Odium’s Oaths

[Namle84]

After Wind and Truth, I think there is a problem regarding the various oaths that existed between Odium and Honor.

We know that Odium was constrained by agreements with the other Rosharan Shards, and we saw those agreements made in the Tanavast flashbacks. The question is which agreement was responsible for one specific constraint: Odium’s inability to directly harm Hoid at the end of Rhythm of War.

In the epilogue of Rhythm of War, after Taravangian takes up Odium, he confronts Hoid.

He explicitly says:

“I cannot harm you.”

He then notices that Hoid is storing memories in Breaths and reasons:

“I don’t believe this will cause you actual harm… Yes, it seems my predecessor’s agreements will allow me to—”

this means that some agreement inherited from Rayse prevented Odium from directly harming Hoid, while still allowing him to destroy Breaths storing memories.

 

Then, at the climax of Wind and Truth, Dalinar says:

“I break all oaths and contracts that Honor has made with Odium—all of them.”

A few lines later we are told:

“The contract, including Honor’s binding of Odium to this world, was finished.”

All of these agreements are now void. so after becoming Retribution, Taravangian simply vaporizes Hoid. No agreement protects him any longer.

 

The Puzzle

Wind and Truth shows us several major agreements on screen.

 

Soon after Odium arrives on the planet, all three shards gather and agreed to the following

1. To remain and share the Rosharan system.
2. To limit the powers granted to followers to prevent another Ashyn.

Much later, Honor and Odium agree to the following:

1. Honor will deal with Ba-Ado-Mishram for Odium.
2. Odium will agree to a contest of champions at an unspecified time in the future.

The problem is that none of these agreements obviously explains why Odium could not directly harm Hoid.

Yet the Rhythm of War epilogue means that some agreement did exactly that.

Possible Explanations

Option 1: There was another agreement we were never shown.

Option 2: The restriction is an implication of an agreement we were shown, possibly in conjunction with other factors, such as the general rules that govern Shards.

For example, if becoming a Shardic steward of Roshar carries obligations toward the inhabitants of the system, that might explain why Odium could not simply vaporize people at will.

The difficulty here is Hoid. He is not Rosharan, and not even mortal. Why would he be included in such a protected class?

Conclusion

Some agreement clearly protected Hoid, and that agreement was voided when Dalinar renounced all oaths, enabling the vaporization of Hoid.

What I find surprising is that Wind and Truth spends a great deal of time explaining the history of Shardic agreements on Roshar, yet never seems to identify the specific agreement responsible for this restriction.

I fear that this is just a consequence of the book’s quick editing, and that the writing here could’ve been better. I suspect the answer is that there was just another agreement that wasn’t shown on page. But I hope there is a better explanation.

[Frustration]

That was the agreement made in RoW, Hoid tells Jasnah that one of the clauses explicitly protects him as an agent of Honor

[Namle84]

Ooh, nice.  Can you point me to a citation? I don’t have the book on hand now, but looking at the Coppermind article on the contest of champions, it seems to suggest that the inability to harm most people is a prior limitation placed on Odium by Honor

Edited 49 minutes ago by Namle84