Rothfussians discussion

He's young looking as we all know. However, the stories of "Kvothe the Arcane" and such have the feel that people have been telling them for decades. If Kvothe actually is, say, in his mid-twenties to mid-thirties, that will be a major suspension of disbelief killer for me. I simply do not believe stories could have propagated very quickly in the KKCverse, but more importantly, the townspeople who come to the inn tell those stories like they've been around forever.

Which begs the question, how old is Kvothe? I'm finding myself coming down on the side of, much much older than he appears. Which means that his time at the University took place a LONG time ago. Which is problematic.

Problematic how?

We know he is older than his mortal years by a minimum of a few months (to possibe a couple of years) from his time with Felurian. During which only 3 nights passeed in the 4C's.

It may be that in D3 he spends another such significant period of time in Faen. There are clues that hint at such, but it is by no means a given.

Why do you find it so hard to believe that stories travel so fast? We see several instances of it.

Small locale:
K's own stories of himself at uni.
His whipping
the fire

Larger:
Trebon, both the rumers that led K there and his activities
Jakis exploits
Death of nobles

Then there are the rumours the nobles send k in the Maer's court. His subsequent publishing of them...and presumably distrabution. These stories are not verafied, they are a step in how the truth is misapropriated.

And, of course, K's rather pointed example of the Chronicler story he tells the yocals in the frame.


:) And thats without considering the effcts of an awoken sleeping mind...time is but a perception, if you percieve all are you outside of time? What then, of age?

One of the underlying themes of the series is the power of stories themselves. How they change and become something of their own.

I think it is entirely possible, especially in an age such as the world of this series, that people could treat stories as some from bygone days.

I don't really see it as problem either. I think there are clues that he is older than apperances though.

And as Ashley said, the whole time he was in fae he was aging differently than the 4C's would have allowed. I think there is a lot of possiblity he returned there as well. I would assume during which time he became acquainted with Bast. (Since I don't subscribe to the theory Bast is his son, though I suppose thats possible)

Anyway, outside of that, Kvothe probably isnt substantially older. When he is at University he's specifically noted as reading Mating Habits, which is written by Chronicler. Therefore, all this still occured within time frame that fits both lives. It's suggested Chronicler attends University after Kvothe leaves, since he hears a lot about him there (though it's just as possible he was simply paying the University a visit for one reason or another)

On another note, the propagation of the stories isn't totally unbelievable. As shown in the frame, very few common people have the ability to at least write, I would say it's suggested reading isn't always a skill these folk have either. Since there's no TV or Internet, pretty much stories are all they have for entertainment and whenever someone can get a new one, they are the star of the evening. So passing information among said group of people isn't all that ridiculous, in my opinion of course.

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/histo...

Not gospel, by any means but here is part of why I feel the way I do.

"Travel in the Middle Ages was slow, uncomfortable, and usually dangerous."

" Most people didn’t travel at all. Common people sometimes lived their whole lives never traveling more then 10 miles from the place where they were born."

More later.

Very hard to find information on how fast legends and stories typically travel, but I did find this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prester_...

The story of Prester John took *years* to gain any traction.

This is the type of speed I envision when I think of the legend of Kvothe growing and spreading. It's glacially slow.

Question for yah Bill... What makes you think the speed of information in the Four Corners resembles the middle ages? Technology aside, the cultures, state of war/peace, trade routes etc. are all completely different which would make them non compatible as a comparison. If you are looking for metrics try China around the same time period as it had much more in common with Rothfuss's world.

I do see what you mean - however, its not that there isn't accounts of such things spreading quickly. Not to mention, Prestor John is harder to spread, since the existance of such a character and his related kingdom, are pure myths, not just minor innaccuracies.

See Jesus of Nazereth for example. I believe the bible has him teaching his first lesson at someting around 12 and he's later killed for all the rumor surrounding him at the age of 33. So about 20 years give or take and stories about his exploits are rampant to say the least. His death only made them more voracious, which I think could be aiken to the way Kvothe's story grew.

I'm not terribly familiar with prophet Muhammad, but what I do know of his story, it's rather similar.

Not to mention people like Alexander the Great, who managed to spread his empire to contain most of the known world in just 15 years, thus creating an entire slew of stories and innaccurate accounts along the way.

