Point of Clarification

[Aeshdan he/him]

Alright, here is something kind of important. A lot of people seem to think that the Aons grow weaker the farther you get from Elantris, indefinitely. What i thought was that there was a minimum level of power that the Aons released on their own, and that this was how much power the Reod Aons (Aons drawn between Raoden's discovery of the Chasm Line and the fixing of Elantris) or the Aons Raoden drew in Teod had. Within a certain range of Elantris, the Aons gain extra power.

So, in other words, you can use the Aons anywhere.

[Argent he/him]

May wanna toss a spoiler tag somewhere in there, just in case.

This being out of the way, let's go on topic now. While I agree with you on the logical level, there is something about this that bothers me. The faulty Aons Raoden was practicing with were very weak. Aon Ashe, which produces light, provided about as much light as a candle would, if I recall correctly. More complex Aons, like the one required for traveling, wouldn't work at all. Knowing that Elantris was an artificial construct used to magnify the power of all Aons in the vicinity, it seems like the whole magic system would be pretty weak on its own. When you compare it to the other Shardworlds' magic systems, it seems pretty useless. So there must be some gimmick.

[Aeshdan he/him]

One point is that the Aons are both incredibly versatile and are the only magic with no direct cost. (Allomancy uses up metal, BioChroma is limited by the available Breath, etc.) I think the weakness of the unenhanced Aons is a counterbalance for these two factors.

[Argent he/him]

There is tangible cost, but drawing more complex Aons takes time - and requires not only the freedom of your hands/fingers/arms, but skill as well. I've found it more adequate to speak about ramification when discussing Brandon's magic systems, instead of price.

[Aeshdan he/him]

There is tangible cost, but drawing more complex Aons takes time - and requires not only the freedom of your hands/fingers/arms, but skill as well. I've found it more adequate to speak about ramification when discussing Brandon's magic systems, instead of price.

Maybe cost is the wrong word, but the idea is that all the magics except AonDor use up some resource which limits how much you can use them. Allomancy is limited by how much metal you have, Feruchemy is limited by how much of yourself you can give up, Hemalurgy is limited by the supply of suitable victims, Awakening is limited by the available Breaths, Sugebinding is limited by the supply of Light.

[Kelek he/him]

Aons are limited by time/skill/modifiers and the risk of the unknown/mistake. Distance from the city Elantris is also a factor during book time, but presumably dealt with by the Aon tatoo later.

[Turos]

Here's a thought:

Aona and Skai are dead, and their Shards shattered. This would explain a weakness in the magic, and perhaps why the amplifying Aon Rao of Elantris was created in the first place.

[KChan she/her]

Plausible. Very plausible.

We do know that the Reod was unrelated to the Splintering of the two Shards, after all.

[Observer]

I like that idea. Honestly we have no idea what effect a splintered shard has on a magic system. Maybe surgebinding could be done by anybody, and now with Honor dead you need a splinter of him (spren) to power it. Likewise, without Devotion/Dominion, the magic systems on Sel have grown extremely weak, which lead those ever-so-clever Elantrians to build their giant Aon-City. Which begs the questions:

1: Would ANYTHING in Aon shape provide power?

If not, how'd the city work. If so, why not just cover your body with Aon tatoos?

2: Why not use the crazy amount of power the Elantrians have and cover the world with giant Aons, removing the current power problem

3: What would the powers of Devotion's reforgery and Elantris combined do to the power of AonDor? Double it? 'Tis a scary thought indeed...

Edited August 25, 2012 by Observer

[Voidus]

Would ANYTHING in Aon shape provide power?

As long as it was made by an Elantrian then yes

2: Why not use the crazy amount of power the Elantrians have and cover the world with giant Aons, removing the current power problem

I presume because they were content to stay in Elantris, they held themselves quite aloft from society after all.

[Observer]

After his problems in Teod, you'd think Roaden would get over the loftiness and just bibitty bobetty boo the problem into nonexistence.

Oh well, can't have everything, BS will probably nullify this idea in book 2.

[Voidus]

Yeah, someone's asked that question about tattoos before and got a RAFO on it so my guess is that that's what'll end up happening (Saves disfiguring all the other kingdoms )

[Observer]

I have this sneaking suspicion that Brandon would never allow that. As his annotations state, AonDor isn't terribly exciting once it's up and running, considering how amazingly powerful and easy it is to use for somebody like Raoden. To endure a whole book with an all-powerful magic system would be tough without one of Brandon's typical mixups. If anything the tatoo doesn't work, the Aons fail to create a new city in time for some new threat, somebody threatens to kill somebody if they make a new city, or the Dahkor sacrifice OVAR NINE THOUSAND!!! people to create an invincible army, forcing the Elantrians to just rely on their fists to solve problems.

