Nitpicking Posted January 6, 2025 Posted January 6, 2025 Brandon won't do this: Hoid had two backup plans in the event he got vaporized. They both worked. There's Hoid on Scadrial, from that cell culture. There's also Hoid in Silverlight, reconstituted from a flash-frozen amputated limb, which is secretly under the protection of a Dragon he knows from Yolen. Neither of them even considers the possibility that the other backup plan worked, until they meet, say at a peace conference in the Roshar/Scadrial war, where one Hoid is advising each side. 5
+robardin he/him Posted January 6, 2025 Posted January 6, 2025 2 hours ago, Nitpicking said: Brandon won't do this: Hoid had two backup plans in the event he got vaporized. They both worked. There's Hoid on Scadrial, from that cell culture. There's also Hoid in Silverlight, reconstituted from a flash-frozen amputated limb, which is secretly under the protection of a Dragon he knows from Yolen. Neither of them even considers the possibility that the other backup plan worked, until they meet, say at a peace conference in the Roshar/Scadrial war, where one Hoid is advising each side. Well, first we have to consider how it is that Hoid's memory-storage Breath managed to transfer from his vaporized original body in Urithiru, to attach to his regrown body on Scadrial (as the Hoid we see talking to Ulaam is not freaking out that they're gone). I guess unlike a scarf with Breath stuffed into it, where the Breath is gone if you destroy the object, for a living person the Breath is glommed onto something Spiritual, or at least Cognitive? But then, if Hoid ended up forking himself off into two Hoids (an idea which I love), well, which one got the Breath would be a tip as to who the Cosmere considered the "real" one! And the no-Breath Hoid would be very upset. Or, if each got half of the Breath store, that'd be a clue to both of them that they aren't the "full" Hoid, and we'd see the two of them have a There Can Be Only One type showdown to get the Breath from the other one. And then it turns out both of them are also unable to hurt the other one. Ha! 1
Nitpicking Posted January 6, 2025 Author Posted January 6, 2025 OK, but you have to consider special relativity. No, really. (Well, not really, but in this context ...) See, each clump of cells thinks it's the only way to resurrect Hoid. I mean, not "thinks", but the Dawnshard's influence in the Cosmere is limited by speed-of-light (within the Cognitive Realm). The chunk of Dawnshard near Scadrial looks around for a few seconds, finds no other living pieces of Hoid, and resurrects him. Meanwhile, the chunk in Silverlight looks around and says, "No, no more living pieces of Hoid here," and also resurrects him. Then they both use the Spiritual Realm to un-archive Hoid-As-He-Was from just before his death, including his Breath. The Dawnshard is perfectly capable of supplying enough Investiture to create a few thousand Breaths, and the SR supplies the memories. Eventually, in actual Cosmere stories, Hoid will realize he can use the SR to get back his missing memories. 2
+robardin he/him Posted January 6, 2025 Posted January 6, 2025 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Nitpicking said: OK, but you have to consider special relativity. No, really. (Well, not really, but in this context ...) See, each clump of cells thinks it's the only way to resurrect Hoid. I mean, not "thinks", but the Dawnshard's influence in the Cosmere is limited by speed-of-light (within the Cognitive Realm). The chunk of Dawnshard near Scadrial looks around for a few seconds, finds no other living pieces of Hoid, and resurrects him. Meanwhile, the chunk in Silverlight looks around and says, "No, no more living pieces of Hoid here," and also resurrects him. Then they both use the Spiritual Realm to un-archive Hoid-As-He-Was from just before his death, including his Breath. The Dawnshard is perfectly capable of supplying enough Investiture to create a few thousand Breaths, and the SR supplies the memories. Eventually, in actual Cosmere stories, Hoid will realize he can use the SR to get back his missing memories. Whoah... You mean... Like they're backed up in the cloud that is the "timeless" Spiritual Realm and can be downloaded multiple times (like the Honorvisions)! What I was imagining, was more that two half-Hoids would confront the other to claim the other half of the Breath store, then realize the only solution was to do either (but not both) of the "restore from backup" options, then for both of them to kill themselves, to do a "Hoid branch merge", allowing the regrown Hoid to be the only one standing. Or at least, that's the principle of it. Because each clone is also aware that if he the other clone killed himself, he could just hang back and let the released Breath attach to him as the "sole living Hoid". Hahaha. Edited January 6, 2025 by robardin 3
Nitpicking Posted January 6, 2025 Author Posted January 6, 2025 Either one would work. Because the goal is to write something Cosmere-plausible and funny. 1
OoklaApologist She/her Posted January 7, 2025 Posted January 7, 2025 Brandon probably didn’t do this: Gavinor grows up in Kharbranth. He plays with Taravangian’s grandkids for a bit of social reinforcement of his indoctrination. He has a surprisingly good childhood, with one caveat. No one grows up in Spiritual Realm Kharbranth. No one dies. No one grows old. Adrotaiga has perceived herself living for hundreds of years. Imagine your childhood friends never grew up. Never moved on. You’re thirty and Jimmy down the street still rides his bike to school. Would that be isolating? Would you make new friends at every step of life? What would happen if you were the only one who changed? It’s just a theory.
