Timewaster's Guide Archive

Thanks for the help. 

And for that tip on bendalloy. Ya, she's a huge BS fan as well, though she doesn't have as much time to read as I do. She was with me at the St. Louis signing, we joked about the girl there wearing the mistcloak and how she wished she had one to walk down the aisle. Now that would have been cool because I picked a white suit that I imagine looked like what Elend wore. 

Thanks again for all the help.

My fiance and I are getting married, and we're having a BS themed reception. Actually it's mostly mistborn, simply because it's easier to make vials for wedding favors than shardblades for everyone. 

Anyway, our table seating is arranged around the allomantic metals. I've been trying to get the symbols into singular images to set up next to the names to identify the tables. I have the poster, but no scanner. It's my desktop background, but I can't get the individual images singled out.

If anyone knows how, or where to find images of the symbols individually, I would greatly appreciate a nod in the right direction. Thanks.

Is the prelude to the series available? Or is it only for alpha's?
Just wondering cause I love his books and drink in as much as possible; except they still won't send Dragonsteel to my library--Grrrrrr...

Ok, I've got one I'll share. Came up with it a while back, and it's partly inspired by the taint from wot. Put it aside because, quite frankly I suck at writing political intrigue so far.

The basic idea was power in exchange for going crazy (losing yourself actaully). What I loved about it was the distorted culture. There are no heroes or legends in their world. Anyone who achieved any large scale influence, with either good or bad intentions, ended up detroying the kingdoms they created or killing everyone they came across until armies were raised to bring them down. Scarring their name forever.

I won't bore you with the slowly emerging history, but everyone of a certain bloodline has a Stranger. They are always there, talk to you, and of course are only seen and heard by you. The only way for someone to know you have one is if you slip or are seen wielding power. And anyone will kill you on site for what you are. They are of course pure evil.   Talking about doing horrible things, telling you to kill or maim. Imagine Zane on acid.

To get power, different kinds of power for different Strangers, all you have to do is accept them. Then, instead of being an everpresent ghost haunting you they infuse you with power. Everytime you accept them, you lose a little of yourself to them, until they are running the show and you watch from behind the scenes. They crave to be in control and will do their best to get you to accept power. They whisper in your ear about how they can help handle one situation or another, the power they can grant you. And everytime you accept it becomes harder to reject letting them in. They are completely insane, switching moods and how they treat you, to try and gain control depending on how far gone you are.

The jist was that one of the protags figured out how to bottle it all up. To lock away giving over until he's finished what he needs to do. Then he could kill himself before his stranger wrecks everything he does. He becomes the first hero stories are told about in the future. Two povs are opposing rulers trying to deal with their strangers while hiding it from everyone else, had some pretty good scenes with them.
So...critique, love, hate, find faults...I could use them all. It's midnight and I'm tired. Already deleted this once on accident by spell checking, allowing popups, then BAM...it was all gone. This was all I could push out as fast as possible. Good night.

Though I am new, I have followed this forum since before HoA, delighted with the theories and speculation on the metallic arts. I have since become enthralled with Hoid and Adonalsium so I'll jump right in...

I am currently doing a thorough read through of WoA, searching for the elusive Hoid reference. I'm nearing the end, but have had a change in idea before even finishing. Up to this point I have been marking anyone alluded to with an "odd" quality or behavior. I have disregarded any other qualities (including gender or age) due to the statement that he is "heavily in disguise". Nevertheless this may not refer to his appearance, so I added anyone who was bald or short (Final Empire description). A few of these have been mentioned and rightfully dismissed.

On pg.42 Teur is referenced as having, "...natural desire for notoriety would make him want to gossip about his experience." And a couple paragraphs later, "Teur apparently had a reputation for tall tales." If it wasn't for him being named I would lean toward a Hoid reference.
pg.44 young man with club leg surviving as a skaa plantation worker
pg.46 the man with the guards (never referred to directly as a nobleman, but Vin was referring to them at the time)
pg.47 the bald man following Vin (though he has hair on the sides of his head)
pg.49 wolfhound merchant
pg.72 bob of light; unfortunate late night traveler (dismissed, added because Vin doesn't dwell on it)
pg.78 dark form in the shadows (dismissed, likely tensoon/Zane)
pg.87 obligators in back showing no reaction to the comments on them (Vin worried about the strangeness)
~pg226 dressmaker/assistant, who knows of fashion outside Luthadel, knows Vin (dismissed)
pg.229 bald man with cap (dismissed)

I went a few hundred pages further, but I stopped because this didn't seem to be getting me anywhere.
Mr. Sanderson said that most of Hoid's influence had to be cut from the book, leaving only a small hint. And that we should be wondering what he's been up to in these books, so I thought to start reasoning differently.

Hoid might not be referenced to as a person at all. It may just be his influence that sparks something odd noticeable in another person. I think that Cett is the key. He led Vin to the "man humming to himself" out in Fadrex city. Which means that he had to have contact with Hoid before he left for the Luthadel seige in WoA.

On pg. 394 Cett is seen by Elend as having intentionally put himself in a, "no going back" situation because he's desperate. Maybe he came to Luthadel only because of the influence of someone (Hoid) back in Fadrex. (Though this doesn't make much sense because the influence would have had to happen before WoA, and he tells Vin later that he figured Straff would come for him eventually and he had no allomancers)

Ham is of course noted many times for his strange behavior, not as argumentative or philosophical as he was before

On pg.306 Demoux is seen as walking stooped and nervous, later (336-341) when he meets with the church members and Vin asks him where he first heard about her bringing back the sun and stopping the ash falling he doesn't know, Vin chalks it up to rumors and doesn't mention it again, could Hoid have started these rumors

At the end when Elend is stabbed and dying, Vin finds it eerie that as he grew closer to death, he actually seemed more in control...and then he tries to say something.

I think, from the way the deleted scenes footprint (assuming it wasn't marsh, like the final version footprint at kredik shaw earlier in the book) is mentioned by Mr. Sanderson, it is most likely from Hoid. Since in the deleted version the footprint was next to the fired clay with a metal sphere at the center (which seems an awful lot like a planet to me) maybe it was Hoid that put the unused one there and TLR never saved one at all.
Overall I think Hoid was trying to help, and not necessarily Vin or the group, although that is very possible. He might have just been trying to help the planet, or Leras and Ati. Seeing as he is himself bonded with a shard, he might see his responsibility/power (planet hopping) is to help/unite other shards.

Boy, that's a jumbled mess isn't it. Just throwing things out there b/c I'm thoroughly obsessed with Hoid and Adonalsium and haven't read any new assumptions in a while.