For disclaimer and discussion and contributions please see https://www.reddit.com/r/kkcwhiteboard/comments/gz7mw2/a_list_kinda_of_pat_rothfuss_bookrelated/
0604xx_bookloons.docx
http://www.bookloons.com/cgi-bin/Columns.asp?name=Patrick%20Rothfuss&type=Interview
[It is possible that the actual date of this interview is April 2007]
I also haven't ever been a magician, or a tinker, or a woman, or an old man, or a fae creature, or a forgotten god. But I write about all of those.
===
In the second book Kvothe will be traveling out into the world, attempting to make his fortune and build a reputation for himself. He's also looking for the answers to certain questions, if you've read the book, I'm sure you know what questions I'm talking about.
He ends up being drawn into various complicated situations. I detest spoilers, so I'll only speak in vague terms here. He learns more about magic, about romance, and about the hidden secrets of the world. He gets entangled in court politics and journeys into the Fae. We also learn more about why he's called Kvothe Kingkiller.
070320_boomtron.docx
https://bookspotcentral.com/interview-patrick-rothfuss-kingkiller/
https://www.boomtron.com/2007/03/on-the-spot-interview-patrick-rothfuss/
No, you’re right. Not much sword fighting in the first book. In the second book we get some, and in the third book even more.
The fighting that happens in the books is more based on the martial arts I’ve taken. The sword fighting more influenced by the Tai Chi Chuan sword form than anything else, though I mingle in a lot of other elements depending on the situation.
070326_sffworld.docx
070326_fantasyhotlist.docx
http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2007/03/patrick-rothfuss-interview.html
https://www.sffworld.com/2007/03/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
070525_fantasybookcritics.docx
http://fantasybookcritic.blogspot.com/2007/03/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss.html
I actually cut out the entire first chapter of the book, too. That was hard. It was a great chapter, did a lot of great world-building, introduced a lot of interesting concepts. But it was just too slow to start the book with. It's a shame, really. It had good stuff in it, but now it's lost because I can't just move it later in the book.
070529_mybookthemovie.docx
http://mybookthemovie.blogspot.com/2007/05/patrick-rothfusss-name-of-wind.html
nothing
070608_aidanmoher.docx
http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2007/06/interviews/interview-patrick-rothfuss-part-one/
http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2007/06/interviews/interview-patrick-rothfuss-part-two/
Q: Much of Kvothe’s story revolves around a certain female character who puts him through his own little piece of hell (and a little piece of heaven, too), was this woman inspired by a real life counterpart?
A: Oh yes. Definitely yes. But over the years she has developed into her own person.
070610_ofblog.docx
http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-part-i.html
http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-part-ii.html
nothing
0706xx_advunderground.docx
http://www.advunderground.com/interviews/2007/rothfuss0607.php
Sometimes when I get up after writing, I'm surprised at how my body feels. Suddenly I'm not a lanky, hungry young boy any more. It's no fun putting on ten years and fifty pounds all of a sudden. Other times, I get up and I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not a weary innkeeper, hopeless, with bones that feel like they're made of lead. I really sink into the characters that I write.
070720_ezzulia.docx
http://web.archive.org/web/20070822170920/http://www.ezzulia.nl/interviews/KK28.html
nothing
070723_mindunbound.docx
https://web.archive.org/web/20071015223924/http://www.mindunbound.com:80/blog/2007/07/an_interview_with_patrick_roth.html
nothing
071211_concurringopinions.docx
https://concurringopinions.com/archives/2007/12/an_interview_wi.html
In the commonwealth, their legal system is based loosely on England in the 1500-1700’s. In short, it’s a huge, tangled, unfair clusterfuck of a system. There are courts that enforce church law, and courts that enforce the Iron Law of Atur. Each court operates under its own authority, and of course their spheres of influence overlap… It’s a real mess, but it’s the only system that they have….
==
How is the University Kvothe attends governed? Do the professors have tenure? If not, how is their intellectual freedom protected?
No tenure. The nine masters, each the head of their own discipline, are also the head administrators of the University. Who would fire them?
07xxxx_changeofayear.docx
http://www.changeforayear.com/2013/04/18/patrick-rothfuss-interview-2007/
http://www.changeforayear.com/2013/04/21/author-flashback-patrick-rothfuss-part-2/
nothing
07xxxx_phantastik-couch.docx
nothing
07xxxx_subterranianpress.docx
AK: The strangest thing you’ve learned as an author?
PR: Female Hyenas have a penis. They give birth through it.
080205_feliciaday.docx
http://feliciaday.com/blog/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-author-of-name-of-the-wind/
Sometimes I need a character to fill a specific role, like when I needed a loan shark for the book. In that case, I think about what the stereotype for that character would be. A big thick-bodied guy, thuggish but cunning, maybe cruel, maybe a sadist…. Then I do my best to make a realistic character that avoids that cliche. That’s how I got Devi….
080211_patblog_perils_of_translation.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2008/02/perils-of-translation-part-2/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
“Shamble-Men. Is this a term you’ve come up with yourself? I’m not happy with my translation for it yet. It doesn’t sound frightening enough in Dutch.” The Shamble-men are entirely my own creation. The term doesn’t sound particularly scary in English either. But it have vaguely menacing, creepy overtones. This is partly because there is an old usage of the word “shambles” that also means a place where you butcher animals. (That’s where we get the expression, “This place is a shambles.” Nowadays it means messy, but back in the day it meant strewn with bloody guts.) Stagger-men would just be drunk. Shuffle men would be odd and slightly silly. Imagine a homeless person, bundled against the cold, raggedy with a lot of hair. They’re dirty and ragged, and walking in a slow walk, as if they’re sick or hurt or very tired. It’s a slow slightly unsteady walk, dragging their feet a little. That’s what I’m trying to capture with “shamble.” But the name should be vaguely menacing if you can manage it.
“In Tarbean, Pike calls Kvothe “Nalt.” What does this mean?” “Nalt” is a mildly derogatory slang term. It’s a reference to Emperor Nalto, who mismanaged the Aturan Empire so badly that it collapsed…. The name is mentioned briefly during Kvothe’s first admissions interview.
“One last thing that I’d like to ask you, is your permission to change the names of Jake, Graham, Shep and Carter to more general-sounding names. These names have a very English sound, and though I initially had no intention of changing them, they keep “poking me in the eye” when I read the book in Dutch. Most or all other names are pretty universal. These I would like to change to Jaap (which is actually how we Dutchies abbreviate Jacob), Gard, Stef and Karsten.” Those names are meant to be very plain, rustic even. They should be very common, rural names. If you need to change them to make them appear that way for your culture, that’s a great idea. Keep in mind that Carter is, by profession, a carter: someone who drives a cart for a living. It would be nice to maintain that…
For example, how can you translate the nicknames for all the buildings in the University? They’re slang. Artificery becomes Fishery…. But you can’t just translate that, because it really doesn’t have anything to do with fish… Even worse are the names in Auri has given the places in the Underthing, they’re not even slang, they’re puns. Imagine trying to translate the belows/bellows/blows/billows conversation into another language? It just can’t be done….
080321_peter-hodges.docx
I’m just very careful with my words when I write. Obsessively careful. I’m the sort of person who worries about the difference between “slim” and “slender.”
080518 DRS_Episode_033.mp3
https://deadrobotssociety.com/2008/05/18/patrick-rothfuss-interviewed-episode-33/
nothing
080604_popmatters.docx
https://www.popmatters.com/wizards-words-an-interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-2496173913.html
nothing
080726 Patrick Rothfuss discusses The Name of the Wind.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRpBpSW6eKU
Pat talks about how Kvothe is like and not like him, but mostly nothing.
080726 Patrick Rothfuss video Part 2.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aEyNx04s8U
03:30
The world itself does not really have a name […] right now I think of it as 4 corners, this little piece of the world.
080726 Patrick Rothfuss video Part 3.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss-Ua34kqiY
nothing
080804_fantasyliterature.docx
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/author-interviews/fanlit-chats-with-reverend-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
080915 Writing_Excuses_Episode32.mp3
#podcast
nothing
080930_patblog_kvothes_alignment.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2008/09/iaq-kvothes-alignment/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
What would you say is Kvothe’s alignment (i.e. ad&d terms)
[Name withheld for reasons of not wanting the person to die of geeky shame]
Oh yeah. Total Geek question.
Here’s my total geek answer: I didn’t even have to think about it. Chaotic good.
Though honestly, now that I pause for consideration, it’s possible he’s neutral good. He doesn’t work actively against the system, he just doesn’t feel constrained by it.
Now, of course, you’ve got me thinking about everyones’ alignment.
Some are easy, like Master Lorren: Lawful Good.
Some are hard, like Elodin. Chaotic neutral? True neutral? He’s just too complicated to put in a box like that. Plus there’s a lot of him you haven’t seen yet. I honestly don’t know where I’d put him overall.
081203_The Second Bookgeeks SF and Fantasy Author Panel - Science and Magic.docx
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Q: How much do you think the technology of SF and the magic of fantasy have in common?
In hard fantasy, everything makes sense. Your cities need sewers. Dragons have to eat. And your magic has to operate within a consistent (though not necessarily logical) framework. Everything fits together and bears up under scrutiny. In soft fantasy stories focus on other things, like in a fairy tale.
Q: How do you develop your system of future technology / magic?
I like my different systems of magic to feel realistic, so I base them on beliefs that are rooted in the real world. My sympathetic magic, for example, is based off the historical beliefs in hermetic magic and the laws of thermodynamics. It’s a very logical, rational system.
But for a different system, I pull from the old, universal belief that names and words hold power. This crops up all over the world, and all through history. It appeals to something layered deep down in our brains. That system of magic is very is very different. It’s intuitive and trans-rational. But it still has rules.
When fleshing out a magical system, I ask myself a few questions. “What impression should the magic have on the reader?” “What role do I want it to play in the story?” And, most importantly, “How will this effect my world on a larger scale?”
08xxxx_authorblast.docx
Nothing
08xxxx_theopinionguy.docx
http://web.archive.org/web/20081013051626/http://theopinionguy.com:80/interviewpatrickrothfuss.html
nothing
090515_nemesisvirtualis.docx
https://memesisvirtualis.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/patrick-rothfuss-there-will-be-sex/
nothing
090522 London Patrick Rothfuss Interview.mp4
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9e83u
05:00
On title. NotW fart jokes yay.
08:45
Manet has been going to University for 35 years
17:40
About 5-8% of the world is “in the book”
21:30
Mentioned the existence of a city (possibly in an early draft) with one million people (surrounded by wheatfields).
090624_fantastinet.docx
http://www.fantastinet.com/interview-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
090728 Suvudu - Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss Interview - Part I.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joqzf4eLAuo
nothing
090728 Suvudu - Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss Interview - Part II.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-q5wqOo3fI
05:40
Explanation and apologies about “a book a year” announcements
090728 Suvudu - Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss Interview - Part III.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr9hgDv4y9E
nothing
090728 Suvudu - Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss Interview - Part IV.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5o6woYpA1g
02:15
[Referring to “The Princess and Mr. Whiffle”] The working title is “The princess and the marzipan castle” which is the most disgustingly sweet-sounding title I‘ve ever come up with.
090801_fantasymundo.docx
Q: the first draft of your book was entitled The Song of Flame & Thunder, much like A Song of Fire & Ice, by George R.R. Martin, and there are other parallels with works of different authors. However, anyone reading your work can not talk about plagiarism... Can you explain it?
As for the old title, that's an example of convergent evolution. I'd chosen that title back in 1996. Then a friend told me she'd read a book called "The Song of Ice and Fire." I was pissed. I'd never read the books, but I knew I'd need to change mine because it was too close.
…
I don't think you should see Kvothe's face on the cover. That belongs in the reader's mind. It's better if you see it in your own head, rather than have it handed to you. It's more personal that way. More important.
100724 Suvudu Patrick Rothfuss Interviews Sandeep Parikh.mp4
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rwjqb
nothing
100726 Suvudu Christopher Paolini Interviews Patrick Rothfuss! (Part I of II).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBEfLQyquTY
00:40
[The “frame story”] was not my original plan. Originally the first page or the book, the first sentence was him starting to tell the story. I wrote: “My name is Kvothe”, and that’s where the story originally started. And after 6-7 months of writing, I showed it to a friend, and they said that they like the story so far, but they said “So who is he talking to?”. And I went “That’s a really good question”. And so then I kinda pulled it back, I’ve started putting a frame on it, the Waystone inn, and all of that. It didn’t occur to me at that time that it was a strange way to tell a story, mostly because I didn’t think it through.
100726 Suvudu Christopher Paolini Interviews Patrick Rothfuss! (Part II of II).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80k6SOEqgbI
nothing
100812_locusmag.docx
http://locusmag.com/2010/08/patrick-rothfuss-worldbuilder/
nothing
110131_publishersweekly.docx
There is a lot of introspection and contemplation in The Wise Man's Fear. Where did the themes of education and enlightenment come from?
The center of Kvothe's character is his curiosity. He's a young man who wants to know the truth of things, he wants to explore, he wants to know the hidden turnings of the world. I owe it to the reader to give Kvothe's discoveries substance. If he travels to the edge of the map, the cultures he encounters should be fully fleshed and interesting. If he talks to someone clever, that person better have some genuinely clever things to say. If I don't do that, I feel I'm not holding up my end of the bargain as an author.
Folklore and song are significant forces in your writing. How much research went into the stories of the Edema Ruh and Kvothe's songs?
A long time ago, maybe 12 years or so, I read about every folktale I could get my hands on. I wasn't thinking, "This will help me develop my fantasy novel a decade from now"; I just liked them. I was curious about their shapes, their common threads, and what they revealed about the cultures they came from. It was only afterwards that a lot of those elements ended up in the book.
Kvothe's story is heroic, awe-inspiring, heartbreaking—but it's essentially a man sitting in a tavern recalling the events of his life. Were you deliberately trying to do something different from other epic fantasies?
I wasn't trying to be all antithetical, but I wanted to avoid most of the fantasy clichés and focus on something simpler and more personal: the story of a man's life.
110221 54InterviewwithPatrickRothfussTheSLPodcast54.mp3
http://swordandlaser.com/home/2011/2/21/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-the-sl-podcast-54.html
#podcast
nothing
110221 The Next Coming of J.R.R. Tolkien An Interview With Patrick Rothfuss.docx https://web.archive.org/web/20120123141631/http:/bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/The-Next-Coming-of-J-R-R-Tolkien-An-Interview-With-Patrick/ba-p/874186
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Mostly nothing. Slight regret at starting off career with a huge project. States he’s ‘got the bones’ of Day Three. “The first two books changed a lot as I revised them, so now I have to incorporate those changes into book three.”
110223_crossedgenres.docx
http://crossedgenres.com/blog/interview-patrick-rothfuss/
Nothing
110224_portlandmercury.docx
https://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/patrick-rothfuss-the-mercury-interview/Content?oid=3588162
nothing
110224 Patrick Rothfuss reads an exclusive extract from The Wise Man's Fear.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_t_qIowfFU
nothing
110228 Patrick Rothfuss discusses what's next for Kvothe and Denna.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqePrC0wUMI
00:20
Denna is a little older that Kvothe
110301_bookbanter.docx
https://bookbanter.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/an-interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-march-2011/
nothing
110301 The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss - 9780756404734.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf7f8doxwKY
00:30
[Kvothe] is telling you the real version of what really happened and led to those events. So in some ways you get 3 stories - you get the myth, you get the truth, and you get to see the interaction between it.
110302_abcblog.docx
nothing
110302_omnivoracious.docx
nothing
110302 Author One-on-One Patrick Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson.docx
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Long chat between Pat and Brandon Sanderson. Mostly about process.
“...the first two books of the series have changed considerably since 2000. I've added characters and plotlines. I've probably added, 250,000 words worth of new material since then. Back in 2000, Devi wasn't in the book. Neither was Auri. Neither was the Draccus.”
110307 Patrick Rothfuss at Murder By The Book.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nve9TFoaFfk
nothing
110308 Creating a world is a slow process.docx
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Nothing
110325 - veronica rueckert show rkt110325e.mp3
https://www.wpr.org/shows/veronica-rueckert-show-03-25-2011-0
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
(Starts with regular 'being an author' and truly surface-level worldbuilding questions. Call in questions from listeners, mostly general answers. Definitely a great long-form general interview for newcomers to listen to to get to know Pat)
Q: Will there be other stories featuring characters we've already met?
There will definitely be some of the same characters in some of the later books and stories that I do in the Four Corners world, but other than that I will not say at this point
Q: I noticed in this book that Kvothe could do no wrong, that he succeeds at everything, and I'm just wondering how do you balance a believable character with that much success?
Oh God. You've finished the whole book? Of Wise Man's Fear?? Boy, I don't know if he succeeds at everything. You might wanna take a closer read. Kvothe makes teeeerrible mistakes all the time! Um, he's very good at a lot of things. But, you know, and here's the tricky thing is. A lot of people out there haven't finished this book. It's a bit of a beast lengthwise, so I can't really give you a bunch of examples about things that he's ruined throughout the course of his life, but in terms of balancing out a character, I think that's the key. If you have a character that's good at everything, um, it's not terribly believable. If you have a character that never makes any mistakes, in my opinion, that's not terribly believable either. And Kvothe is good at a lot of things, but not everything. Uh, there's some things that he /thinks/ he's good at, and he's really not. He makes mistakes all the time. Because he's human, and because, you know, he's still a kid in a lot of ways. He's sixteen, seventeen years old throughout the majority of this book, and that's prime mistake-making time. I think that's the key to having a relatable character, is to have them be kinda real. Have them occasionally screw up. That's not new news. The ancient Greeks knew that. A hero is a person with a flaw. And, uh, that's what Kvothe is. He's really good at some stuff. And he's got his own personal flaws.
Q: What made you choose music as a large subject matter? Why did you decide on the lute in particular?
Well, when I was getting ready to kinda create this character and tell a story, I didn't want him to be, I was trying to avoid writing the same copy-of-a-copy-of The Lord of the Rings that I read so much growing up. Now, a lot of those books were great and I very much enjoyed them, but I wanted to tell sort of a different story. And so, I thought, "What sort of a person really can have an interesting life in a legitimately pre-industrial world?" And I mean, musicians were huge.
I read Casanova's memoirs a while back, and it's really interesting, because these traveling players did things that nobody else would do. A lot of people, I mean, you lived in the same town your whole life. You maybe traveled ten, fifteen miles, you know, but other than that you pretty much stayed at home. But these people that came from out of town, these traveling musicians, they brought news, they brought entertainment. I mean, imagine living in a world with no radio. No television. No cable. No X-Box. I mean, you make your own fun for the most part. But then, when a musician comes to town? This is an incredible person! This is like a rock star and Christmas all at the same time. But at the same time, you KNOW everyone in your town. You feel comfortable with them. They are your community. And this person is not part of this community. That makes them dangerous because you don't know how they're gonna behave. And you know they're gonna be gone in a couple days? So what's to keep them from doing really terrible things?
So these people were venerated, and adored, and loved and sought, and at the same time, they were really like kind of feared, and people were terribly jealous of them, and they were prosecuted and persecuted so often. Um, and so that seemed like a really interesting thing to add to this character. Not just add to this character, it's really the heart of what he is.
110403_AISFP_118_042011.mp3
https://adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2011/04/aisfp-118-patrick-rothfuss/
(podcast)
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
(General discussion of why it doesn't seem like the main plot advances in WMF. Discussion around, "What even IS the main plot of the series?" General discussion about how to construct a scene for the intended effect)
Q: Pat, I'm at a stage in my work where I'm having to start to 'kill some darlings', and I'm wondering if maybe you have a favorite 'darling' that you've had to kill so far out of your two books. If you can think of any, what it might be?
Well, I cut... I cut the first chapter of Name of the Wind. or probably a year. Um. It wasn't the FIRST 'first chapter', but at one point, the drafting of that book, for probably about a year, The Name of the Wind started with a chapter that nobody has ever read. Um. It showed Skarpi and Chronicler catching wind of Kvothe's story. It was a great chapter! It did some world building, there was a minor plot arc, it, it, you know, it was catchy, it was interesting, there was good dialogue. But, you know, it's a really fair criticism of The Name of the Wind that it's kind of slow to start. And that chapter added another, what, eight, ten thousand words to the beginning? And so, I, I cut it. Um, my editor really liked it and she kinda wanted to keep it. And it was a good chapter. It was good writing. And it added to the story, but I cut it. But I don't regret it, not for a second. It was the right thing to do. I never, I never mourn anything that's been cut out of the book, because if I cut it, it's for the good of the overall story, and there's no reason I should feel bad about that.
(Some discussion about "one book a year" and life/delays. Patrick tells the story of Betsy making the decision of delaying WMF)
Q: What should people expect regarding people's expectations around the completion of a story told in a trilogy?
Have you ever read much Robert Frost? He really bears looking at in terms of his poetry. It's very very well constructed. The thing is, he wrote these poems that are marvelously ambiguous. Um, like one of the classic ones is the mending wall poem, where we get the line, "Good fences make good neighbors". Um, and it really is about him and his neighbor going along repairing the wall between their two properties, and it kind of discusses like "What's a wall for?" "What are people like?" It talks about kind of big things. And everyone always carries away that last line of the poem, says "Good fences make good neighbors". But that's only half the poem. The first line of the poem is, "There is a thing that does not love a wall". And in the poem, that line is repeated twice. "Good fences make good neighbors" is repeated twice. And like, he's kind of on one side of this argument and his neighbor's on the other side of this argument. And they kind of have this discussion, and both viewpoints are brought out, and then the poem is over. And this drives some people craaazy! Because what they want is an answer, a conclusion. And occasionally, you know, later in his life, people would corner him on it. He'd do a reading somewhere and people would say, you know, "Which one is it? Which side is the right side? What's the answer?" And Frost would never, never give any answer. And what he said, is "I wish you knew more without my having to tell you". And, that's really what it comes down to.
Everything, you know, I'll talk about the world, I'll talk about the craft of writing. I love talking about the world that I've created, because so much of it never appears in the books. I love talking about the characters. But in terms of the story itself, everything that I want to say about the story is in the book. Um, it's not something that will not benefit from my commentary. You understand what I'm saying there? If I say the third book is gonna be this, and that, and a thousand elephants, and rocket ships, and it's so awesome and whatever. Then, that itself influences your reading of these books, which, if I wanted you to be influenced that way in the books, I would have put that in the books. Where the books should really stand by themselves, and I've worked to make them stand by themselves, without my commentary.
I would say, kind of, everything I have to say about the story right now is in that second book. Maybe after the entire thing is finished, you know, after the trilogy is concluded and things are kind of wrapped up, then I can discuss it as a complete work. But I don't wanna corrupt anyone's reading at this point. I don't want to incline them to read it one way or another, or prejudice them in their reading, or try to fiddle with their expectations because everything that they need to inform their opinions and their expectations is really in the book
110411 SpeculateEpisode11_Apr112011_PatrickRothfuss.mp3
https://www.speculatesf.com/2011/04/11/episode-11-of-speculate-patrick-rothfuss-author-interview/
19:00
Publication timeline discussion
110521_ttbook.docx
110501 ttbok.mp3
110501 Jim Fleming interviews Patrick Rothfuss on The Kingkiller Chronicle.mp4
http://archive.ttbook.org/book/transcript/transcript-patrick-rothfuss-kingkiller-chronicles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyWp-0KzRLU
nothing
110504 Patrick Rothfuss Talks with Peter Orullian - Part One of Three.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRhBQIEYTIA
01:50
My girlfriend eats apples all the way around till you have an apple core, and then she eats the apple core.
110504 Patrick Rothfuss Talks with Peter Orullian - Part Two of Three.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afk-2S4r6nE
nothing
110504 Patrick Rothfuss Talks with Peter Orullian - Part Three of Three.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H\_U7SzMJkY0
08:00
Back when I wrote the whole thing, there was no Auri, no Devi. In one of these early drafts he shows up in the University, gets buddy-buddy with Lorren, and like they are best friends. Ambrose didn’t exist.
110506_neufutur.docx
http://neufutur.com/2011/05/a-conversation-with-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
110517_dragonmount.docx
I expanded and improved the Adem section from about three chapters to the current length it is now.
Why? Because the way I wrote it back in 1999 sucked. It was like a lame 80's training montage. The Adem had no real unique culture of their own. None of the language or the philosophy they have now. They were cheap cardboard cutouts.
110626 Patrick Rothfuss Guinea Pigs are Fish Wootstock 3_0.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T973_Xw-zwo
nothing
110725 Fictional Frontiers with Sohaib - (Episode 159).mp3
http://www.fictionalfrontiers.podcastpeople.com/posts/43691
nothing
110801 Jim Butcher Interviews Patrick Rothfuss San Diego Comic Con 2011.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR6-hh2fBrY
05:30
I’ve got like a hundred beta readers.
14:50
At one point, I’ve been working on the book for like 12 years, and a friend read the book and came back and goes you know, lute traditionally has like 14 strings, and they are strung in courses, so two strings are tuned to the same note, and so if you broke a string it actually does not matter, because you’d still have that same note. And I just sweat cold, because at that point the book was 6-7 months away from being published, I would look like a total ass to anyone who knows anything about Renaissance music. So I had to go and do that course correction because I haven’t done the initial research. So I approached it a little bit differently.
110801 Patrick Rothfuss Interviews Jim Butcher San Diego Comic Con 2011.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dh9R_VtWRI
nothing
110802 Patrick Rothfuss Answers Fan Questions San Diego Comic Con 2011.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAfKtH8ili4
13:18 That's a tricky one. Uh. Yeah. I will occasionally read stuff and laugh sometimes if it's been a while and I've forgotten the details of the scene, I will occasionally make myself laugh. Um. There's parts of the book that make me a little weepy, but they're probably not the parts that make other people weepy. Um, it's more. What one of them was. It's in the first book, it's uh, the story about Lanre and Lyra. For some reason. There's a piece that I worked very hard on and, you know, it's kinda the crux of their story. And for some reason, just the shape of it, almost rather than the events itself, it kinda hits me hard. That happens a lot of times when I'm reading books. It's not so much the events or the fact that something is heartbreaking, it's the fact that the shape of the story is just, just right. And that hits me in an emotional way. Sometimes when something bad happens to a character, it is hard to write. In the same way that it's difficult to watch a friend go through a difficult time
+ there are comments on man-mothers and “would 3 books be enough” in the very end
110806 AFOIAF QnA.docx
A Forum of Ice and Fire - [Q&A] Patrick Rothfuss Chat Thread
https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?/topic/55628-qa-patrick-rothfuss-chat-thread/
Q: Firstly, when you built your world (The Corners of Civilization), did you first sketch a map and then derive all the different locations where the story will take place or was it the other way around, e.g. you first wrote the story and then proceeded to putting them on a map?
I actually started with the map. Partly because I'm a bit of a map geek. And I'm a gamer from way back. I felt like I needed to know the world before I started putting people into it. If I was going to have Kvothe living in a city, I needed to know where that city was, how it worked, and what surrounding landscape was like....
I didn't develop the whole world, of course. It grew as I told the story. But I made a bunch of it up front. It gave me a place to start....
Q: I find it strange that no artificer has yet managed to create a steam engine. Given how well they seem to understand physics, and the kind of stuff that gets made at the Fishery, you'd think a steam engine wouldn't be beyond their abilities. Any particular reason this hasn't happened?
Technically, the ancient greeks invented the steam engine. Was it Archemedes? Or Heron? One of them, I'm pretty sure....
The real question is, "If they had access to that technology, why didn't they use it?"
The answer to the question is really, really complex. Far too big to get into here. You could write a book about it. (and several people have.)
But the reasons are there, and they're mostly the same for why things like that haven't developed in my world.
Sorry if that's not an entirely satisfying answer. But I don't have time to write a 5000 word essay on the subject....
Q: how much has the overarching plot changed since your first drafts? I know you've added Ambrose and Auri (among others) - have these characters changed the main story, or are they independent from it?
The story has changed considerably since I started it. Keep in mind that I started writing it in 1994. It's so vastly different in so many ways that I can hardly describe it.
There wasn't any frame story in the beginning, for example. No Inn. No Bast. It's hard to imagine the story without them at this point. But they weren't part of my original plan....
Q: You've established your exact coolness rating via the Gaiman-Day system of measurement, but what would Kvothe's rating be?
Kvothe is .08 of a Taborlin.
Q: Hey Pat, how much influence have mythology and current religions had in the development of the folklore of The Four Corners?
A lot.
Wait. Do you mean our Mythology and Religions? If that's what you're asking, then not very much. The folklore of The Four Corners is based mostly off the cosmology of the Four Corners. Not on our world.
Q: So the Four Corners of civilization aren't just the one landmass we see in the maps, right? Are there other continents, and will we see them referred to?
Nope. The four corners are: Tarbean, Renere, Ralien, and Cershaen.
Q: I was wondering if the character of Dedan was (perhaps subconsciously) inspired by Jayne Cobb from Firefly.
