Spook

Spook
by Ben McSweeney
Family Parents Jedal, Margel Relatives Clubs
Born	1007
Abilities	Tineye, Savant, Mistborn, Hemalurgist
Titles	Survivor of the Flames, Lord Mistborn
Aliases	Jedal, Lestibournes
Groups	Kelsier's crew, Venture army
Birthplace	Eastern Dominance
Residence	Luthadel
Ethnicity	Skaa
Homeworld	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

Spook is a skaa Misting on Scadrial. He was a member of Kelsier's crew and worked for Elend Venture after the Collapse. After the Catacendre, he became known as the Lord Mistborn and ruled the Elendel Basin for a hundred years before stepping down.

Appearance and Personality

by clarinking

For more images, see /Gallery.

“Lestibournes. Lefting I'm born.

Street slang for "I’ve been abandoned."

”

—Spook on his full name

In early 1021 FE, as Kelsier's plan to overthrow the Final Empire was getting started, he was fifteen. Spook was initially very shy after joining Kelsier's crew, as he still spoke in Eastern street slang, which made it hard for the rest of the crew to fully understand him.

After the Collapse, he was much more confident. He stopped using his street cant and grew to over six feet tall, barely resembling the gangly boy he was before. On at least one occasion, he wore a beard as a disguise. Around this time he started to show his like for women, almost any type. He didn't get much response, but he liked to flirt a lot.

His confidence was not constant, and he had a feeling of inferiority, of being invisible, dismissible and ignored. After Clubs' death he added to this a sense of guilt for leaving the crew and trying to escape Luthadel while taking Vin and Elend. The greatest consequence for him was to keep burning tin for a year and sensing it all. He had a huge desire to feel useful and being recognized for it.

Attributes and Abilities

“Tin burning ... Notting about the seeing. Wasing about the not seeing. ”

—Spook to Vin giving advice on burning Tin

Spook's grandfather had noble blood; it is likely this was his maternal grandfather as his mother's brother was also an Allomancer. As a result, Spook is a Tineye. He is the best one on Kelsier's crew, and so usually gets the most important watches. After Clubs' death, he begins constantly flaring his tin because he thinks it will make him more useful, turning himself into a tin savant. As a result of this, he can feel disturbances in the air, sense tremors in the floor, and could know where people were simply by how close their heartbeats sounded. However, it also leaves him very vulnerable to sudden and strong stimuli, and he often keeps his ears partially plugged and his eyes covered.

While working in Urteau, Spook gets stabbed with a Hemalurgic spike that turns him into a Pewterarm. He later rips the spike out after realizing it leaves him open to Ruin's influence.

During the Final Ascension, Kelsier convinces Sazed to turn Spook into a Mistborn, though Sazed only makes him a regular-strength Mistborn, not a lerasium-empowered one. After that Catacendre, Kelsier's Cognitive Shadow visits him and convinces him to start studying Hemalurgy.

History

Childhood

Named Jedal after his father, Spook was born and raised in the Eastern Lands, wastelands of grit and sand. His mother, Margel, allowed him to run around with some of the street gangs, from whom he learned Eastern street slang.

At age five, Spook Snapped into a Tineye; he got his noble blood from his grandfather, who he never knew. After his family found out about his Allomancy, his father tried to kill him so that the Steel Ministry wouldn't kill the family for having noble blood. Margel, however, had known about Spook's Allomancy for some time, and had sent word to her brother Cladent, who knew having another Tineye would be useful. He arrived before Jedal could kill Spook and took traded coins in return for Spook, promising to take the young boy back to Luthadel. When Cladent asked for his name, Spook decided he no longer wanted to go by the same name as his father, and told him it was Lestibournes, an Eastern street slang contraction of "lefting I'm born," which means "I've been abandoned." Kelsier would later re-name him "Spook", something that would mean a connection later on.

Kelsier's Crew

During his time on Kelsier's crew, Spook was mainly involved as a sentry of key locations; watching the area around Clubs' shop from a six-story tenement two streets over. He participated in the crew's planning sessions, but rarely contributed to them other than serving drinks or getting things.

After the crew thought Marsh had been captured by the Ministry, they sent Spook with the House Renoux canal procession that left Luthadel, as he was their best Tineye. The Steel Inquisitors, however, had just tracked Vin to her Valette Renoux alias, and attacked the caravan to try to find her. When they didn't find her in the convoy, the brought Spook, OreSeur, and the Renoux servants back to Luthadel, ostensibly to be executed, but actually as a trap for Kelsier. Kelsier fell right into the trap and attacked the prison cart guards as they passed by. With help from Hammond, some skaa rebels, and the rest of the crew, he managed to rescue Spook and the rest of the prisoners, before being killed by the Lord Ruler. After that, during the Collapse, Dockson sent him to fetch some of Clubs' apprentices to run messages.

