User:Thurin/Luthadel
| Thurin/Luthadel | |
|---|---|
| |
| Ruled by | The Lord Ruler |
| Dominance | Central Dominance |
| Nation | Final Empire |
| World | Scadrial |
| Universe | Cosmere |
Luthadel was the capital city of the Final Empire on Scadrial. It was governed by the Lord Ruler for over a thousand years. After the Collapse, Luthadel became the capital city of the New Empire.
“There weren't any other cities like Luthadel.”
—Luthadel[1]
Geography
Topography
//central dominance
Luthadel lies in the middle of the Central Dominance, therefore being in the centre of the Final Empire.[2]
A week journey to Arguois Caverns, and Arguois Caverns closer to Luthadel than Pits of Hathsin.[3]
Imperial highroad: flat and packed earth, leading to Fellise.[4]
Allomantic road between Luthadel and Fellise. Consisted of bars of metal (bronze) that were stuck in the ground, Mistborn could use them to Push and Pull in the air. Made the trip twice as fast as a man on horseback. Fellise a short distance south of Luthadel.[5]
In six months one could travel from one border of the Final Empire to the other. Because Luthadel lies in the middle of the Final Empire, each place in the empire can be reached within three months.[6]
At least two days riding to Valtroux. Two week trip to Arguois caverns/Holstep by canal, sixteen hours running with pewter. To the north.[7]
![[2]](#cite_note-Final_Empire.png-2){kind=link}
TO DO: include information form TFE map.
Climate
//ashRAINS, mist and 'normal' climate
Luthadel is located relatively close to most of the Ashmounts.[2] To prevent the city being buried, skaa workers gather the ash and throw it in the River Channerel. Luthadel's soil contains lots of minerals and metal traces that can be burned when ingested via ground water.[8]([9])
Even Noblemen and thieves reluctant about entering Mists.(culture section maybe?) Ambient starlight diffused by Mists was enough to see most times. Normal plants were brown.[10]
Landscape around Luthadel: barren save for scrub and weeds, reasonably flat with small hills. Sometimes ash from the city was carted and piled out of the city, instead of thrown in the river. Mist is wet. Mistwraiths outside the city, are relatively harmless, just scavengers.[4]
Poisonous red (afternoon) sun.[11]
At night, soft rain made no difference because of mist.[5]
Rain makes the mist pull away.[12]
Luthadel could have heavy rainfalls.[13]
Flora in Central Dominance: usually brown or white, but when cultivated also red, orange and yellow. Wilderness outside the city. "The dry plants, the angry sun, the smoky-black sky". "The sun sank beneath the horizon, and while its light was still a flare in the west, the mists began to appear. They didn’t come from one specific place, they just sort of…grew. They extended like translucent, twisting vines in the sky—curling back and forth, lengthening, dancing, melding".[14]
Landscape: brown hills, scraggly trees and rug of weedy underbrush.[15]
Snow fell some winters, but not each year. Aftermath of ash rain was visible by small drifts and flurries of black blowing across the streets. Ash was surprisingly easy to wash out of clothes.[16]
Birch forests could grow in the Central Dominance. Ground below consisted (partly) of granite.[17]
Mist-grown lichen on stones.[18]
Mist
Mist.([expand]with[9])
Contradictory to earlier: noblemen considered fear of mist to be a foolish skaa superstition.[19]
Ash
"A light ashfall had begun, and careless flakes floated down from the sky, like leaves dropped from some unseen tree."[20]
Layout
//gates and districts (slums, commercial district ...)