That's a fair guess, but I actually wrote Dedan WAAAY back in 1998. Ages before firefly.
I will admit though, when I was reading through and making my revisions these last couple years, the resemblance made me laugh a couple times....
Q: Pat I noticed in WMF that you had bast Mention Mavin Manyshaped, that is the name of a charcter from Sherri S Tepper, was this intentional to acknowledge her?
Bast mentions Mavin the Manshaped. But I did read Tepper's books as a kid.
110904 Writing_Excuses_6_14_Suspension_of_Disbelief.mp3
https://writingexcuses.com/2011/09/04/writing-excuses-6-14-suspension-of-disbelief/
#podcast
Q: (Kvothe often explains how his magic is actually working). Was this an intentional thing to help us suspend our disbelief?
The stress is between the story that he's telling, and the story - the true story of his life, and sort of the mythic story of his life, the folklore of his life. I think the fact that he himself is saying, "Oh this is what you heard? It really wasn't that cool," it inclines the reader to believe him. We expect somebody to brag about themselves, and when somebody comes out and says, "Eh. It wasn't really that cool." Why would he lie to you about that? So that, I did build in specifically.
(Also some general commentary to the question of 'how do you maintain tension when you use a frame story and you know your character isn't going to die?')
111007 WorldCon 2011 Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFeAaM583LA
just a 5 min interview
02:45
[in DoS] you see more about Kvothe-Bast relationship, how it began.
110823 Epic Fantasy Panel [part 1] SD Comic Con 2011.mp4
110823 Epic Fantasy Panel [part 2] SD Comic Con 2011.mp4
http://www.unboundworlds.com/2011/07/sdcc-2011-video-panel-putting-the-epic-into-epic-fantasy/
nothing
110905 SpeculateEpisode24_September52011_PatRothfussVideoInterview.mp4
12:50
I know a lot about the history of the world, the people that came before, and back in the old days, not even the history of the world, I think of it as the mythic age of the world, you can call it dream time almost, back when big things happened, and giants were striding the earth, and there were Namers. Like “I look at something, I see it’s name, it is mine to command and shape according to my desire” - and there was not just one or two of these people, there was an entire culture of them, and of course that culture was unrecognizable according to modern terms. And when war came, war was at such a monumental level, that it just… it was an issue of like the entire world being glassed clean, like with nukes. And now you have a civilization that has arisen millenia later, where you’ve sort of selected out (?) of these powerful people. … These people that are existing - they are not these “first men” like Tolkiens Aragorn - there has been fading here, and so these people are not the same sort of people that ran around naming everything.
111121_AISFP_152_112011.mp3
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Pat interview from 12:58 to 17:56
(16:47) Q: How's it going with book 3, where's that at?
Patrick: It's awful. I haven't even started it. I decided I'm not going to write book 3 at all. (joking)
Otherwise, nothing
111220 AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/nk3oo/heya_everybody_im_pat_rothfuss_im_a_fantasy/
- Finally, what is the name of Kvothes world or the universe in which it is set? If you don't have one can we call it the Rothverse?
- I think of the world as "The Four Corners." Even though that's really just a piece of the world.
- I've always been curious to know how much of the system of sygaldry exists in your head. Do you actually know what any of the runes look like?
- Some. I plan on fleshing out the system soon.
11xxxx_gollancz.docx
https://www.gollancz.co.uk/news/it-was-the-world-fantasy-convention/
nothing
120104 COPS12E05-PatrickRothfuss.mp3
Comics Online Podcast s12e05 - Patrick Rothfuss
https://www.comicsonline.com/2012/01/cops12e05_patrick_rothfuss/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
#podcast
Q: Will we see Auri return in the third book?
She'll definitely be in the last book. She's a big part of Kvothe's life. She's one of his favorite people too. And she's a fixture at the University. So, I don't think I'm giving anything huge away to say yes, she's in the third book.
Q: Would you consider using some of your cast-offs (excised parts of NOTW and WMF) into some future short story?
Oh, absolutely. There'll be other stories that center around other characters because this is very much Kvothe's story, and some other characters have their stories, too. I really like the thought of following them in maybe a novella or short story. I've had a few ideas for those over the last year, but generally I'm trying to stay focused down on my current projects and not start anything new. But yeah, you'll see more of these characters, and more books that feature those characters.
Q: I really wanna see a breakdown on the religions. The origins, and the changes over the course of history. There's a little of that in the book. Once the series is completed, a full rundown would be really nice.
Part of that is, part of what makes the book entertaining for a lot of people. It's the exploration of the world and also the slow uncovering of some of the mysteries of the world. It's something we get very little of in this world in our real lives, where you're like, "Boy, I really wish I knew how, like the ancient Sumerian story of Anana, Queen of Heaven and Earth, really tied into Gilgamesh in the Old Testament." But we never really get any definitive answers on that. We just get some fairly good guesses. Whereas in my world, that's one of the things that Kvothe is interested in and he's trying to dig up over the space of time. So part of the reason that you don't have all the answers that you want is because that is some of the stuff that is still coming in the third book and later books.
120208 Patrick Rothfuss - Behind the Scenes before the show.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX8QoFAoKtg
nothing
120208 Trey's Variety Hour #22 Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Hangout.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0enw-G5Din0
#hangout
39:00
On Mary Sue
01:25:50
I used the worst cuss twice in the book, and no one noticed, because it was in a dialect. One was the pig herder in the end of the (first) book, and the other is in the slight pronunciation dialect in the beginning of the book.
// as per Meyer_Landsman, the latter probably refers to "C’man ye counts!” by Schiem
120301_denverpost.docx
https://www.denverpost.com/2012/03/01/fantasy-author-patrick-rothfuss-learns-to-deal-with-fame-2/
Nothing
120323 Veronica Rueckert rkt120323e.mp3
https://www.wpr.org/shows/hunger-games-and-heroines
(discussion of heroines in sci-fi/fantasy, this is the only relevant bit)
Q: How do you see Denna in your Kingkiller trilogy? I've read the first two books, and she's a mysterious force. I know you can't give away TOO much there, but how do you see her as a heroine? Is she a heroine, or is she a love interest?
Heroine is a really complicated thing in my particular story. She's probably the female lead, I can say that, but 'heroine' is tricky. That implies she plays a pivotal role in development of the story. But I also don't want to demote her to love interest, too, that implies she's arm candy. I will say this, that in some ways I'm most proud of Denna's character because in some ways it's very easy to write a character that everyone likes. But it's really hard to write a character that everyone has the same information about and some people really like her, and some people really don't. That kind of indicates that I've created somebody kind of real, because I can have somebody that I know and introduce them to a dozen people, and they're all gonna have different opinions about a person. I really didn't try to make her a heroine, I just tried to make her realistic.
120328_herocomplex.docx
nothing
120430 Writer's Panel for our Subscribathon!.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlQMAEo7qRA
nothing
120517_admission.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/05/a-different-sort-of-interview/
https://www.tor.com/2012/05/17/rothfuss-reread-pat-answers-the-admissions-questions/
What are the three things that a trefoil compass tracks?
They track three different precise points (three specific set locations) located throughout the four corners. Using the orientation of the three needles (and some fairly tricky trigonometry) you can determine exactly where you are.
How can Auri know the way to Kvothe’s room? It’s never been mentioned that they ever talk about it.
1. Do you think that simply because I don’t mention something in the book it doesn’t happen? If that’s the case, then most of my characters really need to take a piss .
2. Why would Kvothe have to mention where he lives to Auri? Don’t you think she’s capable of finding things out for herself?
For how long was Elodin the Chancellor?
Not long. Less than two years.
Where and when did Tak originate?
There are two answers to this question.
1. Stevens Point, WI. 2010-present.
2. Modeg, more roughly 2000 years BCE.
Did you deliberately choose recessive traits for the Adem people’s general appearance?
Yup. Because I’m awesome.
What is a thaum?
It is a unit of energy. Like a BTU, a Calorie.
How does alchemy work?
It’s complicated.
It involves the manipulation of an object’s inherent principles. You have to evoke them, then factor .
How does the voting of the University council work? When vote totals are announced, there’s usually a half-vote in there. Does the chancellor have an extra half- or full-vote, which he can split?
The Chancellor has a vote and a half. This was designed to prevent ties.
Can you tell us about any locations we haven’t seen yet which we’ll be visiting on D3?
I suppose it doesn’t hurt to say that Kvothe will be visiting Renere, the three part city.
What were the Mender heresies (mentioned by Lorren near the end of WMF)? Are they related to “Menda” who is “Tehlu, son of “? Is Trapis a disciple of a schism variant of Tehlinism? Is there any relationship between Menda, the Mender heresies and the “menders” we see in the story, Tinkers?
It was night again. I was answering a question, and it was a question of four parts.
Let’s break it up.
1. It was a religious schism in the Tehlin church. Kinda like Arian Christianity back in the day.
2. Very nice. Good catch.
3. Yeah. I don’t know how the hell you figured that out, but yeah. He totally is. Bonus points to you.
4. Hmmmm ..
How does Lorren know about Arliden?
Arliden had a productive career as a songwriter, not to mention that he had a fairly high profile gig as the lead trouper in Greyfallow’s Men.
As such, we wrote a lot of songs, many of which were recorded and attributed to him. But there are a lot of songs in the archives that have been collected and aren’t attributed to anyone. Lorren was going to ask Kvothe for his assistance catalouging these before Kvothe had his hissy-fit at the end of Chapter 36.
What does el’the literally mean?
That’s coming up in book three.
120523_featherfactor.docx
http://www.featherfactor.com/2012/05/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss.html
Nothing
120529_toonaripost.docx
nothing
1205xx_gollancz.docx
https://www.gollancz.co.uk/fantasy/90-second-interview-with-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
120713_terrybrooks.docx
http://terrybrooks.net/2012/07/an-interview-between-terry-brooks-and-patrick-rothfuss/
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/07/interview-with-terry-brooks-part-2/
http://terrybrooks.net/2012/07/part-iii-terry-brooks-patrick-rothfuss/
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/07/rothfuss-and-brooks-part-iv/
I occasionally overuse a word I’m fond of. It’s usually not an obtrusive word on its own, but when it crops up three or four times in the same context, it starts to look odd. In book two, I think it was ‘murmuring.’ Or maybe it was ‘susurrus.’ I think you can only get away with using ‘susurrus’ twice in a book before it starts getting weird for a reader.
A bigger problem for me is a tendency to repeat pieces of body language. I tend to use a lot of that in my dialogue to convey emotional content. Because of that, my characters sometimes end up nodding a lot. Or rather, they’d be nodding an appropriate amount if you were just watching a conversation, but reading about someone nodding 3-4 times in one scene makes them seem like a bobblehead. I trim a lot of those out in my later revision.
120807 PRSB - Episode 1 - Urban Fantasy_ Threat Or Menace_.mp4
120807 The Story Board ep 1 script.docx
https://web.archive.org/web/20130113193151/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52khu_YJAmo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JC8Ttk_bNA
00:27:19
Because in urban fantasy, y'all get to have sex. And it's actually expected, let alone the fact that people don't raise an eyebrow at it. Whereas in my world, which you could take several ways-- --if you write sex in epic fantasy,
it's like you've walked into the Royal Society wearing nothing but a trench coat and a pair of boxers. People are like, oh, oh, sex in epic fantasy. Oh. Oh.
I catch a ton of flak for the sex that I had in my second book. And it's a little weird. Somebody, he goes, my daughter really enjoyed your first book. But now I know she'll never be reading your second one as long as I have anything to say about it. Because it's just all the filth and the sex. And I'm like, you realize that Kvothe kills like 40 people in the second book, right?
120904 The Story Board ep 2 script.docx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=US&v=XTjAM2XHo1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7cJdw-C310
http://wordsteps.com/vocabulary/video/80001/Concerning+Characters+-+The+Story+Board+Ep.+2
01:06:00 But I try to write the [INAUDIBLE] on the internal monologue, whereas instead I do a lot with characters' body language.
So in their dialogue, I'll have somebody lean forward, or I'll have them sigh, or I'll have them roll their eyes. I actually have to constantly go in and weed out all of my nodding.
120920 SFM Presents Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB7H2m6WkZY
Online interview
nothing
120924 Roundtable_patrick_rothfuss.mp3
Roundtable podcast Episode: (More than) 20 Minutes with Patrick Rothfuss
http://www.roundtablepodcast.com/2012/09/more-than-20-minutes-with-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
120927 The SF Signal Podcast (Episode 153) Interview with Author Patrick Rothfuss.mp3
#podcast
nothing
121002 The Story Board ep 3 script.docx
https://web.archive.org/web/20130418161546/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDuVVmEeH6k
http://wordsteps.com/vocabulary/video/80002/Form+%26+Function+-+The+Story+Board+Ep.+3
00:19:00
I actually taught a writing class. And just on a lark, I asked the students what book they would like to read, to examine the structure. And they picked mine because I could kind of show them the man behind the curtain with it. And I had them all study different plot lines. And then, we drew it up on the board, like a big timeline, with the different chapters all along the edge.
And then we draw the arc. And I can't believe how well it worked. It made me realize that this scene that everyone loves, it's probably not because of the scene itself. It's because five different plot lines converge and get resolution in that particular chapter. And it's the scene in the Eolian where he plays the lute. And that's always what everyone talks about in that first book. And it always struck me as odd because there's no sword fight. There's no car chase. It's about as non-dynamic as a scene can get, if you think about the raw action.
But it's that it does come to resolution. So many things come to resolution, that I think it gives everyone a very satisfied feeling.
00:28:45
We do some tabletop role playing, me and my friends. And I'm always very jealous of one of my friends because he runs a beautiful game, and I run a really messy game. I can't run things the way that he does. And I realized eventually that that's because his games, effectively they were about people being heroes and drama and a very tight plotline, effectively. There's a dragon. You figure out what that deal is with the dragon, how to kill the dragon. You rush off. And if you're heroic you're probably going to beat the dragon. That's the idiom. That's the style of that story. And I'm very jealous of that, probably because that's not how I work. That's not how my brain is wired. I tell these rambling character-centered gaming stories.
And one of my friends actually stopped somebody, because they were about to charge blindly into the face of danger. And the one friend stopped another and said, no, no, no, no, no. This isn't Todd's game. This is Pat's game. Heroes win in Todd's game. Heroes lose in Pat's game.
And he says that's because Todd's game is about what makes a hero, and Pat's game is about figuring out what the truth is. And I go, wow. Is that what I'm doing?
And then I thought about my book, and I'm like that is kind of what these books are about. It's like uncovering the hidden truths of the world. But I don't know how much of that is me in my head that I'm designed to tell that sort of story, or if that is Kvothe, because it's all his story. And his life has been about uncovering the hidden truths of the world. And I probably won't know until I launch into another big story to see how much of that comes out again. Then it's me. If it changes, then obviously it was Kvothe.
00:58:24
Here we go, "How many plots and subplots do you usually have in your book?" And I think there's an implied sub-question there which is how many should you have in your book?
I know for me, I counted once, and not going into the minor subplots I think I had 18. And my advice would be you should have less than 18.
01:08:27
PATRICK ROTHFUSS: Again, I'm odd man out here with two books. And even so, I've had inconsistencies between the two books. Sometimes it's just a little spelling thing, but it's irritating. I spell Kershaen with a K here and a C here. And one of them's in the map, so do we change the map now? Do I go back and change the text?
BRANDON SANDERSON: No, no, no, you just say that that's translated from a language that two different scholars used two different translation techniques. Just like Korean or Japanese, you have two different forms of how they're spelled.
PATRICK ROTHFUSS: You know, that makes me feel a lot better. Because I'm like can I pull that interworld complexity translation issue?
CHERIE PRIEST: Just tell them a wizard did it.
BRANDON SANDERSON: I swear-- now, I don't know this for sure and now the Robert Jordan fans are all going to call me and say how dare you. But there's one point where Robert Jordan had a person who had a horse named Stare, and the next book he has a horse named Stepper. And a fan said, what happened to his horse? And Robert Jordan said well, he's got two horses. And perhaps Jim had two horses for this person, or maybe he just did what we all do sometimes. Anne McCaffrey forgot the name of one of her main characters between book one and book two. Maybe it just happened like that.
01:15:30
Where in the revision process I might add a character who, if you look at things really clinically, they may not be vital to the story. The best example of that is Auri, who in some ways does not further a plot or something like that. But is she important to the story? I think she's vital to the story, even though she may not be tied directly into a major plot arc. She does so much for the story, she's one of the things that makes the story beautiful. And that by itself is justification, whether or not she's pulling her weight in terms of structure.
121106 PRSB - Episode 4 - The Play's The Thing.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn1pZL5r7iM
~ 00:27:00 - Another discussion on the difference between scientific and poetic magics
~00:53:10 - A map of the computer game (in Basic language) Pat tried to write back in 5th grade
But in terms of KKC - nothing
121115_archeddoorway.docx
http://archeddoorway.com/2012/11/15/an-interview-with-patrick-rothfuss/
Right, although, given that, I start thinking, at what point are they considered young readers? A sixteen-year-old is going to run into worse language, violence, and sex like on network television than in my book.
It’s weird. People get unfairly twitchy about sex. And truthfully, Kvothe kills like 30 people in this book. Some of them horrifically. And not one person has ever said: “This is really horrible.” If they said that, I’d have to say, “Yeah, it really is.” It lets you know that he’s not all sunshine and moonlight, fluffy bunnies and confetti. There’s some dark stuff to this character.
But nobody says that. Ever. No one has ever emailed me, or in a conversation or interview has said “This is a little dark, y’know, with all the killing, ” but he has healthy, enthusiastic consensual sex with a couple of women and people have a spasm. I mean, how is that horrible?
121204 PRSB - Episode 5 - Putting The Meme In Memoir.mp4
https://web.archive.org/web/20121228074925/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFO50chkSDg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrhxHagge6A
nothing
130101 The Story Board ep 6 script.docx
https://web.archive.org/web/20130704011459/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351RCDS877A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=351RCDS877A
http://wordsteps.com/vocabulary/video/80003/Begin+at+the+Beginning+-+The+Story+Board+Ep.+6
nothing
130109 AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1699yv/im_fantasy_author_patrick_rothfuss_ama/
- I'm not sure if this has been answered, but I remember reading somewhere that Auri wasn't originally part of the story. In a sentence, why did you decide to include her?
- There is no rational reason I could give you that would be satisfying. I could explain to you some of the functions she serves in the story. The role she fills.
But that wouldn't be the real truth. Not the true truth.
That doesn't mean there isn't a reason. Merely that it is not a quantifiable, rational thing.
Some questions are not in the realm of raw logic. Art is one of these things. And so is Auri. You might as well ask, "Why a butterfly?"
"What does that have to do with the price of butter?" is actually a real-world expression.
Back 50-60 years ago, if you grew up in a farming community, like, say, in Wisconsin, the price of butter was really important. Important to everyone.
If you were away from home, and your parents sent you a letter, that would probably be part of the important news they'd include. If the price of butter was high, you knew things were good at home.
That's the world my mom grew up in. When I was in college, and she sent me a card, she'd include how much butter cost at the grocery store. It was a little joke between us.
But yeah. Butter. Important.
Idioms. Also important. They reflect a lot about a culture.
- If a fan wanted to try their hand at writing some Eld Vintic poetry, are there set rules to this form?
- Read some of the old Norse Eddas....
- Okay this one is something I just came across yesterday while reading a book for a college course. I came across the word Skraeling a term that the Vikings used for Eskimos and was wondering if they had any relation ship to the Scraeling ("Spider Demons") in NotW? Just curious.
- Wow. What a crazy random happenstance....
- I've noticed that in many conversations between Kvothe and Denna, Kvothe says a lot of 7 worded sentences that tend to be very charming or important to their relationship. Was this an intentional easter egg?
- Things like that don't happen by accident.
- ...Which also has 7 words. Damn it.
The Latantha is absolutely a soft martial art. Other Adem forms are not. I think of it as closer to Yang style Tai Chi Chuan though....
I really view both the books as one story. It's just broken up into volumes for ease of publishing. In my head, it's just "The Book."
130115_fantasyliterature_pinup.docx
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
nothing
130204_patblog_srost_working_title.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2013/02/storm/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
If you’re the curious sort, the title of the [the slow regard of the silent things] story (the *working* title, I should say, as I just came up with it last night) is “The Weight of Her Desire.”
130211 The Story Board ep 7 script.docx
https://web.archive.org/web/20130707184949/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJrMtOGnhzE
http://wordsteps.com/vocabulary/video/80004/10+Tips+for+Fantastic+Sex+-+The+Story+Board+Ep.+7
00:15:00
[about sex in WMF] Because when I was working on my second book and I turned it into my editor, she said, you know, you're being a little coy here. This has been built up to for a long time. It's a transformational experience in this character's life. And if it happens all offstage, your readers are going to feel justifiably short changed. And so she really pushed me to write more of the sex in the actual story. And I resisted it. And then eventually I realized she was right, and I sat down and wrote it up. And it was really hard for me, because I don't do a lot of that.
130305 The Story Board ep 8 script.docx
130305 PRSB - Episode 8 - Storytelling In Video Games.mp4
https://web.archive.org/web/20130308092801/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PtFlcZome4&gl=US&hl=en
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wU9wCVNH64
http://wordsteps.com/vocabulary/video/80005/Storytelling+in+Video+Games+-+The+Story+Board+Ep.+8
nothing (but it is interesting to read this Pat’s blog as a follow-up to this episode: https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2013/03/concerning-games-torment-and-a-sense-of-play/)
130329 A Story Is A Story Panel WonderCon part 1.mp4
130329 A Story Is A Story Panel WonderCon part 2.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4fAVx-mFNs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtpIDIQb3L4
nothing
130404_pcgamer.docx
https://www.pcgamer.com/torment-tides-of-numenera-interview-with-colin-mccomb-and-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
130415 Furious Fiction Patrick Rothfuss Interview.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k\_ht5nzlprI
nothing
130418 Triangulation 99 Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBAirLGSsy8
04:20
I started writing this novel in 1994. It took me 7 years to write it to the end of this particular story.
20:00
Omethi river was originally named Borat (?)
01:23:35
What you really see (in Ademre) is that another type of sexism. Wherever anybody talks about Tempi, they are like “well, he is nice, for a guy he is an okay fighter, but you know, guys are kinda thick”. I didn’t make a big point of it, but if you read through it, you realize that every time any of the women refer to a man they are kind of gently obliviously derogatory towards them.
01:26:10
[The admiration of modegan women is partly] because of a confused cultural understanding of the fact that in Modeg they have a sort of formalized education of women that includes a sort of courtesan element, and these people are valued members of the culture.
130418
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2013/03/concerning-games-torment-and-a-sense-of-play/#comment-38443
Scrael is the plural. A scraeling is the singular. (I think.)
130714 Public Radio from UA Little Rock Author_2013_Rothfuss_Heiffer.mp3
http://ualrpublicradio.org/post/fantasy-author-heifer-advocate-patrick-rothfuss#stream/0
#podcast
nothing
130802 W00tstock 5.0 - Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm78-SrQTnE
nothing
131108 A few minutes with Pat Rothfuss & Scott Lynch in a pub in London..mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBf0TmpIPmw
07:40 No Auri no Devi no Ambrose no Draccus. Kvothe goes to University and buddy-ups with Lorren. Kvothe’s like “I wanna go to the Archives” and Lorren like “Let me help you with that”.
131118 Lectura Patrick Rothfuss auditorio Penguin Random House.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unaTCVlaf5s
nothing
131125 A Maunder of Rothfaux.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6c0vMiR-Tg
#hangout
// rothfuss twitter contest aftermatch
nothing
121127 Sword and Laser ep17.mp4
http://swordandlaser.com/home/2013/12/2/sl-video-rewind-17-author-guide-to-patrick-rothfuss
https://archive.org/details/SALEp117
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
14:13
Loose ends should not be a fear. I mean, let me re-state that. If you have any sort of realistic story, you never know everything. I think that sometimes you have these stories that are so tight and tidy that they feel fake - because every experience that we have in a real world suggests that we never have a clean ending to anything - you never get your perfect last moment with the girlfriend you;ve just broken up with, or something like that. So that only happens in fictional stories, in those constructs, and it is satisfying for that reason, but if you get too much tightness and too much tidiness, it reeks of wrongness, it is the uncanny valley of narrative. And I think about this a lot, because I am trying to tell a real story, in a real place, that just does happen to exist. I want to feel a very true story, and for that to happen, for this to be the true story of a person’s life… it is messy. Sometimes it means that you meet people, and you like them, and you are friends, and then they leave and you never see them again. And it is terrible, and it is too bad, but that’s life. So when I say you shouldn’t worry about loose ends, I say that in general, philosophically, loose ends are a part of a realistic narrative. And inability to cope with that is actually a sign of a sociopathy. Just saying.
131206 SpeculateEpisode91_Dec6_2013_PatrickRothfuss_Pt1.mp3
#podcast
nothing
131206 SpeculateEpisode92_Dec27_2013_PatrickRothfuss_Pt2.mp3
#podcast
nothing
131208 Geek Bomb Book Club Name Of The Wind, Featuring PATRICK ROTHFUSS!.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjlJDzpQn5c
22:00
The talk about Chronicler introduction interrupted by technical issues O_o But it looks like originally “he entered the Waystone by his own power”.
42:00
On magics in KKC and in real world
1:23:32
“Wilem is Cealdish. Kilvin is Cealdish. His giller (Cammar) is Cealdish.”
01:24:30
“Seven words that make...” are homage to “babylon 5” technomages (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/technomage).
131209_nerdbastards.docx
nothing
131218 The Nerd Nighters Episode 42 - Stefani D'Angelo, Pat Rothfuss, and Doug Chadwick.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClRWZvKABUk
nothing
13xxxx_wsm.docx
http://wsm.wsu.edu/s/index.php?id=1020#.URQJ2\_IzeSp
nothing
140114 AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1v7nb6/heya_everybody_im_patrick_rothfuss_ama/
Is one day in the four-corners world longer than in our world? The reason I ask is that, apart from the prelude/interlude chapters in your books, you make it very clear that what we're reading in the novels is exactly Kote's word-by-word dictation to Chronicler. And each book is Kote's narration happening on one day. So how can the books be so long (the audiobooks, especially Wise Man's Fear, are much longer than 24 hours)? Could it be that a day in the Four Corners world is much longer than 24 hours?
Even now, I hesitate to try to give some sort of hard, definitive answer on this question. But here are a few statements that might be informative/interesting/helpful.
- It is not unreasonable to think that a day in the four corners is a different length than ours.
- Everything in the frame story shouldn't be included in the wordcount, obviously.
- Kvothe would probably tell his story much more quickly than a narrator would read it.
I know this last one to be true because I know the prologue of the book very well, so when I read it out loud, I tend to go about 50% faster than the narrator of the audio book.
But this: "How much has the basic skeleton of the story changed since you started revising for print?" Is much easier.
I'd say 60% has changed compared to my original draft.
It's a lot different.
- What is Fela's cup size? For uh, science.
- Probably a generous C. Perhaps a D.
- At what point in you writing did you settle on the name Kvothe?
- I had it right at the begining. That was the very first line of the book: "My Name is Kvothe."
140130_patblog_cealdish_currency_making.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2014/01/three-threes-or-who-wants-to-be-a-beta-reader/
Also
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2014/06/novelties-signed-books-and-cealdish-coins/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
For the Cealdish currency in my world, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than starting with the modern coins (The coins that Kvothe would be using.) We’re actually developing the historical coins first, then evolving the currency forward in history.
This set of coins would have been from about 500-600 years ago. Back when they were only a few short steps removed from bartering tokens.
The jot is solid copper. The drab is steel with a fusion crust.
The talent is made of an alloy called billion. It’s 20% silver and 80% copper. It was commonly used for coins here in the real world. It’s normally a rosy color, not bright silver like these. You see, if you heat billion in a furnace, some of the silver naturally migrates to the surface. Then, if you hammer it, it spreads the silver out so it looks much brighter, like a solid silver coin.
That’s what they used to do before electroplating. And that’s what we’ve done here.
The gold mark actually has gold in it. Not a *ton* of gold, but a little. (Even a little gold is pricey.) The rest of it is silver and copper. It’s an odd molten red color I’ve never seen before, and it’s polished and buffed to the point where it looks like it’s been enameled.
We’re doing a limited run of these. We only made 1000 jots. And there will be fewer talents and marks. When they’re gone we’re moving on to the next batch. That set will be from 300 years in Kvothe’s past. The designs will be more developed, the alloys different, and the maker’s marks more complex.
We’ll be selling these in the store eventually, but first we have to make more of them, get packaging straightened out, develop the product descriptions, etc etc…
140207_unboundworlds.docx
nothing
140226 Back It! Pairs, with James Ernest, Shane Tyree, and Pat Rothfuss.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uviefg-F4jo
nothing
140313 AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/209vbc/pat_rothfuss_james_ernest_and_the_pairs/
I'd prefer to answer this question as it relates to the larger implicit/explicit issue. I hope that's okay with you.