Anyway - back to my point, these characters are all much more similar to Kvothe and also the way the story of his life is set up. (In my opinion...if that needs to be said at this point LOL)


EDIT: sorry didn't see one of your posts. Outside of these stories, the travel and information movement is differing from traditional middle ages. We know for certain there a travelling troupes and players who posess news as well as Tinkers. We've also seen the travelling isn't necessarily as dangerous or uncomfortable through our travels with Kvothe, but also through the cultural melting pot that is the university. Characters like Threpe and Bredon are travelling here and there all the time. Even just people in the town of Newarre are forced to travel to sell and buy supplies.

Yes, I grant you, the some of the characters mentioned do travel extensively. However, even in Kvothe's world, the vast, vast, majority of people probably don't travel much. In any case, here is a link to how I envision an idea travels.

http://www2.div.ed.ac.uk/courses/Anim...

That's the spread of Christianity over 400 years. It didn't cover much ground.

I'll check some other legends and see if they spread faster though.

Johnny Appleseed became famous 25 years after he died. That's in an era of relatively fast/safe travel.

"His legend grew after his death. In April 1846, a brief essay about Johnny Appleseed and his peculiar career as a pioneer horticulturalist was published. The author didn't know that Chapman had died a year earlier and didn't even know his real name. Other literary publications picked up the tale. In November 1871 a story in Harper's New Monthly Magazine elevated him to national prominence, and the literary Johnny Appleseed was born. His image evolved from that of a pioneer planter of apple seeds into a "patron saint of horticulture," a folk hero to this day."

Link if anyone is interested.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/r...

Hey, that was actually a pretty cool link. Thanks for that.


Anyway, I think we also have to take into account we're not sure how prolific Kvothe's stories are. For instance, there's simply nothing suggesting Kvothe is a popular lengendary figure in Modeg. We have no real knowledge of the location of Newarre, though it's suggested it may be located in Vintas, making the growth of Kvothe's story less substantial as well as more localized. It wouldn't be ridiculous to conclude that he may only be popular in places like Vintas, the Commonwealth or the Small Kingdoms, where cultural standards are relatively the same, and they at least share a language. (Though I'd assume he has some stories in Ademre, due to his being an outsider there)
It's also likely that beyond the Stormwal Mtn's Kvothe is not known at all.

.... the story of Kvothe is fanasty, complete fantasy. I don't think you can judge it based on real history.

JK wrote: ".... the story of Kvothe is fanasty, complete fantasy. I don't think you can judge it based on real history."

I'm trying to build a case that Kvothe is not just older than he looks, he's a LOT older. And of course, as alluded to earlier, Chronicler and some other characters will also need to be long-lived for this to be the case.

Now, I personally, and I'm clearly in the minority, find that Kvothe's legend is unrealistic if it isn't at least decades old. BUT...if both Kvothe and Chronicler are long lived, it's possible.

edit: and yes, it's fantasy, but there are rules.

This is true. LOL.

However - I do hit these stumbling points as well. I like my reading to envoke as much relatable realism as possible without turning the story into a nonfiction or historical rip off. I'd consider this a small blip on my own personal radar, but thats besides point.

I don't think its entirely appropriate to just give fantasy authors a pass on reasoning and rationality simply because they write magic based fiction. Thats something that turns people off to reading. If you have something in your novels that works outside the normally excepted traditions of fantasy and real world personification, then as a writer, you need to answer to how and why it is different. Otherwise, that's just sloppy writing. If you don't answer to why, then you need to have a reason why the reader can't find it out. I think The Chandrian would be a good example of that.

Oh another point against your theory - not to be an asshole, just to help you put it together.

Is that when the traveller recognizes Kote to be Kvothe at the Waystone during the frame, that traveller specifically mentions watching him play before. (I think in Imre, but that does need verification)

So Kvothe would have had to change into Kote at least during said traveller's memory span and life span. Though that doesn't seem to prove he couldn't have been living a perfectly long and enjoyable life before any of that.

@ Bill: So your comparing the speed of news of someone who planted apple trees to someone who killed a king? Also comparing the speed of a continent adopting a religion to a king killer? Kinda like comparing apples to millenium falcons no?

My wild ass guess is Kvothe is 25 in Four Corners linear time. No idea how old he is biologically though.

