Aonic Tattoos!

[JustQuestin2004]

Could you tattoo Aons that work onto someone?

Like if you could figure out which Aon is a trigger or an off/on switch for other Aons, you might be able to tattoo an Aon Daa plus a few Aon Rao together on yours or someone else's hands, and so long as the tattooing was done by an Elantrian and you were in range of Elantris, you could shoot lasers out of your hand whenever you want! And it wouldn't just have to be lasers it could be anything! Like healing, Soulcasting, Lightweaving, anything you can imagine! AonDor powers without being an Elantrian!

What do you think? 

[Treamayne]

4 hours ago, JustQuestin2004 said:

Could you tattoo Aons that work onto someone?

Like if you could figure out which Aon is a trigger or an off/on switch for other Aons, you might be able to tattoo an Aon Daa plus a few Aon Rao together on yours or someone else's hands, and so long as the tattooing was done by an Elantrian and you were in range of Elantris, you could shoot lasers out of your hand whenever you want! And it wouldn't just have to be lasers it could be anything! Like healing, Soulcasting, Lightweaving, anything you can imagine! AonDor powers without being an Elantrian!

What do you think? 

I think an Aon Tattoo could work on an Elantrian, but I doubt even an Elantrian could make them work on a normal person in the way you describe. We know an Elantrian can make Aons out of anything, but only an Elantrian can turn them on and off when they are part of a physical object. So, trying to put a tattoo on a normal person would be a normal tattoo without an Elantrian to turn the Aon on and off.

Ref:

Spoiler

Ch 7:

Spoiler

Raoden turned. There was a metal plate hanging there. Though it was tarnished with time, Raoden could still make out the shape etched into its surface—Aon Ashe, the character he had drawn just a few moments ago.

“Those plates used to glow more brightly and steadily than any lamp, sule,” Galladon explained. “The Elantrians could shut them off with a bare brush of their fingers. Elantris didn’t need oil—it had a far more reliable source of light.

Ch 19:

Quote

The ancient glyphs covered the city; they were etched into walls, painted on doors, and written on signs. Most of them were inert—simple markings, rather than runes with an arcane purpose. Others, however, obviously held energy. Throughout the city stood large metal plates carved with Aon Tia, and occasionally an Elantrian would approach and place his or her hand in the center of the character. The Elantrian’s body would flash, and then disappear in a circular burst of light, his body instantly transported to another section of the city.

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Treamayne
SPAG

[HSuperLee]

With advanced enough aons you could make this work, but it would require programming skills to do it. You'd need a whole bunch of "always on" linked aons that are detecting various things, such as hand genstures, and then have those aons act as triggers for other aons which then create the established effect. And even then, because the aons would have specific end results plugged into them, you probably couldn't do anything complex like transformation, healing, or teleportation, all of which require being configured for the specific target and circumstances. Instead you'd have to have an array of relatively simple effects, such as specifically sized bursts of fire or force. And because you'd be working with tattoos, you'd have to make sure to get it right the first time, as changing it would be fairly difficult (unless aons can be used for tattoo removal, which I suppose they probably can be.) Frankly, it would be easier just to make a suit of armor with all this stuff built into it, as with that you could at least take it on and off and do test runs of it.

Edited October 3, 2022 by HSuperLee

[Stormtide_Leviathan]

Maybe, but I could also just see Sel having a separate tattoo based magic system all of its own

[+robardin]

I assumed the OP was suggesting that an Elantrian might tattoo themselves with an intricate Aon (or set of them) that would ordinarily take time to construct. Or carrying items around with them pre-drawn, like gloves or amulets or something.

It'd be a lot like how "alchemists" in Fullmetal Alchemist, who typically require starting with drawing a "transmutation circle" to perform effects, are often seen to have complex, pre-drawn circles on their person in just that way for their "speciality attack" that they've tailored and trained with.

As for the downside of having them tattooed on your person: marring skin is actually not that hard to do, plus it advertises what you can do and have ready.

How about the idea of mass-producing durable Elantrian weapons consisting of selectable pre-drawn Aons of several types in a rotator-dial-with-window? Like, five Elantrians sidling down a corridor, with orders to "set phasers to stun" (click-click-click), LOL, ready to zap with a knock on the Dor.

[Telrao]

Considering that, in order to work, Aons must be drawn perfectly, I would guess that the aons tattooed would work for a short period of time. The problem is, human skin is not like metal. It grows, stretches, and wrinkles with time. Another problem would be that since Elantrians are special, the ink may not take - or would perhaps be marred in the process.

It's a cool idea - but perhaps having special rings (not a LOTR reference AT ALL) would allow the power to be used more easily - plus, you could add as many modifiers as you want. Just get Shai to design them, and an Elantrian to make them. Them perhaps we will have lasers!

[+asmodeus]

I'd say that you're thinking of the Selish magics as still being more distinct than they actually are. AonDor isn't different from Dakhor, isn't different from Forgery. They're all... basically subsets, that people remember from the past, or have discovered along the way. But they can all be unified into one big system.

