A rather odd theory/question too large to put here.

[Shallan's Ward]

So I have this theory that I have been working on and want to ask y'all before I take it to Sanderson.

If a man on Sel were from MaiPon but looked like he could feasibly be Aonic, if he were to have his memory entirely erased by some fluke or phenomenon and told that he was of Aonic descent, to the point that he believed it with all his heart and seemed to almost know it, and then moved to Elantris. Would he be able to be taken by the Shaod?

I don't know, I've been puzzling on this for a while and I guess it boils down to these questions. Can a human fundamentally shift their cognitive identity to something else and thus effect their sDNA or is this as absurd as it sounds? The floor is yours master arcanists.

[RShara]

27 minutes ago, Shallan's Ward said:

So I have this theory that I have been working on and want to ask y'all before I take it to Sanderson.

If a man on Sel were from MaiPon but looked like he could feasibly be Aonic, if he were to have his memory entirely erased by some fluke or phenomenon and told that he was of Aonic descent, to the point that he believed it with all his heart and seemed to almost know it, and then moved to Elantris. Would he be able to be taken by the Shaod?

I don't know, I've been puzzling on this for a while and I guess it boils down to these questions. Can a human fundamentally shift their cognitive identity to something else and thus effect their sDNA or is this as absurd as it sounds? The floor is yours master arcanists.

I don't think so.  His spiritweb would still know where he was from.

Spoiler

It's like in BoM with the medallions.  They change his Connection to make his spiritweb think he grew up in that region so that he can speak the language.  But it still knows his descent and so he speaks with an accent.

So just because his mind thought he was from Arelon, his spirit would still know where he's from.

Edited January 25, 2018 by RShara

[Chinsukolo]

Wouldn't it be easier to soul stamp him to Aonic? 

That should work... shouldn't it?

 

[RShara]

2 minutes ago, Chinsukolo said:

Wouldn't it be easier to soul stamp him to Aonic? 

That should work... shouldn't it?

 

Theoretically, but that rewrite seems like it would be hard, due to plausibility. How likely would it have been for his ancestors to have moved to Arelon?

 

[Chinsukolo]

Just now, RShara said:

Theoretically, but that rewrite seems like it would be hard, due to plausibility. How likely would it have been for his ancestors to have moved to Arelon?

 

I agree, merely suggesting its more possible/plausible than the OP's question with I think you already outlined would not work because of spirit web.  Soul-stamping at least alters the spirit web.

[RShara]

6 minutes ago, Chinsukolo said:

I agree, merely suggesting its more possible/plausible than the OP's question with I think you already outlined would not work because of spirit web.  Soul-stamping at least alters the spirit web.

Yeah, theoretically it would work.