Worldhopping and the Hint from Across the Pond (Spoilers!)

[Mistdork]

(This thread is mainly for the discussion of the hint and trying to use it to figure out the Elantris worldhopping puzzle...)

 

I was going to revive the Sel worldhopping topic http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/2515-sel-and-worldhopping/ , but since it was last posted in way back in January of 2013, I thought that perhaps it might not be wise... Sometimes necromatic powers don't work that well, I guess (or I need to learn the one-Breath command for Lifeless again)!

 

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So, a few days ago, Brandon revealed that apparently Raoden had misinterpreted one of the Aons.

 

 

 

Start with the big one - Brandon threw us a bone on what the big world-hopping hint in Elantis could be (since nobody's gotten it yet): Raoden has misinterpreted one of the Aons.

 

(source)

 

On page two of this topic, Argent mentions that he thinks that it's related to the Aon Tia, and that Aon Tia doesn't need distance, only a destination. This is based on an old theory of his (one I've read, but, at the moment, can't remember where the link is), and might explain why this is such an important hint and will help us to better understand worldhopping...(and yes, worldhopping might be my major. I have three topics somewhat related to it!)

 

I think that the Aon misinterpreted is either Aon Rao (kind of was the idea behind my one ill-thought out theory a few weeks back) or Aon Tia. Perhaps, even a combination of the two. I agree with Argent that it is probably Aon Tia, though, here are my reasons:

 

1. Aon Tia is one of the few Aons that Raoden really takes time to interpret/explain to the readers. This is first done in Chapter 25 (343-346) and later on when he travels to rescue Sarene. Both times, he added modifiers that specify location and the person himself. What Raoden says specific is this:

 

 

"You have to be very precise about the distance it is to send you. If you tell it to transport you exactly ten feet, it will do so-no matter what happens to be ten feet away. You could easily materialized in the middle of the wall." (345)

 

The book he was getting this information (on the AonDor) only really gave him hints on what to do and how Aons (like Tia) worked. Now, if it is Tia, it might be just destination that is needed (as Argent suggests), but it might also be modification based.

 

If it's modification based...we have to consider what modifiers Raoden thinks he needs. He thinks he needs one that specified that it only should work on him (which seems right) and distance specification. But, Aon Tia means travel, what would happen if one just drew Aon Tia without a specific destination (where would you go, it seems unlikely to be nowhere), or, if one added different modifiers that programmed Tia to bring one into the Cognitive Realm/Across the Cosmere a certain distance. Really, if one wanted to have fun with Tia, you could even use the distance modifiers to travel LIGHT YEARS, if you could just figure out the correct distance and some other things of the sort!

 

If it is Aon Tia, the modifiers could be another Aon...such as Aon Rao or the Aon related to cognitive things, Aon Mea. However, what ever the specific modifiers would have to be for this to work is still unknown at best, if this is even the one Brandon was talking about...

 

2. It could also be Aon Rao. However, despite it's prevalence in the book (since Elantris and the surrounding landscape is AonDor), I feel that it's still unlikely. If you can think about it, Raoden doesn't understand it well or how it works though, so there is that, I guess...

 

3. It could also be the two Aons that are on the device they used to enter the area where the Pool is. However, it's Galladon who sees these Aons (Aon Rao, perhaps, and Aon Tae [352]). The later, Aon Tae, is the one they push to open the "secret" passage. Anyway, while this could be it and Raoden could've misinterpreted what Aon Tae really meant in this instance and what effect it could have on the pool (or even as a modifier of Aon Rao), I don't think this is the secret, and the only reason I even brought it up was because it was related to the Pool...

 

Anyway, those are just some suggestions about what this WoB could mean... Since this was only a clue (and really, one that isn't that obvious...I think), but now, we can prove how good we are at figuring stuff out! I trust that now we can figure this out...perhaps in less than a month!

Edited August 7, 2014 by Nymp

[king of nowhere]

i don't think worldhopping is based on aons, as there is no similar power with other magical systems - allomancy, awakening, forging - and yet we have users of all those systems able to become worldhoppers. So I don't think it requires specific powers. I think more likely it requires raw investiture that has to be manipulated in some other way

[Argent]

A couple of thoughts:

• Aon Tia is weird. In fact, Aons are weird. Every magic system we have seen relies at least partially on the Spiritual Ideals (~ Platonic shapes) and cognitive concepts*. When Surgebinders and Feruchemists / gFerrings heal, they restore their bodies to how they think of themselves, to their cognitive identity, if you will. When Returned come back, they assume a shape that's similar to the local idea of perfection. What I am getting at is that both of those are very flexible forms of healing - so why is Aonic healing so awfully specific? You make one small mistake and everything goes to hell. With Aon Tia, you get your numbers off by just an inch and you end up with half of your foot encased in solid rock. Why is the Dor so intolerant, why doesn't it implement the same cognitive correction mechanisms as the other magic systems? I was going to guess it is because the Selish Shards were Splintered, but Raoden's knowledge about the Aon Dor comes from the past, possibly from the time when Aona was still kicking it around - and the Dor was still unforgiving back then. So it's got to be something else (possibly even the fact that Elantris was Brandon's first published book).
  Also, this... weirdness might be unique to Aon Dor. Forging is also a pretty precise form of magic, but it does allow for some errors - getting a few details wrong makes the soulstamps less likely to hold, it doesn't burn your face off or anything.
• Aon Rao could be less of "soul" and more of "Spiritual aspect" or maybe even "Realmatic Identity," though that last one might be too much of a stretch. Or it could be something about transfer of energies / Investiture.

