Hathsin Worldhopper Trade network?

[JustQuestin2004 he/him]

So what exactly was the worldhopping trading network like on Scadrial? Back before Kelsier destroyed the pits?

Like what would they have traded, who did the trading, how did they do it, how often did they do it. how many people were aware of it (besides the Lord Ruler), was there some kind of base or market next to the Perpendicularity in the Cognitive Realm?

General questions like that. 

Feel free to just speculate.

Edited September 4, 2022 by JustQuestin2004

[Treamayne]

9 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

So what exactly was the worldhopping trading network like on Scadrial? Back before Kelsier destroyed the pits?

Like what would they have traded, who did the trading, how did they do it, how often did they do it. how many people were aware of it (besides the Lord Ruler), was there some kind of base or market next to the Perpendicularity in the Cognitive Realm?

General questions like that. 

Feel free to just speculate.

There is some discussion about this topic here. . .I'll summarize my thought from that post:

What we really know is:

- The perpedicularity at the Pits helped facilitate off-world trade

- Felt was involved to some extent and became Cosmere aware (and a Worldhopper) through that exposure

- At least some Worldhoppers knew the Pits could be used to access the Physical Realm on Scadrial

- Scadrian Canned foods have been seen off-world (Oathbringer)

However, we also know:

- Off-world trade on Roshar happens in Shadesmar - but without being anywhere near a perpendicularity

- Travel in Scadrial's Cognitive realm is . . . difficult for physical beings (especially if they have no means of applying investiture to cognitive aspects to make them solid enough to manipulate - like "Spanky" and the oar)

- Drifter said "mercantile ecosystem" (which does not imply actual trade on Scadrial's CR - just that some "goods" from Scadrial were important to Cosmere-aware merchants and off-worlders)

From this, I would guess that the pits were used to move "goods" from PR to CR (likely by Felt and a few other intermediaries); but the "market," if there was one, was probably on the solid part of Lake Luthadel (or similar location - more friendly to trade). Since we expect that Scadrian Metalurgy is more advanced than most of the Cosmere, I would not be surprised if refined ores and ingots were exported along with canned foods (and possibly other goods). I'm not entirely sure TLR would have known about any trading through the Pits (it's possible of course, but just as possible that he would have killed the people involved if it was happening without his permission. . . if just to "keep secrets").

I find it unlikely that more than a few WHs (like Hoid/Khriss) would have actually traveled all the way to the pits to access the perpendicularity themselves. This also implies that while knowledge of the perpendicularity might be fairly well-known off-Scadrial; there was not likely to be many with that knowledge on-world that could connect Perpendicularity = Pits = Atium (assuming they even knew enough about the metallic arts to know/care what Atium was or why it was important).