Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: CondorSultan on October 13, 2010, 03:02:32 PM
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Folks,
I came rather late to the Brandon party - I didn't discover him until Warbreaker was coming out - and although I've caught up both on the canon itself and on everything we know about the Cosmere, I am a little handicapped because by the time I got to the fandom a great deal of the background information had already been pinned down. I'm grateful that I had filled in all the gaps by the time I got to Way of Kings, because I think the experience of reading that gorgeous book would be significantly reduced without knowing the context, but at the same time I don't know the intellectual history of the Brandonverse, if you will. When did we first hear the name Adonalsium? Before Way of Kings, was the cosmology only visible through Brandon's interviews and comments, or was there another source? When Hoid turned to Dalinar and said "Adonalsium" the hair stood up on my neck, but I immediately wondered how I even knew about the original entity. Thanks for any help you more experienced readers can offer.
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The initial discovery of the Cosmere books being in the same universe happened when someone noticed the repeat use of the name Hoid in Warbreaker and another book, asked Brandon about it, and got told that it's actually the same character rather than just the same name. I'm not sure which non-Warbreaker book it was, but I don't think Hoid ever identifies himself by that name in Final Empire or Well of Ascension, so it would have to be either Elantris or Hero of Ages. This happened well before Warbreaker got published as a printed book; Warbreaker has been available in digital format for free from brandonsanderson.com since its early draft stages.
The name Adonalsium was first revealed (with an unfortunate typo, the l was missing so it appeared as Adonasium) in a chapter epigraph in Hero of Ages. It was mentioned precisely once, and only in a small remark that was never referred to again, and never appeared again in the books until Hoid said it in Way of Kings, but several readers jumped on it and started asking Brandon tons of questions about it. Most of the available information about the Cosmere comes from Hero of Ages, inferences based on Hero of Ages, and Brandon's answers to questions. Way of Kings has also added some material, particularly with the letter in one set of chapter epigraphs, which is clearly written by and addressed to people who know a lot about the Shards of Adonalsium.
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That's a superbly complete answer, thank you so much.
Only tangentially related: is there a thread on the forum that collates the epigraphs from Mistborn, especially from HoA, as was recently done for Way of Kings? I'd love to study those more efficiently than flipping through the books.
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Not a forum post. A wiki page!
http://www.17thshard.com/wiki/Epigraphs
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If I remember correctly, which I may not, I think Hoid was in Elantris, and then appeared in all 3 Mistborn books.
SPOILER:
Its been a long time since I read the Mistborn series, and I don't have them handy, but Hoid was the beggar that Kelsier spoke to (so in the original Mistborn book), and claimed to be blind. Hoid was also the wealthy informant that Vin spoke to to get information (I think this was in WoA, but I could be wrong), and then Hoid was sort of seen in HoA. He was the informant that Vin did NOT talk to, she saw him, and got an "odd feeling" and didn't approach him. Somewhere on here I read that Brandon validated this in an interview or something. Hope this helps a little with Hoid. Obviously Hoid is the storyteller, Hoid, in Warbreaker :)
END SPOILER.
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I also learned about the inter-connectedness of Brandon's books recently. I am sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but is there a place where there is a comprehensive account about what we actually know about the Cosmere? It seems to me that most of that is from interviews and Q&As and i don't really know where to look.
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I also learned about the inter-connectedness of Brandon's books recently. I am sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this, but is there a place where there is a comprehensive account about what we actually know about the Cosmere? It seems to me that most of that is from interviews and Q&As and i don't really know where to look.
17th shard is the place to look for interviews and their like. They have a wiki going, but its still in its early stages. Almost everything written in the wiki however is confirmed facts.
