What Happend to Him(SP4)

[Karger]

    A lot of people are talking about Sigzil breaking his oaths.  I think it more likely that the oaths are simply not valid anymore.  An oath is a connection formed in the spiritual realm.  It exists beyond time as the crystallization of the concept of a virtue and an individual's commitment to it.  A broken oath is thus the crystallization of personal failure.  It is almost an anti-connection(or a connection to a harmful or painful concept).  In short when you break an oath you are not destroying the connection you are just attaching it to something else.  Sigzil says his oaths "ended" and Auxiliary literally does not know what he is talking about. Thus I think we can say that Sigzil didn't break them or some remnant of them would still exist.  However Sigzil's oaths ending and his "spren" not knowing about them implies instead that they never existed in the first place.  Essentially his ideals(or at least the connection that they were made of) no longer exist/have never existed.

This raises the scientific question formally called "WTF?"  I mean we have visual evidence of Sigzil as a Windrunner.  How on earth did this happen?  Breaking it down

• Sigzil was a Windrunner
• Sigzil's connection to Windrunner ideals does not exist anymore.
• Sigzil is very strongly connected to Hoid.
• Some of Hoid's restrictions and abilities are rubbing off on Sigzil.  These abilities seem to include healing and connection manipulation although not Hoid's virtual immortality(even if it might extend his lifespan).
• Auxiliary refers to himself as a knight and Sigzil as his squire.
• Auxiliary is very similar to Hoid in several respects(the most obvious being his speech patterns and areas of interest).
• Auxiliary is a spren of some type.
• Auxiliary believes itself to be dead and blames Sigzil for it.
• Auxiliary, Sigzil and Hoid are all very closely connected.  Close enough that they can contact each other from across seller distances and giving Sigzil a dawnshard would also give you the means to track down Hoid.
• Whatever Hoid did it was a mistake.  Something he didn't intend to happen.

From this I can gather that Hoid and Sigzil's relationship is something somewhat similar to a knight and squire radiant relationship.  Essentially Hoid made his own radiant order and stuck in Sigzil as a member.  This seems to account for the unusual abilities Sigzil now has.  However it seems another side effect took hold.  This is Sigzil's torment.  Initially it seems that his oaths protected him.  Basically his connection to his oaths made connection to his torment impossible.  Keeping in mind

• Sigzil is currently on the run from a group called the night brigade who want to attach a dawnshard to him.
• Sigzil can use investiture of all kinds as a result of the torment Hoid gave him.  This torment also prevents him from hurting people.
• Auxiliary's base form is a shardblade. 
• Sigzil cannot access that form unless torment slips up.  The implication might be that Auxiliary would be a deadeye except he cannot be because the oaths never happened.

I would guess torment is essentially the ideal his is most strongly connected with right now.  I would also guess that Sigzil's specific torment is incompatible with the ideals of honor he wants to uphold.  Think of the torment like a curse.  It demands a certain kind of behavior.  In fact it makes certain behaviors impossible.  Since time isn't a thing for the connection Sigzil had to his ideals as far as his oaths were concerned the torment was always there.  As a result Sigzil never broke his oath.  As far as his spren was concerned he never swore oaths to begin with.  However this would put the spren in a paradox.  Essentially it was bound to an individual who had never sworn oaths.  This last part is mostly a guess but squires have to be a certain distance from their knights for the power to work.  I think Hoid essentially found the paradoxical nonexistent spren and overwrote it with his own personality.  Essentially Auxiliary is a spren of Hoid. 

Sigzil does not appear to be able to get free from his connection to Hoid.  I imagine that his torment binds him to that as well.  He can only do what he wants within strict limitations or for split seconds when the curse slips.  It also appears that the torment is getting stronger over time.  If I'm right about Auxiliary then it would make sense that Sigzil is more strongly bound to that then his previous oaths.  The thing that defines him as a person right now is his connection to Hoid and the limitations this places on him rather then his ideals of honor.  This might also explain why Hoid is reluctant to spend more time with him.  He doesn't want to make Sigzil's torment any worse by strengthening their connection.

Edited March 25, 2022 by Karger

[Kandrafish]

I think the Torment must be tied to the Dawnshard that Hoid held somehow. 

[Karger]

6 minutes ago, Kandrafish said:

I think the Torment must be tied to the Dawnshard that Hoid held somehow. 

That is possible.  It seems kind of like an intent the way Odium described it in SA4.

[Eternal Khol]

4 hours ago, Karger said:

 giving Sigzil a dawnshard would also give it to Hoid.

where was that stated?

[Karger]

44 minutes ago, Eternal Khol said:

where was that stated?

Typo.  I meant would allow them to track down and attach it to Hoid.

[Frustration]

9 minutes ago, Karger said:

Typo.  I meant would allow them to track down and attach it to Hoid.

I thought it was pretty clear that Sigzil had the Dawnshard.

[paperstones]

Well, if Hoid has 3 apprentices that makes a total of 4 and there are 4 Dawnshards. Do they all end up with one?

[Frustration]

4 minutes ago, paperstones said:

Well, if Hoid has 3 apprentices that makes a total of 4 and there are 4 Dawnshards. Do they all end up with one?

Only if those three don't include Sigzil, which I think it does.