KKC Theory Wiki

El'The Means 'Namer' and Humans Are the Defeated Namers of the Old War

fringe symbolism · popularity 82 · 1 source thread

El'The means Namer, and modern humanity descends from the Namers who lost the Creation War and scattered into the Four Corners.

About: Naming, The Creation War

Also involves: Shaping, The Amyr, The Chandrian, Felurian, The Doors of Stone, The Four Corners of Civilization, The Fae, The Eight Cities

The theory§

Offered as a counterpoint to the reading of El'The as "Knower," this theory holds that El'The means "Namer" in the active sense of one who reshapes things by changing their names, and that modern humanity descends from the Namers who lost the old war. It leans on the human axiom that to know the name of a thing is to have mastery over it, and on Felurian's contrasting insistence that the point is knowing, "not mastery, never mastery" — casting Namers as those who began forcing their will onto things rather than living in accord with them. Counting the world map and excluding the Eld yields seven major human countries, which the theory aligns with the seven cities each betrayed by one of the Chandrian in Shehyn's story. From this it proposes that the Namers were defeated and scattered into the Four Corners, becoming today's humans who still study Naming to regain what they lost, and recasts the original Amyr as ends-justify-means Namers sealed behind the Doors of Stone. The reading runs against Felurian's own account that the Namers pooled their power to make the Fae, which makes their later exile from it difficult to reconcile.

Evidence§

  • I think El'The is "Namer" -- not just knowing or speaking names, but naming things and changing those names.
    OP's core thesis: El'The means active Namer, not merely Knower. — u/Sgacity
  • humans say that to know the name of a thing is to have mastery over it. … The Fae, or at least some of them (as evidenced in Felurian's story), feel otherwise. "Not mastery, never mastery" she says.
    Contrast between human mastery axiom and Felurian's anti-mastery view grounds the theory. — u/Sgacity
  • Who lived in the cities? Namers. Not the sort who just know names, but the sort who change them and create things. The sort for whom naming is about mastery.
    Identifies the 7 cities' inhabitants as mastery-driven Namers. — u/Sgacity
  • In Shehyn's story, we learn that each pf the 7 cities was betrayed by one of the Chandrian. The cities were destroyed and their people scattered.
    Seven betrayed cities scattered, setting up the human-descent claim. — u/Sgacity
  • I happened to notice the map of the world. Exclude the Eld, and count the Small Kingdoms as one unit...there are 7 major human "countries" on the map.
    Map gives 7 human countries to align with the 7 cities. — u/Sgacity
  • The Namers lost that war. The remnants of what was the Namers are now humans -- who keep studying and learning to try to regain mastery over the elements. Which, if I am right, would put the original Amyr locked behind the stone doors.
    Central speculation: defeated Namers became humans; original Amyr sealed away. — u/Sgacity
  • Which country are you not including as “Major”? Caeld, Atur, Commonwealth, Small Kingdoms, Yll, Modeg, Ademre, Vintas.
    CounterCounters the map count; lists eight countries, questioning the seven. — u/nIBLIB
  • we know that the "Namers" won the war and created the Fae. Felurian states that all the Namers pooled their powers to create a new world with a new sky
    CounterCounter: text says Namers won and made the Fae, contradicting their defeat. — u/MedimusLeft

Book refs: WMF

Tier reasoning§

tier verified: etymological speculation

Contributors§

Source threads§