Elantris and country boundaries

[Sky Breaker]

Ok so let’s say in this hypothetical scenario elantrians conquer duladel for arelon. Does that mean that now duladel is somehow incorporated into aons? To take this one step further what would happen if an elantrian pull a ‘merica and put an arelon flag on the moon? If so how how far could you take this.

[Njvodin]

The way I think that Brandon is trying to portray it is of the land of Arelon itself. There may be some flexibility here, as like you suggest, if Duladel is conquered, and people begin to think of Duladel as just another district of Arelon (albeit a country sized one), then adjustments may have to be made to Aon Aon, just like with the Chasm Line.

However, it could also be strict, like what the borders of the country look like. So, if Duladel is kept separate (I don't know what the map of Sel looks like right now, so Duladel could be on the opposite side of the continent for all I know), then the boundaries of what people believe to be Arelon constitutes what the magic itself relies on as a base standard, in terms of Connection to land. In that case, I'm not sure how territories would work with Aon Aon. Maybe they're like way off to the side of Aon Aon 

Pretty interesting thoughts though

[Treamayne]

5 hours ago, Sky Breaker said:

Ok so let’s say in this hypothetical scenario elantrians conquer duladel for arelon. Does that mean that now duladel is somehow incorporated into aons? To take this one step further what would happen if an elantrian pull a ‘merica and put an arelon flag on the moon? If so how how far could you take this.

Possible - in a few centuries (maybe). In the short term, we already have eveidence that this kind of change would not happen quickly, as the Fjordell Empire has "conquered" both JinDo and Hrovell - both of which are shown to still have their lands' own Manifestation of Investiture (ChayShan and <unnamed Potion art>) - rather than adopting Dakhor (the Manifestation tied to the Fjordell land).

Spoiler

Francis Ocoma

In Elantris, are Forton's "potions" magical, or is he using natural substances?

Brandon Sanderson

They are invested. (Magical.)

General Twitter 2016 (Jan. 17, 2016)

I would guess that it would have to be long enough for the national identity to be tied to the new "leaders" and for the peoples to abandon their previous native language to become tied to the Identity of the conquering land/people/culture.