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Spitting Off the Stone Bridge Is a Folk Magic Counter to Sympathetic Tracking

plausible mechanism · popularity 303 · 1 source thread

Elodin's 'spit for luck' tradition may stem from a real effect: bodily fluids in running water confuse sympathetic tracking.

About: Sympathy

Also involves: Elodin, Kvothe, The University

The theory§

The University custom of spitting off the great stone bridge "for luck" may preserve a real fragment of folk magic: a defence against sympathetic tracking. Bodily fluids carry a sympathetic link back to their owner, and a dowsing compass can be tuned to such a link to hunt a person down. By scattering a piece of oneself into running water, the link is dispersed and the tracker's bearing is diluted or lost. Kvothe employs exactly this principle when evading pursuers, smearing blood on leaves and leaving bottled blood behind in Trebon and elsewhere. That Elodin, one of the most knowledgeable arcanists at the University, reinforces the same childhood superstition already taught to Kvothe by Wilem and Simmon, and does so on one of the oldest and most pointedly arcane landmarks in the land, suggests the tradition carries a kernel of buried truth even if its original purpose has been forgotten.

Evidence§

  • At one point, Elodin tells Kvothe to spit over the stone bridge, as it brings good luck.
    OP's starting observation: the in-world custom to be explained. — u/devvorare
  • We know bodily fluids can be used to track people. Blood is used in the books, but when Kvothe is healing the Maer he mentions that other fluids also work.
    Core premise: bodily fluids carry a trackable sympathetic link. — u/devvorare
  • If you know you are being tracked, sending parts of yourself down the river or into the wind can help confuse the tracker. Well, what if spitting over the bridge actually brings good luck because it has the same effect, although reduced?
    OP's central claim linking spitting to dispersing a tracking link. — u/devvorare
  • Kvothe literally does this a couple of times (blood on the leaves, blood in bottles in klinks, etc.) … Spit for luck very well could come from confusing dousing.
    Supports via in-text precedent of Kvothe scattering fluids to evade tracking. — u/NYR525
  • The fact that Elodin reinforces the same tradition as Wil and Sim means that this has more history than is being presented. This is something true. It might not be for preventing tracking, but it IS for something.
    Refines: a knowledgeable arcanist echoing the custom signals buried meaning. — u/TemporaryOk4143
  • Consider the amount of body fluids we release everyday, going to the bathroom for example. If tracking "devices" could be misdirected by simple things such as this, it wouldn't have any use at all.
    CounterCounter: everyday fluid loss would render such tracking useless. — u/Musician-Extra
  • They'd have to be using spit to track Kvothe. If they were using hair or blood, spitting in the river wouldn't do anything.
    CounterCounter: spitting only disrupts tracking if the spit itself is the link used. — u/HanzoXHanzo
  • Kvothe also spits on a bridge on his way to the Eolian since Wil and Sim tells him that it brings good luck. Also not much long later assasins find him with a compass. So yeah I would say that it does not work like that.
    CounterCounter: Kvothe spits yet is still found by a compass, undermining the effect. — u/hawik

Book refs: NOTW, WMF

Tier reasoning§

plausible confirmed

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