches light up the night, and they dare go out into the mists. They blaspheme in riots, attacking the keeps of the nobility! ”

—Tevidian arguing against Rashek about the skaa rebels[4]

“God cannot be killed. God cannot be overthrown. Your rebellion—you think I haven't seen its like before? You think I haven't destroyed entire armies on my own? What will it take before you people stop questioning? How many centuries must I prove myself before you idiot skaa see the truth? How many of you must I kill! ”

— Rashek[37]

“You don't know what I do for mankind. I was your god, even if you couldn't see it. By killing me, you have doomed yourselves... ”

—Rashek's final words[37]

“He suffered much beneath Ruin's hand, but he was a good man, who ultimately had honorable intentions. ”

—Sazed on Rashek's corruption by Ruin. A note on the reverse of the flower picture in a book written by Sazed after his ascension.[38]

Trivia

  • If he had joined the Knights Radiant, he would most likely have been in the Order of Skybreakers.[39]
  • He didn't destroy Alendi's logbook because Ruin manipulated his nostalgia in order to keep the book around.[40]
  • Although it wasn't necessary for the process of atium Compounding, Rashek intentionally stayed aged at times in spite of that fact.[41]

Notes

  1. ↑ The Well of Ascension chapter 53 epigraph#
  2. ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 11 epigraph#
  3. ↑ Shadows of Self chapter 3#
  4. ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 36#
  5. ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 34#
  6. ↑ /r/books AMA 2015
    — Arcanum - 2015-08-01#
  7. ↑ The Well of Ascension chapter 46#
  8. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 7 epigraph#
  9. ↑ a b The Well of Ascension chapter 50 epigraph#
  10. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 32 epigraph#
  11. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 26 epigraph#
  12. ↑ Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide
    — Arcanum - 2008-10-15#
  13. ↑ /r/fantasy AMA 2013
    — Arcanum - 2013-04-15#
  14. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 21 epigraph#
  15. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 27 epigraph#
  16. ↑ Hero of Ages Q&A - Time Waster's Guide
    — Arcanum - 2008-10-15#
  17. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 4 epigraph#
  18. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 5 epigraph#
  19. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 15 epigraph#
  20. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 12 epigraph#
  21. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 25 epigraph#
  22. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 68 epigraph#
  23. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 9 epigraph#
  24. ↑ The Hero of Ages chapter 44 epigraph#
  25. ↑ Chris King interview
    — Arcanum - 2013-09-24#
  26. ↑ Goodreads: Ask the Author Q&A
    — Arcanum - 2014-08-13#
  27. ↑ Alloy of Law release party
    — Arcanum - 2011-11-07#
  28. ↑ The Hero of Ages Annotations
    — Arcanum - 2010-02-25#
  29. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 4#
  30. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 8#
  31. ↑ The Final Empire chapter 10#
  32. ↑ Ancient 17S Q&A
    — Arcanum - 2010-05-01#
  33. ↑ Ad Astra 2017
    — Arcanum - 2017-05-05#
  34. ↑ /r/books AMA 2015
    — Arcanum - 2015-06-05#
  35. ↑ Calamity Seattle signing
    — Arcanum - 2016-02-17#
  36. ↑ Bands of Mourning release party
    — Arcanum - 2016-01-25#
  37. ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 38#
  38. ↑ The Hero of Ages epilogue#
  39. ↑ Steel Ministry report
    — Arcanum - 2014-08-20#
  40. ↑ #tweettheauthor 2009
    — Arcanum - 2009-07-08#
  41. ↑ A Memory of Light Raleigh Signing
    — Arcanum - 2013-02-20#
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