Jump to content

Theories about Auxiliary


Zibus

Recommended Posts

Okay, obviously some strange stuff is going on with Auxiliary, but here's what we know for sure.

1.) Aux is a spren.

Quote

Nomad sighed.  He expected a wisecrack from Auxiliary, but the spren stayed silent as well.  He usually did when Wit was around—he knew Nomad often felt double-teamed in situations like that.

2.) Aux is "dead."

Quote

“Aux!” he shouted.  “I need a Blade!  Transform!”

I’m not the one holding you back on that count, Nomad.

“That light is going to kill us!”

Point: it is going to kill you, my poor squire.  I am already dead.

3.) Sigzil broke his Oaths.

Quote

“I thought,” Nomad shouted, “that my oaths overrode that aspect of the Torment!”

I’m sorry, Nomad.  But what oaths?

...

“Thought I did,” he said.  “Then my oaths ended, and I realized that destinations really are important, Wit.  They are.  No matter what we say.”

From the above it seems clear that Auxiliary is now a deadeye... but they are definitely a very strange deadeye. They can communicate extremely articulately in full thoughts and sentences, something that only just happened with Maya. They can not only become a full blade but also basically any other tool Sigzil can imagine, rather than being stuck in one form. They also can allow Sigzil access to a whole bunch of extra "surges" - most notably Connection and Transportation. 

So what's going on?

Question: Is this Sigzil's currently bonded honorspren? 

We're never given a name for the spren Sigzil has bonded, but we do know they're an honorspren. Auxiliary does not seem like a very honorspren name to me, though it does allow for shortening into a convenient nickname like many of the other honorspren. Still, its honorspren names are usually quite fanciful and fantasy feeling, not tied to some specific concept like inkspren or Cryptics. So this might not be an honorspren, explaining the access to different surges than the typical Windrunner. But then what type of spren could it be?

Looking at the KR chart, the orders with Transportation are the Elsecallers and Willshapers. Elsecallers also get Transformation which does not relate to Connection at all, so that wouldn't make much sense, not does Auxiliary match with the names of inkspren we've learned already. Willshapers get Cohesion rather than Adhesion (which is at least part of the reason why Dalinar can Connect things a people together), so I don't know if Cohesion would allow Sigzil to Connect to the planet and learn the language or not. Perhaps combined with Transportation it would? Sop that the Willshaper can communicate in the new places they visit?

If it is a Willshaper spren, that would make Auxiliary a lightspren/Reacher. We only have two examples of Reacher names and they don't seem to have strong theme to them, so maybe Auxiliary is a Reacher? But then what happened to Sgizil's honorspren? 

Alright, given all of the above, here is my theory - 

In Stormlight 5 Sigzil is forced/tricked into holding/becoming a Dawnshard. After he loses it he breaks his oaths killing whatever current spren his bonded too. However, because he held the Dawnshard he is now an extremely Invested individual - hence why we see him taking so much pain even while very low on power and see him able to use other kinds of Investiture. This also allows him to still get power/access the surges of Auxiliary even though they are a deadeye.

BUT I don't think Auxiliary is his original honorspren, for the reasons mentioned above. I think Sigzil found the shardblade of a deadeye Reacher and "bonded" to them to get access to Willshaper abilities in order to escape Roshar and try to outrun the Night Brigade. This could be why Auxiliary can transform, because Sigzil can use Cohesion to manipulate the physical form of things (like we see Venli doing with stone). It would also explain why we don't see him try to use any Windrunner surges especially lashings when he's getting pulled around behind the ships.

I could totally be wrong and Auxiliary is in fact his honorspren, but that's the theory I'm going with right now. It doesn't quite make sense with some of Auxiliary's lines, but it does explain quite a few other puzzles.

Thoughts? Counter points?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Zibus said:

Okay, obviously some strange stuff is going on with Auxiliary, but here's what we know for sure.

1.) Aux is a spren.

2.) Aux is "dead."

3.) Sigzil broke his Oaths.

From the above it seems clear that Auxiliary is now a deadeye... but they are definitely a very strange deadeye. They can communicate extremely articulately in full thoughts and sentences, something that only just happened with Maya. They can not only become a full blade but also basically any other tool Sigzil can imagine, rather than being stuck in one form. They also can allow Sigzil access to a whole bunch of extra "surges" - most notably Connection and Transportation. 

