KKC Theory Wiki

The Cthaeh Engineered All the Old Songs and Stories Millennia Ago

fringe motive · popularity 122 · 1 source thread

The Cthaeh foresaw Kvothe and shaped the old stories so a single perfect person could be guided into freeing it.

About: The Cthaeh, Kvothe

Also involves: Selitos, Iax, Taborlin the Great

The theory§

This theory holds that the dense web of parallels between Kvothe and earlier legendary figures is not coincidence but design: the Cthaeh, which perceives every possible future, shaped the old songs and stories across millennia so that one perfectly-suited person could be steered toward freeing it. Kvothe echoes Taborlin the Great (many-colored cloaks, a key, coin and candle, calling down fire and lightning), Tarsus or Menda (a smashed love, a journey to 'the other side', fiery vengeance, trapping a beast with an iron wheel), Lanre (fighting a draccus as Lanre fought the beast), and Savien (three years proving himself, three years training). Rather than authoring the tales directly, the Cthaeh nudges events so the stories crystallize into the shape that will later guide Kvothe along the 'correct' path. One extension identifies the Cthaeh with Selitos One-Eye, tricked at Myr Tariniel and reshaped into the tree-bound prophet so as never to be fooled again, and casts the Tinkers as his Ruach followers, timeless quartermasters seeding tools and objects across cultures to engineer civilization toward the Cthaeh's ends.

Evidence§

  • Have you noticed the theories that try to explain the similarities between Kvothe and Iax, Taborlin, and Lanre?
    OP frames the puzzle: dense parallels between Kvothe and legendary figures need explaining. — u/chainsawx72
  • Kvothe has many different colored cloaks, a key coin and candle, he calls down fire and lightning, like Taborlin the great.
    Core evidence: Kvothe echoes Taborlin in cloaks, key/coin/candle, fire and lightning. — u/chainsawx72
  • Like Tarsus, Kvothe in Tarbean has his 'love' (lute) smashed by an enemy … Kvothe goes to the other side and meets Encanis, and Kvothe gets fiery vengeance.
    More parallels: Kvothe mirrors Tarsus/Menda's smashed love, journey, vengeance. — u/chainsawx72
  • Kvothe spends 3 years in Tarbean, and maybe 3 years with the University… like Savien spent 3 years proving himself and 3 years training with the Amyr.
    Numeric parallels to Savien reinforce the pattern across many legends. — u/chainsawx72
  • What if the Cthaeh saw, with future sight, one person in all of history who had the right combination of skills and genetics, power and naivety, to free Cthaeh? And, with the right combination of stories, Cthaeh is able to gently bend his expectations so that the 'correct' future plays out?
    The thesis: Cthaeh uses foresight to shape stories steering one person to free it. — u/chainsawx72
  • Cthaeh wouldn't have to actually write all of them, he could just be the one who got them written in that way, through his typical manipulations.
    Refinement: Cthaeh engineers rather than authors the stories directly. — u/chainsawx72
  • I see it as less that the Cthaeh wrote these stories and more that the Cthaeh keeps alive stories it has a future use for with the Ruh and guides them to places where it desires the story to be heard.
    Commenter extends mechanism: Cthaeh preserves and places stories via the Edema Ruh. — u/Sandal-Hat
  • There are a few folks who have talked to the cthaeh and left to spread their stories. It would make sense if they all had heard the same kind of story if indeed it drive forward the cthaeh's most important motivation.
    Supporting reasoning: visitors who left the tree could have spread Cthaeh-aligned stories. — u/pgb5534
  • I think every story I've ever read with something omnipotent or super op eventually breaks like this. Because its just SO POWERFUL it warps the entire reality of the story around itself.
    CounterCounter: an omniscient agent makes any pattern explainable, so the theory may be unfalsifiable. — u/danielsaid

Tier reasoning§

distinct theory; self-labelled tinfoil, no book_refs, fringe holds

Contributors§

Source threads§