Siege of Luthadel

During the Siege of Luthadel he was rarely given any important tasks. When Tindwyl caught him with nothing to do, she enlisted him to serve as a "packman" for Vin and Allrianne's dress-shopping trip; he also occasionally worked as a coachman or honor guard to Elend or went on a spying mission. As the situation grew desperate, however, and the crew planned to send Vin and Elend out of the city to survive the Battle of Luthadel, they enlisted Spook to be their guide. Spook agreed, and lead them away to the Terris mountains, where Sazed said they would find the Well of Ascension. Vin and Elend eventually realize that they have been tricked, and Vin raced ahead to Luthadel in time to save the city. Spook returned with Elend a few days later, and used his tin to enhance his eyes and inform Elend that his flag still flew from the city gates, indicating that it has not been conquered.

Urteau

by Elisgardor

Spook covering his eyes with a blindfold

Elend and Vin sent him to Urteau to gather as much information as he could about the Citizen and his government there. He was very good at sneaking into the Citizen’s house, where he went not only to listen to important information of the city and confirming Quellion’s (the Citizen) ideology and concerns on Elend as a tyrant; but to watch his sister Beldre. Spook liked her for her beauty and her sadness.

During this time, and due to the excess use of his powers, he became so sensitive to light that he had to wear a blindfold; however his other sharpened senses were able to make up for the inconvenience.

He scouted the city and understood the mood of the people. He was horrified with the killings of not only nobles but their descendants and all other inhuman practices in the City. Spook hired a thief lord Durn who helped him get some news from the City, he took him to the execution of ten skaa with noble blood but asked him to count the skulls.

During the speech after the execution, Spook got infuriated and when he got close to Beldre he spoke to her, first asking if she agreed with the executions, later letting her know he was the man who would kill his brother. He was so into the conversation he failed to notice he was exposed and Quellion´s men went after him. He understood they were Allomancers when they used their power and he lost the fight.

During the fight, Spook was stabbed with a sword that also pierced a pewterarm. The tip of the sword became a Hemalurgic spike and granted him the ability to burn pewter. The spike also gave Ruin access to Spook's mind using Kelsier´s voice. So when he woke up from the lost fight inside the burning building and heard Kelsier asking him to move on, find vials and burn pewter. He obeys finding his new ability (which he doesn’t recognize as Hemalurgy) and thus trusting the voice in his head convinced it was the real Kelsier.

Spook received Breeze, Allrianne and Sazed into the city and helped them hide providing them with information. He showed them the cave where the Lord Ruler’s cache was and suggested it as their base. He tried to talk to Sazed about Kelsier’s voice but with Sazed doubting his beliefs, Spook didn’t fully confide and just trusted they were being protected by the Survivor.

Ever since his unexpected survival from the flames, Spook had heard people gossiping of him and that he was part of Kelsier’s crew and that Durn was behind these gossips. He eventually decided to confront him and found that Durn had been plotting against Quellion and had used the event to make him look bad. He decides to trust him and asks him to find Breeze. On his way out, a man approached him and asked to save his seven-year-old sister from the Citizen. Spook realized he is now in a better position to make a difference and decided to help. He asked in return for ten men to help him dig the skulls from the fire where the Citizen had burned the prisoners days before. He found only nine skulls and understood Quellion was taking the Allomancers.

He bribed people to find the place where the executions would take place. It was another noble building and he understood they were built with passages which Quellion used to take the Allomancers out. He went in to save the people and under Ruin’s influence killed the soldiers. One of them though took the child as a hostage, causing Spook to ask the leaving prisoners to lock him down. Though he was able to beat the remaining soldier, even with Pewter he was unable to open the door. Thus, he had to jump out of the building, still in flames with the child in his arms. Breeze and his other friends were there and caused a riot to help him escape.

He convinced Sazed to reverse engineer the lake built by the Lord Ruler so he could bring a miracle into the city. Along with him surviving the flames, he expected to outcast Quellion and cause the people to rebel against him.

Because he liked Beldre, he went to see her again, asked her to join him, but she refused and started screaming. Later, she went to their hiding place and spoke on her brother’s behalf. Under Ruin’s influence with Kelsier’s voice, Spook took her captive spreading the rumor she had escaped her brother. He expected Quellion to attack. Spook and Beldre had another conversation later, where she confirmed her brother used to be a good man corrupted by power and Spook is bothered by the conversation, still with the encouragement of Ruin, he accepted the title of Survivor of the Flames and was happy with the attention.

“We won’t abandon the city, Sazed.”

—Spook to Sazed in the battle of Urteau

The city was ready for a revolt, Quellion was about to do a hate speech against Spook. The latter killed the Citizen’s guards and fought him, looking for him to shoot coins and prove himself an Allomancer to complete the city’s hatred. Beldre got there and shoots Spook to save her brother. The City riots as they understood what she is and that their ruler had killed their noble blood family but not his sister. Spook felt betrayed and Kelsier’s voice pushed him to kill her and use her spike to get her power. The hate speech from Kelsier and the spike information helped him understand it was the spike at the first fire that had caused all this. Looking at Quellion, he correctly guessed he was being affected too. He took out Quellion's spike first and then his. He lost Pewter and was almost out of breath. He saw the city in flames and waited for the water to flood the city. Beldre confirmed she had killed the soldiers to escape and there was no one to flood the city. They went back along with Sazed and find the building in flames, they were about to return defeated when he heard Kelsier’s real voice, who said he had chosen him as his friend. Spook went into the burning building and as he had no more strength, he just threw his weight to the machine to get it moving and collapsed.

