KKC Theory Wiki

The Four-Plate Door Protects Those Outside From a Threat Within

fringe mechanism · popularity 99 · 1 source thread

The four-plate door may confine a dire threat inside Temerant, protecting nice people on the far side rather than the reverse.

About: The Four-Plate Door, The Amyr

Also involves: The Doors of Stone, The Archives, The Fae, Waystone Inn

The theory§

This theory inverts the usual assumption about the four-plate door: rather than keeping a fell threat out of Temerant, the door confines a dire threat held within Temerant in order to protect innocents on the far side. The people sealed in alongside the threat, punning on being held 'in ternment,' are framed as collateral damage of a hard choice the Amyr made 'for the greater good,' in keeping with the Amyr's willingness to sacrifice for a larger aim. The notion fits the broader pattern of sealed, dangerous things in the world, the Lackless box, the thrice-locked chest, and the doors of stone. Competing readings place ordinary culled archive books behind the door, identify the prisoner as Iax or a draugr king such as Feyda Calanthis, or hold that the doors of stone are the waystones separating the human and Fae realms. A recurring objection is the recursive paradox that the book 'The Doors of Stone' lies behind the four-plate door, while the only way to open the door is revealed inside that book.

Evidence§

  • What if there's not some fell threat trapped on the other side of a four-plate door which protects those in Temerant, but there are nice people on the other side who are protected from a dire threat held in Temerant by a four-plate door?
    OP's core inversion: door confines a threat inside Temerant to protect people outside. — u/coglapis
  • All the nice people held camping "in ternment" with the dire threat are collateral damage of a tough call the Amyr had to make. … For the greater good.
    OP frames trapped innocents as Amyr collateral damage, punning on 'internment'. — u/coglapis
  • Protecting another realm of beings from the calamities of human affairs is frankly quite smart. … And would be a great twist. We are the evil to be feared by those beyond the door.
    Supports inversion: humans are the threat others are protected from. — u/MrBoro
  • Definitely a good theory given the princess book.
    Cites the princess/Ariel book as supporting context for the theory. — u/antidecaf
  • For some reason I think it will be simpler than that. Like it is just a room with shelves containing all the books that have been culled from the archives by various groups.
    CounterCounter: door simply hides culled archive books, no threat at all. — u/OozeNAahz
  • I tend to lean toward the idea that the doors of stone are the waystones and they separate the human and fae realms, keeping the "enemies" apart.
    CounterCounter reading: doors of stone are waystones dividing human and fae realms. — u/OldMysteries

Book refs: NOTW

Tier reasoning§

speculative inversion leaning on a wordplay pun ('in ternment'); fringe correct

Contributors§

Source threads§