I do, generally speaking, prefer to be implicit as opposed to explicit.
Not entirely, obviously, but I definitely lean in that direction.
In a small way, you can see this in my dialogue. I don't like to write something like:
Simmon stared at me from across the table, he obviously didn't believe a word I was saying.
I prefer to imply:
Simmon rolled his eyes at me.
The nice thing about this is that it's showing and not telling, so it's more interesting. Also, this tends to more actively engage the reader's attention, which means the reader is more involved in the story. Which means the reader cares more.
The bad thing here is that people can miss what you're trying to show them. Or they can misinterpret it.
It's harder to imply. That's why I have to work so hard in my revisions. I need a lot of beta reader feedback to make sure things are working properly....
Note: As relates to this question, see what someone asked below. "Why don't you have more characters of color?"
I do. All the Cealdish folks are black. But I don't blow a trumpet about it any more than I make a lot of noise about Fela being a little dusky or Devi having what I think of as an "Irish" complexion.
I just mention and suggest these things very gently, and as a result, some people don't notice.
- Are the Hollow Gods y'all posted today the, or some of the, "Gods all around us," that Sovoy mentions?
- You're very good. Very very good. My readers are so goddamn smart.
140321 Patrick Rothfuss A Writer of Things Talks at Google.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLmI-gsRWLw
11:20
On the very first pages of NotW when you meet the troupe and there is Marion and his wife who are doing a string-puppet show. And hat would his wife’s name be? Marionette, right? See! And that’s just for me and maybe for you if you catch it. But the books are full of that.
12:14
- Allusions to Dune?
- Sandworms, you know.
- Oh, yeah, yeah...
12:45
I’ve made a trigonometry mistake in the first book and it is really embarrassing … and this is mine mistake and something I would change in book if I could.
14:50
Everyone’s name means something, and it is a reference to something in one of my created languages.
25:55
[Regarding trip to Severen and possibly regarding trial at Imre as well.]
People assume that I wrote it and then I took it out, and it is simply not true. I didn’t write it. So then why did I put something like that in, implying that there was a story and then not giving you the story therefore making you want something you are not gonna get? Why would I do that? And that’s a good question.
27:20
If lockless box keeps something in, or keeps something out? That is a good question.
41:50
This is the Wisconsin forest [Kvothe] is walking through.
50:00
If I were to say that Corners is close to something, I’d probably pick something like Euchre. … Corners is a trick taking game, there is a bidding, but it is not a variation of existing game, it is a different sort of trick taking game.
140329 Paul & Storm with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5foB63K4j68
01:40:00
Laniel Young-Again reading
…
Which is a story about a mature Modeg woman with grown children who goes on adventure
140401 Patrick Rothfuss gives us some spoilers about the final Kingkiller Chronicle novel!.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td6f8RnxgBQ
01:21[a]
Here is the true one. There is a king [in DoS] and a king is killed.
140411 JordanCon 2014 - An Hour with Patrick Rothfuss (1_2).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkGfuN_uTIQ
14:46
A nice comment on Felurian episode.
140411 JordanCon 2014 - An Hour with Patrick Rothfuss (2_2).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkitO3kVkTo
00:40
Well the only reason you have those cantilevered necks on baroque lutes is because they didn’t have the technology to make a long straight neck. And you had courses of strings because they didn’t have the technology for metal strings and the long neck that would support the torsion of metal string. But in my world they do; they have pretty good technology, so you can have a long-neck instrument, you don’t need that bent-over thing
19:00
Writing on Harry Dresden door is very similar to writing on Ben’s wagon, and this is not intentional. Pat never read Dresden files until after NotW.
140507_geekandsundry.docx
https://geekandsundry.com/qa-with-patrick-rothfuss/
I’m tempted to do things like… say… create an anonymous logon, then go and seed the forums with a bunch of misinformation. Saying things like, “Oh, Pat mentioned in an interview once that XXX was actually XXXX XXXX XX XXXX” Then I’d put up a URL to an interview that isn’t online anymore.
So yeah. I mostly stay away from those internet discussions. Mostly because I have an overwhelming desire to fuck with people.
I’m not an entirely nice person.
140506 C2E2 2014 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A panel.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a\_7GagjPSWA
tSRosT announce here by the way
16:00
I’ve written much of Kvothe’s University [chapters] back in 1994. … I can say this: the shape of the library is kinda based on the shape of the library at Steven’s Point. And that’s about the extent I am drawing from the real world.
17:30
I once heard a story from one of my professors. … And he told about one of his professors back when he was going to school, a catholic school back in the day. … And so this old school prof comes in and he says before the class “if all the women in the class could cross their legs” - the thing that Hemme says. And I remember hearing that and I am like “That is the worst thing ever”. And so I [gave it] to Hemme, because [he is] the biggest asshole.
23:40
The story about the boy with a golden screw … is also taken from the real life. It seems to be localized in Midwest [US]. My father told me it.
…
The history of Jax I did make up… and I am proud of that one.
I wrote a weird story because that is how folk stories surviving centuries of oral tradition turn out to be. But then it was not a story that Hespe the mercenary could tell; so I had to cut out some pieces and simplify the language; the story that is in the WMF is about ⅓ of original story.
40:00
An interesting part on how Pat spent lots of time trying to figure out correct sequence for WMF opening, which was very hard due to lots of plots and parameters of story (temp, mood, chromo, etc.) - possibly explaining persisting timeline problems in NotW. Also 18 plot threads, depending on how you count it.
52:25
Ambrose was not in an early draft. And then when I put him in, he was like this flailing ineffectual thing, he was like “eeeeew”, you know, and I finally I am like “he needs to be a threat”, an honest to God threat, a horrible person who does horrible things - and then he blossomed, and then he does wonderful things for the story.
54:27
What makes [Gandalf, Merlin and Moses] awesome? It is not the magic. It is that they know things other people don’t. And so I made that the heart of Kvothe.
140606 Phoenix Comicon 2014 Books and Authors Kickoff.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f90FM0eOuQ
nothing
140608 Phoenix Comicon 2014 - Patrick Rothfuss at Paul and Storm Concert.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP822GYmiAg
//first SROST reading
34:25
However, I would happily let you mislead yourself and actually be telling you a story that you might be reading in a way that is not maybe the best way to read the story. This is something that might happen in a lot of my work.
140609 Magic Systems with Rothfuss, Butcher, Wells, Cole, Sykes, Blackmoore - Phoenix Comicon 2014.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9H7NSqJsnM
nothing
140709 AMA https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2a97v1/patrick_rothfuss_and_the_worldbuilders_team_ask/
nothing
140725 2014 SDCC _ Putting the Epic in Epic Fantasy.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgamJOeB4Nw
nothing
140730 Patrick Rothfuss llega al Espacio Fundación Telefónica.mp4
140731 Talk with Patrick Rothfuss, author of The name of the wind (English VO)..mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm1wGQ0FjYc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHYbBBinBU
01:18:10
When I am writing I try to make sure that every scene does at least three things. Every choice that I make, every conversation that happens needs to accomplish at least 3 things, otherwise it is not pulling it’s own weight in the story. … If I am putting in some information, I wanna slide it in subtly - I want there to be action, I want there to be movement of a plot, I want there to be a change in character relationship… otherwise I try to cut that scene and do whatever I was doing somewhere else.
140731 George R.R. Martin, Diana Gabaldon on 'Rulers of the Realm' panel (San Diego Comic Con 2014).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpBH4OaTSHY
32:40
For the 1st book I had like 200, 300 beta readers
35:25
With this more recent book, I had like 40 beta-readers, and I am really antsy about it, because I feel like I haven’t put it to testing process appropriately.
140807 Mesa Redonda con Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie y Brandon Sanderson - Celsius232.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_xllc3BCvw
nothing
140814 Gollancz Festival 2014 - Patrick Rothfuss Q&A.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqulvBr9qu4
nothing
140814 Gollancz Festival 2014 - Patrick Rothfuss gives a sneak peek of The Slow Regard of Silent Things.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omjO-pr4v6U
nothing
140818 Fantasy-Faction Patrick Rothfuss Interview - The Slow Regard of Silent Things.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr0tPJFQ770
http://fantasy-faction.com/2014/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss
#interview
00:15
SROST is placed in the timeline of WMF.
140904 PAX Dev_ Mike Selinker, Mike Krahulik, & Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpP3Gm9tzaI
nothing
140907 Patrick Rothfuss panel - PAX Prime 2014.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rlk1gVSzxU
200 beta readers
29:55
I hope you realize that I would never be so crass as to do anything as crappy as… twist ending here, right? This is not a twist ending. This is a story that you did not understand. You’ve made an assumption and it lead you in a wrong direction.
140922 Entrevista a Patrick Rothfuss - Roca de Guía.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjAO9DWZYcg
nothing
141010 NSFW #214 Think About the Killdren.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oInmhiludHY
nothing
141011 Geek Geek Revolution Panel hosted by Patrick Rothfuss at New York Comic Con 2014.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7jum3zbYqc
nothing
141014 How A Game of Thrones Changed Fantasy... or Did It_ Panel at New York Comic Con 2014.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtmUIsuqlKU
nothing
141015 podcast_beaks-geeks_37-patrick-rothfuss_1000381584587.mp3
https://archive.org/details/podcast_beaks-geeks_37-patrick-rothfuss_1000381584587
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
#podcast
Nothing
1503xx_lightspeedmagazine.docx
141025 Episode 122 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.mp3
141027 Geek's Guide to the Galaxy Patrick Rothfuss Interview.mp4
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-patrick-rothfuss/
https://geeksguideshow.com/2014/10/20/ggg122-patrick-rothfuss/
#interview
(This is the same interview in 3 different mediums.)
25:20
I’ve known Bast as a character for 20 years now.
141031 Patrick Rothfuss Responds to Academic Snobbery.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFI30pcv4sM
nothing
141104 Patrick Rothfuss & Nate Taylor at University Book Store - Seattle.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1trMl8AwdU
nothing
141117 Patrick Rothfuss habla sobre la importancia de leer una historia por primera vez.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP4rOUyl0Yg
nothing
141126 Author Patrick Rothfuss interviewed by Alex Falcone.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocrB-mg0P04
nothing
141126 Pat & Nate Taylor Chat About Slow Regard Art.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FOex40bR1Q
SROST illustrations stream
06:00
Unused art of fulcrum broken into 3 pieces
13:00
Draft of twelve picture
17:00
Unused Auri&mortar&pestle art
24:20
Rubrick is a big curve
25:30
There is no map in SROST because a map should be an artefact of the world, and who would draw a map of underthing? Auri would not.
28:40
One of my (Pat’s) favorite parts of the Underthing is Black Door
31:40
Unused draft of Auri going into the forest / haven
34:00
A draft of the Tree picture - this water faucet is really on a kitchen counter
It probably should not look like a kitchen (so they moved away from this concept)
58:00
So Pat was GMing a Temerant-RPG for Nate and Pat Johnson back in 2002 and they had adventures in Small Kingdoms (possibly in Modeg back then, as it was before the NotW timeline?). In the end of the campaign they’ve met Chtaeh (still in Small kingdoms or in Fae?), so this was the only character from the books they’ve met. So when Nate Taylor was drawing Cthaeh for Pairs (https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/nameofthewind/images/7/73/Pairs_Faen_Dayward.jpg), Nate drawn “too much” as the result of that game knowledge, which was vetoed by Pat.
As for that game:
Your last move, you’ve effectively gone underground, you made it through some stuff, you come into this royal hall, you were presented to the king…
01:01:00
Some unused drafts, including Auri in a tree
141128 Christopher Paolini Interviews Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o65mp8R4erA
nothing
141209 AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2orz03/pat_rothfuss_myke_cole_and_worldbuilders_ask_us/
- In Wise Man's Fear, Tempi is not insulted, but rather seems pleased when the people in the tavern say his mother is someone people pay money to sleep with. Given his people's attitude towards sex, do the Adem regard prostitutes the way we do musicians?
- That is not an unreasonable assumption.
- Cool! Been wondering about it ever since I first read your books.
- Good reading, by the way. That's a very subtle implication.
- What lies behind the Stormwall Mountains?
- A whole lot of world, including the Tahlenwald and the Velt.
141222 ECCC 2014_ I NEED A HERO_ WRITING HERO STORIES FOR MODERN READERS.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vedmnDdTcAM
11:45
About Mary Sue
23:00
About characters, flaws, superman, odyssey, kvothe.
14xxxx_fantasybookreview.docx
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/interview/2014/patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
150203 Mir Fantastiki interview Rothfuss.pdf
//Russian source, paper magazine
- The part of Temerant we've seen so far is like 3/4 of Africa compared to the entire Earth size.
- The next trilogy by Rothfuss (already signed by DAW books) will take place in the same KKC world and feature some characters we already know.
150215_elmercurio.docx
150217 El Mercurio INterview MERSTAT010OO1502_768.jpg
https://tintatatornin.tumblr.com/post/111367748414/pat-rothfuss-latest-interview
// This is a fan translation of a Spanish interview that is no longer available - not sure if accurate
https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/2w6stq/patrick_about_the_third_book_i_already_have_the/coov65y/
However, Kvothe knows his life is slipping away. This makes it more tragic, and it is easier for us to empathize.
1503xx Interview with ‘phantastische!’ magazine, translated from German by Google, then edited by Tohawk
//added by redditor czechancestry aka EnFaeantMorie
1503xx - German Magazine Phantastisch.pdf
1503xx - German Magazine Phantastisch.docx
What would excite you to write - after the ominous book 3 which everyone is impatient waiting for?
I'm currently working on a novella that has once again crossed the boundaries of a short story, in which I place an old woman with grown-up children at the center of the plot. In fantasy, this is a topic that no one has really taken up. When you consider how many women there are in the world who have raised their children, and consider that these people have so far been completely ignored in this huge genre of fantasy novels, it's quite strange. A genre that always praises itself for how fantastically it extrapolates, how precisely it focuses on social marginalities, and then there are no main characters who are older women?
There are very few exceptions, Marion Zimmer Bradley's “Darkover” series introduces us to some such women, but among the tens of thousands of fantasy novels, the number of those in which an ageing woman plays an important role remains vanishingly small. There regularly are female characters who take on the role of protagonist, but they are usually young, unmarried, rarely an older woman with children, who are also only used as the main character when their children are threatened.
If something happens to a woman's children, she seeks revenge, if something happens to her man, she may set out to free her husband, and that brings me to the thesis that women in fantasy novels are mostly defined by their role as mother or wife. And that is stupid and chauvinistic.
There are hundreds of novels in which men set off with children to experience adventure and become heroes.
And they don't need the motive of revenge, nor do they need to save their children as a justification. That's why I started writing a story about an ageing woman with grown-up children who sets out to see her world.
The plot challenges me because I suddenly have to write from the perspective of a grown-up woman, and that can be dangerous because I have to assume a lot and don't know it from my own experience. I came up with the idea when I was on a panel at a convention, and I think it was Terry Windling who asked whether the role of a woman in fantasy was limited to servant and mother. She has children who have now left home, and now she no longer finds herself in fantasy novels. At first I thought that couldn't be possible, and I had my hook for a new story.
My main character is mentioned in passing in "The Name of the Wind", her name is Laniel and I wanted to write a short story about her for a small US publisher. Now, however, the plot has once again taken on a life of its own, and at 50,000 words I'm still far from finished. I think the novel will have around 150,000 words when I add the word "end" below the last sentence.
It's about Laniel, but also about exploring her homeland, which none of my readers have seen so far. Laniel lives in Modeg, which is very different from Kvothe's Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a little reminiscent of Renaissance Europe, while Modeg has hardly any cultural connection with the Commonwealth. There it's almost like the Dark Ages. Everyone is bound to their land, nobody travels, dark, inaccessible, even impassable forests dominate the land.
The very act of Laniel leaving her homeland is an effort, because nobody in this society travels, and also a challenge for me as an author. When I write about a young man who sets out to see the world, I am on familiar ground. Thousands of authors have left their mark here, which I could follow, and when I then deviated from the beaten path, I was sure of applause.
With Laniel, there is no tried and tested path to follow, not even a deer trail, so I have no examples to distance myself from. It is frightening, but also exciting, and I enjoy being the first to tread this path.
1503xx Bee Game Story — Patrick Rothfuss on JoCo Cruise 2015.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxpYZMYnIbY
nothing
1503xx Monkey story — Patrick Rothfuss on JoCo Cruise 2015.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNsUhbtynvA
nothing
1503xx Mr Fluffins — Patrick Rothfuss on JoCo Cruise 2015.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt7tAcy6YQg
nothing
1503xx The Princess and Mr. Whiffle The Thing Beneath the Bed — Patrick Rothfuss on JoCo Cruise 2015.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Q3N3XUj5M
nothing
150314 Interview mit Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
http://www.tor-online.de/feature/games/2017/03/interview-mit-patrick-rothfuss/
11:50
To answer why is the Underthing the way it is? That would be giving away a lot of secrets. Not just of tSRoST but the entire world.
150320 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Vindragona Fantasy Festival in Vienna.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKJRmU4jF_A
32:30
Why Pat does not read fan theories much.
150318 Patrick Rothfuss in Reutlingen.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDQaHozoXUg
nothing
150323 Patrick Rothfuss im exklusiven Video-Interview.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swzTflkUJi8
nothing
150330 Emerald City Comicon 2015 Epic Fantasy Panel.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgTI4tnvbKA
nothing
150412_adriasnews.docx
http://www.adriasnews.com/2015/04/patrick-rothfuss-interview.html
An interesting discussion on Pat’s no spoiler policy and fans using his quotes (Auri example)
Also comment on 0604xx_bookloons.docx interview on more kingkilling in WMF
And again, in the first version of this there was no Inn, there was no Bast, and in a later version, there was no Auri, there was no Devi, he didn’t borrow money... I go in to add tension, I go in to emphasize character, and I go in to add action and remove things out so the pacing is better.
150422_spigana_blog.docx
http://spigana.spektore.lv/2015/04/22/so-i-went-to-berlin-to-see-patrick-rothfuss/
Beautiful game came from the life. I was hanging out in playground and watching kids play. They made a game where they were running across the bridge and the point was not to let the people below the bridge touch you. They didn`t sit down and discuss the game, the game simply happened. They also didn`t use the most obvious way- standing in a place where nobody can touch you.
1504xx 00 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDEtDbIXAttgHqBRZbAo5gg
nothing
1504xx 01 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
00:50
In between of second draft and the third draft in terms of the WMF I invented most of the court stuff that happens in Severen. Like the entire tradition of the name rings, I came upon it on the revision. The initial draft of his time in Ademre was three chapters (?), so I probably added 80 000 words [about Ademre].
1504xx 02 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
Some Pat poetry at 09:40
1504xx 03 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
nothing
1504xx 04 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
nothing
1504xx 05 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
06:05
Originally there was no Ambrose. So I add him in a revision, and that was kind of weak tea (?) they kinda like snipped at each other and pissed on each other shoes, and that was the extent of their rivalry, and it was useless and stupid.
1504xx 06 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
nothing
1504xx 07 Patrick Rothfuss Q&A Cornell College.mp4
nothing
150428 Jim Butcher and Patrick Rothfuss Highlights from C2E2.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KmNA2EZbg8
Nothing - highlights of Pat interviewing Jim
150509 Adventure Party #7 - Patrick Rothfuss and Worldbuilding.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peARj2X0ENs
01:40:00
Under Hero system Superman should be about 600 points. Cthaeh would have 1200-1500 (advantage) points and about 60 disadvantage points. 15-20 d6 unlock usable power against other sticky continuous permanent. And how did he use it? He effectively had to talk with you. He is one of the most powerful mythic creatures that exist. The demon Azazel from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_(1998_film) had 800 points (Pat made it under Hero system). Which made clear that Cthaeh should not be unleashed on players. But brushing against this Azazel gave Pat proto-idea of skindancers (the thing that comes to the inn in the end of NotW), so Pat tuned it until it was a medium-level threat.
150512_writersdigest.docx
Nothing
150515 - Ace of Geeks - Episode-150-pt-1.mp3
150515 - Ace of Geeks - Episode-150-pt-2.mp3
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
#podcast
Nothing
150601_avclub.docx
https://www.avclub.com/patrick-rothfuss-shares-his-ramen-recipe-and-what-makes-1798280454
nothing
150601 GPO017_teaandjeopardy_38.mp3
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
~22:30
I was having dinner with Brandon Sanderson at one point, and I said “I’d really appreciate ot if you stop writing so much and make me look like a chump”. He kinda just blinked and goes: “Well, You’re a language author. I am not a word guy. I am a plot guy.” What’s more - later on in the conversation he said that he was a compulsive writer. And as soon as he said that, I though “of course”, and I am not a compulsive writer, I am a compulsive reviser. The initial drafting I enjoy, but I do not do obsessively, and Sanderson does. His process is that he writes a draft, he revises it, he turns it in, they give him feedback, he goes over it one more time.. But he said, with line editing, he says “if they make 10 suggestions, they are right 9 times out of the 10, and I just accept that”. And that thought horrifies me. Because if somebody changes a word in my manuscript, that has to be cleared with me. I fought for the technically incorrect use of “noxious”. Me and my editor had multiple occasions where we argued over grey with an ‘e’ versus gray with an ‘a’. And I fought hard for the British ‘e’. I still maintain that grey with an ‘e’ is a distinctly different color than gray with an ‘a’. So yeah, Sanderson writes compulsively, and because he writes a very tight copy, he is good at plot and worldbuilding, he writes those marvellous books at such speed, I would love to have a little bit more of that in my toolbox, to feel compelled to draft and only to polish. I am compelled with what I produce, but I do wish I could produce more…
24:45
Grey with an ‘e’ is darker, it is grittier and it is more wet. Just slightly. Gray with an ‘a’ is slightly lighter, smoother, and it has less gravitas. Yeah, this is the level… when I say that I revise a lot, I think people suspect that means that I am just running spellcheck over and over on this manuscript. But I am really not. It is such a huge difference between the words ‘slim’ and ‘slender’, just a world of difference between those two words, where that word lands in a sentence. The reason that I won't let other people tweak my sentences… I have to see every change before it goes into the book, and there is hell to pay if something gets changed without my say-so. Because a lot of times there are a lot of things hidden in there. If not substantive and secrets about the plot, the characters, the world, it is that sometimes huge chunks of my book are all in iambic meter. Or a sentence simply sounds better if phrased in a certain way, even though to an eye it looks a little inelegant on the page. There is sometimes a turn of phrase beautiful in its own right, even if it is technically incorrect.
Unattended_Consequences_150625.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
04:00
On Fae section, long sections, readers’ response. etc.
Unattended_Consequences_150707.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
150709 w00tstock 7.0 - Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm78-SrQTnE
nothing
150714 Sci-FiFantasy Family Feud Panel at San Diego Comic Con 2015.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NnUkpSHleM
#panel #quiz
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150714.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150721.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150804.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150811.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150818.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
~33:00 - 53:00
Long talk about story structures.
Unattended_Consequences_150902.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_150909.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
Unattended Consequences episode “An Irreconcilable Ganglion of Antithetical Factors“
https://castbox.fm/episode/An-Irreconcilable-Ganglion-of-Antithetical-Factors-id491533-id30604296
#podcast
~11:00 - 28:00
On magic systems
? timing ?
“I want black people in my movie. I want people to come to grips with the fact that the Cealdish folk are fucking black. They are black as black. And, you know, I don't make a big point out of it. I mention their skin colour, but, like, the university is a fucking diverse place. People from Modeg look dusky. They look, like, Brazilian.”
151123 The Author Stories Podcast 71.mp3
151123 Author Stories Podcast Episode 71 Patrick Rothfuss Interview.mp4
https://hankgarner.com/page/71/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRN80ixaTaY
#podcast
nothing
151123_sffchronicles.docx
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/562212/
nothing
151126 AMA
https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3u9l78/im_patrick_rothfuss_word_doer_charity_maker_and/
nothing
151203 Patrick Rothfuss Interview (Wisconsin Writes).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbzfoVeJEiE
nothing
151203 Patrick Rothfuss's Writing Process (Wisconsin Writes).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j61o_ow86j0
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_151204.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
15xxxx_dragonmag.docx
http://www.dragonmag.com/5.0/#!/article/106799/101184430
nothing
160119_massiveyop.docx
Nothing
160313 Back It! with Pat Rothfuss and James Ernest of Tak.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGqKpvumprU
22:45
Pat has actually said me a lot more that actually in the books. He said to me what he wanted to see in the game: story elements of building a road and story elements of combining pieces to get stronger.
37:30
Originally when Bredon beats Kvothe 3 times in a row, there was mention of number of turns he took each time. This was removed to have possibility of consistency with future developments of Tak game + more implicit writing.
160409 Emerald City Comic Con 2016 - Pat Rothfuss panel - What woman screwed you over so badly that you came up with Denna_.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wx34LNWEE8E
The most of the ECC 2016 video is lost
Basically a confession that such woman existed.
160508_wired.docx
https://www.wired.com/2016/08/wired-book-club-patrick-rothfuss-interview
A lot of Elodin's teaching technique I pulled from the old Zen masters and Buddhists, because that's what you're trying to do when you learn about nirvana. You cannot explain to somebody what nirvana is or how to get there, so you have to almost trick them into suddenly, miraculously intuiting this universal truth.
160511 The Library Talks Guest Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDNAK7Zof90
40:00
We (with Nate Taylor) actually have plans to do a little 4-issue story that tells full version of “The boy that loves the Moon”. Again, if you have read WMF you know that story that Hespe told around the campfire. She told a few little pieces of it; I have the full version of that story written out, much longer and much more lyrical, ‘cause, you know, she was just a mercenary telling a story around the fire. I’ve been looking for a way to bring it to people and I think it would be fun to do it with Nate as a comic.
Unattended_Consequences_160516.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160523.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160602.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
54:55
My friend said: ”It is fine for Adem to have an oral tradition, all these spiritual beliefs, they are tied in this mercenary combat and this way of life and this belief, but if this is supposed to be an established culture, and they don’t have a text, it is not really realistic in a long term.” And that’s where I came up with the concept of “The 9 and 90 tales” that exist in Ademre. I’ve written a few of these here and there, and it had a big impact on how I view their culture, and it made me realize that they need a text too.
160605 Patrick Rothfuss Drinks Water Panel Phoenix Comicon Ballroom #phxcc Name Wind Kingkiller.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rarUC2i1SKg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KsOa7vlipU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgsG2B29bdI
47:15
No Pat does not read reddit or other fan theories places in order to stay sane.
51:20
It is not codified while not in the book, but I am pretty sure that a gearwin is designed to turn heat into angular momentum.
Unattended_Consequences_160607.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160616.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160620.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160627.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
160711 MyBrotherMyBrotherandMe311.mp3
https://maximumfun.org/episodes/my-brother-my-brother-and-me/mbmbam-311-amber-color-our-energy/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160711.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160718.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
160721_sffplanet.docx
http://www.sffplanet.com/interview-with-patrick-rothfuss-author-of-the-kingkiller-chronicle/
nothing
160722 Patrick Rothfuss Names the Wind.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ReWGN9cvE
“son of a Ruh and a forgotten Lackless”
160722 Spotlight on Patrick Rothfuss Full Panel _ San Diego Comic-Con 2016.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMKn7IJGvcE
//after reading tPaMW
What I will say is - if you know who I am - this is what I do. And if you do know who I am and you don’t know that this is what I do - maybe you should have another read through my books. Because maybe the story you are expecting me to tell is not the story I am actually telling.
27:15
The Kvothe’s story might be dramatic, but it does not burn up the world. … after Kvothe’s story the world will still be there.
29:30
[Modeg] have distinct religion and social hierarchy, magic works differently there
31:25
I’ve made the draccus as a kind of cool thought experiment 8 years before it came into the book. The Cthaeh I made as an experiment to the system I was playing - the Hero system - I was like “can I make an all-powerful evil creature that is still somehow constrained, using this system”.
160803 SDCC 2016_ w00tstock interview pt. 1 Paul and Storm & Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As-WYkg4ADc
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160810.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160822.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160829.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_160907.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
161007 Magical Thinking.mp3
https://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/magical-thinking.html
#podcast
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_161016.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
~01:00:00
On maps
161021 Sabaa Tahir (AN EMBER IN THE ASHES) & Patrick Rothfuss (THE NAME OF THE WIND) in conversation.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaQWNgPJAPc
nothing
Unattended_Consequences_161024.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
19:00
Silly little bint
161111_patblog_trouper_auri.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2016/11/being-a-trouper/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
Auri never lets it get to her. Not really. Not deep down. She’s a fighter, and despite everything, she always has a tiny flame of joy burning inside her. We’re very different in that regard.
I keep thinking of this picture and I don’t know why….
One of the things I share with Auri is that we both want to fix the world. Maybe that’s why I wish she could give me some advice.
