To Protect an Elantrian

[Qianweilian He/him]

Borrowing on a trend, I'd like for y'all to protect an Elantrian (yourself if you want). AonDor is theoretically one of the strongest magics, so let's see it.

The Elantrian, if not you, will listen to anything you say.

The Elantrian has made enemies across the Cosmere, so everyone (except for the residents of Arelon, who are neutral at start) wants to kill the Elantrian.

What can you do to protect the Elantrian (or yourself)? If you can figure out how to use AonDor offplanet, you can leave Sel.

[Frustration]

That one's easy.

First I'm going to set up a saferoom hidden somewhere in an uninhabited region of Arelon. I'll make some sort of Aonic beacon there that I will use later. This saferoom will also have protections against anyone entering, and will automatically alert me if it is breached. It will have multiple Aon Tia tablets set up so I can travel to any number of important locations at will, including other safe rooms off world with aonic adapters already established so my powers will work there.

 

Next I will have all of my clothing custom made and embroidered with aons. All of these aons can be activated manually but will also have passive functions. Passively my clothes will scan for nearby threats and if I am attacked it will automatically activate Aon Edo to protect me. Additionally if I am ever rendered unconscious or if the barrier is broken it will automatically teleport me to my saferoom.

I'll have a setting where my clothes will automatically give me a lightweaving if I turn it on, and I'll carry a large shield with a massive Aon Daa configuration that I've modified to deal maximum damage.

 

I'll wear glasses with Aon Nae, and some other modifications. They'll let me automatically track movement, see in the dark, detect investiture, and can highlight individuals hiding like the Azish fabrials could.

Then I'll keep an Aon Sheo around, just in case I need a nuclear option.

I'm pretty confident in my ability to survive anything short of Heralds.

[Qianweilian He/him]

13 minutes ago, Frustration said:

I'll have a setting where my clothes will automatically give me a lightweaving if I turn it on, and I'll carry a large shield with a massive Aon Daa configuration that I've modified to deal maximum damage.

What if you have seekers/secretspren come after you?

15 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Then I'll keep an Aon Sheo around, just in case I need a nuclear option.

I'm pretty confident in my ability to survive anything short of Heralds.

What if an elsecaller soulcasts a ton of aluminum on/around you? Can't teleport out of that, can't destroy it with Aons, and will eventually suffocate.

[Frustration]

8 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

What if you have seekers/secretspren come after you?

Then they will die.

9 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

What if an elsecaller soulcasts a ton of aluminum on/around you? Can't teleport out of that, can't destroy it with Aons, and will eventually suffocate.

I can destroy it with aons actually, just not directly. I'm counting on my aonic wards to create enough of a bubble around me kind of the same way aluminum interferes.

Spoiler

Questioner

Is aluminum shielding from emotional Allomancy strictly line of sight? So, can someone in the basement bypass somebody’s aluminum hat on the first floor

Brandon Sanderson

No, they could not. You just put enough aluminum there and it disrupts.

Questioner

So it disrupts like a field.

Brandon Sanderson

Yep.

Shadows of Self San Francisco signing (Oct. 9, 2015)

I'll then create an shield to protect me from the heat, as well as something to stand on so the molten aluminum has somewhere to go other than into my feet and use aon Ehe to melt my way out.

[Qianweilian He/him]

Just now, Frustration said:

Then they will die.

Fair enough.

1 minute ago, Frustration said:

I'm counting on my aonic wards to create enough of a bubble around me kind of the same way aluminum interferes.

I see.

So if you have a field surrounding you, what if someone uses the intensifier from Emberdark? It managed to destroy a unbreakable lock. It might just punch through all your protections. If the Aon fails, then they can carry out the aluminum plan, else they can probably just kill you with it. The intensifier, if they know where to aim, may allow them to compromise your saferooms without your knowledge if they can take out Aons before they alert you. 

If the intensifier doesn't work, dor is freely available in the CR. They could make anti-dor and dispense it. They could also use a suppression fabrial tuned to Devotion. Aluminum blackbane rounds should be effective as well—in fact, they may interfere with transportation. And, although this is the worst case example, a Bondsmith or a Hemalurgist could probably just take your connection to Devotion, cutting you off.

[Through The Living Grub He/Him]

47 minutes ago, Frustration said:

First I'm going to set up a saferoom hidden somewhere in an uninhabited region of Arelon. I'll make some sort of Aonic beacon there that I will use later. This saferoom will also have protections against anyone entering, and will automatically alert me if it is breached. It will have multiple Aon Tia tablets set up so I can travel to any number of important locations at will, including other safe rooms off world with aonic adapters already established so my powers will work there.

