The prologue that discusses the Shaod and the fall of the city of Elantris specifies that transformation is a major theme of the novel. Plot elements such as religious conversion, political revolution, personal change and growth, and even magical disguise elaborate on the idea of transformation, why it happens, and what it means.

The history of Elantris and its residents demonstrates that one type of transformation—random fluctuation from human to godly. The Shaod, a mystical process that elevates an average person to near-divine status, apparently can strike any person at any time; the only criterion seems to be one of relative physical proximity, since only people who live in or near Arelon are known to be affected. Those marked by this process transcend the human: They live in Elantris, a city without crime, disease, conflict, or hunger; they acquire the power to perform transformative magic, healing injury or disease and creating food out of nothing, and they are revered as demigods by those around them. What happens to Elantris 10 years before the novel opens can be seen as the opposite of the Shaod: The paradisiacal city collapses into ruin and its formerly superior residents become subhuman savages.