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While not technically slaves, because by law they are not the property of their masters, in practice they are treated like cattle and given about as much respect. The skaa are the beaten down, oppressed working class, and because of this many are timid in regards to the nobles. Skaa generally keep to themselves, and in the cities, a large number turn to a life of crime to sustain themselves. Those who are not criminals are worked to near death in some situations by their masters. Plantation skaa are especially brutalised and often do not live as long as their city counterparts as they are killed if they were unable to work. Only very skilled skaa are able to have a trade and work as a craftsman, like Clubs, although they are still underpaid and looked down upon by the nobility. Skaa maintain a fear of the evening mists due to folklore and misinformation spread by the nobles, believing those who go out into the mists are killed and turn into mistwraiths. Skaa living in the outer dominances, far from the Central Dominance, are allowed to own lands and become rich, but the Lord Ruler does not allow this to become publicly known.

The nobles are a race of humans. When the Lord Ruler held the power of the Well of Ascension, he altered the biology of all humans so that they would be able to survive in a world of ash. At the same time, he also divided the population into two groups — the nobles and the skaa — with different physiological traits. As a result, in the times shortly after the Ascension of the Lord Ruler, the nobles were less fertile than the skaa, but were also generally taller, stronger, and more intelligent. These changes were slight, however, and have mostly disappeared as a result of interbreeding by the time of the Collapse. After his Ascension, the Lord Ruler also gave beads of lerasium to the original nobles, which is why only those with a noble ancestor could become Allomancers.

The life of the nobles is rife with secrecy and plotting. Almost all nobles are driven by gaining money, power, or social prestige. All nobles are divided among different Houses. Each house has its own agenda and works towards its own betterment. Each house individually has its own political enemies and allies. Generally, leadership of a house is inherited. Each house has different levels of power, a social hierarchy. They use Obligators as a means to prove they are trustworthy, for even unimportant matters, such as a meeting with friends.

The Great Houses are the most prominent noble families in the Final Empire, notable for their ability to build a keep and maintain a high-profile presence in Luthadel. This is made difficult by the Lord Ruler's keep tax. There is nothing more embarrassing to the aristocracy than a Great House that is unable to maintain itself. The Great Houses control imperial trade and enslave the greatest majority of the skaa. Country nobility resent the Great Houses for their control of the canal systems. The Great Houses get to buy a monthly stipend of atium, one of the main ways that the Lord Ruler controls them. Nearly all Mistborn are members of the Great Houses. The Great Houses take Mistborn attacks very seriously, and have an unspoken agreement not to use Mistborn to assassinate each other. A major house war between the Great Houses tends to happen every couple of centuries or so. House Wars are primarily political and dictates the order of power. The last House War was devastating. The order of power is: House Hunter, House Arati, House Arius, House Basia, House Euros, House Iniga, House Jessina, House Dura, House Smentha and House Hara. The inner-city nobility, particularly those in Luthadel, hold a nightly circuit of balls in their Keeps. Outside of the ten Great Houses, there are countless minor houses.

Terris is a state of Scadrial populated by Feruchemists before the Ascension of the Lord Ruler. In the Empire, the remaining Terris people were selectively bred to reduce the Feruchemical abilities. A portion of the eunuch population are trained and employed as stewards. Stewards held an unusual place in the final empire, and are given the title 'Vaht'. The Terris people are recognised for their darker skin. They have more diversity in skin colour than those of Central Dominance heritage. They are also, notably, a rather tall people. Feruchemy is passed down through Terris bloodlines.

Many Terris people wish to stay isolated in order to maintain their cultural heritage. In fact, many choose to marry among their own people instead of marrying those of other ethnicities. The tinningdar is a common robe worn by the Terris people distinguished by a colourful overlapping V pattern down the front. This pattern is often embroidered. The tinningdar is often worn alongside a belt, and has long sleeves. In the Empire, these are often known as "steward's robes." During this era, the colours of the robe represent the colours of the House the steward serves. Other Terris forms of clothing are also known to be colourful, and often incorporate the traditonal V-pattern. Little is known about Terris food, but it is likely similar to Mediterranean food and probably involves noodles.

