The Final Empire
Chapters - Brandon Sanderson
Prologue
A rural nobleman entertains a visiting obligator, hoping to secure a business partnership with House Venture. That evening, Kelsier speaks with the plantation skaa and intervenes when a skaa girl is taken to the lord's manor - killing every nobleman, obligator, and soldier present before burning the estate to the ground. The novel opens with an act of total violence framed as liberation.
POV: Kelsier·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Straff Venture
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 1
Vin is introduced in the basement of a thieving crew, summoned by a man named Camon. Camon is running a long con against the Steel Ministry, posing as a minor lord seeking contracts. Vin uses her instinctive ability to Soothe the obligator reviewing their case - an ability she does not yet understand and has never named. The chapter establishes her as someone who has survived by making herself small and useful.
POV: Vin
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 2
Kelsier and Dockson observe Camon's crew returning from the Ministry, and watch as a Steel Inquisitor begins tailing them. Kelsier takes on the Inquisitor while Dockson handles the obligator. The chapter introduces Kelsier's recklessness and Dockson's steadiness as complementary qualities - and establishes that the Ministry is already watching.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Dockson·Mentioned: Breeze, Hammond, Clubs, The Lord Ruler, Marsh
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 3
Kelsier rescues Vin from Camon's crew after Camon discovers her plan to leave. He tests her and confirms she is Mistborn - capable of burning all Allomantic metals, not just one. The chapter turns on the moment Kelsier decides this street girl is worth recruiting, promoting the crew's second-in-command and claiming Camon's den for an evening meeting.
POV: Vin·On page: Kelsier, Dockson·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Clubs
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 4
Kelsier assembles his crew and pitches the job: the overthrow of the Final Empire itself. The plan requires an army, a war between the noble houses, and the elimination of the Lord Ruler's atium supply. Clubs walks out. Everyone else stays. Kelsier reveals that Vin is Mistborn, and shows the crew the Eleventh Metal - a substance he believes can kill the Lord Ruler.
POV: Vin·On page: Breeze, Hammond, Clubs, Dockson, Kelsier·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Marsh
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 5
Clubs returns and joins the crew. Kelsier takes Vin to the rooftop and then to Keep Venture to steal atium, breaking into the vault and fighting hazekillers on the way out. The chapter demonstrates what a trained Mistborn can do - and how far Vin has to go before she can do the same.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Clubs, Dockson, Spook·Mentioned: Hammond, Breeze, OreSeur, The Lord Ruler, Straff Venture
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 6
Vin wakes in Clubs' shop and begins to see the crew as something other than a thieving operation. Kelsier lays out the full plan: destroy the Final Empire by collapsing its military, economic, and political structures simultaneously. Marsh arrives and he and Kelsier argue in private. Vin eavesdrops - already a habit the narrative treats as both a survival instinct and a character flaw.
POV: Vin·On page: Kelsier, Clubs, Breeze, Hammond, Dockson, Marsh, Spook·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Straff Venture
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 7
Kelsier catches Vin eavesdropping and, rather than punishing her, takes her out for her first night of Allomantic training. He gives her a Mistcloak and teaches her about the eight basic metals, ending at the Luthadel city wall. The chapter is the first of several training sequences that double as worldbuilding - each metal a lens on how the magic system shapes society.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Marsh, Dockson, Breeze, Hammond, Clubs·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 8
Kelsier takes Vin over the city walls and into the mist-covered wilderness, where she sees a mistwraith for the first time. They meet Sazed, waiting with a carriage to take them to Fellise. Kelsier offers Vin three thousand boxings and the freedom to leave; she takes the money but stays. At Lord Renoux's estate, a plan takes shape: Vin will pose as Valette Renoux, a noblewoman being introduced to Luthadel society.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Sazed, OreSeur·Mentioned: Marsh, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 9
Vin trains with Kelsier in Allomantic combat while Sazed prepares her for noble society, teaching her religions from his coppermind collection and drilling her on the etiquette of her cover identity. Kelsier announces that Vin will attend a ball at Keep Venture by the end of the week - her first real test as Lady Valette Renoux.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Sazed·Mentioned: Straff Venture
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 10
Vin learns Soothing from Breeze and watches Kelsier deliver a recruitment speech to skaa workers, with Breeze's Soothers manipulating the crowd's emotions in real time. Hammond debates the morality of their revolution during the walk to the speech. The chapter shows the crew's methods honestly: inspiration backed by emotional manipulation, idealism underwritten by pragmatism.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Marsh, Breeze, Hammond, Sazed, Spook, Dockson, Clubs·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 11
The crew investigates the destruction of Camon's old lair. Among the corpses, Vin finds Ulef - his ribcage torn apart by inhuman strength. Camon's body is found separately, tortured and hung by a hook through his mouth. The Inquisitors have been thorough. Vin successfully tails Kelsier to the scene, demonstrating her growing skill and the limits of trusting anyone.
