KKC Theory Wiki

King Roderic Calanthis Is a Secret Arcanist and the King Kvothe Kills

fringe identity · popularity 70 · 1 source thread

Symbolic clues mark King Roderic of Vintas as a secret arcanist and the king Kvothe is destined to kill.

About: Kvothe, Caesura

Also involves: Maer Lerand Alveron, The Cthaeh, Auri, Severen, Vintas, Sympathy

The theory§

This theory identifies King Roderic Calanthis of Vintas as the king Kvothe is destined to kill, and proposes he is secretly an arcanist. Its core is a web of symbolic foreshadowing. While treating the poisoned Maer, Kvothe tests antidotes on calanthis birds, killing many, and Stapes notes that calanthis is the Eld Vintic name for them, also the surname of the royal line of Vintas, casting the dead birds as the doomed royal family. The Cthaeh tears apart a large red-and-gold butterfly, the colors of Roderic, foreshadowing his death. The sword Caesura, named for a jarring break in an Eld Vintic poetic line, would break the Eld Vintic royal line of Calanthis when Kvothe uses it, and people would later garble the name into 'Kvothe the Bloodless' or similar through retelling. The theory ties this to the Maer's warning that wearing swords is a barbarian custom that will bring the king to grief, and to the Taborlin-style boast about stealing princesses back from sleeping barrow kings, since Rothfuss has confirmed the sleeping barrow king was the first king of Vintas. From there it speculates further: that Roderic dabbles in dark royal rituals and is Auri's father, the lost princess Ariel Calanthis.

Evidence§

  • Roderic Calathanis is an Arcanist.
    OP's core claim framing Roderic as the doomed secret arcanist king. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • Calanthis is the Eld Vintic name for them … It's also the surname of the royal line of Vintas
    Killed calanthis birds symbolically mark the doomed Calanthis royal line. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • my eye was caught by a single large red one, crimson shot through with a faint tracery of metallic gold … They tumbled apart and fluttered separately to the ground like falling autumn leaves.
    Cthaeh destroying a red-and-gold butterfly foreshadows death in Roderic's colors. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • It's something they use in Eld Vintic verse … It's a break in the line called a caesura.
    Caesura, a break in the Eld Vintic line, will break the Calanthis line. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • it is a barbarian custom, and one that will bring the king to grief in time.
    Maer's warning that swords will bring the king to grief. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • why did Roderic send Auri, his only daughter, to the University of all places? … The answer is that Roderic is no superstitious fool but was himself educated at the University and is potentially a fully graduated Sympathist & Arcanist.
    Sending Auri to the University implies Roderic is University-educated arcanist. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • We get a lot, A LOT, of material where Kvothe's life parallels the Taborlin stories. Why not his confrontation with a magic wielding king?
    Taborlin parallel: Kvothe destined to confront a magic-wielding king. — u/darkironbrightcopper
  • I think Roderic is *A* king that is killed. I don't think he is *THE* King that is killed.
    CounterCounter: Roderic may die but not be the prophesied king Kvothe kills. — u/a_gallon_of_pcp
  • Many think Kvothe will kill the Calanthis royal line, but I think Kvothe will become Roderic's counsel … Kvothe will be assumed the killer because he is at the scene of the crime
    CounterCounter: Kvothe framed for regicide rather than truly killing Roderic. — u/chainsawx72

Book refs: WMF

Tier reasoning§

tier downgraded: king-killing core has hooks but the secret-arcanist and Auri's-father claims are speculative leaps

Contributors§

Source threads§