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Elodin

character · importance 82 · 14 theories

“The unhinged Master Namer who teaches that danger rouses the sleeping mind”

also known as Elodin the Great, Master Elodin, Master Namer

Appearance§

Elodin is an erratic, theatrical presence. He waves his arms like a farmer trying to startle crows, levels serious fingers at students for effect, and grins in a way that suggests a wolf showing its teeth. He is taller than the young Kvothe, whom he mockingly calls too short to be a namer, with eyes too green and the wrong number of fingers. His manner shifts in an instant between apparent madness and sudden lucid authority, and between panic and yawning indifference.

Description§

Elodin is the University's Master Namer, one of the nine masters and the most gifted living namer. He was once the University's youngest Chancellor before some unspoken event broke his mind and saw him confined at Haven, the asylum, in a cell with a copper door and copper-veined grey stone that suppressed his naming; he broke free by speaking the name of stone, and appears only newly re-seated at the masters' table. He sponsors Kvothe's promotion to Re'lar and agrees to teach him naming only after Kvothe instinctively names Auri. His teaching is deliberately oblique and provocative: he brings Kvothe to a rooftop edge and tells him that danger rouses the sleeping mind and that Seeing is part of being a namer, and he draws understanding out of his students rather than lecturing it into them. He holds that beginning namers reach for broad names while masters know far more specific ones, and that all things are alive in some fashion and can hear their names spoken. He knows the name of the wind and the name of stone, and says the wind's name changes from place to place though he knows how to listen for its changing shape. He reacts with genuine alarm to the idea of someone deliberately changing their own name, treating it as gravely dangerous.

Relationships§

  • Student Kvothe — sponsors Kvothe's promotion to Re'lar and teaches him naming
  • Master Of Naming — the University's Master Namer and the most gifted living namer
  • Master At The University — one of the nine masters and once its youngest Chancellor
  • Sends Students To The Archives — sets students searching the Archives for the book En Temerant Voistra
  • Convinced By Auri — agrees to teach Kvothe naming after Kvothe instinctively names Auri
  • Interested In The Lethani — knows Adem hand-talk and shows particular interest when the Lethani is mentioned
  • Promoted Fela — promotes Fela to Re'lar for calling the name of stone
  • Dislikes Master Hemme — bears a deep dislike of Hemme and has Kvothe wreck his quarters
  • Confined In Haven — confined at Haven in a copper-veined cell that suppressed his naming
  • Giller Alder Whin — orders that his giller Alder Whin not be confined and may come and go freely

Established facts§

  • Elodin is the Master Namer at the University, one of the nine masters, and the most gifted living namer.
  • He was once the University's youngest Chancellor before an unspoken event broke his mind and saw him confined at Haven, the asylum.
  • His cell at Haven had a copper door, copper window frame, and copper veins in the grey stone that suppressed his naming.
  • He broke free from Haven by speaking the name of stone, and appears only newly re-seated at the masters' table.
  • He sponsors Kvothe's promotion to Re'lar and consents to teach him naming after learning how Kvothe named Auri.
  • He teaches naming through indirect, provocative methods, bringing Kvothe to a rooftop edge and telling him danger rouses the sleeping mind.
  • He teaches that Seeing is part of being a namer and draws understanding out of his students rather than lecturing it in.
  • He holds that beginning namers reach for big, broad names while master namers know far more specific ones.
  • He knows the name of the wind and the name of stone, and says the wind's name changes from place to place though he can listen for its changing shape.
  • He speaks 'aerlevsedi,' the name of the wind, to call Kvothe's waking mind back when Kvothe is near the edge.
  • He teaches that all things are alive in some fashion and can hear their names spoken.
  • He reacts with alarm to the idea of someone deliberately changing their own name, treating it as gravely dangerous.
  • He promotes Kvothe to Re'lar for calling the name of the wind, and Fela for calling the name of stone.
  • He once refuses to keep teaching Kvothe, calling him too eager, too proud to listen, and too clever by half.
  • He tells Kvothe the University was built in the dead ruins of an older University whose small group of inhabitants held knowledge beyond ordinary subjects.
  • He runs a small advanced naming class, and his gillers are students whose minds have been shattered by his teaching.
  • He orders that his giller Alder Whin not be confined, may come and go freely, and have nothing put in his food unless he asks.
  • At Kvothe's admissions interview he asks whether Kvothe knows the seven words that will make a person love you, and tells him they exist.
  • He has Kvothe pick the lock of Hemme's quarters and then wrecks the room, teaching that some places are locked for good reason, and bears a deep dislike of Hemme.
  • He sets students searching for a book, En Temerant Voistra, that he claims not to know is even in the Archives.
  • He knows Adem hand-talk and shows particular interest when the Lethani is mentioned.
  • He looks deep through Kvothe's eyes, not merely at them, in the moment before speaking his true name.
  • He frames the act of naming as far more common in the University's distant past, when it once governed advancement.

Theories§

Appears in theories§

Top contributors§

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