Unattended_Consequences_161116.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
161117_bookriot.docx
https://bookriot.com/2015/11/17/beards-books-interview-patrick-rothfuss/
NS: Where in the world would you want them to shoot the movie?
PR: Personally, I think right here in Central Wisconsin would be great. Especially for the small-town stuff. It’s got the right landscape, the right kind of trees.
Unattended_Consequences_161121.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
38:30
On titles of KKC and NotW and WMF and SROST
161129_patblog_auri_in_darkness.docx
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2016/11/giving-tuesday-things-that-are-lacking/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
I sometimes write about a girl. This girl is alone, living in darkness, working tirelessly to make the world better, one small piece at a time. The darkness constantly surrounds her. But she keeps working, even on bad days, and she always brings her own light.
She is braver than I am. And better. And she never gives up.
Unattended_Consequences_161206.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
161212 Worldbuilders 2016 Pat pronounces Kingkiller names!.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPEB6NAGoYk
A lot of typos.
Aerlevsedi designed to be seen, not heard.
Unattended_Consequences_161227.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
16xxxx_beliefnet.docx
https://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/the-empathy-of-patrick-rothfuss.aspx
nothing
170228 - Torment Tides of Numenera, videogame released 28.02.2017.
Rhin is a character written by Pat, later revealed to be a traveler from Temerant. Here are some Rhin’s quotes and in-game descriptors:
Descriptors:
Younger Rhin character title: Lost Child who Shapes Gods
Older Rhin character title: Brave Shaper who Walks Between
Gods shaped by Rhin:
Ahl, God of Hiding. Resides in a stone with a hole.
Varlin, God of Change and shifts.Resides in a dull coin.
Tehria, God of Friends and Finding. Resides in a small knife.
Dialogues:
- Who is Ahl?
Ahl is a god. He lives inside the stone.
- So the stone is like his body? Or like his house?
She smiles. “It’s little like both. It’s easier for him to leave than a body. But harder to leave than a house. But either way, the stone is not really him. It’s little like a cup, too.”
- I think I get it… It’s like how a cup holds water. The water is shaped like a cup, but the water is not the same as a cup.
Her face lights with excitement. “That’s it exactly! The water might even taste a little like the cup, if the cup is made of tin. Or it might taste a little like whatever was in the cup before. But you can pour it somewhere else and it’s still the same water.”
She hesitates and adds. “Almost the same water. Mostly the same.”
- Has Ahl always been in a stone?
She nods “He is a very young god. Older gods usually have lived in many bodies.”
- How old is Ahl?
She grins proudly. “Only a couple weeks old. He’s strong fo a…”
She breaks off and looks down at her hand. “You don’t need to be embarassed.”
She looks up to you and grins again. Then she says in a stage whisper, “He is embarassed.”
- Did you bring Ahl with you from your home?
She shakes her head, her eyes far away. “No, I’m-”
She breaks off, suddenly, hand tightening around her stone. Then starts again. “Well. Yes. I suppose I did bring him with me. I found him near a stream. I’ve been carrying him around in my pocket for years.”
- You said Ahl was couple of weeks old, but that you’ve had him for years. Which is it?
She opens her mouth, then closes it again. She’s quiet for a moment, then says, “Ahl does not want me to talk about that anymore.”
- Where you come from, does everyone have gods they just carry around with them?
She shakes her head. “No. Usually the gods stay in family’s home. They give advice. They help with… things.”
- What does that mean that he is a god?
Rhin grimaces. “That is a hard question. Where I come from, there are many gods. Gods of health and hearth and home. Gods of road and roam. Where I come from, it’s a poor family that has no gods of their own.”
She looks down at the stone in her hand, speaking softly. “But here there are no gods. It’s like finding a place where people don’t know what meat is. Or… air. How do you explain something like that?”
“And I haven’t seen a single god except for Ahl himself. And he is mine. He simply is. He is my friend…”
- // Talking about telepathy
She shakes her head. “Well, it’s not a good thing. You have to know that. It’s like eavesdropping. But it’s worse than that, because it’s more private than a regular conversation. What happens in your head is just for you. It’s a conversation a person is having with just themselves. Nothing is more private than that.”
She hesitates, then continues in a soft voice. “When a god is strong enough to see into someone's mind, it's a sign the god might be too dangerous. It's a bad th-”
She breaks off suddenly, then reaches into her pocket and pulls out her stone. She stares at it with slightly vacant expression she gets sometimes, then speaks directly to the stone. “I haven’t been keeping it from you, Ahl. There’s a lot of things I’ve never told you. It’s something I’ve never…”
Another pause, and her face grows increasingly concerned.
“Everyone knows, Ahl. Sometimes a god goes bad. When that happens-” She breaks off, head cocked slightly to the side. Her face grows concerned.
“Well,‘ she says, “if a god can move by itself, that’s a big one. If it argues constantly with other gods or refuses to talk at all… those are signs that-” She stops again, listening.
“Then you’re supposed to take it to the… I can’t remember their name. The god fixers.” Rhin rubs her forehead with her free hand. “I can’t remember what they’re called.”
“[Anyway.] I don’t know why you can’t get inside my head. Maybe kid’s brains are different? Or maybe just my brain. Or maybe that sort of thing doesn’t work on people where I’m from. I really don’t know.”
- Could it be Ahl? Could he be hiding your thoughts from me?
She looks surprised at this suggestion, then gives one of the wildest smiles you’ve ever seen. She reaches into her pocket again, brings out the stone and holds it in front of her face. “Is it true, Ahl? Are you keeping my thoughts hidden?”
She pauses, head cocked to one side, then she laughs and gives the stone a kiss.
She loks up to you. “You were right. He’s the one that’s doing it. And I’m glad. What’s in a person’s head is private.”
- What kind of things gods help with?
She looks thoughtful. “Well… gods. You see. They’re old. So they know a lot of things. Because they’ve been around for a long time. And they’ll tell what they know sometimes. Give you advice. Sometimes they just listen when you need to talk. Sometimes that’s all you really need.“
- You said he was a good of hiding. Is that more than advice?
She nods and without noticing she lifts up the hand with the stone in it so that she’s holding it close to her heart. “Some gods can help you with more than words. Ahl knows everything of hiding. Of being small and silent. He helps me hide. He makes it so no one can find me. He keeps me safe.”
- What is your home like?
Her expression grows distant. “It is a better place than this. It’s safe and warm. And it’s a long, long way from here.”
For a moment, it seems like she is lost in thought, then she starts talking again. “There are a lot of trees there. It’s full of growing things. And a little village with a tall wall to keep bad things [a]way. And I have parents there…”
It’s called Baranth. My village. My home. That’s where my parents are.
- How did you get here?
She shakes he head, tears springing up in her eyes. “I can’t remember. I remember… running. And a… fire? But it wasn’t the right color for a fire. I don’t know…”
Rhin looks around, her eyes lost. “Then I remember being here. And nothing makes sense anymore.”
…
“Tell me then!” she says to the stone. Her face reddens, angrier than you’ve ever seen her. “What have you been keeping from me?”
She listens for what seems a long time, her expression increasingly frightened as she does. Finally, she let’s her hands fall and she tells you.
“I ran away. I was angry at them, my parents. Something stupid, somethings we’ve fought over a hundred times. But this time I left. I packed my things, took my coat, and when the moon was high I… just walked out.”
“I thought I was prepared. Thought I was safe. But they attacked me. Amar… No, I shouldn’t say their name. Soldiers. It does not matter.”
Her knuckles whiten around the stone. “I ran. They ran faster. I made a god somehow, a god of going forth. I must have cut a way into this world and fallen through it. I guess it saved my life, but then… the slavers, my head, Ahl…”
- Do you know what your name means?
“Listener,” Rhin says. “It’s kind of funny how things turn out”.
Rhin returns:
The woman strides towards you, all confidence and grace. She has none of the awkwardness and fear you remember.
And yet the eyes are still Rhin’s. The fear is gone, but the bright spark of innocence and joy is still there. Brighter, even. She squeezes your shoulder with a firm hand.
“Damn. You haven’t changed at all. You’re exactly like I remember you. I mean warmth and welcome on your road, stranger.“
- Rhin?
When she laughs, it’s like a song, like the sun bursting out from behind the clouds. “Yes. Yes, it’s me.”
She cocks her head in the unique way Rhin used to, looking at your pack. “You’re still carrying Tehria, aren’t you?”
Your expression seems to amuse her. She laughs and says, “That god of finding I gave you, remember? Gods about, I can’t believe he was strong enough. I was just a kid when I made him, and it doesn’t look like you’ve aged much at all.”
- But we’re in my mind… Your god helped you find me here?
She nods with pride. “He’s a more powerful god than either of us knew. I can’t take the credit, though. I hardly knew what I was doing.” She smiles. “I just knew I wanted to see you again. Tehria is what came of it.”
- How your life has been?
She runs a hand through her hair. You note a pale line where her scar used to be. “Life has been good, friend. I fight now, as you can see - a protector. Not for any love of the work, I grant you, but for love, absolutely.”
“But you have given me so much more. My gods are strong, I’ve learned of a thing - something my parents never taught me and are not even sure if they believe… that the bonds of love make gods stronger.”
She chuckles to herself and brings out a worn, familiar stone. “Some in Baranth think I’m crazy. Yet they cannot argue with the strength of my gods, can they, Ahl?”
- Have the years you’ve been away given you any perspective of my coldness?
“Actually, I understand you better that I ever did.” A blade that wasn’t there before flicks into her hand. “I’ve been betrayed, too. Like a stab wound you can’t heal.”
The blade disappears just as suddenly. Matkina flinches as Rhin puts a hand on her shoulder. “But you can heal it. You’re the only one who can.”
Farewell
“Farewell, my friend. My home and hearth and bread are forever yours.”
A portal opens suddenly. The bright light and trees you remember from before spill out of it. She waves one last time and turns to step through it.
170213 Worldbuilders 2016 Pat's Book Three Q&A!.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW8efme5eSU
39:00
Deoch and Stanchion are together in an open relationship. Deoch is bi- and poly-.
47:18
There are "more than three" new places in Book 3
56:50
Laniel story shelved
01:19:00
Cthaeh is not a tree, it is in the tree.
01:52:20
Bint story
170305 Patrick Rothfuss on JoCo Cruise 2017.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtTLDHYZrUs\&list=PLJ-l6mr1dW0hRVzXwm4ncEOjgtBAHEdEy
nothing
170306_toronline_de.docx
https://www.tor-online.de/feature/games/2017/03/interview-mit-patrick-rothfuss/
Nothing
//deutch source, had to google translate
170628
Big and Tall gaming
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-big-and-tall-gaming-31115902/
No source =\
170805 Writers Panel with Patrick Rothfuss, Rachel Caine, and A G Howard at AMA-Con.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xNGU3M09TM
22:47
Devi was kicked out of the University because she was a woman and did not decide to play polite with everyone else.
26:40
Pat tried to have Kvothe to save Simmon to avoid damsel in distress cliche, but it didn’t work out, for which Pat is sorry.
01:02:30
Do not threaten a child. … I will not abide bullshittery of this magnitude because it is the cheap way of trying to get me to emotionally engage. Because if you put a child in jeopardy … in pages of book or movie or comic or anything… you are a shit storyteller. Because it is absolutely unfair and manipulative storytelling. And as a father I will not cop to this level of manipulation.
171019 Patrick Rothfuss on Fantasy n Kids Dragon Talk.mp3
170825 Dragon Talk Patrick Rothfuss, 82517.mp4
https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/patrick-rothfuss-fantasy-kids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQs5F1yp3Bg
nothing
170903 PAX WEST 2017 - An Evening with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pQk7fjawa4
nothing
171016_omnivoracious.docx
nothing
171117 PAX Unplugged 2017 • An Evening with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeM2Ijznnck
39:32
- Why has not Kvothe ask his family patron to be his patron?
- This is a fair question. You should probably not assume that he didn’t think of it. Cause Kvothe is not that dumb… at least not dumb in that way.
171202 Woodland Secrets 137 Patrick Rothfuss.mp3
http://woodlandsecrets.co/episode/137
#podcast
nothing
171207 Worldbuilders 10th AE map stream
// source video is deleted; only the text commentary available at https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/7i27d6/todays_map_stream/
The 10th AE map is made by someone in 4C world who had some biases: hated Aturan empire, hence no details for Atur part; disregarded Yll cause who cared about shepherds. It would make no sense worldbuilding-wise to add some small Yllish towns even if map size would allow.
Nate: So, we could add all the waystones locations! I mean, do you even know all locations?
Pat: Well, most of them... well, yes.
Pat has confirmed that "four corners of civilization" are 4 capitals - Renere, Caershen, Tarbean and Ralien.
Also Free city of Tinue is a major trading center that Vintas would love to tax. And Free city of Jinpui is "like Haiti".
“There is no magnetic north in my world.” Trifoil tracks 3 artificial points in the world that were created by teams of arcanists some time ago
There are three prince regents in Renere, hence 3-part city.
The Pirate Isles barony (Jakis family) are those isles in the inland sea something north of "the Small Kingdoms" title.
180112 PAX SOUTH 2018 - Falcon Theatre - An Evening with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/218033246
nothing
180301 Emerald City Comic Con.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBOzYXIBRec
Nothing, video damaged
180302 Emerald City Comic Con 2018 Telling Stories Panel Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoTWBsaVVI4
18:45
This is really central to the way I tell stories. … This is where story truly lives - in the spaces between what has actually being said. … That’s the game that I very deliberately try to play as a storyteller, constantly. I don’t wanna describe something to you, I wanna give you a few details and I want you to step in and do the rest of the work. Best and the easiest maybe example of this is - I once had a high-schooler come up to me and say: “The fight scene in the opening of NotW is the best! He is so badass and he does this and he attacks the scrael and…”. And I am like “I am so glad you like that. I didn’t write that scene.” I set it up, and I broke the scene, and I came back right after it, and I did it good, because you did this awesome badass matrix kung-fu thing in your head. And I build everything all that I write like that, every piece of description every piece of action. I want to give you just enough so that you come in and fill the rest. Not just because I am lazy. But because if I describe a character that I want you to see as beautiful in exact details I might get across my image; but, truthfully, we all think of different things as of beautiful. So I say “beautiful”, I give you a few pieces, I do it right, and if these are right pieces, you come in and what you make is so much more beautiful to you that anything I could do to write would take 10 pages. It is hard. It is hard to write or create implicitly, as opposed to explicitly, but it is those spaces in between that I think really get people in the feels.
21:40
I doodled Kvothe on my calculus notebook in highschool. I was seeing what letters I could make without moving my elbow.
24:10
If you look at most of the character names in my books - there is Wilem and Simmon, and these are very close to William and Simon.So the English-speaking eye looks at that and says - “Oh, a name! A real name!”. And you can piece together how to pronounce it, and it is very effortless.
27:20
I spent 50 hours once just looking at the every instance of the word “that” in WMF. And making sure it was necessary. At the end of it I cut 780 superfluous “thats” out of the book. Which is 3 pages. Without removing any content.
180315 Amy Berg & Patrick Rothfuss on Yeshmin's Morning Show #10.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdlmvEboRJA
nothing
180319 JoCo Cruise Interview #2 The Ethics of Storytelling with Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z70ScfzOMpQ
#podcast
nothing
180408 PAX EAST 2018 - Dragonfly Theatre - An Evening with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/247910205
24:25
I hope that those of you who have read my stuff would know that I would never resort to anything as bullshit as a twist ending. Because that’s not how I roll. Narratively that’s unfair. But if you are surprised, it is probably more likely that this is the story that you have not been reading as carefully as you should have.
…
This is a sort of story that I enjoy telling. That when you read it, you read it in a certain way, probably. And depending on your level of attention you will notice a certain level of detail. But the second time you read it you are reading an entirely different book.
180605 The Great Big Beautiful Podcast, Episode 182 Patrick Rothfuss.mp3
https://www.thegbbpodcast.com/episode-182-patrick-rothfuss/
nothing
180626_wpt.docx
https://wptblog.org/2018/06/the-great-american-read-author-patrick-rothfuss-weighs-in/
nothing
180831 PAX West 2018.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymUoPJptsT4
41:15
[Blackened body of god] is totally a profane swear in the world, because it is blasphemy
42:20
One of my favorite in-world cusses that Bast says at one point is “anpauen”, he just like spits it out. What that means is “shoe iron”, which to a fairy creature is real bad.
181004 NYCC An Evening with Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emwpC7FDWFc
39:19
I use language in a very particular way. I hide a lot of secrets in my books.
...
There is a lot in the books you simply cannot understand until you read them a second time. There are things in NotW you can’t understand until you’ve read WMF. There are things in both those books until you read DoS. That’s the way that I wrote them very deliberately. And it makes for a very long-lasting reading experience. If you read my books only once you kinda missed most of them.
42:40
If I had to pick my favorite character who would it be and why? It changes from day to day.
…
Some characters I really like when I am writing them. Some characters I really hate when I am writing them, because they are really hard to write for. Auri has a very fond place in my heart and I know a lot about her and I am very fond of her. Elodin is a lot of fun to write as well. But again, it depends on my mood and what I am reading and what I am writing.
44:10
Character who is hardest to write for is Denna.She is the hardest character in the book.
181005 Patrick Rothfuss (Rick and Morty vs. D&D) Talks Comics with Pat Baer.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cblZSRgFIs
nothing
181005 NYCC Patrick Rothfuss and R.A. Salvatore Discuss Epic Fantasy Full Panel.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqOVRoF6TrY
06:21
There is 400 year of unknown history behind Modegan currency.
06:45
At the end of every term they would have another Admission interview to access their progress and use that to set tuition.
…
There are a thousand people (in the University).
21:40
The term “spartan” - I did use once in a book and I regret it ever since because there is not Sparta [there], you know. And that one was obvious, but I also at one point put in the name Annabelle and then I immediately removed it. Why? Because that sounds French, and there is no France in my world. What was the other one? Comrade. The word “comrade” to the American sounds Russian and there is no Russian in the world. So I am always removing something that feels a little anachronistic and putting something else in.
33:10
The Cthaeh actually started as a villain as a creature I would create [for running a campaign as a DM].
…
In “Champions” I have 4 different ways how just Sympathy can work. Four different mechanisms depending of the skill level or the interest of the player. Like “if you want to get really granular, here are the real rules for sympathetic magic”‘. [...] I’ve got an 18-page document with all the rules, like how naming would work in Champions. Every of the 9 different magic systems I think I have detailed. 7 of them at least in 3 different iterations.
36:30
I was really glad to leave Tempi behind [due to problems with writing a non-speaking character].
181014 An Hour With Peter S. Beagle (Nebula Conference 2018 Panel).MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shesTIgpibc
54:40
“Anger of the gentle man” concept is influenced by The Magician of Karakosk short story by Peter S Beagle
181014 Ask Me About Deathbuilding (Nebula Conference Panel 2018).mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvrz4KW8CNE
nothing
181128 What Do You Love Episode 3 Patrick Rothfuss.MP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v9W6keB-q8
nothing
181130 An Afternoon with Pat Rothfuss PAX Unplugged 2018.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/342985396?collection=CQNw-YejbBXkAw
nothing
181205_sciencefiction.docx
https://sciencefiction.com/2018/12/05/exclusive-rothfuss-kingkiller-chronicle/
https://sciencefiction.com/2018/12/05/exclusive-rothfuss-kingkiller-chronicle/2/
Rothfuss said he was actually invited to visit the writers and answer questions they had about Temerant, the world he created for the Kingkiller Chronicle.
Rothfuss said the show would be set a generation before the events of ‘The Name of the Wind’ and would follow two traveling musicians. One of the more popular internet rumors is that the show will focus on the parents of Kvothe, the character at the center of the Kingkiller Chronicle books.
“That is … the popular internet rumor,” Rothfuss laughed, without giving anything away. “I don’t think I’ve said this before, but it is set a generation before the events of ‘The Name of the Wind’
‘You’ve got whole countries, and all the religion and the myth and the secrets and the currencies and what monsters are in the woods in these other parts of the world. Like Modeg here, you’ve got all that figured out, right?’
And I said, ‘Oh yeah.’
And he said, ‘Does Kvothe ever go there?’
And I said, ‘No, no he doesn’t. Not in the trilogy.’
Unattended_Consequences_181211.mp3
https://unattendedconsequences.simplecast.fm/
#podcast
nothing
190329 barnes and noble patrick_rothfuss_final.mp3
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/review/patrick-rothfuss-podcast
#podcast
nothing
190909 Oneshot for_the_queen_doubters_faith_tc.mp3
One Shot Podcast - #322 For the Queen: Doubter's Faith
https://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/322-for-the-queen-doubters-faith/
#podcast
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
(In the ad break of One-Shot podcast episode 1, James says that in episode #322, For the Queen, Pat describes some of the world building he's done in Modeg)
12:50
I will pitch, and this is something that I've been working on in a particular corner of my world development. In order for sort of an authoritarian system of government to be sustainable, cause if it's all top-down power, that gets gunked up, like, so quick. And so you always need someone who's always gonna speak truth to that power, and so that needs to be sort of a protected position, and so I would say, what I created in the world, it's effectively called The Doubters. People who, they're specifcally required to question the higher-ups, and they exist outside of a caste system, which makes them oddly powerful, and oddly...
James: Kind of not fitting in with society? That's really neat and sort of reflect The Fool's licesnse. Does that mean you're around a class of people who also have that kind of position?
Pat: I would say we could go straight bells, or like puppet-on-a-stick jester
26:30 (more talk about The Doubters here, but it is kind of concept exploring rather than describing how it will work in Temerant)
58:15 (more concept exploring about The Doubters)
1:04:10 (more concept exploring around Doubters)
190923 stream qna Modegan stripes.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
How Modegan whore earns her stripes? The whores is not a word they use in Modeg, it would not make sense to them. Their women - they are Cimbrelines and they work in a Cimbrel house. And they get their stripes by undergoing extensive training and education and performing services in the community. That’s how they get their stripes.
191206 Pax Unplugged stream Call to Adventure Elodin story.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi7e-AWdQrc
- Patrick, what happened to your hero?
- Well, I think this person has started.. the secret royalty is actually his secret fae blood. So he is in the world, no one knows that, maybe even he does not know that he has this faerie blood. He goes to the University, very very young, learms dark secrets, causes some problems for him, really moves up the chart really fast... though the rankings really fast, gets Re'lar, and then goes out and actually learns the name of the wind, and learns names, and becomes Master Namer... This is Elodin's story right here.
191216 stream Temerant RPG discussion Champions system and Old Holly.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
I ran a game set in what I think of as a… and it is mentioned in the books, it is the Creation war. It is so far in the past that actual linear time does not make sense. It’s the long long ago. Effectively it’s almost the dream time of my world. Except it was very much a real time. When everyone bummed around and namers and shapers were everywhere. And they’ve used this power and that’s why some stuff is real real broke these days.
I played in Hero system for ages, Hero system was a point-based character generation system. A real solid heroic fantasy character - not Tolkien, Tolkien is epic-fantasy - like Scott Lynch’s Locke Lamora, he is a skilled thief and con man, and he has other friends with other skills, a hero like that would probably be based on a 100, a 150 points.
So I played a game set in this long ago time, and I had everyone make characters based off 500 points. These were people who shook the earth, back when magic was used in an everyday sense.
If you build superheroes in Hero system, like, one of X-Men is 350 points, Superman is about 600 points.The Cthaeh, for reference, is over 1000 points. I have actually built the Cthaeh in Hero system.
The reason I have brought that up is that in this mythic world game I had a friend create a brilliant character concept called Old Holly. Who was effectively a shaped being. He was effectively a sentient holly grove, that was created by one of the old namers. I loved this character so much and he played him for a while and I wrote a story based on Old Holly.
Maybe eventually I’ll hunk down with Nate Taylor and make a comic of it or something.
191216 stream Temerant RPG discussion Tinkers and Waystones.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
There are two things you can never do in my world. So unspeakable it would never occur to anyone. One - you don’t get in a tinker’s shit. Like, don’t be rude to a tinker. It is the worst thing you can even think of doing. And two - you would in some way interfere with or like you would never graffiti tag a greystone or one of these old stone bridges. People almost could not think of doing it.
This actually comes out a little bit in book 3, it is addressed a little bit, Kvothe and Elodin have a conversation about it, wherein Elodin brings up the concept, and Kvothe is freaked out to the extent that I was just freaked out here on the chat. Like why you are even talking about that?
191216 stream Temerant RPG discussion On Alchemy.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Alchemy is a process of extracting like platonic forms from objects. So you can pull the drunkenness from wine, and have it, and put it in something else. Or you could just take the wine and pull the hangover out of it.
191218 stream Vi Hart - Eolian mixtape, Alchemy, Slim and Slender, Knackerman.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
[about Knackerman] Pat had these lyrics he knew belonged to the world, and I read it and I knew what they sound like. And so we did that as a stretch goal.
//
I tend to come down more on the side of Alchemy than on the side of Chemistry. Chemistry is a thing you can do and repeat and it works every time. And alchemy is not necessarily repeatable and it is transrational as opposed to purely rational.
191218 stream Chris Funk - Cthaeh actually a they.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Cthaeh is actually a “they”.
200126 WX15_04_revision.mp3
Writing Excuses s15e04
https://writingexcuses.com/2020/01/26/15-04-revision-with-patrick-rothfuss/
(Discussion of getting the beginning of NOTW right. Some discussion of Patrick's process of breaking down prose into acts, scenes, and French scenes, and how to check that everything is working how it's supposed to.)
I broke down every single French scene in the first huge chunk of the book. And I talked about what the purpose of each of them was. And some of them had like, three purposes, which was great. But some of them only had one purpose, and then stacked up against each other, it said, it was like... "Kvothe is smart and cool." "Shows Kvothe is smart and cool." "Shows Kvothe is smart and cool". And I'm like, "Oh. That's why this is draggy and dumb. I'm doing the same thing again and again. These all kind of also talk about the world, or they build character, but their central element is all the same and that's why this seems boring and it's not compelling, and it's not trucking along like it should." So that helped me spot the problem that I then needed to figure out how to fix.
(general talk about how Pat worried briefly that Bast was more interesting than Kvothe, general talk on revision)
200209 Writing Excuses s15e06 Prose and cons.mp3
https://writingexcuses.com/2020/02/09/15-06-prose-and-cons-with-patrick-rothfuss/
#podcast
Nothing
200427 stream qna There are 13 magics.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
The world has - I think at last count 13 different types of magic, each of them with it’s own system.
200428 stream qna Admission binary haggling.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Binary haggling details
200428 stream qna Kvothe build Waystone.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Did Kvothe build Waystone? Yes. It says so in the books.
200428 stream qna No full set of runes for Sygaldry.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Have you created a full set of runes for sygaldry? No.
200428 stream qna No peacocks no magnetic north.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
In my world, there are no peacocks.
(Note: This is in contradiction with the book, as Manet mentions peacocks in NotW ch 37)
There is no magnetic north in Temerant.
2004xx stream qna Shaping and Naming.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss/clip/CrunchyInventiveHerringHoneyBadger
I said that "Old Holly was a shaped being who was created by a Namer. Are the lines between shaping and naming blurry then?" [laughs] You have no idea. Wait 'til book three. There'll be a lot of discussion of that in there.
200430 stream No GRRM reference.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
Okay. So. Here is something I wanna put to rest. “I’ve seen you put a reference to George Martin in some of your works, in the Lightning Tree, do you like his work?”. First, it is not a reference to Martin. There’s been a Martin in my.. It is not a reference to George Martin. It is just the thing somebody said.
200501 stream Laniel intro rhyme.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
You all well know of Laniel
Of all her stories all her names
Called mother called young again
Called Laniel laughing Laniel alone
You’ve heard the hundred tales of her
Those she hunted
Those she helped
The blood she spilled
The gods she did defy
Of how she held the world within her eye
But sit and listen for I will sing a rarer song
The song that comes before
Of when she had no name but one
One name simple as a seed
Thus all of us began (begin?) and thus she was mere Laniel
(He pauses and says he might have read this before, acknowledges a comment on Twitch that it’s not new, then continues saying he bets no one has heard this)
The stories say when Illien was 8 he wandered and was lost among the trees
He had no knife no gods no fire for light
But when the fading sun gave way tonight he simply sat
And as he had no lute he sang
And through the dark his sweet voice rang
And from the forest all the teshan (?) crept
And pressed themselves against the boy and slept
Lyra they say could read and write before she was two years of age
And so piercing was her sight
She saw the names of things like clear print on a page
So stories tell
Some folk are blessed from birth
They walk the world as if their path was charmed
These folks are heroes from the start
And live their lives as if they can’t be harmed
Not so with Laniel
Listen while I sing of how she was like you and I
Of how she feared the mirror and the moon
Of how she knew enough to dread the darkening sky
And yet still she came to be bedecked in finery of silk and steel
Yet still she left her home behind
Yet still she followed what her heart did feel
200501 stream qna Crazy Martin probably Modegan.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/patrickrothfuss
I can’t remember why we called it “the Crazy Martin tak set”. Oh, actually, now I do remember. It is because Crazy Martin, I think, is from Modeg, and tak has some of its origins in Modeg.
