Hereās a thought: what could Sigzil and Naleās 4th Ideals have been? Skybreakers must take on and complete a personal mission in order to progress in their oaths, and we know both of them at least got this far. Naleās is particularly interesting to me, in his immortal lifetime what could have been a quest so significant that it was worth an ideal? Was it merely surviving a Desolation to the end for the first time? Iāve considered it but it feels a bit like a cop-out. Any ideas for either of them?
The original Skybreaker oaths are different from the modern ones, I assume they swore those instead
Good shout, I hadnāt considered that. Itās a fair interpretation but is it so much that the oaths THEMSELVES have changed rather than the perception regarding them? We know from WoBs that supposedly the ancient Skybreakers also had an Ideal of Dedication in his response to a question regarding if one could swear to follow the pirateās code.
My thought is basically that all the Orders have oaths that are extremely closely tied to their philosophy (The Windrunner philosophy is "I will protect" and ideals two, three and five all begin with those exact words, with four being closely related. The Lightweavers philosophy is "I will speak my truth" and their ideals are literally them speaking their truths, so on and so forth. The modern Skybreakers, on the other hand, are VERY different. I think the second ideal that Szeth swears (that he will seek justice until he finds a more perfect ideal) may be a version of the original, because Sanderson has said that the usual second ideal for a Skybreaker is "I will put the law above all else", which is... very much not their philosophy of seeking justice. The laws in pretty much every Rosharan nation are, as we see, less than just. They call it the Ideal of Justice still, though. The rest of the Skybreaker oaths seem to have very little to do with their actual philosophy. As you mentioned, a Skybreaker could swear their third ideal to something wildly unjust and that would be fine. They could go on a quest which would cause people to suffer injustices and welp, doesn't matter, quest complete as long as their spren allows it. Makes me think those aren't the real ideals, also sorry for the yap sesh I just love... well, yapping.
Youāre in good company then, I also love yapping. Really good point regarding the continuity between Radiant Oaths, it IS interesting to see how distinct each of the Skybreaker Oaths are. The connection between the ideals is definitely more tenuous, itās a clear question of law vs. justice. They echo Naleās corruption of the Skybreakers: a focus on obedience and mindless devotion rather than the true pursuit of justice. With that said though I feel like the higher ideals were left untainted. Notably the 5th Ideal wasnāt achieved by ANYBODY in centuries, and the 4th Ideal specifically revolves around taking action into your own hands (and judging by Szethās quest, potentially dipping into illegality). I think these better echo what the Skybreakers SHOULD be. I enjoyed the discussion






