The Steel Inquisitors are a type of Hemalurgic construct in the Empire created from humans. Steel Inquisitors are created and controlled by the Lord Ruler as the policing force for his ministries. The Steel Inquisitors made up the Canton of Inquisition whose job it is to control the use and spread of Allomancy. The most notable feature is the large steel spikes where their eyes should be. These spikes fill the eye socket and protrude out the back of the head by several inches. Steel Inquisitors, like the obligators from which they are created, are bald with a large number of tattoos spreading from their eye sockets across their heads. These tattoos indicate many things, including rank and what kind of Allomancer the obligator was before recruitment. The Lord Ruler's Steel Inquisitors have eleven spikes in all: two through the eye sockets, one in the middle of the spine on the back, and eight--one for each known Allomantic power--in the torso.

Although created from humans, they are physiologically and mentally distinct. They can, however, still mate with humans. Children from Steel Inquisitors are more likely to be Allomancers compared to children from two humans, but the strength of Allomancy and Feruchemy would still weaken over time. There are also complications that can happen with the children of an Inquisitor. Steel Inquisitors have slightly longer lifespans compared to humans. To create an Inquisitor, metal spikes are inserted at various points in the subject's body by hammering the metal spike through the heart of a Misting or Feruchemist into the new Inquisitor; this reduces the loss of power through the Hemalurgic process due to the spike spending a minimal amount of time outside of a body. These spikes, now Hemalurgically charged, tear into and forcibly splice information from the victim to the subject's spiritweb. This process moves vital organs, allowing the spikes to be inserted practically anywhere without fatally wounding the subject. The process is not painless for either person involved, as both violent changes to the spiritweb and having metal spikes driven into one's body causes pain. The steel spikes inserted into eye sockets allow the Inquisitor to navigate via the blue Allomantic lines from the traces of metals in everything. The spikes create a chain in an Inquisitor's body, and there is a central spike or 'linchpin' that acts as a connector to the lower and upper spikes. If this spike is removed, the Inquisitor dies. A linchpin is needed to avoid deadly side effects if four or more spikes are used on an Inquisitor. Inquisitors are typically granted many Allomantic and some Feruchemical abilities. These abilities are granted on top of the Inquisitor's own natural Allomantic powers (if any), and any abilities the subject had prior to the transformation are augmented by the spikes. As such, Mistborn and Seekers are the preferred subjects, as their increased Seeking ability would allow them to pierce copperclouds. There are forty-seven known bindpoints that can be used for an Inquisitor. Eleven are physical, twelve are mental, twelve are temporal, and twelve are spiritual. There are no differences in bindpoints between males and females. To grant every possible Allomantic and Feruchemical power, it would take thirty two spikes (one for each power) plus a linchpin, leaving room for fourteen extra spikes. Regular humans who are turned into Inquisitors can fully remember who they were and what life had been like before their transformation. Steel Inquisitors are very powerful and - with Feruchemical healing - nearly invincible. Rumors in the skaa underground held that Inquisitors are immortal, that they can see into people's souls, and that they are warriors with no equal. However, removing spikes from an Inquisitor can effectively kill them, most notably the linchpin spike located between the shoulder blades. This is a weakness built into them by The Lord Ruler. Similarly, Inquisitors cannot survive a beheading. Removing one eye spike is not enough to kill most Inquisitors. Inquisitors also require much more rest and sleep than a normal human would, which may be related to the burden placed upon their souls by the nature of their transformations. Another major weakness in Inquisitors come from the Hemalurgic spikes. Any spike in a person allows for influence to be more easily pushed on them via the tears in their spiritweb. These tears allow certain Allomancers to control a Hemalurgic construct. This weakness is also present in both kandra and koloss. The more spikes they have, the greater the weakness is. However, the stronger a creature's will, the more it can resist that influence or even break free from it for a time. All Inquisitors exhibit a high tolerance to pain and most forms of physical damage. Depending on which Hemalurgic spikes the Inquisitor had, their abilities could vary immensely.