200521 Penguin Worlds Book Club Jim Butcher in conversation with Patrick Rothfuss.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt3XtP0cStg
nothing
200526 James and Pat JoCo Magic Part 1.mp3
200526 One Shot Podcast Patreon Bonus Content - James and Pat JoCo Magic Part 1
07:46
I had a very gracious and talented creative writing professor named Larry Watson at UW Steven's Point, who was not just a good teacher. He was a for-real published novelist.
10:25
A different conversation, and this is why I started to talk about Larry, is I kind of had to explain some of the fantasy conventions, by which I mean the fantasy *tropes* and not some of the actual 'con'. I would say, one of the joys is seeing the strangeness and the other things that exist in this world. And some of it's necessary to the story because it moves, it solidifies or it moves plot, or it clarifies conflict, or, if there is magic, you need to learn how the magic works for everything to make sense. But I'm like, also I have like, dead religions that nobody practices anymore. There's currency systems in part of the world that don't exist in my story. And I go, "How do I determine what IS essential, and therefore I leave, and what's INessential, and therefore I cut?"
And again, he didn't answer me, but he did so in a wonderful way, and he described a book that he had read, where the main character was a glovemaker. And he said, "A lot of people bagged on that book because there were huge sections abiout how to make gloves in it." And he's like, "Obviously the author thought it was important for the tone of the book. Obviously it was important to the main character. Obviously a lot of other people wanted other things, or were bored, or felt it was self-indulgent." And then he kind of shrugged. He goes, "I liked the glove making." And so from now on, I think, "Am I glove making in my books? It's like, if I share this little bit of mythology. It's like, "Am I glove making, and if so is this good glove making or bad glove making?" (on a hunch, seems this story about Larry Watson inspired Pat to include the soap making scene prominently in SROST)
21:18
With me, a lot of people say, "There's no way Kvothe could tell his story in a single day, your audio book is..." And there's two things. One is an audiobook is a dramatic presentation, not a person talking. Also, all of the third person stuff that happens in the Waystone is also read in the audiobook. But also, we've never said how long a day is! That's a door that I've left open. I've left many doors open. After sort of considering the ramifications, I'm like virtually certain there's no magnetic north in my world. And that's why sea navigation is actually very problematic.
James: Is it mostly done by stars?
Actually, it's done by use of the trifoil compass, whcih is one of the University's mechanisms of power, and control, and monopoly.
James: Wow! So there's really not robust sea travel before use of that device?
I mean, people could kinda do their best. And you can always, like, even the Greeks were great sailors, but they usually stayed within sight of the shore. Where it becomes a big issue is where you go out over the big water with no frame of reference. THAT's when you need something. But the trifoil compass, there are three places in the world with a particular type of metal. And if you have a trifoil compass, each needle points at one of these points in the world. And then you do some REAL trigonometry and then it exactly pinpoints where you are. But you need, it's effectively a very advanced sympathet---er, a sygaldry construct. And you need access to part of the lode metal. And that's how it works. It's not just any iron. It's not any old iron anywhere. Actually, it's one of Kvothe's kind of unfair exam questions, is, "Your trifoil markers are, you know, 117 points silver, 328 points gold." He gives the three points. He says, "Where are you?" Kvothe in his head is like, "What the shit? What the actual shit? Not in my head!"
James: Like, gimme some paper and like, a half hour.
Yeah. I do, I may not need a slide rule but I wouldn't say "no" if I wanted to get this for-real right. So like, I may know that, but I'm not gonna nail it down until I'm really sure of it. But it allows me to add things like the trifoil compass into the world even though nobody sails, and it's just sort of in there. I know about it. But uh, leaving some of those things loose, and, watch me bring it back to the beginning. Even though my book Name of the Wind does start out slow, I specifically avoided a lot of the info dump. And one of the things that I think that I'm good at, and I work really hard towards, is you have a story, with my story, I could publish an atlas about stuff in my world. But what I specifically don't do is I just don't tell you any of that stuff. And people live in the world, and you learn a few things, and you learn that people disagree about a lot of these things. And then what happens, is instead of people going, "Agh!" and kind of starting to skim, and like, "Do I really need to learn about the fucking mathoms (hobbit term for an old item that no one remembers the use of, but no one wants to throw away), and the museum, and whatever, Tolkein?" Instead they're like, "Huh!" And they get a little less than they want. And then maybe in two hundred pages, maybe in four hundred pages, somebody actually addresses the issue, and then the reader leans forward. Like, "Oh! A secret!" And eventually, what would be a burden becomes something desirable, because now they're bought into the world. This is a different version of what I think of as the anime character building thing. Like Cowboy Bebop. You start with action, and then halfway through, you're getting everyone's backstory. And if it started with backstory, you're like, "Why the fuck do I care about this person's history?" You know? Same thing with the world. You start with the story, and then you give the backstory of the world. Then you're like, "Ooo, delicious, please tell me more about a dead religion."
James: Oh man. Gosh, there's so much that I could pull on there. A question burning in my mind now is, are the stars in Temerant actually celestial bodies, because we know that the Moon is traveling between Fae and the Temerant that we know. So does that mean that the moon as an object is actually disappearing from one dimension into another? I'm not gonna touch that right now. I'll save that for our big questions thing.
27:45
(James comments on use of the storytelling device where someone in the world describes their personal view of how in-world magic works, as opposed to info dumping)
In my opinion, that is my favorite way to bring information into the world. Because it's satisfying, it's grounding, and also, it doesn't nail our feet to the floor. This is what -A- person thinks in the world. They're doing their best. And your person sounds better than a lot of mine. I create like, terribly biased, dead historians who are like, racist, and then they write essays about how, like, "Nobody understands how good the Empire used to be!" And it's like, "Those filthy Ruh. Like, they never developed math. They didn't develop a calendar." You know? "Nobody acknowledges what Atur DID for the world!" And so, but you see, you learn about the Empire through this really fractured lens. But you know that that is maybe a truth and it touches on real things, but we as storytellers still have room to breathe.
~42:00
(James describing how a cataclysm event leaves a lingering effect in his world)
It's something that I've wondered about, and something that is in my world, too, although it's not seen a ton in the story yet. Partly because the story is very focused on Kvothe and partly because.... ehhh, for a bunch of reasons. But, like. Things do work differently in different parts of the world. And some of it is that, for various reasons, part of it is that. There's some theories that this is the way things work on Earth as well. I mean, there's a ton of cool tinfoil hat stuff out there.... I think one of the terms that pops up in this world is 'subtle energy', where it's like, some things work all the time everywhere. And that's what you can study using science, because the root of science is it's replicatable and proveable. But if there are things that only work sometimes somewhere, then obviously that's not science, and therefore not valued in this culture, and therefore it's bullshit. Except it might actually still exist if it's sometimes, somewhere.
200601 James and Pat JoCo Magic Part 2.mp3
200601 One Shot Podcast - Patreon Bonus Content - James and Pat JoCo Magic Part 2
14:45 (For context, in the conversation leading up to this, James talking about his team interviewing sex workers to help worldbuild his campaign)
I've had multiple conversations with different types of sex workers over the years because sex work is such a huge part of any society throughout history, but it tends to be very invisible or erased from history, or surrounded by poisonous untruth. So, I've talked to many different types of sex worker because there needs to be sex work in my world, but I don't want it to be the awful thing that it has traditionally been in the west, especially in a modern sense, but also there is still, the world is always flawed, and people are flawed, so it's not gonna be utopian sex work, you know, especially in the Four Corners, which has some definite empirial, some patriarchal stuff going on. But at the same time, like, I remember talking to one person. I said, "What's the worst part?" They said, you know, all of it, pretty much, the systems of control that are put upon you, and some of them are the people, like, if they're running a brothel, you answer to that person. Then there's the government legislating control. And even if those things were removed, there's problems with like, how do you just make money because just like, credit cards won't let you take money cause if you're a sex worker. There are international banking restrictions on this. So that's how deep it goes.
21:25
I actually might ask you to put me in touch with some of the team that you assembled because I need to do the same thing for the Cimbrelines in my world. They're off in Modeg and they are like educators, they are a class and a group of people that exist, they're like central to the society.
The problem that I've run into, I've talked to some sex workers, I'm like, "Come on a thought journey with me. How would you do a really good brothel?" They say, "Well, this, this, this," and I'm like, "Well, why wouldn't you have a brothel that's run like, maybe a hair salon? Where everyone rents a space, and what you do there is your own business, and you set your own hours, and you charge whatever you want, but your only obligation is to pay your rent on your space to the landlord. And the landlord was required to provide certain services. Like maybe keep security, or they keep the water running, like a basic normal landlord does. The woman I was talking to said, "Well no, that doesn't work, because what the person owning the building wants is, when a client shows up, you have to be there all the time, because they wanna be able to provide like, have a lineup that people pick from. And I'm like, first off, I was like, "Whoa, really. So you just have to be there at the beck and call. Not even of the clientelle, but the beck and call of the owner.” And then I went, "Oh. But also this is a different world. Like, make me a fantasy brothel."
For the people that are stuck in it, it's sort of like saying to somebody that's been in the military their whole life, "Help me imagine the perfect military." What they would do, is they'd effectively make this military fixing the three things that really bug THEM. As opposed to sort of starting from first principles and saying, "What do we start with?" It's like, well, "Sex isn't shameful." And it's like, also, what if one of your ideas for creating first principles for sex work in this culture was the fact that "There is no meaningful lifelong education that doesn't include sex." What if that was first principle? And by extension, there is no one who is an educator that does not work in sex.
And I'm not saying that's where I would start. But if you start there, and you build from there, you end up, and because this is what I do, I'm like, "What if you had a culture where everyone 'X'?" And that's how you get the Adem. And that's how you get all these different cultures. And so, I want to build the Cimberlines intelligently, but I don't have enough experience. There's a difference between, "Let's see what the world might be if it was beautiful and not crapulent," but then there's also it's like, naive wish-fulfillment utopian bullshit.
200622 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-1_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/360-kingkiller-one-shot-part-1/
19:00 Pat confirms that admissions are an end-of-semester thing, not beginning-of-semester thing - been a small debate for a while. Stated that from the time of the admissions lottery, the latest slot is 9 days away
24:00 James says that Archives were built specifically to store books (and Pat does not contradict that, whatever it's worth), which is kinda not obvious from the books.
200627 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-2_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/361-kingkiller-one-shot-part-2/
14:30 The upside would be that it is a billow boat. There are no steam ships in this world, because steam is not a competitive technology. But there are boats that use sails and sygaldry as a motive power source. It is still some swank technology, there is some prestige attached to this sort of boat as opposed to like a barge or something that just sails or something with oars.
24:42 Of course, you will also have time to study a bit. So you would probably take your personal alchemy kit. (travel-sized personal alchemy kits exist)
29:00 [The river that runs through Imre is] Mississippi-big. It does not go all the way through Imre, it is a little ways away, but there is a nearby dock, there is a port that services both the University and Imre, it is almost a little city in it’s own right.
200706 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-3_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/362-kingkiller-one-shot-part-3/
45:30
It is a billow [boat]. There are sails so it can take advantage of wind, but also it has effectively a power source, you can turn a screw or a pedal or something so it does not rely on oarsmen, and how it charges that, or anything like that, it could just come from a fire, could come from any number of different ways, there is a bunch of different ways to do it, and a bunch of different ways it could go wrong.
200707 Rothfuss and Butcher Peace talks - power of silence.mp4
Fun reaction to “nobody understands how powerful silence is”
200713 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-4_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/363-kingkiller-one-shot-part-4/
07:00 Pat asks, “Do you know how to make sovereign glue? (which in D&D 5e is a magical, permanent adhesive. Apparently the University alchemists can make this as well?)
~19:00 the sygaldry billow-boat engine has a coal furnace-fed “heat box” and some number of gears
22:15 After a question from James, confirmation from Pat that during the time an artificer is writing a rune, Alar is used, but a binding is NOT audibly muttered
191007 Oneshot James and Pat Bonus Content Part 1.mp3
Patreon-exclusive follow-up to OneShot RPG
~35:00 My advice - absolutely keep them (numenous magic and explicit magic) separate. What I have in my world right now - let me think - 1,2,3,4,5 - I think maybe 6 or 7 or maybe 8 different types of magic, and I can name some of them really easy. I am kind of famous for throwing out things like “oh, there are 8 types of magic in my world” and suddenly everyone at home ”oh god what’s the eights?”... Let me think here. Obviously there is sympathy. There is alchemy. There is naming. There is glamorie and grammarie, which comes up in the Lightning Tree - and [there] it was fun for me cause I’ve got to explore those concepts as Bast was talking them out I was learning too - which is one of those bullshit things authors say “ugh my character…” but writing is a process of discovery and that’s part of what I love about that story was exploring those two things. So I think that’s 5. Sygaldry is a kind of codification of sympathy. I have a particle physicist friend who is like “hold on hold on it seems like sygaldry is really violating the law of entropy” and I am like “well, let’s talk about that”. He also came at me with some really good questions about angular momentum, which - I came from the sciences before I strayed into humanities, I got my hands dirty there… but ultimately, the spectrum is - on the scientific end here is sympathy, and way over on the numenuos end is naming. And that is what Elodin talks about, and the way he talks about it, if you have ever studied Buddhism, certain types of Buddhism, where people are trying to achieve Nirvana, it is like the process of attaining Nirvana is ineffable, you cannot teach it, you just can’t eff it. And so you engage in a particular type of teaching called Upaya. It is sort of a way to evoke a knowledge out of a person. If you can’t put knowledge into a person, like you do with something that can be explained, that can be explicited. You try to evoke, like sudden startling realization, which I think is Satori if I remember it right. That leads firmly over here, so I get the joys of both in my world, and I get to bring the joys of both to my readers. But also then there is alchemy, and alchemy is the process of extracting principles from an object and then being able to put them into other things. I could talk a day about alchemy; you don’t get to see much in the books except for Slow regard… you could pull the wanting out of an opiat. You can pull the hangover out of wine. You can pull the drunk out of wine and put it into something else. You can fuck with people with alchemy… but because of that - you can do a lot with sympathy, but you can’t make someone drunk, it is purely the manipulation of force. Alchemy is manipulation of platonic concepts, which is such a fucking playground there.
Alchemy is much closer to naming on that spectrum. And what is really going on is not just a simple spectrum, it is like a weird N-dimentional axis of like.. There is complexity, there is responsibility, there is reliability - one of the big problems with alchemy is how much drunk is in wine? Does it matter when you collect your ingredients, and famously what the alchemists believe is that if you collect things yourself they contain more principle. It is a little bit more like binding to the fire versus the candle, but it is almost more like… worth more… And this is again more intuitive, it is more narratively sensitive than scientifically sensitive. I just want to step back to put a bow on my previous comment - there are rules to scientific magic and rules to numenous magic. It is just that the numenuos rules cannot be explained. And that gives it internal cohesion, because without internal consistency something is unsatisfying. Now I as a narrator need to kinda grok these rules. So that naming is consistent and sensible even if my reader can only sort of Satori-style intuit these rules. In the same way as writing poetry is a numenous experience. Why is a poem amazing - you cannot do the math. Sometimes it is just two words together in a certain way, and it hits your heart like a hammer. So there are rules, there is always rules. But what the rules are and who knows them sort of determines where that falls on that spectrum. And how knowable and how learnable and how consistent those rules are. In terms of alchemy - you can offend the honey. You must be respectful - did you gather it in a proper way? Any fucking thug can go and grub a handful of mistletoe - did you gather it the proper way? You know, with a mistletoe it is with silver sickle by moonlight. Or is it? And why? For me, I need to know answers to that, or at least pretty good guesses, so it is internally consistent. And if you are dealing with reliqui - the word that I love - what makes something holy? And we can almost go back to that mythic underpinnings like - for one, it is always blood, everything is blood. But blood is fast and hot and temporary. What is the other thing? It is bones, cause bones are forever. But those are two different things, they have a different feel to them, in your head and in your heart, and to try to explain it too much is almost fruitless, and then you have that almost that third… again, if I were gonna break it down for myself, you are doing body magic, effectively, or reclaim magic, your blood is sacrifice, blood is life, blood is temporary thing, but bones would be something that would be permanent. But also an animal or even the eyes of a seer is a thing, it is like ‘miscellany’ category, it is like well, the tendons of a very strong man… that might be body magic but not holiness.
[James] I think one community could believe that when gathering nettle to make something you need to grasp it roughly, because it is unruly and you must rule over it, another community can be like - nettle is strong and powerful and you have to talk it down, so it could be ceremonial like - oh me must be gentle and convince the nettle to come with us. I think if a magician from the first community were to try to talk down some nettle, it would not work for them, and if the second community were to try to try and roughly grasp nettle, the thing would not be their, so it is not the individual that drives that, it is almost as if the nettle drives that.
Right. I think you might go down a few different roads there… and that is a different spectrum than numenous and scientific, or implicit - explicit. It is almost universality. One like strong electromagnetic force. It is constant and it always existed and it does not matter how you feel about it. And on the opposite side of that spectrum is pure ethical relativity - like how do you feel? You can’t be wrong, how you feel is what you think and you are right. So having a magic be a bit that - a middle ground is - maybe in a different part of the world it works in different ways. Maybe different cultures believe different things, and this is very true in my world. In my world people are like “ugh, demons” and some people are like “demons are like this” and others “no-no, demons are like this”, and I know why different cultures believe different things about demons. I also know that by and large everyone is right, but not because they believed. It is not driven by belief. It is for other reasons about cosmology. Not the least of which is there is not such thing as demons (laughs). But what I would say is there is a difference between molecular biologist and a chef, and you need to figure out which one you want more of. Chef is more like an alchemist. Chef is doing something that is not purely replicable all time. How about this - there is a difference between a scientist and an engineer. In my opinion - and get ready for backlash - there are very few scientists in the world. A real scientist is somebody who is out there on the emberant edge of knowledge and trying to figure things out, asking and answering questions, relevant questions about the nature of the real world. Most people are engineers, and they take what scientists learn and apply it. I am not talking down engineers because they are making things go. But there is a difference between that, and in my opinion the person who came up with a concept of phlogiston is more of a scientist than any engineer. Was he wrong? Absolutely wrong! But brilliant science. He was pushing up against, he was asking big question. It is both science and philosophy. And a real scientist does it in the realm of physical, and philosophers do it in the realm of the mental. It goes all the way back to ancient greeks, there are two things that worth studying, nomos and phusis, nomos is the laws of man, and phusis is the laws of the world. And that’s where the word physics comes from. Philosophers and real scientists are doing that, and then there is a different type of philosopher and a different type of engineer that are executing what other people have sussed out. (And that is my own tinfoil hat thing that probably is not terribly relevant.)
191021 Oneshot James and Pat Bonus Content Part 2.mp3
Patreon-exclusive follow-up to OneShot RPG
12:10 Everything Auri does is informed by Alchemy.
14:00 It seems like there is a natural divide between that which exists in me, and I am giving up, or I am somehow burning this, as a fuel for magic. [And this is blood magic in terms of the discussion above.]
22:00 In sympathy, how it works. There's a difference between 'how it works' and 'what it is'. What it is, is it's the manipulation of force. But how it works in the world is, and I'm trying to remember the terminology. There's will. You need a link. You have the binding. And then you effectively have your strength of will. And, the more you have of one, the less the others matter. And so, it could be, but that's again kind of discreet and it only applies to force. There's sort of like. What you're making is, you have an egg, and flour, and salt. But, how you're preparing it is different. With egg, and flour, and salt, you can never make cake. But there's also a lot of play within the system with these three different things. If you have a ton of power, you don't need as much force of will. If you have a really good sympathetic link, like the actual thing, like the objects involved, then you don't need as much of the other three. But you sort of need to hit an overall threshold to achieve your effect.
30:20
I showed you the map of the Aturan Empire, and that's baked into the bones of my world
31:00
In some ways, what I was trying to do, is like. You always have a fantasy world, and everyone speaks the same language. But that doesn't make any sense, cause that doesn't occur naturally. How could it actually occur historically? So what I did is I made a world in which colonialism was actually much worse than this world. Like, it ripped up every nail of these old cultures and destroyed languages and religions that simply can never be recovered in the modern world. That makes me feel a little bit bad that I sort of did a super imperialistic, "Oh, everybody else is a piker when it comes to imperialism. I'LL show you imperialism!"
33:02
To be fair, I started making that world in '92. Back before, back when I was an idiot. Not even a twenty something. Nah, it was like 93 or 94 actually. Before I was aware of these conversations. Or, to be frank, uninterested in having them because I was 21 years old. Honestly, it's never occurred to me that that piece of my world, just through its existence, might be, not just distasteful, but like, unpleasant or harmful to someone reading it
200714 stream qna Did you kiss the girl.mp4
Did I kiss the girl who inspired Denna? Yes. It was a very nice kiss, and I remember it to this day.
200714 stream qna shadow name and baking.mp4
Does a shadow have a name?
That is a good question and I love it.
Oh, he bakes a pie in a Waystone. .. he learns to bake because he is an innkeeper now, you know, what else is he gonna do?
200714 stream with Jim Butcher on feedback and city sizes and admissions.mp4
Somebody once said to me: “So you have a city of a million people in this pre-industrial society, so it is in the middle of an incredible amount of fertile land?”And I am like “Yup, and the confluence of 4 different trade routes.” … And he is like “But also how is their sewer system?” And I am “Actually they built it hundreds of years ago.”
// also on how admissions were developed
// also on magic development and slippage and entropy
200715 stream WMF sex portrayal.mp4
stream
How do you feel about people disliking the second book’s handling of sexy times?
Honestly, our culture has a huge problem with sex. And I think a lot of people unfortunately are really fucked up about sex in our culture. And I think they feel like you should never admit to thinking about sex or doing sex and if you put sex in something… “sex and dirty and bad” and therefore if you put sex in something, that thing becomes dirty and bad. I feel bad for those people. I don’t think they do it maliciously, that’s just how they’ve been brought up, and I think it is a real impediment to them being happy people. I think you can choose to not be interested in sex, but that’s different from what’s going on in our culture.
Are there differences between how American and non-American audiences feel about sex in WMF? Honestly I’d like to see a good study on that, but [at the moment] I don’t have any definitive data.
200718 stream Simonetti feedback.mp4
stream
This was the French cover for tSrost. With the exception of Michael Wailin (?), Simonetti is the first illustrator that I knew the name of. And the fact that he has done illustrations for my books is staggering. One of the most horrifying thing that I even had to do was to give feedback to Simonetti, cause he did some sketches, and am I like “hey, by the way, Hugo award winning amazing international quality artist Marc Simonetti who I admire and love, do this different.”
…
This we’re also doing… cause we’ve never done a Chandrian print before, and like he fucking nailed it.
200719 stream Innkeeper is Kvothe.mp4
stream
// more on Simonetti’s art
Spoiler alert - the innkeeper is Kvothe.
200720 stream TToN Rhin secret.mp4
stream
TToN Rhin reveal stream
200720 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-5_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/364-kingkiller-one-shot-part-5/
nothing
200721 stream Equal opportunity Bast.mp4
stream
Is Bast gay? No. Does Bast kiss boys? 100% yes. Does bast kiss anyone who is interested? I mean, not anyone, but Bast kisses all over the place and, like, a lot. [...] I don’t even know if it would be fair to call Bast “poly”... Bast is “pan” (haha I’ve just made a funny joke). Bast limits himself to kissing creatures that are allowed to consent. [...] Yes, Bast is very equal opportunity.
200724 stream 7 days.mp4
stream
How long did the first draft of NotW take? 7 years. 14 years before it was published.
200727 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-6_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/uncategorized/365-kingkiller-one-shot-part-6/
(51:44)
Pat: I would like the opportunity to slightly adjust a little bit of canon. Because in Wise Man's Fear, I made a joke that, even at the time, I felt a little weird about, where they did something to Ambrose, where they went into Ambrose's rooms, and they meddled with his stuff. One of the things one of them did was like, buy some lingerie that they left behind with the hope of like, embarassing him? And ever since, and even at the time, I was like, "You know what? If somebody wants to wear like, fancy lingerie, like, that should not be something that shames them." So can I say that Chet can wear this dress in this world and the mayor will be like, "Stunning dress, Chet!"
Pat: Culturally, the mayor is like, "Oh! In the Modegan style. Yes, of course! You are obviously the most cultured and cosmopolitan of the nobility!"
James: So, something we've learned about the Kingkiller canon is the lingerie that was in Ambrose's room was just out of fashion
Pat: Yes! It was embarassingly unfashionable.
200803 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-7_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/366-kingkiller-one-shot-part-7/
nothing
200810 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-8_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/366-kingkiller-one-shot-part-8/
07:55
I’ve just remembered something about twice-tough glass. What goes into it’s construction? It has metal in it. Like, you can have lead crystal. There's a lot that goes into it, but also metal. Gives it weird refractive properties but also makes it unnaturally strong.
(09:22)
James: I've been thinking of twice-tough glass as an artificing thing, but I don't know if it's an alchemy thing, actually?
Pat: I would say that that is straddling the line pretty firmly.
14:00
- How common is knowledge of magnets in the world?
- In the University - very common.
- The impression that I’ve got from the book is that Kvothe has never seen a magnetic stone until the Tinker gave him one.
- I think what it was is that he has never seen a Loden-stone before, which is like an iron meteorite, that is also magnetised. Thinking back I need to check this section, because I would be embarrassed if Kvothe would be like “oh, a magnet!”, cause they have a way better technology [in the University]. … [The thing is that this] is a naturally occurred magnet instead of a constructed one.
//which kinda confirms that natural magnets are rare / nonexistent in Temerant.
19:21 (some discussion about basic dowsing and how dowsing works but nothing really new)
200817 kingkiller-chronicle-game-part-9_tc.mp3
http://oneshotpodcast.com/one-shot/367-kingkiller-one-shot-part-9/
19:18
James: You see this odd device that appears to have a bunch of coiled wire around it. Uh, that just has this strange construction. Um, that, Pat, do they have, like, electricity or electromagnets commonly? Is that something that any University student would encounter?
Pat: Absolutely. Those are basic forces. Uh, the need for electromagnets and electricity is really lessened with the existence of sygaldry. But yeah. Like. It's absolutely a known thing.
(This section is relevant because Pat talks again about a Philosopher's Stone again in stream "201213 Just Chatting". So it seems like something Pat may have invented beforehand, and introduced it to James, and which James put into the campaign, and then Pat provides detail on)
21:06
James: It is talking about a Philosopher's Stone. A theorized construct of nigh infinite power. And he goes on and on talking about it, page after page, of like, different things... He describes roughly what something like this would look like. As you look over this object, calling out to you, one of the rough sketches that is in this book appears to be a part of this large electromagnetic device in front of you
22:48
Pat: I can step in with a little context here, cause now I see what James is doing. So, and I might tweak a little bit some of the background, because, you know there are the legends of the Philosopher's Stone. And Amara, in your world, you know the stone is an alchemical device that will let someone live forever. Or, it will perfect them as a human. Or, it will turn baser metals into gold. Or, or, or, and again, it's one of those, there's a lot of stories about it. At the University, there is something that's produced, and is actually sold at the university, for people with fuck-tons of money. And what it is, and depending on what our time frame is, Kilvin hates the fact that these are called Philosopher's Stones. But, what they are, is that they are energy storage devices. They are big heat capacitors that heat can go into, and then if you are a sympathist, it's like, "Now I have energy and I can do whatever I want with it." It's like a big battery, except it's not electricity, it's heat. And so, the good ones tend to be spherical, or like, many-sided, and they're put together. You know, honestly, let's say it looks like a twenty sided die cause that's one of the Platonic solids and it's held together by really powerful Artificery because inside is a terrifying amount of energy depending on how big they are. And, so like, these do exist, but you might have seen one, or seen sketches of one, but probably nobody here knows how to make one, because that's some big science and restricted knowledge. It's very delicate and if you fuck one up, if it were to effectively lose containment, it would go off like a bomb. Like a big bomb full of plasma. You could see it there, and what you might see is like, "Oh! They make little ones of these to sell to people, or they will power things," but if you look and you're like, "Oh! There's only one reason there would be something here that looks like a dodecahedron," it's like, this is the thing that's meant to like, absorb and use a ton of energy.
200927 stream On Call to Adventure art.mp4
I was quite involved in a Call to Adventure expansion. That turned out so nice. … The art is just so good. These folks, they really put their heart and soul into it. And I did art direction and art approval on every single card. And they were really accommodating, if I was like “Oh, no, that’s not right”, and then they would go “Great” and they would do it again and again.
201108 Writing Excuses s15e45 Fantasy Worldbuilding with Patrick Rothfuss.mp3
https://writingexcuses.com/2020/11/08/15-45-worldbuilding-fantasy-with-patrick-rothfuss/
17:40
Hydrofluoric acid - if you touch it, it is absorbed through your skin and eats all the calcium out of your bones and kills you while you’re in excruciating pain.
