Hoid
also known as The King's Wit, Wit
The book's narrator, addressing the reader in the second person throughout — a chatty, digressive voice that has watched Painter and Yumi from somewhere close at hand. In the flesh he stands in the Noodle Pupil as a copper-painted coatrack with hawkish features and a hat-spiked crown, immobilised by an ailment of his own and dressed up by Design so the customers will not find him unsettling. STD:YNP:Ch 5
The white-haired wanderer who delivered Charlie's cups on the Diggen's Point docks the morning Tress met him. The babbling cabin boy was the visible toll of a curse the Sorceress laid on him years before. The curse broke the moment he walked back into her tower with the Crow's Song's officers behind him and an Aon shield raised over Tress, and he answered to *sorcerer* without correcting it. He had set the bet himself: find a sorceress smart enough to belong to the select group whose powers he wanted, gullible enough to play with, and cruel enough to trade the membership for the joy of cursing him — and then survive the cursing. STD:Tress:Ch 63 superseded at STD:YNP:Ch 5
The white-haired wanderer who, when Tress first met him on the Diggen's Point docks, was the quietly competent cabin boy delivering Charlie's cups. By the time she sees him again on the Crow's Song he is bow-legged, babbling, and unable to hold a sensible thought — the visible toll of a curse the Sorceress laid on him after he tried, and failed, to take something of hers. The curse stripped him of his wit, and with it his humour, decorum, purpose, and sense of self. STD:Tress:Ch 14 superseded at STD:Tress:Ch 63
The new coachman at Ladrian Mansion — a wiry, unremarkable hire who turns up on the box with a shrug and a flask, content to let Wayne climb up beside him while Wax talks with Harmony in the carriage below. The face is new in Elendel; the man wearing it has walked many cities older than this one. MB2:SoS:Ch 7 superseded at STD:Tress:Ch 14
A traveller of vast age who has walked many lands under many names; on Roshar he wears the motley of the King's Wit. Old enough to have known Tanavast personally, fluent in the workings of Shadesmar, and quietly invested in the refounding of the Knights Radiant. SA:WoR:Epilogue superseded at MB2:SoS:Ch 7
Tall, sharp-eyed traveler currently serving as King Elhokar's court Wit. By his own admission no Herald and no Knight Radiant — but a man older than he looks, who claims to be pursued by an enemy he calls the father of hatred, an enemy capable of shredding a soul beyond reassembly. Bids Dalinar farewell as he leaves the warcamps for parts he will not name. SA:WoR:Ch 67 superseded at SA:WoR:Epilogue
Elhokar's recently arrived court jester — tall, black-clad, with deep onyx hair and a dueling foil at his waist. Mocks with surgical purpose, seems to know things he should not. SA:WoK:Ch 12 superseded at SA:WoR:Ch 67
A scrawny, bald street informant who works the Sootwarrens. He affects weak eyesight to reassure his noble clients, smokes expensive tobacco openly, and has lived long enough at the trade that Dockson vouches for him. MB1:TFE:Ch 19 superseded at SA:WoK:Ch 12
Known facts
- sought-by-foreignersHunted by three Selay-speaking foreigners who have been combing the Purelake villages through Ishikk for five months. They know him to dye his hair and wear disguises.SA:WoK:I-1
- tells-kaladin-wandersailFinds Kaladin in the lumberyard and tells him the story of the Wandersail — a tale about choosing to live differently from the world that has shaped one. The story unhinges something in Kaladin; afterwards he confronts Teft about what Teft has been not-saying.SA:WoK:Ch 57
- tells-kaladin-the-story-of-fleetThree days into Kaladin's imprisonment, Wit appears on a bench outside the cell that may not have been there a moment before, with a strange stringed instrument across his lap, and plays and sings Kaladin the story of Fleet the runner racing a highstorm from sea to sea — drawing the words out of Kaladin himself, line by line, and refusing afterwards to tell him what it means.SA:WoR:Ch 59
- tells-dalinar-he-is-no-herald-no-radiant-only-a-manAsked directly by Dalinar whether he is a Herald or one of the Radiants Dalinar has been hunting, says no to both — he is but a man, much as he wishes at times he were not. He warns that he is Dalinar's friend but their goals do not align completely; he would, with tears, let this world burn to get what he needs.SA:WoR:Ch 67