I'm not saying anything goes just because it is fantasy. Certainly I don't expect Kvothe to lose an arm and then just grow it back. What I was trying to say is that maybe there are real life examples of legends and stories moving slowly, but that doesn't have to be the case in a fantasy novel. Especially in this series' setting.

The tales in this series move almost like that whispering game where a line of people whisper to each person the story told before them. By the time the story reaches the last person it is typically much different.

Expand that to a much larger group of people across a country and I think a tale could be greatly changed, including its age. In a land that's become about living and surfing each day, id imagine it would be easy to lose sight of when things actually happened as well.

The events of The Wise Man's Fear take place in a little over a year. When he gets back to the University, The Levinshir and Felurian stories have preceded him; they've caught the Trebon story and magnified it. You're looking at a few months at the outside for stories to travel a thousand miles. Of course, they'd have had help from Kvothe being all over the southern and eastern parts of the map and a few major cities.

Travel times are basically laid out in the books. The 40 mile trip from Tarbean to Imre takes 3 days with a wagon caravan and about half a day with a commissioned carriage. Wearing out a horse will get you the 60-70 miles from Imre to Trebon in a day. The distance from Imre to Severen is around a thousand miles; he estimates three span (33 days or 3/4 of a month) overland and 12 days by sea.

The visible spread of the stories and the substantiated travel times make it completely understandable that 5-10 years on, travelers might think they recognize Kvothe in the middle of Newarre. The introductory chapters, before the narrative starts, take some pains to establish a fairly young man. Chronicler pretty much fixes Kote's age at around twenty-five.

"The tales in this series move almost like that whispering game where a line of people whisper to each person the story told before them. By the time the story reaches the last person it is typically much different."

I agree with that. I just think most people are envisioning these stories to travel in a straight line at the fastest possible speed. What is more likely is that these stories take time to get some traction, become famous locally after quite a bit of time, and expand outward in relatively concentric circles until they reach a certain saturation point. All of which takes time.

It doesn't matter, I was just trying to envision a possibility that would allow the stories some time to mature and spread, while still not contradicting anything yet written. But having Kvothe, Chronicler, Abenthy, and whoever knows how other many people would have also had to have been magically long-lived, is even more unlikely.

So we're left with stories spreading rapidly and old men acting like they'd grown up with them. I mean, I think someone actually says something about how, I don't remember who it was, was remembering the story wrong. Just doesn't seem possible if the stories are only a few years old. I suppose this is the thing I like least.

I think you should take into account how Kvothe has always distorted, exaggerated and even invented stories about himself. And he has also helped spread them. I always imagine Kvothe as quite young, mid-twenties, which helps in keeping the whole mystery around him, being so young and so prolific in his life, in every sense. And he hasn't aged too much since the first book, so I doubt there'll be a big difference in the next one...but of course, anything could happen.

Mauricio wrote: "I think you should take into account how Kvothe has always distorted, exaggerated and even invented stories about himself. And he has also helped spread them. I always imagine Kvothe as quite young..."

True I suppose. Anyway, I just re-read the intro the NOTW and there are a couple of lines. The first one was when Chronicler references something Kvothe did a scant two years before, which seemingly shoots to hell the old Kvothe theory.

But then there is also this line, Chronicler says, "I thought you'd be older." And Kvothe replies "I am." and he then ignores the puzzled look on Chronicler's face.

So, laying to rest the old Kvothe theory, and I'm resigning myself to the fact that stories in KKCverse travel a lot faster than I personally find realistic, we're still left with Kvothe who says he's older than he looks. Which opens up his spending an undisclosed period time in the Fae which I believe someone mentioned above.

And in other news, to anyone who finds this discussion a horrific waste of time, we have to get our KKC fix somehow, don't we?

Bill wrote: "Mauricio wrote: "I think you should take into account how Kvothe has always distorted, exaggerated and even invented stories about himself. And he has also helped spread them. I always imagine Kvot..."

Well, spending time in the Fae would make him look older than he is (in regular time since he was born), and not the other way around. I don't think he'll spend much more time in the Fae, he might spend some, but not enough to be relevant to his appearance. And that wouldn't help the stories spread at all, since the time passed in the real world would be less than the time he's been alive.

Might be he took something from the Fae/they gave him something that makes him look young eternally or for a longer time than a regular human being.
Or maybe he's just healthy and/or likes to impress people.

Mauricio wrote: Well, spending time in the Fae would make him look older than he is (in regular time since he was born), and not the other way around.

