Thoughts and questions about Elantris (spoilers too)

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Brandon didn't say yea or nay (he said RAFO), but if you compare the scene where Raoden goes into the pool to the scene where Vin goes into the Well of Ascension, I think it's pretty obvious.

[Miyabi]

Oh I see. 

Gawr!  I hate having all my paperbacks lent out because then I can't read any of my books cause the only others I have are signed hardbacks.

[ryos]

Oh. I didn't know there was a "middle grade"; I just assumed it meant "middle school".

So, I'm reading the annotations, and this popped out at me:

Only Elantrians can draw Aons in the air, so someone taken by the Shaod must have developed the writing system. That is part of what makes writing a noble art in Arelon--drawing the Aons would have been associated with Elantrians. Most likely, the early Elantrians (who probably didn't even have Elantris back then) would have had to learn the Aons by trial and error, finding what each one did, and associating its meaning and sound with its effect. The language didn't develop, but was instead 'discovered.'

Emphasis mine. So, the Shaod did not begin with Elantris. Why, then, did the chasm break the Shaod? My best guess is that the giant Rao was, like all other post-Reod Aons, completely non-functional, and the Shaod wasn't broken, it just returned to the way it used to work before Elantris. Like the Reod-Elantrians' too-weak Aons, perhaps the Dor just couldn't get enough power through the divide to accomplish its purposes without a little help.

It must have taken a serious genius, like a Newton or an Einstein, to figure out that building Elantris would so enhance those taken by the Shaod.

[Miyabi]

Is that quote from teh book or annotations or where?  You didn't give it an author.

[ryos]

Elantris Chapter 55 Annotation

[Miyabi]

Aww.  So we can assume that an "Elantrian" (potentially) figured out the connection with the land and build Elantris where it was to symbolize that, so that someone would figure it out if the knowledge was ever lost.


>>

He/she could have foreseen something like the Reod happening and wanted people to know how to fix it later.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Good find, ryos. That answers one question at lest.

But I think the book makes it clear that the Shaod was broken (see Dilaf's mom). So we're still left with the question of what the Shaod was like before Elantris was built.

[Miyabi]

THEORY:

Perhaps it was like it was in the book and that someone figured out it was connected to the land and drew the giant aon releasing the energy more?

EDIT: though they were probably not in as poor a state.  A decent amount of energy got out, but not a lot, so they were more than human, just not to the extent they were pre-Reod and post fixing things.

Also they new way the Dor was channeled through the giant Aon could also be why it being ruined was so devastating to the new Elantrians.

[happyman]

I would like to point out that the entire annotation 55 supports the theory I listed earlier in this thread.

I would also mention that the poor lady killed by the Dor (Dilaf's wife) was killed because the Aon was drawn incorrectly.  In some sense, it would have been better for her to not have had a Aon at all.  Thus I suspect that the Elantrian's, pre-Elantris, were better off than the ones with an incorrectly drawn Elantris.  The logical conclusion is that their connection to the Dor was weaker then, just like most Aons were weaker without a correctly drawn Elantris, but it didn't actually hurt them a la the Shaod, but rather gave them a much smaller boost.

[Miyabi]

I think we're saying similar things in different ways. ha ha.  The first time I read your theory I didn't fully get what you meant, but with this explanation I do.