How does Hoid communicate with Shards

[sc0obie]

Hey guys,

I've been lurking this forum for almost 3 years but this is my first post about something that I've never quite figured out and it's been bugging me for years:

How does Hoid communicate with Shards, specially the ones that don't know/don't like him?

Does he send a letter to one of the underlings that can communicate with them (Kandras)? How does he get the answer back? Is there a post office where he writes "Harmony - Scadrial" in the Cognitive Realm and off it goes?

 

[Weltall]

There's a sort of Cosmere courier service for delivering messages.

Quote

Questioner

So, I was curious about Hoid and how he is sending letters to a dragon, while he is on Roshar and the dragon is elsewhere?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. So, there is a courier service you can hire in the cosmere.

Questioner

So, it's like a Pony Express and that on the...

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Not everything he's doing is going via that, but it is a thing that exists.

Questioner

Like, in the Cognitive Realm?

Brandon Sanderson

Yeah, they have to go through Shadesmar. So... you can hire a very specialized group to get things where they're supposed to go.

DragonCon 2019 (Aug. 29, 2019)

For communicating with Shards, it really depends on the Shard. If Hoid wants to communicate with Bavadin he just needs to send his message to one of her avatars, as he did with his Oathbringer letter. For Harmony he could get it to a kandra, put it somewhere Harmony will be observing or maybe one of these couriers could be spiked with a Pathian earring and deliver the message directly. Nalthis has a form of customs that worldhoppers go through so it's probably pretty easy to get messages to Edgli. Getting messages to Cultivation and (while he was alive) Honor wouldn't be hard with the combination of the Nightwatcher/Stormfather and how the Radiants of old apparently used to communicate with Honor directly.

Edited April 3, 2020 by Weltall

[+Invocation]

Shenanigans. Hoid shenanigans. Hoidnanigans.

[Kelsier'sGodComplex she/her]

The post office idea it awesome.

I'm not really experienced in the deep lore of Hoid and the Shards, so I don't really know. 

I doubt he does it in a way that normal people can, though. 

[sylbladio he/him]

Shards can see in many places at once, so Hoid probably puts the message where he thinks the Shard-holder would look. He probably gets the place right using Fortune.

[Karger he/him]

Welcome to the shard!