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It seems that there are a lot of supernatural injuries/transformations due to messed up Connections. Most overtly, on Roshar, the imprisonment of Ba-Ado-Mishram while she was Connected to the singers turned them into parshmen, removing their spren-bonding/form-changing ability and part of their mentality/will/whatever. This imprisonment also caused Radiant spren whose knights break their Oaths to turn into deadeyes/Shardblades. Details are still very unclear, but given that it has to do with breaking bonds, it's likely a Connection thing in some form. Given the close parallel between Radiant spren and seons, it's likely the messed-up Seons of Reod Elantrians are in the same situation. More speculatively... The Reod Elantrians themselves were so messed up because their Shaod altered Spiritwebs rely on a Connection to the Dor that was no longer there? Mistwraiths have per WoB a "blockage" between the Physical and Cognitive Realms, which the spikes that form a Kandra Blessing fix or bypass. Is this a Connection issue also? (I'm assuming that the three Realmatic aspects of one being require Connection to work together properly, because both Ruin taunting Kelsier in M:SH and Kalak in the RoW Epigraphs refer to Cognitive Shadows lacking Connection to the Physical Realm.) Koloss' lack of intelligence might be like mistwraiths in reverse, as their Cognitive aspects appear as normal-intelligence humans after death in M:SH. And to get extremely speculative indeed... Some Lifeless (like Clod) are more aware/humanlike than others, and holding more Breath at the moment of death helps with that. Perhaps this is due to Connection between the Physical Lifeless corpse and the persisting Spiritual Aspect of the former person, enhanced by the Spiritual nature of Breaths, though the Cognitive aspect of the person is gone (Beyond)?

I'm currently suffering from a pinched nerve, which got me thinking; if i was taken by the Reod right now, would i start my cursed existense suffering this much pain, or would i start with a clean slate, and new pains only would add up? it wouldn't take much for me to break if so. Might be a really short existence.

Okay so, time for my first real crackpot theory. We know, from the AU essays that Sel has been gaining a bit of sapience. What if the planet Sel itself caused the Reod, being unhappy with the Elantrians, and the way they were using their power? It would give the Reod more cosmere significance, and it would be interesting, compared to the few things we know about the humans who left Ashyn. As a planet, I could understand Sel not wanting to have something happen to it, and it might have intervened.

I previously posted this on the Shardcast comments, I don't think there's much to it but I'm curious to hear any thoughts on Sel's land gaining self-awareness. In Arcanum Unbounded Khriss makes the observation that "Indeed, I believe that the very landscape itself has become Invested to the point that it has a growing self-awareness, in a way unseen on other planets in the cosmere". We know the earthquake that caused the Reod was not natural. So this made me think the land itself could have 'deliberately' caused the earthquake (maybe not with a highly intelligent level of awareness, perhaps closer to animal instinct). I see two possibilities. 1) the land is self-aware enough to protect itself and for some reason had a problem with the level of magical advancement (or use of investiture) by Elantrians. 2) that the land on Sel is becoming self-aware but with its 'personality' corresponding to the Shard that has the strongest regional influence there (as the Shards' power was stuffed into the cognitive and while they together made the Dor, perhaps they remain somewhat separate), and that the Dominion-land (hmmm Jaddeth??) wanted to overthrow Elantris (a la two tectonic plates sliding across each other, but in this case one of the plates deliberately moving itself). I see 1 as more likely in reflection, I'm not sure that parts of the land would be Dominion and parts Devotion, as opposed to an roughly even blend across Sel. And to be fair, both are probably unlikely but hey, it's a thought

Something interesting hit me on my recent reading of Elantris. Why is Hoid mentioned here at all? Prior to the 10th Anniversary edition, we had no real understanding of why he was meddling on Sel, save that he was apparently known as a street beggar for at least 10 years. What else happened 10 years prior to the events of this book? The Shaod. The Reod. AonDor stops working the way it should. The chasm appeared in Arelon. We know that this earthquake that caused the chasm line was the result of some kind of "unnatural occurance," meaning that something "meddled" with something (we don't know what) in Arelon. Also: The chasm, which occurred only 10 years prior, along with the Shaod/Reod, was not the result of Odium's visit to Sel, which would have taken place hundreds of years prior to the events of the book. Hoid seems to have been hanging out on the streets of Kae for 10 years. Things with Elantris went downhill 10 years ago. An oddly specific coincidence, no? In the postscript of the 10th Anniversary edition of Elantris: My theory summarized: Hoid, in his attempt to become an Elantrian, caused the Shaod/Reod (whether on purpose or by accident, I do not know). Once his mess is resolved, or perhaps once he sees that his plan did not work out the way he thought it would,

Suffering the Reod was obviously a bad thing. A weak body that tired easily and wouldn't heal, lessened access to local Investiture, and oh god that hair. Yet... I wonder if there might not be a silver lining... We know that an Elantrian, trying to heal a woman, once accidentally inflicted the Reod on her. We also saw Raoden fix it all. We know it's at least possible for someone to go into Reod and be taken out; all that's left is for the proper Aons and modifiers to be discovered and used. But why, you ask? I'm glad you did, rhetorical-question-man. Consider the Reod. While in it, it seems difficult if not impossible to die. Horribly painful beyond imagining to be sure, and hardly what I'd call a plausible method of stasis, but it's worth noting. They also don't need food, or even air. They might be ideally suited for situations of extremes in the environment, like space travel. But that's not their primary power. When Galladon was in the Reod, and Raoden tried to heal him, it was as though Galladon didn't exist. Raoden drew the Aon Ien, designated Galladon as the target, and it was as though he'd told the Aon to heal his invisible friend. There was nothing to grab on to. Imagine such a power. Imagine being immune to being Soulcast into flame, immune to being Lashed. Invisible to lifesense, an entity that won't trip the sensors of one of those warning fabrials. A man spren cannot see. I am, of course, speculating here. One example isn't enough to make someone "immune to magic." After all, even though Raoden's illusions were cast on his clothing, not on himself, he still managed to tie the illusion to his own muscles, so magic can be made to work on him in an at least ancillary way. Still, I think it's fun to think about. Please feel free to poke holes in this conjecture, or perhaps even find something to support it.