Who is the In-Universe Audience for Tress?
[Spoilers for Tress of the Emerald Sea!!]
This list is dedicated to the person at the DragonCon Tress panel who asked this question of the panelists and did NOT receive a good answer (or really any answer at all), in my opinion. So for you, friend, I went ahead and reread Tress and tried to collect all of the evidence about the identity of the audience that Hoid is telling the story to. Has this already been done on Reddit or other forums? Undoubtedly yes but I just wanted to see what I could discover on my own. Here are my findings!
My theory: Hoid is telling the story to a group of apprentice storytellers on the planet First of Sun. Some Rosharans are also present...or maybe just Sigzil. Allow me to explain each part of my answer!
1. Hoid is telling the story (but to an audience who also knows him as Wit)
This we know because he literally identifies himself as Hoid the cabin boy...but he also makes a couple of Wit-related puns, including:
"And with it went my sense of humor, my sense of decorum, and my sense of self. The last one stung the most, since it appears my sense of self is tied directly to my wit. I mean, it's in the name."
"Everyone can use a little more Wit in their lives."
This suggests the audience knows him both as Hoid and as Wit. More on that later!
2. The setting: First of Sun
Wherever the story is being told, it's a place with oceans made of water that have sea creatures (these things must be specified in a Cosmere setting). Hoid often alludes to the audience's familiarity with ships, including:
"Now, I know that on your planet, steering a ship isn't that big a deal."
"I know that sailors fear storms on your planet. It's common among almost all seafaring cultures I've met."
"As I've mentioned, on your planet, you may be accustomed to the helm position on the ship being relatively unimportant."
"But you come from a world where things live in the water."
That it is specifically the First of Sun is suggested by two quotes in particular:
"I can understand why you would want tales of people like Linji, who tried to sail around the world with no Aviar."
"Yes, like the speaking minds inhabiting the ships you've seen landing on your planet."
Aviars are native to First of Sun, and we learn in Sixth of the Dusk that space ships have visited that world.
3. The audience is a group of people
This actually came as a huge shock to me, as it's only revealed near the end, as far as I know. Hoid suddenly says:
"A sailing ship is a strange thing to control--I'm sure some of you know."
Some of you! Some of you?! So the audience is not a single person, but a group of people.
4. But there are also people from Roshar present...or maybe just Sigzil
Now, this may be controversial. But it seems possible that the audience also includes off-worlders, from Roshar and maybe from Scadrial as well. Certain references certainly suggest a Rosharan frame of mind:
First, there is the fact that they know him as Wit, which is Hoid's Rosharan incarnation
Second, there is this line: "Well, now that is a gemstone that truly glitters, friend." Perhaps there are big glittery gemstones on First of Sun too, but that sure seems like a Rosharan idiom.
Third, there is this line: "I assume you have no idea what a Luhel bond is....Unlike the Nahel bond, which trades in consciousness and anchoring to realty, the Luhel bond trades in physical matter." The Nahel bond is how surgebinding works on Roshar, and Hoid assumes the audience knows what that is.
It's possible that only Sigzil is present, and that Hoid keeps making asides to him, which would be pretty cute, to be honest.
5. Maybe Scadrial is represented too??
As for Scadrial, well...there's just the fact that Hoid calls himself a Worldbringer:
"Worldbringers like myself spend decades combing through folk tales, legends, myths, histories, and drunken bar songs looking for the most unique stories."
"Worldbringer" is a Scadrian term; the Rosharan equivalent would be "Worldsinger." This might not mean anything about who's present--perhaps Hoid is spreading the notion of Worldbringers to other planets like First of Sun. But I wanted to raise it as an interesting possibility.
6. The audience is comprised of apprentice storytellers
It becomes clear at the end that the people Hoid is talking to want to learn to be paid for telling stories:
"With a few tips, he wasn't so boring after all. Secretly, I'll tell you that you aren't either. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to lower your value. Don't trust them. They know they can't afford you otherwise."
This suggests that his audience want to learn to not be boring and to be paid to tell stories--so apprentices then, perhaps. Hoid also indicates that this audience knows him, and are not just a random crowd he gathered for the occasion:
"It's called the transitive property of ineptitude, and it's the explanation for anything you've seen me do wrong ever."
Hoid refers to other planets casually, suggesting an audience that wants to learn about other cultures and places, another key aspect of being a Hoid-style storyteller:
"Compared, for example, to the depth of the Lilting Abyss on Threnody, the spore seas are practically ponds."
So! That's my theory: Hoid is using the Tress tale to train a group of would-be apprentice storytellers on First of Sun, and maybe Sigzil or other Rosharans are there too.
What do you think??
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Dougless
In Tress, Hoid mentioned that every world has the name Doug, but I don't recall there being any Dougs on Scadrial, Roshar, Nalthis, or anywhere else really. What's up with that?
Brandon Sanderson
Okay. Yeah, so this is something that's easy to miss. On Scadrial, Dockson is a Doug, his name is actually pronounced Dougson. On Roshar, Dunny is a nickname. Yeah. His name is actually Doug. And, maybe I didn't canonize this yet. Did I canonize this? [Whispers with Peter Ahlstrom] Alright, Susebron's mother's name is Doug. There, I've canonized it. Congratulations.
Secret Doug release YouTube stream (January 16, 2023)
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