The Kelsier-Marsh-Mare relationship was something that just kind of grew naturally as I was writing. When I started designing the characters for this book, I knew that I wanted Kelsier to have gone through something very traumatic. I settled on a time spent in the Lord Ruler’s slave camps, then built his having a wife out of that.
Marsh’s unspoken love for Mare wasn’t something I originally intended. It actually worked into the story as I was writing this very chapter. I needed tension between Marsh and Kelsier for their relationship to work the way I wanted it to. However, Marsh’ disapproval of Kelsier just wasn’t enough—especially since Marsh himself had given up leadership of the skaa rebellion, proving that he himself wasn’t as much of a hero as he wishes he was.
Mare provided the perfect explanation for their tension. It was something I could imply in just a few sentences, then gain a lot of weight of back-story.
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