KKC Theory Wiki

When the Adem Say 'Barbarian' They Mean Outside the Old Empire

fringe mechanism · popularity 138 · 1 source thread

The Adem use 'barbarian' in the Roman sense of outsider to the Ergen Empire, not as an insult about being uncivilised.

About: The Adem, The Lethani

Also involves: Kvothe, Edema Ruh, Tempi, The Creation War, Myr Tariniel, Haliax

The theory§

This theory proposes that when the Adem call Kvothe and other outsiders 'barbarians' they use the word in its older Roman or Greek sense, meaning someone from outside the empire rather than someone boorish or uncivilised. By this reading the term descends from a time when the relevant boundary was the old Ergen Empire, and the Lethani may be a near-magical discipline that runs in the blood of Ergen's descendants, which would explain the Adem's surprise that Kvothe could grasp it at all and Tempi's instinct to treat him as Edema Ruh kin. It draws on hints that the Adem and the Edema Ruh share refugee origins from cities destroyed after Lanre's betrayal, two peoples who fled the same catastrophe and then diverged, one settling into a culture of disciplined fighting and the other staying nomadic entertainers. A widely held alternative reading is simpler: 'barbarian' marks anyone who is not of the Lethani and does not speak the Adem language or hand-talk, so once Kvothe takes up the Lethani he ceases to be a barbarian, no blood required.

Evidence§

  • The Adem call Kvothe, and everyone else who isn't Adem, a barbarian. But Kvothe is not a barbarian.
    OP's core claim setting up the theory. — u/aerojockey
  • back in the days of the Roman Empire … the term barbarian had a slightly more specific meaning: it referred to people from outside the empire.
    Historical analogy grounding the 'outsider' reading. — u/aerojockey
  • When they say someone is a barbarian, they mean that person is from outside the Empire. … The people of the Four Corners are not barbarians because they are boorish and uncivilized; they are barbarians because they are not descendants of the people of the Ergen Empire.
    Core thesis: barbarian means non-descendant of Ergen Empire. — u/aerojockey
  • The Lethani is not merely a state of mind or code of conduct, but a sort of quasi-magic that's only available to people of the Empire. Kvothe was able to learn it because he's Edema Ruh, a descendant of the Empire, and therefore not a barbarian.
    Extends theory: Lethani as blood-borne magic of Empire descendants. — u/aerojockey
  • There's definitely hints that the Adem and the Edema Ruh may have had similar roots in history. … I suspect that both parties were refugees from the cities that were destroyed by Lanre … the Adem putting down roots and making an industry of fighting and the Ruh staying nomadic and becoming entertainers.
    Comment adds shared-refugee-origins evidence supporting the blood link. — u/wildedges
  • the origin of the word "barbarian" is in Greek for anyone who didn't speak Greek, and was onomatopoeic for "bar bar" … The Adem language sets them apart from the rest of the world (Tempe even says that the hand talk is civilization).
    Comment reinforces linguistic-outsider origin of the term. — u/WestBrink
  • I've always felt they just used the term barbarian to describe people who are not of the Lethani, and since Kvothe has now picked up the Lethani he is no longer a barbarian.
    CounterCounter: barbarian marks non-Lethani, no blood required. — u/SomeH1P9Y
  • I don't think* PR would write a story where you need magic blood to be a big damn hero, i can't think of any evidence for that in the text, and it's very clichéd.
    CounterCounter: rejects the magic-blood premise as unsupported and clichéd. — u/Cravatitude

Book refs: WMF

Tier reasoning§

tier kept: semantic guess extended into a Lethani-magic leap

Contributors§

Source threads§