How to know its Hoid

[Exerxes he/him]

I've been reading a lot of the cosmere related stories and i have been trying to find times whenever Hoid appears in them. I know that he was Wit in the Stormlight Archive but i have a little trouble in some of the other books finding him. Does he have any defining characteristics that i can look for that really point him out?

[The Sovereign]

8 minutes ago, Exerxes said:

I've been reading a lot of the cosmere related stories and i have been trying to find times whenever Hoid appears in them. I know that he was Wit in the Stormlight Archive but i have a little trouble in some of the other books finding him. Does he have any defining characteristics that i can look for that really point him out?

A few characteristics to look out for: Beggar or storyteller, arrow shaped face, White (not grey) hair, makes fun of people, knows more than the character he is playing probably should, etc etc. Also, in a lot of cases he goes by "Hoid" so that is a pretty good indication...

[RShara she/her]

He almost always refers to himself by the name "Hoid" at least once.  His other pseudonyms that we know of are Dust, Topaz, Cephandrius Maxtori, and Midius.

Unless disguised, he has sharp features, an arrow like face, and white hair.

So it's largely just contextual clues, names, and descriptions that help people pick up that it's Hoid.  No easy and fast way, alas!

[Apollyon he/him]

Welcome to the shard Exerxes! Most of the time, he is sadly unrecognizable except by name. He does have an appearance in all the cosmere books, and likes to make jokes at others expense. Occasionally you'll find something from his viewpoint though.

[Exerxes he/him]

okay... thanks for the help!!

Ill be keeping a closer eye on the interesting sharp faced people in the stories to find him!

[Weltall]

Yeah, he has various other identities but as long as you know that Hoid and Wit are the same person you have the connecting thread that will let you figure out most of those other aliases because almost all of them are mentioned at some point in Stormlight Archive. There's only two appearances to date that are so subtle that you either have to look for the visual clues The Sovereign mentioned, or know it because Brandon has told us.

Spoiler

In The Well of Ascension, he's the leader of the Terris refugees that Elend encounters. In Alloy of Law, he's the unnamed beggar at the wedding party.

There's also a probable appearance in the White Sand graphic novels but it hasn't been absolutely confirmed yet that it's him.

[RShara she/her]

Yeah any begger or informant or bard or anyone who says or does strange things/has more knowledge than they should, could possibly be Hoid.  We can then ask Brandon, hey was that Hoid?

[Faceless Mist-Wraith he/him]

What gave him away in Well of Ascension? People said he was the leader of the terrisman refugees, and Brandon confirmed it, but even when I've reread knowing it's him, I don't see any real hint.

[Weltall]

@Faceless Mist-Wraith Judging by the discussion, it seems like what happened is that people on the old TWG board put together a list of anyone who could have been Hoid and then eliminated the most unlikely candidates until they were left with a short list that included the Terrisman, then Brandon effectively confirmed it. He mentions 'a character noticing something odd about someone' as a hint that remained in the book so there's probably something subtle in that scene that isn't recalling itself to my memory.

[+Brassweaver he/him]

On 3/14/2018 at 10:11 AM, The Sovereign said:

A few characteristics to look out for: Beggar or storyteller, arrow shaped face, White (not grey) hair, makes fun of people, knows more than the character he is playing probably should, etc etc. Also, in a lot of cases he goes by "Hoid" so that is a pretty good indication...

Yeah he almost always identifies himself by name, or one of characters already knows his name. 

[Reckless Reader]

Also, you could use the inherent drawback of placing Easter eggs in a book: the author has to describe it. In a movie, there could just be a face in a crowd, easy to miss. But in a book, every word is deliberate. If someone is described carefully, they are probably important. And possibly Hoid.

Happy hunting!

[Gasper he/him]

If the character has an object that they should not have, and fit one or more of the above criteria, then it is likely Hoid.

[Carla Bridge Four]

Hello!

Does anybody know if the drawings of the Heralds on top of the chapters in SLA sometimes represent Hoid? When the character on the drawing is wearing somekind of a mask? Or else, which Herald is it?

