Hoid uses Brass to avoid questions?

[Crucible of Shards he/him]

We all know how much enjoyment Hoid takes in dropping references to things his audience is not familiar with. It has always made me wonder why no one tries to pry further though. For instance, when he greets Jasnah as she returns to the physical realm, he says, 

“Oh,” Wit said, “I don’t mean the Almighty. Tanavast was a fine enough fellow—bought me drinks once—but he was not God.”

He adds a bit more about where Jasnah should look to find evidence of God, but that's immaterial. My point is, Jasnah doesn't even blink at Hoid's quip about Tanavast. Now, maybe Jasnah is just not taking him seriously, as she seems to have some sort of history with the king's Wit. But there are multiple instances of Hoid making an off-hand remark (or a point-blank remark, as with Dalinar and asking if he had ever hear of the name Adonalsium), when no one seems interested in the bits of knowledge he lets drop. True, Dalinar asks Hoid who he really is, but Hoid characteristically sidesteps the issue, and Dalinar lets the matter fall. So my theory, as relatively inconsequential as it is, is that Hoid uses allomantic brass to sooth people's curiosity so that he is not pressed to answer those question we so wish he would. Thoughts?

[Markus]

I think it's reasonable.  We don't really have much evidence to prove otherwise.

[emailanimal he/him]

We know that Hoid does use emotional allomancy. Whether he does it in the case of his conversation with Jasnah is not that clear.

 

I suspect though, the reason Jasnah does not bat an eye at the mention of "Tanavast" is because she actually has heard this name before.  Because she is Jasnah.

[Spoolofwhool]

I doubt this. It seems unlikely that he always has brass swallowed to burn, as shown in the flashback where he has to pour some into his cup first. As most of his remarks seem fairly spontaneous, I don't think he planned ahead with some brass. 

I think the more likely case is that Jasnah knows he knows more about the bigger picture, but also knows that he won't really give much of an answer to it if she asks. The way their conversation went seems that she is completely aware he is far more than he seems.

Finally, I don't see why Hoid would want to use allomancy to sidestep the questions. He seems to have great fun out of trivalizing important questions asked of him, so I don't see why he would go out of his way to remove another opportunity to do that.

[DocHoliday he/him]

Why wouldn't he have brass, I argue. While I admit we dont have confirmation that Hoid swallowed the Lerasium, but  he did, he's a Mistborn. 

Hoid definitely can Soothe per WoR, so again why wouldn't he Soothe at every opportunity?

[Vissy]

Well, you could say that he doesn't want to become reliant on Soothing. He uses it when it is convenient, but not in every situation it is convenient.

[AerionBFII he/him]

The people of Roshar (until recently at least) take everything he says with a pinch of salt. They know him as a enigmatic odd ball, who is known for making facetious comments and playing jokes on them. Which he excels at. I don't think it unlikely that they just write him off as being strange. Im sure he does use his allomancy on occasion but not fragrantly just when it's necessary. The things he says would only mean anything to the characters in hindsight which i believe would amuse him endlessly.

 

 

[The One Who Connects he/him]

12 hours ago, DocHoliday said:

Why wouldn't he have brass, I argue. While I admit we dont have confirmation that Hoid swallowed the Lerasium, but  he did, he's a Mistborn. 

Hoid definitely can Soothe per WoR, so again why wouldn't he Soothe at every opportunity?

The confirmation only said: "he is indeed an Allomancer" so he may not specifically be Mistborn.
Then there is the argument that you can do more or less everything with Rioting that you can do with Soothing, but that's largely irrelevant to this topic.

[Jondesu he/him]

14 hours ago, DocHoliday said:

Why wouldn't he have brass, I argue. While I admit we dont have confirmation that Hoid swallowed the Lerasium, but  he did, he's a Mistborn. 

Hoid definitely can Soothe per WoR, so again why wouldn't he Soothe at every opportunity?

I'd imagine there's two reasons.  First, he'd need to have brass swallowed and ready to burn all the time, which isn't exactly convenient, hence him adding some to his cup in the flashback with Shallan and her father.

Second, it's entirely possible that it would interfere with one or more of the other magics he has access to.  We've never seen a mixing yet of multiple magic systems from different planets, only from different Shards on a world made by both of them (with Feruchemy, Twinborns, etc), so we don't know what that would do.  Hoid has magic from several different worlds as well as from Yolen, and I imagine some of those wouldn't cooperate nicely together.  He's managed to work around it, no doubt, but that doesn't mean he'd always want to have brass ready if it would interfere with his Lightweaving, for instance (something I could find logical), or his method of figuring out where he needs to be (a form of Feruchemy, though we don't know if it's Scadrian Feruchemy or something equivalent that existed prior to that).

[DocHoliday he/him]

Brass shavings don't take up much room, as we see in the Interlude. I admit that there might be since interference between magic systems if brass was ingested, but I really don't think there should be interference if it's on his person. We see Shallon Lightweaving whole disguises after all, and I  see no reason the Yolish equivalent to be inferior. 

My point is brass is only a "key" to Scadrian magic, and there is no reason to not go into battle armed, if Hoid takes the time to tote a sword around (which we've never seen used) you can bet your spheres he's got metal for his magic, Allowmancy or otherwise.

[Djarskublar he/him]

22 hours ago, Jondesu said:

I'd imagine there's two reasons.  First, he'd need to have brass swallowed and ready to burn all the time, which isn't exactly convenient, hence him adding some to his cup in the flashback with Shallan and her father.

Second, it's entirely possible that it would interfere with one or more of the other magics he has access to.  We've never seen a mixing yet of multiple magic systems from different planets, only from different Shards on a world made by both of them (with Feruchemy, Twinborns, etc), so we don't know what that would do.  Hoid has magic from several different worlds as well as from Yolen, and I imagine some of those wouldn't cooperate nicely together.  He's managed to work around it, no doubt, but that doesn't mean he'd always want to have brass ready if it would interfere with his Lightweaving, for instance (something I could find logical), or his method of figuring out where he needs to be (a form of Feruchemy, though we don't know if it's Scadrian Feruchemy or something equivalent that existed prior to that).

It would only interfere while he is burning metal. Otherwise, it is just a few shavings in his gut.

I would say this theory is plausible. Not confirmed, but certainly possible. Whether or not he would want to in the mentioned instances is up for debate. I would say he is a skilled enough speaker to get away with it without magic. And knowing his personality, he would probably think it is cheating if he used magic for that sort of thing.