Steel spikes: Inquisitors have five steel spikes. They have one spike in their back between their shoulder blades, which sealed together all the other spikes. Then they have one spike in each eye and two between the ribs, to give them the four Allomantic Physical Powers (iron, steel, tin, and pewter). With the spike through their eyes, Inquisitors aren't able to see normally, but they can see via the blue lines that appeared when they burn iron or steel; in fact, it is possible that they don't need to burn anything to see the lines.

Bronze spikes: Inquisitors have four bronze spikes between the ribs, to give them the four Allomantic Mental Powers (zinc, brass, copper, and bronze). The Ministry often makes Inquisitors from people who already have the power to reveal Allomancy by burning bronze (either Mistborn or Seekers), so that the spike would enhance that power beyond the normal amount, and allow them to pierce copperclouds.

Atium spike: Most Inquisitors are able to see into other people's futures by burning atium. This would've been gained by an atium spike. It is located in their chest. Not all Inquisitors have this spike.

Gold spike: Most Inquisitors have a gold spike between the ribs to give them the Hybrid Feruchemy ability to store health. Not all Inquisitors have this ability; those who do often spent much of their time resting so as to store up reserves of health.

The Kolas are a bestial race of creatures created by the Lord Ruler through the use of Hemalurgy. The koloss are physically very large and very powerful. Koloss have blue skin and red eyes. A full-sized koloss could grow to be as tall as twelve feet. Koloss have a fixed amount of skin that does not change over their lifetime. Because of this, the younger a koloss is, the fatter it appears, due to having so much baggy skin covering itself. The skin itself doesn't hold terribly well to the koloss' body. As the koloss grow taller, their skin tears and fits tightly to them. An ancient koloss will have little to no skin at all, being covered instead in leather wrappings. A koloss continuously grows until its death. When it reaches about twelve feet, its heart can no longer sustain its body, and it dies shortly thereafter. Similar to Steel Inquisitors, the creation of a koloss is very brutal. To create a koloss, four humans are stabbed with individual iron spikes through their heart, and these spikes are then placed strategically on to a fifth person. Once placed, the spikes turn the recipient into a koloss "very quickly". It is possible to create Hemalurgic constructs similar to koloss using animals instead of humans as a base. It is possible to create sapient creatures similar to koloss from primates. The addition of four spikes containing the strength and a portion of the spiritweb of four other people causes them to grow in physical strength far beyond human limits as well as making it possible for them to continue growing in size until they can no longer physically support their own bodies and their hearts give out. The four spikes also have the effect of reducing their intelligence to almost that of a basic animal. These spikes can be reused, however they are subject to Hemalurgic decay, meaning that the power in the spikes diminishes with each re-use, which allows for more of the koloss' humanity to remain. The spiking, however, only affects them in the Physical Realm. When they appear in the Cognitive Realm after death, they look exactly like the humans they were before being spiked.

When a koloss dies, other koloss in the vicinity attempt to collect and reuse the spikes from the dead one. This results in the koloss being able to reproduce in a manner of speaking, provided that they have someone to receive the spikes. The koloss are periodically supplied with fresh spikes and skaa captives to produce more koloss. Koloss have four Hemalurgically charged iron spikes, which grant them increased strength. This allows them to wield their enormous blades, which are about the same size they are. The blades are blunt and not well made; koloss seem to rely on their brute strength to smash the blades into opponents, rather than any true technique. The Hemalurgic spikes, however, come with a price. In addition to twisting their bodies, the spikes also diminish a koloss' intelligence. However, they still retain the faint ability to reason, and the ability to communicate, and the re-use of spikes from dead koloss to create more resulted in koloss that retained more of their former humanity. Koloss can subsist off of nearly any substance and can eat almost anything, including dirt and ash. They are not bothered by the cold. Allomancers who are transformed into koloss will retain their Allomantic abilities, though they may not necessarily retain the knowledge to use those abilities.