- leaves-the-warcamps-pursued-by-the-father-of-hatredTells Dalinar he must leave the warcamps almost at once — he has discovered somewhere he must be, though even he is not entirely sure why. He explains he cannot stay close because if his enemy finds him his selfhood would be torn apart beyond reconstitution. Names that enemy to Dalinar as the one Dalinar himself fights: the father of hatred.SA:WoR:Ch 67
- hoid-knew-tanavast-personallyHoid tells Jasnah that the being she calls the Almighty — Tanavast — was real but was not God; he describes Tanavast as a fine enough fellow who once bought him drinks.SA:WoR:Epilogue
- hoid-tracks-disturbance-in-shadesmarHoid finds Jasnah by tracking the disturbance she caused among the spren on the cognitive side; he tells her it has been a very long time since the spren had a living person to deal with, particularly one as demanding as she is.SA:WoR:Epilogue
- cabin-boy-on-diggens-point-runSurfaces, after a long Cosmere lull, as the young cabin boy on a ship that calls regularly at Diggen's Point — the one who quietly hands Tress the cups Charlie is sending her from each foreign port. The framing narrator confirms, in an aside, that he is the same Hoid.STD:Tress:Ch 4
- wax-family-driverDrives the Ladrian family motorcar in Elendel under the name Hoid — pulling up to the House of Proceedings at the end of Wax's sessions, holding the passenger door, and addressing him as *sir*.MB2:TLM:Ch 5
- cabin-boy-on-crows-songHas signed onto the Crow's Song as her cabin boy after his stretch on the Whistlebow. Tress recognises him on the deck the morning after she is hauled aboard — older than the title implies, white-haired, bow-legged, and (when he opens his mouth) talking nonsense she cannot account for.STD:Tress:Ch 12
- cursed-by-sorceressCarries one of the Sorceress's famous curses, picked up years before during an attempt to liberate something of hers that proved harder to take than he had assumed. The curse took his sense of taste — and, on a second pass, the narrator clarifies he means his wit, and with it his senses of humour, of decorum, of purpose, and most painfully of self.STD:Tress:Ch 14
- survived-the-sorceressPer Ulaam, not only crossed paths with the Sorceress and was cursed by her — he went *to* her stronghold and came back. Ulaam has no idea how he managed it, but the fact remains: a route to the Midnight Sea is in Hoid's head somewhere, behind the curse.STD:Tress:Ch 21
- curse-blocks-speech-about-itselfThe geas the Sorceress hung on him is curse-specific: any direct attempt to talk about her or what she did to him collapses into stuttering, or the words die unsaid. He cannot even confirm he is cursed to someone who does not already know — which is why every conversation Tress tries to have with him about the Sorceress derails into half-mad nonsense before it begins.STD:Tress:Ch 23
- aware-beneath-the-curseBeneath the bumbling surface a sliver of the original man is still awake and horrified — and learns, by leaning into his own engineered stupidity, that the geas turns on the sufferer's Intent. He can sometimes force a few oblique sentences past it if he blanks his mind before he speaks, then deliberately forgets what he said.STD:Tress:Ch 23
- points-tress-to-six-starsTells Tress in his one rational moment to bring him to her planet, that he can save her if she does — then, before the geas catches him, redirects her to look for *the group of six stars*. The advice means nothing to her until she lies in her bunk and notices stars carved into the underside of the bed-frame above her, Weev's own hidden marks.STD:Tress:Ch 23
- gave-weev-the-midnight-sporesUlaam catches Tress's question about midnight spores and calls in the cabin boy to ask whether he is responsible — and is told, brightly, that no, Hoid did not give them to Tress. He gave them to Weev. The narrator's retrospective aside is that he had thought they were a kind of liquorice. This is how the cache that Tress now keeps under her bed reached the Crow's Song in the first place.STD:Tress:Ch 27
- curse-only-discussable-with-someone-who-knowsThe curse the Sorceress laid on Hoid has a specific rule which Tress talks him through on deck: he can only discuss the curse, or anything related to it, with someone who already knows the curse exists. He cannot tell another person about it; he can only confirm what they already suspect. The narrator notes drily that this self-referential gate is the central reason the curse has been so difficult to crack: the people in a position to help him cannot be told what is wrong.STD:Tress:Ch 41
- curse-blocks-letter-by-letter-confirmationAmong the workarounds the Sorceress anticipated when she laid Hoid's curse is the obvious one of spelling: a helper asking *is this letter in the word?* one letter at a time. The curse has been written to forbid confirming words a letter at a time, the narrator notes; the Sorceress thought of it first.STD:Tress:Ch 41
