KKC Theory WikiThe Moon's Synodic Period Encodes the Fae-to-Mortal Time Ratio
The moon's 72.3-day synodic period is the conversion rate between Fae and mortal time: ~72.3 Fae days per mortal day.
Also involves: Felurian, Elxa Dal, The Creation War, The Shaed, Kvothe, Bast
The theory§
This theory reads the moon's synodic period as the literal conversion rate between Fae and mortal time, expressed as F=M(s): for every mortal day, roughly 72.3 days pass in the Fae. Its springboard is Kvothe's admission exam, where Elxa Dal asks the synodic period of the moon out of sequence with the other questions and Kvothe answers seventy-two and a third days, a pointedness read as flagging the number's importance. Felurian's teaching that there is only one moon, moving between the mortal and Fae skies and lying at the heart of the Creation War, supplies the cosmological link, as does Kvothe's remark that the moon is long absent from the Fae sky. The accelerated maturation of Menda, who looks seventeen at only seven span from the womb, is offered as a model of how the Fae's compressed time produces rapid development, and Bast's age is invoked similarly. The conversion is contested: the lore describes time running both faster and slower in the Fae, with travellers returning years later claiming minutes passed and others sleeping briefly yet waking as old men, which fits no fixed ratio; one refinement proposes the direction of the ratio flips with the moon's phase, running 72:1 at new moon and 1:72 at full.
Evidence§
At Kvothe’s first admissions exam, Elxa Dal asks Kvothe about the synodic period of the moon. … “Seventy-two and a third days, sir. Give or take a bit.” … Elxa Dal’s question should alert the reader that 72.3 is an important number.
OP springboard: the out-of-sequence exam question flags 72.3 as significant. — u/PlaytheBoardFelurian explains that the Mortal and the Fae share one moon and that the moon is at the heart of the Creation War. … “there is only one moon,” Felurian said. “she moves between your mortal sky and mine.”
Shared-moon cosmology links the two worlds, motivating a moon-based time relationship. — u/PlaytheBoardTaking Elxa Dal’s question in light of Felurian’s explanation of the shared moon, it’s reasonable to think the synodic period of the moon might tell us the temporal relationship between the Mortal and the Fae.
Core claim: synodic period encodes the Fae-to-mortal time conversion rate. — u/PlaytheBoardeven though he was only seven span from the womb, Menda looked to be a young man of seventeen. … This is might easily be accounted for if Menda spent his childhood in the Fae where he’d continue to develop without much mortal time passing.
Case 1: Menda's accelerated aging fits Fae-compressed time under the formula. — u/PlaytheBoardBast is 150 years old … To calculate the Mortal time, simple divide by the synodic period of the moon. 150/72.3. The answer is almost exactly 2. Bast is 2 Mortal years old.
Case 2: Bast's 150 Fae years divided by 72.3 yields ~2 mortal years. — u/PlaytheBoardKvothe has been in Newarre for a nearly a year. And Bast has been with Kvothe for two years. So there is no way Bast is two mortal years old.
CounterCounter: Bast's tutelage timeline contradicts the claim he is only 2 mortal years old. — u/Zhorangiand return years later, looking no older and claiming only minutes have passed. … If both Fae and Mortal time run linearly and parallel, just in a different scale… where do the stories come from?
CounterCounter: lore of time running both ways fits no single fixed linear ratio. — u/nIBLIBif you entered Fae during a New Moon the timing was reversed 72:1 (72 days of man passed for each day in Fae) and Full Moon as you describe 1:72.
Refinement: the ratio's direction flips with the moon's phase, reconciling both directions. — u/Salamok
Book refs: NOTW, WMF
Tier reasoning§
no change; invented numeric formula, fringe is correct
Contributors§
- u/en-the — corroborated · 21 pts
- u/Zhorangi — countered · 13 pts