Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Mi'chelle

Brandon Sanderson

Josh

Brandon Sanderson

Josh

Brandon Sanderson

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.

"Does Aona = Love or Compassion?

"You have it, it's just a synonym there. You basically have it

PUCK

"Does Skai = Devotion or Order?"

BRANDON SANDERSON

"You're not on there. But you are on on the first one [Aona]."

Are Seons Splinters of Aona?

He said that that line of theorising is very close and that we are figuring it out.

Hey @PeterAhlstrom could you tell us what Aona's Shard was? Brandon said he'd look it up and get back to us, but.... [he never got back to us.]

I thought sure that was answered already. But anyway, the answer is yes [Aona is Devotion].

Ok real quick then I'll get back in line again. There's a bunch of people who follow this stuff online ... I just found out about it ... I don't want to call them a cult, but ... So anyway, at one point someone asked you if Seons were shards of—

Aona.

Viper

Devotion ... yeah Aona, and you said that was close. My question is: are the Aons at the HEART of the Seons shards of Devotion?

Brandon Sanderson

No, but close.

Viper

But ... I was sure ... the floating Aon at the heart, that's not a shard ...

Brandon Sanderson

(taking pity on me) You're close but a word is wrong. You're using the wrong terminology.

Viper

SPLINTER. Are the Aons at the heart of Seons SPLINTERS of Aona?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Viper

Can I post that online?

Brandon Sanderson

. . . Ok. That's fine. It's been long enough, they've earned it.

How long before the events of Elantris did Odium kill Aona/Devotion and Skai/Dominion?

Same time as the origins of the Seons.

Kogiopsis

This was the second-closest I came to getting RAFO'd. He was sort of jovially apologetic about this answer; I tried to get a solid number of years but to no avail.

Why is there only one Chasm line per Aon? Since each Aon is made up of repetitions of Aon Aon, shouldn't there be a Chasm line per repetition?

The Aons aren't JUST made up of repetitions of Aon Aon. There's a lot more to them than that. Some follow a repetition pattern, others do not. The only requirement is using the initial Aon once, then building from there. Because of this, I made the new requirement be only one use of the chasm line.

Aons can actually have multiple forms and still work. For example, if you drew the chasm line on each one of those Aons, they'd work fine. (Maybe even better, in some cases.) What is happening in the books is that the Aons are ALMOST functional, and the Dor is straining to come through them. The chasm line brings them the one step further they need to be functional. However, further tweaking could make them more efficient.