Understanding Nomad's Bond

[Longshot97]

So, as of The Sunlit Man, we know Sigzil became a Skybreaker. This has caused some consternation, as Sigzil bonded an honorspren, like the vast majority of Bridge Four. This has led to some theorizing, and I am here to "help."

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Questioner

Can you have multiple spren?

Brandon Sanderson

Can you have multiple spren at once? This is theoretically possible, to have multiple spren. They would both have to agree, which might be difficult to get them... But it is possible. Good question.

Someone may have done that already... It's pretty obvious, too. You should be able to figure out who that is from Rhythm of War.

Dragonsteel 2023 (Nov. 21, 2023)

This WoB came from Dragonsteel 2023 (emphasis mine). Unless there is another highly obvious candidate, I am here to propose that this is in fact Sigzil.

Support evidence? Well...I am the first to admit that we do not have much, beyond the fact that Sigzil needs to bond with Auxiliary at some point. So, here are the points of evidence I have managed to collect.

Evidence 1:

I cannot think of anyone else the above WoB could refer to. If anyone here has a better idea, this evidence becomes forfeit.

Evidence 2:

Sigzil was reluctant to join the diplomatic mission to Shadesmar in RoW. He claims that the spren there would be very upset with any Windrunner, which is valid. But what if he also fears more? He could fear being revealed to be a Skybreaker (given spren cannot hide themselves in Shadesmar) or how other spren would react to a highspren (given the opinions other spren have expressed).

That's basically it. Thoughts?

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Longshot97

[alder24]

5 minutes ago, Longshot97 said:

This WoB came from Dragonsteel 2023 (emphasis mine). Unless there is another highly obvious candidate, I am here to propose that this is in fact Sigzil.

Shallan, she is bonded with both Testament and Pattern. She used Stormlight and Surges after killing Testament and before bonding with Pattern (famously Soulcasting the chalice into blood in WoK). She is reconstructing her Oaths with Testament.

Spoiler

enceladus_47

Does Shallan's "I killed my spren" count as a truth?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm gonna leave up to theorizing, figuring out the timeline that's going on with Shallan. What we can say is that Shallan is reconstructing, in many cases, oaths she has said before. And it is working slightly differently than someone who is saying new oaths. And indeed, saying she killed her spren is one of those steps. I'll leave it to you to try and parse through that. It's actually pretty complicated. We have a nice big page explaining all of this stuff internally, to make sure that we're keeping it all straight. Because she has violated oaths and reconstructed them, is basically what's happening. And she is regressing, and she's doing a... 1.1 steps forward, 1 step back, sort of thing, kind of frequently.

YouTube Spoiler Stream 1 (Dec. 17, 2020)

RoW ch 115:

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And Shallan had not one Shardblade, but two.
She still had questions. Things about her past didn’t completely align yet, though her memory was no longer full of holes. There was much they didn’t understand. For example, she was certain that, during the years between killing Testament and finding Pattern, her powers had still functioned in some small ways

 

Sizgil isn't "obvious in RoW" at all. In TSM Sigzil specifically said he was a Knight of two different orders at two different times - not at the same time - TSM, Chapter 40:

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“I was a knight,” he said, “of a very exclusive order. Two different orders actually, at two different times. For the first, I was one of their leaders, with oaths that were supposed to turn what I did from terrible into—if not beautiful—honorable. But then . . .”

How to explain this next part? A part he didn’t fully understand himself. “I was given charge over an extremely dangerous item. Capable of killing gods. Laying waste to planets. I carried that burden, found new bonds, but the weapon consumed important parts of me. Shredded the soul of one of my dearest friends. Stole my armor.

The timelines seems to be as followed:

1. He was a Windrunner, something happened and he stopped being a Windrunner (he regrets some decisions he made as a leader, and he is a leader of Windrunners in RoW).
2. He became a bondless Dawnshard at the age of 38, which seems to be some time after SA5.
3. He found and bonded Aux in CR as Dawnshard (Sig has never been in CR in SA books).
4. Dawnshard consumed Aux.