Can Aons teleport you to specific locations? I thought they send you a specific distance in a specific direction regardless of whether it kills you. You might end up in space or inside the planet.

 

5 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

And, although this is the worst case example, a Bondsmith or a Hemalurgist could probably just take your connection to Devotion, cutting you off.

Without super speed, they could be killed by prepared aons or son infused weapons. Even with superspeed, an aon chain could detect and panic-warp you or cause an aoe blast while healing the Elantrian.

[Frustration]

27 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

Fair enough.

I see.

So if you have a field surrounding you, what if someone uses the intensifier from Emberdark? It managed to destroy a unbreakable lock. It might just punch through all your protections. If the Aon fails, then they can carry out the aluminum plan, else they can probably just kill you with it. The intensifier, if they know where to aim, may allow them to compromise your saferooms without your knowledge if they can take out Aons before they alert you. 

If the intensifier doesn't work, dor is freely available in the CR. They could make anti-dor and dispense it. They could also use a suppression fabrial tuned to Devotion. Aluminum blackbane rounds should be effective as well—in fact, they may interfere with transportation. And, although this is the worst case example, a Bondsmith or a Hemalurgist could probably just take your connection to Devotion, cutting you off.

In my first post I said that of my shields break they are autoprogrammed to instsntly teleport me back to my saferoom.

21 minutes ago, Through The Living Grub said:

Can Aons teleport you to specific locations? I thought they send you a specific distance in a specific direction regardless of whether it kills you. You might end up in space or inside the planet.

That one is unclear. I would assume that they could as you apply modifiers to them along with direction and othet things.

[Qianweilian He/him]

2 hours ago, Frustration said:

In my first post I said that of my shields break they are autoprogrammed to instsntly teleport me back to my saferoom.

We don't really know how aons and shields would handle under that sort of pressure. When the manacles were targeted, they stopped much of their inhibitions on Starling—their primary function. I find it equally likely that, given enough power, your Aon Tias could fail. Especially given the fact that the intensifier can output anti investiture. Plus there's the previous points of the possibility of not being able to teleport to a specific place and the potential for these saferooms to be breached.

In addition, highly skilled Seekers can determine the following: 

• Non allomantic pulses (Edit: including AonDor)
• What emotions rioters/seekers are influencing
• When an allomancer is flaring
• If an allomancer is low on metals
• Feruchemical stuff

Given all of these, it stands to reason that a Seeker could glean some information from the usage of Aon Tia. This, combined with fortune or something, presents the possibility of Seekers being able to find the location of your safehouse if they are present during your teleporting away. (e.g. WoT Traveling)

3 hours ago, Through The Living Grub said:

Without super speed, they could be killed by prepared aons or son infused weapons. Even with superspeed, an aon chain could detect and panic-warp you or cause an aoe blast while healing the Elantrian.

Yeah, I know. That's why I said it wasn't a great example as it is mitigable.

Edited April 3 by Qianweilian

[Frustration]

3 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

We don't really know how aons and shields would handle under that sort of pressure. When the manacles were targeted, they stopped much of their inhibitions on Starling—their primary function. I find it equally likely that, given enough power, your Aon Tias could fail. Especially given the fact that the intensifier can output anti investiture.

The Aon Tia trigger IS the shield not working. If the intensifier messed with the shield that's the cue. Also the Intensifier required Starlight to be seated and stationary and the energy of an entire gunship.

3 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

Plus there's the previous points of the possibility of not being able to teleport to a specific place and the potential for these saferooms to be breached.

I said in the initial post that if the saferoom was breached it would alert me. And I don't see why a location could not be specified, Aonic is a functional language with the ability to write down any idea.

3 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

In addition, highly skilled Seekers can determine the following: 

• Non allomantic pulses (Edit: including AonDor)
• What emotions rioters/seekers are influencing
• When an allomancer is flaring
• If an allomancer is low on metals
• Feruchemical stuff

Given all of these, it stands to reason that a Seeker could glean some information from the usage of Aon Tia. This, combined with fortune or something, presents the possibility of Seekers being able to find the location of your safehouse if they are present during your teleporting away. (e.g. WoT Traveling)

They can't even detect metals that you aren't burning, I highly doubt they would be able to sense Aon Tia just from my presence, and even if they could I have dozens of Aons running at all times. Picking one Aon out and then tracing it back to my warp location without another Elantrian to train on is in my mind beyond anything Bronze has proven capable of. They might be able to get a direction, but I doubt anything more than that.