- tells-tress-she-has-everything-she-needsIn a brief moment of lucidity between bad poems, Hoid puts a hand on Tress's shoulder, raises a single finger, and whispers that she has everything she needs. He repeats it when she presses the point about the flare gun, declines to elaborate, and starts up the stairs after Ulaam.STD:Tress:Ch 46
- likely-cursed-on-purposePer Ulaam's judgment to Tress, Hoid is one of the very few people anywhere capable of swaying events when he chooses to, and almost certainly more than a match for the Sorceress — his current state is not an accident. Ulaam would wager he got himself cursed on purpose, and is now having more trouble than expected unwinding it.STD:Tress:Ch 56
- cure-is-returning-to-sorceressTress works out that his inability to speak about the Sorceress or her tower is not just a side-effect of his curse but its hinge — the cure he could not name was to return to her himself, the same shape of cure Charlie carries. She has the crew bring him to her in the tower.STD:Tress:Ch 61
- broke-curse-on-tower-doorstepBroke the curse the Sorceress had laid on him by walking back into her tower with Tress and the Crow's Song's officers — raising an Aon shield to absorb her finishing curse on Tress, having engineered the whole arrangement as a bet to be cursed by a member of the select group whose powers he wanted.STD:Tress:Ch 63
- can-draw-aonsCan draw Aons after the curse breaks; uses one as a shield in the tower to absorb the Sorceress's finishing curse on Tress. The narrator describes the requirement as adoption into a select group rather than mere imitation.STD:Tress:Ch 63
- reworked-charlies-curseCould not undo the Sorceress's curse but reworded its terms — *cursed* to *versed* — so that bringing the person he loved to her tower in exchange for his freedom could be satisfied by a poem Charlie wrote for Tress rather than by her being transformed.STD:Tress:Epilogue
- rescues-wax-from-the-bayThe lantern that finds Wax in the mist turns out to be Hoid — the Ladrian family coachman — on a small motorboat that nudges right up alongside him. He stands in coachman's coat and white gloves and reaches a hand down to him as if Wax were stepping out of the townhouse foyer instead of out of the bay.MB2:TLM:Ch 72
- frozen-as-coatrackHas been frozen in place by an ailment of his own and now stands in the Noodle Pupil as a copper-painted coatrack with hawkish features, a sly smile, a hat-spiked crown, and bandoliers of pegs for bags and coats. Design dressed him up to make him less unsettling, ransacked his pockets for the money to build the restaurant, and runs the place because he cannot.STD:YNP:Ch 5
- perceives-via-connectionAlthough frozen and largely entranced for a bit over three years of Painter and Design's time in Kilahito, he becomes aware of the events of this story through what he describes as a Connection between himself and the two principals — first as overheard dialogue (Painter's voice nearby, Yumi's warped and distant), then as images painted directly into his perception in magenta and teal, ranging from faint two-line figures to full-motion scenes depending on his level of attention. He admits even arcanists struggle to explain the mechanism.STD:YNP:Ch 6
- thinks-passions-derive-from-odiumNames the Thaylen Passions as a religion anciently derived from the teachings of Odium himself, and considers it deeply insulting: a doctrine that effectively blames the suffering of the poor on their not caring enough.SA:WaT:Ch 4
- stores-memory-in-breathWit reveals to Jasnah that he has lived too long for any mortal mind to hold his memories — so he stores them externally in Breath, a form of Investiture a trained user can fold into the soul and periodically review and prune.SA:WaT:Ch 14
- true-form-shorter-white-hairedUnder stress in front of Jasnah, the Wit persona briefly drops and his body physically reshapes itself — diminished in height, hair gone bone-pale, the face only just other than the one she knows — before settling back. The transformation is physical, not illusion.SA:WaT:Ch 14
- lost-time-meeting-with-odiumA review of his stored memory turns up a gap of just under three and a half minutes excised from a conversation Wit had with Odium roughly a day earlier — hurried enough that he can find the seams, and patched so that he would walk away believing he had bested Rayse. The very fact of the deception is the evidence that the enemy has outgrown his old patterns.SA:WaT:Ch 14
