A Shard Still Exists on Sel *Elantris and WoK spoilers*

[Stormblessed]

RAODEN'S TELEPORTATION
...
There is another important element to this teleportation. I thought it important to involve deity in the climax of what has been such an overtly religious book. You may not believe in God, and it is never my intention to belittle your choices. However, the format of this book has been one that dealt with religion and the way that people interact with their faith. And so, I took this last moment of the book, and gave Raoden an opportunity to call upon the aid of providence.

Raoden arrives safely, despite the odds against his having gotten the distance, direction, and other factors right. You are free to simply think of this as luck, if you wish.

Divine intervention? Or a shard on Sel not quite as dead as Odium/Rayse believes?

P.S. This quote comes from Brandon's annotations on chapter 62-2

[happyman]

RAODEN'S TELEPORTATION
...
There is another important element to this teleportation. I thought it important to involve deity in the climax of what has been such an overtly religious book. You may not believe in God, and it is never my intention to belittle your choices. However, the format of this book has been one that dealt with religion and the way that people interact with their faith. And so, I took this last moment of the book, and gave Raoden an opportunity to call upon the aid of providence.

Raoden arrives safely, despite the odds against his having gotten the distance, direction, and other factors right. You are free to simply think of this as luck, if you wish.

Divine intervention? Or a shard on Sel not quite as dead as Odium/Rayse believes?

P.S. This quote comes from Brandon's annotations on chapter 62-2

Or what's left of Adonalsium is still floating around helping out.

Or a third cosmic actor.

[Salkara]

RAODEN'S TELEPORTATION
...
There is another important element to this teleportation. I thought it important to involve deity in the climax of what has been such an overtly religious book. You may not believe in God, and it is never my intention to belittle your choices. However, the format of this book has been one that dealt with religion and the way that people interact with their faith. And so, I took this last moment of the book, and gave Raoden an opportunity to call upon the aid of providence.

Raoden arrives safely, despite the odds against his having gotten the distance, direction, and other factors right. You are free to simply think of this as luck, if you wish.

Divine intervention? Or a shard on Sel not quite as dead as Odium/Rayse believes?

P.S. This quote comes from Brandon's annotations on chapter 62-2

Or what's left of Adonalsium is still floating around helping out.

Or a third cosmic actor.

Bet it was Hoid.

[luminos]

Or the events of Elantris occured before Rayse/Odium visited Sel.

[Terez]

I thought it important to involve deity in the climax of what has been such an overtly religious book. You may not believe in God, and it is never my intention to belittle your choices. However, the format of this book has been one that dealt with religion and the way that people interact with their faith. And so, I took this last moment of the book, and gave Raoden an opportunity to call upon the aid of providence.

Raoden arrives safely, despite the odds against his having gotten the distance, direction, and other factors right. You are free to simply think of this as luck, if you wish.

This seems like an odd thing to say. I mean, what difference does it make if someone is religious in real life or not? This is fiction, right? I am an atheist, but if I had a problem with fictional providence, I wouldn't read fantasy books...

[Stormblessed]

It is strange wording.

[Munin]

Or the events of Elantris occured before Rayse/Odium visited Sel.

Brandon has confirmed that Odium's visit was prior to the events of Elantris.

[Morsker]

This seems like an odd thing to say. I mean, what difference does it make if someone is religious in real life or not? This is fiction, right? I am an atheist, but if I had a problem with fictional providence, I wouldn't read fantasy books...

I don't think anyone minds divine intervention in fiction, but we might mind an author proselytizing. C. S. Lewis and Ayn Rand are nice enough to make it clear they're proselytizing, but some authors are sneaky about it, say, Terry Goodkind. This can really piss readers off if they buy something expecting it's entertainment media, but find a big chunk of it is a political or religious tract. Robert Jordan also felt a need to explain in interviews a few times that he wasn't proselytizing any of the religious beliefs he used as source material, and was just a story-teller. Some readers don't mind, but some really mind and flip out.

[Stormblessed]

I think he said that just to reinforce that the "divine intervention" wasn't just something to say God exists, be converted. In fact, it was meant to reinforce that this divine intervention is part of his fantasy world (the Cosmere) not a comment on our society.