Entities
character (101)
- Kvothe — The legendary arcanist and Kingkiller narrating his own life as a quiet innkeeper
- Denna — Kvothe's elusive muse, a secretive musician with a hidden patron
- Haliax — Lanre reborn as the shadow-wreathed leader of the Chandrian
- Cinder — The white-haired Chandrian who killed Kvothe's troupe
- Elodin — The unhinged Master Namer who teaches that danger rouses the sleeping mind
- Bast — The Fae student and protector of the innkeeper Kvothe
- Iax — The greatest Shaper, who stole the moon and started the Creation War
- Selitos — The ancient namer who cursed Lanre and founded the Amyr
- Ambrose Jakis — Kvothe's wealthy, sadistic noble rival at the University
- Laurian — Kvothe's mother, the troupe leader's wife widely held to be a runaway Lackless heiress
- Maer Lerand Alveron — Vintas's most powerful Maer, patron and political minefield for Kvothe
- Tehlu — Chief of Aleph's angels, judge of men in the Tehlin faith
- Chronicler — The scribe who coaxes Kvothe into telling his true story over three days
- Felurian — The deathless Fae who takes mortal lovers and is named, not slain, by Kvothe
- Master Ash — Denna's secretive patron, identity deliberately hidden
- Arliden — Kvothe's father, an Edema Ruh bard whose song about the Chandrian got his troupe killed
- Auri — The fey, broken girl of the Underthing whom Kvothe named
- Meluan Lackless — Lackless heiress, Kvothe's probable aunt, betrothed to the Maer
- Devi — Demon-eyed gaem moneylender and expelled arcanist Kvothe owes in blood
- Tempi — The Adem mercenary who teaches Kvothe the Ketan and the Lethani
- Bredon — The grandfatherly Vintish noble who teaches Kvothe the deeper game of Tak
- Simmon — Kvothe's warm-hearted, alchemy-studying best friend at the University
- Wilem — Kvothe's loyal Cealdish friend at the University, a stone in deep water
- Abenthy — The traveling arcanist who first taught Kvothe sympathy and naming
- Illien — Legendary Edema Ruh musician who wrote 'The Lay of Sir Savien Traliard'
- Lyra — Lanre's love, a master namer who called him back from death
- Master Lorren — The cold, watchful Master Archivist of the University
- Puppet — The strange, puppet-carving hermit who lives deep in the Archives
- Roderic Calanthis — The reigning King of Vintas, leading candidate for the king Kvothe kills
- Skarpi — The old storyteller in Tarbean who tells young Kvothe the tale of Lanre
- Aleph — The supreme power who made the angels after Myr Tariniel fell
- Caudicus — The Maer's longtime arcanist, exposed as a poisoner by Kvothe
- Count Threpe — Music-loving Imre noble who becomes Kvothe's first patron
- Cyphus — The Chandrian who bears the blue flame, first named in the song
- Fela — Beautiful scriv and namer of stone, rescued from the Fishery fire
- Master Kilvin — Cealdish Master Artificer hunting the legend of an ever-burning lamp
- Pale Alaxel — The shadow-cloaked Lord of the Seven from the Adem's Chandrian tale
- Shehyn — Eldest of the Adem who tells Kvothe the Chandrian's true names
- Stapes — The Maer's devoted manservant who gives Kvothe a bone ring
- Taborlin the Great — Legendary wizard-hero of Temerant's folk tales and children's stories
- Vashet — The Adem mercenary who trains Kvothe in the Lethani and Ketan
- Encanis — The masked demon of Tehlin myth, bound by Tehlu's burning wheel
- Manet — The University's perpetual student, an E'lir for longer than his friends have been alive
- Elxa Dal — University Master of Sympathy who knows the name of fire
- Master Hemme — The University's spiteful Master Rhetorician and Kvothe's early antagonist
- Master Herma — The Chancellor of the University and Master Linguist
- Trapis — Gentle Tarbean caretaker of street children who tells the tale of Tehlu and Encanis
- Dagon — The Maer's cold, deadly captain — Alveron's "mad dog on a short leash"
- Grey Dalcenti — The silent Chandrian whose sign is described as 'never speaks'
- Viari — Lorren's sword-carrying giller in acquisitions who fetches rare books
- Penthe — Adem mercenary whose perfect step Kvothe says he could never match
- Aaron — Trebon-born smith's prentice Kvothe tells the truth to in the frame
- Alenta — Chandrian whose sign is blight
- Alleg — Leader of the false Edema Ruh troupe Kvothe destroys at Levinshir
- Perial — The lowborn woman who bore Menda in Trapis's tale of Tehlu
- Stercus — The Chandrian bound by iron, named in the children's rhyme
