Why did Hoid wait so long to gain Allomantic and Surgebinding powers?

[naf_eremsoc_evissam]

We know that Hoid became a Lightweaver at the end of OB, and he may or may not be a Mistborn, but he definitely has a bead of lerasium in SH. So why did he wait so long?

1) Hoid has been alive, a worldhopper, and exceptionally knowledgable about forms of Investiture ever since the Shattering of Adonalsium.

2) Hoid could have became (and it probably would have been a lot easier to become) a Surgebinder pre-Recreance, during the time when there were Heralds and plenty of spren (Cryptics or otherwise) willing to bond.

3) Hoid could have stolen the bead of lerasium long before Kelsier was at the Well of Ascension. He either could have stolen the lerasium when the Well of Ascension was in the Terris mountains, or when the Lord Ruler was guarding it in his palace. The latter would have been most likely, because that was when Leras was very weak, making the lerasium much easier to steal.

I don't know when Hoid got his Sand Mastery or Breaths (does anyone?), but it seems that Hoid could have had access to Surgebinding and Allomancy way before he actually did.

So why did he wait? Is there a WoB on this?

[Mr. Misting]

From my understanding attracting a spren is very hard. Just being on Roshar, for even for someone like Hoid, won't guarantee that a spren wants to bond him. He specifically had to track down Design and "force" her into bonding him. 

[Chaos]

Hi, this is not the correct forum for this. You want the Cosmere Discussion forum. Arcanum is for discussing the Words of Brandon Archive. I have moved this to the appropriate place.

[Broseph]

My best guess? His arrivals on Sel, Roshar and Scadrial were during a point in time when the active shards were in some way indisposed, like waiting for someone to go on holiday before breaking into their house

[Returned]

When it comes to Hoid guessing is usually the best we can do. That said, here are my guesses:

• Hoid isn't a casual tourist, going where he feels like going for his own reasons. He's got his oath to be where he's needed, which drags him all over the Cosmere via sometimes dangerous and challenging routes. He may not have the time or freedom of action to do much extracurricular activity, even if he'd prefer to.
• The Shards all know Hoid and have varying opinions of him. But they may not be enthusiastic about Hoid collecting their powers, and even less so about his interference with Shard-level affairs. It might be very dangerous to go around collecting powers.
• Hoid has some very specific and far-reaching goals (which we don't know the details of). Grabbing a power at the wrong time might upset things he doesn't want upset, or interfere with others' plans which he doesn't understand yet.
• Hoid is wily, clever, and knowledgeable, but he also has some really serious limitations on what he can do. Some conflicts might be unwise for him to undertake. For example, running into Rashek as the Lord Ruler might have been a seriously bad idea for Hoid.
• Some powers have serious effects which Hoid can't deal with easily (or doesn't know how to). The obvious one here is bonding a spren-- doing so makes it very, very difficult to leave Roshar. Even if he could have attracted a spren and spared the time to be on Roshar post-Radiants but pre-Recreance, being stuck on Roshar may have been an impossible price.
• Hoid has lots of powers at his disposal. It might be nice to have more, but he's usually not lacking for options to do what he needs to do. Even if it's helpful, does he need to have Rosharan-Cryptic Lightweaving, given that he has access to other forms of Lightweaving already?
• Hoid knows a huge amount about the state of the Cosmere, his abilities, and the obstacles he's facing. In the absence of detail we could use to make our own judgements, I'd generally defer to Hoid in determining the choices he's made to be the correct ones.

[+robardin]

Re: Hoid gaining Allomancy: we have a WoB that strongly implies that the beads of lerasium were gathered by Rashek after he'd Ascended, using the knowledge he'd gained while holding Preservation. 

Quote

Questioner

Did the Lord Ruler create the lerasium that he gave to the ten foreign kings? Or where they put there by Leras--

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, good question… No one's asked me that before, I don't believe. Did the Lord Ruler create the lerasium that he gave-- No, he found the lerasium. It was existent before his Ascension.

Questioner

Can I ask if it was placed there intentionally by Leras or did it sort of grow similar to how atium--

Brandon Sanderson

The Lord Ruler-- It was not placed for him, he had to-- he had to get it.

JordanCon 2016 (April 23, 2016)

If the lerasium beads pre-existed Rashek's Ascension but also required TLR to "go get them", that implies Hoid didn't know where to go get them but Rashek did.

And of course, by then he was The Lord Ruler, who gathered all (?) the beads and handed them out to his strongest supporters, reserving two for later... Which he kept in the chamber near the Well under Kredik Shaw.

And my guess is that Hoid could only use the Well as a perpendicularity across from the CR to the Physical Realm when the Well was close to filling up - i.e., had enough Investiture gathered there to form the perpendicularity. Somehow, part of the creation of the Well required the power to "coalesce" there every 1024 years, be taken and used via temporary Ascension, and then to be redistributed into the mists for the next cycle.

So even if Hoid had known for sure that's where the lerasium was, his Fortune-based "go where I need to be" thing probably only kicked in with respect to the Well of Ascension when it was "deep" enough to be a perpendicularity. Otherwise he'd have to get past Rashek and open the capstone to the Well, which he couldn't very well do without very strong Allomancy, which he wouldn't have without the lerasium.

Edited November 7, 2022 by robardin

[Arkangel]

On 11/7/2022 at 3:24 PM, robardin said:

And my guess is that Hoid could only use the Well as a perpendicularity across from the CR to the Physical Realm when the Well was close to filling up - i.e., had enough Investiture gathered there to form the perpendicularity. Somehow, part of the creation of the Well required the power to "coalesce" there every 1024 years, be taken and used via temporary Ascension, and then to be redistributed into the mists for the next cycle.

So even if Hoid had known for sure that's where the lerasium was, his Fortune-based "go where I need to be" thing probably only kicked in with respect to the Well of Ascension when it was "deep" enough to be a perpendicularity. Otherwise he'd have to get past Rashek and open the capstone to the Well, which he couldn't very well do without very strong Allomancy, which he wouldn't have without the lerasium.

It's likely that he was waiting until this moment because Ati and Leras would be too focused on their currently unfolding respective plans to notice Hoid passing through.

[Aliroz-The-Confused]

That was supposed to be my bead of Lerasium, Leras left it to me in the will.  Flipping Midius, stealing my inheritance in the one moment when nobody's looking.  He'll have to give it back, though, if he ever wants to see his previous flute again.

 

...or maybe I'm just messing with all of you.