Who's his wife?

[Yvainnie she/her]

So any guesses? I think he mention having one or was it in WaT?

[teknopathetic he/him]

I have a hard time believing Hoid would have children with somone who wasn't invested and/or capable of sticking around for a long time. I would think his children would also probably need to be a little invested for a similar reason. I just dont see Hoid doing the "watch your loved ones wither" sort of path. I realize a gift of Breath can fix this, but I still think for meta reasons his wife has to be pretty invested and able to have invested children. 

So this makes me think he and Valor get back together. He has kids with a Shard, and we get to see how how that works. 

Edited July 17, 2025 by teknopathetic

[+Oltux72 he/him]

11 minutes ago, teknopathetic said:

So this makes me think he and Valor get back together. He has kids with a Shard, and we get to see how how that works. 

How do you make a Shard forget that she is married?

Also, Hoid's children will be Mistborn.

[teknopathetic he/him]

4 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

How do you make a Shard forget that she is married?

Also, Hoid's children will be Mistborn.

I suppose if Valor drops the shard, maybe there are consequences. But fair enough. We know breath can be used to make people forget, so maybe that was somehow used? 

But the whole thing is weird. Why did she forget? Why isn't it top priority for her to remember? Does she not want to remember? Does Hoid even want her to remember? What do the twins think?

Edited July 17, 2025 by teknopathetic

[Yvainnie she/her]

11 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

How do you make a Shard forget that she is married?

Also, Hoid's children will be Mistborn.

Well not necessarily, if he had them before ingesting lerasium. 

11 hours ago, teknopathetic said:

I suppose if Valor drops the shard, maybe there are consequences. But fair enough. We know breath can be used to make people forget, so maybe that was somehow used? 

But the whole thing is weird. Why did she forget? Why isn't it top priority for her to remember? Does she not want to remember? Does Hoid even want her to remember? What do the twins think?

Breath is used to forget but only if they stored memories in Breaths, right? 
 

Whole thing seems weird but she is probably from Yolen or Silverlight, assuming Starling met her

[lacrossedeamon]

I kinda like the idea of Shai from TES and the memory loss being due to a soulstamp as we see in TLM. But with kids involved I think a pre Shattering character makes more sense.

[Nitpicking]

On 7/18/2025 at 5:01 AM, Yvainnie said:

Well not necessarily, if he had them before ingesting lerasium. 

Breath is used to forget but only if they stored memories in Breaths, right? 

Vasher makes that girl forget her trauma in Warbreaker. 

[lacrossedeamon]

38 minutes ago, Nitpicking said:

Vasher makes that girl forget her trauma in Warbreaker. 

But assumedly only because that girl has Breath herself.

[bmcclure7]

On 7/17/2025 at 1:47 PM, teknopathetic said:

I have a hard time believing Hoid would have children with somone who wasn't invested and/or capable of sticking around for a long time. I would think his children would also probably need to be a little invested for a similar reason. I just dont see Hoid doing the "watch your loved ones wither" sort of path. I realize a gift of Breath can fix this, but I still think for meta reasons his wife has to be pretty invested and able to have invested children. 

So this makes me think he and Valor get back together. He has kids with a Shard, and we get to see how how that works. 

That’s what I thought too

On 7/17/2025 at 1:59 PM, Oltux72 said:

How do you make a Shard forget that she is married?

Also, Hoid's children will be Mistborn.

Probably a lot more than just Mistborn we don’t know all the different power systems he has in him. 

I’m sure a shard could make herself forget something if she wanted to perhaps it didn’t end well between them

[Nitpicking]

2 hours ago, lacrossedeamon said:

But assumedly only because that girl has Breath herself.

Why do you assume that? (Does she? I haven't reread that book in years. Or do you mean the one Breath all Nalthians are born with?)

Edited July 21, 2025 by Nitpicking

[BinarySecond]

I think it's pretty unbelievable that Hoid didn't have this Wife until "recently" (Post WaT at minimum)

 

I can't see Brandon writing his most recurring character as an adulterer - Wife has to come after his relationship with Jasnah IMO.

 

Brandon is such a tease for including all these little details but I very much enjoyed them all.

[+Oltux72 he/him]

1 hour ago, BinarySecond said:

I think it's pretty unbelievable that Hoid didn't have this Wife until "recently" (Post WaT at minimum)

 

I can't see Brandon writing his most recurring character as an adulterer - Wife has to come after his relationship with Jasnah IMO.

 

Brandon is such a tease for including all these little details but I very much enjoyed them all.

Indeed. We cannot even rule out that his wife is Jasnah after having taken up Retribution, for all we know.

[BinarySecond]

1 hour ago, Oltux72 said:

Indeed. We cannot even rule out that his wife is Jasnah after having taken up Retribution, for all we know.

Jasnah as Retribution  

If that happens I need Taravangian to survive losing the Shard. I need him to be unable to die and imprisoned forever. What Shards need to combine to make Justice 

[alder24]

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Indeed. We cannot even rule out that his wife is Jasnah after having taken up Retribution, for all we know.

