One Question I Never Understood the Answer To (Spoilers)

[Windrunner he/him]

That's the point. Most Aons don't do anything when drawn wrong. But for some reason, they occasionally do have a terrible effect on someone, the half transformation done by the Reod. We don't know why this only happens sometimes.

[Turos]

For all we know, there could have been hundreds of modifiers written into the stone walls of the Elantris-sized Aon Rao. These modifiers were probably partly used to target Elantrians. For Dilaf's wife, a healing Aon was used, and as Raoden learned, there are a lot of modifiers to target specifics for that kind of Aon. Let alone the fact that Aons were generally targeted to their intended recipients even before discrete muscles were named.

If no one is the target of the messed up Aon, its not going to mess them up as a result. Merely drawing a basic healing Aon shouldn't really have an effect. Its unguided and thus a spell that is summoned but not instructed.

I may be way off course here with how Aons work, but this makes sense to me. Any Aon could be written in dust, the dust wiped away, and the Aon remaining intact, though invisible, like a mark between the physical and cognitive realm. One could then proceed to build a wall in place of it.

[Windrunner he/him]

I think we see modifiers differently. The Rao is built out of the walls, path, and central palace of the city. I don't think modifiers would be carved into the wall. That doesn't really jive with how modifiers have been explained in the books, at least the way that I interpreted it. The city itself is the Aon, it wasn't built over it. As long as it is made by an Elantrian, any material can be formed into a functioning Aon. I'm not really sure about the whole targeted versus non-targeted Aon thing. One thing I did notice is that both of the semi-functioning Aons we've seen were missing one of the basic lines of Aon Aon. The Elantrian healing Dilaf's wife forgot one, and Elantris was missing the Chasm line. I wonder if that's a coincidence or not?

[Zas678 he/him]

I think it's the basic line thing that is the problem. When the cursed Shaod started to change people, the Aon would start the reaction, would start the connection with the Dor- but it wouldn't finish it. It couldn't. It was missing a line.

Usually, when you make a mistake, it won't let you open that connection to the Dor, and so the Aon- and the connection- just collapses. But when it is just peculiar enough to start the reaction, to start the change (whether with healing or the Shaod) but not finish it, that's when we get the cursed Elantrians. The connection is still there, still keeping the Elantrians alive, but it never finishes. It keeps them, like is mentioned, in a frozen state.

[dyring]

I´m going just a littel bit oot here. Earlier in the thread was mentioned the range of the huge amplifier Aon, and what would happened outside.

I don´t think it changed Elantrians themselves. If there was no amplifier at all, I think the strength of the Aeons would be as after Raoden found the chasm line (meaning, when he could use illusions and such). This is likely the "base strenght" of the Aeons. The strength they originally had.

Then, either Aona herself(possible but somewhat unlikely), or some of the first Elantrians built the city. They understood how the Aons worked, and strengthened it. Then what happened, if there was just to few Elantrians to be a viable population, or if they dided on the same time as Aona was killed by Odium, who knows, but then the city was there for when the "second" wave of elantrians moved there and began to feel the Shaod.

Personally, I don´´t think its closeness to the city. I wonder if it isnt closeness to the pool wich causes it, in combination with a genetic component (to explain why no fjordell ever encounters the shaod).

Perhaps, living there enough generation, even fjordells would begin to change.

Guesswork all. But how I see it.

[Vortaan he/him]

The interesting thing about Dilaf's wife is that there is a possible second magic at work on her. Dilaf's Skaze has shown to be able to corrupt Aons. Could his nearness to her have been what caused the whole chain of events?

[frozndevl]

When you say Skaze, are you actually referring to his glyped up bones? I thought the Skaze were "evil" Seons. Regardless, you may be onto something, but since it's been so long since I've read the book, I can't remember if there is any reference into how far into being a full onw dahkor monk he was. Also, I thought his ability to disrupt the Aons was deliberate, not just being in their presence.

[ROSHtafARian]

Maybe there's a Sliver holding the remnant of Aona's shard, and he/she is picking the right people to help Elantris.

