Mistborn – Basic Information & Book Summaries

Mistborn is a fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson. It is one of the core series in his Cosmere, an interconnected narrative universe in which the majority of his published works take place. Below, you’ll find a spoiler-free (as possible) summary of the series and what it’s about, plus recaps that are spoiler-y summaries for people who already read the series and want a refesher. We’ll also go over the setting, magic, and characters.

This is a living document, and will be updated regularly as more Cosmere content is released. If you have any questions or suggestions, please drop us a line in the comments at the bottom of the page! If you’re looking for something specific, hit the Contents button to more easily navigate the article.

Summary – What is Mistborn About?

As spoiler-free as we can manage, while still having it be useful.

Mistborn is a fantasy series set on the planet Scadrial, during the time of the Final Empire. Ash covers the land, This empire is controlled by the powerful Lord Ruler, who is worshiped as a god. The Lord Ruler has maintained the status quo for a thousand years, with both societal and technological progress nonexistent; the nobles live in luxury, while the skaa remain destitute and suffering. A young orphan skaa named Vin joins a crew of thieves looking to change all that, and its leader Kelsier helps her discovers the special strengths she never knew she had inside of her.

That’s only really a summary of the first series, but the summary of the second series will give away what happens in the first series! You should really start with Era 1. The rest of this article contains spoilers for the Mistborn series.

Books

The Mistborn series currently is a trilogy and a tetralogy, with some extra novellas and stories set in each era.

Era 1

[0.5] The Eleventh Metal
[1] The Final Empire
[2] The Well of Ascension
[3] The Hero of Ages
[3.5] Secret History

Era 2

[4] The Alloy of Law
[4.x] Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania
[5] Shadows of Self
[6] The Bands of Mourning
[7] The Lost Metal

There are at least two more trilogies planned, with a possible third trilogy that would be set between the two confirmed trilogies.

Era 3 (confirmed) – 1980s equivalent technology, the start of the computer age on Scadrial
Era 4 (possible) – Cyberpunk setting
Era 4 or 5 (confirmed) – Space-age setting with faster-than-light travel

Book Summaries

The following summaries contain major spoilers, and are meant as a refresher for people who have already read the books. They are as short as they can be while containing all of the most relevant plot points. Some subplots are left out, except where they directly affect the main narrative.

Kelsier, who has only recently discovered his Mistborn powers, is studying under fellow Mistborn Gemmel. They break into Keep Shezler, and Kelsier battles Lord Shezler, who is also a Mistborn. Kelsier eventually kills Shezler. He and Gemmel free skaa slaves that were being experimented on, and find Shezler’s notes on the mysterious Eleventh Metal. Upset by what they’ve found, and generally upset about the treatment of the skaa, Kelsier begins planning to overthrow the Lord Ruler.

Orphan Vin lives in the capital, Luthadel. She is part of a thieving crew who take advantage of her “luck”, which is actually her instinctively using her Mistborn powers (that she is unaware of) to influence people’s emotions. A failed scam almost leads to the crew being caught by the Steel Ministry, but Kelsier’s and his own crew saves them. Kelsier adopts Vin into his crew, and reveals to her that she is a Mistborn like him. He begins training her.

Kelsier’s crew is plotting to overthrow the Lord Ruler. Vin’s part in the scheme involves infiltrating noble parties to gain information and spread disinformation. The rest of the crew gathers and trains a skaa army, while also spreading rumors that Kelsier will be able to use the Eleventh Metal to defeat the Lord Ruler — encouraging them to revolt when the time is right.

Vin struggles with trusting Kelsier and the rest of the crew — she often hears her dead brother Reen’s voice in her head telling her she’s being stupid and that she has to look out for herself and no one else. However, the crew’s behavior slowly convinces Vin that it’s OK to let her guard down.