- present-at-human-migration-from-ashynWit confirms to Navani and Dalinar that he was personally present at humankind's arrival on Roshar from Ashyn some seven thousand years ago — he picked the anchor-stone he gives them out himself before the migration. The fragments of holy-site rock the migrants carried became, over thousands of years and many cataclysmic resets of civilisation, the basis of the Shin reverence for stone, although the Shin themselves have lost the memory of why. He has never told them.SA:WaT:Ch 31
- was-three-thousand-years-old-at-ashyns-fallWit was already roughly three thousand years old when Ashyn burned, and watching that world die was one of his first great failures — though not, by his own measure, his absolute first. The shock left him staring at the sky for weeks afterward, worrying that he was losing himself; in Navani and Dalinar's vision, the Spiritual Realm echo of him melts into a homunculus muttering *I must do that, I must do that.*SA:WaT:Ch 46
- secretly-took-up-a-dawnshard-againHas, at some point, quietly taken up a Dawnshard again — the same one he had publicly surrendered centuries earlier — counting on the residual echoes of his old tenure to mask the active bond. Brought it to Roshar despite the Sleepless convention that no two should share a planet.SA:WaT:I-15
- speaks-the-word-that-halts-the-dawnshard-mergerWith the two Dawnshards pulling Rysn across the floor toward catastrophic collision, frames his hands and speaks a single word — "No." — that suspends the merger, then leaves with a promise that the two will not meet again.SA:WaT:I-15
- tells-dalinar-the-story-of-the-lumbermans-sonWalking with Dalinar through Urithiru toward the contest, a Wit-Lightweaving keeps the crowd from noticing them; Wit uses the time to tell a half-finished old story — a king on a far white-tree world who bet a baron that a lumberman's son could be raised to nobility, and the young Wit who was carrying a weapon destined to kill a god un-wittingly through it. The lumberman's son failed, and it haunts Wit to this day.SA:WaT:Ch 127
- cannot-foresee-the-contest-of-championsAs the lift reaches the tower rooftop, Wit tells Dalinar he cannot foresee what happens next — he suspects Renarin and Dalinar's link to him are the cause, and that Odium is likewise blind. For the first time in this long story, he admits, he does not know the right tale to tell.SA:WaT:Ch 128
- was-present-when-alaswha-was-destroyed-and-spoke-of-the-shardsIshar tells Kaladin something Wit prefers to leave out: that he was there when humanity destroyed their previous world — perhaps even responsible for it — and that it was his talk of the Shards that led humanity to first contact Odium. *Strange, how he always manages to worm his way into each and every relevant decision.*SA:WaT:Ch 131
- restored-from-cell-culture-on-scadrialVaporized by Retribution on Roshar, Hoid wakes restored on Scadrial — his body regrown from a cell culture of his own flesh that Ulaam had been keeping alive in a laboratory for years on his instruction, a contingency he had always known he could rely on but had never weaponized before.SA:WaT:Ch 147
- cannot-return-to-rosharFaced with a Roshar cut off from the rest of the cosmere by a slowness bubble that would trap him on the planet — and an Autonomy beginning to move against Scadrial — Hoid decides he cannot return. He leaves Design, his apprentice Sigzil with the Dawnshard, the woman he had loved, and the friends he had mentored on the wrong side of the bubble.SA:WaT:Ch 147
- takes-coachman-post-ladrian-houseStranded on Scadrial in the years after Stormfall, Hoid takes a working coachman's post at the Ladrian Mansion under steward Miss Grimes — close to people he intends to influence, doing what he sees as a guiding hand on the crisis.SA:WaT:Epilogue
- realises-dalinars-playWeeks after Stormfall, Hoid finally understands what Dalinar did — refused the offered escape, freed Retribution into a cosmere now forced to deal with it, and so denied the Shards the comfort of quietly walking away again. He judges it a piece of grand improvisation that he, with all his plans, had not foreseen.SA:WaT:Epilogue
- will-seek-valor-as-allyHoid resolves that his next move, after Scadrial is stable, is to find Valor — a Shard whose holder he has personally offended, and one of the few allies he trusts to know how to fight a hostile god.SA:WaT:Epilogue
Events
- MB1:TFE:Ch 19 Waits in a darkened Sootwarrens doorway with a pipe; sells Kelsier what little the street has on House Renoux and confirms — for a bonus — that Shan Elariel is a Soother who keeps shaved brass in her right glove.