So what's going on?

Question: Is this Sigzil's currently bonded honorspren? 

We're never given a name for the spren Sigzil has bonded, but we do know they're an honorspren. Auxiliary does not seem like a very honorspren name to me, though it does allow for shortening into a convenient nickname like many of the other honorspren. Still, its honorspren names are usually quite fanciful and fantasy feeling, not tied to some specific concept like inkspren or Cryptics. So this might not be an honorspren, explaining the access to different surges than the typical Windrunner. But then what type of spren could it be?

Looking at the KR chart, the orders with Transportation are the Elsecallers and Willshapers. Elsecallers also get Transformation which does not relate to Connection at all, so that wouldn't make much sense, not does Auxiliary match with the names of inkspren we've learned already. Willshapers get Cohesion rather than Adhesion (which is at least part of the reason why Dalinar can Connect things a people together), so I don't know if Cohesion would allow Sigzil to Connect to the planet and learn the language or not. Perhaps combined with Transportation it would? Sop that the Willshaper can communicate in the new places they visit?

If it is a Willshaper spren, that would make Auxiliary a lightspren/Reacher. We only have two examples of Reacher names and they don't seem to have strong theme to them, so maybe Auxiliary is a Reacher? But then what happened to Sgizil's honorspren? 

Alright, given all of the above, here is my theory - 

In Stormlight 5 Sigzil is forced/tricked into holding/becoming a Dawnshard. After he loses it he breaks his oaths killing whatever current spren his bonded too. However, because he held the Dawnshard he is now an extremely Invested individual - hence why we see him taking so much pain even while very low on power and see him able to use other kinds of Investiture. This also allows him to still get power/access the surges of Auxiliary even though they are a deadeye.

BUT I don't think Auxiliary is his original honorspren, for the reasons mentioned above. I think Sigzil found the shardblade of a deadeye Reacher and "bonded" to them to get access to Willshaper abilities in order to escape Roshar and try to outrun the Night Brigade. This could be why Auxiliary can transform, because Sigzil can use Cohesion to manipulate the physical form of things (like we see Venli doing with stone). It would also explain why we don't see him try to use any Windrunner surges especially lashings when he's getting pulled around behind the ships.

I could totally be wrong and Auxiliary is in fact his honorspren, but that's the theory I'm going with right now. It doesn't quite make sense with some of Auxiliary's lines, but it does explain quite a few other puzzles.

Thoughts? Counter points?

 

 He uses connection and only 2 orders have access to that surge.  Bonsmiths and Windrunners.  In addition Ox says that his death is nomad fault.

Edited by bmcclure7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, bmcclure7 said:

 He uses connection and only 2 orders have access to that surge.  Bonsmiths and Windrunners.  In addition Ox says that his death is nomad fault.

So "Connection" proper isn't a surge. It's associated with Adhesion at least for Bondsmiths, but Windrunners definitely don't get it from Adhesion - at least not being able to access languages. 

That certainly seems to be the implication of some of Aux's statements, but they're vague enough I'm wondering if they're intentionally misdirection from Brandon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What we know is :

1. Aux is a dead Spren (Probably because Sigzil broke his oaths)

2. Sigzil is/was a Dawnshard

Deadeyes only happen since the Recreance.
Do we know what happened when a Knight Radiant broke their oath before that point?

So if as a lot of people predicted, solving the Ba-Ado-Mishram problem restore "Spren death" to normal then the talking and shapeshifting might be the normal.

 

Skipping doesn't seem like a Spren Surge. Transportation seems to mainly allow transfer between Physical and Cognitive. Skipping from what we've seen is Physical-Physical but from planets to planets. If I had to guess that's a Dawnshard ability.

 

The Connection seems to be something he cannot do and Aux can do on their own. There's probably more behind it, but it doesn't seem unlikely that Aux is his present Stormlight Spren. (Given that he goes by Nomad and that's what Aux calls him, it's also not impossible that Auxiliary is not his Spren's real name)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Myuken said:

Skipping from what we've seen is Physical-Physical but from planets to planets. If I had to guess that's a Dawnshard ability.

Thats a good guess. I do remember on one of the old timewasters guide forums, someone who had read Dragonsteel prime said that one of the Dawnshards would be conductive to space travel so maybe it is a Dawnshard ability.

