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Kilvin's Workshop Lamps Each Symbolise One of the Seven Chandrian

fringe symbolism · popularity 138 · 1 source thread

The distinct flames in Kilvin's lamps map onto the seven Chandrian, each lamp's colour and behaviour matching a sign.

About: Master Kilvin, The Chandrian

Also involves: The Fishery, Haliax, Pale Alaxel, Cinder, Grey Dalcenti, Stercus, Usnea, Alenta, Cyphus

The theory§

On Kvothe's first visit to Kilvin's workshop in the Fishery, the master shows off an array of strange, unnaturally burning lamps he calls his 'lovelies.' This theory reads the seven distinctive flames as a hidden symbolic catalogue of the seven Chandrian, each lamp's colour and behaviour mapped to a sign. The boiling grey smoke that flickers sporadically answers to Haliax/Alaxel, who bears the shadow hame; the wick burning with a motionless white flame in empty air, lacking fuel and lacking sound, answers to Grey Dalcenti, who never speaks; the twin blue and hot-forge-orange flames answer to Cyphus, who bears the blue flame, and to Stercus, thrall of iron; and a lithium-green flame is matched to the sign of madness. The reading sits alongside Kilvin's stated decade-long quest for an ever-burning lamp, which is taken as an allegory for the search for immortality that, in the world, only Haliax has achieved.

Evidence§

  • "One contained nothing but a boiling grey smoke that flickered sporadically." … Haliax/Alaxel and the pool of shadow is the boiling grey smoke which constantly surrounds him.
    OP's core mapping: the grey-smoke lamp answers to Haliax, who bears the shadow hame. — u/Seefy8
  • "Another lamp contained a wick hanging in empty air from a silver wire, burning with a motionless white flame despite its apparent lack of fuel." … Grey Dalcenti who never speaks. "Motionless" possibly for the never speaks part
    Soundless, fuelless white flame mapped to Grey Dalcenti, the Chandrian who never speaks. — u/Seefy8
  • For support in your lamp #2 reasoning, "empty air" could be comparable to silence, and Dalcenti never speaks.
    Comment refines the Dalcenti mapping: empty air equals silence. — u/Jandy777
  • "Two hanging side by side were twins save that one had a blue flame and the other was a hot-forge-orange." … Cyphus bears the blue flame. … Stercus is the thrall of iron - hot forge orange. Both are possibly twin Chandrian?
    Twin flames mapped to Cyphus (blue flame) and Stercus (thrall of iron). — u/Seefy8
  • instantly thought of this > the twin cities of Murilla and Murella keep pulling that thread bud, i like this one.
    Comment adds the twin-cities parallel reinforcing the twin-flame reading. — u/Smurphilicious
  • Lithium salts can be used for the treatment of manic-depressive psychosis, a form of madness. It is suggested that madness is one of their signs.
    Lithium-green flame mapped to the Chandrian sign of madness. — u/Seefy8
  • Kilvin's search for the lamp is an allegory of the search for immortality.. As far as we know only Haliax has actually achieved it so far..
    Comment frames the ever-burning lamp quest as an allegory for immortality. — u/Zhorangi
  • Just as a side note, lithium is used for Bipolar disorder, its a mood stabiliser, its no longer called manic-depressive and its not a form of psychosis
    CounterCounter: corrects the lithium-madness premise, undermining the madness mapping. — u/carlos_6m
  • I personally think the legends of ever burning lamps that Kilvin speaks of are referring to the stars made by the Shapers to fill their empty sky.
    CounterCounter: offers a rival reading of the ever-burning lamp as Shaper-made stars, not Chandrian. — u/Sandal-Hat

Book refs: NOTW ch 21, NOTW ch 44

Tier reasoning§

tier correct: speculative colour-to-sign matching

Contributors§

Source threads§