Post by displacement on Jul 24, 2013 6:09:36 GMT 10
I have a theory about the Waystone that might have some implications in the third book, specifically about "playing a beautiful game."
I don't know if any of you guys play video games but I know PR does- in his interviews about Name of the Wind he almost always mentions Skyrim as an example of bad storytelling, specifically about how fighting dragons gets boring if you do it all the time. I bring that up because in almost all RPGs like Skyrim there is a spell that stops magic opponents from casting, and it's almost always called Silence. These spells stop their target from doing anything more sophisticated than just hitting you with something.
I've thought about where silence is in the Waystone- it's not just in the air as you'd describe it in real world terms (sound, as we perceive it, doesn't really exist inside solid matter), it's IN the Waystone. It's in the countertops and walls. It's in Kote's hands. It brought to mind Haven and the wards, copper, and tricks used to prevent the namers and sympathists from escaping. Rothfuss made sure we were aware of Haven, and made sure we knew how it was built and that it COULD be built. Rothfuss made sure he filled in some of the color on this, describing how rocks with copper veins in them could be used to prevent a namer from calling the name of stone (albeit temporarily, in Elodin's case).
This made me think of how and when we see magic (I'm using a blanket term that's not really appropriate, but it is designed to encapsulate not just naming, or shaping, or sympathy, but also the natural powers of the Fae and maybe even knacks and curses) within the Waystone.
The most glaring example of magic being suppressed is Kote failing to use sympathy on the Skin Dancer(did I remember that name right?). He obviously fails to use sypmpthy, but at the same time the Skin Dancer fails to use his own natural magic to escape to a new body. There is no explanation for this after it happens, it's just kind of dropped. In the interest of brevity I'll just make a list of the rest
1. Kote fails to burn the skin dancer
2. Skin dancer cannot jump to a new body
3. Bast fails to conceal his cloven hooves from Chronicler
4. Chronicler attempts to bind Bast in iron but it is unsuccessful and Bast attacks him before Kote stops him
5. When the regulars bring the skrael corpse to the Waystone, no other skrael come after the body
6. Speculative: Kvothe is teaching out of the Circum Tintae or whateveritscalled because it's just chemistry- not arcane
7. I'm reaching here, but it may be significant that Kote is unable to stop the smith's apprentice from enlisting, in the "seven words to make a woman love you" category of speechcraft
I'm sure there are more that are slipping my mind, I wish I had a better memory for these things.
The theory: The Silence of the Waystone can stop more magic than just sympathy. It can stop deep magics that touch on peoples' natures.
The implication: The example we're given of a 'beautiful game' is when you set a trap anticipating your opponent is going to walk into it knowingly with a plan that would defeat it, and defeating him anyway. It's not a huge leap to say that the Waystone is a trap that Kvothe has set, but instead of making that leap lets just say that Kvothe is saying the names of the Chandrian repeatedly over the course of this story, and naming their signs to boot. He has to know that saying all this is bait to the Chandrian. What if drawing them to the Waystone will Silence the magics that give them power? Overpower their curses? If their curse is blocked within the Waystone then Kvothe can send Haliax beyond the door of death. How else would Kvothe be able to defeat him than by first nullifying his curse?
TL;DR - The silence is a ward against deep magics that takes away everybody's superpowers, including the Chadrian's.
Edit: ehh. Just remembered Kvothe's bit of sympathy with the strawberry wine. I still think there's something here, though
I don't know if any of you guys play video games but I know PR does- in his interviews about Name of the Wind he almost always mentions Skyrim as an example of bad storytelling, specifically about how fighting dragons gets boring if you do it all the time. I bring that up because in almost all RPGs like Skyrim there is a spell that stops magic opponents from casting, and it's almost always called Silence. These spells stop their target from doing anything more sophisticated than just hitting you with something.
I've thought about where silence is in the Waystone- it's not just in the air as you'd describe it in real world terms (sound, as we perceive it, doesn't really exist inside solid matter), it's IN the Waystone. It's in the countertops and walls. It's in Kote's hands. It brought to mind Haven and the wards, copper, and tricks used to prevent the namers and sympathists from escaping. Rothfuss made sure we were aware of Haven, and made sure we knew how it was built and that it COULD be built. Rothfuss made sure he filled in some of the color on this, describing how rocks with copper veins in them could be used to prevent a namer from calling the name of stone (albeit temporarily, in Elodin's case).
This made me think of how and when we see magic (I'm using a blanket term that's not really appropriate, but it is designed to encapsulate not just naming, or shaping, or sympathy, but also the natural powers of the Fae and maybe even knacks and curses) within the Waystone.
The most glaring example of magic being suppressed is Kote failing to use sympathy on the Skin Dancer(did I remember that name right?). He obviously fails to use sypmpthy, but at the same time the Skin Dancer fails to use his own natural magic to escape to a new body. There is no explanation for this after it happens, it's just kind of dropped. In the interest of brevity I'll just make a list of the rest
1. Kote fails to burn the skin dancer
2. Skin dancer cannot jump to a new body
3. Bast fails to conceal his cloven hooves from Chronicler
4. Chronicler attempts to bind Bast in iron but it is unsuccessful and Bast attacks him before Kote stops him
5. When the regulars bring the skrael corpse to the Waystone, no other skrael come after the body
6. Speculative: Kvothe is teaching out of the Circum Tintae or whateveritscalled because it's just chemistry- not arcane
7. I'm reaching here, but it may be significant that Kote is unable to stop the smith's apprentice from enlisting, in the "seven words to make a woman love you" category of speechcraft
I'm sure there are more that are slipping my mind, I wish I had a better memory for these things.
The theory: The Silence of the Waystone can stop more magic than just sympathy. It can stop deep magics that touch on peoples' natures.
The implication: The example we're given of a 'beautiful game' is when you set a trap anticipating your opponent is going to walk into it knowingly with a plan that would defeat it, and defeating him anyway. It's not a huge leap to say that the Waystone is a trap that Kvothe has set, but instead of making that leap lets just say that Kvothe is saying the names of the Chandrian repeatedly over the course of this story, and naming their signs to boot. He has to know that saying all this is bait to the Chandrian. What if drawing them to the Waystone will Silence the magics that give them power? Overpower their curses? If their curse is blocked within the Waystone then Kvothe can send Haliax beyond the door of death. How else would Kvothe be able to defeat him than by first nullifying his curse?
TL;DR - The silence is a ward against deep magics that takes away everybody's superpowers, including the Chadrian's.
Edit: ehh. Just remembered Kvothe's bit of sympathy with the strawberry wine. I still think there's something here, though