- MB2:BoM:Ch 11 Appears in the shrubs along the path to the Shores mansion as a milky-eyed, ragged beggar with cologne on his breath, begging for clips for old Hoid; pelts Wax with a strange coin as he leaves.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 5 Pulls the Ladrian motorcar up to the curb outside the House of Proceedings and holds the door for Steris — *your carriage, sir.*
- MB2:TLM:Ch 20 Drives Wayne's truck on the convoy in his coachman cover; pulls up beside Marasi's cab at the corner and exchanges a knowing nod with Moonlight — both, it seems, are watching the same third parties.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 21 Drives Wayne's truck across the Bilming Grand Motorway, plays straight man to the pickling monologue, accepts Sir Squeekins as trade for his harmonica, and tells Wayne the villain knows the hero best.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 25 Pulls a sleek black car up to the Bilming square where Wax has just landed mid-dedication ceremony, in chauffeur's cap and white gloves, and offers him a ride home — explaining that Wax is not difficult to track when he creates this sort of spectacle.
- MB2:TLM:Ch 72 Cuts through the mist in a small motorboat with a single lantern and pulls Wax aboard with the household coachman's line he has used a hundred times before.
- MB2:SoS:Ch 7 The new coachman at Ladrian Mansion. Shrugs and makes room for Wayne up top on the carriage box as it rolls toward the Fourth Octant precinct.
- STD:Tress:Ch 4 Hands Tress the first of Charlie's cups at the Diggen's Point docks as the new cabin boy on a calling ship — the narrator quietly identifying himself in the same beat.
- STD:Tress:Ch 12 Wanders up to hand Tress a fresh bucket of water and wobbles off again babbling nonsense. She recognises him as the cabin boy from the Whistlebow; the narrator confesses that yes, this is him, and asks not to be made to talk about it.
- STD:Tress:Ch 14 Skips into Fort's room as Tress leaves, settles onto a stool, and is fed the same dreadful breakfast hash — which he eats humming, because, as he then explains to the reader, the *taste* the Sorceress took from him was the other one.
- STD:Tress:Ch 20 Wanders up to Tress mid-scrub to inform her that her inspector's coat would look better half-painted orange, that Fort wants her for supper, and that he needs to go off and nibble on his toes, which taste like fate.
- STD:Tress:Ch 21 Pokes his head briefly into the cabin behind Ulaam, notes the absence of marmosets, and wanders off growling about a rock he once ate (after fighting off its family).
- STD:Tress:Ch 23 Found wearing a shoe on a string around his neck (the height of next season's fashion, he is sure) and inventing card games with bad rules, the cabin boy tries and fails to answer Tress's questions about the Sorceress — his curse derails every attempt — until he wrenches a few words past it: bring him to her planet, and look for the group of six stars.
- STD:Tress:Ch 27 Wanders into the exam room when Ulaam calls for him, cheerfully reports he did not give Tress midnight spores — he gave them to Weev, having mistaken them for liquorice — and then, when Tress asks him about the Sorceress again, forces out a riddle past his curse: find a person who isn't a person and can talk when they shouldn't. Collapses afterward into deciding whether biting his own cheek makes him a cannibal.
- STD:Tress:Ch 34 Wanders past Tress on deck in black slacks and bright white athletic socks, springing-step toward shore — then breaks into the narration to confess the outfit as his own and his then-relationship with fashion as an act of violence against bystanders.
- STD:Tress:Ch 41 Sprawled on deck beside Tress, cheerfully refusing to focus, while she attempts to find a workaround for his Sorceress-laid curse. Composes a poem comparing the lunagree to a god being sick into the sea (with a fine rhyme for *scarf*), claims to have forgotten how to read when handed a list of curse-words, announces that he has blacked out one of his front teeth to match what he believes to be the new look among the Dougs, and at last gives her the only useful answer of the day by going silent at a specific point on her chart of the Midnight Sea.