Ah, I guess I didn't explain myself. I was thinking that since, as we know, time works differently in the Fae, maybe it's possible he spent years there without physically aging. Not sure if supported by the text since I know he grew a beard during the time he spent with Felurian. Still, perhaps spending time in the Fae just arrests...let's say, bodily decay. That would leave open growing beards, normal bodily processes, etc. But you wouldn't physically age. Just a thought.

Bill wrote: "Mauricio wrote: Well, spending time in the Fae would make him look older than he is (in regular time since he was born), and not the other way around.

Ah, I guess I didn't explain myself. I was th..."

I guess that's plausible, I hadn't thought of it that way. I mentioned he could've taken something from the Fae that caused that, but perhaps you are right and he only needed to be there.

Oh and I couldn't agree with you more...we need our fix!

A good example of how quickly Kvothe's adventures travel is when he comes back from the Maer, his story of killing the fake-Ruh troop is being told in Tarbean.

I don't find it hard to believe his story travelled fast. It's pretty out of the ordinary, something that anyone from farmers to nobles would tell assisting propagation.

Chris wrote: "A good example of how quickly Kvothe's adventures travel is when he comes back from the Maer, his story of killing the fake-Ruh troop is being told in Tarbean.

I don't find it hard to believe his ..."

That's true, and the more people tell the story, the more variations it gets, it's like an exponential rate of being changed, since I doubt until WMF at least they've ever been written to preserve them.

I think your theory is possible about the aging for sure. We know that Felurian doesn't appear to be decaying and Bast is quite old himself without appearing to be, though it's hard to say if that's a racial trait or something that happens because of the Fae Realm.

I think it's also possible time works differently in different parts of Fae. So if Kvothe was in a place other than Felurians Glade, it's possible that aging worked differently in that part as well. From what I understood, the fae is just a whole mess of random.

It is a possibility that the Fae don't age or age very slowly, even when they are outside the Fae Realm... also, Kvothe may be son of Iax, thus being half Fae.

BTW, love this quote.

"I thought you'd be older." And Kvothe replies "I am."

Just some more support for the slow spread of stories.

"For centuries, tales of a great war hero named Arthur were spread by word of mouth, or recorded by monks. But for the most part, these tales remained local, only being remembered among the Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons."

I realize nobody believes this but me.

edit: link http://www.heroofcamelot.com/literatu...

Bill wrote: "Just some more support for the slow spread of stories.

"For centuries, tales of a great war hero named Arthur were spread by word of mouth, or recorded by monks. But for the most part, these tales..."

Dude, there was the English Channel in the way and probably not a lot of gossip traded between the British Isles, France, Spain etc. Just sayin.

Bill wrote: "And in other news, to anyone who finds this discussion a horrific waste of time, we have to get our KKC fix somehow, don't we?"

If I gave the impression that I thought this discussion was horrific or wrong or any other negative adjective, I do not believe that. I hope that's not the impression I gave. >_<



I will agree that his response to Chronicler's "I thought you'd be older" line does raise questions.

I agree with JK - I don't completely disagree with you Bill, but it just doesnt make or break the story for me is all.

I think you provided plenty of proof how this stuff works in real world context, I just don't mind that this particular situation may be a tad unrealistic, though it's something I never realized until this topic.

Jason wrote:Dude, there was the English Channel in the way and probably not a lot of gossip traded between the British Isles, France, Spain etc. Just sayin.

I feel like I've given plenty of examples of the slow saturation of stories in a medieval setting. This stuff isn't exactly easy to research either, incidentally. And, if anyone has an example that is at odds with what I've listed, I'm more than willing to read it.

But in any case, none of this really matters. The stories of Kvothe do, in fact, spread pretty rapidly.

I had originally started this topic to explore the notions of Kvothe's age and how the stories themselves can seem so well-worn. I honestly got the impression, that when characters in the story were reciting Kvothe legends, the legends felt...old. It's difficult for me to reconcile that notion with the apparent fact that Kvothe, and the stories about him, are all relatively young.

(I hold out hope that PR will have some creative solution to this in book 3, however, as I'm pretty in awe of his writing ability through the first 2 books.)

You know, this just dawned me, but I believe Pat mentioned on The Story Board, that in the original manuscript there was no frame story at all.

So maybe that's why it's a little off realistically.

