Elend Venture

Elend Venture is a noble in Scadrial. After the Collapse, he becomes King of the Central Dominance, and later, High Emperor of the New Empire. After swallowing a bead of lerasium, he becomes Mistborn. He is married to Vin.
== Appearance and Personality ==
=== Appearance ===
Elend has curly brown hair. Before becoming king, Elend usually kept his hair dishevelled and used clothes too big for him, with the buttons undone. He didn't wear clothes as fine or as bright as those of other noblemen. He did that to set him apart from his father and to spite him. After Elend is king, prompted by Tindwyl, he starts wearing a military uniform. The uniform is completely white, and is composed by trousers, a shirt, and a stiff jacket with wooden buttons. He also cuts his hair and starts wearing a wooden crown. His uniform is made of special ash-resistant fabrics, but they still have to be scrubbed clean of the ash every day. He considers the white uniform a symbol of purity.
=== Personality ===
In his early life, Elend was an idealist. He was curious about the conditions of the skaa and their intelligence and believed in creating a coalition of houses to exert pressure on the Lord Ruler. However, he struggled to be forceful and to impose his will in others. He saw himself as a friendly and a comfortable man, but also a bit of a fool. He considered running an empire mostly as an academic exercise. However, he had a buried desire to lead, and the skills to become a king, if he learned to use them. After Tindwyl's coaching, Elend became more forceful and realistic. He still wants to follow his ideals of freedom, but he also knows sometimes he must impose his rule on others, for their own good. He tries to find a balance between the man he thinks he should be and the man he needs to be, but he considers himself a hypocrite for speaking of democracy, but taking the throne by force. Even after becoming Emperor, he considers himself a scholar rather than a king. Eventually, Elend comes to terms with his choices, recognizing himself to be an amalgamation of scholar, nobleman and soldier. Elend is the type of person who is always preparing, up until the last minute.
=== Religious Beliefs ===
Before the Collapse, Elend believed the Lord Ruler to be God. However, he didn't worship him; he believed the Lord Ruler had too much power over the noble houses and read books that defamed the Lord Ruler and pointed out his mistakes. After the Collapse, Elend became a member of the Church of the Survivor. He joined the Church as a political move, to gain leverage amongst the skaa Assemblymen and backing from the Church's followers. He has doubts about the Survivorist's doctrines, but he believes it to be better than the alternatives, as the Lord Ruler is dead and Sazed's religions have been dead by centuries. It feels wrong to him to worship Vin as divine, but he trusts her as more than a human being, almost like a force.
== Attributes and Abilities ==
Elend was born with no Allomantic abilities. After swallowing a bead of lerasium at the Well of Ascension, he becomes Mistborn. His Allomantic power, not weakened by interbreeding, is stronger than that of contemporary Allomancers. Though his raw power is bigger than Vin's, she is more skilled in its use. He is more comfortable with emotional Allomancy than with physical Allomancy. With the proper experience, he would be able to use his raw Allomantic power to pierce weak copperclouds.
Though his roots are in philosophy, Elend has extensive knowledge on many different subjects. He is proficient in political theory, economics, and military theory. He claims to be no statistician, but he has worked with numbers in his research.
== History ==
=== Early History ===
As a child, Elend was beaten to near death to determine whether he was an Allomancer. His mother is presumably dead, since he speaks about her in the past tense, but she had a great influence on him. When he was thirteen, his father forced him to sleep with a skaa woman. He was horrified after discovering that she would be killed afterward. Elend started to intentionally behave in ways that would enrage his father. For example his clothing was always messy and too huge. He blew several engagements with his attitude. In the end however his acts were pointless, and both he and Straff knew it. 
He started a drinking group with Jastes Lekal, Telden Hasting, Kevoux, and another young noble, to talk about philosophy and form an alliance to exert pressure on the Lord Ruler. The group was also at least in part formed to annoy Elend's father. While the other young Nobles were only interested in more independence from the Lord Ruler, Elend showed interest in the skaa and was horrified by the way they were treated. He wanted to use his power to improve their lives. 
=== Pre-Collapse ===
Elend met Vin (disguised as Valette) at a ball at Keep Venture. After returning from getting a drink, he found she was in his reading spot. He began a casual friendship with her, often sitting with her at balls and reading. Vin spread the rumor that he's a friend of her family, showing her the ways of the court, so that potential dancing partners aren't intimidated by her. When the house war is imminent, Elend decided that "Valette" had to leave Luthadel, because the war would be too dangerous for a little house with no allies. When she ignored him, he broke off the relationship, hoping that it would encourage her to leave the city.