201109 stream On women bachelors in Waystone.mp4
I’ve made a conscious choice early on to make all the farmers in the Waystone men. For various reasons, but ultimately I was like “Well, if there’s a woman there, boy wouldn’t it complicate things” - that’s what I was thinking. Now admittedly I’ve started writing these books in 1994, when I was 20 years old, and so most of my experiences...I had read a lot of books that… well, regardless why I did it I kinda made that choice for cowardly reasons and based on bad assumptions. So if I were to do it again I would try to include more women in Waystone as farmers. My thought at the time was like I was thinking about them as sort of Norwegian bachelor farmers the men who has no home to go to and therefore he comes to this inn to eat a little bit of food and be with the other people that have nowhere else to go, and I’m like “well, that’s guys, you know, you don’t have female Norwegian bachelor farmers out of Prairie Home companion” and now I am like “Duh, fucking of course I could’ve, I could have done that, I just didn’t think I could”. And part of that was because I’ve read 10000 fantasy novel and none of them showed character like that.
201201_822038462_Just Chatting on copper hawks.mp4
- ‘Loan shark’ is a coincidence, it is not actually related to sharks. Shark originally meant scoundrel. It is a shared root, you can see it in German as well. So shark went scoundrel, and loan shark came from that, and then that was applied to the animal, and that’s why now we think that loan shark is a shark.
- That’s amazing. That makes me feel a lot better. I worked hard to come up with the term for loan sharn in my world, cause I could not say loan shark cause it feels way too colloquial.
- You can, because it is actually a scoundrel.
- Well, I still would not feel good about that because technically it is the same way I that can’t say feel good about something Spartan in my world. … I created an elaborate complex real etymology that I then obscured with a fake etymology for this one term that comes up one time in the book.
201201_822038462_Just Chatting Iron drab history.mp4
This is the iron drab as it existed maybe 300-400 years before Kvothe’s time; In modern days it is smaller.
201201_822038462_Just Chatting Faerie bargains and good places.mp4
[Someone said to me - with your book] it is always about: you need to know what’s really going on so you can make good choices. And I was like I suppose it is kinda true, isn’t it? It is not just like you need to do a bunch of research so you can do the best rational choice. I am like: there is fanciful stuff. What about Faerie bargains? To make a good Faerie bargain you’d need to know where to go and how to do that bargain so you don’t get caught out. You can go and make Faerie bargain, you can know half the story, and half the story is - you need to find a place where water and stone and fire and sky all come together, that is where you go to meet certain creatures. And it is like ‘find that place’ and that is where things are thin, and creatures like that are easily met. Where is a place like that you can find in KKC? Once you find it you can be like ‘I solved the riddle; I got them, I’m going to this place’. Cool, you’ve learned a thing, you were clever but what do you know about these creatures? Do you know the truth about these creatures too? Cause what have we learned in KKC? Being half-clever means you know enough to fuck yourself real real good. If you were smart enough to find… Somebody says Stonebridge to Imre does not have fire. I will say that the stone constructions in the world, not just the Waystones, but the Old Stone Bridge is 100%, that is a very important place, and that comes out more in book 3. Elodin has already told us that: “Stone, sky and water”. Where is fire? That’s a good question. But actually it does have fire just so you know. Somebody’s like ‘a volcano island’. Absolutely. That a little mad science for the ethos of my world… but wait, I did that in a game. It was up in a mountain, so close to the sky, there was a little river and effectively a hot spring. So I actually did that myself. So you can’t screw up if you’re not a little bit clever, cause you won’t get into a situation where you can make real trouble.
201202_823338087_Just Chatting Cement statue sympathy.mp4
“If I were to make a cement statue of myself mixed with my blood and then use my Alar to think that statue and me are the same, could I walk? If someone would throw the statues off a cliff, what would happen to me while it is falling? Could I use the energy to fly?” … The issue is. How is your link, how is.. It is 3 C’s… Blood is a good link, statue might have a shape of your body… How about this: if I had your blood, and I mixed it in a little figurine that was shaped like you, I could use it most easily to keep you from walking. You ask - if I make a binding could I walk? It depends on the kind of binding you’re making. If you are talking about straight kinetic binding, no. Actually, you could try to walk, and if your blood would specifically try to keep you still, and you still walk, you would experience sudden catastrophic systemic hemorrhage, and for real all the way dies the most. … If someone threw this statue of a cliff, that would depend on who made the binding, what kind of binding, and what their intention was. The binding does not exclusively do one thing; the sygaldry is like a written sentence; it is like an arrow pointing in a direction; but the bindings in your head are influenced slightly by intent. For example you could do a thermo binding and maybe what happens is a very bad hypothermia and you can walk all you want before you collapse and die from hypothermia, unless the statue is very hot, in which case you get a very bad heat exhaustion, and then die. So generally speaking what you are proposing is a super bad idea. Could you use the energy to fly? You could use it to try, and in vast majority of cases, unless you are very very good at what you are doing, you could get your body to move into the air, and also you would die. Maybe Kvothe on his best day could… Assuming that you do not rip your body apart, or you do not have real problems with excessive G-forces involved if it kicked in too suddenly, yes, you’ve how used the energy to throw yourself into the air like a stone, and then, yay, I am flying through the air - what’s your exit strategy? In sum - sympathy - you will die. That should be a textbook that somebody wrote at one point.
201203_824431699_Just Chatting Halfpenny evolution.mp4
201204_824431699_Just Chatting Halfpenny evolution 2.mp4
On the difference between halfpennies of different width.
201203_824431699_Just Chatting Feyda and necromancy.mp4
Necromancy is for wankers who play D&D. Feyda is a dead king, buried in a proper way. The man with the will to make a nation, and a man such that does not merely die if he does not wish to, he comes back as a draugr. And not this bullshit Skyrim draugr, like a zombie with a different name. You come back as a first kind Feyda; first king, always king. In his barrow watching the land. Necromancy my ass - through his will alone does Feyda continue to watch over Vintas. And so here he is, the king in life and in death. On the first coin he has cast he is like Oh, I am here! It me! I am always king! I might not live forever, but you will never get rid of me.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting Halfpenny intro.mp4
Vintish half-penny intro
201204_825546155_Just Chatting Book 3 story half penny.mp4
At one point Kvothe buys something in Vintas, and he just had a fucking day, and he kinda gets leans against the edge of the thing, and he just hand it to the bartender, and the bartender breaks it, and then hands him back half, and Kvothe thinks ‘you rude fucker’. Cause what happens - whoever breaks the penny, the other person gets to pick which part they take. And the fact that this innkeeper broke it and then gave him half back deliberately, it is petty, both of them are worth half-penny, but it is a shitty thing to do, it is just rude, and Kvothe knows he is being rude but he can’t do anything about it.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting Copper jot value.mp4
Copper jot is a significant piece of money. And the truth is - even in Kvothe’s times, a copper jot is your own room in a nice inn, and a good meal, and a drink, and they’ll take care of your horse, That’s some money.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting Draugs cannot walk in daytime.mp4
Could you really make it clear it is nighttime? You know, Barrow Draugr can’t be out during daytime, them’s the rules.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting On reels.mp4
There were two old sets of currency, but this is the very old one, that they folded into with other sets of currency, when Feyda brought in the Clans together; so they still produce these, but the exchange rates are all janky inbetween them. So what are they doing in the same currency system with other Vintish sets of coins? That’s because 600 years ago somebody said - fine we do everything, shut up, I am tired of talking about it, you can keep your goddamn old coins.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting Penance piece.mp4
The interesting thing economically about that one… here is bread and wheat, and on the penance piece, it is the teardrop-shaped one in the corner, the interesting thing about that coinage - that coin can always be redeemed for a small loaf of bread, and that loaf of bread it a legislated thing in Atur, it is not tied to a value of money, it is not exchangeable for other currency, but this is a coin that means you can always have bread to eat. So you would get those coins, and you would distribute it to the poor, or you would donate them to charity.
201204_825546155_Just Chatting On Feyda size.mp4
… Dude was an amazing tactician, he was incredibly smart, but also the dude was so so big, he didn’t win it from behind the decks.
201206 Desert Island Discworld 4.6_Patrick_Rothfuss_and_Thud.mp3
https://www.desertislanddiscworld.com/episodes/4-6-patrick-rothfuss-and-thud/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
#podcast
(49:10)
I thought mostly about world building, and then i thought, "What about magic? Of course we have magic." But then I'm like, "What sort of magic? What is my magic like? And like, what is it FOR in the story?" And I've talked about this a lot in various places, cause I've thought about it a lot, and I think it's important. The devices in Pratchett are so interesting to me because in my world, I think, depending on how you count them, there's maybe between 8 and 13 different types of magic, and two of the big ones, the ones you mentioned, where there's sympathy, where, pretty much, you can do the math on that. It's pretty much thermodynamics with a little Hermeticism mixed in. And, it is what I think of as 'scientific magic' in that there is a system which is explicit, and therefore you can understand it, and therefore when someone is clever within it, you get to appreciate their cleverness and there's a joy in reading that, for the audience.
But what that LACKS is a quality of wonder, you know? A quality of the numenous. And, like, that you get in Tolkein. Where Gandalf plucks a pinecone from a tree and lights it on fire, and throws it at the wolves. And it's like, "There's no thermodynamics there!" Like, he's not casting 'Fireball' that's one of his third level spell slots. He's Gandalf and he does magic, and that magic is Fire, and it's not that there's no rules. It's that the rules are IMplicit, and that is the realm of poetry and 'Not-Science'. And so, that's where Naming is in my world. And then there's other things that sort of fall in different places on this weird N-dimentional axis in my head. You have alchemy, you have Grammourie and Glammourie, and all of them have different sorts of rules that, some of which can be understood consciously and some of which cannot.
201207_829099382_Minecraft Bast masculinity.mp4
I think Bast is pretty masculine; Somebody once said, where is Bast on the Kinsey scale, and I am like, slightly heteroleaning but not much, I think he is beautifully, slightly on the man side of androginous, but man, Bast swings.
201207_829099382_Minecraft True Dungeon Auri.mp4
On True Dungeon collab
201207_829099382_Minecraft KKC trans people rep.mp4
I haven’t done a great job with trans representation in my books yet… Yet!
201213_836293390_Just Chatting Changes in draft before publication.mp4
What were the major changes in your outline that helped books 1 and 2? Just for example, in the original draft of what has become the ‘name of the wind’, there was no frame story, the book started ‘my name is Kvothe, you may have heard of me’. He just started talking about his life. There was no Waystone inn, there was no Bast, there was no frame, there was no Auri. In the original draft Kvothe and Lorren were friends, and Lorren, Master Archivist, liked Kvothe well enough and invited him into Archives. Kvothe and Ambrose kind of were just pissy to each other. Kind of engaged in a really lame, petty one-upmanship; and I was like ‘what am I doing? He has an antagonist that is in no way intimidating or threatening. What would a young Donald Trump do to some punk kid who dared to tell him to go fuck himself?’. That were just some things that were different about the story early on.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting Creation war dream timing.mp4
Are you interested in writing about Temerant a 100 or 200 years in the future. Well, assuming they manage to keep everything from being destroyed… Sure. Ta-da-da. I am actually more interested in writing about Temerant 400-500-600 year ago.Or kind of an uncountable number of years ago, I think it would be fun to do something about the Creation war. Which was so long ago kind of back before the world broke, so time is kind of hard to measure meaningfully.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting DoS University 20 percent.mp4
How much of book 3 takes place in the University? More than 20%, less than 50%.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting Kvothe has PTSD.mp4
Does Kvothe has rejection sensitive dysphoria? I don’t know, but that is a fair question. I think that ‘does Kvothe has PTSD?’ that I can answer definitely ‘yes’. Think of what he went through as a kid. Kvothe is a mess psychologically. What makes Kvothe tragic isn’t what happened to him, is kind of who he is because of it.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting More Fae in books 3.mp4
You will see more of the Fae. Absolutely yes. I am excited about that. That is good shit.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting New Magic.mp4
Is there a category of magic we haven’t been introduced to yet? Oh, absolutely. Yeah 100%.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting Philosopher Stone.mp4
Any next-gen sygaldry tech you are thinking about? Oh yeah. Actually, very much. Actually, that is not next gen, I am excited to show off the inner workings of the Philosopher stone. Although Kilvin hates that it is called that; he refers to it as a.. He has a real arcane technical term for it, a symphatists capacitor‘’.
201213_836293390_Just Chatting Time between b2 and b3.mp4
How much time passed between the end of book 2 and the end of book 3? That’s an interesting question. Less that 100 years. More than 1 year.
201227 Writing Excuses WX15_52_economy_of_phrase_with_patrick_rothfuss.mp3
https://writingexcuses.com/2020/12/27/15-52-economy-of-phrase-with-patrick-rothfuss/
(courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
#podcast
Nothing
201223 Storytelling with Sandeep Parikh.mp4
nothing
210105_861710560_ On Rhins beliefs.mp4
If I had this to do over in the writing process, I would have Rhin to be much more active in these conversations, because for Rhin the way that she understands how her Gods work, this would make a lot of sense to her, because this is something moving out of one vessel into another
210205_901623686_Just Chatting - on Archives.mp4
Any places in Temerant inspired by places that you’ve visited?
Only one. The Archives is roughly the same shape as the library here at UW Stephens Point University.
210317 Name of the Wind Chat w Patrick Rothfuss- Geek Bomb.mp4
01:05:00
…but my real hobby is building the world, and it is easy to do it in a system like, say, Champions. I’ve made a Cthaeh as an experiment once. Like this is a cool idea for concept, can I build it in champions? Yes I can, cause Champions is an amazingly articulate system. And then I am like - oh, it is a 1300 points creature, and, by comparison, if you build Superman, it is like 750 points.
…
Early Kvothe is like a 50 point character.
…
The skinwalker.. I’ve build the skinwalker in Champions, and would it not be cool to build it, and I’ve built it, and I am like ‘oh, it is 700 points’. It is irresponsible of me as a GM to put [characters] in a situation like that, because it would just destroy them. And you actually see that in the end of the book, Bast is like ‘it can’t be. It can’t be a dancer. Dancer would be laughing over the pile of our sticky bones while everything burned’. I’ve made the scrael. I’ve made the draccus… I’ve made several versions of the draccus, it was a lot of fun for me.
210425 Shut Up Sit Down with Pat Rothfuss.mp4
Nothing
210616 Writing About Dragons and Shit - Ep9.mp3
https://anchor.fm/wads-podcast/episodes/Ep--9-World-Building-with-Patrick-Rothfuss-e12ra29
Podcast: Writing About Dragons and Shit
Episode 9, June 16, 2021 (courtesy of /u/czechancestry)
I say this as a person who lives this way myself, like, I’ve been in the writers room in Hollywood where people are working on my world and they're like, “Doot do doo, the Tehlins…” Oh! Well you know, actually I have worked that out. There's actually three of these and, like: this is the real, this is what everyone believes, but this is the story they tell, and...! Here's the dead religion in a culture that doesn’t exist anymore that nobody knows about and it's never mentioned in the book, also. You know? Yeah.
***
Some of my names mean things, but usually all of them are to some degree bespoke. Because like the name Carceret - this is not a hero’s name, that is not a protagonist’s name.
The river that runs past the University, in between the University and Imre in my world, initially it was named the Borat river. Long before the movie ever came out, and I’ve changed it before the movie ever came out. And it is only mentioned once or twice but I would always hit it, and I am like “it is not a good name for a river”. And now it is the Omethi river, and it is a good river name. Why? Well, I could figure it out, but it is for the same reason that the word Oumaloo is softer and rounder and wetter than the word Clipthring. And why do we know that? Well, that’s a whole different podcast.
The reason the name Carceret came into my head - there are like 18 different potential spellings cause I needed to keep the C in there, but I didn’t want it to be read as Karkeret, cause Karkeret is not nearly as intimidating as Carceret.
***
I’ll say I made a map kinda cause I wanted to play with it. Mine was like a very detailed AutoCAD map, because I found an old program that I could do that on and I’m like, “Oh! Well, where are all the ley lines in the world?” You know? “But where did they used to be before everything got screwed up?”
***
I put wrong things in maps because cartographers screw up. I put translation errors in maps because, like. But like no one will ever know. There's a section in one of the maps. And it's called 'The Barrens'. And it's like, “Well, obviously this a desolate place.” No, it's because many many years ago there were a bunch of baronies that fought. Um. And then a cartographer was like, “Man! This is changing all the time; they’re always fighting. This is just... ‘where the barons are’.” And so now, it's like, “Oh, this idiot misspelled Barrens,” and NOW everyone’s like, “Well, I don’t wanna live in the barrens, and that's the name of the region.” And this is a little joke just for me.
***
I am still doing a bunch of world building. There’s one I’m really, really, white knuckle, like, pulling the hand brake, because there's a relatively self-contained setting in Modeg where, I guess, a long term self-sustaining community that exists largely in isolation and I’m, I am really fighting every impulse I have to figure out, like, crop rotation? And, do you… Like, there’s one person who does shoes. There’s one person who does pots. These people work in the mill. Can you have a thousand-person self-sustaining community? And I’m like, the only way I can answer this question for myself is to build this model train, like, in detail. But, but, I’m trying not to, because in three chapters the story moves on. But anyway, so I do make these.
***
The reason I need this town to be like this is cause, here’s how I want their culture to exist, and in this culture, this requires certain things. And so, in order to achieve this effect and this tone, I need it to actually really work. Like, for me to feel good about it, because I feel like I owe that to my readers that if they touch this world a little, their hand isn't going to go through a sheet of paper. Also, what am I trying to do in terms of the tone and the feel? Cause this world, this country, like, they still have their own language and religion as opposed to the rest of my world, which is, kind of, did get homogenized by like a Roman Empire sort of event.
210623_1065335484_Just Chatting Sims real name.mp4
stream
There is a real thing I wanted to talk about, it was Sim’s name, and it does come up in the next book, so you guys get tot know this new interesting thing. His name is not Simmon, Simmon is a nickname, that’s what I’ve mentioned before, in the same way that Sim is a nickname. And his real name is - and he gets made fun of for it, that’s why he doesn’t go by it - his name is Persimmon. His brothers call him Percy and he hates it. But Simmon is a part of his name, it is a nickname. So here you go, now you know.
210624_1065672463_Just Chatting Small Kingdoms borders.mp4
stream with Mike Martinez
In the Small Kingdoms in my world the carthographers don’t fill in the lines, because they are always just chewing at each other, so why draw a line.
210625_1067318686_Just Chatting On Pairs decks.mp4
stream
[on Modegan Pairs deck]
This is the High King of Modeg, arguably the most powerful person in the world. And this is one of the High Lords of Modeg. This is a Cimbreline. This is one of the Amar men. There is the lords’ ranging guard. Here are the townfolk. Here are travellers. And here is the Hunt. Here are the Empty Gods. And here is the Dark. … There are so many little things hidden in there.
[on Faen Pairs deck]
You go from Felurian - there is only one, right. Here is Remmen, Prince of Twilight, with his cloak of autumn leaves. There is somebody you might recognize - Bastas. There is the Sithe, which clever readers will make a note of. The Greystones. The Chainers. Fuck, you gonna see the chainers in DoS. And then the sevens are the mortal guests. And all of these are cameo appearances of some sorts: Auri, Elodin, Hank Green, Kvothe, Skarpi, a Tinker, Veronica Belmont.
The Chainers. I am excited for you guys to learn more about the Chan-delan.
It is Felurian, Remmen, Bastas, Prince of Twilight, the Sithe, Greystones, the Chainers - if you see the Chainers you’re having a bad day for one reason or another. And then here is the mortal guests. And then here we have musicians, because even with the Fae everybody looks slightly askance at the people in the band. And then Revelry, we did multiple cards as well, there is 3 each of 3 different cards, and if you put them together, they make a triptych. … This drow is juggling dennerlings as a part of the Revelry. And you see Chainers here, right? There is nothing more feared than Chan-delan. And then there is ‘10’…
210621_1063149120_Just Chatting Maude Garret and tSRoST discussion.mp4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuQQbRCbxbU
Maude Garret discussion of tSRoST
The difference between a lot of these different types of magics that exist in the book, there is effectively, for the lack of the better term, a ‘Universal Field Theory’. … Someday somebody would be like ‘they are actually all the same but we see them like shadows thrown on a wall from different sources of light’. Similarly, you can see in the books 8 or 13 different types of magics I’ve mentioned, and sygaldry and sympathy are pretty close, those deal with the application of force. Naming is pretty ephemeral, Elodin talks about that. Alchemy only comes up a little bit, and we glimpse it a little with Sim. Ultimately alchemy comes from the extracting of principles in objects and instilling them into other objects. For example, you could get drunkenness out of wine. And those things are referred to as factors or principles.
And this is Auri coming to grips with what she knows Alchemy. Because how does Sympathy work on Alar, which is force of will, strength of belief. But does that work for Naming? Cause if it did, Kvothe would be a kickass namer. But Eloding is constantly having to do a buddhist deconstruction on him like ‘you don’t know how this works, you need to think of it in a different way’, which is almost antithetical from strength of will. Cause what is Auri talking constantly of, what is she afraid of doing, all the way through the book?
…
(Boundary is obviously where you put unbound principles, that’s why it is called Boundary, it is also called that because you don’t go there, there is a Boundary. All of the names are these names.)
...
The power of will is not what drives Alchemy, not what drives this particular piece of magic (when Auri makes Kvothe’s candle). It is ‘desire’. It is wanting things. If you have a certain type of mind, merely wanting changes the world. And unfortunately Auri has learned - and in some ways she has learned this lesson really really well - she kinda went as far as the local alchemy prof could teach her. And then some things happened. Maybe she figured something out and it changed her, … And of course alchemists want all the apparatus, tubes and bunsen burners, but what is really needed? Desire. And if you can desire in the right way, your desire bends the world. And unfortunately Auri knows this. And unfortunately Auri knows that it can twist things out of their proper shape, especially if you do this selfishly. At least that’s how she feels.
…
How does Auri move through the world? She listens to things and places and gets to know their desire and acts on it. And so she needs to keep her desire down in order to hear others, especially those silent things.
…
One last thing I meant going to mention while we were bringing up the naming thing. Are there huge similarities like… there is sygaldry and sympathy and the glamorie and grammarie and all the different things and honestly g & g, these faerie magics, they are rooted in desire as well. The bigger these things get, the closer they get to… they get more and more similar to naming. And Alchemy at the level Auri that can do it… there is probably nobody that can do what she is capable of… maybe if they are human, living in the world in this time period. Now there might be other people who are not strictly human who could do things like this. But Alchemy at the level she can do it can achieve things that probably only naming could achieve otherwise. But again, it is almost, this sort of discussion is a great luxury for me, cause how silly and wonderful is to get to discuss fine taxonomy points of completely fictitious magic systems?
…
The Arcanum, back in the day when they build it, you were supposed to learn all these things, and that would lead you towards genuine true understanding of the nature of reality which is naming, the ability to see the truth of things.
Q&A 2021-12-05
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1225179953
211205_1225179953_Just Chatting - Chemistry in 4c.mp4
Does the existence of tetradecanoic acid in University imply that the chemistry is the same in Temerant? Do alchemists use NMR (I am assuming it is nuclear magnetic resonance) spectrometry?
You say spectrometry? I thought it was spectroscopy, or did I have a micro-stroke and lose a piece of knowledge in my brain? You know, it was a good question. Also I am glad you’ve caught that. That is one of those things I put in the book, and I feel very good about myself, and I am like “this is something that some people will see and go ‘What?’ and some people will skim over but it still would influence them”. And some people maybe will never notice, but, you know… but I am glad that stuck in your head.
211205_1225179953_Just Chatting - Devi is not Yllish.mp4
Does Devi have Yllish roots?
Like does she have some Yllish ethnicity? Maybe. The thing is - Devi is not notably Yllish. She does not come from Yll. Might she have some Yllish blood? Sure, maybe. But she is not like, you know, Willem comes from Yll… not, I mean from the Shald, he is Cealdish. But no, Devi is not from Yll.
Q&A 2021-12-09
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1228829048
211209_1228829048_Minecraft qna.mp4
Are the Adem and Edema Ruh connected historically? That is a very good question. It is a very smart and careful question… And then he moved on to a new question.
How old is the college? If you mean the University - very very old. Very very very old.
How many magics does the world have? Trying to remember, I’ve counted them once, it is at least 8, and maybe as many as 13. Kinda depends, if you consider sygaldry and sympathy distinct, even though they both deal with direct manipulation of force.
Why does the Great Stone road curve or does it? And the answer is: yes, it does. And if you saw it on the map - good job, it is not there by accident.
Was there ever a young prodigy at the University apart from Elodin and Kvothe? Oh, absolutely. Every generation, every couple of years, some hot shit somebody comes through every field, every educational institution.
Which body controls the minting of currency? Oh man, honestly the Shaldish people, after the Aturan empire fell, there was economic chaos, and civilization kinda fell apart. And when that happens, systems fail and people starve to death, and it gets really bad. Like it happened in 1700x in France, their economy fell apart because they’ve fucked up real bad - there was suddenly no money anywhere to pay people and if you can’t pay people they do not work and then they can’t buy food and everything is a mess - that happened after the fall of the Aturan empire, and the Shaldish people came in and firmly established themselves as a power that handles money in a responsible way. But the pennies we’ve been making lately - they are Vintish, from Vintas, and they are way back from the days when Feyda the first king came in and united all the different clans, and you can bend and break it. So these are Vintish as opposed to Shaldish currency. Although this one is an iron drab as it would appear about 400 years before Kvothe’s time.
Tell us a little about Feyda. Well, I’ve said no spoilers, and some of that will come out in book 3.
Would Temerant ever get modern technology in the future? Honestly, Temerant has technology that is in many ways comparable to ours. Like they really grock some big science in Temerant. They have some superconductors and stuff. It is just a lot of the times they do not refer to it by the same name.
Will there ever be a story set in Junpui? Yes. I have already writ it, and it is quite good. I am excited about this one, it is in book 3.
Does the planet have a name? Well, the world is Temerant. … Temerant is a whole world, not just a continent.
Do non-Vintish people have origin allegory stories for the Fae? Oh god, I mean… it is a world with a rich mythology, and a lot of cultures, and everybody has their own take.
Has anyone walked the full length of Great stone road? Yes.
Will you be finishing the Kvothe story with the third book? No.
How many people who could be called Re’lar exist in any era? Right now, in the world in Kvothe’s time… I’d hesitate to guess, cause then people will latch on to that.
Why does Kvothe dislike poetry so much? He does not dislike it, he hates it. Because he is a punk kind with passionate opinions he feels very strongly about. … Now some people here say ‘well his dad used to dislike poets too’ - good. You are my kind of readers, you read close.
What percentage of the next book will be in the University? More than 10%, less than a half.
Are there stars in the Fae? Yes. That is a great question. But they are different stars.
(It kinda says so in WMF duh)
Will there be a book 4? Yes. … book 4 is not causing delays with book 3.
Do tinkers make it into the Fae? Well, tinkers go everywhere.
Are the fey polite to tinkers? The ones that aren’t stupid are. The fey know the score.
Do we learn more about Lyra and Lanre? I will say yes. In general - yes. Yes.
Is Tehlu’s wheel a gram? (clearly surprised) That is an interesting question!
Did I have accents in mind before the audiobook? Yes, and I’ve told them to the narrator. Which I think is part of the reason it fits together pretty well.
Has anyone tried launching something into space in Temerant? Wow, that’s a cool question.
How does a trifoil compass work? There is no magnetic North in Temerant, so there are 3 places in the world, and the trifoil compass has 3 different needles on it, and each needle points to one of those places. So you have to do some bad ass trigonometry to figure out where the fuck you are.
Is Tarbean the largest city? It is among the largest. It is certainly the largest in 4C, but the world is wide.
Are there Fae cities? Yes.
Is there an age to my universe? Not in a way I could answer easily.
Does Temerant include the Fae? Yeah, I tend to use it to refer to the entirety of the world.
Is there more than on the map? Yes.
People are asking is Temerant flat, it is sphere? I haven’t committed to an answer to that yet.
DoS Q&A 2021-12-15
Q&A stream + prologue
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1233421294
Q&A stream part 2
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1233545510
Q&A + prologue at youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJgOQU4ki64
Reddit Q&A recap:
https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/rggkbp/twitch_qa_recap/
211214_1233421294_Minecraft - QNA and prologue read.mp4
Who made up the opposing sides of the Creation War?
Nick jumps in with a really good meaty question right away! The two different sides of the Creation War were the Namers and the Shapers. If that doesn’t make too much sense to y’all…it’ll make sense after you read Book 3. I’ve got two different chapters I’m considering releasing as part of the stretch goal - I’m going to be releasing a chapter as part of the stretch goal, so depending on which of those chapters I pick, the distinction between Namers and Shapers is gonna make better sense.
Will we meet Remmen in Book 3?