 

The Cognitive Concepts is an awesome band name!

[Mistdork]

i don't think worldhopping is based on aons, as there is no similar power with other magical systems - allomancy, awakening, forging - and yet we have users of all those systems able to become worldhoppers. So I don't think it requires specific powers. I think more likely it requires raw investiture that has to be manipulated in some other way

 

I never claim that this was the case though, only that the clue was related to an Aon Raoden has misinterpreted (thus why this topic contains a lot of stuff about Aons, since that's where we're starting from). However, I'm no longer sure if this clue will tell us how it works cosmere-wide or if its more related to how Aons (or the Dor) on Elantris allow worldhopping. While we can expect it to have some similarity to these methods, these methods might seem quite different until more books are release.

 

 

A couple of thoughts:

• Aon Tia is weird. In fact, Aons are weird. Every magic system we have seen relies at least partially on the Spiritual Ideals (~ Platonic shapes) and cognitive concepts*. When Surgebinders and Feruchemists / gFerrings heal, they restore their bodies to how they think of themselves, to their cognitive identity, if you will. When Returned come back, they assume a shape that's similar to the local idea of perfection. What I am getting at is that both of those are very flexible forms of healing - so why is Aonic healing so awfully specific? You make one small mistake and everything goes to hell. With Aon Tia, you get your numbers off by just an inch and you end up with half of your foot encased in solid rock. Why is the Dor so intolerant, why doesn't it implement the same cognitive correction mechanisms as the other magic systems? I was going to guess it is because the Selish Shards were Splintered, but Raoden's knowledge about the Aon Dor comes from the past, possibly from the time when Aona was still kicking it around - and the Dor was still unforgiving back then. So it's got to be something else (possibly even the fact that Elantris was Brandon's first published book).

 

It's what happens when computer sciences are applied to magic...if my brother made a magic system, it would be AonDor! ;D

 

Yes, it is weird, but it's so crazy as it sounds... In a way, what a Elantrian does when they draw an Aon is that they're creating a symbol based on their thoughts (this is what I want it to do) in the physical realm... They're also creating a really specific idea (heal this body part; travel this far; bring in AonDor from the Spiritual Realm), and, perhaps the more specific the ideas, the more specific the Aons have to be. In a way, Awakening works similarly, the better the Awakener is at imaging/visualizing his command, the better the command will be performed by the Awakened object...as long as the Command is pretty precise and doesn't lend itself to a meaning that is too complex (for the most part...)

 

However, Aon Ien can also be drawn as a simple Aon without specific modifiers. Raoden did this once (at the party where the old man dies...because of his ineptitude)... However, the Aon was able to heal some, it was just not able to heal well. Meaning that Aon Ien can be used for unspecified healing. How powerful this healing might be hasn't been revealed post-Reod, but it should be quite a bit more powerful than it was. This does mean that even non-modified Aons should result in something happening, though...so, what I think might happen is that it might create a junction because it was not modified or it could be modified to create said junction. (Though, creating/having a bond with an Seon might be important too...)

 

(Also, now that I think about it, it was Raoden that said that the Aon Tae on the stone device they found to enter the place where the pool is located. It could've met "opening" or possibly signalfied a "junction" between the realms...which is a type of opening, I guess! But this seems much to simplestic... D: That is, the Pool is a place where the Cognitive and Physical Realms are close together because the Pool has a stronge presence in both Realms. Meaning, it is an opening just not of the sort that Raoden thought. Now, that's a way that would help explain aspects of worldhopping in every world, though, we've kind of figured that out already...) xD

Edited August 7, 2014 by Nymp

[Argent]

Hmm, fair enough. Aon Dor is maybe not as restrictive as I thought.

[killersquirrel59]

It's also not guaranteed that there is a single method to worldhop. It seems far more likely that each magic system has its own way to accomplish the same feat. Using modifiers on Aon Tia (possibly combined with Aon Rao as a power amplifier and/or doorway to the Spiritual or Cognitive realm) makes the most sense for AonDor. Other magic systems will almost certainly have very different methods and they will need to be far more roundabout since other than Elsecalling, no other magic system we've seen yet has any true teleportation or even really travel power.