Who is Trell?

John Flamesinger · February 25, 2019

All I know of him is that he's at Scadrial Era 2, and he's in White Sand Volume 2. But who is he?

+Invocation · February 25, 2019

Here's a rabbit hole of a topic again! All the WOBs I'm pulling from will be in a spoiler.

Alright, so, Trell in Mistborn:

In Era 1, Sazed preaches Trelagism to Vin, a religion from an Alaska-like area where the sun doesn't set all the time. This religion, naturally, ends up contained with the Words of Founding, and Miles picks up on it and takes the religion for his own (curiously calling it Trellism, not Trelagism). Trell is further revealed to be another force pressing in on Scadrial, which has been confirmed to be another Shard, one which we had seen at that point. Common theory is that it's Autonomy.

In White Sand, Trell is a foreman. That's all we know about him as far as I am aware.

Spoiler

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Is the metal that Bleeder was associated with and had, is the Shard associated with that metal the same entity that's calling itself Trell?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Yes.

Oathbringer Portland signing (Nov. 16, 2017)

Brandon Sanderson

Chapter Fifteen

Miles talks with Suit, gets two minders, then burns gold to see two versions of himself

One curiosity of dealing only with Mistings, rather than full Mistborn, was what to do with the less powerful metals. Certainly a Pewterarm or a Tineye can be useful. We've seen them in the series do plenty of interesting things.

But what about a person who can burn only gold? I think there's just one place in the entire first trilogy where someone does it, the time Vin burns it in the first book. (I may have put a second time in; I don't recall.) Gold, as a power, was placed into the schematics to give a clue as to what the Eleventh Metal was. Beyond that, I wanted some of the powers of Allomancy to be more metaphysical, more thoughtful, and less about combat.

I'd already decided that Miles would be a Gold Compounder, capable of the Lord Ruler's healing. That meant he had to be a gold Misting. What would one do, with this power? Ignore it? Was there a way to use it? His nature as a gold Misting is a large part of why Miles is such a thoughtful, introspective person. He is not a good man, but he is a self-reflecting one.

There's more going on here, of course. Pay attention to the name he mentions: Trell. This is one of the gods from the ancient religions Sazed talked about. You might think that the spikes in Miles will let Sazed influence him directly, and they would—except that Sazed has taken a complete "free will is needed" perspective on life. He won't let himself take control of people directly unless they've "given themselves" to him, as most of the kandra have at this point. Even then, he usually only nudges.

But there is something odd going on with Miles.

The Alloy of Law Annotations (Nov. 30, 2015)

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

Is the entity now calling itself Trell, was-- is Trell the real Trell that was worshiped by the Trelagists?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

RAFO.