Adding the frame really gives the book drive and it's such a small detail that it may have been a bigger payoff to have the minor discrepency or suspense from reality.

Bill wrote: "This stuff isn't exactly easy to research either, incidentally."

I mostly just wanna commiserate and mutter, "I hear that." Thanks for presenting the examples and doing the work you did. It's interesting that it conflicts with what we're given in the story.

I'm actually kind of curious if some tabletop gamer out there could compare his travel times with, like, GURPS, Palladium, or D&D. I just have a feeling. Stories seem to travel as fast as people in the text.

In D&D travel time is based on terrain, character size, and encumberance also how fast they intend to go. So it depends...

Base move speed for a human is 30ft per round (approximate 6 seconds in the game world) without terrain effects.

If the character is walking he goes about 3 MPH and can do so for 8 hours without effects of tiring. (in human characters) so that'd be 16 miles a day without pushing.

A hustle would be twice that and the character can also go 8hrs without effect. So that's 32 miles in a day.

Running cannot be done as long usually, depends on constitution and a slew of other junk...

these are all speeds based on the idea the character isnt overencumbered as well, since Kvothe rarely has armor he'd probably qualify. This is also assuming no rough terrain or obstacle slowed the paced.

These are rules from D&D 3.5E
I'd have to look up the difference for AD&D if there is any. (Probably not though)

Also - If Kvothe took the right feats in character development and leveling along the way (not to mention items he might accrue) his popularity could increase substantially.

Stuff like that is definitely different in the TapleTop RPG setting.

*Edit:
Also we have to take into account the class stats of other people in the world. Invariably, Kvothe is not the only bard in the world, not to mention rogues - all of which are characters in an RPG setting that spread and gather information constantly.

thistlepong wrote: "Bill wrote: "This stuff isn't exactly easy to research either, incidentally."

I mostly just wanna commiserate and mutter, "I hear that." Thanks for presenting the examples and doing the work you ..."

Thanks. I learned more about the transmission of oral history this week than in my previous 38 years. Still very hard to pin down exact speeds of propagation.

Here is what I suggest: There is the Pony Express speed in which a story is passed along linearly to a very few people. This may have been what Kvothe experienced after dealing with the bandits. I'll attribute the speed of this to the fact that perhaps there simply was a single road for the story to travel on. It would make sense then, that the story would travel quickly.

On the other hand, there is let's say, the speed at which a story achieves saturation, where everyone becomes familiar with it. In the text, when Kvothe returns to the University after spending time with the Maer, his friends still think he's dead. From this, it appears that his exploits haven't traveled very far in a year's time. Or at least, they're not *widely* known.

And finally, it appears, according to the internets, that they Waystone Inn is in Newarre, which is in Vintas and therefore the Maer. Perhaps Kvothe is more famous in Vintas than anywhere else, and thus people in the area are more keen to pick up stories of Kvothe, even from places as far away as the University. This helps reconcile the issue that I had been having. Perhaps he is more famous locally than internationally. Maybe the stories of Kvothe are centered primarily in Vintas and at the University?

Just some late night thoughts.

I think it's a possiblity the stories aren't international, as I suggested in comment 11.

Though his apperance in Vintas after the bandits is short lived and he then travels to Adem, I think that distinct absense is more why his friends assumed him dead. He really doesn't do anything worthy of note on his way to Adem, and it's pretty clear the Adem are tight lipped and aren't passing along the information of him once he is there.

Also, we know that stories can definitely travel in a linear format, what with the great stone road and all. So I think thats a fair assumption.

I do also think that RPG gaming rules are worth taking into account, Pat did build his world in a way that could be later formatted into a game.

Lastly, it's only assumed Newarre is in Vintas. It's pretty likely, but I wouldn't take it for cannon just yet.

Even the 3.5 travel times are roughly similar. I do imagine it's based on an older, harsher system, though. In one of his early blogs about beta readers, he mentioned that some of the first ones had actually played in the Four Corners.

I asked him on his last blog what system he started building with actually. I've always played and used 3.5 and I knew he had played AD&D (Original basically - 3.0 came after, then 3.5 expanded/fixed some things)

But he said that he used Hero System to build his world. A system I'm not very familiar with, I'd been putting off getting into it until he released his own campaign setting maybe. Plus, those sorts of books are outrageous expensive and since I already have pretty much every 3.5 book I'm not keen on switching unless he makes a set specifically.