The River Channerel runs straight through Luthadel.[21]
Fellise acted as a small suburb-style city an hour outside of Luthadel.[3]
Luthadel had a city wall (was the only city in the Final Empire[citation needed]). Even more suburb-style cities than only Fellise.[4]
The Cracks: one of many skaa slums.[11]
Commercial district was for fortunate skaa and less fortunate nobles, tried to ignore each other. Luthadel had a lot of squares, and the larger ones often had fountains.[22]
A lot of shops at Kenton Street, also/especially for Nobles.[14]
Sootwarrens slum. Every few decades or so, new sections were added, and the city wall expanded due to the effort of skaa labor, thanks to canals stone was cheap.[15]
Steel gate is main city gate (actually multiple gates).[18]
![[21]](#cite_note-Luthadel.png-21){kind=link}
(The Twists: one of the most impoverished skaa slums.[23])
Architecture
Luthadel is a dark city covered and stained by ash. Buildings are darkest at the top, but rainfall carries stains down. It has paved streets.[24]
Most buildings are constructed of stone blocks, with peaked wooden roofs or tile roofs for the rich. The buildings are packed closely together and are generally three stories high. From the outside houses and shops looked the same.[8]
Blackened city, scorched by soot and red sunlight, hard, distinct, oppressive. At night Mist made everything obscure. Metal chimneys.[10]
Only a few buildings, like Clubs's shop, had a flat roof, because flat roof meant having to shovel ash off occasionally.[11](some flat roofs had railings[20])
Luthadel had sewers[5]
Landmarks
Kredik Shaw
By far the largest building in Luthadel, near the center, looms like a massive, multi-spined insect.[8]
Is Lord Ruler's palace.[11]
"The name was Terris; it meant “The Hill of a Thousand Spires.” Appropriate, since the imperial palace resembled a patch of enormous black spears thrust into the ground. Some of the spires twisted, others were straight. Some were thick towers, other were thin and needlelike. They varied in height, but each one was tall. And each one ended in a point."[11]
"Kredik Shaw lay before them. The peaked spires and sheer towers rose like dark talons in the night. They varied greatly in thickness—some were wide enough to house stairwells and large rooms, but others were simply thin rods of steel jutting up into the sky. The variety gave the mass a twisted, off-center symmetry—an almost-balance.
The spikes and towers had a foreboding cast in the damp, misty night—like the ash-blackened bones of a long-weathered carcass. Looking at them, Vin thought she felt something…a depression, as if simply being close to the building was enough to suck away her hope."[12]
"Oddly, the grounds had no outer wall. Of course they don’t. Who would dare attack the Lord Ruler?
Flat space, covered in cobblestones, was all that surrounded the Hill of a Thousand Spires. No tree, foliage, or structure stood to distract one’s eye from the disturbing, asymmetric collection of wings, towers, and spires that was Kredik Shaw."[12]
( Kelsier and Vin infiltrated Kredik Shaw via an ornate, gatelike door to a squat, bunkerlike section of the palace. The Lord Ruler's soothing inside pierced even through copperclouds.[12] RELEVANT ...? )
Keeps
//keep venture, keep hasting, keep erikeller, keep lekal
About a dozen monolithic keeps spread throughout Luthadel. They have spearlike spires or deep archways. Most open grounds in Luthadel are around these keeps.[8]
Ghostly, looming silhouettes at night.[10]
Keep Venture
Defensive wall with normal armed guards, more artistic than fortification, sturdy buttressings, spires, stained-glass windows, bronze or copper sheeting on roof.[10]
Rectangular building. Was illuminated when they gave a ball, mirrors were used to shine light on the keep. Main hall four or five stories high. Limelights were illuminated outside ("somehow, the quicklime stones can be heated to brilliance without melting them"). Stained-glass depicted religious and mythological scenes, for example the Deepness.[25]
Keep Elariel
A bit smaller than Keep Venture, but had a separate party ballroom, all stained-glass windows in the ceiling.[6]
Keep Hasting
Consist of a tall round central keep, surrounded by six auxiliary towers, each set off from the main building a short distance and connected to it by walltop walkways. All seven towers were set with winding, curving patterns of stained glass. Keep Hasting had its ballroom at the top of the wide central tower. It had a skaa-powered pulley platform system to reach the top.[19]
Squares
//Fourwell Crossroads, Ahlstrom Square
Square of the Survivor
Massive square, large enough for tens of thousands of people. Had a platform and four bowl-like fountains[expand]. Executions took place here.[20]
