Magic On Sel - And the Cognitive Identity of a Nation

[Youngy]

I had a quick scout of the forum, and couldn't find anything related to this, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

 

For starters, all Forgery Shai performs includes something that appears like MaiPon (her homeland) as its basic form.

This is in the same way that the Elantrians have the basic lines that make up their Arelon (their homeland) as the basic form of their work. 

 

So it is this basic symbology - the shape of their homeland - which I would be assuming all magic on Sel includes. 

 

Then there is this quote from Brandon and Viper from this thread.

 

Me: Could soulstamps be carved that used Arelon as a base form instead of MaiPon? 
BS: That's very interesting, isn't it?

 

The first thing I would be suggesting from this is that the magic would regionally-drawn. What I mean by this is that it is drawn from a particular country - nation - according to the basic symbol used in the magic form (in the case of both AonDor and Forgery, drawn/stamped). This would mean that using Arelon as the base form instead of MaiPon would make the power for Forgery drawn in Arelon, meaning that the Forgery would be stronger in Arelon than using the base form of MaiPon.
 

This got me thinking of why on earth the shape of a nation would be important to a magic system (a nation to me is a group of individuals living in an area of land) ie. Why would we draw Arelon, and not half of Arelon and half of the nation next to it? Or just half of Arelon - or my proof that this cannot be done - all of Arelon except the area where the scar is.
 

Which really, I believe is the point. These base forms - the reason that it is important for it to be a nation rather than just an area of land - is due to peoples understanding of the invisible boundaries that make nations - the cognitive aspect of a nation as it were - what the nation believes it is, due to what the people of that nation believe it is.

 

eg. The people of Arelon believe that their nation runs from here to here and includes Elantris, the scar etc. So that is what must be drawn - as a whole - to draw magic from that area. 

My reasoning behind it not just being having to use the base form of an area of land is due to the scar itself. If they just needed to include major landmarks from the area they were drawing the power from, excluding the scar would not have mattered - because the magic system would have just drawn it from all the land, exuding the area where the scar was - which is where the cognitive identity of the land as a nation comes into play.

 

That probably wasn't very well worded, but to me makes sense. What do people think?

 

[Shardlet]

I like the cognitive aspect.  This is a good explaination as to why the magic forms are so regionally associated.  A national identity is the defining point.

[WeiryWriter]

You might want to read this theory as yours reads very similar to it.

[Youngy]

Yeah, they kind of complement each other in a way. 

KChan specifies that it is a persons Devotion to a Dominion that allows them to use a specific ability (Arelon for Elantrians, MaiPon for Forgers) where as mine covers the 'where' magic is drawn from, and how the identity of a nation as a whole affects that.

 

Actually Kurkistan covered the basics of it in this here.

 

How about 2 levels of magic for each "Dominion"? On the one hand, you have the manifestation of this singular "magic" as a multitude of systems, each unique to a region: Bloodsealing, Forgery, AonDor, etc. This part is locked down by Identity, as the OP posits.

 

On the other hand, though, you have a second consideration: where the raw power is coming from. A Forger can never practice AonDor, then, but they could use Aon Aon as their "setting stamp" and draw their power from Arelon. That power manifests as Forgery because of the Dominion that determined the Identity of the user it's being filtered through, but needn't be dragged all the way from poor MaiPon first. This is somewhat in line with my original "region-locking" thread.

 

So the two things:

 

Devotion to a Dominion is what gives the people of Sel access to a particular power - their cognitive identity of self.

However, it is the 'setting stamp' - related to the cognitive identity of the Dominion itself - which allows the magic to be drawn through a particular Dominion.

[Kurkistan]

*Hears name on the wind*

 

If you'd like to draw upon another one of my theories to bridge the gap, I posit in this thread that abstract lines can be used to represent nations because of independently existing "Forms" based on human perception.

[Shardlet]

So the two things:

 

Devotion to a Dominion is what gives the people of Sel access to a particular power - their cognitive identity of self.

However, it is the 'setting stamp' - related to the cognitive identity of the Dominion itself - which allows the magic to be drawn through a particular Dominion.

 

The Devotion to a Dominion idea sounds nice.  But I got the impression that Galladon had/has a lot more devotion to Duladel than to Arelon.  Yet, he was taken by the Shaod and given access to the Arelon based system.

[Youngy]

Kurkistan, that is beautiful. All the more happiness to a combined theory I think.

[happyman]

Shardlet, on 30 Jul 2013 - 00:40, said:

The Devotion to a Dominion idea sounds nice. But I got the impression that Galladon had/has a lot more devotion to Duladel than to Arelon. Yet, he was taken by the Shaod and given access to the Arelon based system.

Gallodon's identity is made rather more complicated by the fact that his father was an Elantrian. He may have thought of himself, deep down, as an Elantrian who moved to Duladel, changed religion, and tried to ignore his roots.

Given that we know practically nothing about the religion of the Elantrian's themselves and that the Elentrian's also drew on the Dor, I don't think this is that far-fetched.

Edited August 2, 2013 by happyman

[Shardlet]

His identity certainly.  But the thought I was addressing was "a devotion to a dominion".  Galladon did not seem like he was overly keen on Elantris or even Arelon at large.