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Elsecallers and Shadesmar (spoilers to multiple books)


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So I like Elsecallers and the seeming ability to teleport, what I don't like is from what I read its not that special. So Hoid shows that if someone knows how to use the shadesmar (apologies if I miss-spelled that), they can not only world hop, but teleport within the world (example: the implication that Hoid teleported to the well of ascension to beat Vin there and grab a bead of lesirum). So if one of the two abilities of the Elsecallers, and one other order of radiants is teleporting, then what is unique about it when ANYONE who can manipulate the shadesmar can do it as well? It is suggested that Hoid is a lightweaver but can hop around as he sees fit. Could this be something unique to Hoid? Otherwise it kind of deflates the coolness factor of the Elsecallers teleportation for me. Thoughts?

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That would make me feel better about Elsecaller's and makes some sense, but there are some things that aren't linking up in my head about that theory. First, Hoid worldhopped from the land of the terrismen to the well. So if I read what you stated correctly, then where ever I am, I can world hop TO a well but not FROM a well or I can worldhop TO anywhere only FROM a well. If either is true, or both then there is still a problem with the given example. If you can world hop from anywhere but only to a well, then why didn't Hoid do that to begin with? The well was "active" this whole time, but he was misled by the Lord Ruler, and needed to wait till Vin found its true location. So if he could world hop to a well from where ever, then why didn't he do that from the get go? If you have to world hop FROM a well TO anywhere, then how did he teleport from the land of the terrismen to the well? Don't mean to sound like I am tearing apart your theory and it has been a while since I have last read the Mistborn Trilogy so if I misread what you were suggesting, or mis-remembered something from the books I apologize in advance and please do prove me wrong. I like the Elsecallers and would love for them to be special/unique like each of the other orders seem to be. 

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I think it's worth noting that Hoid is not a Lightweaver. He does have powers that are markedly similar to at least the illusion powers of Lightweavers. Per WoB Hoid is also capable, like Kaladin, of healing spiritual wounds from shardblades. In that sense, we already have an example of "non uniqueness" in an order of knights radiant. Furthermore Hoid, particularly, is a very powerful being and we know very little in the way of the details of what he is capable of, and how. For the Elsecallers to be able to manipulate Shadesmar on a similar to the millenia-old Hoid increases the impressiveness of their powers, rather than diminishing them.

 

"Anyone" who can manipulate Shadesmar may be able to teleport in a similar manner to the Elsecallers, but I'd argue that this is a very exclusive set of people. We honestly do not know very much about World Hopping, nor do we know much about Transportation as a surge.  We know that it is "The Surge of Motion and Realmatic Transition" but that implies that there is more to it than just "teleportation." Elsecallers and Willshapers may have an advantage in their ability to pinpoint locations, bring people and items with them, or even survive in Shadesmar for extended periods of time. They may also be able to manipulate motion in ways that we haven't seen yet. Furthermore, there's clearly more to the Surges than just one particular power.

Spoilers for Words of Radiance in the tags:

Due to their combination of surges, Elsecallers are considered the order to have the strongest affinity to Shadesmar. While the mechanics of how this works are still being theorized, as an Elsecaller Jasnah is able to gather information from the spren of Shadesmar that even Hoid does not have. It's worth pointing out that Pattern comments on Shallan's affinity for Transformation when she is not soulcasting, but instead inspiring people to be better than they are. Soulcasting is the main ability that we associate with the Transformation surge, however the Lightweaver's ability to transform goes beyond soulcasting, to use illusions and truths to reinvision people as better. Therefore I suspect that there may be a deeper side to the combination of Transportation and Transformation that Elsecalling is that we have yet to see. I do not anticipate that we will fully understand Elsecalling until at least the book that focuses on that particular Order.

 

While the magic systems in different worlds are fueled by different shards, it's worth remembering that these shards were once part of a greater whole. Therefore we should not be surprised if some of the powers bear at least superficial similarities, or have similar results, although the physical focus of the powers may end up being vastly different. Some of the passages in the Ars Arcanum comment on the similar results and theorize on what this implies for the underlying workings of the interactions between the physical, spiritual and cognitive realms. Trying to puzzle out what the similiarites mean for the cosmere world just greatly increases the coolness factor, in my opinion.

 

Ultimately, I don't think the Elsecallers sharing the ability to worldhop with a select group of highly talented and powerful individuals diminishes their coolness factor, both because worldhopping is still a really cool thing to be able to do, and because Elsecallers likely have some other things going on that we don't know about yet. And yes, Hoid is particularly special and being comparable to him shouldn't diminish anyone's coolness factor.

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Yeah, I thought it was pretty well accepted on the boards that Hoid is an awakener (with perfect pitch), an allomancer (due to the bead he stole as well as slipping metal in his wine to burn, confirmed by Sanderson), and a lightweaver due to the illusion. Though you do both make a good point that the illusion ability could be from another world (raodin did after all use illusions on himself to appear different). The reference about Kaladin being able to soulheal isn't exactly valid given ALL the knights radiant can as long as they have stormlight. Where they differ is healing OTHER people with the stormlight. Maybe I misread things somewhere, but I got the impression that if someone learned how to, anyone in theory could world hop. Galladon, Demoux, and Blunt afterall did it (though admittedly as far as I know, no one knows how they did). I guess I want to know/learn how worldhopping is done, and whats its limitations. Because if hypothecally Dalinar could learn worldhopping, and thereby teleport around, it makes the elsecallers uniqueness eh for me. I will say the point made that maybe anyone could world hop, but only elsecallers can be relatively precise does help in my mind. 

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There's the theory that world hopping is limited to coming in/out through shardpools, whereas is seems that elsecalling can take you to any location (though it's apparently imprecise).

Which is interesting... Because this is what we thought when WoB said there was a big hint about Worldhopping in Elantris.

But from memory, didn't Hoid head towards the Terris Dominance in Well of Ascension to look for the Well of Ascension itself? If that was the case, why didn't he just worldhop to it originally? He couldn't have worldhopped to the Well, completely missed the thing he was searching for, and then head to the North...

The other option is that he hopped to Ruin's shardpool... Yeah, I don't know.

The other thing Brandon had stated at one point was that the Pool in Elantris might not have been what we thought it was.

EDIT: Couldn't get spoiler tags to work, so I removed one or two things, but seems the title says spoilers multiple books, I'll leave this here.

Edited by Youngy
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