- The Duke of Gibea — Vivisectionist whose journal links medicine to the hidden Amyr
- Usnea — The Chandrian whose sign is rot and decay
- Andan — One of Aleph's angels, whose name means anger
- Mola — Analytical Medica student who built Kvothe's gram
- Sleat — A seedier gaelet who can get exactly what he wants
- Stanchion — Co-proprietor of the Eolian who awards musicians their talent pipes
- Aethe — Legendary Adem master archer who shot his student-lover Rethe
- Deoch — Co-owner and doorman of the Eolian who knew Denna for years
- Master Arwyl — Master of the Medica at the University
- Nina — Trebon girl whose painting captured the Chandrian and an Amyr
- Savien Traliard — Legendary Amyr hero of Illien's crowning song, sung as a duet at the Eolian
- Master Mandrag — The University's Master Alchemist who taught Auri
- Pike — Tarbean street-gang leader who tormented young Kvothe
- Rethe — Adem figure from the ancient tale of Aethe and Rethe
- Alder Whin — A 'cracked' arcanist confined in Haven
- Master Brandeur — A master of the University who votes against Kvothe
- Remmen — Named Fae father of Bast, Prince of Twilight
- Abbe Leodin — The local priest of Newarre
- Aculeus Lackless — Lord of the Lackless family, father of Meluan
- Alaitis — Vintish Prince Regent whose death unsettled the southern nobility
- Aloine — Tragic lover from the Lay of Sir Savien Traliard
- Anker — Innkeeper of Anker's near the University
- Baron Greyfallow — Patron of Kvothe's parents' troupe
- Baron Jakis — Powerful Vintish noble, father of Ambrose
- Carceret — Adem mercenary and Kvothe's bitter rival in Ademre
- Dedan — Hired mercenary on Kvothe's bandit hunt in the Eld
- Duchess Samista — High-ranking Vintish noblewoman in the peerage
- Feyda Calanthis — Vintish king of the Calanthis line
- Finol — Past wielder of the sword Saicere who fell at Drossen Tor
- Geisa — Beautiful woman of Belen with a hundred suitors
- Geoffrey — Poet and friend of Denna, careless with money
- Graham — Villager of Newarre and regular at the Waystone Inn
- Hespe — Mercenary in Kvothe's bandit-hunting party
- Kellin — One of Denna's well-to-do suitors in Severen
- Krin — Levenshir girl rescued by Kvothe from false troupers
- Lord Greyfellow — Noble patron of Arliden's traveling troupe
- Marten — Veteran tracker and woodsman of the Eld
- Old Cob — Elderly regular and storyteller at the Waystone Inn
- Ordal — One of the angels made by Aleph
- Princess Ariel — A lost princess of myth and rumor
- Rike — Troubled boy Bast comes to know in Newarre
- Roent — Caravan master Kvothe travels with
- Shep — Farmer and Waystone Inn regular
- Tarsus — Character in the play Daeonica
- Trip — Acrobat in Kvothe's childhood troupe
concept (36)
- Naming — The deep art of speaking a thing's true name to command it
- Shaping — The will-magic that wrought the Fae from whole cloth
- The Doors of Stone — The unwritten third book and the stone doors of in-world myth
- Sympathy — Temerant's taught, equivalent-exchange magic of energy and will
- The Moon — The stolen moon that travels between the mortal and Fae realms
- Alar — The riding-crop belief that lets a sympathist bend reality with the mind
- Glamourie — Fae magic of making things seem
- Grammarie — Fae magic of making things truly be
- The Lethani — The Adem's guiding moral path of right action
- Sygaldry — Rune-based artificing magic, a 'written' form of sympathy
- The Ketan — The Adem's named sequence of fighting movements
- The Penitent King — The frame-story monarch Kvothe's rebellion opposes, widely theorized to be Maer Alveron
- The Lightning Tree — Bast's day-in-the-life novella, and the lightning-scarred tree where he trades favors
- Yllish Knots — An Yllish system of writing meaning in knots, possibly a hidden magic
- Alchemy — Arcane discipline of distilling and transforming substances
- Aleu — Nameless beings that fall from the sky
- Artificing — University craft binding sympathy into physical devices
- Cealdish — The people, language, and coinage of the Ceald
- Chan Vaen edan Kote — Siaru saying: expect disaster every seven years
- Chandrian Signs — Omens that herald the presence of the Chandrian
- Eld Vintic — Old Vintish language and classical poetic form
- Four Doors of the Mind — Sleep, forgetting, madness, and death
- Heart of Stone — Mental discipline of perfect emotional detachment