Did you read his interview he posted last week? Some of those people are mentioned in it as well. (the players) I've personally been dying to win the Game Seats he's been auctioning the last couple years for world builders, this year especially since he was going to play Kvothe, but alas, I'm far to poor.

Well...Actually the boyfriend said I could max the credit card if I could get two seats, but seriously...that is not a rational choice and I practiced self control.

That's it. He mentioned it as early as 2007 in an interview with Subterranean Press.

I always wonder why people want to tie one world to another. Within the story the Fae has completely different rules than the mortal world. Why would anyone try to compare a created world here to the real world or other created worlds. Be more like Kvothe, there’s magic here, chase it.

That aside, Kvothe's world is structured around the telling of stories in some ways. Everywhere he goes there are stories, or songs with stories in them. And the land is roughly a wheel with the University as a hub in the middle, you could not create a better way for stories, especially involving a student, to spread. Students come to the university and bring stories from their towns to the hub, they exchange and then go out into the world, or just home for a term. Giving us a single place like this, one where stories can aggregate and then propagate, really overrides any type of real world comparisons. This is a constructed world.

I don't really think people want to tie the worlds together, it's more the worlds are structurally tied together within the story.

Fae cannot exist without the realm of the 4C's because it is inherently dependent on that world. The worlds are clearly linked by the transition of the moon into both.

Not to mention, the concept The Creation War was actually fought to seperate the realms from eachother more than they had been before. There's a crossover in characters as well. We know that characters like Felurian and The Chandrian are from a time before these worlds were forced to be kept seperate.

I think thats why people focus on how the worlds are linked. Though I do agree, comparing Fae to anything REAL world is a little drastic and kinda pointless. However I do expect some mirror in the 4C's and reality, as there needs to be some tether.

Michael wrote: "I always wonder why people want to tie one world to another. Within the story the Fae has completely different rules than the mortal world. Why would anyone try to compare a created world here to..."

It's all to do with suspension of disbelief and world-building. PR is an incredible writer. I hope we all think that. With that said, he's held to higher standards than a hack writer is. A hack writer might say," Kvothe is famous because I say he is famous."

Now, I have the utmost respect for PR. I think he is very detail oriented and that nothing that happens within the story is by "chance." With that said, I'm trying to reconcile how stories in the real world propagate and to also compare that to how stories in the KKCverse propagate. There appears to be a discrepancy. This is either through lack of research by PR (which I doubt), a conceit of the story he is telling (possible), or there is a third explanation which we will discover in book three (which I believe there is evidence for.)

None of this is meant to criticize PR. He's an amazing author. I have nothing but wonder and respect for the story he is telling. But I do believe there are rules that he is following, and based upon those rules, I'm trying to deconstruct how the tales of Kvothe have spread. I think there is a reason Kvothe is as famous as he is. Now, I have a very limited imagination, so what I've come up with is that a lot more time has passed than what we are led to believe. That is not to say that it is the only explanation.

How old is Kvothe at this point in the story? 16?

16-18

So I was just doing a re-read of the beginning of NOTW, and I re-read the part where Chronicler says that the biography of Oren Velciter, and 80 year old man who'd lived for like 200 years of stories, or 500 years of lies, only took two days.

So my reasoning was, at the time, if Kvothe's story is going to take longer, he must be quite a bit older than he looks.

(And I'm going to disagree with myself here: his actions and overall demeanor are not those of a man with an old, faded grief. His grief seems pretty fresh and sharp, so....I don't see how to reconcile these points. Perhaps Kvothe is just something of a braggart.)

As for the time taken it's probably because he is a story teller with an almost perfect memory and is telling it properly including lots of details. Chronicler stated his other interviews were more like question and answer periods with some scattered stories and anecdotes, and then he'd take his facts and go off and write it on his own taking however much time it took.

Now I am coming around to your belief that more time has passed in the four corners than we might suspect on the surface of it. But I don't think it has much to do with the propagation time of stories etc. I don't have it all worked out in my head yet, but on the face of it, it seems Kvothe is around 25. Or would be based on Four Corners time not counting Fae stuff. I'm getting the feeling he's more like 40-45 in four corners time, preserved by Fae time and potentially much older due to magic we might not have seen yet. When he calls Bast and Chronicler children it really grabbed my interest.