Kelsier, known as the Survivor of Hathsin, is a Mistborn and one of the point of view characters of Mistborn: The Final Empire. He is recognizable by the distinctive scars running down his arms.
History
Kelsier and his brother Marsh were the sons of a Noble father and a Skaa mother. When Kelsier's father discovered the truth of their parentage he had their mother executed and attempted to do the same to the brothers, who fled. This created a sense of resentment of the nobility in both children, which resulted in Marsh becoming the leader of the Skaa Rebellion and Kelsier became a crewleader for a gang of Misting thieves, stealing from the noble families. He fell in love with a crewmember named Mare, whom he later married. Marsh, who was also in love with Mare, came to resent Kelsier for winning her love and for constantly outshadowing him.
Kelsier continued in his life of crime, despite having amassed enough wealth to live comfortably. In one last heist, Kelsier's crew attempted to steal from the Lord Ruler himself in Kredik Shaw. They are captured by the Lord Ruler and his Steel Inquisitors, who are able to sense Mare's use of allomancy through the [[Allomancy#Copper|copperclouds]. The Lord Ruler thanks Mare, causing Kelsier to come to the conclusion that Mare must have betrayed him and he begins to distrust her.
Both are sentenced to a life of hard labor mining Atium in the Pits of Hathsin. Sixteen months later, when Kelsier was unable to fulfill his weekly quota of atium geodes, Mare gave Kelsier hers, claiming that she had found another that week. Kelsier discovers that Mare had tricked him after handing in his geode and was forced to watch Mare being beaten to death by the guards. Kelsier protested, earning himself a violent beating. This event causes Kelsier to Snap, finally becoming a fully fledged Mistborn himself. He killed the guards and escaped the Pits of Hathsin.
Kelsier begins to travel and in the following years learns the art of Allomancy from an old Skaa Mistborn named Gemmel as well as unearthing a bar of the fabled Eleventh Metal, with which he hopes to kill the Lord Ruler. Despite his suspicion that Mare betrayed him, he decides to fulfill Mare's dream of overthrowing the Final Empire and re-creating the old world. When Kelsier is offered a deal by Yeden to overthrow the Lord Ruler, he quickly accepts.
Travelling back to Luthadel, he begins to assemble a thieving crew to put his plan into motion. His best friend, Dockson, helps him follow up on Marsh's reports of a Skaa Mistborn, finding Vin. He also convinces Breeze, Ham and Clubs to join the conspiracy by offering a share of the Lord Ruler's stash of valuable Atium as loot. Vin joins in exchange for Kelsier's training. Kelsier's estranged brother Marsh also joins, hoping to realize his own dream of a successful Skaa Rebellion despite his disapproval of Kelsier's methods.
Kelsier's role takes advantage of his Mistborn training, allowing him to assassinate Nobles in order to destablize the Great Houses and use his reputation as the Survivor of Hathsin to inspire the newly-trained Skaa soldiers. However, he slowly comes to realize that the Skaa people are too downtrodden for the Rebellion to succeed and begins to change his plans. After the destruction of Yeden's army in a disastrous raid, he rallies the troops.
Kelsier changes plans, destroying the Atium-producing crystals in the Pits of Hathsin and halting the production of Atium in the near-future. As the Lord Ruler begins randomly executing Skaa in an attempt to quell the populace, Kelsier attacks and frees the prisoners, killing a Steel Inquisitor in the process. However, he is himself confronted by and killed by the Lord Ruler himself.
Kelsier has the Kandra OreSeur ingest his remains, masquerading as a resurrected holy figure. OreSeur incites the Skaa to rebel, beginning the revolution and the overthrow of the Final Empire. After his apprentice Vin kills the Lord Ruler, OreSeur lays Kelsier's bones to rest. Kelsier's matyrdom and seeming resurrection spawns a new religion, the Church of the Survivor, which venerates Kelsier's teachings.
Personality
Kelsier is brave, charismatic and optimistic. A natural leader, Kelsier used his charismatic personality to draw skilled and loyal Mistings to his own crew and eventually to lead an army to destroy the Final Empire. Optimistic to a fault, Kelsier claims that he smiles solely because laughter is the only thing that the Lord Ruler cannot take from them. His cheerful exterior hides his doubts over Mare's loyalty, whom he continues to believe had betrayed him until Vin demonstrates that it is possible to pierce copperclouds.
Kelsier is also highly impulsive, on one occasion attempting to attack an entire army singe-handedly.
He is shown to be ruthless and prejudiced, killing nobility and the Skaa who serve them with absolutely no qualms. He overcomes this character flaw eventually, when Vin convinces him that there are good people among the nobility.
Powers & Abilities
Kelsier is a fully trained Mistborn, despite his half-Noble half-Skaa ancestry. Although he has only come into his powers three years before the beginning of Mistborn: The Final Empire, Kelsier repeatedly demonstrates a level of power and finesse greater than that of most other Mistborn. In addition, Kelsier is a competent warrior, defeating multiple hazekillers and Mistings while outnumbered and disarmed.
Although Vin assumes him to have only trained partially using each metal, Kelsier is extremely skilled at Steelpushing and Ironpulling, a skill he demonstrates when he defeats and kills the Steel Inquisitor Bendal.