What do you think Hoid's intentions are in the cosmere?

[Revan Kholin he/him]

Hoid's intentions in the cosmere are shrouded with mystery. He has given hints throughout multiple books however they're still unclear.

Judging from his background and actions what do you all think is his intentions? 

Feel free to provide speculations and theories on the matter. =)

[Ammanas]

To reunite that shattered god would be my guess. I only know about the cosmere, shards etc in the broadest of senses so I'm not the best person to ask

[Revan Kholin he/him]

5 minutes ago, Ammanas said:

To reunite that shattered god would be my guess. I only know about the cosmere, shards etc in the broadest of senses so I'm not the best person to ask

Like-wise but any guess is worthwhile I just wanna see everyone's speculations  . My guess is basically the same as yours though.

[shadowwisp]

I know its a common theory but I think reuniting the shattered god is just too much of a cliche'/simple for Hoid's primary intention. I don't think Brandon Sanderson would make it as straightforward as that.

There must be a very powerful motivator for Hoid since he is willing to let worlds burn to achieve his goals. 

I wonder if the original 16 were able to achieve their goal by killing Adonalsium. If not, perhaps Hoid is still trying achieve that goal, just in his own way. 

Edited November 6, 2016 by shadowwisp

[Revan Kholin he/him]

12 minutes ago, shadowwisp said:

I know its a common theory but I think reuniting the shattered god is just too much of a cliche'/simple for Hoid's primary intention. I don't think Brandon Sanderson would make it as straightforward as that.

There must be a very powerful motivator for Hoid since he is willing to let worlds burn to achieve his goals. 

I wonder if the original 16 were able to achieve their goal by killing Adonalsium. If not, perhaps Hoid is still trying achieve that goal, just in his own way. 

You have a point, Brandon's too good for that. Do you think he's working for someone, maybe one of the Shards, like Odium. Hoid did say that Dalinar's intentions didn't align with his meaning Honors intention doesn't align with his since honor is the one providing the visions.

[Spoolofwhool]

In general, it looks like his current main goals are to grant himself the ability to use various manifestations of investiture. In SA time, it looks like he might also have the side goal of stopping Rayse, but based on his conversation with Dalinar, it sounds like if it interferes with his main goals too much, he'll back out. 

19 minutes ago, Revan Kholin said:

You have a point, Brandon's too good for that. Do you think he's working for someone, maybe one of the Shards, like Odium. Hoid did say that Dalinar's intentions didn't align with his meaning Honors intention doesn't align with his since honor is the one providing the visions.

Possibly working with a shard. It's probably not Odium or Autonomy though since it's fairly solidly stated that Hoid has a grudge against both of them.

[Revan Kholin he/him]

12 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Possibly working with a shard. It's probably not Odium or Autonomy though since it's fairly solidly stated that Hoid has a grudge against both of them.

Throughout the cosmere he subtley influences characters but to what end, he's seen helping Kelsier, Vin and Wax, so he's not against Harmony, but probably isn't working for him. I haven't read War breaker or Elantris so I don't know much about the Shards there, but has he helped one of them there as well?

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

In Warbreaker he does the big exposition piece (Brandon had him do it to make the story telling more interesting) and uses Yolish lightweaving.  On Sel he tries -and fails- to become an Elantrian. He's working with the Skaze at this point. While trying to do that he also helps Sarene smuggle weapons. Later on he masquerades as the Fool in the Rose Empire and steals the moon sceptre.

And considering that he beats up Kell in Secret History I doubt his intention was to help the Survivor. More likely their goals just happened to align.

[JUQ he/him]

5 minutes ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

In Warbreaker he does the big exposition piece (Brandon had him do it to make the story telling more interesting) and uses Yolish lightweaving.  On Sel he tries -and fails- to become an Elantrian. He's working with the Skaze at this point. While trying to do that he also helps Sarene smuggle weapons. Later on he masquerades as the Fool in the Rose Empire and steals the moon sceptre.

And considering that he beats up Kell in Secret History I doubt his intention was to help the Survivor. More likely their goals just happened to align.

He beat up Kell because he had no choice.