Because of their diminished intelligence, the koloss live in barbaric tribes. Usually, social standing is determined by age, because as the koloss age, they get larger and more powerful. Koloss are said to have two emotional states: boredom and rage. Because of this, their day to day lives are filled with milling about and fighting. When there is nothing else to fight near them, the koloss turn to in-fighting. Their blades can be used as a means of population control, as well as weaponry. If a koloss doesn't have a sword it feels is of adequate size, it will have to kill another koloss and take its sword. If there are extra swords, the koloss will expect their handlers to make more koloss to take up those swords, and if there are not enough swords, the koloss will kill each other for them until there are. Most of the killing within a tribe is done solely on a whim, usually to get something the other koloss owns, or because some random glance or act has enraged one of the koloss.

The kandra are a species first created by the Lord Ruler during his Ascension. They have the ability to reshape their bodies and most are well-practiced at imitation, making them extremely sought-after as spies. Physically, the kandra resemble mistwraiths in their natural form. Unlike the mistwraiths, they are sentient, courtesy of two Hemalurgic spikes implanted in them. While mistwraiths are simply gelatinous conglomerates of various creatures, kandra can actually absorb a body and take on all of its characteristics. When impersonating a specific person, a kandra will use that person's bones and reshape their body to look exactly like that person's. When in the Homeland, most kandra use a True Body, which is a set of false bones that are crafted by a kandra artisan. Some True Body forms are quartz, and kandra show off their True Bodies by creating translucent skin that allows the stone to sparkle faintly in the light. A True Body does not have to be human-shaped, but most are. Some kandra build bodies for combat purposes, these bodies can be made of metal to be stronger and heavier and can have sharp bones to use as knives. Combined with the ability to heal and create stronger muscles, kandra can be extremely powerful warriors though not all of them want to be one. The members of the First Generation do not wear True Bodies, as the kandra did not originally know how to make them. Instead, they wear their own bones from before they became kandra. Kandra form an organ which functions as a brain to think. It doesn't need to be inside the head, and can be placed at a safer location in the kandra's body.

While the First Generation were created directly by the Lord Ruler, the First Generation creates all subsequent generations of kandra through "Blessings," a pair of Hemalurgic spikes charged with a human physical or mental attribute. The Lord Ruler provides Hemalurgic metal spikes to the kandra each century, in a number requested, and the kandra use these spikes to convert mistwraiths into full kandra. One Blessing converts a mistwraith into a sentient kandra. Kandra take longer to reach maturity than a human normally would take. During the years of the Lord Ruler's reign, there are a total of eleven Generations. The kandra do not know how to make new kandra spikes, though they have an inkling.

Kandra do not appear to die of natural causes, but they are not immortal, just incredibly long lived. One of the kandra secrets references the unknown acid mixture. Being bathed in acid can effectively kill a kandra, so this is one way how misbehaved kandra were executed in kandra homeland with the other way being starvation. Because of their ability to change shape, most damage to a kandra is of no consequence; they do feel normal physical pain as a result of trauma, though kandra have the ability to turn nerves off and thus experience no pain. This leads to kandra guards mostly using hammers to break bones, thus hindering movement. A kandra digesting another kandra can perform the killing, but it is unknown if the two kandra will fight and try to eat each other during the process. The kandra also developed a way to take their own lives at will.

