The Hero of Ages

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

The Hero of Ages is the third and final book of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy, preceded by Mistborn: The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension. The series is set in the Final Empire, a land dominated by a bleak landscape under perpetual ashfall and oppressive mists. Governed by the brutal Lord Ruler, who has reigned as an immortal deity for a thousand years, the empire is divided between the nobility and the oppressed skaa class. The magic system in Mistborn centers around the use of metals. Allomancy allows the user to consume and “burn” specific metals to gain temporary powers. Feruchemy involves the user storing and retrieving power within metal objects. Finally, Hemalurgy allows the user to steal the powers of another by stabbing them with a metal spike.

Vin, the protagonist of the series, is a street-smart skaa thief. While most wielders of Allomancy are “Mistings” with the ability to burn only one metal, Vin discovers that she is a rare “Mistborn” with the ability to burn all metals. She is recruited by Kelsier, also known as the Survivor of Hathsin, a charismatic Mistborn revolutionary.