- Knack — Innate, often inexplicable personal talent
- Name of Silence — A true name governing silence and stillness
- Nine Prime Fallacies — Logical fallacies taught at the University
- Rhetoric — University discipline of persuasion and argument
- Rhinta — Term for the Chandrian; a man more than a man
- Seven Words — Words said to make a woman love you
- Siaru — Language of the Ceald
- Silence of Three Parts — The threefold silence of the Waystone Inn
- Skin-changer — A being able to alter or disguise its form
- Sleeping Bear — Two-handed Ketan joint lock and escape
- Tema — Formal language used by the Tehlin church
- The Doors of the Mind — Classical model of the mind's defenses against pain
- Vorfelan Rhinata Morie — Inscription carved above the Archives doors
creature (5)
- The Cthaeh — An all-seeing, malevolent oracle bound to a tree that speaks only ruinous truths
- Scrael — Deadly spider-like creatures whose arrival opens the frame story
- Skin Dancer — Body-stealing Fae creature hunted by the Cthaeh's guardians
- The Draccus — The fire-breathing, charcoal-eating beast Kvothe faces near Trebon
- Foxen — Auri's soft blue-green alchemical light
event (3)
- The Creation War — The ancient war that ended the Ergen Empire and made the Chandrian
- Aethe and Rethe — An ancient Adem legend of two lovers and the founding of the Lethani
- Mauthen Massacre — Slaughter of the Mauthen wedding party near Trebon
faction (12)
- The Chandrian — The seven cursed figures who slaughtered Kvothe's troupe
- The Amyr — An ancient order dedicated to the greater good at any cost
- The Lackless Family — Ancient secretive noble line guarding a sealed box and a hidden door
- Edema Ruh — Nomadic troupers and performers, marginalized keepers of songs and roads
- The Adem — Insular mountain mercenaries who keep the Lethani, the Ketan, and old secrets
- The Arcanum — The University's inner body of ranked arcanists, where Kvothe rose youngest in memory
- The Tehlin Church — The dominant monotheistic church of the Four Corners, worshippers of Tehlu
- The Ruach — The ancient people of the Creation War, sundered after Myr Tariniel fell
- The Sithe — Fae guardians sworn to keep the Cthaeh in absolute isolation
- The Singers — A shadowy group the Chandrian fear, named alongside the Amyr and Sithe
- The Tahl — Nomadic singers from beyond the Stormwal whose songs are said to heal
- Tinkers — Wandering traders whose offered goods uncannily fit what travelers will need
group (4)
- Angels — Servants of Aleph who guard against the Chandrian
- Knowers — Ancient namers opposed to the Shapers
- Mauthen — Farming family massacred by the Chandrian near Trebon
- Surthen Family — Vintish noble family lost at sea, raising Ambrose in succession
location (47)
- The University — The seat of arcane learning where Kvothe studies sympathy, naming, and the Arcanum
- The Fae — A Shaped otherworld where time runs strangely and named things were made to be
- The Archives — The University's vast, fire-feared library of dangerous knowledge
- Waystone Inn — Kvothe's quiet hideaway as Kote, possibly a deliberate trap
- Ademre — Mountain homeland of the Adem mercenaries and the Ketan fighting art
- Myr Tariniel — The shining mountain city destroyed by Lanre, namesake of the Amyr
- Vintas — Wealthy eastern kingdom of nobility, intrigue, and the Lackless line
- Temerant — The mortal world where Kvothe's story unfolds
- The Eolian — Imre's renowned music hall where a musician can win the silver pipes
- The Underthing — Ancient ruined tunnels beneath the University where Auri lives
- Tarbean — The squalid port city where orphaned Kvothe survived years as a street urchin
- Imre — The arts town across the river from the University
- Newarre — The tiny backwater town where Kvothe hides as the innkeeper Kote
- Severen — The Maer's split-level city in Vintas, divided into Severen-High and Severen-Low
- The Stormwal — Eastern mountain range walling off desert and the singing Tahl
- Renere — Capital of Vintas and seat of King Roderic Calanthis
- The Fishery — Kilvin's artificery workshop where students craft sygaldry by hand
- The Four Corners of Civilization — The mortal world of Temerant where the main story unfolds
- Trebon — The mining town where Kvothe found Chandrian signs at a wedding massacre
- Belen — An ancient city of the Ergen Empire, widely theorized as the University's foundation