The plan gets a major setback when the skaa army attacks a nearby garrison and is almost completely wiped out. The crew wants to give up, but Kelsier refuses, and the crew suspect that he hasn’t told them the whole plan. Vin’s rumors are working — the noble houses are forming alliances out of fear of conflict. Additionally, Kelsier destroys this pits of Hathsin, which produce the Atium that the Lord Ruler relies on to keep the nobles in line. A war between the noble houses begins.

The crew learns some prisoners — including a member of the crew (Spook) — are being brought to the square to be executed. The crew brings rebel soldiers to attack the prisoner carts, and Kelsier dies fighting the Lord Ruler. Later, a Kandra wearing Kelsier’s bones appears to people — this was Kelsier’s plan all along, to die and become an immortal symbol for the rebellion. He gives Vin the Eleventh Metal before he died, admitting he hasn’t figured out how to use it.

Vin goes to the Lord Ruler’s palace, Kredik Shaw, in a final attempt to gain some advantage over the Lord Ruler — there’s a secret room they discovered in an earlier mission, and she hopes she can discover something there. The Lord Ruler confronts her, and she burns the Eleventh Metal, which shows her another version of The Lord Ruler, in which he is a Terris packman. She is captured, but Sazed frees her. She finds the Lord Ruler again, and with the knowledge gained by the Eleventh Metal, recognizes he’s Terris, and that she needs to remove his metalminds. The Lord Ruler pushes her earring out, and she is able to draw power from the mists. She uses this power to pull off the Lord Ruler’s metalminds, causing him to age rapidly — Vin kills him soon after.

Elend Venture has taken control of Luthadel, supported by Vin and the rest of the crew. Vin and Elend have begun living together. The living conditions in the city are not good, and only get worse once three separate armies arrive and lay siege to Luthadel. Straff Venture’s army arrives first, followed by Cett’s army — Breeze has tricked the man into also sieging the city, in a desperate attempt to stall Straff. Later, an army of koloss led by Jastes Lekal also appears outside the walls.

Sazed wanders the countryside, teaching the skaa useful skills. He meets up with Marsh, and together they discover ancient messages carved in metal, inside an abandoned Inquisitor base. He decides to return to Luthadel to translate the text, feeling it must be important. On his journey, Sazed hears stories of the mists coming during the day, and people dying from them.

Elend struggles to maintain control of the city council, as the skaa, nobleman, and merchants argue over what should be done about the armies — most want to surrender to either Straff or Cett. Elend is eventually deposed, with a new king being chosen. Vin works to protect Elend, and meets Zane, another Mistborn and Elend’s half brother. She hears a mysterious thumping in the distance that she feels is important.

Zane convinces Vin to attack Cett’s stronghold in the city (he has been let inside by the council), and she destroys his forces. Zane tries to then convince Vin to leave Luthadel with him, but she refuses and they fight. He reveals that the kandra OreSeur was actually his kandra, TenSoon. Vin uses allomancy — and TenSoon’s loyalty to her — to force him to help her kill Zane.

Vin and Sazed work together to discover the location of the Well of Ascension, which Vin believes she is destined to release as the Hero of Ages. They believe the Well is in the Terris lands to the north, but after leaving the city, Vin realizes the thumping has grown fainter, and that the power must actually be in Luthadel. They return to Luthadel as the city is being attacked.

Jastes loses control of his koloss army, and they attack the city. Vin arrives just in time, and is able to control them the same way she controlled TenSoon. Cett returns to Luthadel to help thanks to his daughter’s influence, and Straff shows up soon after — but Vin kills him and forces both armies to swear their loyalty to Elend as emperor.

Elend and Vin find the Well of Ascension hidden deep within Kredik Shaw. A mist spirit there convinces Sazed to stop Vin from releasing the power, but Marsh prevents Sazed from entering the room with the Well. The Mist Spirit stabs Elend, and Vin enters the Well. A voice in her head convinces her to give up the power as the prophecies foretold (instead of using it to heal Elend). She does as the voice says, releasing the power and freeing Ruin. The mist spirit helps Vin give Elend a bead of lerasium, making him a Mistborn and allowing him to heal via pewter. Sazed discovers that Ruin had altered the prophecy in order to trick Vin into release Ruin.