We will meet Remmen, but I don't want to get too much into it.
Is there magic related to music?
Yes.
What was Simmon's childhood like?
Great question that I’m not going to talk about. You learn about that in Doors of Stone a little bit, so it’s a spoiler (not an extended flashback).
Were the seven cities of the Ergen Empire all in the Four Corners or spread throughout the world?
They were not all in the Four Corners. I like this because I can answer the question but not give too much away.
How did the Cthaeh come to be?
That is a story, but I will not talk about that here. There might be a little bit about that in Doors of Stone.
Will we be introduced to new realms, like the Fae, in Book 3?
Yes-ish. Sort of. Maybe. A bit. Kind of. I’m not vacillating, just trying to be as honest as I can.
Tarbean’s population size is alluded to in the books. Is its approximate size something you're willing to give? It is hard for me to reconcile Kvothe’s memories.
I’m really….thinking about how isolated towns would work in this culture, and wondering how an isolated town without contact could work without a big economy. I’ve been actively fighting the desire to do what people do when they make a model railroad and build the city. I resist it because I have too many projects. Tarbean’s population? 1 million-ish. It’s a huge, wild, festering, cesspit of a city.
211215_1233545510_Just Chatting - Kvothe and Bast meet in DoS.mp4
How did Kvothe and Bast meet?
That’s in Book 3. That’s actually been a hard part getting right, because you’ve seen their relationship and now you need to know how they get there.
211215_1233545510_Just Chatting - Pat is Manet age in 2021.mp4
when I wrote Manet I did not look like this. But unfortunately these days I am Manet’s age.
(Pat was born on June 6, 1973, so he was 48 during this Q&A, which implies that Manet is about 45-50 years old)
220121_1271271621_Just Chatting - Sports in Temerant.mp4
Are there sports in Temerant? Yes. There are sports everywhere.
220121_1271271621_Just Chatting - no Elon Musk in Temerant.mp4
Middle class is probably smaller in Temerant than nowadays, right? Depends on how you define middle class. People in the world today vastly overestimate the amount of people who are actually middle class. MIddle class has gone down drastically over the last few decades here in America. In Temerant, actually there is kind of flattened hierarchy. Yes, there is nobility, people with a lot of money, there is no Elon Musk in Temerant, there is no way to hoard wealth on that scale, there is no way to accumulate wealth on that scale.
220121_1271271621_Just Chatting - Joint stock companies in Temerant.mp4
Are there joint stock companies in Temerant, and if so, are there anti-monopoly laws? You could have a dude that owns 20% of something like the East-India company. By joint-stock companies do you mean are there commercial enterprises that many people own shares in? Then yes, obviously, because that’s pretty basic commercial practice.
220114_1263518838_Minecraft - Young Kvothe is me.mp4
The truth is - a lot of people say to me - you know, all through this book, Kvothe is so young, and he speaks like this? But the thing is - that kid was me. My mom lost me in the zoo when I was 3 or 4, and when she found me I was lecturing a guy about the difference between dromedary and bactrian camels.
220114_1263518838_Minecraft - tertiary shambly Manet.mp4
My playing Chronicler? I do not know if that would be a good fit, also that is too important of a character to put on the shoulders of someone with no legitimate acting experience. [...] I could probably play Manet. That is a really tertiary or quandrary character. And also that would playing to type - he is a big shambly shabby distracted guy.
220114_1263518838_Minecraft - DoS in three years.mp4
Do you think the third book will come out within 3 years? Yes, that is my intention and my hope. My sincere intention and hope. Is that a promise? No. Intention. Hope.
220225_PatrickRothfuss_1407761787 on female farmers and creeping sexism in notw and fantasy.mp4
Long discussion on the subject (and on the considered Shep gender swap for TV series).
220318_PatrickRothfuss_1429467727 Abenthy Chandrian.mp4
Which one of the Chandrian do you think it would be easier to humanize if you were trying to defend their actions? Off the cuff if I was gonna answer I would say Haliax. Yeah, Haliax is in a bad spot. Not saying they aren’t sleeping in the bad that they’ve made themselves but yeah.
But that’s kinda the easy answer. Honestly… hold on, let me read the wording of the question again. Which one of the Chandrian would be easiest to humanize if I were trying to defend their actions. Well, now you see, that is a little different! Then I would say Abenthy. Or… Simmon. Because both Abenthy and Simmon are really beloved, characters that people already like, so it would be easiest for me to do.
[…]
Also, just to take a step back, I was just fucking with you all. When I mentioned Abenthy and Sim. I worry that I did that way too dry in my delivery. And so right now there is not a lot of chatter in here, maybe everyone is right now posting shit on reddit? I get that dry delivery… it is my dad was the master of. “I rushed to google to see what I missed about Abenthy and Sim” - sorry! Sorry. Sorry if that freaked anybody out. I was kinda waiting for someone to be like ‘holy shit!’ but only one person kinda went ‘what, what?’ and then I got distracted.
220401_PatrickRothfuss_1443286253 Fools in Modeg.mp4
The role of the fool is to speak truth to power. The fool is supposed to be there and to be the person who voiced unpopular opinions. Depending on how you view it, or what culture, or the reality versus the myth of the fool. But the fool is supposed to be there to say things nobody would fucking dare to say to a despot. It is a vital role in Modeg. Which is a part of my world in which I’ve written most of the book, but not all of the book yet. It’s got entirely different culture and one of… because there is a very firmly established social order, where there are huge power disparities. And those aren’t sustainable over the long periods of time, because there is a reason why empires rise and fall, but the ones that are stable and stay for a long time, they have relief valves, and because of amount of power with which you could be tyrannical, it is hard to approach those people with information that they do not like. So there is actually established position in those courts and those societies for people… effectively, they are the doubters. They are the people who… it is their job to voice doubt and dissent, and they cannot be punished for acting in that role. And also other people can come to them and say “I am worried about this” and they can be a vehicle to power for that information, and it is a weirdly powerful position of itself, because they are outside of the power structure, but they have a way into the power structure, it is a version of a fool.
220601_PatrickRothfuss_1315046777 - Alar and lungs.mp4
When Kvothe linked the air in his lungs to the air outside and almost died, couldn’t Abenthy focus his Alar to think that the air in Kvothe’s lungs and the air outside are not the same in order to save him? Yes, however. To do that on the spur of the moment.. And maybe he didn’t know exactly what he [Kvothe] had done. And do you really wanna wrestle over someone’s lungs? You know? That’s a bad fucking scene.
…
Do I ever worry that I may forget any of the thousands of meta-textual hints and secrets when writing the third book? I have some fairly extensive notes, and also I’ve lived in this world for a very long time, but also each of my original files for these books are full of… I think The name of the wind has about a thousand embedded comments in it.
…
So instead of doing that he threw him to the ground? The thing is, you can’t maintain Alar is you are unconscious, so breaking someone’s concentration would work, but, you know.
220601_PatrickRothfuss_1315046777 - Ademre and queer folk.mp4
Are the Adem accepting a queer folk and queer sex? That is a good question. It kinda depends. To treat them as an entire unified nation would be sort of a naive way of looking at a culture that is spread out over a large geographical area. So I would say it probably varies a bit from place to place. But generally speaking I think, given that each town tends to have 1 or 2 schools, that focus on a particular set of skills and sort of a philosophy designed to do that. You know what your town values, but you also know there are other things in other places. And because that part of their culture is quite long standing and healthy, and it could only be long standing and sustainable and healthy if people were encouraged to go and find a better place for their predilections - you do not want necessarily someone to, you know, study a real strong martial art if they are not suited to it, physiologically or mentally, so you would sent… somebody would like “that might be very good at tai chi or aikido” and so you would send them to a different school where different philosophies were valued, so in that sort of way where you think “there is no one path” - there is literally no one path, there are so many paths, and given that it is a sex-positive society… now, there there is a little bit of sexism in there, they are little bit down on guys, but I also think that they are sort of would respect… I do not know, they might be a little bit mired, because like men have more anger, women take the anger, there is that sort of dichotomy woven into parts of their culture… But I like to think that they would be pretty accepting of people that were queer or trans… for the most part. You know, it could be that there are parts of Adem that are really conservative that are more like the South [of USA].
220601_PatrickRothfuss_1315046777 - Apples and sawdust.mp4
When Kvothe was packing apples in the barrels with sawdust, it is something that was done in the past? Yes, it was done, because you didn’t use to have tupperware, or greenhouses, or vast food distribution networks. And apples last a long time, but if they are exposed to air… you can pick apples before they ripen, and as long as you keep them away from air, they ripen very very slowly. I am pretty sure that is not something I’ve made up. It is hard to remember sometimes though. Now, that would be a weird thing for me to make up - I would make up something about a different fruit, but to make up a thing about an extant fruit that was not true - why would I do that?
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - Bast is like a child with a knife.mp4
I worked hard on the Fae. Even Bast who is very relatable… has a lot of uncanny valley going on. He is relatable and he is so close to being human that when he is not human it is uncanny and unsettling. Bast is scary. Bast is scary like a child with a knife is scary. Because children have no doubt.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - Cthaeh willow tree.mp4
…and the [Cthaeh] tree is thick. The hanging foliage… imagine just a huge, unimaginably huge willow. So there is hanging foliage and it is also moving in the wind… but still you know, there is a difference between something being obscured in a tree and something being bright purple in the middle of the green tree, you know.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - haliax the fae creator.mp4
Uuh, was the Fae realm created by Haliax? Good question. Has Bast even killed a man? Read the books and think your own thoughts.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - his eyes were clear.mp4
Uuh, here is a careful reader! Oh, my people, I love you! Why did Felurian check Kvothe’s eyes after his meeting with the Cthaeh? That is a good question. That is a question from the sort of person… I wrote this book for you. I wrote this book for a lot of people but especially for people like you. [Also, while answering the question “What did Felurian mean when she asked if Cthaeh bit him?” Pat said that in this case there not hidden meanings and that a bite is a bite.]
220617_PatrickRothfuss_1506442018 - no tarot.mp4
There is no tarot in my world.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - on church maps.mp4
[Showing the second map of NotW 10th AE] Here is an older map, that is a map of the world from several hundred years ago, from the height of the Aturan empire. Who was making that map, who was naming places, who was the cartographer, who paid the cartographer to do the work? It literally says - it is a map of Aturan empire. Right - the Aturan church. Is the church probably gonna be more likely to slap religious names on things, or an empire dominated by a church is gonna put it’s own names on things? Yeah. Oh, “for that scientist it is great to be reminded that maps can be a social construct“? A map is nothing but a social construct. Sort of “oh, sometimes news has a bias”? No, news always has a bias, you just hope that the bias your news has is a bias towards being factual and truthful.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - worldbuilding as a regression.mp4
[How do you approach worldbuilding?] As with most things I do, it was an infinite regression to base principles. Cause I was like I know Kvothe is gonna need to go to a big city. So I’ll need a big city on this map. And I am like - well, where does this city come from? And I am like - well, the city arises primarily due to a confluence of cultural pressures, many of which are economic and cultural, so it probably needs to be on a confluence of trade routes. That means water, and probably a river. And I am like - where do rivers come from? Well, rivers come from run-off and weather patterns, and run-off comes from mountain ranges, and aquifers. And I am like - I know where mountains come from, how do aquifers work? And then I am like - if you have an aquifer, well how about weather patterns, does the wind blow from the same direction in this world? Are mountains formed by tectonics in this world? If so, that implies tectonic plates, and that implies a spherical world with a molten core and a mantle… So you see how it goes backwards infinitely - I’ve started like “Kvothe needs to go to a big city”, and suddenly I am like “what are the fluid dynamics of planetary mantle” and “can we get plate tectonics in a world that is not spherical or in a universe of space like ours is” - that is how I start worldbuilding.
220610_PatrickRothfuss_1500047198 - maybe tectonic plates.mp4
Are the mountains created by tectonic plates in the books? I have not made a definitive answer to that yet. I have pursued several different possibilities.. I think it is possible that there are no tectonic plates in the world. Possibly. But I am not committing to that.
220622_PatrickRothfuss_1511018750 - Sympathy for twins.mp4
If sympathy has greater resonance with like for like, would twins or triplets or quadruplets act as force multiplier? Would any action done against them be halved, or cut into thirds? That’s an interesting thought. The force multiplier thing - I don’t know what you mean by that, it is entire possible that due to their shared similarity they would be extra resistant to some sympathetic workings. Yeah.
220706_PatrickRothfuss_1524219109 - ankers sign design.mp4
Nothing lore-wise, but a good show of Pat’s approach to worldbuilding and merch and some tiny details about Anker’s character
220710_PatrickRothfuss_1528093381 - Alchemy is art.mp4
There is a difference between alchemy and chemistry. One is that chemistry works all the time, and alchemy is not science, alchemy is art. Alchemy is magic and it is baffling but it is beautiful, and if you can do it you can do it, but you can’t always do it all the time.
220713_twitter she is a nine.docx
https://twitter.com/PatrickRothfuss/status/1547083488830054401
She's a 9, but she reminds you of your mom and she's super racist.
[context - Pat did a series of tweets using the meme pattern “They are an _ out of 10, but they are _____” obviously applied to KKC characters. It is easy to assume that this particular tweet describes Meluan, thus further supporting “Meluan is the sister of Netalia” theory]
220719_PatrickRothfuss_1536578328 - Tunnel Bob.mp4
Tunnel Bob being part of the inspiration for Auri is an absolute exception to all of what I do in writing. And also thank you for saying “a part of inspiration”, because it was a very tiny part.
220805_PatrickRothfuss_1553253891 - Could Kvothe parents live.mp4
[Answering chat question about difficulty of writing about Greyfallow men massacre and Tarbean years while being despising child violence and “parents died” trope]
The same thing - teacher, mentor always die. Because if teacher / mentor was around, they would fix everything, right? But the thing is - you do not need to do it… We are specifically talking about violence early on. I was thinking this just the other day, because - spoiler alert - I do not just kill Kvothe’s parents, I kill like literally everyone that he knew. And at that time it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. But what I thought is… this always happens. You are reading a book and it is like - aww, they’re an orphan. Aww, something terrible happens and then they… whatever. But it is so cheap, it is so done to death. I thought - if I do it though, I really want it to be meaningful. I want it to break your heart. This should be horrifying. If people die, and this child is horrified by it, I want to earn it.I want the reader to feel surprised and heartbroken. That is the payment. The genuine emotional impact of this, and this is something that is very rarely done. [Usually] it is just a throwaway thing that is done.
And addressing loss is different from gratuitous violence - think to Big hero 6. He loses his big brother. And I remember reading the review of Big hero 6, and it is like - this is a story less about being a hero and it is more about loss and grief. I am like - yeah, it is amazing, it is a good story. And it is a shame what has happened to him, but it is not like they killed the borther off in the first 3 minutes of the movie. There is a relationship and you feel the loss and then the story is him dealing with the loss. In some ways Kvothe being on the streets of Tarbean and being alone and hungry and just ruined - it shows how much loss hurts a person.
So, If I had to do it again… I do not know if I do it the same way. Knowing what I know now, could I have written this story [differently]?.. So the specific question was it hard to do it in Tarbean. It is some emotionally trying shit.
The other problem is - a lot of times it is like in the Lion King. You watch your dad die, and “I am gonna be kinda sad about this” and it is like No, it leaves deep cracks in you kinda forever. You do not just bounce back, you do not have a revelation and a song and you are okay again. So if I had it to do again. I could have written it in such a way that Kvothe goes to the University and is separated from his parents, but they aren’t dead. And it might have been a better story… I don’t know.
Yeah, “The parents didn’t die so the kid could have an adventure, they did and the kid suffered.” I mean, that’s just it - the whole story is build around that beginning. Talk about an interesting thought experiment - imagine what would have happened if everyone he loved didn’t die. How would Kvothe be different? What choices would he have made that would be different. I mean, he would be a lot healthier. And a lot happier. Even if he didn’t constantly spent time around them. Because they are touring performers, right, and university is one place. So… I did decide to do it, and I did decide to make it meaningful, so I feel like my choice is not the best choice, at least I handled it with great care. I fell a lot of time people are like, right, right, we have John Wick, he’s gonna kill some people, what do we do? Yeah, his wife is dead, and somebody kills his dog, so yeah, now he fucking murders literally 400 humans.
220812_PatrickRothfuss_1559978340 - On editing process and compiling books.mp4
stream, on editing process
Somebody else says “What do I use to keep track of changes in the book”, and then somebody else says “version control does not make much sense regarding books, it is used in programming because there is functionality you can break”. Both of these comments are sensible; however, the person who says that version control does not make sense because it is used in programming where there is a functionality you can break - your comment implies that books do not have functionality that can be broken. Which is wildly untrue. If you have ever read a book and you’ve been confused or bored or you didn’t like the book - there was a functionality that has been broken. Sometimes before I make really radical changes I can save a version of the book, before I make the big changes to see if they work, when I show them to the betas, because I am a firm believer that books do have functionality that can be broken. I am a little obsessive about that, so… Yeah, the infinite loop that Kvothe fell into - there was an unresolved gosub with Kvothe - fuck, that is a joke that nobody is gonna understand let alone find funny. Okay, one person laughed - I take one laugh… so, what is interesting to me, what has happened in the past, what I do a lot of time, is I print out a copy of the book,m and I read through it, and I red-pen it. And I’ll be like “change this” or “cut this” or “make a note to myself” and I’ll do it, and sometimes I just snip out the little words, or I clarify something or I wanna move a sentence and I make those notes to myself. Sometimes I take a dedicated pass on the book and my goal is to remove 10% of every page, just trim out unessential words and pages and stuff, because if you can trim out unessential 10%, then the book becomes tighter and cleaner and easier to read, it is more respective of reader’s time and also it gives me space that I can use for other needed additions. So in my experience, the book kinda contracts when I am tightening it up, and then expands when I am like “I need more clarity here” so I add a paragraph or I am like “I need a scene to support this plotline” and I add a scene. So it contracts when I cut things that are superfluous or could be done better somewhere else, and then it expands when I add things to improve scenes or clarity or bolster certain things. So what happened on more than one occasion - I print out a copy and then I’ll red-pen it, and once I’ve entered it, it becomes a dead copy and it is like recycled or archived or honestly I just throw it into a pile. But what has happened more than once, I that I read through the document on the screen and I’ll make changes there. If I am reading the book, there is always like “I’ll tweak that” or “There is a tiny typo” or “I need to expand this” or “I wanna change this word”. It is the same thing that I do when I take a general pass using a red pen. But… it is just different versions, you tend to see text differently and you interact with it differently on the page, it forces your brain to engage with it on a different way, it helps you to catch things you would miss otherwise. But at one point I’ve found an old manuscript that I’ve red-penned but I’ve never gone in and made the changes that I’ve made notes on there. But what was interesting is that I had gone through, made changes and revisions just reading off the screen and what I realized that maybe more than 80% of the notes that I’ve made on the paper copy, when I had gone through and I’ve read it just off the screen and made changes I made the same changes there as I made note of here. It is not like reading an essay or I’ve said “the” twice, it was changing wording and cutting phrases and replacing one word with another word, and I’ve made like 80% of those [in the same way], so there is interesting consistency implied there, that I am moving towards something better. And again, it is not like your book fails to run as computer code… if only you could compile and run your book and something would flick like “nope, the output does not work”. But yeah, that has happened more than once over the years when I realized there is that consistency.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1673186424
221208_MaudeGarrett_1673186424 - On character traits and Simmon height.mp4
Murderbot - Geek Bomb book club with Maude Garret
Pat: If you see my characters… There is a colour of hair, there is a colour of eyes, and then they typically have a gesture, or something, and I hold it to 3 details to keep it simple, because if I give people 3 things, everyone has a commonality of experience, because anyone can remember 3 things. If I give people 15 details everybody picks a different 3, and then everybody gets to know a different Simmon. But what everybody knows of Simmon? That he has Sandy hair…
Maude: He has sweet kind eyes.
Pat: He is a sweet boy, and he has sweet eyes. But also the only reason you know about his hair because it is always in his eyes, he is brushing it out of his eyes - so you see his pretty eyes. Also what you don’t realize - I mean, until book 3 - but he is taller than you think. It is just that he does not carry himself tall. He is taller than Kvothe. You wanna know what his real name is? Sim? No, that’s his nickname. It is a part of his first name.
Maude: Silmarillion?
Pat [readin chat]: Sim is a cinnamon roll.
Maude [reading chat]: Amanda says Persimmon.
Pat: Percy! But again, same thing with Auri, same thing with every… I did a lot of it deliberately, because I wanted to keep my description economical, which is really important if you are introducing like 4 characters in a scene.
Maude: But you also wrote the dialogue that had mannerisms and characteristics within it. I could ‘heAr Ambrose tAlk’.
Pat: That is how you sneak it in, as little bit interstitials in the dialogue. But realistically, I am pretty sure it is as proven as a thing can be in one of the soft sciences, people form their impressions of characters and what they look like mostly through their dialogue and how they speak. What they say and what they do.
230817 Worldbuilding & Q&A with Nnedi Okorafor and Tad Williams
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1901541467
230818 PatrickRothfuss - Q&A with the chat - NarrowRoad.mp4
(Mostly) transcribed by /u/Reshidaan (https://www.reddit.com/r/KingkillerChronicle/comments/15w6zby/narrow_road_qna_1/) and submitted by /u/czechancestry
02:03:00 Bast has no desire to be anything other than he really is.
02:17:24 Can I tell you anything about faerie bargains? Boy, can I! But maybe I'll leave that for the Narrow Road.
02:21:28 The Cealdish people don't have royalty. The current high king in Modeg is just referred to as High King of Modeg, he does (?) have a name…
02:21:44 I don't have the Aturan Emperor's name. In Vintas it's... wow. It's wild that I can't remember their names 'cause they show up in book three. It's the Calanthis family in Renere. [...] It's rare that they use their names or they're referred to by their names because it's the king and the queen. That's the whole thing - they're titles. [...]
02:23:36 There are some questions, metaphysical, ephemeral questions like “Does Name need to be a noun, or a Name can be a verb? Can a Name be an adjective?”. Can you really learn the name of Blue? The name of justice? The name of silence or time? Those are good questions, but there is no canon relating to that anymore.
02:24:45 It's [King] Roderic and [Queen] Rinne. Yeah. R I N N E.
02:24:35 “If there is a high king of Modeg, is there also a king or low king?” [...] There isn't a low king or a regular king, but the Modegan royal line is- shit's different in Modeg, man and I know because I've written like the first half of a novel set there and culturally a lot of where Kvothe travels to has certain European tendencies in a lot of its culture and language and whatever but the Ceald or the Sheald or the Seald is not like that and Modeg is very, very not like that. They still have their original language and culture and religions and superstitions and they haven't sort of mingled - they weren't taken over by the Aturan empire so they're very culturally distinct.
02:26:11 In Vintas, Roderick and Rinne- they are powerful. That royal line goes back a couple hundred years. [...] The Modegan royal line - those people have been in charge for like two thousand years and they occupy a strata in society that's just unthinkable to anyone who is modern American or European. The closest thing might be the old Japanese or Chinese emperors where you don't even speak the same language as the general population because you're not part of that world.
02:27:58 The reference to high king, it's not like there's a high king and a middle king and a low king. That's like the platonic form of a king [...] it's almost an honorific among royalty or rulers.
02:31:26 Is the idea of slippage in sygaldry the same as as inefficiency in a conservation of energy in our universe? Does the excess energy to into the entropy of the items? Actually yeah. If you have a bad bearing in the machine, it heats up the machine. Yes. There is still conservation of energy in my world. And the issue is - if you have to put in 2 pounds of energy here with your link to lift up something that only weighs one pound, and by pound I mean, let’s say, 4 Newtons of force, but they do not use Newtons in my world, they use other measurements - but if you put 10 units of force here to do something that requires 5 units of force, where does the rest of this energy go? Because it does not simply disappear. That extra energy, you know, it does go somewhere. And if it goes into your body, well, there are problems.
02:32:50 Do you have a favorite word you've created? Honestly I was really fond of 'emberant' [SROST] and 'coruscant' [SROST] [... and] 'cavler’ [NOTW], because we do not have a word for the profession of horse trader.
02:35:24 Do Modegan women have a reputation for polyamory? [...] What really happens in Modeg is that they're a sex-positive culture [...] Assume that all you knew about Japan is that they had geishas which were very fancy, expensive, respected people who trained their whole lives to be sex workers (of a sort) and then you'd be like 'Oh, wow' and so when people are like 'Well y'know, she's Modegan', it's sort of like 'Oh, she's French' or whatever. All that people really know about Modeg (because it is a very insular community and there's not a lot of travel and trade and cultural cross-contamination) is that they know that the Modegan people aren't afraid of sex and they study sex and they practice sex and there are sex workers who are valued members of the community. [...] It's sort of titillating but it's sort of like saying 'Oh, well y'know those women like sex' [...] It's effectively a type of 'cultrulism' (that's not really a term) when they're like 'Oh, Modegan people y'know they fuck like rabbits'. They don't have a reputation for polyamory, just being sexually active and not embarrassed or ashamed of the fact.
02:50:32 Will redheaded children make them rethink about the man-mothers? Everybody makes comments laughing up their sleeves at the Adem. They're like 'Uh, what rubes. They don't understand science.' I'm like 'Fuck you. You don't understand science.' [...]
02:55:44 And here's the thing though: I will sometimes have an extended philosophical discussion with people about it and then after half and hour I go 'Parthenogenesis.' and they go 'Oh. Oooooh.' and I'm like 'Fuck you. Just because I used some science-y magic word now you're OK with their beliefs?' Uh-uh. The truth is throughout the vast majority of human history nobody fucking knew where fucking babies came from [...] but if a whole different group of people believe something that you don't, that's different than what you've been taught and you say 'They're rubes and I'm smart 'cause I was taught something else' that's a bad look. Don't do that. [...] For all you know they're aliens.
02:56:47 [continuing man-mothers discussion] It's one of the, actually, very rare things that Kvothe actually is smart about. Cause he plants his feet, and he's like arguing with these people, and he's like, "You know what? I don't know for sure! There's weird shit in the world." And so he lets go of it. It's one of the ONLY times Kvothe ever actually admits that he might not be right! And you gotta wanna be smarter than Kvothe, because like, he's clever. But Kvothe? Kvothe isn't smart, y'all. Like. Kvothe fucks up on the reg!
03:06:20 The Cthaeh is in the tree. The Cthaeh is not a tree. The tree is something else entirely. Nobody ever asks about the tree. [...] Oh, “who made the tree” is a good question! [...] In the tree or inside the tree? Well, it is in the tree (with hand pointing upwards and making circular motions).
03:20:54 Is Ludis the full name of the moon? That's kind of an existential question in my world. You're pretty safe with Ludis. You could do a longer name but Ludis is pretty thorough.
230908 Pat Rothfuss talks about Writing and Creativity with Analee Newitz and S.L. Huang
Stream
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1919813922 - nothing
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1919835368 - below
00:12:10 - 00:14:10
230908-Pat Rothfuss talks about Writing and Creativity with Analee Newitz and S.L. Huang - Iambic.mp4
…[I can read Srost better than] other people in some ways because it got weird cadences and rhythms and most of it is iambic or some version of iambic because I have problems. So I’ve done it [narrating Srost] and the main thing it did for me is make me far more than I already did appreciate the artistry of a good audio narrator.
Now, I did not sit down like “now a story that is all iambic”. The truth is [...] sometime I will stuck in iambic. I will literally get stuck in it. I will talk in it. Which is fun if you goofing around with your kids and make up smutty doctor Seuss, but if you are writing and if you cannot stop writing iambic it really slows you down. But also I have written chapter in wise mans fear where all the dialogue is rhyming couplets, if I say so myself - perfectly metered.
00:29:50 - 00:32:25
230908-Pat Rothfuss talks about Writing and Creativity with Analee Newitz and S.L. Huang - Hollywood.mp4
[we all were monsters, but] for different reasons. I wrote an 18 page word document, which is an act of war. But at one point I was like - when do I get a pass on a script? Because I’ve been collaborating, I’ve been given notes, I’ve been talking about this, what do we bring in, so when do I get a pass? And they were like - well, you don’t. And I am like - I have wrote this huge document to explain all these things that are gonna cause problems. I could just fix it if you let me have 45 minutes and let me change 75 words. I will fix all these problems. And they were like - no you do not get a pass. And I was like - why not? And they were like - it is not your job and it is insulting to all these people who are actual writers of this thing. I am like - but I am good at this, and also it is mine, I know it best. But no, the wall is there to prevent types of collaboration too. So I do not know how good movies get made, but I know now how bad movies get made.
…
[But] I’ve also seen, there was John Rogers, as a showrunner, and I saw him put together writers room, and I saw him… and I am like - the dude was a wizard, the dude thought about stories in a weird ways, the dude could run a room, dude had such expertise and knowledge, but also possessed a skill which I lack - which is he could lean back and let people make choices and hash it - did not feel the need to chime in on every freaking opportunity and put his bit in.
