[SH Spoilers] Cosmeric Trade

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

When Kelsier met Hoid in the Well of Ascension, Hoid talks about Kelsier's destroying of the Pits of Hathsin. He says

"That was the only perpendicularity on this planet with any reasonable ease of access. This one is very dangerous, growing more so by the minute, and difficult to find. By doing as you did, you basically ended traffic through Scadrial. Upended an entire mercantile ecosystem, which I'll admit was fun to watch."

At first, this seemed just a passing comment. But it means that there was a large amount of trade passing through Scadrial. The general consensus seems to be that Worldhopping and General Cosmere-awareness is rare. But this means that it's actually not, there are apparently Worldhopping traders, and Cosmere-aware buyers and sellers. Could this be related to the 17th Shard, making it larger than we thought? Or is it something else?

Thoughts?

[Pagerunner he/him]

Well, someone from Nalthis saw a Shardblade, so there has been some worldhopping from that planet. In fact, the economic system we saw in T'Telir could very well encourage merchants to worldhop to get cool things. (My merchandise is literally worlds beyond my competitors!)

 

Sixth of the Dusk shows us that there are old and young Shardworlds; First of the Sun is obviously one of the youngest. Sel appears to be one of the older worlds, based on the Ire; they had regular people as guards with them, so I'm sure that the existence of other worlds is becoming common knowledge. IIRC, White Sand is set 1000 years before Elantris (please factcheck me, somebody), so Taldain could be another old world.

 

Roshar and Scadrial may have been stunted in their growth by the Shardic wars happening on them. (Heck, maybe Scadrial isn't even that old of a world; unless there had been someone prior to Rashek who used the Well of Ascension, Scadrial is only ~2300 years old during WoK, and the prelude in that book happened 4500 years prior. [in Year 0, Preservation betrayed Ruin. In year 1024, Rashek began his rule. In year 2048, Vin used the Well. In year 2049, Sazed Ascended. In Year 2390, Alloy takes place, which is roughly concurrent with the Stormlight Archive.]) That could explain why, even though Stormlight Archive is in the second half of the Cosmere sequence, worldhopping is not common knowledge on either Roshar or Scadrial at that point.

 

And let's also not forget, there are dozens of other Shardworlds, even if most of them are minor. Some of them might have a lot of ambient Shardpools (like the one in Sixth of the Dusk), so worldhopping might be common knowledge, even if there's not a lot of Shardic influence.

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

spoiler/[if White Sand is a thousand years before Elantris, then the people of Taldain are likely in space by the time we meet Sarene and Raoden.]/spoiler

If I'm not allowed to post that then let me know and I'll take it down.

How do I get the spoilers to work?!

Edited March 10, 2016 by Kingsdaughter613

[Master_Moridin he/him]

spoiler/If White Sand is a thousand years before Elantris, then the people of Taldain are likely in space by the time we meet Sarene and Raoden./spoiler

If I'm not allowed to post that then let me know and I'll take it down.

How do I get the spoilers to work?!

use [] around spoiler at the beginning and around /spoiler at the end

 

Example:

 

Amazing plot twist!

Edited March 10, 2016 by Master_Moridin

[Gagylpus he/him]

At first, this seemed just a passing comment. But it means that there was a large amount of trade passing through Scadrial. The general consensus seems to be that Worldhopping and General Cosmere-awareness is rare. But this means that it's actually not, there are apparently Worldhopping traders, and Cosmere-aware buyers and sellers. Could this be related to the 17th Shard, making it larger than we thought? Or is it something else?

Thoughts?

 

I just interpreted Hoid's comment as referring to the way that Kelsier's actions destroyed the system of production of atium, which was a big part of the economic system of the Final Empire's nobility. But, that doesn't address the reference to worldhopping traffic through Scadrial, so you might have something there.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Gagylpus

[emailanimal he/him]

We have been exposed to quite a number of worldhoppers besides Hoid. We have seen worldhoppers from multiple worlds. It stands to reason that some people are "inducted" into the ranks of worldhoppers. Looking at the worldhoppers we know from various books (and it includes two worldhoppers from White Sand), it seems that worldhoppers tend to be people of certain distinction (smart, strong, dedicated, savvy). 

 

If I were to venture a guess, I'd posit that at any given time the number of worldhoppers in Cosmere is in high hundreds/low thousands. It is probably a very good question to Brandon.  

 

If my assumption is correct than Hoid's statement about the trade going through Scadrial makes sense. There are enough people worldhopping to make a relatively easy to access perpendicularity fairly popular. What specifically is being traded is hard to say. Atium is useless unless one can burn it (and at a rate of one bead a week per person, a passer by in the Pits in unlikely to collect it). But Scadrial circa final empire could definitely use quite a lot of things. Also, since it is a easy transfer point, it is possible the the Pits were essentially a way station for people travelling from one place to another past Scadrial.

[Nashan’Elin he/him]

*snip* 

If my assumption is correct than Hoid's statement about the trade going through Scadrial makes sense. There are enough people worldhopping to make a relatively easy to access perpendicularity fairly popular. What specifically is being traded is hard to say. Atium is useless unless one can burn it (and at a rate of one bead a week per person, a passer by in the Pits in unlikely to collect it). But Scadrial circa final empire could definitely use quite a lot of things. Also, since it is a easy transfer point, it is possible the the Pits were essentially a way station for people travelling from one place to another past Scadrial.

I agree, unless someone is a Worldhopping Allomancer, Scadrial doesn't have much. I like the idea of a way station.

Now I'm imagining a Ruin's Shardpool with a little convenience store, with water bottles, beef jerky, and bathrooms for passing Worldhoppers.

[Stormgate he/him]

Although, we see some evidence of transport. The Ire has a fabrial for detecting Shades, and both them and Hoid have a liquid that apparently helps beings interact with the Cognitive Realm.