At the last ball before the Collapse, Elariel assassins, including Shan Elariel and another Mistborn, try to kill Elend, as well as Jastes and Telden. Straff is collaborating with them, by posting less guards outside Elend's room so that the assassins can attack. Vin learns about the attack from Kliss, and stops the assassination, killing Shan. Elend only noticed the assassins when one of them fell through his skylight. Even then, he thought they were only spies, but worried about some of his books, which were forbidden by the Ministry, he fled in a carriage with Jastes. When he returned, Straff told him it was an assassination attempt, but said his guards had killed the assassins.
When the Renoux household is riding for execution, Elend sees them and, presuming that "Valette" is with them, attacks the wagons. An Inquisitor almost hits him, but Kelsier, knowing Vin loves Elend, attacks the Inquisitor and saves his life.
=== The Collapse ===
After the skaa riots started, Straff Venture decided to leave the city. Elend, predicting the skaa rebellion would result in a mass bloodshed, decided to stay to try to quell the skaa, to prevent mass slaughter. His father let Elend stay, hoping he would be killed by the rebellion or by the Lord Ruler. Elend sent the Venture guards and servants to Keep Lekal, not caring about political differences, to join forces to defend against the skaa upheaval. With five soldiers, he turned himself in, and told Dockson not to attack the noble houses. Elend explained to him that the nobles wouldn't attack, they would just keep to the safety of their houses. After learning that Vin had been captured by the Ministry, he and his soldiers, as well as Goradel, attacked Kredik Shaw, buying time for Vin to find a metal vial and saving her life.
Afterward, when seeking help for Vin, Elend and Sazed found skaa rebels slaughtering palace soldiers. The soldiers would try to surrender, but the rebels ignored it and kept slaughtering them. Elend, revolted by the sight of the mass slaughtering, stood up and started his speech. He spoke of the dangers of bloodshed and chaos as a basis for a nation, of the need for a stable system, and of his dreams for a new, fairer nation in the Central Dominance. Instead of killing him, the rebels listened to him and stopped fighting, acknowledging that the bloodshed wouldn't accomplish anything. This speech was ultimately the reason Elend was crowned king. Breeze also helped by Soothing away the skaa's anger.
=== The Siege of Luthadel ===
==== King of the Central Dominance ====
After the Collapse, Elend established himself as king of the Central Dominance. He drafted a law code that applied the philosophies of his books, but had also a strong element of realism. The law code established a parliamentary council called the Luthadel Assembly, which was composed of twenty-four Assemblymen, including Elend himself: eight noblemen, eight skaa workers, and eight skaa merchants. A few months later, Elend proposed Vin in marriage, but she refused, feeling that he deserved a better woman. Unfortunately, their army was relatively small and weak, with only about twenty thousand soldiers, and peace didn't last long.
A year after the Collapse, Straff Venture lay siege to the town with an army of fifty thousand soldiers. Elend passed a proposal for the Assembly to wait to decide anything about the future of the city until he had parlayed with Straff, and they accepted it. Soon later, a second army with forty thousand arrived at the city, led by Ashweather Cett. Breeze had persuaded Cett to march on Luthadel so that a three-way standoff was created; if either Straff or Cett attacked Luthadel, he would be weakened enough that the other could beat him easily. Afterward, Tindwyl arrived and (forcefully) started coaching Elend in the art of leadership. Later, a third army of twenty thousand koloss led by Jastes Lekal arrives to the city.
A few days later, Elend went with Vin inside Straff's camp to parlay. Elend offers an alliance against Cett's army and bluffs, saying they have the atium cache. Elend argues Straff can't win without his help, but Straff says he already has a treaty with Cett, and he'll only agree to the alliance if Elend goes to the city's walls and surrenders the city. Elend says that if Straff killed him, Vin would kill Straff, and they demonstrate Vin's powerful emotional Allomancy, ending with Vin burning brass with duralumin and soothing away all of his emotion. Straff is frightened and agrees to let Elend return to the city. However, during the meeting with Straff, the Assembly had invoked a no-confidence clause, deposing Elend from the position of king.
