Nomad's Torment

[Zibus]

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It had taken him months to get the trick of that.  He was certain that the “breathing in” part was psychological, and he didn’t need it.  But he’d learned, with time, how to feed on Investiture.  An after-effect of the burden he’d once carried, the thing that had given him his Torment.

Alright, so Nomad/Sigzil (pretty sure its Sigzil from context), has a Torment that specifically doesn't let him hurt others. He can act in violence defensively and only as long as he specifically isn't thinking about harming those around him. Sounds pretty familiar. This quote specifically says he'd once carried a burden. Did he get a hold of/become a Dawshard? Perhaps even the same one Hoid held/was at some point?

[bmcclure7]

2 minutes ago, Zibus said:

Alright, so Nomad/Sigzil (pretty sure its Sigzil from context), has a Torment that specifically doesn't let him hurt others. He can act in violence defensively and only as long as he specifically isn't thinking about harming those around him. Sounds pretty familiar. This quote specifically says he'd once carried a burden. Did he get a hold of/become a Dawshard? Perhaps even the same one Hoid held/was at some point?

Would explain his long life

[Zibus]

Just now, bmcclure7 said:

Would explain his long life

For sure. This is obviously pretty far future. He's been to many worlds and hover bikes are "found on many planets," as well as firearms and all sorts of other tools.

[Ixthos]

I'm still reading - at the point where he just got chained up again after defeating the Ember woman - but I read a rather interesting line that may tie to this (if anyone has read further and this is answered more clearly, please let me know)

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You might be in trouble this time, Auxiliary said.

"You think?"

Do I think? I'm not sure. Depends on your definition.

"You know, I liked you much better when you were alive."

And who is to blame for that?

Perhaps this is the new consequence of a Knight breaking their oath, the Knight now stuck with a restriction on what they can do - they made an oath, broke it, and now are forced to adhere to a new set of restrictions.

[Zibus]

Okay, just didn't read far enough. It was definitely the Dawnshard and this is definite Sigzil. Dang, Brandon's going all out with this one.

 

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“It’s not,” Nomad said.  “It’s really not.”  He stepped closer to Wit’s projection.  “If they catch me, they’ll be able to connect the Dawnshard to you.  And then, they’ll be on your tail.”

 

At the end in his inspirations sections Brandon says we'll know how Sigzil got this way after Stormlight 5, which has me super excited. My big question from that and from this - 

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“I don’t have time for you, Wit,” Nomad said.  “The Night Brigade is out there.  Hunting me.  Because of what you did to me.”

- is which Dawnshard was it? Hoid seems to have forced/tricked Sigzil into taking a Dawnshard, and is also somehow connected to it. Perhaps he is the current holder/host? 

From WoBs we know Hoid is not currently in the recent books a Dawnshard and the only one we know where it is is with Ryzn on Roshar. So is this Ryzn's DS or the one Hoid used to hold? Did Sigzil somehow serve as a link passing the DS from Ryzn to Hoid? Or did he somehow get Hoid's og DS?

But Hoid has this quote - 

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“So it’s a blessing?” Nomad asked, gesturing.  “This Torment you’ve given me?”

“Every Torment is,” Wit said, “even mine.”

So Hoid is still experiencing the aftereffects of the DS, so most likely he is not currently holding it.

So here's my theory - unless another DS gets introduced in SLA 5, Sigzil did in fact become/hold the Dawnshard of Change either given it or taking it from Rysn AND Change was Hoid's original DS. Hence why it's connected to him. If this theory is correct, and it makes the most sense to me given our current knowledge, I'm guessing we're going to get some crazy looks into what DS are and how they operate from Hoid in SLA 5. 

Edited March 24, 2022 by Zibus

[+mdross81]

1 hour ago, Zibus said:

- is which Dawnshard was it? Hoid seems to have forced/tricked Sigzil into taking a Dawnshard, and is also somehow connected to it. Perhaps he is the current holder/host? 

I'd say the signs point to Sigzil having held the same Dawnshard that Hoid once held given that (1) he seems to have the same limitations on hurting people that Hoid has; and (2) the Night Brigade is chasing Sigzil to find a Dawnshard, and Sigzil worries that if they catch him, they'll be able to connect the Dawnshard to Hoid.

I don't think it's the Change Dawnshard, if only because I think Brandon wants to do more with Rysn down the line and it most likely wouldn't make a lot of sense for her to then pass the Change DS to SIgzil in SA5.

It also seems pretty clear that he's no longer holding the DS from the line you quoted about the "burden he once held."

Given what we saw in Dawnshard with the Sleepless saying that it's dangerous for the holder of a DS to bond a spren, I'm guessing that SIgzil was compelled to break his oaths and that's why Aux is "dead." But perhaps through the same sort of inversion of the knight-spren relationship that we've seen with Adolin and Maya, Sigzil was able to restore Aux's mind.

[Elsecaller_17.5]

2 hours ago, Zibus said:

Alright, so Nomad/Sigzil (pretty sure its Sigzil from context), has a Torment that specifically doesn't let him hurt others. He can act in violence defensively and only as long as he specifically isn't thinking about harming those around him. Sounds pretty familiar. This quote specifically says he'd once carried a burden. Did he get a hold of/become a Dawshard? Perhaps even the same one Hoid held/was at some point?

I think he must off. Someone in the first bit of SA5 the bastard holds and loses a dawnshard!

[Zibus]

53 minutes ago, mdross81 said:

 

Given what we saw in Dawnshard with the Sleepless saying that it's dangerous for the holder of a DS to bond a spren, I'm guessing that SIgzil was compelled to break his oaths and that's why Aux is "dead." But perhaps through the same sort of inversion of the knight-spren relationship that we've seen with Adolin and Maya, Sigzil was able to restore Aux's mind.

I hadn't connected that. Good thoughts!

[+mdross81]

So this excerpt has led me to do one of the things I always do when we get some sort of new key word or phrase in the cosmere - search through previous cosmere books for that term. In this case, I searched for the word "torment" and found this interesting bit in WoK 2 that reminds me of Sigzil's discussion with Hoid.

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There always seemed to be a reason Kaladin survived when those he'd tried to help died. Some men might have seen that as a blessing, but he saw it as an ironic kind of torment. He'd spent some time under his previous master speaking with a slave from the West, a Selay man who had spoken of the Old Magic from their legends and its ability to curse people. Could that be what was happening to Kaladin?

Now here's Sigzil and Hoid:

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"So it's a blessing?"Nomad asked, gesturing. "This Torment you've given me?"

"Every Torment is," Wit said. "Even mine."

Capitalization is different of course. Probably just a coincidence. But the discussion of blessings as torment just caught my eye so I thought I'd drop it here.