What heightening is Wit? Spoilers

[Sirscott13 he/him]

I was just curious if anyone else caught the tibit where Wit/Hoid visits paladin in jail and is tuning his instrument only to mutter under his breath about how perfect pitch makes tuning so much easier now

 

I can only assume that Hoid now has reached a heightening of a certain level, but any guesses as to which heightening he has actually achieved?

[Moogle]

I imagine he's reached a high enough one to become immortal. Seems a good place to stop to me.

[Shadow Guardian he/him]

He's of at least 2nd Heightening, though to be honest, given how long he's been around, it would not surprise me if he's of the 5th heightening, making him ageless.

[name_here]

I'm guessing he's not much higher than 2nd. Fifth and up are really, really obvious to bystanders, although I wouldn't put it past him to have enough breath stashed away to exceed fifth.

[Ryshadium she/her]

Can't breaths be hidden?

[name_here]

Can't breaths be hidden?

 

You at least apparently can't hide breaths you actually have. However, ordinary Awakened objects don't seem to have the same BioChroma effects. So you can stash two thousand breaths in your shirt and hide them that way.

 

Also, come to think of it, Hoid has Lightweaving, so he's got more options for concealment than normal.

Edited March 18, 2014 by name_here

[Swimmingly he/him]

Also, Vasher can hide Breaths...

[Ryshadium she/her]

Well, yeah. Also, it's not clear how nalthis magic manifests on Roshar. Vasher doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary and he's a returned, so maybe the effects of higher heightenings aren't as noticeable on Roshar.

[name_here]

I'm pretty sure he did the shirt trick. So far as I can tell, Returned need to be in possession of at least one breath in order to survive and consume one a week, but their Divine Breath acts like a single very large breath. The Five Scholars all got rid of their original Divine Breaths at some point, but are perfectly fine getting by on ordinary breaths as long as they can keep up their supply. Also, Returned have some unclear level of control over their physical appearances, but this is definitely not tied to the Divine Breath because the Royal Locks are the same sort of thing. Vasher looks unremarkable because his self-image is unremarkable.

Edited March 18, 2014 by name_here

[Moogle]

I'm guessing he's not much higher than 2nd. Fifth and up are really, really obvious to bystanders, although I wouldn't put it past him to have enough breath stashed away to exceed fifth.

 

Second and up and should be really obvious to bystanders who stay around him long enough. Small things like "the room almost brightened as Wit entered" should have been mentioned. I think it's fairly likely that Wit is hiding the signs with Lightweaving or some other trick. Constant burning of copper might stop the effects from being obvious, for example.

Edited March 18, 2014 by Moogle

[Ryshadium she/her]

It's been a long time since I read Warbreaker- where does it say they got rid of their divine breaths? I can barely remember it. It's a miracle I recognized Nightblood.

[name_here]

At the start of the book, Vasher is at the First Heightening. Since a Divine Breath grants automatic Fifth Heightening, he obviously doesn't still have his. The others also don't seem to have theirs, although it is quite possible they stored them in a manner that allows retrieval.

[Shadow Guardian he/him]

At the start of the book, Vasher is at the First Heightening. Since a Divine Breath grants automatic Fifth Heightening, he obviously doesn't still have his. The others also don't seem to have theirs, although it is quite possible they stored them in a manner that allows retrieval.

 

Actually, he states that he can have 5th heightening anytime he wants, it just requires certain sacrifices that he isn't willing to make. My understanding was that he can repress that breath, and does so at all times, meaning that while he still carries that divine breath, he doesn't not keep any of it's effects (except probably being ageless, but that may just be inherent to being returned, and may not require him to have his divine breath "in effect" as it would be).

[Ryshadium she/her]

I found this in a 2009 interview:

The Divine Breath can be hid. Essentially, you have to view yourself NOT as a god at all, using a very specific bit of mental gymnastics. As a Returned, your body changes based on how you see yourself. (This, by the way, is an indication that Lightsong was more pleased with himself than he ever let on.)

You don't lose your Divine Breath, but it does go into hiding, making you look like a normal person. But you're still Returned, and are consuming a Breath at one a week. If you give away your other Breaths, you retain this hidden one, but your body will still consume its own spirit if left to do so. So you still need a Breath a week to survive, and will die the week you don't get one.

So, Vasher has his divine breath somewhere.

[Rust and Ruin]

I just assumed that Hoid hides his Investitures by burning Copper.

[Sirscott13 he/him]

I don't think burning copper would do it, I don't think he uses light weaving to hide it either. I think that the breaths just work differently on roshar. They may grant him the internal abilities like perfect pitch, aura recognition, etc. but the external abilities wouldn't Shape roshar in a way because stormlight is the main form of investiture. I think if hoid breathed in stormlight he would let off a color aura. Because now the investiture is being used through stormlight. The breath remains the same in hoid though because he is heavily invested with it. Kind of like you need to hack the system in order for it to work. I am sure vasher is consuming his stormlight to keep him alive and I'm sure night blood will end up using stormlight similar to breath. The big difference here though is that a person is inherently invested.

[AerionBFII he/him]

Hoid has existed since before the shattering of Adonalsium i think he virtually has immortality down. He's also the most powerful character in the Cosmere, excluding the Shards. The way he said it though it sounded to me like 'Perfect Pitch' was recently acquired. I think he has the second heightening but he could have higher. 

[Observer]

Considering his power, it's unlikely he has breaths for anything other than convenience and whatever other reason he's collecting them. This will not, however, stop me from sometimes believing that he dumped fifty-thousand breaths into his clothing and told it to protect him, and that it's now so stupidly invested that it can block shardblades.