==== The Elections for King ====
In a later meeting, Elend nominated Ferson Penrod to be chancellor to preside over the meetings on the absence of a king, and the motion passes. Nominations for king were held; one of the skaa workers nominated Penrod. After Elend nominated him for Chancellor, Penrod felt obligated to nominate Elend as king, and he did so. Finally, Philen Frandeu nominated Cett, who turned out to be hidden within the crowd. Cett took residence in Keep Hasting with a thousand soldiers. After a week, Elend met with Cett in his keep to parlay. Elend said he hasn't found the atium cache.
In the day of the election for king, Elend announced his conversion to the Church of the Survivor. He hoped to convince some of the skaa workers to vote for him, in order to create a deadlock so that he kept the position. However, half a dozen of Straff's half-skaa Misting children attack Elend and Cett, and Vin fought them. After that, the election was held on the same day in Penrod's mansion, because it was the last day in a thirty-day deadline to choose the new king. There were fifteen votes for Penrod, two to Cett, and seven to Elend; that would create a deadlock that would have caused Elend to remain on the throne. However, after being asked, Elend revealed that Assemblymen can change their votes. Then, the two who voted for Cett changed their votes to Penrod, making it seventeen votes for him, enough to win the election and become king. It is later revealed that Straff had bribed the skaa merchants with the promises of titles if they voted for Penrod, and convinced Penrod to ally with him against Cett. However, he didn't march onto Luthadel immediately for fear of Vin coming for him.
==== The Trip for Terris ====
Elend decided that even not being king anymore, he would keep helping the city. He worked on keeping the citizens from freezing, and tries to discover who had poisoned the city's water supply. He met with Jastes and warned him the koloss cannot be controlled. On the way back, he attacked one of the koloss and discovered Jastes is paying the koloss with fake coins.
Believing the city would fall, Sazed, Dockson, Breeze and Clubs conspired to send Elend and Vin away, along with Spook and Tindwyl. Vin fought and killed Zane, and then asked Elend to marry her, and Sazed married them with a Larsta ceremony. He told them the Well of Ascension was on Derytatith, in order to send them away from the city. They agreed to go there with Tindwyl and Spook. When they departed, Tindwyl decided not to go, and Allrianne convinced them to take her with them. Shortly after departing, Allriane parted ways with them.
A group followed them, and they discover it was led by Jastes, who was fleeing from Luthadel. Enraged that Jastes had left an uncontrolled group of koloss outside Luthadel, Elend executed him. Then, Spook revealed that Sazed had tricked Elend and Vin to get them to safety. Vin realized the Well is in Luthadel, and they immediately returned, with Vin going ahead on a pewter drag and later by Pulling and Pushing on horseshoes and Elend and Spook following on horses. Elend and Spook encountered a group of Terris refugees on their way to Luthadel. They only arrived after the Battle of Luthadel is over, and Vin informed Elend he is Emperor.
==== The Well of Ascension ====
Vin and Elend found the storage cache in Kredik Shaw, where the Well of Ascension is located. When they enter it, Leras appears as the mist spirit, intent on dissuading them of giving up the power and freeing Ruin. Kelsier encouraged Leras to stab Elend so that Vin uses the power of the Well to save him, and since Leras, being Preservation, can't do it, Kelsier moved his arm, stabbing Elend in the gut. However, Vin gave up the power anyway, trusting that that is what Elend would have wanted for his people. Later, Leras saved Elend by making Vin give him the lerasium bead, turning him into a Mistborn and allowing him to burn pewter.
=== The New Empire ===
After the foundation of the New Empire, Vin and Elend set out to recover the five storage caches of the Lord Ruler. They found the second one in Statlin City, containing large amounts of lumber, and a description of aluminum. The second cache was in Urteau, and though the city was in control of Quellion, Vin managed to sneak into it and discover the location of the third storage cache, Vetitan, as well as a description of the metal electrum. They conquered Vetitan, taking control of a group of ten thousand koloss that were attacking the city, and took its people further towards the center of the empire, where food could still be grown. In the cache, they discovered large quantities of the first eight Allomantic metals, as well as a description of malatium and the location of the fifth and final cache, Fadrex City, which was held by Aradan Yomen.