- STD:Tress:Ch 46 In the cargo hold, sitting on the floor near Tress's bag while she field-tests her flare on Ulaam and explains her plan. Inflicts another of his new poems on the room, briefly wins back a sliver of lucidity, and whispers to Tress that she has everything she needs.
- STD:Tress:Ch 49 Watches the deck duel from the side and notes Crow's control of her vines (something Ulaam tells him about later). Reaches across the railing as Tress is being lowered into the launch and whispers again that she has everything she needs, before being barked off by Crow.
- STD:Tress:Ch 55 Sits chained and unrepentant among the depleted food stores, cheerfully offering political conversation starters and asking Tress about her uncle's views on seagulls. Volunteers that the rat told him the mission was vital and secret, and that please don't tell Tress.
- STD:Tress:Ch 61 Huddles in beside Fort's board with the officers — picking his nose with his tongue — and is the visible prompt for Tress's realisation about his curse.
- STD:Tress:Ch 62 Clings to the quarterdeck rigging in a stolen tiny pirate hat, grinning into the wind, refusing to blink so his eyes might dry out and stop demanding it; responds to Ann's question with nonsense about velvet paintings of dogs in hats.
- STD:Tress:Ch 63 Steps between Tress and the Sorceress as her finishing curse lands, raises a shield of Aons to absorb it, greets her by name as *Riina,* and feels the curse break under his skin. Wearing a floral buttoned shirt, shorts that are way too short, sandals — with socks.
- STD:Tress:Ch 63 Steps forward at Tress's nudge — *Cabin boy, zap her or something* — and stands across from Riina long enough for her to do the math and decide to leave; afterwards, on the deck of the Crow's Song, allows that he cannot undo the Sorceress's curse but thinks he might be able to change its parameters.
- STD:Tress:Epilogue As narrator, closes the book from a position implying he has kept track of the crew over the years.
- STD:YNP:Ch 5 Stands as a copper-painted coatrack in the Noodle Pupil — features hawkish under his crown of hat-pegs and bandoliers of hooks — holding Painter's shoulder bag among the others.
- STD:YNP:Ch 16 Holds his usual post as the copper coatrack-statue inside the Noodle Pupil's front door — Akane hangs her oversized painter's bag from him on her way to the back booth — and remains aware in the corner of the room throughout the meal.
- STD:YNP:Ch 17 Still posed as the copper coatrack at the Noodle Pupil's front door — Design gestures at him as the Realmatic-Theory expert who could fix the swap if only anyone could wake him — and silently editorialises across his Connection that it is, at least, nice to be appreciated.
- STD:YNP:Ch 21 Still posed motionless as the copper coatrack by the door; Design mentions she will need to ransack his luggage for the device that can sense long-range Connections.
- STD:YNP:Ch 32 Narrates the reading in parentheticals — protesting Design's claim that he makes up words, that he organises his luggage poorly, and that Design is uncalled-for in general — but remains physically immobile somewhere in the noodle shop as the fabrial he brought is used on his behalf.
- SA:WaT:I-11 Off-page presence — the letter Dyel's mother hands the Seventeenth Shard trio bears only his signature and a crude drawing; he had passed through Iri disguised as a many-ringed itinerant healer some weeks earlier.
- SA:WaT:I-15 Walks into Rysn's conference room masked as Dalinar Kholin, throws every other Alethi out, drops the illusion to reveal a white-haired Shin, halts the Dawnshard collision with a single word, and leaves with the promise that the two bearers will not meet again.
- SA:WoK:Ch 12 Catches up the column on a black gelding, jokes Renarin into a blush, drops a whispered Brightlord Dalinar comment as he rides past
- SA:WoK:Ch 21 Sits at the bridge to the king's island insulting each lighteyes as they pass; warns Dalinar that rumors about him have grown teeth
- SA:WoK:Ch 57 Sits with Kaladin under the lumberyard stars and tells him the Wandersail
- SA:WoK:Epilogue POV; alone on the Plains at night with a flute
- SA:WaT:Ch 3 Speaks through the seon from offstage — the spren shaping his face from blue-white light and his voice — to confirm the contest terms, warn Shallan about Mraize and the Ghostbloods, and gently point her at Kelek as her leverage.