I have a friend reading OB and he keeps repeating he's Hoid, but I think it's an Herald...

Thanks in anyone replies

[Weltall]

4 hours ago, Carla Bridge Four said:

Does anybody know if the drawings of the Heralds on top of the chapters in SLA sometimes represent Hoid? When the character on the drawing is wearing somekind of a mask? Or else, which Herald is it?

The faces used are thematic and there's a method to Isaac picking which onesgo in each chapter.

Quote

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

You know the artwork, the arches with the faces? What are those?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Those are each of the Heralds. And those archways, Isaac picks based on what he thinks the themes of the chapter are. I don't pick which faces go on there. He reads the chapter, he's the artist who does all the maps and symbols and stuff, he tries to align what's happening with the emotions represented by the various characters. 

Questioner [PENDING REVIEW]

And the thing underneath it is?

Brandon Sanderson [PENDING REVIEW]

Generally the symbol of the viewpoint character. But those shift. Like for instance we sometimes start with a general one, and as the characters get more individual we add ones specifically for them. Usually you'll have one that's the viewpoint character, and then like for instance the ones for Jasnah and Shallan split apart when originally they just had one, and stuff like that.

source

The masked face is not a Herald since we already can account for all ten of them. It may represent Hoid but it also shows up when he's not present  Lurcher asked Peter about the icon symbolism, which taken with his response makes for a handy guide to what the selection can mean, and the WoR reread on Tor does a good job of analyzing them on a chapter-by-chapter basis as well.

Quote

Lurcher

Here are the lists of things that I've noticed could be reasons why certain Herald images get chosen. I also picked up on alot of this stuff because the folks over at Tor have done a WoR re-read and have a dedicated "Heraldic Symbolism" subsection they devote for each chapter. They speculate as to why the specific herald(s) were chosen. Specifically Alice Arneson (one of the re-readers) has seemingly done some good research into this, so I'll give her credit for a lot of this.

I mostly listed these out for my own reference as I've been meaning to do so (since I usually keep them in my head when figuring this out when reading).

1. Herald themselves (mentioned, talked about, or actually has an appearance)

2. Some object associated with a herald (example: A specific herald's honorblade)

3. Member of Order (ex: Kaladin=Windrunners=Jezrien)

4. Characters portraying divine attribute behavior (example: Loving and Healing)

5. Characters portraying the inverse of divine attribute behavior (example: Hating and Destroying)

6. Herald of <concept> - things associated with that concept. Known examples: 1) Shalash: Herald of Beauty 2) Nalan: Herald of Justice 3) Jezrien: Herald of Kings 4) Taln: Herald of War 5) Ishar: Herald of Luck

7. Roles associated with a herald Known Examples: 1)Chana: Guards 2)Taln: Soldiers/war 3)Ishar: Ardents/religion 4)Vedel: Physicians

8. Essences (https://coppermind.net/wiki/Ten_Essences ): Essence, body focus, soulcasting properties...(this one is a stretch as I've never really could pinpoint this well enough)

9. Jester/Masked face (as mentioned in other posts on this thread). This can be tied to chapters with Wit them or tied to concepts related to him, the biggest one (I think) being storytelling.

How'd I do?

Note: I loved the "Four Lifetimes" chapter's heraldic symbolism in Oathbringer (I'm a little over halfway through the book), but I thought that was great showing the different roles/lives Kaladin has filled: Surgeon (Vedel), Soldier (Taln), Guard (Chana), and Leader/Windrunner (Jezrien). Bravo.

Peter Ahlstrom

How did you do? Pretty much a home run. There's only one thing you're missing, which you may have implied, and that's the gemstones. Also, there's a little bit more to #5 that will be explored further later in the series.

Your "Four Lifetimes" analysis is spot-on. Congratulations.

Source

TLDR: The man with the mask can represent Hoid in SA but it doesn't always do so.

[Carla Bridge Four]

Thanks a lot @Weltall !!!