El Imperio Final (libro)/Epígrafes

The Epigraphs in Mistborn: The Final Empire, first book of The Mistborn Trilogy, are all selections from the journal of Alendi in roughly chronological order.

Prologue:

Sometimes I worry that I'm not the hero everyone thinks I am.

The philosophers assure me that this is the time, that the signs have been met. But I still wonder if they have the wrong man. So many people depend on me. They say I will hold the future of the entire world on my arms.

What would they think if they knew that their champion - the Hero of Ages, their savior - doubted himself? Perhaps they wouldn't be shocked at all. In a way, this is what worries me most. Maybe, in their hearts, they wonder - just as I do.

When they see me, do they see a liar?

Chapter 1:

I consider myself to be a man of principle. But, what man does not? Even the cutthroat, I have noticed, considers his actions "moral" after a fashion.

Perhaps another person, reading of my life, would name me a religious tyrant. He could call me arrogant. What is to make that man's opinions any less valid than my own?

I guess it all comes down to one fact: In the end, I'm the one with the armies.

Chapter 2:

If men read these words, let them know that power is a heavy burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains. The Terris prophecies say that I will have the power to save the world.

They hint, however, that I will have the power to destroy it as well.

Chapter 3:

We arrived in Terris earlier this week, and, I have to say, I find the countryside beautiful. The great mountains to the north - with their bald snowcaps and forested mantles - stand like the watchful gods over this land of green fertility. My own lands to the south are mostly flat; I think that they might look less dreary if there were a few mountains to vary the terrain.

The people are mostly herdsmen - though timber harvesters and farmers are not uncommon. It is a pastoral land, certainly. It seems odd that a place so remarkably agrarian could have produced the prophecies and theologies upon which the entire world now relies.

Chapter 4:

Apparently, the next stage of my quest will take us up into the highlands of Terris. This is said to be a cold, unforgiving place - a land where the mountains themselves are made of ice.

Our normal attendants will not do for such a trip. We should probably hire some Terris packmen to carry our gear.

Chapter 5:

I don't even understand what I'm supposed to do. The Terris philosophers claim that I'll know my duty when the time comes, but that's a small comfort.

The Deepness must be destroyed, and apparently I'm th only one who can do so. It ravages the world even now. If I don't stop it soon, there will be nothing left of this land but bones and dust.

Chapter 6:

I never wanted this, true. But somebody has to stop the Deepness. And, apparently, Terris is the only place this can be done.

On this fact, however, I don't have to take the word of the philosophers. I can feel our goal now, can sense it, though the others cannot. It...pulses, in my mind, far off in the mountains.

Chapter 7:

Rashek is a tall man - of course, most of the Terrismen are tall. He is young to receive so much respect from the other packmen. he has charisma, and the women of court would probably describe him as handsome, in a rugged sort of way.

Yet, it amazes me that anyone would give heed to a man who speaks such hatred. he has never seen Khlennium, yet he curses the city. He does not know me, yet I can already see the anger and hostility in his eyes.

Chapter 8:

"He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name shall be Discord, yet they shall love him for it."

Chapter 9:

In the end, I worry that my arrogance shall destroy us all.

Chapter 10:

It amazes me how many nations have united behind our purpose. there are still dissenters, of course - and some kingdoms, regrettably, have fallen to wars that I could not stop.

Still, this general unity is glorious, even humbling, to contemplate. I wish that the nations of mankind hadn't required such a dire threat to make them see the value of peace and cooperation.

Chapter 11:

It seems Rashek represents a growing faction in Terris culture. A large number of the youths think that their unusual powers should be used for more than just fieldwork, husbandry, and stonecarving. They are rowdy, even violent - far different from the quiet, discerning Terris philosophers and holy men that I have known.

They will have to be watched carefully, there Terrismen. They could be very dangerous, if given the opportunity and the motivation.

