The Hero of Ages

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

“They followed the form of the law, yet at the same time they ignored its intent.”

TenSoon once served loyally under the constraints of the First Contract, but is now punished by the very system he upheld. The others honor the letter of the law by giving him the skull, the minimum requirement to give a kandra a voice, but they simultaneously violate the law’s spirit by dumping acid on him before he can speak. This moment of legal hypocrisy exposes the hollowness of tradition when it is wielded as a tool for suppression rather than justice.

“If there were a God, Breeze […] do you think He’d have let so many people be killed by the Lord Ruler? Do you think He’d have let the world become what it is now? I will not teach you—or anyone—a religion that cannot answer my questions. Never again.”

Sazed’s declaration summarizes the crisis of Belief as a Source of Hope that opens the novel, as Sazed wrestles with the limits of belief in the face of suffering. Once the most devout member of the original crew, Sazed has become hollowed by the loss not just of Tindwyl, but of meaning itself.

“It’s ironic, TenSoon thought, but when we wear True Bodies, we wear them in the form of humans. Two arms, two legs, faces formed after the fashion of humankind.”

The kandra, born of mistwraiths, have the biological freedom to take any form. Despite resenting the humans for centuries of servitude, they continue to shape their True Bodies in the human image. The irony here is that, in seeking to assert their autonomy and dignity, they nevertheless define themselves through the likeness of those who oppressed them.