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Hoid Wrote the Ars Arcanum


tipbruley

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Is this widely believed/confirmed? Both the mention of Sel and the Cosmere have me believe that this can be inferred, but I haven't read all of the Q&As with Sanderson. Also, is it was fair game to assume that the book Ironeyes (Marsh), gave Marsai at the end of AoL was the Ars Arcanum?

Anyways, after re-reading the WoA, I am fairly confident that Hoid was creating the Ars Arcanum at that time. I read somewhere that BS confirmed he was up in the Terris mountains at that time and meets up with Elend after the Inquisitors destroy the Terris homeland. I think he was attempting to investigate the different types of investiture and wanted to get familiar with Feurochemy, but was able to learn about hemalurgy when the Inquisitors turned up.

It also makes sense about why Vin was spooked about meeting with Hoid at the end of book 3. She may have picked up that he was experimenting with Hemalurgy and been creeped out by it.

Assuming I am right, there are a couple follow up questions.

1) Why does Hoid think Hemalurgy would be so useful in the Cosmere. Does he plan on stealing Shard bearers' power?

2) Is it possible that the Hoid in WoA is different from the Hoid in the Way of Kings? Could someone have stolen his power? (Hoid did mention in the WoK that his name was stolen from someone - we have assumed that the character in the other books are the same, and he stole that name from someone not mentioned in BS books, but it could be that the current Hoid is a different person)

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We actually know who Hoid stole the name from - it's in one of the unpublished novels.

Do you know where this has been confirmed. Not that I doubt it, but how it is worded could impact this thoery. I think it would be possible for the Hoid in Dragonsteel to be the Hoid in Mistborn, but there is a different Hoid in .

That being said, without reading dragonsteel it's hard to make a case (I don't purposefully read spoilers about Dragonsteel since I kind of feel that Sanderson doesn't want us to know about the events in that book yet).

-Trey

Edited by tipbruley
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The following statement is from an unpublished work so don't read it if you'd rather stay away from unpublished works.

Liar of Partinel: a man named Hoid is killed in this book and his apprentice, Midius, is most likely our Hoid. If you read it, the way Midius speaks really sounds like our Hoid too, in my opinion anyway. The whole storytelling aspect of Liar really gives it away that the Hoid in WoK is the same guy.

As to whether he wrote the Ars Arcanum...it was my understanding that was a compilation of years and years of research by many scholars. However, I could be completely wrong on that.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Last night at the release party, I asked Brandon if someone from the 17th Shard or Hoid wrote the Ars Arcanum for Alloy of Law. He...replied, "Yes." But then he told me that all of the Ars Arcanum have been written by the same person, and that I should pay attention to the note written on the map of Elendel, which says:

"My friend, annotated with locations as per your instructions. -Nazh"

So it IS, in fact one person. Nazh is a DiG. I like the following theory, as well,

For some reason the Seventeenth Shard is searching for Hoid. The Letter implies that they seek to not interfere with the Shardworlds. This means that potentially one of their roles is as the Cosmere police force, dealing with rogue Worldhoppers. We haven’t seen any of those though, aside from Hoid. This would explain why they are trying to find Hoid, as he is the king of intervention.

However they are likely up to more than this. They are possibly the authors of the Ars Arcanum. Studying the magics of the various worlds could be another potential goal of these people. This would imply that Nahz, the man who signed the map of Elendel is one of them or associated with them. If Raoden is also a member it is quite possible that he is the author of the Ars Arcanums, as he is definitely the scholarly type.

EDIT:

Another block of info to support this theory,

Alright, anybody who read the Ars Arcanum in Alloy of Law was bound to notice the various Cosmere references. It outright mentions the Cosmere and names the world Sel. What I couldn't help but notice was that the only planet it mentions is Sel. Nothing on the worlds of WoK, Warbreaker, or White Sands (Though WS may not be complete enough to do that with). This leads me to believe that the AA author is from Sel, and either is new enough to have not visited any other world is is somehow confined in activity to Scadrial.
Edited by Alsenoth
Please don't double post, and welcome to the forums :)
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Also, I think the fact that all of the Ars Arcanum were written by the same person rules out Hoid given that the HoA describes Hoid as "a mystery yet to be solved." Given that some 300 years later, Hoid has some members of the 17th shard on his tail, either they have solve that mystery at that point, or else they are trying to track him down to figure him out.