Did I miss anything?

[Voidus]

Well the secon book isn't going to focus on Raoden and I assume any others won't either, if we get another Elantrian protagonist then they'll probably be no where near as epic

But I think that the Dhakor and ChayShan magic systems are more likely to be explored, well hopefully anyway XD

[Thought]

Misdrawn aons have bad effects. What would happen if someone tried to recreate Elantris somewhere else, to expand the effect, but got it just a little wrong? Fear might be what is keeping things from expanding.

[Cracknut he/him]

And how would tattoos work?

[Windrunner he/him]

Well the secon book isn't going to focus on Raoden and I assume any others won't either, if we get another Elantrian protagonist then they'll probably be no where near as epic

But I think that the Dhakor and ChayShan magic systems are more likely to be explored, well hopefully anyway XD

We know a little bit about Elantris 2.

Anyway, Adien is my planned hero for book two. I like the concept of a healed autistic being the hero of the next book. And, since he's so good with numbers, he would be incredibly powerful at AonDor. I think he'd be a compelling character to look at, so I left him in this book in case I wanted to use him in the next one.

Source

As a side note, I'm planning this Seon [Hrathen's old Seon] here to make an appearance in the sequel (if I write one.) She would be Adien's own Seon, as he would probably be the hero of the sequel. (Along with his brother and sister.) For those of you who think I didn't deal enough with the Seons in this book—the sequel would have strong focus on them. In fact, I'm tempted to make this Seon a viewpoint character. However, that would bump me up to four characters, which wouldn't let me use the chapter triad system.

Source

9) Speaking of sequels, here's what I'M planning. A book that takes place ten years after the events of ELANTRIS. It would occur in the capitol city of Fjorden, and would star Kiin's children as viewpoint characters along with a Seon viewpoint character. The plot of the book: Wyrn has declared that Jaddeth, the Derethi God, is going to finally return. (A new interpretation of the scriptures says that he'll return when everyone east of the mountains converts, so they don't have to worry about Teod and Arelon.) Kiin's family, ambassadors to the Fjordell state, has to deal with the chaos of this announcement, and investigate the truth behind the Dakhor magic. Thoughts?

Source

[Riddlesinthedark he/him]

And how would tattoos work?

Chakras!?

[Voidus]

Anyway, Adien is my planned hero for book two. I like the concept of a healed autistic being the hero of the next book. And, since he's so good with numbers, he would be incredibly powerful at AonDor. I think he'd be a compelling character to look at, so I left him in this book in case I wanted to use him in the next one.

Darn I missed that one, ok so looks like I was wron gon the no where near as epic part

that being said he will probably be outnumbered like 50 to 1 by Dhakor so he might still be able to get a tattoo and be a full-powered Elantrian

[Observer]

No fear for getting the city wrong, Aiden is so absurdly good with numbers, and Raoden isn't bad either. I'm sure they could pull it off. If all else failed the tatoo thing works.

I wonder if Jaddeth is Dominion? Seems obvious to me. Maybe even too obvious...

And how on Sel is having everybody be a worshipper of Jaddeth going to unsplinter a shard? I can see that going to interesting places...

[Straff Venture he/him]

Yeah there has got to be some sort of twist with Jaddeth, its pretty obvious from Derethi religious doctrine and its strict system that he is dominion. But dominion was killed by Odium. I think it would be epic to see a God rise from its own ashes.

[Observer]

I still don't see how united worship will help, and how it will be anything good for the cosmere should it happen.

Then again, if the shard remembers its history, the new holder might just turn the war on Odium into a 2 on 1.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Observer

[Straff Venture he/him]

I still don't see hoq united worship will help, and how it will be anything good for the cosmere should it happen.

Then again, if the shard remembers its history, the new holder might just turn the war on Odium into a 2 on 1.

I doubt if Dominion rises it would be for the benefit of the cosmere, as out of the 16 dominion is one of three 'bad' shards we know about already, albeit not as blatantly evil as Ruin or Odium. And each of the shards has different traits that affect its state. Who knows? Maybe when Dominion achieves full 'dominion' from his followers on Sel, he might rise again.

[Observer]

You may have a point there.

Sazed and Vin instantly knew their shard's history, so I'm wondering if Dominion would remember enough to go after Odium.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Observer

[Turos]

If this is possible, would that mean Wyrn would become the new Shardholder?