Hoid was in Taldain before Warbreaker?

[Chinsukolo]

Sorry on my phone.  I'm reading Warbreaker right now and page 374 when Hoid appears.  He starts his story by using a handful of sand and slowly dripping it out of his hand.  As he does it changes from black to white, the opposite of sand mastery.

I can see few options he's using sand mastery and the color change is different because of the change in shard world.  Or the used sand is getting reInvested some how, or lastly he is draining it of color and some how wakening - perhaps using color to lightweave like his story to Kaladin.

[Landis963 he/him]

Knowing Autonomy's current approach to foreign policy (as outlined by Khriss in AU), I suspect that Hoid wouldn't be able to get within a Cognitive mile of the system.  

[dyring]

He might, he went onto Scadrial when noone else dared through the shardpool, and he travels to sel despite it being difficult.

We dont really know how efficently shards would be in blocking a planet. Hoid is likely quite skilled at not being noticed by shards(He said something about how Odium would kill him if he found him when he was on Roshar)

also, we dont know exactely when Autonomy started feeling isolationistic. I assume it was open when Khriss left.

That said, I dont think thats it, since the sand would be white when filled with investiture, and black when without, Hoid would need to spend investiture, likely breaths, to do it. Seems unlikely he would waste it like that.

 

[Calderis he/him]

According to the sample chapters of Liar, Yolish Lightweaving uses dust/sand that he pulls from his pockets. Liar isn't Canon so that may not work, but I think it's a good possibility here. 

[DSC01 he/him]

Hoid has indeed been to Taldain, and it happened before Autonomy cut off access to the planet. Beyond that, I don't know anything, but he'll probably show up in White Sand, and then we'll have some idea. The sand is probably a red herring, though, since--as @Calderis points out--Yolish Lightweaving is likely to involve sand.

[Weltall]

Brandon confirmed in a WoB (here) that Hoid's storytelling method in Warbreaker doesn't have any connection to Taldain. So we don't need Liar's sample chapters (dubious as they are) to know that. That said, Hoid has been to Taldain because Brandon confirmed he'll appear in White Sand. Though that means he's been there before Autonomy interdicted the world and we don't know if he's been back since.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Weltall

[Chinsukolo]

All good to know, thanks for pointing out the WoBs and such.  So it seems the likely answer is Yolish light weaving with sand as his catalyst.  And nothing to do with Taldain, a red herring as suggested.

[king of nowhere]

there are some non-confirmed spottings of hoid in white sand, based on the fact that there was a street juggler with the same face in several unconnected scenes (this link will bring you to the white sand spoiler board). that being said, knowing hoid, it is a very safe bet that he visited all the shardworlds. the only place where he may not have been is first of the sun, and only because withoout shard there it may hold no interest to his plan.

as for the sand, hoid certainly would be able to get some taldain sand, he certainly would know a way to reinvest it, and he certainly has more than enough investiture to spare to do it / has ways to recover the sand after his display. that said, hoid's first magic, that he had even before the shattering of adonalsium, is some kind of illusionism/lightweaving. so occam's razor dictates that he took a bunch of ordinary sand and used his illusion magic to change its color.