- SA:WaT:Ch 4 Sprawled on the new couch outside Dalinar's meeting room, reading; runs the flute joke, teaches Kaladin an hour of basics, sermonises on art, hope, and the Passions, delivers Dalinar's real orders to him, and — for the first time — shakes his hand and says, in effect, goodbye.
- SA:WaT:Ch 14 In bed beside Jasnah when the scene opens, breathing quietly with the occasional whistle, then jolts up cursing when his memory review surfaces the gap — afterward sits with her at the stone counter rereading the contract.
- SA:WaT:Ch 46 Present in the vision as a Spiritual Realm echo of his Ashyn-era self — robes black with ash, stark white hair, holding the same small rock he will give Dalinar in his own time. Asked his name, he distorts into a homunculus that confesses *I'm not real* and stumbles off muttering the real Wit's grief.
- SA:WaT:Ch 50 Appears as a faceless vision-puppet of Wit mumbling in the mud about *infinite recursion* and *synthetic consciousness* beside Navani.
- SA:WaT:Ch 97 Stands beside the arch in black — the only one in the room wearing that colour.
- SA:WaT:Ch 114 Reveals himself behind Navani wearing Dalinar's shape with his own twinkle in the eye; takes her arm to plan how to retrieve Dalinar from the Spiritual Realm.
- SA:WaT:Ch 125 Sits with Navani in Urithiru long after sundown, confirms that Odium's severance of her Spiritual Realm Connection counts as interference under the contract, and tells her — softly — that Taravangian now wears the Odium Shard, and that the man she has known is both champions.
- SA:WaT:Ch 127 Sits in Dalinar's favourite chair reading a book when he comes home, confirms his identity (the visions could not replicate him), Lightweaves them inconspicuous through Urithiru's thoroughfares, and tells the unfinished story of a king and a lumberman's son — as the Wind whispers at Dalinar's back to *listen.*
- SA:WaT:Ch 128 Walking with Dalinar and commandeering a lift, Wit finishes the lumberman's son tale, lands the punchline — *originality is impossible but also unavoidable* — and confesses he can no longer foresee the contest of champions.
- SA:WaT:Ch 129 Wit bows his head as Dalinar thanks the room and turns for the stairs.
- SA:WaT:Ch 146 Bursts into the surgery wide-eyed and sweating, hands Sigzil the Dawnshard he had been hiding on Roshar together with a clockwork hourglass device, turns to greet Retribution with hands raised in an innocent posture — *Have I told you about the time I —* — and is vaporized in a wave of red mist.
- SA:WoR:Ch 55 Pilots Adolin's carriage from the Kholin warcamp out to Sebarial's manor and on to the Outer Market, needles Kaladin about the lost flute, and vanishes as soon as they arrive — leaving a hired driver tied up and substituted for the original.
- SA:WoR:Ch 59 Materialises on a bench outside Kaladin's cell with a strange stringed instrument, plays an impossibly two-handed-sounding piece, sings the story of Fleet line by line — making Kaladin tell it back to him — and leaves him, sword raised to his forehead, with the meaning unresolved.
- SA:WoR:Ch 67 Holds court from a chair on the king's island insulting all comers; ambushes Amaram with a string of barbs; later, when the feast has emptied, speaks privately to Dalinar about kings and tyrants and announces his departure.
