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The Underthing Is the Ruins of an Ancient, Pre-University Campus

well-supported connection · popularity 209 · 1 source thread

Elodin's hint that the University was built on older ruins points directly to the Underthing beneath it.

About: The Underthing, The University

Also involves: Auri, Elodin, Kvothe

The theory§

The Underthing—the vast subterranean network of rooms, tunnels and machinery that Auri inhabits beneath the University—is the physical remnant of an older University built upon the same ground. Elodin tells Kvothe that 'once upon a time, there was a University. It was built in the dead ruins of an older University,' and during Kvothe's tour of the Underthing he notes a room with a pair of bricked-up windows at least fifty feet below ground, implying that what is now buried once stood at or above the surface. Puppet's deep underground office in the Archives likewise has a window, suggesting it was once a tall tower in an above-ground city now sunk and built over. A further extension links the buried city to Belen, a proto-Faen city described in the deep past, and notes the University's region may sit where Belen once stood, raising the question of whether this was the single city spared in the accounts given by Skarpi and Shehyn. The Slow Regard of Silent Things, set entirely in the Underthing, reinforces that it is far more than a mere old campus.

Evidence§

  • Elodin says to him ‘Once upon a time, there was a Univeristy. It was built on the ruins of an older Univeristy’. Here Elodin seems to be talking about the current university (which the under thing runs below).
    OP's core claim: Elodin says the University sits on ruins of an older one, which the Underthing runs below. — u/punplease-
  • During Kvothe’s description of the underthing it says ‘One room had a pair of bricked-up windows despite the fact that we were, at my best guess, at least fifty feet below ground’.
    OP's key textual evidence: bricked-up windows deep underground imply what is now buried once stood at the surface. — u/punplease-
  • it seems like there’s a possibility that the underthing is part of the university Elodin mentions.
    OP states the theory: the Underthing is part of Elodin's older University. — u/punplease-
  • "Once upon a time, there was a University. It was built in the dead ruins of an older University. It wasn’t very big, perhaps fifty people in all. … There was a small group of people who gathered there. People whose knowledge went beyond mathematics and grammar and rhetoric." (notw 86)
    Comment supplies the verbatim Elodin quote underpinning the theory. — u/mayotte2048
  • Puppet also has a window in his deep underground office in the library, which perhaps was a tall tower in the old city
    Adds evidence: another deep window suggests a once above-ground tower now buried. — u/plagueolas
  • There is some evidence that suggests that the University is geographically in the same region as the proto-faen city Belen … Belen, or its periphery, is the location where Lanre and Lyra fought The Blac of Drossen Tor
    Extends theory: links buried city to proto-Faen Belen and the Doors of Stone. — u/Sandal-Hat
  • You need to read The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It's set entirely in the Underthing and makes pretty clear that it isn't just an old university.
    CounterCounter/refine: argues the Underthing is more than merely an old campus. — u/pakap
  • I don't understand why it's below the ground. When someone says that something is built on the ruins of something, they usually don't literally mean that the ruins are *below* the new thing.
    CounterCounter: questions whether 'built on ruins' really means the old University lies buried below. — u/AssassinInWhite

Book refs: NOTW

Tier reasoning§

Elodin's direct line plus underground windows; well-supported confirmed

Contributors§

Source threads§