After being freed from the Well of Ascension, Ruin does ruin things, causing earthquakes and making even more ash than usual fall from the sky. Koloss and Inquisitors are loosed across the planet, and kill wantonly under Ruin’s influence — although Vin and Elend are able to control groups of koloss when near enough. The mists are appearing more and more during the day, and many people die if they go out in the day mists.

Vin and Elend travel in search of the Lord Ruler’s Atium stash, as well as the storage caches he hid in case Ruin was freed. They then attempt to retake Fadrex City from king Yomen, bringing an army of Koloss, with them but Vin is captured while attempting to reach the city’s storage cache. Ruin takes control of Elend’s koloss, forcing him and his human army to ally with Yomen and take shelter in Fadrex City.

TenSoon attempts to convince the kandra to help fight Ruin, but they imprison him instead. They later give him wolfhound bones in an attempt to demean him, but his familiarity with the bones (thanks to his time as a wolfhound previously) allows him to escape.

Sazed, Spook, and Breeze work to bring the rebel city of Urteau back under imperial control. They have to contend with Quellion, a leader called “The Citizen”, who was installed by the skaa after Straff left the city. He was at some point spiked by Ruin, allowing the Shard to influence him. Sazed and his companions attempt to negotiate with Quellion, but this fails. Spook ends up spiked as well, but manages to remove both his spike and the Citizen’s during a riot. The city is almost lost to a fire, but Sazed’s plan to reopen the canals saves the city.

Vin escapes Fadrex city and goes to Luthadel, after saying out loud to Elend that she is going to get the Atium — attempting to trick Ruin into following her there with his minions. She succeeds, and battles the Lord Ruler’s Inquisitors. She is defeated, and Marsh is forced by Ruin to torture Vin. He momentarily regains control and removes Vin’s earring, allowing her to draw in the mists — all of the mists — she then easily defeats the Inquisitors and removes one of Marsh’s spikes.

Vin has taken up the shard of Preservation, and encounters Ruin as a fellow Shard. She tries to use her new powers to stop Ruin from destroying the planet, but he counters her. Elend dies fighting koloss and Vin sacrifices herself to kill Ruin, leaving both Shards without a Vessel. Sazed, the true Hero of Ages, picks up both Shards, becoming Harmony. He heals the planet, returning it to its pre-Lord Ruler state, in an event known as the Catecandre.

After being killed by the Lord Ruler, Kelsier arrives in the Cognitive Realm before his spirit passes on to the Spiritual Realm, AKA The Beyond. He meets Preservation, decides he isn’t ready to die yet, and refuses to let his spirit go to the Beyond. Preservation accidentally reveals that Kelsier can anchor his Cognitive Shadow to the Well of Ascension and avoid passing on. Kelsier finds the well, but then discovers he’s trapped within it.

While in the Well of Ascension, Kelsier is able to ride the pulses of power that emanate from the well — while riding the pulses, he can sense things in the world. He encounters Ruin, who is also trapped in the well. He discovers that Ruin is plotting to destroy the world, and resolves to work against Ruin. Kelsier plans to make sure Vin takes the power at the well, in order to prevent Ruin’s escape

Preservation sends Kelsier across the ocean, and there he manages to steal a device from a group called the Ire that allows the user to take up the power of a Shard. He uses the device to take up the power of Preservation as its current Vessel dies. He cannot defeat Ruin, but manages to get a message intercepted by Marsh that lets his brother know about how Ruin controls people with spikes — Marsh manages to regain control of himself long enough to rip out Vin’s earring, allowing her to take up the Shard of Preservation.

Kelsier refuses to die yet again, and remains a Cognitive Shadow after Vin takes up the shard. After Spook becomes a Mistborn, Kelsier is able to communicate with him; Kelsier plans to have Spook assist him in returning to the Cognitive Realm via Hemalurgy.

