rhythm of war A theory about Wit's memories

[TheKiwifisch]

This post contains spoilers for Stormlight Archive’s Rhytm of War, Mistborn’s Bands of Mourning and minor spoilers for Warbreaker. Proceed with caution.  

In the epilogue of Rhythm of War, Wit encounters the new Odium and their interaction leaves us wondering if the encounter truly happened as Wit expected or whether he has been outwitted (hah). 

I will summarize some “facts”: 

1. Wit planned entering the old palace in order to meet Odium.

2. Investiture can be used to store memories.

3. Odium notices that Wit stores his memories in his Breaths.

4. Odium does something to Wit’s Breaths. 

5. Wit appears panicked.

6. Wit appears to have forgotten he had already met Odium.

7. The encounter “repeats”.

8. Wit loses his perfect pitch, an ability granted by holding a sufficient number of Breaths. 

I think it is safe to say that 1. – 3. are facts. I will explain what I think what really happened during 4.-8. Put on your ralkalest foil hats and let's dive in. 

Wit, the man himself, gives us a few hints in the epilogue.  Wit does a coin trick while talking about storytelling. He explains to Design that performing a magic trick without actual magic is more impressive. He talks about misdirection (“dirty tricks”) and then shows us that he had two coins all along. 

Now here is my theory: Wit knew exactly what he was doing. He planned to meet Odium and he planned to trick Odium into thinking he had been outwitted.

“But wait”, you say. “Odium did mess with Wit’s Breaths! He stole them and that’s why he loses his perfect pitch.   To that I say: “True, he stole his Investiture. But what about second Investiture?” Breath is not the only thing in the Cosmere capable of storing memories. Copperminds can do so as well.  Wit is shown playing with a coin. That’s his Coppermind. He uses both Breath and Copperminds to store memories. These are the two coins that are parts of a whole.  During the initial encounter, he starts storing his memories from the last few minutes into his Coppermind.  When Odium “attacks”, Wit truly is panicked because he doesn’t know what’s going on. His memories are partially in his Coppermind and therefore not in his mind. His lack of information makes the rest of the encounter scary.  While Odium talks about his predecessors’ agreements, Wit finishes storing the memory of the meeting into the Coppermind. 

The Breaths are a decoy, the misdirection. Odium does steal a few of his Breaths but Wit has a backup in his coin now.  After their second encounter, Wit appears to have forgotten that they had already met a few minutes before. He seems confused and looks for Design. Then he meets Odium. At this moment, Wit genuinely thinks this is their first face-to-face meeting in over a thousand years. While talking to Odium, he glances at his coin and thinks “I wanna tap that. But not now with Odium watching.” The encounter ends. Wit walks away and tries to whistle. He notices a few of his Breaths are missing. He taps the coin and recalls his memories. Their first face-to-face meeting in over a thousand years had gone exactly as he had imagined. 

 

Some problems and possible answers about this theory:

P1: It might be impossible to upload memories into Breaths and into a Coppermind at the same time. 

A1:  

1. Wit could have stored half of his memories in his Breaths and half in his Coppermind. He can then piece together through context what happened.  

2. The more interesting explanation is that Wit created this scene in advance (storytelling) and left those memories as a decoy for Odium.  Here is an excerpt from the epilogue.

Quote

“The challenge,” he said, “is to make everyone believe you’ve lived a thousand lives. Make them *feel* the pain you have not felt, make them *see* the sights you have not seen, and make them *know* the truths that you have made up.” 

 The biggest clue, however, is the very last sentence of the epilogue.

Quote

After all, Wit’s first face-to-face meeting with Odium in over a thousand years had gone exactly as he had imagined.

 He *imagined* the meeting, as in he created images of it. How? Lightweaving.    

P2: Why does Odium notice the Breaths but not the Coppermind?

A2:  Wit says

Quote

Spheres glow.

(Like Breath.)  

Quote

And they’re tough to palm.

(Unlike coins.) 

Breath is Investiture that Wit is endowed with. It is a part of him, at least temporary. Metalminds store Investiture outside of the body. Odium is not interested in the coin at all. Why would he? Breath is much more interesting. Maybe if he had not noticed that Wit stores memories in his Breaths, he might have been curious about the coin. But that’s the magic of misdirection.

P3: If Feruchemy existed before the Shattering or if Odium learned about Feruchemy at some point before Rhythm of War, he would be much more wary of a coin, something that is not commonly used on Roshar.

A3: During his negotiation with Dalinar, Rayse says 

Quote

The other foolish kingdoms of men can keep fighting if they wish, but your people and mine will begin preparing for the true war: the one that will begin when the gods of other worlds discover the strength of Surgebinding.

This implies that the different manifestations of Investiture are not known to each Shard. Plus, Odium was trapped in the Rosharan system, so he might have missed a few things 

P4: Why did Odium not notice that Wit's prepared memory was fake?

A4: Wit is an amazing storyteller and could create illusions with Yolish Lightweaving prior to bonding a Cryptic. The Surge of Illumination would enhance and complement his abilities. 

P5: Why could Odium not foresee that Wit would attempt to create a fake memory?

A5: Wit spent quite some time around Renarin who can interfere with Odium's predictive powers. Wit's Fortune allows him know where he is supposed to be but even without Fortune it would be smart to stick around Renarin if you want to avoid Odium's gaze.

