where exactly is the chasm line?

[king of nowhere]

there's something I've never understood about the new aons.

the chasm line goes where the chasm appeared.

looking on the map, the chasm is west of the mountains. so the chasm line should be on the left of the ondulated line.

But, when in the end raoden figured out that elantris + the four surrounding cities formed a majestic aon rao, he takes a stick and draws the missing line. outside of the city.

How is that possible? iif my take on the aons is correct, then the chasm line should be on the left of the curved line, pointing towards the point representing the lake. so it should be inside elantris, and would have been impossible to draw because 1) raoden would have never made it as far as the gates, and 2) it would have been impossible to draw the line with buildings blocking the way.

What I'm missing here? Do we have any canon drawings of the marks post-chasm? Did I misread the chapter and raoden was actually into elantris drawing on a conveniently-placed road? thanks for any clarification. I'd like to not discover this to be a plot hole.

[Argent]

I believe Brandon has acknowledged that this is an actual problem. His mistake. 

[trendkill]

Also, the map itself is slightly inaccurate because the artist hadn't read the book itself.

But it's mostly Brandon's bad, which he admitted. It'll be interesting to see if he retcons it in the sequel or just lets it be.

[WeiryWriter]

Yeah, if I remember correctly Brandon has said that he didn't describe where the Raoden drew the chasm line well/accurately enough.  Back when he was planning to do a ten year anniversary edition he was planning on fixing that (I"m not 100% sure about that though, and it looks like the anniversary edition isn't going to happen).  Also the map is just wrong.

[king of nowhere]

So the chasm would actually be east of the mountains? Well, then retconning it with a new map should be more reasonable.

 

OR, if brandon fears confusing casual readers who will pick up the books and find two different maps, he could just post a new (stylized) map in his site, complete with explanation for those who stumble onto it, and leave the old map for the published books.

 

And, I was quite afraid to find a plot hole in a sanderson's book, because I deeply care for consistency and sanderson is one of the few that never let me down (which is a reason it took me so long to make that post; I've been thinking about it for a long time). But I found that I can actually live with that. brandon is still a human, after all well, except that no human could ever write so many books by himself. But it looks like he has no other superpowers other than that

[WeiryWriter]

Actually no, it wouldn't be east of the mountains, more like south of them.  Looking at Aon Aon the chasm line starts at the bottom of the curve and goes to the down-left, Brandon drew it in a book a while back and I'm looking for it.  (Brandon admits he described it wrong in the book)

 

Edit: Here it is: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/4619-new-york-signing-report/?p=74283

[ChocolateRob]

This one always confused me too. I asked this question on the Elantris TV Tropes Headscratchers page but never got an 'it actually was a flub' statement so thank you everyone above for clearing it up.

 

As soon as I saw the map when I first read the book I thought it looked rather iffy (though I never imagined it was plot relevant). The perfectly horizontal coast just looks completely unnatural to me, I'd find a straight mountain range to be much more convincing. So personally I think a curved coast-line and straight mountain-line would have looked better.

 

So how do you folks thinks the map (or story) could be altered so that it makes sense. If the chasm is on the left of the mountains then the chasm-line would have to be inside the city where the buildings would be in the way of him drawing it and the soldiers there would have chopped him into eternally suffering little pieces, on the other hand, if the chasm is to the right of the mountains then it would not be in the country at all and therefore not a problem.

I suppose there would have to be a road inside Elantris in exactly the right place for him to be able to do the chasm-line without hitting any buildings but far enough away from the bonfire that the soldiers in the city do not see him straight away, perhaps the chasm would need to be shorter?

[Veil]

I've been working on modifying the Aons lately, so I thought I'd drop by and offer this picture:

 

 

Elantris and the surrounding cities form the Aon Rao, but rotated 90 degrees. The chasm line connects the corner of Elantris' wall with Kae's wall at or near the road. In the book it's explicitly stated that the line ends at Kae's boundary wall, so the only alteration the book would need to make it clear is an accurate map and a passing reference to Raoden starting his line at the base of Elantris's wall. Or possibly a few feet away; could be the chasm line doesn't actually touch the mountain line like it does in my drawing.

[Spook the Mistborn]

Hey, I'm new to Brandon Sanderson and have just finished reading Elantris (late to the party I know). After finishing I also realised that the line Raoden drew in Kae does not match the map of where the chasm actually is. Is it definitely confirmed now that Brandon described it wrong and it should be underneath the square shape south of Elantris? Did Brandon want the chasm line in Kae but the guy who drew the map got it wrong or did Brandon describe it wrong and should he have gone with the map instead? Sorry if this problem has already been fully cleared up, I just need to get my head around this inconsistency.

[Argent]

I believe Brandon just didn't catch the error before releasing the book. The new edition will correct both map and in-text description.

[Oudeis]

Wait, what are we talking about? What inconsistency?

[Argent]

If you look at the map inside the book, and account for what Sarene (?) says about Aon Aon (curve line for the mountains to the east, and a straight line for the sea to the north), then the chasm line in the new Aon Aon (the one Raoden created by fixing the old one) should be roughly parallel to the straight "sea" line, and almost intersect the curved "mountains" line about halfway (so it looks a little bit like a flipped F). If you track Raoden's run when he was fixing the Elantris Aon, however, you notice that he drew it in the wrong place.