Torment
A worsening affliction on Nomad that locks his muscles the instant he tries to strike, tackle, or otherwise harm another person, and now denies him the ability to summon Aux in the form of a weapon. Nomad once believed oaths he had sworn overrode this aspect of the Torment; in this chapter, asked which oaths, he cannot answer. STD:TSM:Ch 1
Known facts
- blocks-weaponsHas grown strong enough to deny Nomad the ability to summon Aux in any weapon-shaped form, and to lock his muscles the moment he attempts to strike or tackle another person.STD:TSM:Ch 1
- forgotten-oathsNomad expects sworn oaths to override its restriction on weapons; asked by Aux which oaths, he cannot name them — they appear to have been lost to him.STD:TSM:Ch 1
- defense-allowedDoes not lock Nomad's muscles when he is acting purely defensively — deflecting a blow or shoving an attacker off balance without striking back. The freeze fires only when he tries to do harm.STD:TSM:Ch 3
- linked-to-witNomad calls his Torment a thing Wit gave him — bound up with the Dawnshard he carried and with the events Wit set in motion. Wit reframes it as he reframes his own: every Torment, he says, is also a blessing.STD:TSM:Ch 10
- spiritually-anchoredHas a physical and a mental component, but the real shackles are spiritual — anchored in Investiture. Knowing that the Threnodite touch can move Investiture, Nomad begins to suspect there might be a way to lessen the Torment's grip on him.STD:TSM:Ch 13
- scar-tissue-of-the-dawnshardIs the scar left on Nomad's soul by carrying a Dawnshard that opposed all violence: an Investiture-fed bond that locks his body whenever he tries to harm another, while also gifting him the Skip, a Investiture-leeching gift, and a strange Connection to every place at once. He suspects the scar is widening and hopes to thin it without severing his lingering tie to the Dawnshard entirely.STD:TSM:Ch 21
Events
- STD:TSM:Ch 18 Trips Nomad mid-tackle on the hijacker's deck and freezes his arms once again against the Charred in the cabin — forcing him into a defensive fight he cannot win on his own.
- STD:TSM:Ch 52 Used in its Investiture-leeching mode and modulated, by improvised prayer, to drain the Cinder King dry — the largest single Skip-currency take Zellion has ever made.
Backreferences
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