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Kvothe and Lanre Both Suffer Disasters Seven Years Apart

plausible timeline · popularity 102 · 1 source thread

Echoing 'expect disaster every seven years', Kvothe's and Lanre's catastrophes fall on a seven-year cycle.

About: Kvothe, Haliax

Also involves: The Amyr, Chronicler, Savien Traliard

The theory§

This theory reads the Vintish saying 'Chan Vaen edan Kote' — 'expect disaster every seven years' — as a literal structural key to Kvothe's life and to Lanre's. Kilvin teaches Kvothe the phrase after the fishery fire; Kvothe parses 'Chan Vaen' as 'seven years' but admits he does not know 'Kote', and Kilvin supplies that it means disaster, the very name Kvothe later chose for himself. Kvothe's troupe was murdered just after he turned twelve, which places his next great folly near nineteen and, with the frame narrator judged 'no more than twenty-five', a third catastrophe near the present. Reading Savien Traliard as the in-story analogue of Lanre, his six years away with the Amyr would set his fateful return to Aloine on the seventh year, so that the seven-year rhythm governs both the historical fall and Kvothe's life. That Kvothe names his sword Folly and tells Bast 'this is where it ends' is taken as the cycle closing.

Evidence§

  • Chan Vaen edan Kote: Expect disaster every seven years
    The Vintish saying that anchors the whole seven-year-cycle premise. — u/chainsawx72
  • I can't prove it, but I think Kvothe and Lanre both have disasters that are seven years apart.
    OP states the core thesis being argued. — u/chainsawx72
  • Kvothe had just turned 12 when his troupe was murdered and is about to turn 18 by the end of the second book. This suggest that we have just over one full year (four terms/eight months) before Kvothe causes civil war, kills a king, opens the doors of stone, or whatever is his ultimate 'folly'
    Maps Kvothe's first disaster at 12 to a second folly near 19. — u/chainsawx72
  • And in the frame story, Kvothe appears to be twenty-five-ish, suggesting we are approaching Kvothe's third disaster too... … He's so young, Chronicler marveled. He can't be more than twenty-five.
    Frame-narrator age points to a third catastrophe near the present. — u/chainsawx72
  • If you agree that Savien is based on Lanre, then the six years with the Amyr was most likely between the Blac of Drossen Tor and Lyra's death. … But six years with the Amyr means he came back to Aloine on the seventh year. … Savien = seven, Aloine = alone?
    Extends the cycle to Lanre via Savien returning on the seventh year. — u/chainsawx72
  • I totally spaced on the line about Savien being with the Amyr for six years. Not sure about the Savien = Seven part, but I think you're spot on about the seven year cycle. It sounds to me like Savien coming back to Aloine *was* the disaster.
    Endorses the cycle and refines that the return itself is the disaster. — u/Smurphilicious
  • It also lines up with the end of WMF when Kvothe says we'll leave the story here because it's about to go sideways.
    Adds corroborating evidence that a folly looms soon after WMF. — u/tellmort-yourmove
  • I like the notion, but it seems like you're giving short shrift to all the little disasters that happened along the way..
    CounterCounter: many smaller disasters undercut a clean seven-year cycle. — u/Zhorangi

Book refs: NOTW, WMF

Tier reasoning§

builds on canonical phrase, plausible stands

Contributors§

Source threads§