Hoid and Renarin Speculation

[+ILuvHats]

Hoid speculation time! It's long been apparent that Hoid is collecting magic systems (he has after all obtained Breaths, lerasium, a nahel bond, and attempted to solve the mystery that is Sel and the Dor). One of the most popular theories about him is that he's gaining access to these magic systems in order to eventually obtain the investiture from each of the shards. Assuming this to be the case, Hoid can check two more shards off the list now that he's bonded a Cryptic, since all of the True Spren are comprised of a combination of Honor and Cultivation's investiture. But of course, there's yet another shard in the Rosharan system. He still needs to get Odium's magic. So rather than work to get his spren off-planet, I think Hoid's next step is to gain access to Odium's investiture. And what's the easiest solution we know of to do this? Sja-anat.

Going forward, I think Hoid is going to be very interested in Renarin, and there will likely be a lot more interaction between them. Note that I don't think Hoid is necessarily aware of Sja-anat's capabilities at the moment. But, thanks to his ability to tap Fortune, he doesn't need to know about her in order to pursue her as a means to an end. I forget the exact quote, but if I recall correctly, Hoid mentions that he doesn't necessarily know why he has to be at certain places at certain times, but only that doing so will forward his goals. So it could easily be the case that his foresight leads him to Renarin and/or Shallan (since she's investigating Sja-anat). Or possibly both of them at the same time, if the speculation proves to be true that Renarin and Shallan will make up the Secondary arc in RoW, and that that arc is centered around the Ghostbloods and Sja-anat.

[SwordNimiForPresident]

In the post credit scene in Oathbreaker, Hoid recognizes one of the Fused from pre desolation times. This makes me think that there is very little that Hoid does not know about Roshar and it’s inhabitants.

[Quantus]

Entirely possible, though if I were in his place Id probably save Odium for last.  

[+ILuvHats]

2 hours ago, SwordNimiForPresident said:

In the post credit scene in Oathbreaker, Hoid recognizes one of the Fused from pre desolation times. This makes me think that there is very little that Hoid does not know about Roshar and it’s inhabitants.

True, but Sja-anat's ability to corrupt not only sub spren but also True Spren seems be quite the recent development, so knowledge from the pre-desolation era doesn't mean he's as up to date as the POV radiants. I wouldn't put it past Hoid to already be aware of this, but neither would I assume he knows it either. I'd give it a 50-50 chance. 

44 minutes ago, Quantus said:

Entirely possible, though if I were in his place Id probably save Odium for last.  

My reasoning's that he's already on Roshar. Yep, that's pretty much it. I thought I had more when I started writing this, but nope. There shouldn't be anything preventing Hoid from leaving Roshar and coming back later to pick up Odium's investiture. Unless corrupting his Cryptic messes with the process of getting the spren off world, so that he has to relearn how to get off-world. But I can't think of any reason that would be case.