The Wise Man's Fear III [Spoilers and Speculation within]

[Slick Mongoose]

Another point with Denna is that she doesn't usually come back to a place nearly as often as she does Imre.

[Renasko]

I'm reminded of the song from the Simpsons...

Who protects you from the Amyr? The singers? The Sithe?

We do, we do!

[Mad Scientist]

I thought the University was year-round. So an odd number of months does seem strange with a two-month term. Of course, if it's a solar or sidereal calendar, the months don't have to perfectly line up with the lunar cycle, so with slightly shorter months and a slightly longer year you could have six months in a year.

If a year in Kvotheworld was some weeks shorter than one of ours and if you take admissions into accout (I never saw them as in-term, but I don't have proof for that, might be otherwise and I missed something) then 5 months would make sense.

I wonder if the people from Yll have or had some knowledge about the fae realm, Iax and so on. Their lunar calendar could be coincidence, but if it isn't ...

[thistlepong]

Hemme requires Basil to prepare a report contrasting Yll's lunar calendar with The Commonwealth's more civilized calendar. The implication is that they're different.

[Damon]

Great thread, with lots of interesting/bizarre/funny speculation.

A couple of things; the dislike of the Adem because they are a matriarchal fighting society based upon the inherent size/strength of men versus women. When I think of the most familiar martial arts practitioners, I think of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, all big, strong-o wait, all short, QUICK men who use the size and strength of their opponents against them.

I like the women of the Adem because they are interesting characters. That being said, the Adem are a warrior culture that has existed for thousands of years. Ever heard of natural selection? It is no real surprise that sports that require strength, speed and size in the US are dominated by men AND WOMEN whose ancestors were slaves put through a demanding selected breeding process that emphasized those characteristics. Now imagine that process being thousands of years long rather than two hundred. The female survivors of the Adem mercenary existence are going to be very, very good.

The other idea that Kvothe will be kicked because he killed off the bandits doesn’t work for me either. The Academy is not a monastic non-violent religious sect teaching pacifism. They teach students competitive sympathy in a controlled combat form. Clearly there is an appreciation of the offensive and defensive aspects of magic and sympathy. They are not anti-violence, just against violent confrontations at the Academy between students. Also, Kvothe didn’t kill the bandits and the fake troupers for not reason; one group badly outnumbered his and was trying to kill him, so self defense, the others were rapists and murders who also outnumbered him and killing them avenged a number of wrongs and freed the girls.

Maybe the money fiddle will get him. Maybe Hemme’s dislike will get him. Maybe he gets the four copper plated door open and all hell breaks loose.

Can’t wait to find out.

When you read Vashet’s reaction to Kvothe’s test with the sword tree “You are one great gaudy showboating bastard, you know that?”, didn’t it crack you up too?

[Slick Mongoose]

The university is dead set against malfeasance. It is absolutely forbidden. And even if there was a bit of wriggle room, Hemme is in charge at the moment.

And i'm not sure the self defence angle will work, after all he did set out to hunt down the bandits.

[TeaSpoon]

Ever heard of natural selection? It is no real surprise that sports that require strength, speed and size in the US are dominated by men AND WOMEN whose ancestors were slaves put through a demanding selected breeding process that emphasized those characteristics.

Wha- I don- You cannot be serious.

[Garlan the Gallant]

Wha- I don- You cannot be serious.

I'm pretty sure he is.

[Guy Kilmore]

I'm pretty sure he is.

Yeah................. :leaving:

[unJon]

Interesting, and I really like the thinking outside of the box, but... I disagree. Haliax specifically stated that he protected the Chandrian from the singers. While the Chandrian do aim to suppress info about them, I hardly think that people singing/knowing about them is harmful. Singers as you're thinking of them would be an inconvenience, and perhaps a major one, but not a threat. Unless, of course, there's something we don't know.

Of course there is plenty we don't know, but you're missing the point. We've seen the Chandrian strike twice. Once to kill people that were "singing entirely the wrong sorts of songs" and once because someone dug up a vase with pictures of the Chandrian on it. We don't know much about the Chandrian, but what we do know is that they are fanatically trying to stop information about them from spreading. Songs spreading about the Chandrian seem to be very much a threat to them. A threat that they go to great lengths to stop.

When Haliax said: who protects you from the Amyr, the singers and the Sithe; it was just after . . . wait for it . . . the Chandrian had killed some singers.

@thistlepong

Hemme requires Basil to prepare a report contrasting Yll's lunar calendar with The Commonwealth's more civilized calendar. The implication is that they're different.

