Elantris

The symbols that form the Aonic language are “ancient glyphs” (252) that hold and direct energy for different purposes, from healing or creating food to generating light to transporting bodies from one place to another. In their ability to function as communication as well as magical power, Aons represent the power of language to create reality and manipulate perception.

The Aons also have a direct relationship to the land—their shapes reflect the geography of the country of Arelon. When the landscape changed after an earthquake, the Aons that ran Elantris stopped working and the Shaod failed to complete, leaving people in a half-living state. This direct connection between power and land is part of the novel’s interest in animism; the Dor, or the magic that powers the Aons, is described as a force that exists in all things regardless of human belief. The link between Aons and life is just as strongly expressed in the fact that these symbols are also used in naming: Every given name in Arelon has an Aonic stem.

Since Aons thus undergird every part of life in Arelon, they only function when every piece is in harmony. When language no longer accurately reflects the shape of the land, the Aons lose their ability to channel magic energy. When the language changes and grows to accommodate lived reality, then the power the Aons channel comes through.

A seon is a “melon-sized ball of light” (38); each has a name and functions as an intelligent servant, passed from one master to another. Seons have long lives and no physical needs, but they exhibit human feelings like affection or alarm. Seons are not slaves, but serve of their own will. Raoden’s seon Ien explains that while humans have hierarchies, “to a seon, there is no above or beneath, there are only those we love. And we serve those we love” (207).

Seons represent something similar to the soul; they are wiser than humans, more far-seeing, and have other proprieties not fully described. The link between seons and humans can be destroyed; when Raoden undergoes the Shaod, Ien loses its abilities and becomes aimless and uncomprehending. This symbolizes the threat to Raoden’s own humanity—he could descend into the same kind of bestial existence as Ien and the Hoed.

In their unflagging, love-based service, seons are a lens on the potential of human goodness, a view that Raoden shares.

The Dor is the animist force or energy that powers and controls all existence. It is an unseen magical power that “is in everything, but cannot be touched” (262), a “powerful reservoir just beyond the normal senses” (344) that exists only to expand. Rivers flow because the Dor directs them; birds know how to fly by instinct because of the Dor. Only humans have learned how to manipulate Dor: Raoden thinks of it as a “chaotic power,” a “massive force trying to press its way through the Aon” (262). The Aons are gates for Dor to push through; their shapes determine what form or path it can take. If the Aon is drawn wrong, the Dor behaves unpredictably.

This vision of a unified force inherent in all things and able to be expressed in different ways, speaks to the central theme of unity in the novel and connects to the larger cosmology of the Cosmere.