That's all they ever said but ive been sitting on that one little bit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Zibus said:

Okay, obviously some strange stuff is going on with Auxiliary, but here's what we know for sure.

1.) Aux is a spren.

We are talking about Rosharans. Their usage of the term spren is extensive.

1 hour ago, Zibus said:

2.) Aux is "dead."

This raises a possibility. And it would explain why Sigzil is a squire and Auxillary the knight. Is Sigzil bonded to a Cognitive Shadow, specifically a Knight Radiant's Cognitive Shadow?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[Reposting what I said on the reactions page]

Looked up the definition of 'auxiliary', wondering if it perhaps could be the literal name of a Dawnshard. The definition is

Quote

Providing supplementary or additional help and support.

Which doesn't... really fit, but it kind of does? I feel like it only kind of fits because I want it to, though xD

But no, the talk about oaths and things definitely implies Aux is a Radiant spren of some kind, probably an Honorspren but maybe an Inkspren or Reacher, because of the Skipping. I think Auxiliary as a name is interesting anyway since it literally means what Aux does (or is supposed to do) which isn't a spren naming convention I'm aware of.

Edited by Matrim's Dice
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

We are talking about Rosharans. Their usage of the term spren is extensive.

This raises a possibility. And it would explain why Sigzil is a squire and Auxillary the knight. Is Sigzil bonded to a Cognitive Shadow, specifically a Knight Radiant's Cognitive Shadow?

 

Good points. Still, Sigzil is a particularly analytically minded Rosharan and even in these chapters uses terms like shade and Awakening to specifically refer to other invested entities/arts. I think Sigzil at least would use the correct term. Also, a Cognitive Shadow able to form as a physical shardblade/tool would be completely out of left field. I could buy something like a Seon doing it perhaps, but a Cognitive Shadow would be a hard sell.

But yeah, could definitely be a completely different thing from the Nahel bond we've seen so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My first thought is that Aux is a deadeye, who is functional because he has been revived in some way that hasn’t been discovered by ROW-era Radiants. Aux is Sigzil’s original spren, who died when Sigzil broke his oaths, and Sigzil rebonded Aux.

But that does leave some questions. Why is Auxillary’s name weird? Why is he referred to as a knight? Why does he call Sigzil a squire? Why is Aux able to manipulate Connection?

The Connection thing is especially weird. Usually, the Radiant uses the Surges, and the spren cheers them on. Syl never uses Lashings - that’s Kaladin’s job. So is this a reversed bond? Aux taking the role of the Knight Radiant, and Sigzil taking the spren’s role? Has Aux sworn oaths? Does any of this make sense???

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Zibus said:

Good points. Still, Sigzil is a particularly analytically minded Rosharan and even in these chapters uses terms like shade and Awakening to specifically refer to other invested entities/arts. I think Sigzil at least would use the correct term.

Sigzil uses "shade" to refer specifically to Threnodite shades. And he may have come to the conclusion that Roshar is right in their terminology.

6 minutes ago, Zibus said:

Also, a Cognitive Shadow able to form as a physical shardblade/tool would be completely out of left field. I could buy something like a Seon doing it perhaps, but a Cognitive Shadow would be a hard sell.

The Threnodites did useful things with them, as we saw in Secret History

Maybe I should have listed the clues in the story:

Quote

They turn into shades, under the right circumstances, the knight explained to his dull-minded squire.  Who really should remember almost being eaten by one.

Snarky implacitation: That was me, you dolt.

Quote

“Threnodites.  Don’t they…persist when they’re killed?”

Hesitation. Sigzil is going for a touchy subject.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remembered a WoB that is relevant to cognitive shadow's bonding people:

OdysseyCon 2016:

Quote

Blightsong

Could Kelsier theoretically bond with someone on Roshar?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

 

At JordanCon 2018:

Quote

Argent

Because of Kelsier's status as a Cognitive Shadow we've been wondering what wonky things you can do with him being like that and so-- Hypothetically, purely hypothetically, could a Surgebinder, could somebody form a Nahel bond with him?

Brandon Sanderson

With Kelsier? We'll RAFO that. We will definitely RAFO that for now

 But then again:

2 hours ago, Zibus said:

A Cognitive Shadow able to form as a physical shardblade/tool would be completely out of left field. I could buy something like a Seon doing it perhaps, but a Cognitive Shadow would be a hard sell.

I agree.