I don't think anyone is saying their the same. :unsure: People are just trying to figure out the question I raised in thread 2: how long is a term, or how long is two months.

[thistlepong]

We've seen the Chandrian strike twice... We don't know much about the Chandrian, but what we do know is that they are fanatically trying to stop information about them from spreading.

I just wanna pedantically dispute this one more time for posterity. We have only see the aftermath in both cases. I wanna repeat that given materials available in the book, an enterprising individual could make it look like the Chandrian had been somewhere. We have reason to assume that invested parties are eliminating information about both the Amyr and the Chandrian, and might suspect either or both as persons of interest - or all three, given the indications of two disparate notions of Amyr.

I also wanna agree with you absolutely that singers are probably just that. The Edema Ruh and the Tahl would definitely qualify, though; as would Tehlu's crew and anyone who "sang words of power," (ie. Kvothe @Felurian.)

@thistlepong

I don't think anyone is saying their the same. :unsure: People are just trying to figure out the question I raised in thread 2: how long is a term, or how long is two months.

There was some confusion evinced. Presumably the Yllish calendar year is lunar synodic with approximately five months. All we know for sure is that Caitelyn has at least 43 days. Are there any clues as to how many span are in a month or if they correlate at all? Aren't Devi's term loans 2 months?

[MattL86]

like the women of the Adem because they are interesting characters. That being said, the Adem are a warrior culture that has existed for thousands of years. Ever heard of natural selection? It is no real surprise that sports that require strength, speed and size in the US are dominated by men AND WOMEN whose ancestors were slaves put through a demanding selected breeding process that emphasized those characteristics.

Not really sure if I should ignore this or not...

[Gaston de Foix]

I just wanna pedantically dispute this one more time for posterity. We have only see the aftermath in both cases. I wanna repeat that given materials available in the book, an enterprising individual could make it look like the Chandrian had been somewhere. We have reason to assume that invested parties are eliminating information about both the Amyr and the Chandrian, and might suspect either or both as persons of interest - or all three, given the indications of two disparate notions of Amyr.

I also wanna agree with you absolutely that singers are probably just that. The Edema Ruh and the Tahl would definitely qualify, though; as would Tehlu's crew and anyone who "sang words of power," (ie. Kvothe @Felurian.)

There was some confusion evinced. Presumably the Yllish calendar year is lunar synodic with approximately five months. All we know for sure is that Caitelyn has at least 43 days. Are there any clues as to how many span are in a month or if they correlate at all? Aren't Devi's term loans 2 months?

Thistle, are you implying the Chandrian might not be responsible for the death? if so the Ctaeth has made it clear they were.

I don't actually think the singers were just that, I think they have some power that actively threatens the Chandrian. Arliden is just dead meat to the Chandrian.

[unJon]

Are there any clues as to how many span are in a month or if they correlate at all? Aren't Devi's term loans 2 months?

Devi's term loans are two months and in NOTW it says that terms are two months, with the span at the end dedicated to testing/setting tuition for next term. The question is how many days are in a month and how many months are in a year, etc. Would be interesting to compile the data from the books about dates, etc.

On your point that we only see the aftermath of the attacks blamed on Chandrian. I agree, though tend to think that the Chandrian killed Kvothe's parents (just re-read the scene).

[Deluge]

RE: The singers

IIRC, in Skarpi's story Selitos turns the Chandrian's names against them. So it could be that part of the curse is that uttering their true names causes them physical pain.

[thistlepong]

Does anyone have even a partial list of the errors in the books, either specific or vague?

ex:

• the ring Stapes gives Kvothe
  
• the name of the local priest in Newarre
  

even:

• technological incongruities (ex: lack of gunpowder, 6'6" dead even on the triangle question)
  
• physical unlikelihood (ex: Adem combat, Adem pregnancy)
  

[Slick Mongoose]

[*]the name of the local priest in Newarre

Are we sure that was an error? Thought I saw a decent explanation for that.

[jurble]

[*]physical unlikelihood (ex: Adem combat, Adem pregnancy)

Adem pregnancy isn't unlikely. We aren't told the Adem diet, but there were Papua New Guinean tribes didn't realize sex=babies, because their diet consisted of yams that acted as contraceptives, so they weren't able to pin pregnancy to a specific sexual incident.

[thistlepong]

Fantastic! Where was this pages ago when it was being condemned. Thanks.

[jurble]

Fantastic! Where was this pages ago when it was being condemned. Thanks.

I mentioned it in Wise Man's Fear II, I think, but no one paid attention to me!