P6: Is Wit even a Ferring? We only know he is an Allomancer.

A6: BoM chapter 21

Quote

“This inner ring is nicrosil. You tap it, and it grants you Investiture—turning you into a temporary Feruchemist who has the ability to fill a metalmind with weight.” He held up the medallion. “The iron on this is for convenience, right? You can fill it, but so long as you’re tapping the Investiture, you could touch any source of iron and turn it into a metalmind.” 

Wit doesn't have to be a real Feruchemist or Ferring. He would just need to have access to a filled Niccrosilmind.

P7: Where would Wit get a filled Niccrosilmind from? He visited Scadrial during Era 1, presumably left and came back during Era 2. However, Stormlight takes place before Era 2.

A7: Wit could have visited Scadrial again between Era 1 and Stormlight to get a Nicrosilmind.  

Another and easier solution is that someone brought the Nicrosilmind to him. There were at least three Scadrians on Roshar, two of which are heavily implied to be Ferrings or Feruchemists.

 

So that's my theory. I invite you to re-read the epilogue with these thoughts in mind. Channel your inner conspiracy theorist and try to find as many connections between what Wit says during his performance to the Spren and what happens during his meeting with Odium. I would love for you to add your thoughts and expand this little theory.

TLDR: Wit is an advanced method actor. He played the fool but was actually still the Wit. He said to Odium "~~You cannot have my memories~~ Please feel free to take my memories" but only if you can find the right ones.

Edited July 16, 2021 by TheKiwifisch
Formatting hard

[Bejarden]

I’m pretty sure that Invested Metalminds glow to Shards so it’s pretty hard to hear that TOdium would not have noticed it

39 minutes ago, TheKiwifisch said:

This implies that the different manifestations of Investiture are not known to each Shard

Not really, the emphasis should be put on strength which would mean that they know it exists but not how strong it is

 

41 minutes ago, TheKiwifisch said:

He *imagined* the meeting, as in he created images of it. How? Lightweaving.   

Or imagine is being used like it usually is; as he thought it would go

I’m not seeing anything that would say this did happen or is likely to happen, there really is no evidence and it is heavily heavily implied that what we thought happened did actually happen (because that’s what’s written in the book)

[Jondesu]

1 hour ago, Bejardin1250 said:

I’m pretty sure that Invested Metalminds glow to Shards so it’s pretty hard to hear that TOdium would not have noticed it

We only know this to be the case on Scadrial where all metal glows. We don’t know that they would glow on Roshar.

I like the theory! I’m not going to pick it apart, but I think overall it has a lot of potential, even if not every detail is right!

[Bejarden]

Just now, Jondesu said:

We only know this to be the case on Scadrial where all metal glows. We don’t know that they would glow on Roshar.

It should make no difference whether it’s Scadrial or Roshar it should glow either way

It’s not such a small detail but rather the crux of the entire theory of why TOdium would not have noticed a glowing piece of metal

[drunkenbotanist]

A metalmind should glow because it's investiture, but that doesn't mean Odium would thing it odd that hoid has something with a little bit of investiture on him, he probably has several things

[Bejarden]

16 minutes ago, drunkenbotanist said:

A metalmind should glow because it's investiture, but that doesn't mean Odium would thing it odd that hoid has something with a little bit of investiture on him, he probably has several things

He could tell immediately that the Breaths held memories, why not the same with a Coppermind?

 

[drunkenbotanist]

If I remember he saw a great deal of investiture attached to wit himself, and then looked at it and saw it contained memories and took a tiny amount

 

 

I don't think it means the coin was definitely a metalmind, but it would make sense to me that if it was he didn't really pay attention to it compared to the breaths, esp with all the dialogue about slight of hand. 

 

[TheKiwifisch]

Quote

I’m pretty sure that Invested Metalminds glow to Shards so it’s pretty hard to hear that TOdium would not have noticed it

I have thought about it and my answer is: On Roshar it is common to carry around little objects of Investiture. Nobody would think it weird and it would be difficult to distinguish a glowing sphere from a glowing coin. Both are small, round and would glow so bright that you would not notice one was flat on two sides and the other a sphere.

 

On the other hand, being Invested, as in holding Investiture in the body, is somewhat rare on Roshar. Radiants usually hold the Investiture for only a limited time and it leaves their body when they open their mouth. Taravangium would have seen Wit talk, noticed no Investiture leaving his body and deduced that it was some other type of Investiture.

One could also argue that Wit was holding an unusually high amount of Investiture even when compared to a Radiant. That would make TOdium suspicious.

[Bejarden]

On 7/17/2021 at 2:24 AM, TheKiwifisch said:

I have thought about it and my answer is: On Roshar it is common to carry around little objects of Investiture. Nobody would think it weird and it would be difficult to distinguish a glowing sphere from a glowing coin. Both are small, round and would glow so bright that you would not notice one was flat on two sides and the other a sphere.

 

But this is Taravangian we’re talking about, who knows he’s dealing with somebody special

Your really stretching the realm of possibility if your saying the difference is a flat coin and a round sphere and TOdium didn’t bother to check even though he has quite literally all the time in the world (space between moments and all)