*This post contains mega spoilers for the original Mistborn trilogy and the “Era 2” Mistborn novels*
“…You said their prayer–is this the religion that you believe in, then?”
“I believe in them all.”
Vin frowned. “None of them contradict each other?”
Sazed smiled. “Oh, often and frequently they do. But, I respect the truths behind them all–and I believe in the need for each one to be remembered.”
This brief exchange between Vin and Sazed in The Final Empire encapsulates the cosmere-ic take on religion. Sazed holds to the importance and even the truth of all beliefs, and these beliefs are deeply important because they are central to what it means to be human. I wrote recently on the Kelsier story as a counter narrative to the Christ story. Kelsier is shown as the flawed savior perhaps too in touch with his humanity. In a way Kelsier was driven by the same spirit as Sazed, seeing the deep importance of faith itself in the lives of story-telling beings.
There is really a sort of humanism at play here. In the Cosmere, one can truly value various beliefs because no religion can play a trump card against the others, since all of them are important because of how they both feed and manifest the human spirit. It is the affirmation of some beauty, goodness, and truth out there without affirming one specific source of beauty, goodness, and truth. This sort of plurality scares people. It’s scary to think that the source of truth for my specific group might not be *the* source of truth.
Yet part of what drives Sazed in his devotion to all religions is the fundamental lack of the Terris people–that they do not remember their own religion.There is a pleasure in enjoying other religions that heals even as it provokes the existential pain of the Terris people. But on Sazed’s journey toward truth and the faith of his people, he makes perhaps shocking discoveries about the nature of the divinity.
The great move in the Mistborn series is that Sazed, Luthadel’s resident expert in the divine, essentially becomes God. When Sazed picks up the power of Ruin and Preservation, he becomes Harmony, at once becoming a god but also realizing that he is only a piece of Divinity. In the Cosmere, there once was a God, Adonalsium, who was at one point shattered, it’s power taken up by sixteen individuals. As a lover of belief and the search for the divine–of the truly human–Sazed is uniquely suited to take on this power and uncover the deeper secrets of the universe.
Sazed discovers an impotence in divinity. In Mistborn Era 2, Wax, maintains a trust in Harmony as “God,” until Harmony royally effs up his life. Though I would say in some ways Sanderson prepared readers for this with Kelsier, the flawed savior. In the Cosmere, there is power that people can access, and there are new heights of awareness which people can reach. These powers are understandably associated with the Divine, but it is becoming clearer that the “gods” are fighting their own battles and often playing the same games as humanity. What this means for the “God beyond” or the source of ultimate reality is unclear.
The Unedited Book Review 