Kandra have the ability to shapeshift. However, in most cases, they only have the ability to change into and take the appearance of any creature they have digested. Because of this, in order for a kandra to appear as anyone in particular, the subject must be dead and be digested. The shapeshifting process may take anything from several hours or even days to as little as a few seconds. The digestion is necessary also because kandra cannot create hair, fur, bones, or singer carapace, so these parts they must get from the digested victims, and be put into place one by one. Especially skilled kandra are able to make their own adjustments to the shape of the creature they are taking. Although mimicking an existing unique individual or creature is most common, the most skilled kandra can use just a skull or set of bones to build a working structure to gain the ability to move around freely and communicate. Being without bones will make kandra unable to move fast, speak or form any proper shape, but doesn't affect their mental ability. By reforming their body inside the mechanism, they can crack simple locks. Kandra are also known as unmatched actors. Before assuming the role of a certain person, a kandra will spend a significant amount of time observing the individual in order to learn their mannerisms, history, and relationships. As a result, it is almost impossible to tell a kandra apart from the actual individual they are impersonating. In combat, kandra can form powerful muscles and heal most wounds immediately, utilizing their ability to shapeshift. By creating a special True Body for this purpose, they can gain many advantages such as metal bones, hidden weapons, etc. Breaking bones can slow them greatly. Kandra are capable of assuming smaller shapes, but losing too much mass will cause a kandra to be unable to maintain their intelligence.

Kandra have spent ten centuries enslaved to humankind, serving the Contracts in an effort to keep themselves safe. Most kandra hate humans for their situation, but, ironically, most kandra True Bodies are human-shaped, with two arms, two legs, and a face, even while they curse humankind for keeping them enslaved. There are other jobs for kandra to perform in the Homeland, such as the teaching and instruction of young kandra, which is considered a prestigious job among kandra. They refer to the Lord Ruler as the Father, because he is responsible for their creation. The First Generation typically only communicates with the Second Generation. All subsequent generations are then created by the Seconds, every hundred years. In general, all decisions about law and order are communicated to the lower generations by the Second Generation, acting as something like government officials.

In the early days of the Final Empire, the kandra attempted to remain secret and blend into human society. However humans feared their abilities, calling them monsters, and began using Allomancy to hunt them down, by way of the Flaw, and kill them. After a few centuries, the kandra were almost extinct. Out of desperation, the kandra agreed to become servants to humans, never leaving the Homeland unless out on a Contract. As a result of this history, kandra are secretive about their culture and have an intense loathing for humans, which is only made worse by the poor treatment they often receive from their masters. Despite this, they adhere to their Contracts without question, and are often used as spies by the nobility. Fulfilling Contracts is their way of "paying for their freedom" to prevent humans from seeking ways to enslave them in other ways and finding out about their weakness to Allomancy. The terms of a Contract always prohibit a kandra from killing a human, changing bodies without permission, and revealing kandra secrets, and require the kandra to return to the Homeland if they break the terms of the Contract or if their master dies before the Contract expires. On top of that, the fulfilling of Contracts also has another purpose. A Contract must be paid for in atium, which is then brought to the Homeland where it is stockpiled in a metal vault known as the Trust.

The Steel Ministry is the religion and the government bureaucracy of the Empire. It is made up of various divisions, named Cantons, and the members of the Ministry are called obligators. The Inquisitors are also part of the Steel Ministry. One of the main functions of the Ministry is to witness a myriad of contracts and agreements, even something as simple as promise to come to a game of shelldry. The nobility pay the Lord Ruler for their services in a manner similar to that of renting skaa. As the authority in bureaucratic matters, any mercantile contracts, divorces, weddings, land purchases, inheritances, or any other important dealings could only be authorised by obligators. If one of the Ministry hasn't witnessed an event or sealed a document, it might as well not have happened or have been written. However, obligators are also used to witness less formal agreements, such as bets between friends.

The Steel Ministry is organized into subsections named Cantons. The priests are called obligators and the Steel Inquisitors are obligators who have been Hemalurgically granted all the powers of a Mistborn. Each Canton of the Ministry runs a specific part of the Empire's government.

There are many philosophers in the Steel Ministry and most end up in the Canton of Resource, the best place for those with analytical minds. This Canton is tasked with trade, transport, and taxation. A large portion of the atium mined at the Pits of Hathsin is secretly transported by the Canton of Resource to the Trustwarren or to be distributed by the Lord Ruler. There are obligators on duty at the Pits all the time to extract the metal from the geode while in a metal room. The beads of atium are then hidden in Ministry funds to be transported to Luthadel for distribution. They are disguised in piles of coins since metal coins radiate light in the Cognitive Realm. The Canton is also in charge of maintaining supply lines to the other Cantons, for feeding the people, and maintaining the canals.