After Spook saved the city from destruction, while he was in a coma, Kelsier was able to communicate with him. He gave encouragement and praise, but mostly explained Vin had a spike and was hearing Ruin. Spook then wrote a message on a metal sheet saying "Don't trust anyone pierced by metal. Even the smallest bit can taint a man." Goradel offered to take it to Vin, but was intercepted and killed by Marsh, who was under Ruin's control. However, just as Kelsier had intended all along, the note allowed Marsh to figure out that Vin's earring was a spike and resist Ruin's control for long enough to rip the earring out.

The Final Ascension and Aftermath

After the Final Ascension, Spook woke to the new world created by Sazed, and found the bodies of Vin and Elend, along with the Words of Founding. Sazed also left a special note for him, telling Spook that he had tried to bring Vin and Elend back, but couldn't. It explained that he had healed the damage Spook had done to himself by flaring tin and had made Spook a Mistborn, and hinting at the existence of more Allomantic metals.

Shortly after the Catacendre, Spook began receiving instruction on how to be a king from Breeze and combat training with Ham. The other survivors insisted he have a nicer a log house with two stories, which he thought of as a mansion and made him uncomfortable since everyone else has so little. Beldre also lived in that house with him. Spook was also something of a "stud" after the Final Ascension having over a dozen children.

“And you? What do you get from this?”

—Spook to Kelsier on working together to better understand the Metallic Arts

Kelsier found a way to contact Spook in a dream and told him to forge an old Inquisitor spike into an earring. Spook managed to find a smith willing to do so and, against his better judgment, placed it on his ear. After that, he was able to see Kelsier because, between his broken mind and the Hemalurgic spike, he was able to see far enough into the Cognitive Realm. Kelsier then convinced him that their ignorance of the cosmere has almost resulted in the destruction of Scadrial and that they needed to work together to learn about the principles of the cosmere. Kelsier also implied that they could try to find a way to give Spook Feruchemy, and thus the same powers the Lord Ruler had through Compounding, and that he wanted to find a way to return to the Physical Realm. Likely as a result of these investigations, Spook wrote a book on Hemalurgy and was later known for having asked whether Harmony had a God Metal.

According to Steris, Spook ruled as an emperor for a century before stepping down from power, after which Elendel was no longer supposed to exercise direct authority over the rest of the Elendel Basin. As a ruler, he built buildings for the poor trying to avoid the development of slums and enacted laws to give power to the common people like Elend wanted. He also exerted a personal influence on society; his Eastern street slang became known as High Imperial and was used for official documents. It appears he did not enjoy all of the duties associated with kingship, as he had Breeze write most of his speeches for him. By 341 PC, his abilities as a Mistborn had transformed him into a near-mythological figure and he was known as the "Lord Mistborn."

Relationships

Kelsier

Spook had a particular relationship with Kelsier. The latter named him Spook and gave him a spot in his Crew. It was more than a favor to Clubs which is shown by Kelsier’s interest in talking with him on his native language and giving him moral support. After Kelsier’s death, much of Spook's efforts were to become someone that he would have been proud of to the point where Ruin used this connection to impersonate Kelsier's voice in Spook’s mind.

After his death, Kelsier continued to follow Spook. In Uretau, when he almost lost himself to anger and Ruin, Keliser sends him "Hope" messages which might have helped him get understanding and taking out his spike. Spook's exhaustion knocked him out and Keliser held him with Preservation's power, encouraging him, and when Spook doubted his connection to Kelser he reminded Spook on who had named him. He saw Spook react at this and then, save the city. He also interceded for him with Sazed, asking him to fix Spook's body and make him a Mistborn.

Vin

Vin liked Spook, though she considered him strange and young. Sensing her kindness, he gave her a pink handkerchief as the traditional gift a young man gives a lady that he wishes to seriously court, though she was not interested. After that, Spook was uncomfortable with Vin’s presence until they had a quick chat and she confessed she would always love Elend; he understood and even gave her good advice on using tin.

Elend

Elend and Spook had a cautious relationship in the beginning as the former could sense the latter liked Vin, but they continue to grow fond of each other as they spend more and more time together. Elend later reinforces to Spook that he is not being dismissed and he is valued for his skills of scout and Tineye.

Sazed

“Faith... It means that there will always be a way ”

—Spook to Sazed on worrying if they fail

Spook and Sazed became closer during their time at Urteau. As Sazed became more depressed, Spook took over the leadership of the crew. Sazed, even though he suspected he was getting mistborn powers like burning pewter, grew to respect him more and more. Spooked seeked Sazed’s support with religion during the time he thought he could hear Kelsier Sazed on the other hand was inspired by Spook to find his faith back.

Trivia

• Spook is very loosely based on a person Brandon knew from the Timewasters Guide forums. Zack, known as Gemm on the forums, sometimes posted random gibberish that, if looked at very closely, turned out to actually be rather poetic. This inspired Brandon to write a character who spoke with a dialect that had an interesting rhythm, yet was difficult to make out.

Notes

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