Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

What was Zane's hemalurgical power? (Or was he just spiked for control?)

Extra power with Pushing on metals. It lent him extremely great precision.

mistborn, hemalurgy, allomancy, zane,

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

Did Zane get spiked intentionally? Did someone else (Straff?) know about hemalurgy?

Zane spiked himself. It was...a very twisted and messy process. Note that Ruin tries to get Spook to do something similar. It's much easier for him to work with someone to get them to spike themselves than it is to arrange the exact circumstances where someone gets spiked.

mistborn, first mistborn trilogy, hero of ages, zane, spook, ruin, hemalurgy,

Hero of Ages Q&A - TWG (Verbatim)

How much control do Allomancers have over pushing and pulling metals?

Depends on the Allomancer. Zane and Kelsier were both unusually skilled in this area, and represent the higher end of what is possible.

mistborn, first mistborn trilogy, zane, kelsier, allomancy,

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension Annotations (Verbatim)

As I said before, the Zane chapters originally started earlier in the book. I pushed them back in order to keep the mystery a little longer and to streamline the beginning.

Now I can finally get into his story. Zane is important for several reasons, many of which I can't really explain without spoiling not only this book, but the next one. One of his most basic functions is to provide a foil for Elend. An opposite. Elend is safety, and Zane is danger. They share many similar features, but in Zane, most of those features are twisted.

He also represents a throwback to Kelsier. He is more like the Survivor than he'll probably ever understand.

Making him insane like this was a gamble on my part. I worry that, at first, it seems cliche. There's a whole lot more going on with Zane than you might assume, but your introduction to him is that of a schizophrenic villain who likes to cut himself. This might just seem like a grab-bag of psychosis, but I ask you to stick with me on this one. Zane has been many of my alpha-readers favorite character.

characterization, zane,

Mistborn: The Well of Ascension Annotations (Verbatim)

Straff is generally everyone's least favorite character—though that's kind of what I expected. He's not insane; he's just a terrible person. Those do, unfortunately, exist—given his power and upbringing, he's not all that surprising in his bullyness.

I wanted to provide a range of villains for this series. The Lord Ruler was one type of villain—the untouchable god, distant and mysterious. Straff is another: the downright, simple bully with too much power and not enough wisdom. Zane is our third villain—sympathetic, edgy, and possibly more dangerous than either of the two.

characterization, straff, lord ruler, zane,

Chicago

Is there any possibility of Vin and Zane being half-siblings?

Is there any possibility? No… Good guess, but no.

Vin, Zane,

Shadows of Self-San Jose

Zane: when and how did he get spiked?

Excellent question, that someday I will answer, but not right now. RAFO!

Zane, hemalurgy,