Waxillium Ladrian is a lawman in the Roughs, the generally lawless area outside the capital, Elendel. He is also a Twinborn — someone with both an allomantic and a feruchemic power. In Wax’s case, the ability to push on metal and to store/tap weight. Despite disliking life in the city, he is forced to return to Elendel after his uncle dies, making Wax the lord of House Ladrian. The house is close to financial collapse, and so Wax enters an agreement to marry Steris Harms, whose family has wealth but lacks the influence of the ancient Ladrian name.

Friend and fellow lawman/Twinborn Wayne arrives in Elendel and tells Wax he’s been tracking the Vanishers, a criminal group that have been robbing trains and kidnapping women. Soon after, Wax and Steris attend a party, where they meet Steris’ cousin Marasi. Wayne is also present at the party in disguise. The Vanishers attack the party, kidnapping multiple women, including Steris. Lord Harms asks Wax to go after Steris, and he agrees — Wax had been looking for an excuse to pick up his guns again anyway.

Wax and Marasi realize the Vanishers are kidnapping women in order to breed Allomancers, and Wax’s butler attempts to assassinate him shortly after Wayne arrives. The resulting explosion allows the group to fake their deaths while they continue investigating the Vanishers. They discover the Vanisher hideout, and learn that Miles Hundredlives is likely the group’s leader. Miles attacks Wax on a train, almost killing him. After escaping, Wax, Wayne, and Marasi hide out with Ranette.

Wax correctly predicts where the Vanishers will strike next — a new train designed to be impossible to rob — and sneaks onboard. Wayne and Marasi observe from a distance to learn how the Vanishers pull off the train heists. Wax ends up being taken to the Vanisher hideout inside the stolen train car, with Wayne and Marasi in pursuit. After a battle, Steris is rescued and Miles is captured — and later executed.

Wax finds his uncle, is alive and acting as the mysterious Suit, part of the group known as the Set — he is also the man that the Vanishers were working for. Marasi meets Ironeyes (Marsh), who gives her a book that Harmony hopes will be helpful to Wax.

Jak is searching for the Survivor’s treasure when he is captured by koloss. The koloss want to make him a koloss, but Jak instead “proves” he’s a koloss by retrieving the Survivor’s treasure from the bottom of a pool. The chest he finds at the bottom of the pool contains koloss spikes, which they can use to make more koloss.

A year has passed since the events of Alloy of Law, and Wax now works as a lawman for the city, along with Wayne and Marasi. They are then sent to investigate the murder of the governor’s brother, who appears to have been killed by a feruchemist. Issues in Elendel with unemployment and inflation are causing public turmoil, exacerbated by a rogue kandra known as Bleeder — Harmony asks Wax to find the kandra. Someone attempts to assassinate the governor soon afterwards.

Wax and co attend a party where they expect Bleeder to strike, and almost capture her. As Wax pursues Bleeder, she tells Wax that her goal is to free the people of Elendel from Harmony’s influence. Bleeder leads Wax into a Set ambush, but he is rescued by Melaan, a kandra sent by Harmony.

Bleeder continues to cause chaos in the city, staging public murders and eventually impersonating the governor himself. Wax discovers the disguise and again chases Bleeder, and she reveals that she was actually Lessie, the woman he loved who he thought had died. He shoots her with a bullet that acts as a spike, to allow Harmony to control her again — Lessie kills herself rather than be controlled by Harmony.

MeLaan, posing as the governor, is arrested by Constable-General Aradel, who promises an end to the corruption — this action calms the crowd, and Aradel implements marshal law.

Six months have passed since the events of the previous book. Wax and Steris are getting married when a water tower falls on the church, interrupting the ceremony. Wayne caused the accident, as he knows Wax is still grieving Lessie and isn’t ready for marriage.

Two kandra, MeLaan and VenDell, request Marasi’s help in recovering the spike of a third kandra, ReLuur, who was searching for the Bands of Mourning. Wax agrees to help in the hopes the expedition will allow him to find his kidnapped sister. They head to New Seran, which is the last known location of ReLuur. Along the way, a gang attacks the train — Wax believes it is a distraction sent by his uncle Suit to throw them off the trail.

