Runaway theories… I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this lately, as I feel like I may have stumbled onto some potential answers as to what the future book holds for this series. I will preface this with the fact that I have read these books 5 and a half times. Each time I feel like I stumble onto new insights and things that I may have missed on previous reads. This story is like that. It reads kind of like a mystery in which we are all trying to predict and hows and the whys of the stories middle, as well as what the precise conditions are of its end. It makes for a wonderful conversation piece should one be fortunate enough to hang out with other folks who care about it, and I have spent hours conversing with fellow readers on these subjects. Clues about the mystery are scattered throughout the stories telling… and sometimes outside of the telling in fragments of Kvothe’s life, and in conversations which take place during his ordinary life at the Waystone. I am going to start by simply listing out a handful of theories which I have formed in hodgepodge with minor footnotes, mostly to get them out in the open for myself to organize afterwards, and then perhaps I may see fit to follow with some deeper explanation or rumination. First… Kote (Kvothe post Waystone) is a cursed being. As we find him in the beginning of the story, he is something like the Chandrian. “Some are even saying that there is a new Chandrian. A fresh terror in the night. His hair as red as the blood he spills.” – Chronicler. Kvothe’s reply: “ ‘The important people know the difference,’ Kote said as if he were trying to convince himself, but his voice was weary and despairing, without conviction.” He has done something, both stupid and probably daring which backfired on him in the worst way possible, leaving him cursed and deeply changed. We don’t know what, but we know from Lanre’s transformation, that there are powers which exist within the world which can doom a mortal man to walk the world forever, in perpetual shadow. We know that Kvothe’s eyes turn different shades depending on his mood and demeanor (“When his eyes are black as crow, where to go? Where to go?”). We know he can squeeze his hand and a bottle might snap across the room, but basic sympathy is beyond him. We know that he carries a great silence within him. I believe him to be cursed, or under some similar type of enchantment… not unlike Lanre/Haliax. We don’t know what sort of brash crazy act that he took, but we do know that he was betrayed, and that Bast emphatically asked him in book 1 as they both stood looking at the sword mount on the wall… ”Can I ask you a question Reshi? …. A troublesome question? … What were you thinking?”

We know from a man who recognized Kvothe in the Waystone… “I saw the place in Imre where you killed him. By the fountain. The cobblestones all shattered”… ”They say no one can mend them.”

Second… Kvothe’s curse is somehow tied to the thrice locked chest which he keeps at the foot of his bed. This seems somewhat apparent, and I don’t feel compelled to justify the explanation, but given that his chest is made of Roah wood, similar to the Loeclos Box, and it seems possible to me that the box also contains a curse or enchantment, set on another, perhaps even an old member of the Lacklass bloodline who became another member of the Chandrian… a long lost relative of Kvothe’s. The old box has writing on it, and I feel like I remember reading somewhere that so too does Kvothe’s box. There is speculation that both are made from the tree of the Cthaeh, which makes sense given that the tree seems to have a similar binding action on that creature. Third, Skarpi is either a friend of the Amyr, or more likely of the Amyr himself. I don’t believe this speculation is new. We know that he has the power of seeing. He knows a great deal about Kvothe, such as his name, where he lives, and perhaps even where he comes from. This kind of seeing is not encountered outside of Skarpi, but is alluded to in Selitose one-eye, the first of the Amyr, if Skarpi’s story is to be believed. It is also known that Skarpi has friends within the church. Of course, he also has enemies and between appearances in the first book, we see Kvothe follow a Tehlen priest whose head is en-shadowed, and watch him pay money to another, presumably to arrest Skarpi at his next telling. I believe Kvothe will get back in touch with Skarpi once he finally meets up with the Amyr, presumably in book 3.

Fourth, Master Ash is Cinder. The more I have considered on this one, the more positive I have become about it. It just makes sense given the location of Denna in certain parts of the world, either at a wedding where the Chandrian struck, or in Vintas where it is known that Cinder is in charge of bandits way-laying the Maer’s taxes. The proximity is telling, as is the way the Cthaeh describes him beating Denna. Cinder is a villain who we know takes pleasure in other peoples pain. It just makes sense to me. It also makes sense that Kvothe is bound to have a confrontation with Ash/Cinder, and I and others speculate that this confrontation will result in him betraying his promise to Denna, "I swear I won't attempt to uncover your patron" I said bitterly. "I swear it on my name and my power. I swear it by my good left hand. I swear it by the ever-moving moon.” Clearly, he does not keep this promise, and if there is one thing I feel pretty certain the Cthaeh succeeded in with Kvothe, it was in giving him all the incentive he might need to look in on this patron who beats Denna…

Now for some rumination… We learn early on as Kvothe over-hears his father asking Abenthy about the Chandrian, that he had intuited their purpose. Arleden claimed that the most frustrating thing was that he had puzzled out the reason for why the Chandrian “do what they do”. He has figured out the hardest part of their story, and is struggling to assemble the details. Seems to me that there are some obvious things we can conclude from what we have been given. Firstly, the Chandrian value their secrecy. This seems like the most obvious reason for why they do what they do, to protect their privacy… but we also know from Haliax, that they have a deeper purpose… Something that they are aiming to achieve. We know from Skarpi’s story, that Lanre longs for death, and barring that, he longs to obliterate the world. We get the impression that the Chandrian have perhaps infiltrated and perhaps taken over the church, that hundreds of years before the Church disbanded the order Amyr, that now any information on the order Amyr is for some reason, incredibly hard to come by, even in the most vast library throughout the lands… We know that the Amyr oppose the Chandrian, and we have been told that they have been granted power. All of this speaks to a larger conflict, one of which we are not yet fully aware at this point in the story, but one which hold’s more than any merge individuals aims/pursuits in the balance. I believe the third book will uncover this purpose for us, and in doing so, this chronicle will become the Prelude to a larger story, which Rothfuss once said it was.. Anyways, I have written quite enough here. I feel like there is more I want to add, but it is not coming to me at the moment. My memory has been tricky lately. I’m not attempting to write the stuff that we all should know, that Maluen Lackless is Kvothe’s Aunt, that Auri is the princess Ariel. I think those things are probably quite true, but I am trying to point to the crux of the story here. Side note…. I don’t know why, but I have a strong feeling that 2019 is going to be our year. We are finally going to get the 3rd part of this story next year. Here is hoping.