[antabr he/him]

My first thought is, someone as wisened as Hoid probably has multiple objectives he is trying to accomplish. He seems to want to defeat Odium if you believe the letters in the stormlight archive are written by him. I don't know if he wants the shards all back together for sure. My guess is he wants the diversity of the worlds to continue to flourish. He seemed to care enough about the sharing of cultures to have a part in the Worldsingers. When he said that he would watch world burns to see his objectives met, if his objective is a free cosmere, then a burnt world or two aint bad in the context of Odium's havoc. 

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

51 minutes ago, JUQ said:

He beat up Kell because he had no choice.

He only really had to knock him down. He kept doing it because he could.

[shadowwisp]

14 hours ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

He only really had to knock him down. He kept doing it because he could.

This is correct. He has a particular dislike for Kelsier. 

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

I think they are too alike to get along. Each sees the worst of themselves in the other.

[JUQ he/him]

On 11/6/2016 at 7:14 PM, Kingsdaughter613 said:

He only really had to knock him down. He kept doing it because he could.

True. I think we've established that Hoid is not perfect. If I was in Hoid's position, I would have kept going too, just for shitz and gigglez.

 

I've just had a completely CRAZY thought. A lot of Sanderson's characters are quite similar to Pratchett's characters. So, what if Hoid sees himself as the 'policeman' of the cosmere?

[Farnsworth]

If Hoid were the policeman, he would have to arrest himself at this point for disrupting the peace and beating up Kelsier. He also doesn't seem the heroic type. I think, based to the letter, that he's trying to destroy Odium. If anybody has read Eli Monpress (you should), he could be trying to shatter shards and give as much power to individuals as possible, kind of like what happened to the Shepherdess.

[StormyQueen she/her]

On 06/11/2016 at 2:56 PM, Spoolofwhool said:

In general, it looks like his current main goals are to grant himself the ability to use various manifestations of investiture. In SA time, it looks like he might also have the side goal of stopping Rayse, but based on his conversation with Dalinar, it sounds like if it interferes with his main goals too much, he'll back out. 

Possibly working with a shard. It's probably not Odium or Autonomy though since it's fairly solidly stated that Hoid has a grudge against both of them.

In my view, gaining the use of various forms of investure is a means to an end, rather than his main goal. I'm guessing that his goal is going to have repercussions cosmere wide, and my guess is the same as many; that he is trying to merge all the shards again, and that having access to various forms of investure is somewhat keyed towards this direction.  

 

2 minutes ago, Figberts said:

If Hoid were the policeman, he would have to arrest himself at this point for disrupting the peace and beating up Kelsier. He also doesn't seem the heroic type. I think, based to the letter, that he's trying to destroy Odium. 

Also for stealing a national historic relic from an emperor... As to destroying Odium, as with gaining different types of magic, I think it could be argued that this is a step of the plan. (After all, if Odium destroys all the shards, then there will be nothing to merge, as an example)

[JUQ he/him]

3 hours ago, Figberts said:

If Hoid were the policeman, he would have to arrest himself at this point for disrupting the peace and beating up Kelsier. He also doesn't seem the heroic type. I think, based to the letter, that he's trying to destroy Odium. If anybody has read Eli Monpress (you should), he could be trying to shatter shards and give as much power to individuals as possible, kind of like what happened to the Shepherdess.

Have you read Pratchett? I would advise you to. The concept of policemen there is a lot different to the common concept of policeman. But yeah, it sorta does fall apart.
Now I've gone full retard in my thinking and hypothesizing that the Seventeenth Shard are similar to the history monks.

[ZenBossanova]

I have speculated that Hoid will fail, but that we might get some kind of Tolkien-esque eucatastrophe. This entire shattering might have been Adolosium's plan all along. 

We know Adolosium is dead, but how gone is he? Could he come back at some crucial moment? We certainly don't have any foreshadowing for that, but we know next to nothing of the spiritual realm.

What makes me wonder this, partly, is understanding the Mormon conception of God's plan for us all. It involved a fortunate and beneficial Fall, which like the Shattering, has benefits, but also a lot of struggle. If we do follow this pattern, then we would have something divine (more than just the shards) would have to step in and help us along. 
 

Even if Hoid does ultimately fail, I still expect his efforts to be highly important.