It's not Jasnah because his wife is a twin. IotE ch 51:

Quote

“She and I aren’t on speaking terms,” he said softly. “Partially because she doesn’t remember ever having been my wife.” He stopped, then found himself a nice walking stick among the flotsam on the beach, though she’d never known him to need any such support. “If you see either of the twins after you’ve gotten out of your mess, I’d appreciate you warning them I could use some help.”

 

[+Oltux72 he/him]

6 minutes ago, alder24 said:

It's not Jasnah because his wife is a twin.

I would understand the twins to refer to the offspring of Hoid and his amnesiac wife.

[BinarySecond]

16 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

I would understand the twins to refer to the offspring of Hoid and his amnesiac wife.

That is also how I read it; The Twins makes more sense to me that it refers to different people than the Wife already mentioned.

Edited July 21, 2025 by BinarySecond

[alder24]

17 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

I would understand the twins to refer to the offspring of Hoid and his amnesiac wife.

1 minute ago, BinarySecond said:

That is also how I read it; The Twins makes more sense to me that it refers to different people than the Wife already mentioned.

I don't agree as this simply doesn't fit the context, nor does it make any sense. Starling asks if Hoid's wife could help him, Hoid then talks about his wife and asks Starling to tell "either of the twins" of his situation, so they could help him. There is no change in subject in this paragraph, he is still talking about his wife, there never was any mention about potential children of Hoid so we can’t say if Hoid even had any with his wife. IotE ch 51:

Quote

“I can’t do it,” she finished. “I’m no captain, Master. Not like you were. We have to find a way to get you out, so you can come save us. Maybe your wife can get you free? Have you tried contacting her?”

 

[BinarySecond]

2 minutes ago, alder24 said:

I don't agree as this simply doesn't fit the context, nor does it make any sense. Starling asks if Hoid's wife could help him, Hoid then talks about his wife and asks Starling to tell "either of the twins" of his situation, so they could help him. There is no change in subject in this paragraph, he is still talking about his wife, there never was any mention about potential children of Hoid so we can’t say if Hoid even had any with his wife. IotE ch 51:

 

We shall not see eye to eye I'm afraid.

They're not on speaking terms; she doesn't remember being his wife. Implicitly from his words, she cannot help him.

There's a lull in the conversation and then the twins are mentioned.

It doesn't follow that the wife is part of the "either of the twins"; "Either of the twins" reads as an entirely different subject as someone who could help Hoid.

[listerfeend]

4 minutes ago, BinarySecond said:

It doesn't follow that the wife is part of the "either of the twins"; "Either of the twins" reads as an entirely different subject as someone who could help Hoid.

That's how I read it as well. That whole conversation about his wife and the twins doesn't imply to me that the wife is one of the twins at all. In normal conversation, no one mentions their wife like that, and then categorizes them as a package deal with their sibling. "My wife blah blah blah. Anyway, either of the twins..." That's not how people talk. However, train of thought would easily go from wife to offspring. "Either of the twins" is either referring to their children, or another set of twins that could help and aren't related to his wife at all. 

[teknopathetic he/him]

I agree that Hoid is talking about "the twins" as children. 

Edited July 21, 2025 by teknopathetic

[#1 Taln Fan he/him]

On 7/17/2025 at 2:28 PM, Yvainnie said:

So any guesses? I think he mention having one or was it in WaT?

Per our Forum Policy, topics shouldn't have spoilers in the titles, so I've changed the title for you. 

[Dreamwa1ker she/her]

21 hours ago, bmcclure7 said:

I’m sure a shard could make herself forget something if she wanted to perhaps it didn’t end well between them

Maybe it's Valor, they had kids, things ended badly or something happened that made her want to divorce him and give herself the Eternal Sunshine treatment.

Maybe it was really messy, she got mad, and (stormlight)

Spoiler

threw the 4th moon at him 

 

[QuantumAce]

7 hours ago, alder24 said:

I don't agree as this simply doesn't fit the context, nor does it make any sense. Starling asks if Hoid's wife could help him, Hoid then talks about his wife and asks Starling to tell "either of the twins" of his situation, so they could help him. There is no change in subject in this paragraph, he is still talking about his wife, there never was any mention about potential children of Hoid so we can’t say if Hoid even had any with his wife. IotE ch 51:

 

It still feels like "the twins" should be referring to Hoid's children, but I think you may be correct. 

[Dreamwa1ker she/her]

He is asking her to tell these guys

[Jult]

7 hours ago, BinarySecond said:

They're not on speaking terms; she doesn't remember being his wife. Implicitly from his words, she cannot help him.

There's a lull in the conversation and then the twins are mentioned.

It doesn't follow that the wife is part of the "either of the twins"; "Either of the twins" reads as an entirely different subject as someone who could help Hoid.

This was how I interpreted it as well. Basically, Hoid saying "My wife can't help... But the twins can".

Children didn't even cross my mind. I instead started racking my brain for any twins that we know of. I only came up with 2 pairs:

• Shallan's brothers, Jushu and Wikim
• Lunamor's eldest childeren, Cord and Gift

Neither pair is particularly interesting to me. Can anyone think of others I may have missed?