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What is a DiG?

Designated information gatherer. And also, there HAVE been other Worldhoppers. No one knows WHO yet, but they are there.

LEXIE

Will there be other crossover characters like Hoid?

BRANDON SANDERSON

There already have been.

LEXIE

Really?

BRANDON SANDERSONM

Yes.

LEXIE

Can you tell?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I cannot say more than that, I think that they’re placed quite obviously, they were not very obvious before this book, they do exist, other crossovers do exist. But none so obvious as Hoid. I think there are several obvious ones in this novel, no one has yet found them that I know, but I think once they see them- once you look closely they’re there.

It continues in another interview.

Interview: Jan, 2012

Alloy of Law Reddit Q&A (Verbatim)

zas678 (Reddit.com)

I dislike double posting, but I have one question that came up recently from your tweet. You said that there are "multiple" people from Mistborn in WoK. Does this include Hoid?

Brandon Sanderson (Reddit.com)

Yes, it does.

CORWIN01

Are they just vague allusions?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Vague, no. But I wouldn't say they, save Hoid, have any important impact on the events of the book.

It could be that he is only referencing Demoux in WoK, since Demoux and Hoid WOULD, in fact, be considered multiple people. But I have a feeling there may be someone else hidden in there.

Edited by Alsenoth
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Also, I think the fact that all of the Ars Arcanum were written by the same person rules out Hoid given that the HoA describes Hoid as "a mystery yet to be solved." Given that some 300 years later, Hoid has some members of the 17th shard on his tail, either they have solve that mystery at that point, or else they are trying to track him down to figure him out.

Normally I'd agree with you, but since it's Hoid we're talking about, he might just be talking about himself in the third person.

@Alsenoth That interview with Lexie was back in September 2010. I can't tell for sure if the interview was conducted on September 21st, or only posted on that day. Way of Kings only came out on August 31st, so he may have been talking about the Interlude characters. I think a few people had noticed them, but Brandon may not have been aware of that.

The other part, the "they were not very obvious before this book, they do exist, other crossovers do exist" is pretty notable though. I suppose one of those could the writer of the Ars Arcanum, if it's not Hoid.

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@Alsenoth That interview with Lexie was back in September 2010. I can't tell for sure if the interview was conducted on September 21st, or only posted on that day. Way of Kings only came out on August 31st, so he may have been talking about the Interlude characters. I think a few people had noticed them, but Brandon may not have been aware of that.

The other part, the "they were not very obvious before this book, they do exist, other crossovers do exist" is pretty notable though. I suppose one of those could the writer of the Ars Arcanum, if it's not Hoid.

I agree. I believe he may have been referring to Demoux and Galladon, but it was that last bit of the interview that really piqued my interest.

I don't know why, but based on Sanderson's writings and the way he weaves subtlety throughout his books, I feel like we're all missing something really big in Warbreaker other than Hoid's minor appearance.

Edited by Alsenoth
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Unless I'm mistaken, the glossary and the Ars Arcanums are not considered to be together. It would be rather silly, in my opinion, to have the glossary be in-world.

I'm assuming you're specifically referring to the comment about Hoid being a mystery? If that's the case, I think I agree. The glossaries being considered part of the AA would seem a bit strange and juvenile. But at the same time I would assume that whoever IS writing the AA would have to be keeping SOME sort of quick reference on "who-is-who," so to speak. Whether or not the glossary IS that reference guide, I believe that one certainly does exist. Especially considering the AA in Way of Kings. It mentions towards the end that they have been trying to figure out Windrunning and Lashing based on Szeth (or, more specifically, the "Assassin in White"). If that's true, and Szeth is mentioned with that sort of specificity, then the author of the AA MUST be keeping some sort of book to record activities of characters of High Importance. In my opinion, at least.

Edited by Alsenoth
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Well yeah, but I do believe the mention of Szeth is a part of the AA, not really separate like the glossary was. TWoK doesn't even have a glossary. I wasn't really debating the existence of some sort of record on who's who, but simply saying that the HoA glossary is not a part of that.

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Oh, I understood what you meant. Sorry for being a little vague. No, I realize that Szeth's mention was not part of a glossary, since one doesn't even exist in TWoK. I was just using the mention of his name to support my theory that some sort of personal glossary to the AA author might, indeed, exist.

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