Rothfussians discussion

I had thought that Fae was the only alternate realm, but is there evidence to believe otherwise? In table top roleplaying games like DnD and Pathfinder, Fae is one magic source, but then there are demons and devils too.

Also, Felurian's realm didn't seem like it was populated by so many people, and the world itself seemed pretty simple (as a gradient between light and dark). Perhaps Felurian lived in a prison dimension?

Felurian lives in the Fae, she lived in a grove that was always in twilight.
I believe that in the fae certain directions lead you towards night others towards morning. Also time passes very differently in the fae. There are stories of people going in for a few minutes, but aging decades. Kvothe spent a few days in the fae, but he came out with a beard.
The fae was created by magic, so the natural laws that govern the world Kvothe lives in don't apply there. The folding house in the the story of Jax, seem to perfectly describe how the world of the Fae works.
Iax created it he could shape one part of the world however he wanted and not have it affect any other part. Consequentially this causes a lot of things to not happen how they should.
I think of it not as another world like Venus or Mars, but more like a limbo world inside a shoe box. If that makes any sense.

I think of it as a world created entirely by namers--which I think it was. I remember there was a war fought over a philosophical difference, over whether namers should or should not be allowed to re-create the world. Either Fae was a fake world, or Reality was (though I'm pretty sure Fae was the fake world).

From my understanding, Fae was a world in which namers freed themselves from the shackles of reality, and thus became free to reinvent themselves or binge on their primary personality traits. That explains all the weird possibilities we come across.

But there's nothing that tells me it was the only created realm...Is there?

Yeah you're right about Fae, that's why Felurian was created basically a powerful Shaper/Namer was horny, and created some magical tantric sex demi-god with his powers.
And no there's no information as to whether it is the only created realm. I'm pretty sure waystones are gateways to the Fae realm.
In the real world we're only aware of what's on the map, and that's a very small portion of the world. so we have no idea how the creation wars, or the Chandrian have effect all the places off the edge of the map.
Do those places have waystones? or is there no human or fae influence. Or are there waysstones to other places.
I doubt we'll get answers in this current trilogy, but Pat stated he wasn't done with this world, so I think he's leaving room to work with.
I don't doubt that if any Namer/Shaper were to get as powerful as Iax they could create a new one.

Many fae creatures, like Felurian, were created before the Fae was, by names that were governed by reality. Do you think them being in an unbound magical world like the Fae, caused them to change from their creators intended purposes?
Kinda like machines from a sci-fi movie like the Matrix or Terminator?

There may very well be many other "worlds" but how hard would they be to create? The creation of the Fae came off as a very extensive project. Would a second such project be possible? And would there not be knowledge of these worlds? Sure, everyone thinks the Fae is a story but they still know the word Fae do they not?

I don't think it'd have been so difficult to create Fae. I assume it started as some University student's thesis, and was crowd sourced from there.

I like the idea that the map we've seen so far has Waystones that link it to fae...and that the areas we haven't seen have other stones that link to a place other than fae--to a place linked to where the scrael are from.

Talking about the way stones I've seen it mentioned that in Kvothe's dream he saw a doorway made of the stones much like stone henge. In all my readythroughts I've taken the same meaning from that scene and it differs. Where most people think he just saw the 3 I took it to mean he saw the whole structure. Multiple "doorways."
If correct there is much that could be theorised about it. Pathway to the Amyr? To the other Fae like worlds you have mentioned? To Tehlu? Who knows

Did the book actually make reference to Stone Henge?

No not specifically. I'll try to find the bit right now but I remember him saying "more than I've ever seen in one place" but the 'tone' of it implied like there was much more than three.

Ok got it. Page 124-125 (on kindle at least).

"then Ben was no longer there, and there was not one standing stone, but many. More than I had ever seen in one place before. They formed a double circle around me. One stone was set accross the top of two others, forming a huge arch with thick shadow underneath."

I wish to correct myself slights. I now take this to mean there was only one arch and then double circle was made of single standing stones.

EDIT:

The previous paragraph ended with Ben saying "but there is a power in them. Only a fool would deny that."

You should also look to the drake incident, where Denna and Kvothe sleep atop a stone structure of some kind. I can't remember if it was related to WayStones or not, but the imagry in my memory is similar to what your passage described.

*draccus :)

Yeah they definitely sleep on top of 3 waystones in an arch. But there is no double circle. If Kvothe's dream was a true vision, in curious as to what sort of power they hold that someone (or many) deigned to pull the stones as far away from each other as possible.

It just occurred to me, when Kvothe's troupe was attacked was that the night that they had stopped at a waystone? It doesn't matter too much because there was one nearby anyway (where Kvothe spent the summer in the forest).

Then the second Chandrian attack in Trebon. There were waystones nearby there. May there be some sort of connection?

There are flaws, I know, but I wouldn't put it past Rothfuss to put in such seemingly tiny details. I mean, the scent of citrus/lemons? That was a good find.

I think waystones are gates to the fae.
And that theory is presented several times in the text.
When the Chandrian attack Kvothe's troupe they seem to travel through a portal in Haliax's shadow cloak.

But Waystones are ever present, and important to the Edema, and they relate to the Edema's predecessor's in some way.

Also Kvothe's inn s called the Waystone.

I don't know their significance besides their possible Fae connection, and their constant presence everywhere.

Oh yes I forgot the method of their leaving was Haliax...

Sanjiv wrote: "I had thought that Fae was the only alternate realm, but is there evidence to believe otherwise? In table top roleplaying games like DnD and Pathfinder, Fae is one magic source, but then there are..."

There could be more. I kept thinking Felurian's world seemed awfully small if Kvothe could walk from night to day in the matter of hours.

Also remember Hespe's story of Jax, How he built that house with rooms of different times of day and all the doors? Maybe Felurians world is one room, one entity of the world. Like The Four Corner's towns being connected by roads, the fae world is connected by doors.

There's some proof of this too, when Kvothe asks if the skinwalkers were neighbors to Bast in NOTW.

1) Was the relationship between waystones and fae explained? I.e. are they tied to specific geographies in fae, or does any way stone link to any location in fae?

2) Why wise men fear the moonless night: This is a bit of relevant speculation from another thread.

Shaliza wrote: ""... On such a night, each step you take might catch you in the dark moon's wake, and pull you all unwitting into fae."..."

A dark moon is clearly still a moon. It seems like the moon in Rothfuss's world is a lot like our own, and I presume it goes dark because the sun's on the other side of the earth, as what happens with ours.

Does this mean that when the Rothfuss moon starts to appear again in Felurian's fae, it's not actually leaving our world to go there?

The only conclusion I can draw is that when the moon appears again in fae, it's because the earth and fae are coming back in phase with one another. Like two holes lining up, allowing things from either side to pass through again.

So if there's still a fear of getting pulled into fae on a dark-moon night, then might this indicate that there's another fae? A dark fae?

If so, then I'd expect Denna to have a similar relation with dark fae as Kvothe has with light fae. Perhaps that's where me might later meet Bast. Or else the Scrael?

I have felt that the story of Jax is a children's version of Iax creating the Fae. The 'rooms' would be the realms of the fae. The doors could just be waystones or something to get to from realm to realm. He built it for him and the moon but was not able to keep her there indefinitely. Need to go through the story again to see what clues I haven't noticed

I guess that could make the tinker the person he gained the power to shape the Fae. An old master that he took his power from somehow?