#aons

Kelsier said "I am hope!"

The Aon for "hope" is Ati.

Ati was the Vessel for Shard Ruin.

Kelsier's life was aligned to ruin.

There are a lot of things in the cosmere that fascinate me, obviously. The one I’ve been thinking about most recently is the power of expectation/intent. 

(I do mention intent a few times but I only really talk about expectation in this post, the intent thing is a slightly different matter that i would be happy to talk more about if anyone’s interested.) 

this post does have information spoilers from mistborn era 2, specifically bands of mourning, and a very broad explaination of the warbreaker magic system

There are so many things that don’t work until you expect them to/know what they do.  The most obvious example being the unkeyed metalminds in era 2. You have to know what they are to use them. The goldmind doesn't work for Wayne until he suspects/knows its an unkeyed metalmind, same goes for the coin Wax got from Hoid and all the medallions. And this is true with the Dor as well. In either Arcanum Unbounded or Elantris, Khriss says that you can't draw an aon by mistake, you have to know what you're doing. In Elantris, it’s stated that even if destroyed, an aon will continue to function until whoever drew it dismisses it. Intent it important in Warbreaker as well. This is also true of fabrials and I’m sure all sorts of other things I’m forgetting. 

It’s not always true though. People often use allomancy and the surges by accident. When its true or not probably has something to do with the source of the power as well as the intent in it’s creation and it’s (big c) Connection. I’m super tired or I’d probably be able to delve more into that.

It’s sorta similar to cosmere- specifically stormlight- healing. You become how you see yourself, which isn’t quite the same as how you expect yourself to be but they’re similar enough for me to bring it up.

I also wonder how deep or specific it gets. Most specifically with aons. Khriss says you can’t draw an aon by accident, but she doesn't go further into it than that. I'm assuming by ‘can’t draw’ she means no lines appear, not that the non appears but doesn't do anything. But what does she mean ‘by accident’.. I’m fairly certain she, at least in part, means you can’t draw an aon when you have no intent to draw one. But I wonder if this includes drawing the wrong aon. If you accurately draw one aon while thinking you’re drawing another, what happens?

Given that the era 2 crew didn’t have to know what specifically each metalmind did in order to access it, it would make sense if the aon appeared and functioned as drawn, not as intended. 

However, in Warbreaker, you have to be specific. You have to say a command with a clear expectation of what it will do, but even then it might not work, especially if you're a beginner. It’s made very clear that it is Difficult to get commands right. I think Vivenna describes it like learning to use a muscle, or at least compares it to that. Your expectation has to be specific. This might be due to the fact that you are trying to give an intent to a non living thing, but I don’t think that’s ever really specified.

Given all that, it’s also possible it wouldn't appear at all, or- since all aons start the same- would fade as soon as you deviated from your intended aon just like any other aon does when you make a mistake, and just like the breath will go from you to the item with no effect when you mess up a command.

I’d be very curious to know which it was.

Generally speaking, I find the power of suggestion or expectation to be very interesting. The only example I can call to mind rn is the placebo effect, but that’s just the brain tricking the brain and/or body. The fact that it clearly effects external things in the cosmere is super interesting, and I’d love to know how powerful/specific it is.

TLDR: I think the power of expectation is super cool and it clearly matters in the cosmere and i’d love to know just how much.

Brandon Sanderson: Honestly, I don’t remember.

[audience laughter]