Edited by HippoPhileus
formatting
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, RedBlue said:

The Connection thing is especially weird. Usually, the Radiant uses the Surges, and the spren cheers them on. Syl never uses Lashings - that’s Kaladin’s job. So is this a reversed bond? Aux taking the role of the Knight Radiant, and Sigzil taking the spren’s role? Has Aux sworn oaths? Does any of this make sense???

Ooo! Hadn't thought of that angle! Since Sigzil is now highly Invested himself from the Dawnshard, perhaps he could serve as the source of the bond? Doesn't quite clear everything up... but its intriguing. I still think Aux is not a Windspren even if the bond is sort of reversed like this.

Makes the "What Oaths?" question from Aux more interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We also know you can theoretically bond multiple spren:

(Words of Radiance Lexington signing 2014)

Quote

 

ganchero (paraphrased)
Is it true that humans can bond to multiple spren?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)
They can theoretically bond to multiple spren.


 

So this could be a possibility with Sigzil. Could he (at some point) have bonded a second spren while still bonded to his honorspren? If so, what effects could this have on the bond? especially once Ba-Ado-Mishram and whatever imprisoning her did to the life on roshar is undone, the effects could be weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

The Ire guarded their fortress specifically against Trenodite Cognitive Shadows and a guard mistook Kelsier for one of them.

Ah. I interpreted that more as the shades being super dangerous in the CR, but I could be totally off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, HippoPhileus said:

We also know you can theoretically bond multiple spren:

(Words of Radiance Lexington signing 2014)

So this could be a possibility with Sigzil. Could he (at some point) have bonded a second spren while still bonded to his honorspren? If so, what effects could this have on the bond? especially once Ba-Ado-Mishram and whatever imprisoning her did to the life on roshar is undone, the effects could be weird.

We've seen some weirdness like this with Shallan, but she bonded two Cryptics, so I imagine it would be quite different with different types of spren.

I think it makes a bit more sense timeline/logistics wise if he "bonds" Aux after losing his first spren, but could be completely wrong.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Zibus said:

We've seen some weirdness like this with Shallan, but she bonded two Cryptics, so I imagine it would be quite different with different types of spren.

I think it makes a bit more sense timeline/logistics wise if he "bonds" Aux after losing his first spren, but could be completely wrong.

You are correct. Some of the weirdness with Shallan is that Testament is a deadeye, yet Shallan could still soulcast using that connection. And she could still summon testament as a shardblade without having a gemstone in the hilt to bond it. So there could be some very weird things with two different types of spren, one of whom is dead. Of course, Shallan is also weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Matrim's Dice said:

But no, the talk about oaths and things definitely implies Aux is a Radiant spren of some kind, probably an Honorspren but maybe an Inkspren or Reacher, because of the Skipping. I think Auxiliary as a name is interesting anyway since it literally means what Aux does (or is supposed to do) which isn't a spren naming convention I'm aware of.

Quote

“I thought,” Nomad shouted, “that my oaths overrode that aspect of the Torment!”

I’m sorry, Nomad.  But what oaths?

That is the full quote. Sigzil talked about oaths. Auxillary does not know about them. As whatever will have happened in SA 5 may have damaged a spren's mind, you cannot use that to say that Auxillary is not a radiant spren. But not knowing the oaths surely does not support the theory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

That is the full quote. Sigzil talked about oaths. Auxillary does not know about them. As whatever will have happened in SA 5 may have damaged a spren's mind, you cannot use that to say that Auxillary is not a radiant spren. But not knowing the oaths surely does not support the theory.

Alternatively, he could being sarcastic. That's the tone I got from Auxiliary. More like Syl and less like Pattern.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Zibus said:

[A] Cognitive Shadow able to form as a physical shardblade/tool would be completely out of left field. I could buy something like a Seon doing it perhaps, but a Cognitive Shadow would be a hard sell.

I agree re: the possibility of a Seon being the bonded Invested entity, or maybe a Skaze. Perhaps a tie to Dominion would allow a manipulation of Connection like we're seeing here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Oltux72 said:

That is the full quote. Sigzil talked about oaths. Auxillary does not know about them. As whatever will have happened in SA 5 may have damaged a spren's mind, you cannot use that to say that Auxillary is not a radiant spren. But not knowing the oaths surely does not support the theory.

I assumed Aux was being passive aggressive here. Like how he's needling Sigzil about because responsible for his death. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...