Storage cavern and the Well of Ascension
History
Creation and Early History (0-1022 FE)
Skaa rebellion (1022 FE)
//Notes:
As tension between Great Houses grew, Inquisitors hit more skaa thieving crews than usual, and killed more often instead of capturing them and executing them later.[19]
State of upcoming house war. Skaa army attacked. Luthadel Garrison left the city.[18]
Only two thousand of seven thousand skaa soldiers left.[7]
The majority of the Luthadel garrison stayed out of the city to hunt for rebels. As a result, Luthadel's walls and gates were less guarded.[20]
Skaa soldiers who survived were led to Luthadel in smaller groups, and stayed in hiding there.[20]
Collapse (1022 FE)
Siege of Luthadel (1022-1024 FE)
Battle of Luthadel (1024 FE)
Culture
Legend: Lord Ruler was believed to be the creator, protector and punisher of mankind. He'd saved humanity from the Deepness, and brought ash and mist as punishment for lack of faith.[3]
Skaa are shorter than nobles. Nobles could get allomantic powers, skaa only if they had a noble ancestor somewhere in the last five generations.[17]
"Technically, the Lord Ruler owns the skaa, but the noblemen rent them, and are allowed to kill as many as they want." Skaa aren't people to nobles.[26]
Nobility
Each family that could afford a keep in Luthadel was considered a Great House.[8]
High Nobles, contradictory to everyone else, could afford candles and lamp oil, therefore stay up late at night. Most Great Houses held hazekillers. Some nobles cultivated plants indoors, those were white or ruddy or even slightly yellow instead of usual brown.[10]
A major house war happens every couple of centuries, hadn't been one for a long time before the Collapse. Nobles have an unspoken rule: won't use Mistborn to assassinate each other.[3]
Mistborn were so rare that nobles couldn't afford gender prejudices to them.[9]
Great Houses often had another residence, besides keep in Luthadel, in a suburb-style city like Fellise, having a keep to count as great house doesn't mean having to live there constantly.[4]
During the last days of the Final Empire there were ten Great Houses in Luthadel, in order of importance[27]:
- House Venture
- House Hasting
- House Elariel
- House Tekiel
- House Lekal
- House Erikeller
- House Erikell
- House Haught
- House Urbain
- House Buvidas
Terris stewards/servants.[11]([28])[expand]
Noblemen considered it an insult to use (emotional) Allomancy in formal settings.[22]
"hasn’t been an all-out war among the Great Houses for over a century, but the last one was devastating."[25]
When Great Houses grew nervous, more Allomancers held watch, but noblemen Mistings wouldn't like being forced to guard duty. Many nobility blatantly wore metal, a foolish form of bravado. High taxes for Great Houses. Lord Ruler sees nobles as "the children of his long-dead friends and allies, the men who supposedly helped him defeat the Deepness".[15]
Major noble families generally never had more than three children because they had trouble reproducing. When two noblemen had a dispute, they'd settle it with a duel, not clear if that was a duel to the death though.[17]
When a young nobleman seriously wishes to court a certain lady, he gives her a handkerchief. Nobles wear metal as a symbol of power and pride, but because that makes them vulnerable to Allomancy they often wear wood painted like metal instead. Plantation lords often spent their winters in Luthadel, during the time in between the planting seasons. The Steel Ministry allows nobles to bed any skaa woman they want, but they have to kill her shortly afterwards to prevent the birth of half-breeds, according to Dox this isn't considered as cheating.[26]
Shan Elariel was considered to be the perfect noblewoman. Young nobles often started forming alliances before they succeeded their fathers.[19]
House wars are mainly political, and balls are the political battlefields.[18]
From time to time, the Lord Ruler just let house wars happen.[20]
Balls
Almost every evening one of the noble houses held a ball. At these balls, they don't hide their flaws, but make a statement by displaying them. At these balls dinner was accounted for, also for (Terris) stewards (separately) who came with visiting nobles. String orchestras provided music for dancing couples. Obligators frequently visited these balls too, and officially witnessed agreements (had to pay them[19]). Invitation was needed, but seemingly not hard to get.[25]
"Most of the other women wore colorful dresses; muted colors seemed reserved for men’s suits."[14]
