maps and magic

[Cealque]

 I don't know if it has been talked about but if the map has so much to do with how the aons work could he have change the starting aon to match where they are in the world so the aons would work where ever you are? this bing said could it be that that reason that they made the city in the shape on one just be so it can focus that power nearer by so they don't have to adjust for where they are because if you look at a map and center it on one point it would be different for someone else in another point.  

[The One Who Connects]

19 minutes ago, Cealque said:

if the map has so much to do with how the aons work could he have change the starting aon to match where they are in the world so the aons would work where ever you are?

Personally, I (and possibly others) have had this idea at some point, but without confirmation we don't really know for sure.

22 minutes ago, Cealque said:

this being said could it be that that reason that they made the city in the shape on one just be so it can focus that power nearer by so they don't have to adjust for where they are

We've more or less figured that Elantris was a power amplifier, which is why it's so strong near there and weaker elsewhere. Although we have absolutely no information on who built the city and why other than Brandon saying he won't tell us for "reasons"

29 minutes ago, Cealque said:

because if you look at a map and center it on one point it would be different for someone else in another point.

It doesn't seem based on where you stand on the map. It will be based on the map of Arelon/Aonic Language regardless. Forgery stamps include a map of MaiPon. Raoden noticed that the Dakhor Bones resembled symbols of the Fjordell language, maybe the languages are based on the country maps.

[Spoolofwhool]

Sel systems seem to have their access to the Dor concentrated at a certain geographical point. This means that the power to fuel the specific magic system can only be obtained when you're within X distance of that point. The map located at the start of each symbol chain for an effect is just a link to that source, it doesn't control where the source is. In other words, the source of the Dor for AonDors is in the Elantris area. The fact that the Aons contain a map of that area is how it connects to the source. If you tried making Aons with the shape of MaiPon, they wouldn't work, because MaiPon doesn't contain the source for AonDor, only the Aonic continent does.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[The One Who Connects]

35 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

The fact that the Aons contain a map of that area is how it connects to the source. If you tried making Aons with the shape of MaiPon, they wouldn't work, because MaiPon doesn't contain the source for AonDor, only the Aonic continent does.

Huh, maybe that's why the idea stopped being discussed much on here. Edit: now that I think about it, Brandon hasn't shot down the idea of making more Elantris shaped cities elsewhere... I don't know

Edited September 14, 2016 by The One Who Connects

[Spoolofwhool]

48 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

Huh, maybe that's why the idea stopped being discussed much on here. Edit: now that I think about it, Brandon hasn't shot down the idea of making more Elantris shaped cities elsewhere... I don't know

I don't think the Aonic sub-continent has room for another Elantris-style AonDor amplifier, considering it take 5 cities to do. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see if you could build something similar, but on a smaller scale nearer to the edges of the AonDor source's range to see if you could amplify the range of the source, and use it further abroad.

[Landis963]

3 hours ago, Spoolofwhool said:

I don't think the Aonic sub-continent has room for another Elantris-style AonDor amplifier, considering it take 5 cities to do. On the other hand, it would be interesting to see if you could build something similar, but on a smaller scale nearer to the edges of the AonDor source's range to see if you could amplify the range of the source, and use it further abroad.

You might be underestimating the size of a sub-continent.  The map in the beginning of Elantris has the city's icon as a very small set of five circles in the upper right-hand corner, arranged into a plus-sign formation.  The rest of Arelon stretches all the way across the map, with space for (I imagine) several hundred such icons.  Even with the roughness of that estimate (we don't know what exactly falls under "artistic license") there's no way that, physically, Arelon ran out of space for Elantrises after the first one.  There are other reasons why not to build another Elantris, though, including "we don't know how the first one works" and "it probably won't amplify Elantrians any more than they already are."  

[Tsidqiyah]

While we are here Does anyone have confirmation on WHEN the cities were built? and WHEN the Shaod started?  If the Shaod happened prior to building the Super Aon, was the cities built after certain Cosmere scale events in order to make up for the change of power that would have been likely?

Also how does one add hidden text for spoilers?

[Yata]

The actual popolation (or to be more precise their ancestors) arrived in the area and found Elantris already builded and empty...They began to live in the area and some years after....some of them began to be taken by the Shaod.

Probably (quite surelly but without canon proof) there was a precedent generation of Elantrian but what was their destiny we can't know it

[Sarevok]

On 14-9-2016 at 10:54 PM, Cealque said:

could he have change the starting aon to match where they are in the world so the aons would work where ever you are?

That seems likely, considering the other magic system we've seen in the world:
(Emperor's Soul comment, not an actualy spoiler, though)
 

Spoiler

She comments to herself something along that lines that she believes the base form of forgeries looks like her native country.

 

[Spoolofwhool]

1 hour ago, Sarevok said:

That seems likely, considering the other magic system we've seen in the world:
(Emperor's Soul comment, not an actualy spoiler, though)
 

  Hide contents

She comments to herself something along that lines that she believes the base form of forgeries looks like her native country.

 

Yes, you could probably somehow rig a Selish magic so that it draws form a different regional source. I imagine it would be a lot harder than just changing the base terrain shape. While the shape connects the symbols to the source of the Dor for that magic system, there's probably a specific frequency of Dor which each magic draws upon, which is different for each source. So some hacking of the magic would be necessary.

[Tsidqiyah]

I need to find the WoB on this, but I believe i saw that he said that it isn't just the shape of the symbol that matters but what the symbol means. and to some extent probably it matters what the symbol think it means. Just going some where else and making up new symbols won't work as easy as it might seem at first.