 
==== The Siege of Fadrex City ====
After discovering the cache's location, Elend marched on Fadrex City with forty thousand soldiers, twenty thousand koloss, and a contingent of Allomancers. Because of the city's fortifications, and of a reluctance to loose the koloss upon people, he decided to lay siege to the city, and try to negotiate with Yomen. So, Elend and Vin went to a ball in Keep Orielle, inside the city, to talk with the obligator. Elend discussed about philosophy with Yomen, and was impressed by the man's arguments, that called him a hypocrite for taking the throne by force. After that, Elend and Vin danced, though he teased her by picking up a copy of Trials of Monument--the book he was reading when the two first met--and starting to read it.
At a suggestion from Cett, Elend ordered the wells of Fadrex City poisoned, and warned the city's people so that they wouldn't get hurt by it. Yomen sent a raid on the camp, but it was a distraction; simultaneously, his men threw rocks at the koloss, driving them to a rage that caused them to start killing each other, and half the twenty thousand koloss died. He and Vin went to another ball at the Canton of Resource. There, Elend distracted Yomen to gain time for Vin to search for the cache. However, Yomen believed he was the one distracting Elend, while Vin got trapped in the cache building. Fearing that Yomen might manipulate him again, instead of negotiating Elend decided to go searching for more koloss as a threat to use against Yomen. He took control of thirty thousand additional koloss.
In his trip back, feeling burdened by his responsibilities, he knelt down in the ash, and almost gives up. However, Leras appeared to him as the mist spirit. They communicated with Elend asking yes/no questions, and Leras answering by waving his arms to indicate a positive answer. He said Elend shouldn't attack Fadrex City, and pointed at Elend's metal vials. Elend asked whether Ruin can be beaten, and Leras waved his arms hesitantly, indicating "maybe". He had used his last bits of life to talk with Elend, and he died soon after.
Despite from what Leras told Elend, the emperor decided to launch a surprise attack on Yomen on the next morning. However, he realized Vin wouldn't have done this, and decided to pull back. However, Ruin took control of the koloss and made them start attacking Elend's army. Ordering her koloss to attack Yomen's army, Vin managed to convince the obligator to retreat and let Elend's army enter Fadrex. An enormous army of koloss began to gather outside the city. Seeing a boy being taken by the mistsickness, he realized the mists are snapping the skaa, and the mistfallen are in fact Allomancers. Even with the new Allomancers, the koloss army was too big for Elend's and Yomen's army to face. However, the koloss retreated, going toward Luthadel. Yomen gave Elend his last atium bead, and Elend goes toward Luthadel to find Vin.
==== The Battle of Hathsin ====
In Luthadel, Elend found Penrod's corpse, with a note saying that Elend's people went to the Terris Dominance. After hearing a whisper from Vin, he realized Ruin must have changed the text, and deduces that they might have gone to the Terris people instead. Arriving at the Pits of Hathsin, he saw Demoux with a few soldiers he had sent back to help Penrod. Elend discovered that the people who stayed sick for longer were Seers, atium mistings, and gathered them to fight the koloss army, using the atium cache at the Pits. They fought the koloss for hours, until the atium in the atium cache began to run out. Then, Marsh appeared in front of Elend.
Marsh and Elend fought, with Marsh using the atium he got from KanPaar. Marsh was winning, because Elend didn't have any metals other than atium. However, suddenly, his metal reserves were filled again. He looked up, and saw a white figure: Vin, helping him fight. Then, Elend burned atium with duralumin. Suddenly, he saw Preservation's plan--he knew he had to die, to help to drive Vin to kill Ruin. He told Marsh that Ruin's body--the atium--was gone, and that Ruin had lost.
=== Legacy ===
After the Catacendre, Elend became known as the Last Emperor. The city of Elendel was named after him, and there are giant statues of him and Vin at the Field of Rebirth, and his body, fixed by Harmony, was buried there. The laws of Elendel, created by Spook, are based upon Elend's philosophical ideals.
== Relationships ==
=== Vin ===
Vin and Elend's first encounter was pure happenstance on the part of Vin, but as Elend had grown up in the Luthadel Noble Society, he saw everything as being plots within plots, so a hitherto unknown scion of the Renoux house just so happening to come to his alcove left him baffled. He became interested in her early on when he saw that Vin was entirely forthright in her opinions and actions though still oblivious that she loved him, he did develop love for her when he realised what she had been doing to protect him and she had been captured by the Lord Ruler. 