In New Seran, Wax, Steris, and MeLaan attend the party of Kelesina Shores, who turns out to be working with Suit. Her steward kills her and frames Wax for the murder. Wayne and Marasi track down a member of the Set, and from him discover that ReLuur’s spike has been sent to Dulsing.

On the way to Dulsing, the group encounters a roadblock, and proceed around it on foot. They find a large building under construction, guarded by soldiers. They sneak inside and find a large damaged airship; Wax and Wayne look for Mr. Suit while Marasi and MeLaan search for the spike. Wax finds his sister, Marasi finds a masked Malwish man, Alik, and MeLaan recovers the spike. The group escapes in in Malwish ship, which Alik can fly thanks to Wax’s Steelpush.

Wax and the others fly to the Sovereign’s temple, where they believe the Bands of Mourning are, and where Suit is headed. They beat Suit there, but cannot find the bands. The Set arrives, and Telsin reveals that she’s part of the Set and shoots Wax — he flees, and everyone else it taken prisoner. Wax dies, but Harmony allows him to return to life. Marasi discovers that the spearhead on the statue at the front of the temple is the actual metalmind known as the Bands of Mourning — she grabs it and gives them to Wax, who uses them to capture Suit. Telsin escapes, however.

The Malwish agree to let the kandra, as agents of Harmony, take stewardship of the Bands of Mourning, and to begin trading with Elendel. At the end of the book, a mysterious creature with red eyes visits Suit in his cell, hints at ending all life on Scadrial, and blows himself (and Suit) up. Wax discovers the strange coin he recieved earlier is a metalmind that contains The Sovereign’s (Kelsier) memories.

Six years have passed since the events of The Bands of Mourning. Steris and Wax are married, and have two children. Wax is a senator, Marasi is a detective, and Wayne works under her as a constable. Wax and Steris are both working to stabilize the tense relations between Elendel Basin and the Malwish to the south, as well as Elendel’s uncomfortable relationship with the outlying cities of the Basin.

During a raid on a Set base with Wayne, Marasi encounters a Cycle (a mid-level Set officer) who Trell (an avatar of the Shard Autonomy) has bestowed power upon. He has red eyes and incredible healing powers, but she manages to kill him by removing one of his spikes. She discovers a trellium spike in him, along with three others — which should make him controllable by Harmony (but the trellium prevents that). Her and Wayne discover evidence that the Set is testing how to best smuggle things into Elendel.

Wax experiments on the trellium Marasi found, attempting to split it by combining it with harmonium. This causes a massive explosion; the group suspects that the Set likely already has this information, and are probably planning to use it. Wax and Steris find a lead on likely bomb tests in Bilming’s still unfinished subway system. They realize the Set’s plan is to smuggle a bomb into Elendel.

Harmony reveals to Wax that Autonomy, as Trell, has blinded him, and is trying to take over Scadrial. Telsin will become an avatar of Trell if she successfully captures the planet for Autonomy. Harmony also confirms that the Set’s plan is to smuggle the bomb into the city. Marasi and Wayne conduct a sting on the Set in Bilming, and Wax arrives just in time to save them from an ambush.

Marasi connects with the secret organization known as the Ghostbloods, who are led by Kelsier. With them, she infiltrates the main Set hideout and prevents Trell’s forces from coming through a portal. Wax and Wayne discover that the bomb isn’t in the Set base, but is instead on a ship that’s heading to Elendel. Wayne sacrifices himself in order to contain the explosion, and Telsin dies after Autonomy takes back their power.

Characters

Unlike the other “main” Cosmere series, Stormlight Archive, there are far fewer points of view in Mistborn. However, there are still secondary characters that get their own point-of-view chapters.

Main Characters

Era 1

Vin is the main character across all three books. Each book also has a few other characters whose perspective we switch to quite often: Kelsier in The Final Empire; Elend and Sazed in Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages; Spook and TenSoon in Hero of Ages.

