Beowulf25

Just came up with this theory after rereading WoK. Apologies if this has already been proposed elsewhere. I believe that the "Tranquiline Halls" refers to a period of peace and tranquility that existed on Roshar before the coming of Odium, when only Honor and Cultivation influenced the people. I surmise that, at that time, humanity existed in a state of innocence, kind of like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Odium arrived, however, everyone was exposed to new thoughts and feelings. They suddenly understood basic concepts like the difference between good and evil. These new thoughts gave rise to new spren. These new spren, the Dawnsingers, were extremely powerful because they were so fundamental. Also, because they were so basic, they could be bonded to anyone. "the Dawnshard, known to bind any creature voidish or mortal," Epigraph Ch. 36 WoK When they were bonded they became the Dawnshards and gave access to surges that could be used to, among other things, carve out the Dawncities. But, when bonded by a voidish individual that same power could be used to create the Shattered Plains.

Excellent point. I hadn't thought of that. I personally don't think it refers to the arrival of Odium or the Everstorm. From what we know of past desolations, they were long periods of time during which Odium tried to destroy mankind with monsters and whatnot. I suspect that the epigraph "but a thousand days and the Everstorm comes" just refers to when things start to happen. Also, I bet the thousandth day was when Taln showed up at the end of WoK.

She just said it wasn't of Honor, that still leaves Cultivation.

At the end of WoK Honor tells Dalinar in one of his visions that Cultivation is better at seeing the future than he is. So I suspect that it was a cultivation-based spren that wrote it. Possibly even the spren that Dalinar will end up bonding with.

Awesome prizes.

I considered that. I think that since Endowment is about giving something else a part of yourself it could work in a similar way. That is, Endowment gives all the humans on its planet Breath which allows them to do the same thing that it does, namely, give that breath to other people or inanimate objects and imbue them with life or a reasonable facsimile thereof. In that way it would be like the people on that planet (I forget the name) would be directly accessing the shard, Endowment gave them that ability because that's how it works.

At the recent Idaho Falls book signing I asked Brandon if there was any difference between the magic that exists in Elantris and The Emperors Soul and the magic that existed before the shards on Sel were splintered. He said that "The things that they do in those books, couldn't have been done pre-splintering. They could do different things back then but not what is in the books." This means that the splintering of the shards on Sel did change the magic systems in some way. My original theory was that there had been three distinct magic systems on Sel as a result of the two shards being located there, just like in Mistborn, and when the shards were splintered and their holders killed the magic systems themselves were splintered and you got something like what we see in Elantris with several different yet similar magic systems all arising from different splinters of the same shard. That is, AonDor, Dakhor and ChayShan would each come from the same shard and would all be the offspring of one pre-splintering magic system. However, it seems fairly clear that Dakhor is of Dominion and AonDor is of Devotion, so I have formulated this new theory. There is a splinter of Devotion located somewhere near the city of Elantris and a splinter of Dominion located somewhere in Fjorden. This is why only people from those areas can use those powers and why the symbols in the magic have a geographical element. Looking at the differences between AonDor and other magic systems that we see on other worlds (Allomancy, surgebinding, etc.) I see one major difference. In the other magic systems you have a very limited number of things that you can do; 16 abilities in Allomancy, 10 abilities in surgebinding. But with AonDor there are literally hundreds of Aons that can be written in thousands, if not tens of thousands of combinations. Allowing an Elantrian access to many times the number of abilities of a magic user on another world. The other big difference between magic on Sel and another world is that there is no cognitive component to the splinters, their original holders were killed and, so far as we know, no one has taken them up. Elantrians, therefore, do not have to access the power of their shard through a middleman, the shardholder, they must be directly connected to the splinter that powers AonDor. And, if that's the case, I believe that when one of them is taken by the Shaod it is an effect of their splinter trying to find someone to hold it, in much the same way that Vin was taken by Preservation's power. Except that, in this case, because the shard has been splintered, instead of one person gaining godlike power, you have hundreds or thousands of people gaining demigodlike power. They each have about as much power as a mistborn or surgebinder, but far fewer constraints on how they can use that power. This would also explain why they go through such drastic physical changes; glowing skin, rapid healing, etc. they are actually holding some of the raw power of their splinter. Then there is Dakhor which also involves physical changes and grants a wide variety of abilities. I believe that something similar happens to the monks who go through the rituals at the Dakhor monasteries, wherein they gain direct access to the power of their splinter. That leaves only the third magic system that is a balance of Devotion and Dominion. I think ChayShan fits this nicely. Unlike the other two it does not physically alter the user in any way, and it seems as if anyone could learn to use it if they just practiced the forms.

Sign me up.