Ladies' food: buttered vegetables, cake. Lords asking a lady to accompany them on a future ball was not uncommon. People only interacted with others of their social standing. More absences on balls as tensions grew, nobles wouldn't visit balls held by their rivals. Also many non-Great Houses visited balls.[6]
Luncheons, sitting parties and other forms of daily entertainment were just as popular as balls.[16]
Middle class
Most nobles weren't rich enough to be considered part of a Great House. Being noble is about lineage, not money.[8]
Lesser nobles could be guard at a noble keep.[10]
Some brothels use women of very poor — but noble — birth.[26]
Skaa
Urban skaa seemed to work less hard than plantation skaa.[29]
Skaa often worked in forges or mills.[8]
Most skaa barely knew anything about Allomancy.[30]
Lots of superstitions about people who walk in Mists, but less worse than plantation skaa. Some knowledge about mistwraiths though.[31]
Only a few most talented skaa were allowed to practice a profession, like Clubs being a carpenter. Clean face on street drew attention. About one million skaa workers in and around Luthadel (also at economy section?).[3]
Most skaa died before Vin's age (16 years[citation needed]).[4]
Skaa also worked in mines, had twelve-hour work days.[11]
Begging was only allowed if one had severe disfigurements.[22]
Tobacco was an expensive luxury.[15]
Skaa could work as ash cleaners.[16]
Many skaa had heard of Allomancy, but only a few knew what it could do, because noble Mistings rarely showed their powers, and skaa halfbreed had to be even more careful.[17]
Most skaa lived in packed tenements.[18]
Underground
To do: include Reen's sayings
Thieve crew's lairs weren't supposed to exist, often in basements beneath buildings, with the cover of a shop or warehouse.[24]
Stealing from Steel Ministry only done when desperate.[8]
Successful crew leader gains wealth for entire crew, by sometimes tempting to kill crew leader and take money. Scavenging and begging is difficult in Luthadel. About 1:10000 Mistings among skaa-halfbreeds, depending on lineage.[30]
2 types of crews: regular ones like Camon's and Theron's (crumbs), and special crews that used Allomancers (extremely skillful, foolhardy and talented). Didn't mix, but Misting crews sometimes hired regular crews for mundane work and choose a representative (twixt). Allomancer crews were often small and specialized and worked together. Larger portion of underground: thieves, crews whores and beggars; other side: rebels.[31]
Kelsier was already most infamous crewleader, a legend, in Luthadel before Hathsin. Robbed from wealthiest Great Houses and brought them to their knees. One had to overcome fear of Mists to get somewhere in the underworld. Mistcloak warns city guard and other Mistborn not to bother you.[10]
Nearly all Mistborn are members of Great Houses, or else minor nobles, only very few half-skaa.[9]
Informants in the underground, better to not use them too much, every question you ask gives them a clue about your motives, got most information from servants.[25]
Practically each Mistborn has atium, but is reluctant to actually use it because it's so expensive.[5]
Regular thieves wouldn't get a couple of weeks to recover, they'd had to get back to work or were abandoned for death.[28]
"oddly, the place closest to the Lord Ruler was also the one with the most corruption, not to mention the most riches."[6]
Hoid spent some time in Luthadel, where he acted as an informant. He'd been around long for an informant, but most informants didn't have a long life as it was a dangerous profession. Even members Great Houses went to informants personally.[15]
Men in the underground often spent months without their family to protect them.([expand]with Ham[18]) Most brothels killed their skaa whores periodically to keep the Inquisitors placated. A decent amount, though by far not all, of skaa workers visited skaa whorehouses.[26]
Skaa in the Central Dominance could travel via the canal underground because noblemen never paid attention to skaa faces.[19]
Politics
The Lord Ruler
Attended executions in black carriage drawn by a pair of massive white stallions.[20]
Steel Ministry
//soothing stations, Cantons
Canton of inquisition has the most threatening reputation, followed by Canton of Orthodoxy, then Canton of Finance and Canton of Resource. Acolytes trained in the north, and got final instructions in Luthadel, secretly taking atium with them[expand][citation needed]. Obligators are trained to recognize emotional allomancy.[8]
Cantons have their headquarters in Luthadel.[3]/[21]
