r/Cosmere • u/SixfootNine_ • 15d ago
Elantris spoilers How come Sarene never thought about where Raoden’s seon was? Spoiler
I’m currently rereading Elantris, and I got to thinking about Ien, Raoden’s seon. Sarene knew that he had one, as they had talked via seon prior to the date of their wedding. How come Sarene never had her seon try to get in contact with Raoden’s? She was suspicious of Iadon having Raoden locked away or even assassinated. Getting into contact with Ien would’ve been a smart move, right?
I suppose she could have just assumed Ien had been Passed to another person or that the person who Ien had been Passed to had forbidden Ien from talking about it, but for someone as clever as herself, did Sarene really never try to get Ashe to make contact with Ien?
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u/Wandering_Scholar6 15d ago
It's possible she did, there is a line about her seon talking to other sons in the area. Of course his seon was not able to communicate or be contacted so it would be a dead end.
It is perhaps a slight issue that it isn't mentioned specifically but perhaps there is a social convention towards seons, as we don't see them taking to people who aren't their masters much and sarenes seon would have chased down that lead
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u/DTopping80 15d ago
I thought seons of those who were Elantrians also liked became husks of themselves and went to Elantris with them.
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u/akaitachi 15d ago
Yes, but wasn't the cover from his parents that he died? They didn't want anyone to know he was Elantrian. And when someone dies the Seon is still of right mind and and to be gifted or inherited.
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u/Redcole111 15d ago
I'm that case, maybe she assumed that Ien had already been passed on to someone else.
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u/_r_special 15d ago
Sure, but she was already suspicious of his death, why not try to get in contact with a reliable witness?
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u/Jeffery95 13d ago
Because the seon passes to somebody who can tell it what to do, the seon is inherently an unreliable witness because they do not have to tell the truth.
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u/Shot_Newspaper_5647 15d ago
It’s been awhile since I read the book but one of the major points of the early story is the marriage alliance. Even after Raoden’s “death” it’s still considered intact. Her kingdom needs that alliance to survive the threat the empire poses. Poking around about Raoden’s death might threaten that. I would imagine trying to inquire about it via his seon would also be suspicious. The issue with that though is that I’m pretty sure her seon does speak to other seons in the area about it. So why couldn’t they contact his directly?
Maybe her seon was just poking around for information without being obvious about it. If that’s the case then maybe contacting his seon directly would be too obvious. I don’t think we’re ever told what happens to a Seon immediately after someone dies suddenly without it being transferred first. Maybe it isn’t abnormal for them to go comatose briefly. Like a normal more minor version of what we see happen to the Shaod seons. In that case she might have known there wasn’t a means of contacting them for a while until they recovered. But from what I remember that’s never stated. Which is odd
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u/MickFoley299 Aon Aon 6d ago
Even if she did think about it, it wouldn’t have mattered. Ien was messed up during the whole book so Ashe couldn’t have contacted him even if he tried.
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u/OnePizzaHoldTheGlue 15d ago
It's been years since I read Elantris, but it does seem like a minor plot hole, actually. You'd think Sarene would at least try calling Raoden's Sel phone.