Due to Vin's nature as a Mistborn and her traits trained into her by Kelsier as an assassin, she believed he deserved someone better, someone who shared his interests and ideals, someone who saw nobility in his decision of giving up the throne. She also thought she hurt his pride by being Mistborn while he was just a common man, that he deserved a woman he could protect. She thought she didn't deserve because she thought she didn't deserve to be happy at all.
Elend he felt he needed her genuine realism to keep him grounded, and thought himself lucky that she needed him; he believed she was ten times as capable as him. He was sometimes frustrated by her idiosyncrasies, but he still loved her. Most of all, he trusted her; he defended her actions even when she attacked Cett, killing hundreds of men, and he trusted her to make the right decisions even when he didn't know what she was deciding. At the Well of Ascension, however, she knew that Elend would want her to sacrifice him to save his people, and she loved him enough to trust his wishes and give up the power instead of saving him.
During the final years of the World of Ash, Elend's trust and faith in his wife were shown implicitly by considering her on her own being an army, having complete trust in her during the various fights with and command over Koloss armies that they controlled via Hemalurgy. Coming to a complete understanding during the fight at Fadrex by silently explaining their bluff to divert Ruin's attention.
During the Siege of the Pits of Hathsin and Vin's Ascension, she assisted Elend by providing him additional powerful Investiture via contact that remained until the moment he was cut down by Marsh, leading to Vin's sacrifice as she kills Ruin.
After their death's and the ascension of Sazed as Harmony, both Elend and Vin decline Kelsier's offer to remain in the Cognitive Realm and journey on together into the Beyond.
=== Kelsier ===
In the battle before Kelsier's death, despite his hate of noblemen, he saved Elend's life because he knew Vin loved the nobleman. But when he found out that Elend was king, he was angry for days. However, when Elend came to him in the Well, he wasn't angry, because he considered not Elend's fault that he became king, considering him "too oblivious to be dangerous".
While king, Elend compared himself to Kelsier on numerous occasions, even though they had never really met. He thought that if Kelsier were alive, he would be king instead of Elend, and that he would have been a better king than Elend. However, he later accepted that there was no one mold for a leader, and that he didn't need to be Kelsier to be a good king.
=== Tindwyl ===
Tindwyl came to Luthadel to instruct Elend on how to be a king. She thinks that he is slovenly and needs to be more forceful--that as a king, he should impose his will on others and impose respect on his subjects. She believes he should be more self-confident--feel that his actions are the best for the kingdom. She is mean and harsh to him, because she believes that after growing up as a pampered son of a lord, he needs some harsh truth.
Tindwyl says that love is not easy for kings, and that Elend's love of Vin may cause him trouble. However, once she was sure he did love Vin, the Keeper says he should not give up on her; she considers it an exception. However, she encourages the couple to get married, as it would be bad for Elend's reputation to be seen as having a mistress.
=== Straff Venture ===
In his youth, Elend rebelled against his father, Straff, and acted to distinguish himself from the man. However, he only did it in small ways, that didn't matter much, such as wearing his clothes dishevelled and reading during balls. He ended up earning a reputation for being eccentric and arrogant. However, his books changed him; he stopped acting against his father's wishes to annoy him, and started doing it because they were unethical. His father didn't notice the change, and kept treating Elend like a rebellious child. Straff thinks Elend is childish and weak, and believes Vin didn't kill the Lord Ruler because he thinks it implausible that Elend has earned the trust of someone so powerful. Straff thinks he can control Elend, and that he can make Elend give him control of the city. Elend knows Straff well, and is confident he can manipulate his father.
=== Dockson ===
Dockson and Elend dislike each other; however, they're willing to work with one another for the good of the kingdom. Dockson acknowledges that Elend is a decent man and treats the skaa fairly, but he has resented noblemen for a long time, and he thinks Kelsier would be mad at him for letting a nobleman take the throne. Dockson also resents Elend because Dockson assumed he would be the leader of the crew once Kelsier was dead, but Elend became king instead. Elend knows Dockson is a good man, but he finds it hard to get along with Dockson because of his dislike of the king.
== Trivia ==
* Elend means misery in German, but this wasn't intentional.
* Elend's character is inspired by Brandon's editor Moshe, and also by Alexander Hamilton.
* Elend and Vin never gave much thought to the prospect of being a parent.
* Elend's speech in the Collapse was inspired by the French Revolution.
* Elend's Magic: The Gathering color alignment would probably be blue/white.
== Notes ==
category: viewpoint characters
es:Elend Venture