Tbug33

Another idea is that he’s jumped more times than planets he’s visited. We’re not sure of how many planets are in the Cosmere to think about it statistically, but he could have jumped hundreds of times, but only visited “tens” of planets.

I think others have mentioned this, but I took this as it changed because he now had a strong enough connection to the new planet. Could also have happened because he "lost" it, got a new Connection, then resummoned it. Whatever spiritual mechanics happened as a result of the new Connection changed the color/shape (I'm also assuming here the the "color" of this planet is red/orange, based solely on the aesthetics of the artwork, and the importance of the sun/heat to the planet).

I like this idea a lot. I think it sheds some light on something I found a bit confusing while reading - how long it takes for the Night Brigade to find Nomad/how long he stays on each planet. There's been a lot of discussion on timeline, but I think we can assume that it's been anywhere between 40-100 years since Noman began worldhopping. However, he says he's only been to tens of planets? That seems incredibly low to me. Especially given how quickly the Brigade found him this time. It indicates that he spent a while on each planet, perhaps a year at a time. That being said, Nomad does seem to want to move on as quickly as possible (given his talks with Aux at the beginning of the book) and that doesn't seem to be congruent with being on these planets for months or even years before leaving (however, it is possible that it takes that amount of time on certain planets to attain enough BEUs). But, it would makes sense that it has actually been months outside the planet's gravity, and that's why he was only able to spend a little amount of time there.

Not much theorizing, but I must say it is a bit maddening (in a good way, mostly) that Brandon didn't say which Dawnshard he held - I really thought that reveal would be part of the ending of this book along with all the revelations at the end! I find it a tad distracting as a reader as well-this isn't a story being told by Hoid (as with Tress or Yumi) where the "speaker" has carefully chosen his words, it's a stream of consciousness from Sigzil's perspective. It seems awkward that he would never think specifically about which Dawnshard he once held. Obviously Brandon wants to keep this under wraps for now and on the edge of our seats.

I might be forgetting age information given in Stormlight 1-4, but my guess is that Sunlit Man takes place decades after Stromlight 10. Sigzil/Nomad says he was 38 when he took in/became the Dawnshard. It makes sense to me that he was in his mid-twenties in 1-5. This gives him time to get armor has a Windrunner in SL5, get the Dawnshard in the back half, then get his armor as a Skybreaker in 9-10 (maybe when he uses the Dawnshard to mostly kill Aux, it's to do something grand in SL10). While there isn't a ton of evidence to support this nessessarily, I think it makes the most sense. Seems like too much happening all at once if this was between 5 and 6.