Edited April 3 by Frustration

[Qianweilian He/him]

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

The Aon Tia trigger IS the shield not working. If the intensifier messed with the shield that's the cue. Also the Intensifier required Starlight to be seated and stationary and the energy of an entire gunship.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. What about aluminum bullets? Because aluminum is generally ignored, I suspect they would just pass through and hit you. Also, you wouldn't be able to heal the wound with aluminum in it. Your shield wouldn't be penetrated, so you wouldn't teleport away.

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

I said in the initial post that if the saferoom was breached it would alert me. And I don't see why a location could not be specified, Aonic is a functional language with the ability to write down any idea.

If they, before entering the saferoom, surrounded it with aluminum, I doubt you would be notified. The signal would blocked. You probably could specify a location, but the fact remains that Raoden either couldn't or didn't.

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

They can't even detect metals that you aren't burning

That's because they only detect kinetic investiture. They probably couldn't detect just an inactive aon either.

7 hours ago, Frustration said:

I highly doubt they would be able to sense Aon Tia just from my presence, and even if they could I have dozens of Aons running at all times.

Well, I'm assuming that they would detect it when you flee, not before. If you have dozens of aons running at all times and a new one suddenly acts, then our seeker can determine which one is Aon Tia.

8 hours ago, Frustration said:

Picking one Aon out and then tracing it back to my warp location without another Elantrian to train on is in my mind beyond anything Bronze has proven capable of.

Fair enough, I forgot the residents of Arelon started neutral. However, they could be paid, they start neutral, but not necessarily end so. Regardless, there are numerous other Elantrians including the Ire, the Sorceress, and others in Teod and Duladel. With an Elantrian to train on, I think a savant could do it.

8 hours ago, Frustration said:

They might be able to get a direction, but I doubt anything more than that.

A direction is still immensely valuable. Plus, I suspect it would determine on how your Aon is drawn. If it teleports you to a specific location, I doubt you would get a direction at all, but instead coordinates (or however you specify a certain location).

[Frustration]

5 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

Oh, okay. Gotcha. What about aluminum bullets? Because aluminum is generally ignored, I suspect they would just pass through and hit you. Also, you wouldn't be able to heal the wound with aluminum in it. Your shield wouldn't be penetrated, so you wouldn't teleport away.

That's an interesting one. I'll add a modifier to teleport me if my skin is broken, and add some more basic physical type protections to my clothes as well.

5 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

If they, before entering the saferoom, surrounded it with aluminum, I doubt you would be notified. The signal would blocked. 

Potentially but then they need to carry an entire gunship full of aluminum to surround the thing. And I highly doubt that Aerulon would allow what is effectively an invasion force inside their borders.

5 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

You probably could specify a location, but the fact remains that Raoden either couldn't or didn't.

He also didn't turn people into rats. Just because he didn't after only a maximum of two-three months of study on his first attempt to use Aon Tia doesn't mean it's impossible.

6 hours ago, Qianweilian said:

A direction is still immensely valuable. Plus, I suspect it would determine on how your Aon is drawn. If it teleports you to a specific location, I doubt you would get a direction at all, but instead coordinates (or however you specify a certain location).

I highly doubt bronze could get you that information. It doesn't even tell you which metal is being burned, it just lets you sense waves and you have to learn to determine which is which, Marsh said it took him six months of practice to do it. They might be able to determine Aon Tia was used, but I would be beyond astounded if they could determine the end location.

[Qianweilian He/him]

56 minutes ago, Frustration said:

Potentially but then they need to carry an entire gunship full of aluminum to surround the thing. And I highly doubt that Aerulon would allow what is effectively an invasion force inside their borders.

You could do that with a single soulcaster.

[Frustration]

3 minutes ago, Qianweilian said:

You could do that with a single soulcaster.

A single radiant is an invasion force, those guys are crazy

Edited April 3 by Frustration

[Qianweilian He/him]

On 4/3/2026 at 2:10 PM, Frustration said:

A single radiant is an invasion force, those guys are crazy

I mean yes, but Radiants are generally pretty easy to hide, especially considering that half the soulcasters are Lightweavers.

Edited April 4 by Qianweilian
Autocorrect