Chapter 12:

What would it be like if every nation - from the isles in the South to the Terris hills in the North - were united under a single government? What wonders could be achieved, what progress could be made, if mankind were to permanently set aside its squabblings and join together?

It is too much, I suppose, to even hope for. A single, unified empire of man? It could never happen.

Chapter 13:

I know that I shouldn't let a simple packman perturb me. However, he is from Terris, where the prophecies originated. If anyone could spot a fraud, would it not be he?

Nevertheless, I continue my trek, going where the scribbled auguries proclaim that I will meet my destiny - walking, feeling Rashek's eyes on my back. Jealous. Mocking. Hating.

Chapter 14:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm going mad.

Perhaps it is due to the pressure of knowing that I must somehow bear the burden of an entire world. Perhaps it is caused by the death I have seen, the friends I have lost. The friends I have been forced to kill.

Either way, I sometimes see shadows following me. Dark creatures that I don't understand, not wish to understand. Are they, perhaps, some figment of my overtaxed mind?

Chapter 15:

I don't know why Kwaan betrayed me. Even still, this event haunts my thoughts. He was the one who discovered me; he was the Terris philosopher who first called me the Hero of Ages. It seems ironically surreal that now - after his long struggle to convince his colleagues - he is the only major Terris holy man to preach against my reign.

Chapter 16:

Many think that my journey started in Khlennium that great city of wonder. They forget that I was no king when my quest began. Far from it.

I think it would do men well to remember that this task was not begun by emperors, priests, prophets, or generals. It didn't start in Khlennium or Kordel, not did it come from the great nations to the east or or the fiery empire of the West.

It began in a small, unimportant town whose name would mean nothing to you. It began with a youth, the son of a blacksmith, who was unremarkable in every way - except, perhaps, in his ability to get into trouble.

It began with me.

Chapter 17:

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I'd remained there, in that lazy village of my birth. I'd have become a smith, like my father. Perhaps I'd have a family, sons of my own.

Perhaps someone else would have come to carry this terrible burden. Someone who could bear it far better than I. Someone who deserved to be a hero.

Chapter 18:

You could say that circumstances forced me to leave my home behind - certainly, if I had stayed, I would now be dead. During those days - running without knowing why, carrying a burden I didn't understand - I assumed that I would lose myself in Khlennium and seek a life of indistinction.

I am slowly coming to understand that anonymity, like so many other things, has already been lost to me forever.

Chapter 19:

Kwaan and I met by happenstance - though, I suppose, he would use the word "providence."

I have met many other Terris philosophers since that day. They are, every one, men of great wisdom and ponderous sagaciousness. men with n almost palpable importance.

Not so Kwaan. In a way, he is as unlikely a prophet as I am a hero. He never had an air of ceremonious wisdom - nor was he even a religious scholar. When we first met, he was studying one of his ridiculous interests in the great Khlenni library - I believe he was trying to determine whether or not trees could think.

That he should be the one who finally discovered the great Hero of Terris prophecy is a matter that would cause me to laugh, had events turned out just a little differently.

Chapter 20:

It isn't a shadow.

This dark thing that follows me, the thing that only I can see - It isn't really a shadow. It's blackish and translucent, but it doesn't have a shadowlike solid outline. It's insubstantial - wispy and formless. Like it's made out of a dark fog.

Or mist, perhaps.

Chapter 21:

"The Hero of Ages shall be not a man, but a force. No nation may claim him, no woman shall keep him, and no king may slay him. He shall belong to none, not even himself."

Chapter 22:

At first, there were those who didn't think the Deepness was a serious danger, at least not to them. However, it brought with it a blight that I have seen infect nearly every part of the land. Armies are useless before it. Great cities are laid low by its power. Crops fail, and the land dies.

This is the thing I fight. This is the monster I must defeat. I fear that I have taken too long. Already, so much destruction has occurred that I fear for mankind's survival.

Is this truly the end of the world, as many of the philosophers predict?