Who is the narrator telling the story to in Tress and Yumi?

Two of Sanderson’s 2023 secret project books, Tress of the Emerald Sea and Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, share an interesting trait: the narrator occasionally breaks the fourth wall and speaks to an unnamed audience. We aren’t outright told who the in-fiction audience is, but there are clues to hint at who is listening to the tales being told.

During a Q&A at Dragonsteel Nexus 2024, a fan asked Brandon about this: Who is {the narrator} telling Tress's story to?

Bradon’s response was interesting: 

I think fandom’s figured this out, and I'm not going to answer this one. I'm going to give you a RAFO card. Ask around. I left the clues very deliberately, and this is the sort of thing I don't like to answer, because the clues are there. It is a world you have seen before in the cosmere. Both of those books that he told are being told specifically to an audience in the cosmere.

Brandon Sanderson, Dragonsteel Nexus 2024.

Fun fact for those relatively new to the Cosmere, the Arcanum has all of Brandon’s previous Q&As in a searchable database. Some of them, the linked question included, even include the video or audio from the event.

So who is the narrator talking to in these two books? Let’s break down the clues and figure this out.

Who is the Narrator?

First off, an easy one. Obviously, spoilers for both books, but the narrator is self-identified as Hoid. Not only is he the one telling the story to our mystery audience, he is also in both stories as a character, although his “screen time” varies. 

With that out of the way we can look at the clues littered throughout both books.

Tress of the Emerald Sea

Throughout the story in Tress, there are multiple lines are give us clues to who the audience is that Hoid is speaking to. Here are some of particular note:

“Now I know on your planet, steering a ship isn’t that big a deal” - Chapter 20

“...like Linji, who tried to sail around the world with no Aviar.” - Chapter 24

“I know that sailors fear storms on your planet. It’s common among all seafaring cultures I’ve met.” - Chapter 43

“As I mentioned, on your planet, you may be accustomed to the helm position on the ship being relatively unimportant.” - Chapter 32

“Yes, like the speaking minds inhabiting the ships you’ve seen landing on your planet” - Chapter 60

These all point towards the likely audience from Tress being someone, or some group from First of the Sun, potentially Dusk. We get our first glimpse of the First of the Sun through the novelette Sixth of the Dusk. A few key details here: their culture is seafaring, their people have Aviar and would likely feature stories about them, and most notably, we witness during the course of the book the event of “ships you’ve seen landing on your planet”. 

While we can speculate that there will be many places where ships from another world will be landing on planets, I think the intentional reference here points to the First of the Sun.

To support Dusk, although a bit indirectly, a 2016 signing question mentioned that Dusk has had Herdazian food and he hates it. While it would be easy to pass this off as a joke comment, it was in specific reference to a “larger-Cosmere-related tidbit about Dusk. This shows that Dusk is a worldhopper, or is at least additional confirmation that he personally witnessed people from other places coming to his planet. This points to a potential interaction with Hoid. I know that Emberdark has something to do with Dusk, but I’ve kept myself away from the readings of that book until they’re ready for primetime.

There is also a theory that the person these stories were being told to his Rysn. When paired with the (spoiler) Rosharan audience from Yumi and the nautical references abound, it’s a fair guess. There are some big holes here however. For one, the timelines are a stretch. Tress takes place a very long time after the events of the Stormlight Archive. While Rysn might still be around by the time Tress happens due to the Dawnshard she holds, we see in Wind and Truth what happens if she and Hoid come near each other. It was not an experience I think either wish to relive. It’s possible that having one or both of the Dawnshards removed might alleviate that effect, but it’s uncertain for now. 

There are other clues pointing to it not being Rysn as well. In chapter 43, Hoid describes storms and provides the additional context that storms have volition. Post Wind and Truth clarity here: he specifically calls out that some cultures “used to ascribe” volition to storms. I believe he is referring to Roshar here. If he was speaking to a Roshar native, I think we would have been discussing storms in a different manner. There’s also the casual references to Aviar, which weren’t common on Roshar. You also have the notes about the helm being an unimportant position, which we know is not the case with Thaylens.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your perspective, there is both way more detail in Yumi on who the audience is, but fewer clear answers on specifically who.

Let’s take a look at some quotes:

“You’d probably say Painter looked Veden.” Chapter 1

“...Design and I had been in Kilahito for a bit over three years, Roshar time.” Chapter 6

“... a type of grain that is smaller and thinner than the ones you eat on Roshar” Chapter 6

This clearly points to someone who is from Roshar, but doesn’t give us much context or clues about who specifically. 

There are other references to other planets, such as burning Tin, but given where this sits in the Cosmere timeline (far future compared to Stormlight Era 1) we can assume that people from Roshar know enough about other planets and forms of investiture that passing comments like this wouldn’t need much further context.

My thoughts

So does any of this matter? Knowing exactly who the story is being told to doesn’t change the context of those stories much. I think the audience was meant to support the stories being told by Hoid, and conveyed a sense of place that grounds the act. Hoid tells stories to people, so if you’re going to have that happen in a book, he needs an audience. Since he’s speaking to a person from a place, he would contextualize that story appropriately. Makes sense.

What I find more interesting is the context of Hoid being out in the Cosmere somewhere, telling these stories. Is he back on Roshar in the far distant future, telling stories about other planets? Are those Rosharans somewhere else? Will we get the story of Hoid telling the story of Tress one day? I think it would be fun to get a little tidbit setting up the point where Hoid felt someone needed to hear one of these stories. Likewise, I hope we see more books with this set up in the future.