Those that need the city, and the city needs them. Who else besides Raoden would've been able to inspire the people like he did?

</ crazy theory>

Huh. I never thought about that before. What if the Elantrians are Splinters? The Seons do seem to  fit better, but the Elantrians seem eerily similar to the Returned. Magical powers, immortal, looked to as god, awesome looks, etc.

Hmm, well technically the Returned aren't Splinters, the Divine Breaths that fuel them are the Splinters, right? So what if the Seons are Splinters like we assumed...and the Seons play some role in determining who the Shaod takes?

[Vortaan he/him]

When you say Skaze, are you actually referring to his glyped up bones? I thought the Skaze were "evil" Seons. Regardless, you may be onto something, but since it's been so long since I've read the book, I can't remember if there is any reference into how far into being a full onw dahkor monk he was. Also, I thought his ability to disrupt the Aons was deliberate, not just being in their presence.

Dakhor monks could be a bit like a coppercloud. In fact, it's almost got to be a passive ability to be useful, otherwise you depend on the reaction time of the monk in question.

[name_here]

Dilaf was fully enhanced at that point in time, I think, although the Aon-disruptor might have been added later. I think it passively protects the user and actively disrupts Aons at a distance. He certainly actively targeted Raoden's illusions at an opportune time, and he also withstood a massive barrage. If it's a triggered wide-area effect, it is possible he activated it as soon as he saw the Elantrians preparing their strike.

[cleric]

I always assumed there was no Reod pre Elantris. If the city is a drawn spell to transform someone into an elantran then before it was built there would have been no transformation.

[Voidus]

I always assumed there was no Reod pre Elantris. If the city is a drawn spell to transform someone into an elantran then before it was built there would have been no transformation.

But then you need someone to draw the Aon and the only people who could draw it are Elantrians, so unless someone invents a time-travel Aon then there needs to be some form of pre-Elantris Elantrians.

[Millennium]

Perhaps the Shaod existed pre-Elantris, but all it did was bestow a strong enough connection to Devotion to use AonDor. It might not have even been recognized as its own "thing" at the time, with people believing that some people just manifested talent in the use of the Dor while others did not.

A similar phenomenon might even continue to exist outside Arelon and Teod: the ability to use the Dor in other ways might be controlled and bestowed by Shaod-like things that just haven't had an Elantris-like amplifier built for them yet.

[cleric]

Perhaps the Shaod existed pre-Elantris, but all it did was bestow a strong enough connection to Devotion to use AonDor. It might not have even been recognized as its own "thing" at the time, with people believing that some people just manifested talent in the use of the Dor while others did not.

A similar phenomenon might even continue to exist outside Arelon and Teod: the ability to use the Dor in other ways might be controlled and bestowed by Shaod-like things that just haven't had an Elantris-like amplifier built for them yet.

Thats what I was thinking yeah. after all there is other magic on Sel. Elantris is the only group of magic users that transform. It could be that the transformation was something they made to make their Aeons more powerful. They made the city as an amplifier to the existing magic that they had and to create the Shaod.

[Voidus]

Thats what I was thinking yeah. after all there is other magic on Sel. Elantris is the only group of magic users that transform. It could be that the transformation was something they made to make their Aeons more powerful. They made the city as an amplifier to the existing magic that they had and to create the Shaod.

The Dhakor transform as well, I should point out although whether that's really the same or not is debatable since it's a voluntary and active process unlike Elantris.

[Millennium]

The Dhakor transform as well, I should point out although whether that's really the same or not is debatable since it's a voluntary and active process unlike Elantris.

This could also be explained if Dhakor is of Dominion, rather than of Devotion. If it's tied to a different Shard, then it would probably play by different rules.

[Voidus]

Well then we don't know what Shard the other magic systems are tied to either, so saying that they don't transform doesn't really indicate anything, although Forging could also transform you, although it doesn't require it I guess.

[Vortaan he/him]

I wonder if the splintering of the Shards actually mixed them, to the point that all magic systems draw on both to a degree now. Idle speculation with no real evidence.