What if Hoid is a Sliver of Adonalsium?

[Catfish he/him]

So what if during the shattering of adonalsium, hoid received a sliver of adonalsium without any of the shardholders noticing (like embedded into him?)? It would give him not quite the power of a shard but without the changing of personality based on the intent of a shard, giving him more freedom (and could explain how he is good with other types of investiture since he's invested with a part of adonalsium). And that's why he didn't accept the shard offered to him. The sliver gave him enough knowledge to know not to take the shard to keep his individuality but also possibly the most important part of adonalsium (super stretch but bear with me). This is why the 17th shard are after him(and named the 17th shard) because they believe he is the equivalent to the "17th shard" even as a sliver. They want to find him because with that power he is impulsive and unpredictable, but also possibly has the potential to restore adonalsium or possibly hold the soul of adonalsium. This would make the 17th sharders not truly against hoid but wish to keep him from making things worse. Not really explaining this how I mean be can always edit it later.

[Ari he/him]

It's not impossible, but there's an implication in the Letters in the Stormlight Archive that both Hoid and the recipient (who a lot of us are calling Frost seeing they're the same species) opposed the plan to Shatter Adonalsium. Would Hoid really accept a sliver of the power if he disagreed with the very idea of the Shattering? We'd need a motivation on his part to do so that we have no direct evidence of just yet.

[Steeldancer he/him]

Ah I had a variant of your idea. What if when Adonalsium shattered, some investiture... went loose? And maybe took Hoids soul to unusual properties. Such as the whole "can regenerate from anything" thing. 

[Tsidqiyah he/him]

Most of Hoids powers were his pre-shattering. i won't say he didn't get anything during that event BUT his lightweaving, and healing were both his prior to the shattering.

Though of course that is all pre-cannon (my term for the Liar of Partinel information that is not completly cannon anymore) and i don't know what WoBs exist to support/refute it. 

[Calderis he/him]

6 minutes ago, Tsidqiyah said:

Most of Hoids powers were his pre-shattering. i won't say he didn't get anything during that event BUT his lightweaving, and healing were both his prior to the shattering.

Though of course that is all pre-cannon (my term for the Liar of Partinel information that is not completly cannon anymore) and i don't know what WoBs exist to support/refute it. 

His Lightweaving yes. His healing ability is not referenced in LoP.

[Tsidqiyah he/him]

Good to know. Where is the first reference to his odd form of immortality? i had always though it was in Liar or Dragonsteel. Dragonsteel is again pre-shattering, 

At the same time I have also believed his inability to cause harm is tied to his particular brand of healing and one would not exist without the other. So my argument could be flawed as the implications are that his inability is post-shattering in origin.

[Calderis he/him]

2 minutes ago, Tsidqiyah said:

Good to know. Where is the first reference to his odd form of immortality? i had always though it was in Liar or Dragonsteel. Dragonsteel is again pre-shattering, 

At the same time I have also believed his inability to cause harm is tied to his particular brand of healing and one would not exist without the other. So my argument could be flawed as the implications are that his inability is post-shattering in origin.

I'm not one of those who have read Dragonsteel. The only thing I know of that references his healing abilities is WoBs. 

Edit:well, those and a couple of comments he makes in SA. 

Edited June 23, 2017 by Calderis

[Steeldancer he/him]

1 hour ago, Calderis said:

I'm not one of those who have read Dragonsteel. The only thing I know of that references his healing abilities is WoBs. 

Edit:well, those and a couple of comments he makes in SA. 

And secret histories. 

[Weltall]

A point on Hoid's lifespan: Given that there are multiple ways to achieve the same general ends with Investiture (like Yolish Lightweaving versus Rosharan, or Hoid's Plot Sense using the same mechanism as F-Chromium) we can't really use his healing or lifespan to say that he might have held a huge chunk of power at some point in the past. We know the Heralds are ageless and are/could be considered Cognitive Shadows and anyone with ~2000 Breath gets immortality and virtual immunity to disease (and alas, alcohol) so Hoid's lifespan could very easily come from some pre-Shattering magic or a creative hack of one or more systems; it doesn't require him to be a Sliver or hold a huge chunk of Shardic power.

