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Master Ash Is Baron Greyfallow, the Patron Behind Both Dangerous Songs

plausible identity · popularity 515 · 3 source threads

Denna's secretive patron Master Ash is Baron Greyfallow, Arliden's former patron, linked by colour symbolism and parallel Chandrian song-research.

About: Master Ash

Also involves: Denna, Arliden, Cinder, Haliax, The Chandrian, Kvothe, Baron Greyfallow, Bredon

The theory§

Master Ash, Denna's secretive and unseen patron, is identified as Baron Greyfallow, the noble who once served as patron to Arliden's travelling troupe. The theory rests on a structural parallel: Greyfallow set Arliden the task of composing a song about Lanre, a song whose research drifted from Lanre and Lyra toward the Chandrian over nearly two years, and that same dangerous work now reappears in Denna's pro-Lanre songs commissioned by Master Ash. Colour symbolism reinforces the link, as Greyfallow's house colours are green and grey, ash is grey and the ash tree bears green leaves, and the surname yields the wordplay 'Greyfallow' to 'grey fellow' to 'Master Ash'; 'fallow' itself denotes broken, ploughed but unplanted earth. A recurring extension holds that Greyfallow is himself Cinder, working covertly even against Haliax, which would account for why Arliden's growing knowledge got the troupe slaughtered. The counter-argument runs that a Chandrian would never commission an accurate song about Chandrian existence, since concealment is their defining purpose, and that an unseen, unmet noble makes for an unsatisfying reveal unless he enters the third volume.

Evidence§

  • What if Master Ash IS Baron Greyfallow. … Who was the patron of Kvothe's troupe? Who was it that most likely tasked Arliden with finding the missing pieces of the Chandrian and tying them together in a song? Who is now asking for it to be done again?
    OP's core claim: same patron who tasked Arliden's Lanre song now commissions Denna's. — u/ohn0anywayz
  • Ashes are Grey. The Colours of the Baron are Green and Grey. An Ash Tree has Green leaves and Ash is Grey. Master Ash. … Also Fallow means land that has been harrowed and ploughed but not planted. So his name is "Grey earth that is left as is"
    Colour and name symbolism linking Master Ash to Greyfallow's green-and-grey house. — u/ohn0anywayz
  • The fact is if you actually compare the songs from what we hear are very similar in tone. … From what we hear BOTH are sympathetic towards Lanre.
    Structural parallel: Arliden's and Denna's Lanre songs share tone and sympathy. — u/ohn0anywayz
  • He had Arliden working on a very old song that is dangerous to sing. I think he has Denna doing the same.
    Compact restatement of the parallel-dangerous-song argument across a second thread. — u/maineman1990
  • Cinder might have hunted down Kvothe's family because they stopped writing the song that Barron Greyfallow wanted, started focusing more on the connections between Lanre and the Chandrian than anything else.
    Extension: Greyfallow is Cinder; troupe killed for drifting toward the Chandrian. — u/ohn0anywayz
  • But there's only a single time in WMF that Kvothe brings up "Baron Greyfallow" and it's in an extremely specific circumstance: when he's talking to Denna about "patrons" while sitting in a boarding house that is, literally, called the "Grey Man."
    Refinement adding new textual evidence: Greyfallow named while in the 'Grey Man' house. — u/scowlbear
  • Why would one of the Chandrian commission Arliden to write an accurate song about their own existence, given that?
    CounterCounter: a Chandrian patron contradicts the Chandrian's purpose of concealment. — u/Paxtian
  • 2/3rds through this story we've only ever heard of Baron Greyfallow and have never knowingly met him. … It's not satisfying because we haven't been properly introduced.
    CounterCounter: unseen, unmet noble makes for an unsatisfying reveal. — u/Kit-Carson

Book refs: NOTW, WMF, NOTW ch 72

Tier reasoning§

tier confirmed plausible: multiple converging parallels

Contributors§

Source threads§