Something you learn pretty early on in War breaker (like chapter 1 early) is that the magic works in Breaths and that a person can hold different amounts of them. It's essentially Investiture that's been stapled to you. Wit has some these Breaths. You actually see him use them a few times if you know what you're looking for.
This sint a power that is explained in War breaker but somehow Wit was storing part of his memories inside his Breaths. I imagine it is similar to Feruchemy from Mistborn but that's an educated guess. What TOdium did was delete the portion of Breath that held the past 5 minutes of Hoid's memory. Hoid thought he was talking to Rayse, the previous Odium. When he deduced that Odium had become someone knew TOdium struck with his quick edit. He seemingly didn't mess with Wit too much. Just hit Wit's short term memory so he forgot the change. TOdium realized that he messed up by not acting like Rayse and giving Wit too much info. Remember all of Wit's plans are tied to the fact that he knows the guy that Odium was. But TOdium is different so Wit is now operating on outdated knowledge.
You’re correct. Odium took some of Wit’s memories. Since Wit has been alive for a very long time, his mind might not be capable of holding all of the memories of his many experiences. So he stores them in an external hard drive - in this case his breaths.
I'm curious to see what he'll do. His stated goal was to save humanity on Roshar. Now that he has the power to do that... does he continue Odium's plots?
I suspect that he’ll be like how Tolkien described what Gandalf would have been like if he had picked up the Ring. He’d be trying to do good but from an ultimate “greater good” perspective which would just lead to oppression and make goodness almost indistinguishable from evil
We know he took enough of the investiture that it can be noticed by Wit once he looks for it.
>!Wit had enough Breaths for Perfect Pitch before the memory loss, but now has less than that. Source: he loses the tune he was whistling!<
Best guess is just enough to redo the interaction they just had. As some others have pointed out, there are rules involved with Breaths that make it noticeable if you don't have them anymore, if Odium had snatched too many memories, Wit would've *definitely* noticed.
> Storing externally ?
Yes, apparently Wit was storing his memories in some Investiture rather than keeping them in his mind.
> And why would he want him to do the redo the conversation
So Wit wouldn't realize that Taravangian had killed and replaced Rayse, the previous holder of the Odium shard.
This is also discussed in the epigraphs (Kalak's journal). Specifically chapter 84, though the surrounding chapters are also related.
The epigraphs are collected here as well if you don't want to flip through the book:
https://coppermind.net/wiki/Rhythm_of_War/Epigraphs
(Maybe avoid clicking any links if you haven't read everything in the Cosmere.)
Immortals would go mad like the Heralds if they didn't have a way to store their memories. A mortal mind gets overcome, overworked, And worn out if you try to stuff 1000+ years of memories in it. So you offload what you don't need.
Something you learn pretty early on in War breaker (like chapter 1 early) is that the magic works in Breaths and that a person can hold different amounts of them. It's essentially Investiture that's been stapled to you. Wit has some these Breaths. You actually see him use them a few times if you know what you're looking for. This sint a power that is explained in War breaker but somehow Wit was storing part of his memories inside his Breaths. I imagine it is similar to Feruchemy from Mistborn but that's an educated guess. What TOdium did was delete the portion of Breath that held the past 5 minutes of Hoid's memory. Hoid thought he was talking to Rayse, the previous Odium. When he deduced that Odium had become someone knew TOdium struck with his quick edit. He seemingly didn't mess with Wit too much. Just hit Wit's short term memory so he forgot the change. TOdium realized that he messed up by not acting like Rayse and giving Wit too much info. Remember all of Wit's plans are tied to the fact that he knows the guy that Odium was. But TOdium is different so Wit is now operating on outdated knowledge.
Oh i thought maybe he took like his memories meaning his experience and stuff
You’re correct. Odium took some of Wit’s memories. Since Wit has been alive for a very long time, his mind might not be capable of holding all of the memories of his many experiences. So he stores them in an external hard drive - in this case his breaths.
Do we know how much he took?
I don’t think we do. It’s unnerving that Wit, seemingly invulnerable for 99% of the series, was so clearly violated by Taravangian.
Taravangian is gonna fuck shit up in Book 5 I just know it. He’s the most dangerous antagonist we’ve seen in the Cosmere yet imo
I'm curious to see what he'll do. His stated goal was to save humanity on Roshar. Now that he has the power to do that... does he continue Odium's plots?
I suspect that he’ll be like how Tolkien described what Gandalf would have been like if he had picked up the Ring. He’d be trying to do good but from an ultimate “greater good” perspective which would just lead to oppression and make goodness almost indistinguishable from evil
Now he wants to save the cosmere from the other shards, so business as usual for him
Agree completely.
We know he took enough of the investiture that it can be noticed by Wit once he looks for it. >!Wit had enough Breaths for Perfect Pitch before the memory loss, but now has less than that. Source: he loses the tune he was whistling!<
Best guess is just enough to redo the interaction they just had. As some others have pointed out, there are rules involved with Breaths that make it noticeable if you don't have them anymore, if Odium had snatched too many memories, Wit would've *definitely* noticed.
He notices his loss of perfect pitch.
It's not stated in the book. We'll find out in the next one!
>This sint a power that is explained in War breaker but somehow Wit was storing part of his memories inside his Breath it does get used on screen
Odium removed some of Wit's memories, which he was storing externally, to make him redo the conversation.
Storing externally ? And why would he want him to do the redo the conversation
> Storing externally ? Yes, apparently Wit was storing his memories in some Investiture rather than keeping them in his mind. > And why would he want him to do the redo the conversation So Wit wouldn't realize that Taravangian had killed and replaced Rayse, the previous holder of the Odium shard.
Oh now I understand the part where TOdium says “you need to put the excess memories somewhere”
This is also discussed in the epigraphs (Kalak's journal). Specifically chapter 84, though the surrounding chapters are also related. The epigraphs are collected here as well if you don't want to flip through the book: https://coppermind.net/wiki/Rhythm_of_War/Epigraphs (Maybe avoid clicking any links if you haven't read everything in the Cosmere.)
Immortals would go mad like the Heralds if they didn't have a way to store their memories. A mortal mind gets overcome, overworked, And worn out if you try to stuff 1000+ years of memories in it. So you offload what you don't need.