The national headquarters of the Canton of Resource is in Luthadel while one of the Western Dominance's regional headquarters is in Fadrex City and houses the fifth, and final, of the Lord Ruler's storage caches. The single story building housing the regional headquarters in Fadrex City is blocky and utilitarian with sharp, flat walls and small windows. It is the largest of any Ministry buildings in the city because it acts as a way station between Luthadel and more important cities (such as Tremredare) to the west. This gives this Canton influence in Fadrex City, which makes Prelan Aradan Yomen, the head of the Canton locally, the top religious authority in the city.

The Canton of Inquisition is run by the Steel Inquisitors and acts as law enforcement, especially over the Allomantic community. Members of the Canton of Inquisition have the usual tattoos around their eyes, with the addition of a stark red line on the side of their face. Administrators in this Canton collect and file information that might assist in the policing efforts. This information is about noble houses, skaa rebels, and the other Cantons. In addition to dealing with anyone that goes against Ministry protocol, the Canton of Inquisition also maintains Soothing stations all around the city of Luthadel. The purpose of these bases is to dampen the emotions of everyone in the area, calming and depressing them to prevent rebellion. In addition, many Inquisitors find skaa Mistings by installing Seekers in these stations. There are between thirty to forty Soothing stations around the city, each with three Soothers, a Seeker, and a Smoker who has the job of masking the Allomancy to anyone outside.

The Canton of Inquisition was formed sometime during the sixth century of the Lord Ruler's reign. This Canton was the one to suggest the Terris breeding programs to the Lord Ruler in order to keep the Terris population under control. The Lord Ruler agreed to it provisionally, and the programs were then kept until the collapse of the Final Empire. However, the subjugation of the Terris people started far before the Canton of Inquisition created the idea of the breeding programs.

The Conventical of Seran is a fortress inside a crater to the south of Luthadel. The fortress belongs to the Canton of Inquisition and may be the place where new inquisitors are created. Kwaan's inscription is in a chamber of this building in addition to various torture chambers. The Inquistitors' torture chambers are Hemalurgic laboratories, intended to discover new creations, but few know of these chambers' true purpose. The Canton of Inquisition building in Urteau, above one of the Lord Ruler's supply caches, is broad and imposing. Typical for buildings in Urteau, it was built of wood instead of stone. While more austere than most Ministry buildings, there is still a variety of decor in the form of tapestries, metal trim, red rugs, and hearths in every room.

An obligator is needed to witness or approve anything significant going on in the Empire. Without their approval, agreements and contracts aren't morally or legally binding. Any legal assassination requires the Ministry's approval, usually through bribery. Obligators, in addition to witnessing agreements, run all public works in the Empire. They oversee programs such as sewage and engineering, and most of the head engineers who design city plans are obligators themselves. In addition to their bureaucratic functions, the obligators serve as the Lord Ruler's religious leaders. They teach the Lord Ruler's religion to skaa and noblemen alike. The obligators determine who the nobility is allowed to marry as part of their religious duties. Obligators are allowed to be married. Those who become an obligator forfeit their surname. The Lord Ruler requires more devotion from the obligators; they practice religious worship and have to maintain a religious air that is unnecessary for nobles. Some of the religious practices for the Steel Ministry include daily prayers and ceremonies to the Lord Ruler.

Obligators are distinguished by their shaved heads and intricate black tattoos around their eyes that signify rank and Canton membership. They typically wear dark grey robes.

The ranks are: Obligator, Prelan, High Prelan, Steel Inquisitor and Lord Prelan.