Usually when the Ministry discovered a thieving crew, obligators with their troops went to capture the thieves and made a good show of them on an execution day, only in special cases (often involving Allomancy) Inquisitors went to kill the entire crew direct and left the massacre to be discovered. There were about 20 inquisitors in the Final Empire, half of them in Luthadel. Hanging people with a hook through the head was a ritual killing "reserved for the most reprehensible of sinners: people who misuse Allomancy".[22]
"The Garrison watches the skaa, Vin thought. Apparently, the obligators perform a similar function for the nobility." Obligators, even the lord prelan Tevidian, visited forges to inspect them and their workers.[25]
Obligators seem to be only nobles.[16]
The Canton of Orthodoxy formed the main bureaucratic arm of the Misitry. (Sidenote: obligators had tattoos around their eyes, the higher their rank the more intricate their tattoos) Obligators had to witness every event, written document or agreement, otherwise it wouldn't have happened formally. This was a smart way for the Ministry to know everything about the nobility.[19]
When the Inquisitors kill a Misting, they make certain to wipe out his children too.[18]
Obligators were robed in gray, Inquisitors in black. The higher an obligator's position, the finer their robes. The Lord Prelan was higher ranked than the Inquisitors.[20]
During the New Empire
Economy
//atium
Trade and transport to and from Luthadel often happened using canal boats.[24]
Main export product is metal, hundreds of forges and refineries in Luthadel, even though the River Channerel provides excellent opportunity to mills for grinding grains and making textiles. Bells chime when skaa must get to work in the morning.[8]
Money currency: boxings[30] (, clip smallest coin[9].)
Lord Ruler is dependent upon atium sale for keeping up his army.[31]
Many canal routes in the Final Empire. Narrowboats and barges that needed to get pulled were used. Most noblemen used skaa workers instead of horses for this.[4]
1/10th of all atium mined at Pits of Hathsin was sold to nobles, at exorbitant prices.[11]
One bead of atium is worth more than three thousand boxings.[5]
These canals had towpaths besides them.[17]
Organization
In Luthadel, especially in the slums, there were many soup kitchens. Local skaa earned meal tokens for the time they worked, and in their short break at midday they could spend these tokens for a meal. Local lords/nobles, owners of a local forge or mill, paid these kitchens to avoid the costs of providing on-site meals. The kitchen owners was paid directly, so he saved as much as possible on ingredients, resulting in food as tasty as ashwater.[11]
Luthadel had skaa corpse crews that took care of the disposal of dead bodies.[22]
//ash cleaning should probably be moved here
Condemned men (and women) were sent to the Pits of Hathsin, not clear what the criteria were though.[17]
People, both skaa and nobles, needed permission to pass through Luthadel's gates.[18]
Occasionally, executions took place, often when a thieving crew was captured, or just random skaa (even just women and children) as examples for the entire population. The ringing of bells announced this, and all men in the city, both skaa and noble, were required to attend them, or else the punishment would be death. These took place at the Square of the Survivor, but a lot of skaa stood further away in other streets. Bleachers were set up for the nobility.[20]
Military
"The Lord Ruler and the Steel Ministry could marshal literally millions of troops if the need arose."[15]
No one has ever attacked Luthadel.[20]
Luthadel had a massive wall, but that was unnecessary since the Lord Ruler controlled everything and no army would attack during his reign.[15] It was the only city in the Final Empire that was allowed to have a city wall.[citation needed]
Luthadel Garrison
The Luthadel Garrison held watch in slums where no obligator would want to come.[11]
"The Garrison watches the skaa, Vin thought. Apparently, the obligators perform a similar function for the nobility."[25]
"Besides, it’s not as bad as it looks-the Garrison members just put on an intimidating face. As you can imagine, they aren’t very well liked. Most of the soldiers in there are skaa-men who have, in exchange for a better life, sold out to the Lord Ruler. Whenever there are skaa riots in a city, the local garrison is usually hit pretty hard by malcontents. Hence the fortifications." Garrison mostly recruited people outside mainstream society. They are mercenaries, with all consequences.[18]
Garrison occasionally hired soldiers temporarily. When the garrison was out to hunt rebels, Luthadel's walls and gates were understaffed because only ten percent of the garrison stayed behind.[20]
Kredik Shaw palace guard
Inquisitors
At least nine Inquisitors in Luthadel[20], not much more[22].