Vin – 131 chapters
Elend – 70 chapters
Sazed – 55 Chapters
Kelsier – 24 Chapters (plus 27 chapters in Secret History and Eleventh Metal)
Spook – 14 Chapters
TenSoon – 13 Chapters

Era 2

Once again, there is one true main character — Wax. Marasi and Wayne both get lots of chapters as well, however, with Marasi in particular getting more POV chapters as the series progresses. Steris also plays a larger role in the final book of Era 2.

Wax – 131 chapters
Marasi – 85 chapters
Wayne – 45 Chapters
Steris – 12 Chapters

Other Characters

Minor characters get more POVs in Era 1 than Era 2, generally speaking, but in both there are a handful of chapters from other characters.

Era 1

Breeze – 9 Chapters
Marsh – 9 Chapters
Straff – 9 Chapters
Zane – 5 Chapters
Cett – 2 Chapters
Dockson – 2 Chapters
Human – 2 Chapters
Wellen – 2 Chapters
Allrianne – 1 Chapter
Fatren – 1 Chapter
Mennis – 1 Chapter
Philen – 1 Chapter
Tresting – 1 Chapter
Walin – 1 Chapter

Era 2

Miles – 3 Chapters
Edwarn – 2 Chapters
MeLaan – 2 Chapters
Telsin – 2 Chapters
Allriandre – 1 Chapter
Irich – 1 Chapter
Jordis – 1 Chapter
Kelsier – 1 Chapter
Migs – 1 Chapter
Prasanva – 1 Chapter
Ranette – 1 Chapter
Templeton – 1 Chapter
Wellid – 1 Chapter
Winsting – 1 Chapter

Setting

The Mistborn series takes place in the Scadrian system, on the planet of Scadrial. The planet has undergone dramatic changes due to the Shardic power present on the planet. In the events before Era 1, the Lord Ruler moved the planet too close to the sun, then created volcanoes that spewed ash to block out the now-dangerous sunlight. He also modified the plants and animals on the planet so that they could survive in the low-light, high-ash environment, and moved human populations to the poles.

At the end of Era 1, the same power is used to resculpt the planet once again, moving the planet back to its proper orbit, making plants green again, and removing the volcanoes. A basin was created that is particularly hospitable to life. The people living on the southern pole suddenly found themselves surrounded by ice, however.

Era 1 is a pre-industrial society, while Era 2 takes place during an era of rapid industrialization. There are many similarities to Earth, although the presence of Allomancers and Feruchemists obviously changes the dynamics a bit (see Magic below).

Magic

While much of how magic works on Scadrial is revealed as part of the narrative, we’ll give a brief summary of the basics.

Allomancers are able to consume metals that they then “burn” to fuel their powers. Most are Mistings, able to consume and burn one kind of metal. For example, a Pewter misting can burn pewter to gain great strength and healing, while the two types of Steel misting burn steel to either push or pull on any nearby metal. Rare among Allomancers are the Mistborns, who can burn every type of metal — they are feared and respected as a result.

Feruchemists are similar, but instead store attributes in metal on their body called “metalminds”. They can store things like speed or health — making them slow or sick while doing so — and then “tap” their metalminds to become faster or rapidly heal. Originally, Feruchemists were all able to store any attribute, but as the bloodline was diluted, they became more similar to Allomancers, only able to store one attribute.

Hemalurgy involves using a spike made of a specific type of metal in order to steal the corresponding Allomantic or Feruchemic power. Spiking someone with the correct metal in the correct place on the body removes a part of the person’s Spiritweb (basically their soul) and attaches it to the spike. That spike can then be placed in another being, granting them the power that was stolen. Sanderson has stated that this technique could be used to steal any type of Investiture-related power, or even other aspects of a person, like their Connection or Identity.

There is one Shard on Scadrial, Harmony. Harmony is unique in that he is actually holding two Shards: Honor and Preservation.