KKC Theory Wiki

The Cthaeh Is the Oldest Tinker, Insulted Long Ago by Jax

fringe identity · popularity 73 · 1 source thread

The Cthaeh is the first tinker Jax insulted; all tinkers can nudge customers toward best or worst futures.

About: The Cthaeh, Tinkers

Also involves: Iax, The Moon, Trebon, Kvothe, Denna, The Fae, Felurian, Bast, The Creation War, The Boy Who Stole the Moon

The theory§

This theory holds that tinkers possess a measure of foresight, enough to read a traveler's near future and offer exactly what that person will need, and that they use it to nudge customers toward their best or worst outcomes. On this reading the Cthaeh is simply the oldest and most powerful tinker, one Iax once treated brusquely before he stole the moon, and it has been steering all who reach it toward ruin ever since out of that ancient grudge. The tinker's debt-rhyme, which promises retaliation 'thrice for any insult made,' supplies the motive, and the Trebon tinker's gift of rope and Avennish strawberry wine, items Kvothe later wishes he had kept, demonstrates the foresight. Bast confirms that Iax spoke to the Cthaeh before stealing the moon, the event that sparked the Creation War, supplying the historical contact the theory needs. The pattern of tinkers offering refused gifts that Kvothe later regrets, repeated with rope and with waterproof boots, runs throughout the books, and Abenthy himself claims the title of tinker and shows a similar far-off, foreknowing manner.

Evidence§

  • the Ctheah was the first insulted tinker, the one to whom Jax/Iax was brusque and somewhat unkind. I believe all tinkers have the power to nudge their customers toward the best or worst possible future … Ctheah is just the oldest and most powerful tinker, and still pissed off about its experience with Jax.
    OP's core claim: the Cthaeh is the oldest tinker, insulted by Iax. — u/bluesy22
  • Tinkers can see into the future. The tinker outside Trebon knew exactly what Kvothe would need, even though it wasn't what Kvothe wanted. … So...tinkers can see the future at least well enough to know what a person will need. And to nudge them onto the best possible outcome
    Foresight evidence: Trebon tinker offered exactly what Kvothe would later need. — u/bluesy22
  • Like some rope and Avennish strawberry wine. Two things Kvothe explicitly states he wishes he had as he and Denna traipse around the hills beyond Trebon
    Specific refused gifts Kvothe later regretted, demonstrating foresight. — u/bluesy22
  • I think tinkers can use their knowledge of a person's immediate future to act as an ill influence if insulted ("A tinker's debt is always paid//once for any simple trade//twice for freely-given aid//thrice for any insult made"). Kind of like the Ctheah.
    The debt-rhyme supplies motive: insults are repaid, linking tinkers to the Cthaeh. — u/bluesy22
  • Bast says explicitly that Jax spoke to the Cthaeh before he stole the moon (chap. 105). He says this event "sparked the entire creation war".
    Confirms historical contact between Iax and the Cthaeh that the theory needs. — u/OmenBard
  • the tinker Kvothe encounters as he is leaving the Maer's city … suggests candles - Kvothe later uses these to make mommets, and rubbing wax for his boots which Kvothe declines - sure enough there are days of rain and his feet are soaked
    Second instance of a tinker's prescient gifts, reinforcing the foresight pattern. — u/MaesterSam
  • How do you mesh this theory with the theory that the folding house that Jax unfolds is the Faen realm? Is the broken house at the end of the broken road The Tree™? If not, how/why did the Cthaeh come to be trapped and guarded where it currently is when Kvothe visits it?
    CounterCounter: unexplained how the tinker became the imprisoned, guarded Cthaeh in its tree. — u/FoxxBait
  • I thought tinkers were just traveling transients that liked to trade and give advice
    CounterCounter: skeptical mundane reading of tinkers as ordinary travelers. — u/Ott621

Book refs: NOTW, WMF, NOTW ch 105

Tier reasoning§

tier unchanged; Cthaeh-is-tinker is a speculative leap despite the canonical Jax/Cthaeh link

Contributors§

Source threads§