| abstract
| - Before the events of the book, Elend was born to Straff Venture, a greedy and politicking menace who used people to further his own needs. As a child, Elend was beaten in front of his father to see if any latent Allomantic powers would be drawn out. The endeavor proved futile, which makes Elend resent the brutal system of searching for Allomancers. When Elend was thirteen years of age, Straff decided that it was time for Elend to "become a man". He took his son to a skaa brothel and picked out a woman for Elend to bed for night. As was ordered by his father, Elend slept with the skaa woman, but was not told that she was to be killed the next morning to prevent her from siring any half-breed children. Elend hated his father from then on and began performing defiant acts against him, such as ignoring social functions and reading during balls. At some point, Straff took his son and family out of their seat, Urteau, and moved to the Central Dominance to become a Great House in Luthadel. In order to rise to power, Straff dealt with the Lord Ruler directly to service the mining of the Pits of Hathsin. He kept his source of wealth a secret from the rest of noble society, making his rise to power quite a mystery. Elend thought his father was being foolish in basing his financial income on directly pleasing the Lord Ruler. At age twenty-one, Elend formed a group of young heirs to noble houses to form future alliances whenever they inherited. They read books that he picked out to study political theory, though most of them found their meetings to be not worth the time, as Elend was the only heir to an influential house in Luthadel.
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