71 pages • 2-hour read
The Hero of Ages
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Symbols & Motifs
Religion and Prophecy
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
The Hero of Ages uses the motif of religion to explore Belief as a Source of Hope. This motif can be seen in Sazed’s crisis of faith and in the broader existential crisis facing the world of Scadrial itself. By the end of the novel, religion is not merely restored but transformed as it becomes the mechanism through which humanity remakes the world.
When The Hero of Ages begins, Sazed is a man unmoored. The death of Tindwyl at the end of The Well of Ascension has devastated him emotionally and spiritually. He who had once joyfully collected and taught the religions of pre-Ascension times now finds himself unable to believe in any of them. In a world rapidly unraveling, religion seems impotent. Sazed meticulously revisits every belief system stored in his copperminds, hoping one will offer comfort or meaning, but each falls short. His scholarly faith crumbles, and with it, his sense of purpose. The novel takes Sazed’s loss of belief seriously, showing how it affects his sense of identity and role within the group. Without faith, Sazed becomes hesitant, passive, and self-doubting. His early chapters are filled with uncertainty, both about the external world and about his internal worth. In this way, Sanderson demonstrates the power of faith as a framework for hope, resilience, and action. In Sazed’s eventual realization that no religion contains all truth, but all contain some truth, Sanderson also puts forward the idea that faith matters not because it is infallible, but because it captures the longings, insights, and love of generations of society. Religion in The Hero of Ages is not portrayed as an answer, but as a map: fragmentary, uncertain, yet indispensable. Religion is not about absolute correctness but about striving toward transcendence.
Flowers
For most of The Hero of Ages, and the Mistborn trilogy as a whole, flowers are extinct, destroyed by the ashen, dying world. They appear in earlier books of the trilogy through Mare, Kelsier’s wife, who was imprisoned and killed in the Lord Ruler’s mines. Mare once gave Kelsier a drawing of a flower, which he passed on to Vin, who in turn gave it to Sazed in The Hero of Ages. Flowers in the novel represent not only beauty and memory, but hope, restoration, and a world that once was and might be again. Mare’s flower is a gift of faith and a symbol of Belief as a Source of Hope. Even if she never saw a real flower, her decision to draw one is an act of radical optimism. Something better once existed and can be imagined, hoped for, and perhaps reclaimed. When Sazed becomes Harmony, he creates a field of flowers based on Mare’s drawing to surround the bodies of Vin and Elend. The field represents, in visual and emotional terms, the triumph of life over death. The world has not only been restored; it has been re-flowered.
The Mists
In The Hero of Ages, Sanderson reveals the source of the mysterious mists that have played a role throughout the series. What was previously an omnipresent force blanketing the world, seen with unease or reverence, is in reality the remnants of the godlike entity Preservation, the counterweight to Ruin’s ceaseless drive to dismantle and erode. As a result, the mists come to represent one half of The Tension Between Creation and Destruction. The mists represent the slow unraveling of Preservation’s power, which takes place over a thousand years in tiny increments. Preservation cannot act directly as Ruin can because his essence is to preserve, to hold still. His very nature prevents him from forcefully changing the world, just as the mists cannot directly kill or communicate clearly. Yet they are everywhere, watching, waiting, influencing subtly, trying to maintain a balance that is rapidly tipping toward annihilation. Their gift is not one of revolution, but of continuity.
Ash and Fire
The ash and fire devastating Scadrial represent the other side of The Tension Between Creation and Destruction, showing the influence of Ruin. From the beginning of The Hero of Ages, the world is choked by ash. The skies are perpetually darkened, the sun obscured by the constant fallout of volcanic soot. Most plant life is dying, animals are disappearing, and humans cling to life in shrinking pockets of civilization. Ash represents the inevitable breakdown of order, destroying the old to make way for the new. Fire, meanwhile, appears as a threat from both natural and man-made sources. Cities burn due to the erupting ashmounts and as a result of riots from worsening conditions. Fire is the purest tool of Ruin: quick, absolute, and irreversible in its ability to consume. It destroys homes, crops, armies, and entire populations. Fire and ash are the extremity of the balance, destroying the world before something new can take its place.
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