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The Scrael Are Grown From the Cthaeh's Tree and Serve as Its Wardens

plausible mechanism · popularity 467 · 1 source thread

The scrael are fungal growths from the Cthaeh's roah tree that kill butterflies and spread its influence beyond the Fae.

About: Scrael, The Cthaeh

Also involves: The Lackless Box, The Fae, Kvothe, The Sithe

The theory§

This theory holds that the scrael are not ordinary creatures but fungal growths of the Cthaeh's tree, acting as its wardens or its overflow into the wider world. The Cthaeh is no tree but a being imprisoned in one, unable to leave it, and the strongest thread of the argument is olfactory: the Cthaeh's tree carries a scent of smoke, spice, leather and lemon that matches the wood of the Loeclos box, which in turn matches roah, the rare coal-dark wood of Kvothe's thrice-locked chest. If all three are the same wood, the Cthaeh sits inside a roah tree of the same nature as those locked containers. The scrael's mushroom-like, non-animal anatomy and the Cthaeh's idle slaughter of butterflies suggest the scrael extend its reach beyond the tree, killing whatever threatens it and spreading like a contagion the Sithe quarantine. A refinement proposes the scrael are a contagious byproduct rather than deliberate guards, and notes that Kvothe may carry the contamination not from the visit itself but from later handling the Loeclos box, since Felurian checks him for having touched the Cthaeh.

Evidence§

  • Many things in the books point to the conclusion that the scrael kill the butterflies, serve as "prison guards" and maybe even grow on the Cthaeh tree.
    OP's core thesis: scrael kill butterflies, guard the prison, and grow on the tree. — u/BlueVCoin
  • The Cthaeh tree smells like smoke and spice and leather and lemon. … It was like smoke and spice and leather and lemon.
    Olfactory link: the tree's scent is the key thread tying it to the boxes' wood. — u/BlueVCoin
  • It was dark enough to be roah, but it had a deep red grain. … something almost like lemon. It was maddeningly familiar.
    Loeclos box wood smells of lemon like the tree, identifying tree as roah. — u/BlueVCoin
  • The word sinuous is used to describe the motion among the branches as well as the motion of the scrael. It is used only 4 times in the books.
    Shared rare word links the killer in the branches to scrael motion. — u/BlueVCoin
  • The scrael are a type of mushroom, they are not an animal. They grow on the Cthaeh tree. … Like a mushroom.
    Non-animal anatomy: scrael are fungal growths produced by the tree itself. — u/BlueVCoin
  • What if the scrael are a byproduct of the Cthaeh, killing the butterflies because the Cthaeh doesn't like them? What if the scrael represent the Cthaeh's influence, spreading like a fungus
    Refines theory: scrael are contagious byproduct, not deliberate guards. — u/Smurphilicious
  • one of the first things Felurian does is check Kvothe over and ask if it touched him.
    Supports touch-based contamination; Kvothe may be infected via later handling. — u/Forbiddenfrog
  • To me, this passage appears to strongly imply that the Cthaeh is killing the butterflies, even though it never explicitly says "I killed it". … Scrael playing this role is a hypothesis which introduces what seems to be an inconsistency, Occams razor doesn't appear work in its favour.
    CounterCounter: text implies the Cthaeh itself kills the butterflies, not scrael. — u/WelshMarauder
  • Kvothe can track the Scrael's motion when they move. He cannot see what kills the butterflies. Plus, if the tree is Roah, something made of stone would make any awful noise moving through it.
    CounterCounter: scrael are visible and stone-hard, unlike the unseen butterfly-killer. — u/Benorf

Book refs: WMF, NOTW

Tier reasoning§

tier kept: plausible; olfactory roah-link is suggestive but the fungal-warden mechanism is a leap

Contributors§

Source threads§