alder24 Posted January 7, 2025 Posted January 7, 2025 21 hours ago, Nitpicking said: Brandon won't do this: Hoid had two backup plans in the event he got vaporized. They both worked. There's Hoid on Scadrial, from that cell culture. There's also Hoid in Silverlight, reconstituted from a flash-frozen amputated limb, which is secretly under the protection of a Dragon he knows from Yolen. Neither of them even considers the possibility that the other backup plan worked, until they meet, say at a peace conference in the Roshar/Scadrial war, where one Hoid is advising each side. I'm just gonna nitpick here a little - he won't do this because that's not possible. In this case the soul jumps to the largest piece of body and if there are multiple pieces of the exact same size, it would jump and attach to one of them at random. Spoiler Soronir About Miles from Alloy of Law and his regenerative powers. If he was bisected down the middle and the halves were separated immediately before the healing process could begin, would the two halves each regrow into a whole Miles? Nepene I heard this sort of situation arose with Hoid in Dragonsteel. He had his head cut off. Brandon Sanderson Good question. In all of the Cosmere's Shard-based magics, the greater portion of a bisected body regrows the lesser portion. If it were done EXACTLY halfway, the soul wold jump to one or the other randomly and that would regrow. Amusingly, this first came up in 1999, six years before I got published. (I see someone else already mentioned the situation where I had to consider it.) General Reddit 2013 (Feb. 20, 2013) 1
Argenti he/him Posted January 7, 2025 Posted January 7, 2025 21 hours ago, Nitpicking said: Brandon won't do this: Hoid had two backup plans in the event he got vaporized. They both worked. There's Hoid on Scadrial, from that cell culture. There's also Hoid in Silverlight, reconstituted from a flash-frozen amputated limb, which is secretly under the protection of a Dragon he knows from Yolen. Neither of them even considers the possibility that the other backup plan worked, until they meet, say at a peace conference in the Roshar/Scadrial war, where one Hoid is advising each side. While this could be cool, it's impossible. It just doesn't work like that. A soul won't split this way, like alder said, it finds the larger one. 19 hours ago, Nitpicking said: OK, but you have to consider special relativity. No, really. (Well, not really, but in this context ...) See, each clump of cells thinks it's the only way to resurrect Hoid. I mean, not "thinks", but the Dawnshard's influence in the Cosmere is limited by speed-of-light (within the Cognitive Realm). The chunk of Dawnshard near Scadrial looks around for a few seconds, finds no other living pieces of Hoid, and resurrects him. Meanwhile, the chunk in Silverlight looks around and says, "No, no more living pieces of Hoid here," and also resurrects him. Then they both use the Spiritual Realm to un-archive Hoid-As-He-Was from just before his death, including his Breath. The Dawnshard is perfectly capable of supplying enough Investiture to create a few thousand Breaths, and the SR supplies the memories. Eventually, in actual Cosmere stories, Hoid will realize he can use the SR to get back his missing memories. The speed of light does not limit healing, nor the dawnshards. Most cosmere healing is based on the soul, which goes off the spitual realm. The spirtual realms often ignores speed-of-light problems, since everywhere and everywhen is one point (Quantam stuff or something). The breaths, while more psyical than the dawnshards, are invested in Hoid's soul, and will be carried aloung with his soul. The chunk of hoid in scadrial doesn't have it's own piece of the dawnshard, it's still a part of hoid. 1
Nitpicking Posted January 8, 2025 Author Posted January 8, 2025 Thing Brandon won't write: Azir demands a trial, and their lawyers (advocates?) prove to everyone's satisfaction that it was illegal for the subject nations (Marat, Tukar, etc.) to secede in the middle of a war. The True Everstorm withdraws to allow sunshine within their borders as well. The Prime Aqasix, now backed by the Unoathed, quietly and effectively persuades them to become true components of the Aziri Empire, strong-arming the bureaucrats into accepting because he's a powerful, popular, and charismatic leader. El says, "This offers new opportunities." He's referring to Azir being a key part of Odium's space army in 400 years, but no one else except Taravangian understands.
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