POV: Vin, Kelsier·On page: Sazed, Dockson, Hammond·Mentioned: Breeze, Clubs, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 12
Vin attends her first ball at Keep Venture as Valette Renoux. She is terrified initially but discovers that the persona shields her - the nobles see Valette, not the street girl underneath. During dinner, she spots her father across the room. On the balcony above the hall, she has her first conversation with Elend Venture, who is reading a book at a party and seems entirely uninterested in behaving like an heir.
POV: Vin·On page: Kelsier, Sazed, Elend Venture·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Straff Venture
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 13
Vin follows Kelsier back to Luthadel and discovers the metal pins embedded in the highway that allow Allomancers to travel at speed. At Keep Venture, Kelsier is studying the fortifications. He catches Vin following him and, rather than being angry, teaches her about atium - and then takes her to Kredik Shaw, the Lord Ruler's palace. The chapter marks her transition from student to active participant.
POV: Vin·On page: Sazed, Kelsier·Mentioned: Elend Venture, Clubs, The Lord Ruler, Hammond
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 14
Kelsier leads Vin into Kredik Shaw to reach a building the Lord Ruler visits regularly. Vin kills for the first time. They reach the inner building but find a Steel Inquisitor inside, with two more entering from side doors. Vin grabs a leather-bound book while defending herself and barely escapes, impaled by an obsidian axe. As she loses consciousness outside, something takes her into a protective embrace - but it is not Kelsier.
POV: Vin·On page: Kelsier, Sazed·Mentioned: Breeze, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 15
The crew argues about the Kredik Shaw incursion. Sazed arrives carrying the wounded Vin and operates on her, stitching her back together. The leather book she stole turns out to be written in Khlenni, the ancient language of Khlennium. Sazed believes he can translate it - in time. The book will become the logbook of the man who became the Lord Ruler, and its contents will reshape everything the crew believes about their enemy.
POV: Kelsier·On page: Vin, Sazed, Dockson, Clubs, Hammond, Spook·Mentioned: Breeze, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 16
Vin wakes after two weeks of recovery. Spook tells her how Kelsier gave him his nickname. Vin begins to understand that Sazed is something unusual - a Keeper, one of the Terris people who memorise and preserve the knowledge the Lord Ruler tried to destroy. Sazed explains that all Terrisman stewards are eunuchs, and that he carries 172 languages in his copperminds.
On page: Vin, Kelsier, Spook, Dockson, OreSeur, Sazed·Mentioned: Clubs, Breeze, Hammond, Marsh, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 17
After four weeks of recovery, Vin convinces Kelsier to let her return to the balls. They talk about Mare - Kelsier's dead wife, a Tineye who was betrayed at the Pits of Hathsin. Kelsier explains Snapping: the traumatic event that awakens Allomantic ability. The conversation reveals the personal loss at the centre of Kelsier's crusade.
POV: Vin·On page: Kelsier, Sazed, OreSeur, Breeze, Dockson·Mentioned: Elend Venture, Hammond, Marsh, The Lord Ruler, Clubs
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 18
Vin attends a ball at Keep Elariel. Elend sits beside her uninvited, drops a stack of books on the table, and leaves them unattended while dancing. Vin discovers one of the books contains near-treasonous political philosophy. She also learns that Shan Elariel can Soothe - making her at least a Misting and potentially dangerous. Elend's friends Jastes Lekal and a young Hasting are identified as political allies from rival houses.
POV: Vin·On page: Sazed, Jastes Lekal·Mentioned: Kelsier, The Lord Ruler
Source: Coppermind
Chapter 19
Kelsier escalates the house war by leaving a murdered nobleman in the gardens of House Tekiel. He meets with an informant named Hoid, then disguises himself as a skaa beggar to meet with Lord Venture directly. The chapter shows Kelsier operating at every level of Luthadel society simultaneously - noble, criminal, and skaa - using different identities for each.
POV: Kelsier·On page: Vin, Straff Venture, Sazed, OreSeur·Mentioned: The Lord Ruler, Dockson, Elend Venture
Source: Coppermind