Brandon wants his cosmere books to be independent of each other. You don't need to read mistborn to read WoK. At the moment, all info we know about the cosmere are like easter eggs, gleaned from passages in the books, annotations and Q&A interviews. It's our job as fanatical fans to piece all the information together. ;)
If you do have any questions, don't be afraid to post them up. Someone will know the answer to them, and we don't mind informing newcomers about stuff which we have found out. (I assume all fans are of the same opinion :P)
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Thanks. I know that the Cosmere stuff isn't necessary, but it seems interesting and i want to learn as much as i can. I'll look at 17th shard as soon as I can
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I have a question I read the first couple of chapters of Liar of Partinel a few months back and was wondering if the protagonist's mentor who taught him Lightweaving was Hoid or not. Does anyone know? Has it been confirmed or not?
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"If I remember correctly, which I may not, I think Hoid was in Elantris, and then appeared in all 3 Mistborn books."
Hoid did not appear in HOA, but at a certain point he was in the same city as Vin, but Ruins influence caused here to not see him.
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I remember someone saying that Hoid was in HoA, just not mentioned by name, but I have no idea how reliable that source is.
I know Brandon said that Hoid is the Liar of Partinel (which the book is named after). I haven't actually read any chapters from the book, so I cannot be sure if Hoid is the mentor or student.
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"If I remember correctly, which I may not, I think Hoid was in Elantris, and then appeared in all 3 Mistborn books."
Hoid did not appear in HOA, but at a certain point he was in the same city as Vin, but Ruins influence caused here to not see him.
I went on to say pretty much what you said, "Vin gets a suspicious feeling about a certain informant in an alley, and does not ask him anything. Brandon says (somewhere, I forget), that it was Hoid." To me, Hoid is in HoA, since Brandon said he is, even if he is not named. I don't think he was named in the first 2 as Hoid either (maybe in one of them, but I'm pretty sure not both).
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I went on to say pretty much what you said, "Vin gets a suspicious feeling about a certain informant in an alley, and does not ask him anything. Brandon says (somewhere, I forget), that it was Hoid." To me, Hoid is in HoA, since Brandon said he is, even if he is not named. I don't think he was named in the first 2 as Hoid either (maybe in one of them, but I'm pretty sure not both).
Hoid is expressly named in the 1st and 3rd Mistborn books, but his name does not appear in WoA.
EDIT: Whoops, thx for that Tasslehoof. I fixed it up
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If I remember correctly, which I may not, I think Hoid was in Elantris, and then appeared in all 3 Mistborn books.
SPOILER:
Its been a long time since I read the Mistborn series, and I don't have them handy, but Hoid was the beggar that Kelsier spoke to (so in the original Mistborn book), and claimed to be blind. Hoid was also the wealthy informant that Vin spoke to to get information (I think this was in WoA, but I could be wrong), and then Hoid was sort of seen in HoA. He was the informant that Vin did NOT talk to, she saw him, and got an "odd feeling" and didn't approach him. Somewhere on here I read that Brandon validated this in an interview or something. Hope this helps a little with Hoid. Obviously Hoid is the storyteller, Hoid, in Warbreaker :)
END SPOILER.
Hoid wasn't the wealthy informant, he was the second one Vin went to, that she never actually talked to. I was really disappointed about that - she mentioned she was going to talk to a beggar named Hoid, and I thought there was going to be some awesome scene with the two of them. Ruin ruins everything.
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I went on to say pretty much what you said, "Vin gets a suspicious feeling about a certain informant in an alley, and does not ask him anything. Brandon says (somewhere, I forget), that it was Hoid." To me, Hoid is in HoA, since Brandon said he is, even if he is not named. I don't think he was named in the first 2 as Hoid either (maybe in one of them, but I'm pretty sure not both).
Hoid is expressly named in the 1st and 3rd Mistborn books, but his name does not appear in HoA.
You mean hes not named in WoA? HoA is the 3rd one :p
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You're pretty close, but the facts aren't quite right. Hoid appears in the Well of Ascension as an unnamed Terrisman, and he is named once more in Hero of Ages by Cett, but this is the encounter where Vin's "instincts" tell her not to see him so she doesn't.
Hoid is also the beggar that Sarene hires to deliver goods to Elantris in Elantris.