Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

One other question, what is the name of the planet that Elantris is on?

Elantris: Sel

Warbreaker: Nalthis

Mistborn: Scadrial

Way of Kings: Roshar

White Sand: Taldain

Dragonsteel: Yolen

There are others, but I haven't talked much about those yet, so I'll leave them off for now.

So Aona is a synonym for love, hmm? Is Charity the correct Shard name?

Not quite. I'm trying to remember what the guesses were for the other Shard on Sel. I may have dismissed them too quickly.

CHAOS

How about Mercy for Aona, then? The guesses for Skai's Shard include Devotion, Obedience, and Order.

BRANDON SANDERSON

Okay, I was right, then. Ha There's something very ironic in all of this.

How many Shardworlds are there? Only seven? (Sel, Nalthis, Scadrial, Roshar, Yolen, Taldain, and whatever planet The Silence Divine is on?)

He said he has a set number in his head but that he didn’t want to say it because he might change his mind. Essentially he doesn’t want to make the number of world’s canon yet.

He responded that sometimes he has several synonyms that he hasn’t quite decided on. So I asked him if he was now canonizing a new shard and he said yes. So this is now official. He agreed to let me share it, so here it is.

History and Use

All Aons exist independent of humankind, their symbols inherently tied to their meaning, but few have distinct origin stories explaining how the Aon was first discovered. Some modern scholars scoff at such tales, but Aon Ehe's origin myth is well known among the common people and believed by most.

The story tells of the first princess of Arelon. This was some years after the founding of Arelon following the migration of the Aonic people from other lands. Elantris, of course, had already existed as a city when that migration occurred, and had been discovered empty. While some people assumed it haunted, Proud King Rhashm (later renamed Raoshem) determined to conquer the fears of his people and set up a kingdom centered on Elantris.

The transformation of the first Elantrians happened beginning several decades later. Princess Elashe—the first of Raoshem's line to be chosen as an Elantrian—claimed to have seen the pattern of this Aon inscribed on a coal in her hearth the day after she underwent the transformation. Whether or not this story is true, a coal or rock written with Aon Ehe on it is considered good luck and a ward against winter spirits. (Though this kind of superstition is frowned upon by the Korathi priests.)

Other uses of Ehe are plentiful. It is one of the primal elements, and is often used in scientific writings. It is a ward and warning against danger. It is used on signs in conjunction with other Aons to mean warm food or warm beds available. Some artists and poets choose it as their symbol, both to hint at the dangerous nature of artistry and to speak of the passion of artistry.

Also, I overheard him saying to anther fan that all magic on Sel is essentially programming, and building up a complex Aonic effect or an intricate Forgery works just like writing code.

Mason Wheeler

(As a computer programmer myself, I found that pretty cool.)

Aons look like Arelon; soulstamps look like MaiPon. Aons get weaker when you get further from Arelon, right? That's not just cause Elantris acts like a focus?

That's right, it's based on distance. That's why there are no stamped objects in Elantris.

Viper

So do soulstamps get weaker further from MaiPon? If you left Sel via Shadesmar and went to another planet, would the soulstamp stop working?

Brandon Sanderson

That's correct.

Viper

Could soulstamps be carved that used Arelon as a base form instead of MaiPon?

Brandon Sanderson

That's very interesting, isn't it?

I'm definitely excited for your upcoming books. Are you going to sell signed and numbered copies of Legion and Emperor's Soul? Just got used to having my Sanderson books numbered and signed. a bit spoiled, i know.

Are Legion and Emperor's Soul contained in their own worlds or are they part of the universe of The Stormlight Archive, etc (anywhere with Hoid in it. lol)

The Emperor's Soul is set on Sel, the world of Elantris. It's far off, though, so you have to have your eyes open to catch the clues. Hoid shows up in a deleted scene, and is referenced in the story.

This further explains why Vin required more than normal power to push/pull the metalminds from the Lord Ruler, because of their proximity to his soul, via the Spiritual Realm.