Koloss army
Stationed at a moderate distance from Luthadel. Lord Ruler could send for them, but have to be kept away from cities.[3]
Notable Citizens
- The Lord Ruler
- Elend Venture
- ...
Quotes
“Luthadel is the dirtiest, most crowded city in the Final Empire. ”
—Ham[18]
“Luthadel wasn't like most other cities; its population was enormous. ”
—Luthadel[20]
“Luthadel might be exposed, but no one ever attacks Luthadel. No one ever has. ”
—Kelsier[20]
Trivia
- Scadrial's magnetic North Pole follows the Well of Ascension. Because Luthadel is built on top of the Well, all compasses point to Luthadel.[32]
- Luthadel, like Elendel, is named after a person. This person's story will possibly be revealed in an upcoming book.[33]
- Luthadel has roughly two million citizens.[34]
- Isaac Stewart devised Luthadel's eight gates, and named them after the basic metals.[35]
- Nazh has been to Luthadel more than once, he made a map of the city and went back to update it.[21]
See also
Notes
- ↑ The Eleventh Metal#
- ↑ a b Map of Final Empire
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Final Empire chapter 6#
- ↑ a b c d e f The Final Empire chapter 8#
- ↑ a b c d e The Final Empire chapter 13#
- ↑ a b c d The Final Empire chapter 18#
- ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 25#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The Final Empire chapter 2#
- ↑ a b c d e The Final Empire chapter 7#
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Final Empire chapter 5#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The Final Empire chapter 10#
- ↑ a b c d The Final Empire chapter 14#
- ↑ The Final Empire chapter 15#
- ↑ a b c The Final Empire chapter 17#
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Final Empire chapter 19#
- ↑ a b c d The Final Empire chapter 20#
- ↑ a b c d e f The Final Empire chapter 21#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The Final Empire chapter 24#
- ↑ a b c d e f g The Final Empire chapter 23#
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n The Final Empire chapter 26#
- ↑ a b c Map of Luthadel
- ↑ a b c d e f The Final Empire chapter 11#
- ↑ The Final Empire chapter 27#
- ↑ a b c The Final Empire chapter 1#
- ↑ a b c d e f The Final Empire chapter 12#
- ↑ a b c d The Final Empire chapter 22#
- ↑ The Final Empire chapter 9#
- ↑ a b The Final Empire chapter 16#
- ↑ The Final Empire prologue#
- ↑ a b c The Final Empire chapter 3#
- ↑ a b c The Final Empire chapter 4#
- ↑ The Hero of Ages Annotations
— Arcanum - 2010-05-04# - ↑ Firefight signing San Francisco
— Arcanum - 2015-01-17# - ↑ Email to Nepene - Re: Population of the Final Empire
— Arcanum - 2013-02-19# - ↑ Mistborn: The Final Empire Annotations
— Arcanum - 2006-08-18#