Relations
- mentionsThe Three Seekers — Hire Ishikk to find Hoid — calling him by various names, all of which Ishikk suspects are fake SA:WoK:I-1
- mentionsDalinar Kholin — Whispers as he passes: those who deserve mockery are those who can benefit from it — Renarin is less fragile than you think him SA:WoK:Ch 12
- foreshadowsKaladin — The Wandersail story plants the choice Kaladin will have to make SA:WoK:Ch 57
Backreferences
- summaryMB2:BoM:Ch 11
- factMysterious Coin
- factMysterious Coin
- factMysterious Coin
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 58
- summaryMB1:TFE:Ch 19
- factSootwarrens
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 5
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 20
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 21
- factWayne
- factSir Squeekins
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 25
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 37
- summaryMB2:TLM:Ch 72
- factHoid
- summarySA:OB:Ch 34
- summarySA:OB:Ch 47
- summarySA:OB:Ch 67
- factCult of Moments
- factQueen Tsa
- factAshertmarn
- summarySA:OB:Ch 68
- summarySA:OB:Ch 72
- summarySA:OB:Ch 74
- summarySA:OB:Ch 77
- summarySA:OB:Ch 82
- factThe Girl Who Looked Up
- factGrips
- summarySA:OB:Ch 84
- summarySA:OB:Ch 97
- summarySA:OB:Ch 121
- summarySA:OB:Epilogue
- factFused
- factKheni
- factCob
- factVatwha
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 12
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 15
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 17
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 21
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 50
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 78
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 80
- factDesign
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 93
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 98
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 99
- factthe contest-of-champions contract
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 101
- factDieno enne Calah
- summarySA:RoW:Ch 108
- factAla
- summarySA:RoW:Epilogue
- summaryMB2:SoS:Ch 7
- factAuxiliary
- factTorment
- factYolen
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- factSigzil
- summarySTD:TSM:Ch 34
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 4
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 12
- factThe Whistlebow
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 14
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 17
- factUlaam
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 20
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 21
- factHoid
- factTress
- factUlaam
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 22
- factThe Sorceress
- factCaptain Crow
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 23
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 27
- factHoid
- factCharlie
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 28
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 33
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 34
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 36
- factFort
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 37
- factTransitive Property of Ineptitude
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 39
- factSunlight Spores
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 41
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factTress
- factThe Sorceress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 45
- factCharlie
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 46
- factHoid
- factUlaam
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 47
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 48
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 49
- factFort's Board
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 50
- factTress
- factDragons
- factDragonsteel
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 51
- factXisisrefliel
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 52
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 53
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 54
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 55
- factTress
- factCharlie
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 56
- factHoid
- factTress
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 59
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 61
- summarySTD:Tress:Ch 63
- factCharlie
- summarySTD:WB:Ch 32
- factReturned
- factThe God King
- factLifeless
- factIdris
- factThe Five Scholars
- factStrifelover
- summarySTD:WB:Ch 44
- summarySA:WoK:I-1
- factThe Three Seekers
- factMakabaki
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 12
- factRayse
- factAona
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 21
- factBavadin
- factThe Seventeenth Shard
- summarySA:WoK:Ch 57
- factThe Wandersail
- summarySA:WoK:Epilogue
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 3
- factSeon
- factShallan Davar
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 4
- factKaladin
- factthe Wind
- factthe Wind
- factthe Passions
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 5
- factShallan Davar
- factFortune
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 6
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 8
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 9
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 12
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 13
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 14
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factHendit
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 15
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 16
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 18
- factRayse
- factFrost
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 20
- factThe Stormfather
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 21
- factDalinar Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 22
- factDalinar Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 25
- factDalinar Kholin
- factNavani Kholin
- factIcy Tongue
- factChain
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 26
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 29
- factRenarin Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 31
- factHoid
- factSpiritual Realm
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 32
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 33
- factthe Wind
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 35
- factSylphrena
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 43
- factDalinar Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 46
- factHoid
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 50
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 52
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 54
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 61
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 61
- factJasnah Kholin
- factFocused Ones
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 62
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 63
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 64
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 78
- factSigzil
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 86
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:I-11
- factGalladon
- factThe Trickster Aspect
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 91
- factElhokar Kholin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 97
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 99
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 105
- summarySA:WaT:I-13
- factLift
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 108
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 109
- factKaladin
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 110
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 114
- factLift
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 116
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 117
- factThe Mythwalker
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 121
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 123
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 125
- factContest of Champions
- factTaravangian
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 127
- factHoid
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 128
- factHoid
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 131
- factHoid
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 134
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 135
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 138
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 145
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 146
- factSigzil
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 147
- summarySA:WaT:Ch 147
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factUlaam
- factSigzil
- factScadrial
- factOlo
- summarySA:WaT:Epilogue
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factHoid
- factValor
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 49
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 52
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 55
- factShallan Davar
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 59
- factHoid
- factFleet
- factChana-rach
- summarySA:WoR:Ch 67
- factDalinar Kholin
- summarySA:WoR:Epilogue
- factHoid
- factHoid
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 17
- factThe Shroud
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 21
- factDesign
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 26
- factDesign
- summarySTD:YNP:Ch 32