Theory: The17th Sharders are 17th Sharders

[Two McMillion he/him]

What do we know about the 17^th Shard as of The Way of Kings? We know a couple things. We know (assuming the letter was indeed written by Hoid) they're hunting for Hoid. We know Hoid left a false clue for them to chase after, which is probably good for them, because they wouldn't know what to do with Hoid if they caught him. Now, I submit that we already know of a group of people who meet these characteristics. It's us.

 

Here at the 17^th Shard, we chase Hoid around the Cosmere, trying at every stage to guess his next move so we can be ahead of them. We're probably following quite a few false clues, but that's okay, because the fun is in the chasing, right? What would we ever do if we caught Hoid? That would mean no more theories, no more guesses, no more secrets, no more fun. We don't WANT to catch Hoid. We want to chase him. The conclusion is inescapable: the 17^th Sharders are, in fact, 17^th Sharders.

 

The only remaining question is which of you were the ones visiting Roshar. Hmm...

[Shardlet he/him]

<casually looking up at the sky whistling>

[Scriptorian he/him]

Since the last group failed quite obviously, can I be in the next one? Pleeeaaaasssse? 

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I would say that this is no coincidence; Brandon asked that his official fansite be called the 17th Shard, probably for the very reason that what we are doing is similar to what the fictional organization is doing.

[Mysty she/her]

I like your thinking. It could be Brandon's way to give a sort of cameo to his whole fan base, at least those in the know about the cosmere. Yet another easter egg hidden in his books.

[firstRainbowRose she/her]

I do want to clarify that he didn't request that we be called the 17S.  When we went to him originally it was with the name of "Hoid's Compendium", and we explained that the reason we chose that was because Hoid was a world hopper and represented all of Brandon's works.  He then said that Hoid wasn't the best example, but rather there was an orinization of world hoppers.

 

He also said even back then that there were world hoppers in the books that had time on screen, but we wouldn't realize they were from another world without seeing the book or scenes from their point of view, so there is that....

[Sabrina Stormshard she/her]

Awesome

[dj26792 he/him]

quick handy tool for differentiating between them (the seventeenth shard in the books) and us (the 17th shard) is the use of words in reference to the in book seventeenth shard, and numbers in reference to us.  

 

ie: we are the 17th shard, Hoid is being chased by the seventeenth shard.

 

At least, that was the standard when I used to come here, before I randomly left for reasons unapparent to myself at the end of last year... although I'm not sure how I feel about throwing this in here after firstRainbowRose commented without mentioning it.

[Windrunner he/him]

Nah you're good. That's what we usually do.

[firstRainbowRose she/her]

I'm too lazy to say something like that (read as I forgot!)... but it's the case.