Ripheus23 Posted December 1, 2018 Report Share Posted December 1, 2018 I got to thinking, maps usually have compasses. Arelon has the distinction of being shaped like the fundamental Aon, and the focal point of Aonic power is in a city shaped like a compass. Something to do with the "cartographic" relationship between Arelon/Aon Aon on the one hand, and Elantris/the gate cities on the other, is the source of the special power that Elantris has. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mailnaise Posted December 6, 2018 Report Share Posted December 6, 2018 If the city is a compass, which way is it pointing exactly? It has four points, (the surrounding cities) but no distinction between which one points north or anything. Unless there's something in new versions of the book I haven't seen. I just have the pocket paperback size one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripheus23 Posted December 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2018 The names of the gate cities are the names of the direction-Aons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mailnaise Posted December 7, 2018 Report Share Posted December 7, 2018 19 hours ago, Ripheus23 said: The names of the gate cities are the names of the direction-Aons. Well in that case isn't it cannon that it's a compass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripheus23 Posted December 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2018 Yes it's canon, but it's also something that can be overlooked. I think Khriss overlooked this fact when analyzing the issue of why some people become Elantrians, although how exactly Elantris being a compass determines why that happens, IDK. (I assume Khriss would have been in a position to figure out why/how, otherwise speaking.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted December 7, 2018 Report Share Posted December 7, 2018 3 minutes ago, Ripheus23 said: Yes it's canon, but it's also something that can be overlooked. I think Khriss overlooked this fact when analyzing the issue of why some people become Elantrians, although how exactly Elantris being a compass determines why that happens, IDK. (I assume Khriss would have been in a position to figure out why/how, otherwise speaking.) We know that Elantris is not a necessary component of whatever creates Elantrians, because Elantrians predated Elantris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripheus23 Posted December 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2018 Aon-wielders might, but I don't recall reading that Elantrian-level Aon-wielders did... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calderis Posted December 7, 2018 Report Share Posted December 7, 2018 The Shaod is a production of The Aon that is Elantris, but you can't have AonDor without Elantrians... It's a conundrum. Personally, I think that originally, AonDor was more like the other magic systems. Learnable and usable by anyone of the right heritage. When they built the city, they somehow changed the magic. Quote Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased) The Shaod is an effect of Elantris. source Quote chalkonthewall In Elantris did Elantris ever not exist? like before it was built did the Shaod choose people? and if it did was their power the same? I'm mostly asking that if they were to build another Elantris in Teod would Elantrians be just as powerful over there? Brandon Sanderson Yes, there is a point where Elantrians didn't exist. Excellent question. The rest is a RAFO. source Quote Brandon Sanderson Weak Aons Elantris is like a massive power conduit. It focuses the Dor, strengthening its power (or, rather, the power of the Aons to release it) in Arelon. This far away from Elantris, however, the Aons are about as powerful as they were before Raoden fixed Elantris. If you consider it, it makes logical sense that the Aons would be tied to Elantris and Arelon, yet would work without them. The Aons had to exist before Elantris–otherwise, the original Elantrians wouldn't have known the shape to make the city. Their study of AonDor taught them a method for amplifying Aon power. source 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mailnaise Posted December 16, 2018 Report Share Posted December 16, 2018 On 12/7/2018 at 1:30 PM, Ookla, the Hivemind said: The Shaod is a production of The Aon that is Elantris, but you can't have AonDor without Elantrians... It's a conundrum. Maybe when Dominion and Devotion were splintered something happened in that event that made the first Elantrian. A Shard being splintered in no small thing, it would have wrecked all kinds of havoc on Sel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embrisk Posted December 21, 2018 Report Share Posted December 21, 2018 I think the only thing that changed was the language of the Elantrians. We find out that the dor is not only accessible with aons, but with other languages, too. It makes sense that the dor was accessed by Elantrians using a different language, then they built elantris, and the language changed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ripheus23 Posted December 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 21, 2018 Didn't the Elantrians NOT build Elantris? Like, the Aonic people found the city already there when they migrated? *Uses this as evidence in my long-suppressed "Adonalsium was a city" theory* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scion of the Mists Posted December 21, 2018 Report Share Posted December 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Ripheus23 said: Didn't the Elantrians NOT build Elantris? Like, the Aonic people found the city already there when they migrated? *Uses this as evidence in my long-suppressed "Adonalsium was a city" theory* Yes, the Aonic people found Elantris abandoned when they migrated to Arelon (per Coppermind). However, somebody had to have built it. They also had to be "Elantrian" because otherwise they wouldn't have know how to make the Aons. Quote Brandon Sanderson Weak Aons Elantris is like a massive power conduit. It focuses the Dor, strengthening its power (or, rather, the power of the Aons to release it) in Arelon. This far away from Elantris, however, the Aons are about as powerful as they were before Raoden fixed Elantris. If you consider it, it makes logical sense that the Aons would be tied to Elantris and Arelon, yet would work without them. The Aons had to exist before Elantris–otherwise, the original Elantrians wouldn't have known the shape to make the city. Their study of AonDor taught them a method for amplifying Aon power. source I think a lot of the seeming contradiction in WoBs is that there's a difference between current Elantrians (who are Aonic) and the original Elantrians (that we know virtually nothing about). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirWatermelon Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 I can't believe I didn't notice that! But what would the "chasm line" be? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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