KKC Theory Wiki

The Chandrian Are the Rhinta — the Surviving Knowers of the Old World

fringe identity · popularity 87 · 1 source thread

If 'Rhinta' means 'knower,' the Chandrian are the remnant of an order who knew the deep names of things.

About: The Chandrian, Naming

Also involves: The Cthaeh, Shaping, The Amyr, Kvothe

The theory§

This theory holds that the Adem word 'Rhinta' translates as 'knower,' and that the Chandrian are the surviving remnant of an ancient order who knew the deep names of things. It leans on the dying skin-dancer's demand 'Te Rhintae?' in the Waystone Inn, reread not as 'Are you Chandrian?' but as 'Do you know them?'; on the four-plate door inscription 'Vorfelan Rhinata Morie,' rendered by Wilem as 'the desire for knowledge shapes the man'; and on the phonetic kinship between 'rhinta' and 'rhinna,' the all-curing flower of the all-knowing Cthaeh. A competing reading proposes 'Rhinta' instead means 'shaper,' since the door-phrase invokes both knowing and shaping, the Cthaeh dwells in the shaper-made Fae, and a flower that cures any wound seems a shaped rather than natural thing. Shehyn's own gloss undercuts both leaps: among the Adem, Rhinta names a kind of being, 'a man who is more than a man, yet less than a man,' not a profession of knowing or shaping.

Evidence§

  • Rhinta means knower.
    OP's core premise: the word translates as knower. — u/Ragnanicci
  • Most noticeably when the skin dancer asks if he is Ammyr and then says te Rhinta? Everyone assumes he is asking if Kvothe is Chandrian but is actually asking Do you know them?(Ammyr)
    Rereads the skin-dancer's question as 'do you know them?' supporting knower. — u/Ragnanicci
  • In NoTW Rhinta is used in a phrase that is translated the desire for knowledge shapes us or something.
    Door inscription ties Rhinta to knowledge/desire for knowing. — u/Ragnanicci
  • The Rhinna flower is associated with the Cthaeh he knows all things.
    Phonetic link rhinta/rhinna to the all-knowing Cthaeh. — u/Ragnanicci
  • Rhinta may mean shaper, we have no idea at this point.
    CounterCounter: word could mean shaper instead of knower. — u/Aridius
  • As you pointed out, the phrase it comes from contains both knowledge and shapes.
    CounterThe door-phrase invokes both knowing and shaping, weakening knower reading. — u/Aridius
  • The cthaeh exists in the fae realm, a place made by shapers. If a flower cures any illness or wound it doesn’t seem a natural thing, but something made by a shaper or something that shapes to cure.
    CounterCounter: Cthaeh and rhinna flower point toward shaping, not knowing. — u/Aridius
  • Everything from these stories points to the Chandrian betraying the knowers and becoming shapers.
    CounterCounter: lore frames Chandrian as shapers who betrayed the knowers. — u/Aridius

Book refs: NOTW, WMF

Tier reasoning§

distinct theory; fringe fits — etymological speculation contested by commenters

Contributors§

Source threads§