3.) The amount of investiture is relatively low on Scadrial, whereas worlds like Sel and Roshar are pushing around "high power" according to Brandon. I interpreted this to mean that hemalurgic spikes and metalminds have low amounts of investiture compared to Shardplate and Shardblades.

Sure, the story is The Emperor's Soul, and it actually takes place on Sel. (Same planet of Elantris.) The magic system works by using a carefully designed stamp to rewrite the past of an object--creating a 'forgery' of its past, and that changes what it is in the future. Rewrite the past of a beat-up chair so it was owned by someone who cared for it, and suddenly it's polished and maintained. It's not illusion; it's an actual transformation.

It works on the same mechanics of AonDor and its kin, using written characters to access the Dor and channel its power.

Yes.

Question

Okay, and second, Mistborn, the broadsheet hints that there's a continent or whatever on the other side of the Mistborn planet.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Question

Would that also be connected to Allomancy and Feruchemy and all that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it will be.

So, I gave you a lot of answers. [laughter] To expand upon that, the magic systems for Elantris- the pitch to myself designing the world and magic system was this kind of procedural-based, almost programing-based magic. Where in Elantris, you use these characters to programout a sequence of events that tells the power flowing through what to do.

What Shai is doing in this book is she carves a little seal. And the seal is very much like a little program, and she stamps it on something and uses that stamp to rewrite the history of the object. As long as the seal is there, the object thinks it has this other history. The example you see in the book is you know- an old dirty table that's not been cared for, she can write a seal for its history, she has to figure out what its history was first. And she can write out a seal that basically reprograms that past, so when she stamps it, it thinks it's been cared for all along and suddenly it gains this lacquer, it's beautiful, it's been well-cared for, because in that fake Forgery of the history, that's what happened to it. And that's what her magic does, which is why she's been hired to Forge a copy of the emperor's soul.

[Ooooh]

Yeah, I know I'm evil.

Were any of the other magic systems of Sel affected by the fall of Elantris, such as soulforging?

No.

Why does Scadrial, which has two Shards, only have three manifestations of investiture, (Allomancy, Feruchemy, and Hemalurgy) but Sel, also with two Shards, has five manifestations of investiture (AonDor, Dakhor, ChayShan, Forgery, and Bloodsealing)?

Sel's magics are much more regionalized than Scadrial's. Each area has its own manifestation, but they're all actually the same magic. So really there is one magic on Sel—much as Windrunning and Lightweaving on Roshar are kind of different magics, but also kind of the same.

Discussion of the week: Shadesmar & Truthspren

http://coppermind.net/wiki/Shadesmar

sufficientlyadvanced

It says that it's dangerous to travel to Shadesmar on Sel. Why?

It has to do with the Dor and the lack of an entity controlling much of the power Odium left in his wake on Sel.

Phantine

Woah, that's interesting. I had no idea Odium left little bits of his power on Sel... I guess it kinda makes sense for evil monks to be powered by pure hate, though.

Brandon Sanderson

Odium did not leave his power behind, one should note. He left several other powers which are now, to a large extent, mindless...

Windrunner17

This is an awesome answer!

If you wouldn't mind answering, does Roshar have a similar problem, with Honor being Splintered?

Thanks!

Brandon Sanderson

No, Roshar does not have the same problem. There are some differences going on. (One reason being that the spren are far more extensive on Roshar, and provide something of a "release valve." The Seons and the Skaze on Sel are not numerous enough to fulfill a similar function. Though, of course, that's only one part of the puzzle. Raw power is dangerous.

It's one reason everyone should be thankful Kelsier was around on Scadrial.

Brandon, have we seen a point of view chapter from the character who writes the Ars Arcanum?

I’m not gonna tell you that. That would be way too much giving away.

QUESTION

Is the character who writes the Ars Arcanum from Sel originally?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I’m not gonna tell you anything about the character who writes the Ars Arcanum.

