The Three Laws of Hoid

[aeromancer he/him]

Seeing as Brandon is a fan of Isaac Asimov, I've decided to create the Three Laws of Hoid, as a parody of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (and Sanderson's Three Laws of Magic).

 

Rule #1:Hoid may not clarify puzzles, or through inaction, puzzles to be clarified.

 

Rule #2:Hoid must not do the expected, unless by doing so, a puzzle will be clarified.

 

Rule #3:Hoid must look after the cosmere, except if involves doing the expected, or allowing a puzzle to be clarified.

 

If you have suggestions, I'm open.

 

Zeroth Law:"Lunu'anaki cannot hurt man. Is forbidden by other gods."

Edited April 14, 2014 by aeromancer

[skaa he/him]

LOL! So that's why the old bugger never explains anything!

Seriously though, according to Rock, Hoid does have one rule imposed upon him:
 

"Lunu'anaki," Rock said, "is god of travel and mischief. Very powerful god. He came from depths of peak ocean, from realm of gods."
"What did he look like?" Lopen asked, eyes wide.
"Like person," Rock said. "Maybe Alethi, though skin was lighter. Very angular face. Handsome, perhaps. With white hair."
Sigzil looked up sharply. "White hair?"
"Yes," Rock said. "Not grey, like old man, but white-yet he is young man. He spoke with me on shore. Ha! Made mockery of my beard. Asked
what year it was, by Horneater calendar. Thought my name was funny. Very powerful god."
"Were you scared?" Lopen asked.
"No, of course not. Lunu'anaki cannot hurt man. Is forbidden by other gods."

 

I don't know if there are other rules that Hoid has to follow, or what the repercussions are for breaking them, but I had a good laugh when I realized: Hoid follows Asimov's First Law of Robotics!

Edited April 11, 2014 by skaa

[Observer]

I'm pretty sure that was just Rock mistaking Hoid for one of his own gods, and thinking he was bound by said god's rules. I highly doubt Hoid is incapable of murder.

[Leuthie]

Considering Hoid can heal damage to his soul, and we know not the mechanics of such a thing, I'm not going to assume either way. It's completely possible that Hoid could be forbidden from hurting people.

[Asha'man Logain]

I could see Hoid not being able to directly kill mortals, but I'll bet he can put them in situations where they will likely die 

[Awesomeness Summoned he/him]

Can't seem to find it but I'm almost certain I remember Brandon saying something about Hoid being incapable of hurting someone. He was asked about who would win in a fight between Hoid and another powerful being and while Hoid is more powerful and probably wouldn't "lose" the fight, he also couldn't "win" because he wouldn't be able to cause injury to the other person. I'll keep looking for the quote but I'm pretty sure what Rock said about him is accurate.

Edited April 11, 2014 by Awesomeness Summoned

[Tempus]

 

 

QUESTION

Finally, and most importantly, if all your protagonists had an epic all out brawl, who would win?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Some of them are immortal, but that would kind of be cheating. If you let people who are immortal participate, it's going to very much favor someone like Hoid, who is really, really, really hard to kill. Of course, he would not be very good at offing anyone either, because of certain things in his past. It would be really futile when it got down to the last two. But if we take that out...

[rakkeh]

Hoid has also said himself that he is ineffective at harming people.

WoR Chapter 45 - Middlefest

"You needn't fear me. I'm terribly ineffective at hurting people. I blame my upbringing"

[Moogle]

Hoid may be ineffective at harming people directly, but I suspect he's very good at putting people in situations where they can die easily, as Asha'man says. (Firefly makes for the best quotes.)

 

Shai proves this, and Hoid's talk of letting Roshar be destroyed definitely imply that he's quite dangerous, though not in the classical knife-to-the-face sense.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Moogle

[AerionBFII he/him]

Ahhh since Hoid is the most powerful (non Shard) character evens it out a little more i guess, since apparently he is super hard to kill not even Shardblades will work

[jag519 he/him]

Well yeah, not knowing his full powers we know he at least can hold a gold charge, and knowing that we know that he could heal any damage to himself. Gold heals you spiritually, so it could heal shardblade wounds. 

 

I'm sure that's not the real reason he can't be killed, but that's just using one of his powers we know he has.

[red032 he/him]

"Lunu'anaki," Rock said, "is god of travel and mischief. Very powerful god. He came from depths of peak ocean, from realm of gods."

 

He came from peak ocean... did we find the shardpool and has it slipped under our noses??

Edited April 22, 2014 by red032

[skaa he/him]

He came from peak ocean... did we find the shardpool and has it slipped under our noses??

 

I'm sure a bunch of us here figured it out as soon as they read that scene in the book. Being Cosmere-aware makes such clues easy to spot.

 

Now the question is this: whose Shardpool is it? I'm thinking Honor's, because Hoid probably won't want to use Odium's or Cultivation's Shardpools, seeing as they're not too fond of him.

Edited April 22, 2014 by skaa

[red032 he/him]

It is an obvious clue, sure. But as I read the audiobook, it slipped past me.

Your question raises another: do the shardholders control this "gate function" of their shardpool?

I ask that bacause on Sel, there are no shardholders and the shardpool is still working. Albeit, I believe the dangers of travelling from and to Sel maybe due to this fact.

What do you think?

[macvey]

Interesting idea. Do a shardpool "always" work as a gate?

Do we have any hints about that?

[Moogle]

I'm sure a bunch of us here figured it out as soon as they read that scene in the book. Being Cosmere-aware makes such clues easy to spot.

 

Now the question is this: whose Shardpool is it? I'm thinking Honor's, because Hoid probably won't want to use Odium's or Cultivation's Shardpools, seeing as they're not too fond of him.

 

It's green and called the "water of life" by Rock. Syl (honorspren) is blue and Wyndle (Cultivationy gardener type) is green. I'd definitely peg it as Cultivation's Shardpool. If you want Honor's, perhaps we could look to Urithiru, which was placed "nearest to Honor".

Edited April 23, 2014 by Moogle

[bartbug he/him]

I'm still doubtful of whether or not it's an honest to goodness Shardpool. Maybe it could be related to a Splinter, but it doesn't seem quite right yet. Of course, I'll probably end up eating my words, but as you can see, they are delicious.