So even if you did manage to tattoo aons into skin and make them work, you're still probably better off trying to figure out and use a symbol set that was more specialized to work as tattoos, trying to work out from the fundamentals that lead to these various magics in the first place.

[+Oltux72]

On 3.10.2022 at 8:18 AM, JustQuestin2004 said:

Could you tattoo Aons that work onto someone?

It seems to me that an Aon needs noticeable depth. Otherwise the Elantrians would have just used a brush to paint the Aons for their transport system in Elantris. Instead they poured them using moulds.

[JustQuestin2004]

Hey, so I was just trekking through the Arcanum and stumbled upon this little nugget of info:

Spoiler

Tel Aviv Signing (Oct. 18, 2019)

Questioner

If an Elantrian were to tattoo someone with an Aon with the intent of it working...

Brandon Sanderson

Could that work? Yes... you could make that work. There is some trouble with moving some Aons around, so it's gonna depend on how you're building and things, but you can make that work.

HUZZAH!!!

[The Aspiring Archivist]

On 10/27/2022 at 5:31 PM, Ookla the Floofy said:

Considering that, in order to work, Aons must be drawn perfectly, I would guess that the aons tattooed would work for a short period of time. The problem is, human skin is not like metal. It grows, stretches, and wrinkles with time. Another problem would be that since Elantrians are special, the ink may not take - or would perhaps be marred in the process.

It's a cool idea - but perhaps having special rings (not a LOTR reference AT ALL) would allow the power to be used more easily - plus, you could add as many modifiers as you want. Just get Shai to design them, and an Elantrian to make them. Them perhaps we will have lasers!

Doesn't an Aon just need to be drawn right the first time, and then if you mess with it afterwards it won't matter? The book states that Aons drawn in dust and such would work and keep working even if the actual form was disrupted.

[Treamayne]

3 hours ago, Ookla the Inverted said:

Doesn't an Aon just need to be drawn right the first time, and then if you mess with it afterwards it won't matter? The book states that Aons drawn in dust and such would work and keep working even if the actual form was disrupted.

The Aon has to be corrrect at time of activation. For example, Galadon notes in Ch 7:

Spoiler

“Why do you keep it so dark in here?”

“We are in Elantris, sule. We can’t just go to the lamplighter’s store every time we run out of oil.”

“I know, but surely there’s enough. Elantris must have had stores of oil before the Reod.”

“Ah, sule,” Galladon said with a shake of his head. “You still don’t understand, do you? This is Elantris, city of the gods. What need have gods of such mundane things as lamps and oil? Look at the wall beside you.”

Raoden turned. There was a metal plate hanging there. Though it was tarnished with time, Raoden could still make out the shape etched into its surface—Aon Ashe, the character he had drawn just a few moments ago.

“Those plates used to glow more brightly and steadily than any lamp, sule,” Galladon explained. “The Elantrians could shut them off with a bare brush of their fingers. Elantris didn’t need oil—it had a far more reliable source of light. For the same reason, you won’t find coal—or even furnaces—in Elantris, just as there is only the one well. Without AonDor, this city is barely fit to be inhabited.”

So, an Aon on a physical object does nothing until an Elantrian "triggers" it (on or off) - which implies that if the Aon were marred or changed too much, then it could not be triggered in the first place. . . 

[The Aspiring Archivist]

1 hour ago, Treamayne said:

The Aon has to be corrrect at time of activation. For example, Galadon notes in Ch 7:

  Reveal hidden contents

“Why do you keep it so dark in here?”

“We are in Elantris, sule. We can’t just go to the lamplighter’s store every time we run out of oil.”

“I know, but surely there’s enough. Elantris must have had stores of oil before the Reod.”

“Ah, sule,” Galladon said with a shake of his head. “You still don’t understand, do you? This is Elantris, city of the gods. What need have gods of such mundane things as lamps and oil? Look at the wall beside you.”

Raoden turned. There was a metal plate hanging there. Though it was tarnished with time, Raoden could still make out the shape etched into its surface—Aon Ashe, the character he had drawn just a few moments ago.

“Those plates used to glow more brightly and steadily than any lamp, sule,” Galladon explained. “The Elantrians could shut them off with a bare brush of their fingers. Elantris didn’t need oil—it had a far more reliable source of light. For the same reason, you won’t find coal—or even furnaces—in Elantris, just as there is only the one well. Without AonDor, this city is barely fit to be inhabited.”

So, an Aon on a physical object does nothing until an Elantrian "triggers" it (on or off) - which implies that if the Aon were marred or changed too much, then it could not be triggered in the first place. . . 

I was thinking more along the lines of a permanent Son, so maybe an Elantrian could use an AonRao tattoo or something

[+Oltux72]

On 15.12.2022 at 11:46 PM, Ookla the Inverted said:

I was thinking more along the lines of a permanent Son, so maybe an Elantrian could use an AonRao tattoo or something

Then why bother? If it is to be permanently on, why tatoo it? Use a pencil and just draw it on the skin. Much easier to correct errors. Or use an ordinary, mechanical stamp and press it into the skin while you want to switch it on.