When the Aonic peoples discovered Elantris… did seons exist… Okay let me go back to my timeline... It kind of means you have to define what you mean by Aonic. The problem is if you dig back too far in history it's kind of like asking "What’s a German?" You know what I mean?

Chris King (Miyabi)

Because the Aons are based upon Elantris itself and so they don't become Aonic until they are writing the Aons.

Brandon Sanderson

And Aonic is also—You are talking about the people and so it's like are the Normans Brits? Or are they Vikings? Or are they Frenchman?

Chris King (Miyabi)

Why don’t we phrase it as the people of Sel when they discovered Elantris.

Brandon Sanderson

No, no, that’s getting, okay— Let's go ahead and RAFO that one, just because the history of Elantris is very interesting to the cosmere. When people are starting to get an inkling of that.

Chris King (Miyabi)

Odium was there once upon a time.

Brandon Sanderson

"If a native of Sel or another Shardworld travelled to Nalthis, would they be a drab?"

Brandon almost answered quickly, but then got a thoughtful look and paused to consider with a "hmm." After a moment, he replied:

"No, they would not be a drab. But, no one would be able to take their breath."

NutiketAiel

"If such a person died on Nalthis, could they Return?"

Brandon Sanderson

"No, they cannot Return."

NutiketAiel

"If such a person received breath, could they use BioChroma?"

Brandon Sanderson

"Yes."

NutiketAiel

I was probably grinning like a looby at this point, but I didn't care. Brandon complimented me on my questions, saying that I had asked some good ones and that nobody had gotten so much information out of him in a while. I don't know whether he meant it, or was just trying to give me some confidence and make me feel good about myself as an amateur realmatic theorist (very, very amateur), but either way it made me feel like a million bucks.

Brandon’s good at that. I’m consistently amazed by his positive attitude, and just how much attention he lavishes on his fans.

Does the metal on Sel contains within it any sort of spren-like being, or anything similar to that, and also, does the splintered nature of the Shards on (Elantris' world) have anything to do with how the magic manifests itself without a physical representation?

Scadrial (Mistborn world) did not have an analogous, self-aware invested set of entities. The power has to be "let go of" in a way.

First of all, I'd like to thank you for e-mailing me White Sand and Aether of Night last year, and for just being so awesome and giving to your fans.

Here are my questions:

1. Sel question: What are the names of the Aons for West, North, and South? I'm assuming that these are also the names of the other cities around Elantris besides Kae ("East"). Is that right?
2. Scadrial question: We've seen Kandra True Bodies made of crystal, stone, or wood. Can a kandra use a True Body made of metal? If so, what happens if each metal "bone" had a Hemalurgic charge, and each one is touching an appropriate bind point?
3. Roshar question: Looking up the meaning of "lucentia", I see that it's a Latin word related to light and visibility. Why isn't the Surge of Illumination connected to the Order of Edgedancers, which is the Order associated with Lucentia?
4. Nalthis question: This is a two-part question about Perfect Invocation. (A) When an old God King passes down his Breaths to his infant heir, does Perfect Invocation turn him (the old God King) into a white drab and does that grant him any cool powers? (B) Secondly, do God Kings create white Lifeless instead of grey ones and are these white Lifeless special in any significant way?

Those four questions will do for now. I hope you'll visit the Philippines one of these days. Anyway, I need to go back to sleep. Happy writing!

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Question

Selish.

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, Selish, that’s what we settled on, isn’t it, yeah, Selish magic system. This is why we have copy editors [laughter] That’s a feature of the Sel’s magic system that… as far as I know, no-one has pulled out in any decent reason for. But there’s a distinct reason that could be figured out, but it’s… one of these things that will make sense when I explain it, but I’m not sure if it’s quote-unquote “intuitively obvious” to the average reader. I don’t really think that it necessarily is that, but it will make perfect sense once it’s explained.