The philosophy taught most often by the Steel Ministry is that the skaa are cursed and the nobility are blessed. The basic doctrine behind this philosophy is that the nobility has prestige and access to Allomancy because their ancestors were loyal to the Lord Ruler, while the skaa are being punished for the sins of their own ancestors. The Mistborn are descendants of the only men who supported the Lord Ruler before his Ascension, in this belief system. It is their belief that before his Ascension, the Lord Ruler was only a mortal man. He is revered as the creator and savior of the world, the "Sliver of Infinity". The Lord Ruler's status in the religion is as a piece of God, not omnipresent or omniscient. He is a physical, independent section of a greater consciousness. Sometimes, the Well of Ascension was mentioned in teachings concerning the Lord Ruler and his Ascension. When the Deepness, taught to be a dark monster, threatened the world, the Lord Ruler slew it and saved the world. He punished the people's lack of faith with the ash and mists. Not much else on the Deepness or the Lord Ruler is taught; religion is seen as something the Ministry would take care of on their own. Skaa aren't taught much of the Ministry's doctrine. Skaa and nobles alike were required to fulfill their roles in the Empire and obey the Lord Ruler, but neither devotion nor faith is requested for either group. Worship of any other god was forbidden. For the obligators, more worship is required. Daily prayer and ceremonies to the Lord Ruler are practices of the religion. There is a ritual that involves an altar made of gold. It is centered in a room with four candelabra at the corners. Near the altar, Alendi's journal, written in Khlenni, was kept. A bowl of small, triangular knives was kept on a pillar nearby to be used in the ritual. The knives were occasionally used for the worshiper to slice their own body. Weddings were characterized only by the presence of an obligator to witness the fact. Sometimes additional ceremonies would be added, but there wasn't a standard; the obligator's presence was the only requirement. The Ministry's position on sexuality was dependent on how much they were paid.

The Steel Ministry functions similarly to being its own noble house, with contracts and agreements to gain wealth and leverage. Corruption is commonplace within its ranks, and it is notorious for taking bribes. There was a long standing rivalry between the various Cantons for control of the Ministry. Both men and women can be part of the Steel Ministry and some women even become Inquisitors. Rising through the ranks of the Ministry is influenced strongly by Allomantic abilities. Those with abilities, especially with metals judged to be valuable, rise quickly and are placed in positions of power. Seekers are one of the common Mistings recruited most diligently by the obligators. Atium Mistings are the most valuable type sought for by the Ministry. In order to search them out and recruit them, Inquisitors put trace amounts of atium into the drinks at balls periodically. They cause a disturbance while burning bronze to seek out those who begin to burn the metals instinctively. When someone joins the Ministry who is not already a Misting, they are given a larger amount of atium without their knowing and are forced through a series of rituals designed to exhaust the recruit so their body would Snap and reactively burn the metal. Noblemen address Inquisitors, and presumably obligators, as "Your Grace".

Mistwraiths are a species of creature that were created by the Lord Ruler from the Terris Feruchemists after he took the power at the Well of Ascension. Like kandra, mistwraiths appear to be amorphous blobs capable of absorbing bones and tissue of other creatures to gain shape. However, unlike kandra, since they do not possess sentience, their shapes are random and mix many different species into one. Contradictory to their typically huge and unnerving appearance, they are actually quite harmless and only eat dead bodies. Mistwraiths are people who have a blockage between the Physical Realm and the Cognitive Realm, which impairs their ability to think. They have a lifespan of roughly fifty years and are able to breed. A single Hemalurgic spike is enough to staple a Cognitive Shadow to a mistwraith, though whether this has happened in the past is unknown.

They are usually fearful existences in skaa folklore, associated with skaa's fear toward mists. It is believed that mistwraiths can take a person's face or fully impersonate them; one way to be sure a person is not a mistwraith is to take them out into the sunlight and verify that they don't disappear.

Through the use of Hemalurgy they could regain the sentience they once possessed, becoming kandra after being implanted with two Hemalurgic spikes. Removing both spikes brings the kandra back to their "primal state," once again becoming a mistwraith. The transformation from mistwraith back to kandra is quick, although this could depend on how much time passes in each state. The transition from mistwraith to kandra requires specific types of Hemalurgic spikes, known as blessings. Other types of Hemalurgic spikes, such as those that create koloss, would not necessarily be enough to transform the mistwraith into a kandra if ingested. However, they would cause weird side effects.