Mistborn is a series of epic fantasy novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson and published by Tor Books.
A second series was released between 2011 and 2022, and consists of the quartet The Alloy of Law, Shadows of Self, The Bands of Mourning and The Lost Metal.
The first Mistborn trilogy chronicles the efforts of a secret group of Allomancers who attempt to overthrow a dystopian empire and establish themselves in a world covered by ash.
Set about 300 years after the ending of the first trilogy, the second series is about the exploits of a character forced to move into the big city, and starts investigating kidnappings and robberies.
Sanderson's first idea for Mistborn came while reading the Harry Potter series: He thought it would be interesting to set a story in a world where the "dark lord" triumphed and the "prophesied hero" failed.
However, Sanderson chose to delay its publication in favor of completing the Mistborn series, which he thought would serve as a better follow-up to Elantris.
The history of Scadrial started with Preservation and Ruin, two opposing gods (Known in-universe as Shards of Adonalsium,[4] and therefore fragments of the power of creation).
Nevertheless, despite their mutual incapacitation, Ruin and Preservation remained aware, and possessed sufficient powers to influence events directly.
Humans eventually discovered that the Metals of Scadrial could be ingested and burnt by some of them (Allomancy), granting them special powers such as enhanced strength, hearing, speed and various other abilities.
Aware that Ruin could influence them and that his prison had a flaw that could allow it to be opened every millennium, Preservation gave humanity the Terris Prophecies, a series of predictions of what would happen when the Well of Ascension would start calling out to the Metalborn of the world.
On Classical Scadrial, the sun and sky are red, vegetation is brown, and the ground is constantly being covered under black volcanic ash falls.
They serve as witnesses for every possible legal contract (e.g., business deals and marriages), which means that they are privy to all happenings among the nobles.
This gave the Lord Ruler great control over the nobility, as any contract not witnessed by one of his Obligators, did not officially take place.
They can consume the corpses or bones of dead creatures, memorizing and replicating the physical traits perfectly.
The First Generation of kandra were converted by the Lord Ruler from pre-Ascension Terris Worldbringers, the sect of spiritual leaders and Feruchemists.
Mistwraiths, named the Unbirthed by Kandra, are mindless scavengers with the ability to add the bones of creatures they consume to their own forms.
In Scadrial, the world where Mistborn takes place, magic is depicted as a supernatural force harnessed by three distinct disciplines: Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy.
In the Mistborn series, Allomancy is a predominantly genetic ability that allows a person to metabolize ("burn") metals, ingested by the Allomancer, for magical powers that can enhance physical and mental capacities.
[12] In the first trilogy, only Mistings and Mistborn existed, although in the second series, interbreeding caused a new phenomenon of people with one Allomantic and one Feruchemical ability, called Twinborn.
In The Final Empire, an atium alloy called Malatium is revealed, which allows an Allomancer to look at what another person could have been had they made different choices.
In The Hero of Ages, the atium-Misting Yomen appears to believe that atium and malatium are among the standard Allomantic metals - of which, at the start of the series, only ten are known to normal allomancers, including atium and gold but not malatium or electrum: the latter two are "discovered" during the series, along with aluminium and duralumin, all having been previously known to the Lord Ruler but kept secret.
"Lerasium" is also not given a name in the initial trilogy, nor counted as an allomantic metal, although its last known bead is used to turn the previously "normal" Elend Venture into an unusually powerful Mistborn.
Allomancers who flare their metal intensely for extended periods of time may be physiologically altered by the constant influx of Allomantic power.
It was revealed in The Final Empire that they had not all been killed and that shortly after The Fall, they began to travel and teach the skaa the things that they needed to know to effectively live and develop on their own.
The most important factor in determining what power is transferred is the type of metal used, with the specific points chosen on the donor and recipient also having an effect.
Hemalurgic creations, like the koloss and kandra as well as the Steel Inquisitors can be controlled by a sufficiently powerful emotional allomancer.
[26] In October 2016, the rights to the entire Cosmere universe, including the Mistborn series, were licensed by DMG Entertainment.
[27] On January 27, 2017, Deadline Hollywood reported that DMG signed F. Scott Frazier as the screenwriter for the adaptation of Mistborn: The Final Empire.
"[30] In March 2012, a video game prequel called Mistborn: Birthright was announced slated for a fall 2013 release.
[39] Developed by Crafty Games and designed by Kevin Wilson,[40] House War is the first board game set in the Mistborn world and takes players on an adventure to play the role of leaders of the great noble Houses, struggling to weather the cataclysmic events of the first novel of the series.