- Drossen Tor — The climactic battle where Lanre defeated the enemy sealed behind the Doors of Stone
- Tinuë — Eastern free city tied to 'how's the road to Tinuë?' and the ancient Tinusa
- The Eight Cities — The last great cities of the Ergen Empire before its fall
- Haven — The University's asylum for arcanists who crack their minds
- Modeg — One of the four corners' major nations, never visited in the trilogy
- Anilin — Distant city on the road Denna once traveled
- Antus — One of the eight cities of the Ergen empire
- Atur — One of the major human nations of Temerant
- Belenay-Barren — Province in the Central Commonwealth housing the University
- Caluptena — Ruined great place of learning destroyed by fire
- Ceald — Northern region home to the dark-skinned Cealdim
- Emlen — One of the eight cities of the Ergen empire
- Ergen Empire — Ancient empire of the Creation War
- Faeriniel — Place where all roads meet, reached on a road not for traveling
- Great Stone Road — Ancient road running toward the Stormwal mountains
- Hallowfell — Town where Kvothe's troupe performed
- Lackless Lands — Ancient independent holdings of the Lackless family
- Levenshir — Town from which the false troupers' captives were taken
- Murella — One of the twin cities of the Ergen empire
- Murilla — One of the twin cities of the Ergen empire
- Rookery — The University's warded cells for the mad
- Small Kingdoms — Cluster of minor realms in the Four Corners
- The Crockery — The University's holding cells for broken arcanists
- The Eld — Vast dangerous forest in northern Vintas
- The Medica — The University's school and hospital of healing
- Vaeret — One of the eight cities of the Ergen empire
- Yll — Coastal nation, home of Yllish knot-writing
object (37)
- The Wise Man's Fear — The second book of the Kingkiller Chronicle, covering Kvothe's second day of storytelling
- The Four-Plate Door — The sealed door in the Archives with no hinge, handle, or lock
- The Thrice-Locked Chest — Kvothe's sealed chest with three locks, one of which he can no longer open
- The Lackless Box — An unopenable heirloom box of strange wood that holds the Lackless secret
- Caesura — Kvothe's Adem sword, whose name means a break in a line of poetry
- Folly — The dull grey sword mounted behind the Waystone Inn's bar
- The Name of the Wind — Day One of Kvothe's framed first-person account
- The Shaed — Kvothe's cloak woven of shadow, made for him by Felurian in the Fae
- The Boy Who Stole the Moon — Hespe's folktale of Jax, who caught the moon and started the Creation War
- Rhinna — The Cthaeh's panacea flower, a cure-all said to come at a terrible price
- Talent Pipes — The silver pipes a musician earns by performing at the Eolian
- Arliden's Lanre Song — The song Arliden was writing that got Kvothe's troupe killed
- The Slow Regard of Silent Things — Rothfuss's novella told from Auri's perspective in the Underthing
- Daeonica — An in-world tragic play whose hero sells his soul in hell
- Denner Resin — The world's potent, candy-sweet narcotic — and Denna's namesake
- The Arrow Catch — Kvothe's sygaldry device that stops incoming arrows
- The Book of the Path — The holy book of the Tehlin church
- Arrowcatch — Artificed device that catches incoming arrows
- Black Door — A dark door Kvothe tried to touch in the Fae
- Bloodless — Kvothe's arrow-catching artifice
- Crucible — Vessel used in alchemy for heating and distilling
- Dowsing Compass — Sympathetic device that tracks a person by their hair
- Ever-Burning Lamp — Legendary lamp that burns without ceasing
- Felurian's Butterflies — Butterflies filling Felurian's twilight glade in the Fae
- Gram — Artificed ward that absorbs hostile sympathy
- Greystones — Ancient standing stones marking old roads
- Iceless — Sygaldry-powered cooling box at Anker's inn
- Lockless Door — Doorless door at the heart of Lackless lore
- Loden-stone — A naturally magnetic stone that draws iron
- Mhenka — Powerful and dangerous painkilling drug, 'devil root'
- One Sock — Black horse Kvothe rides to Trebon
- Plum Bob — Alchemical compound that compels obsessive love and obedience
- Ramston Steel — Fine steel that holds an edge but is brittle
- Roah — Dark, dense wood prized for its durability
- Selas Flower — Deep red vine flower Kvothe names for Denna
- Tak — Strategic board game played across the Four Corners
- Warding Stones — Ancient protective relics kept by Kilvin
work (7)