But I do like the idea that Hoid's inability to hurt people (with the sort-of exception of recently-deceased Cognitive Shadows who like to pick fights) and his healing and/or extended lifespan are linked in some way.

10 hours ago, Catfish said:

So what if during the shattering of adonalsium, hoid received a sliver of adonalsium without any of the shardholders noticing (like embedded into him?)?

Hair-splitting time: Slivers are people who have held a substantial fraction of a Shard's power and then released it, not a thing one could recieve. It's possible that Hoid did at some point pre-Shattering hold a lot of power and could be considered a Sliver but in order to be a Sliver he'd need to have given that power up.

[Jonathon]

1 hour ago, Weltall said:

Hair-splitting time: Slivers are people who have held a substantial fraction of a Shard's power and then released it, not a thing one could recieve. It's possible that Hoid did at some point pre-Shattering hold a lot of power and could be considered a Sliver but in order to be a Sliver he'd need to have given that power up.

Maybe when Hoid was "offered" a shard he actually took it up at first, but then realized that this wasn't what he wanted to happen, and so he released the shard and thus became a sliver. Perhaps there was some kind of information that holding a shard of adonalsium allowed him to know, and it wasn't something he liked. Now, maybe his entire quest throughout all of the cosmere books has something to do with whatever information he learned. 

[Steeldancer he/him]

16 hours ago, Weltall said:

A point on Hoid's lifespan: Given that there are multiple ways to achieve the same general ends with Investiture (like Yolish Lightweaving versus Rosharan, or Hoid's Plot Sense using the same mechanism as F-Chromium) we can't really use his healing or lifespan to say that he might have held a huge chunk of power at some point in the past. We know the Heralds are ageless and are/could be considered Cognitive Shadows and anyone with ~2000 Breath gets immortality and virtual immunity to disease (and alas, alcohol) so Hoid's lifespan could very easily come from some pre-Shattering magic or a creative hack of one or more systems; it doesn't require him to be a Sliver or hold a huge chunk of Shardic power.

But I do like the idea that Hoid's inability to hurt people (with the sort-of exception of recently-deceased Cognitive Shadows who like to pick fights) and his healing and/or extended lifespan are linked in some way.

Hair-splitting time: Slivers are people who have held a substantial fraction of a Shard's power and then released it, not a thing one could recieve. It's possible that Hoid did at some point pre-Shattering hold a lot of power and could be considered a Sliver but in order to be a Sliver he'd need to have given that power up.

It's not the extended lifespan that seems unusual. Remember when Kelsier stuck his hand in his soul, and kelsiers hand went numb? And he can regenerate from a Shardblade wound, and sounds like he wouldn't be too stressed about it. There is something weird about him. 

[Ari he/him]

Oh there's far more than one thing weird about Hoid. We certainly know he's collecting artifacts from various worlds he's visiting, and that he's picking up abilities from them where possible, too. (we've seen it implied that he's using Mistborn abilities after he took a chunk of Lerasium in Mistborn, and apparently the anniversary edition of Elantris has him trying to get initiated as an Elantrian) I think that's more than enough to explain what's going on with his implication that he could survive a Shardblade.

[Catfish he/him]

Sorry I misused the term sliver but could only think of that as a term... Maybe fractional shard... maybe like a tie that binds... I am not even sure I fully support my idea but was just trying to scratch a mental itch when it come to Hoid... There's something more there that really makes me think he's a lot more powerful than let's on...

[Catfish he/him]

Perhaps a sliver of Adonalsium doesn't have the same properties as a normal shard or sliver? like a hidden shard.... dumb theory but, meh, what the heck?

[Catfish he/him]

Shrapnel! That was the word I was looking for! Hoid got hit by shrapnel of Adonalsium and even though it's not a shard, he still holds some power without as much effect on his personality or direction. Not enough to control his intent or personality but enough that its quietly driving him towards a goal.