Can Dakhor Bones be Made to be Hidden from view?

[Trusk'our High Prelan]

Is it possible for a Dakhor to be made so that their bone twists are hidden within their body so nobody can tell that they are Dakhor? Could they be made smaller so that they are subtly hidden from view, even if they don’t provide the same level of bone armor? The fact that Steel Inquisitors didn’t actually need to have spikes driven through their eyes in order to grant their powers comes to mind; they did it for intimidation and distinction, not subtlety. Could the Dakhor be doing the same thing, deliberately making their bone twists larger and more visible for intimidation and distinction (aside from the armor feature, of course)?

[CryoZenith High Prelan]

Well, I don't know if you can make Dakhor bone twists so subtle that even a doctor giving you a physical would be fooled, but you can definitely make them subtle *enough*. Like, we spent most of the book not noticing Hrathen had an Dakhor enhancement, right?

[ShardlessVessel Forescout]

Yeah, you can just cover them up.

[Trusk'our High Prelan]

22 hours ago, CryoZenith said:

Well, I don't know if you can make Dakhor bone twists so subtle that even a doctor giving you a physical would be fooled, but you can definitely make them subtle *enough*. Like, we spent most of the book not noticing Hrathen had an Dakhor enhancement, right?

 

11 hours ago, ShardlessVessel said:

Yeah, you can just cover them up.

Well, I mean like if you went shirtless, could they be made subtle enough to not be noticeable unless someone is doing a physical on you.

[Honorless Lord Ruler]

I imagine if you move there might be a bit of protuberance visible, dense tattoos could help hide that, I guess

[Harrycrapper King's Wit]

On 1/15/2022 at 8:01 PM, Trusk'our said:

The fact that Steel Inquisitors didn’t actually need to have spikes driven through their eyes in order to grant their powers comes to mind; they did it for intimidation and distinction, not subtlety.

I'm relatively certain there's a bit more to that than making Steel Inquisitors scary. I don't think they could get that enhanced version of Allomantic vision without the spikes going through their eyes. Can't imagine Kelsier is walking around with one in his eye for aesthetic reasons, even for Kelsier that's a bit much. 

[ShardlessVessel Forescout]

The trouble with theorizing about Dakhor magic is that we know next to nothing about it. How are the bones carved? Do they cut their arms open and carve into them, or do they do something external that causes the bones to deform into shape?

Unless we learn what the process is, I'm not sure whether it's possible to determine whether they can be made subtle or not.

[Trusk'our High Prelan]

1 minute ago, ShardlessVessel said:

The trouble with theorizing about Dakhor magic is that we know next to nothing about it. How are the bones carved? Do they cut their arms open and carve into them, or do they do something external that causes the bones to deform into shape?

Unless we learn what the process is, I'm not sure whether it's possible to determine whether they can be made subtle or not.

They use a ritual chanting to determine their bone twists; they don't need to cut you open, it happens more magically. They need to sacrifice people to fuel their magic, at least to initially create the bone twists. They must also be Fjordellion, or at least have a Connection to that land.

[ShardlessVessel Forescout]

Just now, Trusk'our said:

They use a ritual chanting to determine their bone twists; they don't need to cut you open, it happens more magically. They need to sacrifice people to fuel their magic, at least to initially create the bone twists. They must also be Fjordellion, or at least have a Connection to that land.

I need to reread Elantris. Or is this from WoBs?

Anywho, if the chanting is as versatile as Aons, it can probably create subtler twists, but they'll likely grant weaker abilities.

[CryoZenith High Prelan]

Here's what we know so far from WoB's:

1. Some of the ritual magic is necessary for the "coding" but a lot of it is just cultural aesthetics.

Spoiler

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Locke219

When Dilaf is instructing the monks in how to kill the Elantrians, he mentions purification rites that need to be spoken. Do the rites have to do with the Dor? Or are they purely religious/ritualistic?

Brandon Sanderson

They are mostly ritualistic, but a lot of what the Dakhor do is strongly influenced by the Skaze. Read into that what you will.

Tor.com Q&A with Brandon Sanderson (Jan. 10, 2011)

 

2. They don't "need" to sacrifice people. A particular Dakhor enhancement, in the abstract, simply needs as much investiture as the number of sacrifices it asks for. So, for example, an enchantment that asks for 5 souls doesn't strictly require 5 souls, it just strictly requires 5 souls worth of investiture. However, in order to use substitutions, you have to somewhat hack the system. So, for example, the soul of a mistborn probably has 5 normal souls worth of investiture in it, but that doesn't mean that any monk doing a ritual using a mistborn will know *how* to operate on that efficiency.

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Tsidqiyah

On Sel. It costs about 50 sacrifices to become immune to Aons. Is that number essential? Or if someone with 50 Breath was sacrificed...?

Brandon Sanderson

That number is not essential. But you would have to hack the magic system. You need that much Investiture. So, 50 peoples' souls worth. But if you knew how to hack the magic, Breath could substitute there pretty easily.

Arcanum Unbounded release party (Nov. 22, 2016)

 

3. Yes, Connection to the land is needed.

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Questioner

The warrior monks in Elantris, are they a non-genetic magic system?

Brandon Sanderson

So here's the thing in Elantris. On Sel, you most usually need to be born in a certain location for the magic to work on you from that region. So, it's not genetic, meaning if you move there, your children count, right? Regardless of what your genetic heritage and things like that is. But it is regional.

Questioner

For Dakhor monks, wasn't it that they went to monasteries and trained over time and then they're...?

Brandon Sanderson

So they do have something done to them that does this. But where they're from is directly related to how that works, how powerful it is, and these sorts of things.

JordanCon 2021 (July 17, 2021)