01:42:27 - 01:43:12
230908-Pat Rothfuss talks about Writing and Creativity with Analee Newitz and S.L. Huang. - female masters.mp4
[if I get a chance to do a screenplay or whatever] I will put women in the Waystone along Old Cob and Shep. I would not necessarily put female Masters in, because - people do hold me on this one, there is nine masters and they are all dudes, and I am like - yes, and this sucks, does it not? It is real bad, and it had been real bad to the women, there did not use to be a segregated section of the dorms at the University - these dudes did it! There used to be a lot of female masters, things were better there, and some guys got in and they fucked it up, because sometime dudes suck.
[9-8-23] PatrickRothfuss - Pat Rothfuss does some Q&A with his lovely, kind, good-smelling community
Stream https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1919936891
230908 PatrickRothfuss - Pat Rothfuss does some Q&A with his lovely, kind, good-smelling community.mp4
00:12:08 - 00:12:28
Do any cultures on Temerant build pyramids?
None leap to mind that I’ve already conceptualized. But they would have to be because the pyramid is a basic shape for a structure, so I would say yeah.
00:22:36 - 00:22:42
There are absolutely hurdy gurdies in the world, those are very ancient.
00:23:30 - 00:23:40
What percentage of the book is made of breadcrumbs you’ve left for readers? Like 58%, like a lot of it.
00:27:05 - 00:30:50
Somebody said - I was worried how the screaming ended up in the pomace. To answer that question - there is a chemical in the nutmeg that closely mimics… what is it called, myristicin? And chemically it is very close to metha… it has been a while since I’ve done my research. But effectively people who are bad at chemistry and research find out that it is a little bit like LSD, and it can be like a hallucinogen, you can have like a trip off of the chemical in nutmeg, but the truth is, it is not the same chemical, and you just have like a horrible, horrible episode if you somehow consume enough nutmeg to get that much in your system, and so that’s the screaming.
So, myristicin, without going to much into Alchemy, or the specificity of what Auri is intending… or whether or not she is crazy or just very good at Alchemy, the other thing about these chemicals, is that some of them can be absorbed through the skin, so the reason she uses the nutmeg is there is a particular type of lipid in that fat that would make soap frothier. But that is what you want out of that, is that chemical, when things go through saponification, but if you would fuck real bad, what you would also get is that chemical that might be absorbable through your skin, that would give you like a screaming 8 hour unavoidable bad acid trip.
00:31:45 - 00:31:55
How many lies has Kvothe told to Chronicler? One.
Pat Rothfuss talks with Piper CJ about Monsters, Mythology, and Other Sundry Geekeries. #Faen #PJRRPG #NarrowRoad
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1949449007
stream
231013-Pat Rothfuss talks with Piper CJ about Monsters, Mythology, and Other Sundry Geekeries - Devi and Yll.mp4
01:54:15 - 01:55:10
I think Devi has at least some Yllish heritage, but I do not think she is from Yll, she is not like born, brought up, she is not like native Yllish speaker. Yll is like the size of a postage stamp. It’s effectively… there were three place that Aturan Empire did not kick the shit out of, and it is all of the Sheald, it is a big chunk of Modeg, that’s because there is mountains and Eld, and the Eld is just a terrifying place where armies die in, and there is a tiny little piece of an island, where the people were way to cussed to let themselves be taken over, and those were the Yllish people.
(thanks to /u/Reshidaan for transcribing the following quotes:)
02:36:56 The Fae world is neither flat nor spherical? That's a good question but, boy, I would need to dig out some of my files. If you understand a lot about topology or origami or... y'know — there's some weird stuff going on with the Fae in my world.
02:40:17 Q: “In the books, it is said that [Sim] is a noble from Dalonir and his lands are north of Atur. How can his title be Dalonir, which belongs to the Kingdom of Ceald?”
02:40:38 Sim's title isn't Dalonir. I don't think he's a... I- I don't... I would need to look. I would need to consult there or look at some of my maps but I don't have those handy right now.
(Note: this is directly & explicitly contradicted by Wil in WMF)
02:49:46 I Modegan currency is gonna be way harder because it's not a capitalist society. More importantly, it's not a commercial industrial society. But I mean, I have developed some of that currency conceptually. I even have some prototypes of it around somewhere in a box.
Pat Rothfuss talks with Charlie Jane Anders about the craft of writing, utopias, and other sundries. #Q&A #PJRRPG #NarrowRoad
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1955249538
Nothing
Pat Rothfuss talks with Charlie Jane Anders about the craft of writing, utopias, and other sundries. #Q&A #PJRRPG #NarrowRoad Follo-up Q&A
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1955305060
01:13:55 - 01:14:55
Q: You did a competition once and I have been googling trying to find the answer online. You offered to put someone's name in the book. Was it ever revealed what character that was?
A: I pulled some names, I contact the person, and I am pretty sure one of them was fine… It was, it was… they were… I am like “where do you think you’d belong, do you wanna be in the University”, and they’ve said “yeah I would”, and I am like ‘what do you think you’d do“, and they’re like “I think I’d work in the Fishery”, and I am like “I need a name for somebody Kvothe meets when he goes too like get materials”. And so yeah, that is the character, they show up, it is a little cameo appearance, and their name is there. And we worked out what variant of their name they will feel comfortable with, there’s been a couple others, but I don’t wanna talk about them unless I ask their permission to share that it is them, because consent is important. And because it has been so long, so I do not remember.
(So, essentially, either Basil or Jaxim is a cameo appearance of a person who won a fan contest.)
[10-27-23] PatrickRothfuss - Pat Rothfuss talks about Audiobooks with Nick Podehl and Rupert Degas. #Q&A #PJRRPG #NarrowRoad #Announcement.mp4
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1961143888
01:06:15 - 01:06:45
231026_Pat Rothfuss talks about Audiobooks with Nick Podehl and Rupert Degas - on Felurian chapter.mp4
The Felurian chapter in WMF was the first time I’ve really let myself off the leash, like “you know what, every piece of dialogue will rhyme in their conversation, and I want nobody to notice”. And so I did it. And I spend 8 hours once, I changed like 8 words, and at the end of the day I changed them all back, and that was a good day of work.
01:18:20 - 01:19:15
231026_Pat Rothfuss talks about Audiobooks with Nick Podehl and Rupert Degas - on character traits.mp4
All of my characters get an eye color, a mannerism, their hair, and they have a distinctive speech pattern, and that’s it - because I do not think in faces. So Auri has this hair, and she moves deliberately, like kind of scared, like prey animal, she has very distinctive speech, so I am like “you (Nate Taylor) can show her (in TSROST illustrations), but only these characteristics, and not her face”. That’s how I managed to thread the needle, where I got to keep the mystery and make sure that no matter what people did on their own it did not feel like they lost anything, they only gained things from illustrations.
231102 Pat Rothfuss talks about how sexy Bast is with Julia Maddalina. #Sexy #Q&A #PJRRPG #NarrowRoad #Announcement
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1967064802
231103_Pat Rothfuss talks about how sexy Bast is with Julia Maddalina.mp4
[37:00] “What would Bast's tramp stamp say?”
- Butterfly
- Next
- Juicy
- Stuck in an apple barrel
- Reshi's pretty good
- A heart around "Reshi"
- "En Faent Morie" is also very good
[38:55] if Bast were wearing a pair of sweatpants, what would it say on the butt?
- "Elderberry"
- Bad Bitch is pretty good
- Horny
- "Real legs" with an arrow
- Felurian with a pair of handcuffs on either side
[1:33:43] Q: "For the QnA- If I may ask please; Pat, can you give any info/hints on Persimmons orientation?"
Somebody has been here on the chat a couple of times. Persimmon's orientation. Percy. Simmon. In the book, that is his full name, is Persimmon, which he hates and will be angry if anyone finds… (note: Pat doesn’t actually answer the question, haha)
[1:35:21] Q: "Q&A - Julia, what are the chances of us getting an illustrated Name of the Wind and WMF one day?"
That is... It's nice that you think we would have control of something like that. But that's sort of like saying, "Hey, when are the two of you gonna get together and make a movie?" It's a fun thing to think about, but framing the question that way is sort of like saying… It's proposing a project, and we can't do a good job answering that, cause either we're gonna build up your hopes, or, yeah. It just doesn't work out.
[1:37:31] Oh. The novella WILL be published in Spanish. So, yes, but when? I don't know off the top of my head. So, yeah, it will be translated in many. But it probably won't be coming out at the same time because the production timelines for that probably didn't work out. It's a lot to translate.
[1:38:30] Q: "Does Auri know about plums and does she like them?"
Plums do exist in the world and they are a temperate... So, yeah, she would know about plums. Whether she liked them or not, that would be spoiler-y.
[1:44:09] Q: "VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION: Why is Kvothe 16 when he goes into the fae? Shouldn't he be 18 because... maturity?"
What can I say here that isn't gonna be snipped and put on TikTok and make me sound like, just, a monster? There's a lot of people who shouldn't be operating a fork on their own at the age of 18, let alone making a baby, driving a car, voting for anything. And there's a lot of people at the age of 14 who are brilliant, clever, empathetic, kind, stunningly handsome, funny, considerate. I'm talking about, y'know, one of my children. And me at 14 as well, cause it's in the genes.
So, when you're like, "shouln't he have been 18 before he boned down?" I'm like, "Nah." Like, if he was 18 and an immature idiot, that doesn't mean it's okay for him to bone down. Also, I feel like that would have been so convenient it would be cowardly. It's like, and then three years went by, and then I had sex. And Buffy, in Buffy it was literally her birthday. So they're like, "You can't get on us for this, it's her birthday, she has sex with angels." Fine, I get it, you didn't wanna get taken off the air or whatever, but really? Ech. Also, what makes you think Kvothe was mature? What makes you think anyone os mature? No one's brain finishes developing til they're almost 30. Maturity is an illusion, it's a myth, doesn't exist, have sex with everyone.
[1:55:18] Q: "Can mirrors, moonlight, and babies’ minds reveal/see through Glamourie??"
There ARE things that can abrogate glammourie.
[2:04:30] You know what people would be surprised by? Like, Simmon is taller than Kvothe. Simmon, he doesn't carry himself big. Simmon, honestly, you put a straw hat on him and take his shirt off, he's gonna look like a farmboy. Simmon has like, five older brothers. Poor Simmon just carries himself very small.
[2:07:55] "An anvil and a smile." Gosh, all of these Kilvin ones are really good. Arliden's a little easy. Arliden is like, it's pretty much, he's a "Bast" type. He's classically attractive, dark haired, sharp featured, rakish, whatever. It's like, sure. But like, Kilvin? The reason Kilvin gets interesting, is like, "Ooo but that ever burning lamp, though? How big that hammer, though?"
[2:09:07] "I want to see art of Tempi peeking around a tree listening to Kvothe play music"
You see, Tempi would have absolutely no body shame. What's intimate for Tempi, you could see him looking around the corner at Kvothe playing music, but he's facing away from you, so it's like his full ass, he's just naked and ripped. But he's looking around, he's like, "Look at my ass I don't care, but I can't let him know that I'm listening to him playing music."
[2:10:44] What did you think [teachers] did over the summer? Like, hang from their feet in a cave like a vampire or something. But at one point, like, Kvothe sees Kilvin, and Kvothe is like, "What are you doing here, it's a beautiful day out?" And the implication is like, he's been out swimming. (Unclear whether this is hypothetical or a DoS scene reference?) And also, cultural morays being different, of all the teachers that I think the students come after? [thinking] If you have daddy issues you actually go after [Lorren] (originally said Arliden but says he misspoke). Not judging, just saying, and that's not a good choice cause he doesn't give a shit. Let go of that and find someone that treats you right. But if you have /DADDY/ issues, it's Kilvin, hahahahahaha.
[2:13:51] The original Viari, whose name I stole 'cuz I liked it. Like, Viari, the original sexy librarian. Like, one part Indiana Jones, one part Sexy Librarian
[2:15:00] Arliden, Arliden's a great guy! He's a good dad, good partner. He'll sing to ya.
[2:15:30] Deoch looks like an Adonis. Stanchion looks like Baccus. Because Stanchion's got some Fezziwig vibes from the Alister Simm 'Scrooge', or he's got some hobbit. He's a regular dude. He's regular height, he's a little pudgy, he drinks ale and looks at musicians for a living. Deoch looks like he just got done building you a house. I actually know the vibe, too. I;d like them just together in some state of dishevel or undress or whatever and Stanchion in being no way self conscious, but Deoch just loving on him, just like, arms around him, like, "You're my sweet boy."
[2:24:54] [spitballing about sexy Crazy Martin]
Not only is he big, but he’s a bit of a hunchback because he’s been a Modegan long bowman for his entire life and that does things to your body. You pull that bow ever since you were 14, so you end up just a little….twisted
231114 - Pat Rothfuss - Nate Taylor blog interview
https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2023/11/whyfore-art-thou-an-interview-with-nate-taylor/
231114 - Whyfore art thoy - Nate Taylor interview.docx
Nate: You got to show off the area around Newarre for the first time. Was it modeled after a real place?
Pat: It’s not based on a place. But it does have a bit of a Midwestern small town feel though. Mostly because that’s where I’ve always lived.
The old men at the bar always remind me of the Norwegian bachelor farmers from Lake Wobegon though. I remember we were going to take a stab at illustrating those, but we nixed that fairly soon because that one illustration would require doing 3-5 sets of character design for what are, at best, tertiary characters
231115 TNRBD launch stream.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1977644096
231115_Join Pat Rothfuss as he celebrates the launch of his new Novella! Includes Special Guest, illustrator Nate Taylor.mp4
[submitted by /u/czechancestry]
[37:00]
Q: eddy1984: @PatrickRothfuss For Mr. Taylor- What was the most challenging aspect of the work to translate visually?
[This begins a vast discussion of arriving on a Bast character design, Underthing design, Auri design]
[47:45] (talking about character design when glammourie is in play)
Nate: But, you know, that is something that you've pretty much definitively said about, uh, Felurian, is that, you know, she looks different to everybody, basically
Pat: Ahh, a bit.
Nate: Because she's a faerie
Pat: A bit, yeah. No, it's good, because if I had trouble doing one character design with you... And the problem is. And okay, good. Just, I've worked my way out of it, mostly.
Nate: This is good. This is gonna prepare people for The Boy Who Loved the Moon.
Pat: You're correct. Um, but the other thing is, people wouldn't have said, "Oh, he looks different because of glammourie." They would have said, "Who's this other dude? Who's this other character cause I know I saw one dude who..." Or, they would think that you fucked up and that you didn't know how to draw a consistent character. We would have had to make it so different it was clear it was intentional, but so similar that no one would be confused. But then you would have killed me, because that's not a needle that can be threaded in six months.
[52:07] Q: eddy1984: @PatrickRothfuss Deep Dive question. Many forms of ink in the past were iron-based. Would depicting a Fey with iron based ink while speaking their Name cause them problems?
Pat: I would say, if it was a, hmm. Part of me was imagining someone with a calligraphy pen, and I couldn't imagine somebody getting enough detail to be doing accurate representation. But that's silly. Of course, you wouldn't use a calligraphy pen, you'd use a brush or something. Um. That is not outside the realm of possibility. But if you've got this things NAME, why are you fuckin' about with ink? It's sort of like, "I've got an elephant gun and a really sharp stick. Not really sharp, but pretty sharp. I betcha we can do it." It's like, why are you talking about your stick? You've got an elephant gun. Just, proportionately, Name is a much bigger deal.
Nate: If you didn't have a name, a two dimensional simulacra with no other connecting features. Like hair, blood. If it was BLOOD and the iron ink?
Pat: Well again, if you have his blood, it's like, "I've got a guided missile and... a rock that I think would skip three or four times".
[54:41]
Q: recre_de_guia:there is a monetary system on fae realm?
I like that question. Thaaat is a good question. We could hang, whoever you are. Next!
[55:5]5 Q: Did Kvothe kill Denna?
Pat: No, she's only crippled.
[56:01] Q: BooksinBathrobes:Is Bast the King that Kvothe kills???¿?¿
Pat: No, he's a queen. A killer queen. Very dangerous
[56:12] Q: apomfret:Will Denna have a book?
Pat: She reads all sorts of books!
[56:50] Q: interjectionZzZ:I recently had a chance to check out "So Long as You can See the Moon". Was that a MORE difficult project than Narrow Road, or less?
Pat: What's your thought Nate? Let's not talk about that more than... Just answer this poor person's question, as nobody else is gonna understand it. Everyone, Nate and I do wanna release that in print for y'all so y'all can experience it. But just, yes, harder than this or easier?
Nate: Easier
Pat: Easier
Nate: Easier, but in a different way
Pat: Easier, but in a different way
[58:25] Q: tedimuss: Does Faeda Calanthis take influence from Norse Mythology?
Pat: More Scand...OH, the BOOK? No, I haven't read it yet. I'm a bad Neil Gaiman fan. But from Scandinavian mythology -- yes! I was into draugr before fucking Skyrim made them cool and I'm PISSED about it
[58:46] Q: meadowdweller: Would you ever consider a book about Elodin?
Pat: Um. Yes! These are easy! Nate, I don't even need you for this.
[58:52] Q: interjectionZzZ:Any relation between Rhin (numenara) and Queen Rinne?
Pat: See, hold on. Interjection, you're just gonna keep trying to drag us back there. No, I answered your question, but chill out about that. Although, I appreciate that, and I would talk with you about that, but we can't do it here cause not everybody can be a part of that conversation.
[59:15] Q: apomfret:Who was the hardest character to write?
Pat: In this one? In this one for me, Rike, because I needed to be careful
[59:39] Q: KingCr00w:What about a Kingkiller Chronicle RPG System?
Pat: I'm already building one for my boys
[1:16:20]
[Wide and wandering discussion about the drawing of Bast & Kostrel]
[1:28:24]
Pat: Here's one of the illustrations, again one of the partials, where I think this is the first sort of depiction of a greystone, just to get across the concept of how massive they really are
Nate: And that required a lot of, you had to pull me back from things, cause I wanted to make it look, just,like, Stonehenge
Pat: Which is fair, that's one of the first things I gave you. I'm like, here's Stonehenge, it is this big, they are thiiis big. Because it's like. Unless you've been to Stonehenge. You see Stonehenge, you're like, "Oh yeah, big rocks." You GO to Stonehenge, you're like, "Jesus Christ." This would be outrageous for a modern art installation. Just ONE of them would be
Nate: I had no idea they went underground!
[1:29:30 to ~1:41:00]
[Vast and varying discussion of the 2-page spread of the still]
[1:44:02] Begin discussion of the chapter headers:
[1:46:34]
Nate: Some of them are supposed to look like they belong together, other ones look like they were handmade out of pieces of other things. Like the carrots. That was like. We settled on a piece of a teacup that had carrots on it that had been safe by being pressed into a piece of clay. And it took us forever to arrive there
[1:48:10]
Pat: Each chapter header has this, and you see the sun and the moon go across the sky, and each of them has a couple of different Embrils.
[1:58:55] Q: tonypatriick: What’s “The Boy Who Stole The Moon”?
Pat: That's a graphic novel project Nate and I have worked on. Just, we'll. Let's not go down that rabbit hole. We don't have time to do that justice. It's something you'll see. Just give it a mo.
Nate: (it's so good)
Pat: It's very, I'm so... Nate. This one (Narrow Road), it's mostly me, and Nate did some illustrations that are amazing and I love. The Boy that Loved the Moon is mostly Nate, and therefore it's better. It's stunning. You will platz. Even if you don't know how to, you will. That graphic novel will make you learn Yiddish, is what I'm saying
[2:02:50]
Pat: If we do a Denna book and there are illustrations, I absolutely will invite Nate. I mean, he might have moved on to bigger and better things, but I certainly wanna do it.
Nate: For which one?
Pat: A Denna book, maybe. I've talked about a Denna book for a long time.
Nate: I wanna do everything! I wanna do Laniel Young-Again
[2:04:48]
Pat: When we realized that we shouldn't call it Lightning Tree anymore, because it was just gonna cause a bunch of confusion. And that came very late in the game, it was like, oh no. Oh, no. To come up with a title, cause it was the easiest title I ever had. Although in my drafts, it had the title, "Bast's Day". Thanks, it's bad. But then the new, when we're like, if we're gonna move from Lighting Tree to something else, it was a struggle. Like all of my titles, it was a struggle.
[2:05:49]
Pat: Somebody says, "Do I have a set of Embrils?" I do, they're right here on my desk (holds up a black bag). I've been slowly assembling them
https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-author-patrick-rothfuss-returns-new-book
podcast
231116 Wisconsin Radion Central Time ctm231116l1.mp3
Nothing
231116 Grimdark Magazine - Patrick Rothfuss interview
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3MqNL-w2PM
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCz16dwcH90
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU3zNZRBrdU
231116 - GrimDarkMagazine interview - Patrick Rothfuss interview_ Part 1 (of three).mp4
231116 - GrimDarkMagazine interview - Patrick Rothfuss interview_ Part 2 (of three).mp4
231116 - GrimDarkMagazine interview - Patrick Rothfuss interview_ Part 3 (of three).mp4
Part 1
nothing
Part 2
00:56:22
Q: In KKC it showcases the importance of names, obviously. Auri is similar to the Latin word for Aureum, I think I am saying that correctly, which means “to cover with a layer of gold”. Similarly the name Bast originally comes from Egyptian goddess Bast or Bastset. And she is described as having the head of a cat. Did you chose the name Bast as a reference to the original goddess and characteristics of feline and grace?
A: So… people think things are essential in books and they are not. And I love picking fights about that. Because there are a lot of things that are presented as inarguable truths. And it is like - well, you need conflict, well you need a plot, you know, you need 3 act structure, 5 act structure, AB subplot whatever, you need action, whatever. And of course you don’t. Arguably you don’t need character; you do not need anything, but you better have a good reason for not having it. One of the big things people put so much energy into, like, the REVEAL, but the truth is, if you putting all of your energy into writing, so that the reveal is to effectively enact a surprise, then you have written a firework, it is gonna go out once, and that was WOW, and then I am done and never come back to that, because it was all about the surprise. That’s different from, say, the classic example is the Sixth Sense. Where you are watching it and eventually you go OMG. And then you watch it the second time, and it is a whole different story. And the truth is, it happens accidentally sometimes - here is another version, where they didn’t mean it. There is this zombie movie which was funny and it had Woody Harrelson in it. Zombieland, thank you. It’s a fun movie. And in the end of it, it has been 10 years, but still, spoiler alert, at the end of it you realize that the Woody Harrelson character, he is just fun, he is looking for twinkies, it is a comedic movie, and he sometimes talks about his dog, but it turns out it was not his dog that he lost, it was his kid. And it is this shattering moment, when you realize that this funny person is just wrecked inside. And they are looking for everything they can get, some little bit of joy. And they you are watching you are enjoying, it is funny, and they have this moment, and you are like oh, wow. And the unintended consequence of that, is that if you watch that movie again, it is not fun. At least it was not for me. I watched it again, and it is this story of a poor shattered man who is absolutely putting on a brave face to the world because he cannot quit thinking about his dead kid. And they didn’t mean that in a way “haha the second time you will watch our funny movie, you will be sort of emotionally torn up”, it is not what they meant. As opposed to the Sixth Sense, where you are supposed to watch it for the second time and it will be a whole different movie. And mine, I wanted there to be… if you wanted to look for treasure, I wanted treasure to be there. If you were interested in the mirror and the lamp, then I wanted it to be there. If you are interested in the history of the world, or how story shapes culture and the culture shapes… then I wanted it to be there, but it is not all that is there. And so when you say “I do not know if I am looking too much into this”, at this point you are never looking too much into it, because I think a lot about names. I do not make a whole language, but I put a lot of thought into the fake languages I made, the pieces I’ve made, and there are bits of lore and history and things touch each other. And it stuns me what people have found; there is stuff in there nobody gonna see this, and I am like holy shit they did! You know, but there is also things people have not seen, and I am like that’s right, it is there and I am so proud of the fact how much of it is there, but you can’t see it. So in terms of the names, sometimes it is just a name. How about this - originally, the nickname the Bast had for Kvothe was Kashi, which is a type of breakfast cereal, like fiber-rich breakfast cereal, and I am like I gotta change that and now it is Reshi. There is the river that runs between the University and Imre, now it is the Omethe, which is a good name for a river, I like that name. Originally it was the Borat river, before the movie came out, but also Borat is not a good name for a river, it is Bor… Booo, it is not a good name; Omethe is a good name for a river. So sometimes you have etymological roots, sometimes you have fake etymological roots that are from my world, like the fact that technically the wine only has vintage if it is from Vintas - the translators do not like that either, by the way - and it is etymology that is real in the same way people say “it is not a champagne unless it is from Champagne valley” because that sort of behavior transcends time, culture and fiction. But I will say this - for Bast’s name, it does evoke, just the sound of it felt good, I didn’t deliberately… I was aware of Bast as a goddes, but I was not trying to evoke elements of that, in fact I kind of regret it. His full name is Bastas, and when Kvothe introduces him to Chronicler… but also the sound of it, it has a ??? in it, it is short, it is sharp, if anything, to the modern English speaking ear it evokes “bastard”, you know. Which is an echo that is helpful. How about this though, Devi’s name, the loan shark, the gaelet, I pickied that name because Devi looks like Devil without the L, and to English eye and ear, you look at it and you are like that is an oddly intimidating name, also a loan shark? It is implied that it is a mobster, it is a thug, this somebody is gonna bust you up, it is a brute, and they are even referred to as Demon Devi. And so Kvothe walks into that situation and this short strawberry blonde with a pixie cut who is like so much more terrifying than a mob; like oh now, I was ready for the mob, but you can’t have my blood, no this is ridiculous. And here is the thing, I am like, I’ve made up a name! I didn’t! Devi is actually a really common Indian name. And it is absolutely female, and I found it out when we submitted my book to Eos which is an imprint that I don't even know if it exists anymore, long before we showed it to DAW, we showed it to them, and the editor, her name is Devi. And I am like - oh my God, does it seem like I named this character, this weird badass pixie girl after the editor I was submitting to… Also Fela is the name of an African like a monstrous African dictator, like in modern history too. So you can’t avoid everything, but… I chose the names fairly carefully, and none of the names are easy. The biggest.. The true story that sounds fake is how I came up with the name Kvothe - I doodled it in a high school calculus, and I was seeing what letters I could draw on my 3-ring binder without moving my elbow. And I could do a K, cause it was just lines, I could do a V, just lines, and I am like can I do this… and then I made him a DnD character, and then eventually when I needed a name, I sort of put it on him. A lot of people find the Bast name distracting, and I would have changed it, but it was on him so long, it didn’t find it right to call him anything else. So this one I left; I resisted the urge to change it. But it still rankles some people. So yeah, I think a lot about the names, work hard on the names.
There is also a “ted talk” about number three in human culture, but it is not directly related to Pat’s writing.
Part 3
00:17:50
I am not above the occasional reference, but in fact I can only think of one. Kvothe does get directions, and it is a reference to a town, the Evesdown docks. And Evesdown is a place that is mentioned once or twice in the Firefly. And I think that is the only intentional reference I put in my books.
00:24:40
I am whatever the opposite of the believer in the concept of Checkov’s gun. It is a horrible concept that I hate that people have latched on to. It implies that everything always has to be important. How horrible, how horrible if everything were significant? Like a story where everything is essential, to a purpose? But that said, because I am implying a lot, but i am not forcing a lot, and there is sort of “what is this where are we going when will this happen”, I put it out there and then if I then come in and comment on it, it is exactly as helpful as trying to fix a spiderweb with my big meaty hands, I will destroy more than I fix.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1991641565
231130 Join Pat Rothfuss as he chats, tells stories, and answers questions with the amazing Mary Robinette Kowal.mp4
Stream with Mary Robinette Kowal
01:09:50
I always want every scene - and every French scene that I write to be doing at least three things. Three is my bare minimum. I need to bring up an interesting thing, progress some sort of curiosity, like you know, emphasize, remind the reader, expose new information, whatever, and that’s great, it means there is always something for everyone everywhere. And it is great, once you get it all good, and you are like ‘I am drawn through the story, I didn’t even realize there is no conflict in it, and it all about a dude who wants a library card ’.
01:18:35
In my art, in my stories, I want you to be curious, and I wanna not give you as much of an answer as you really want. Strategically, it is a game that I play. But the difference between my stories and other - I do know the answer, there is a secret and I am keeping it, you are not dealing with some ‘Lost’ bullshit, I am not winging this shit.
Now in terms of a very specific one - my favorite trick - if I gonna introduce something in the world, I have 2 people with different cultural perspectives argue about it. Viciously. Old friends. Even, if it is only one person, I create fictitious historian, like an old Victorian historian, who is writing a monograph from his armchair and he is horribly racist, and he is gonna talk about how some other historian was a fucking idiot. And that’s how I introduce this cultural concept to someone watching effectively a bicker, because a bicker is interesting, and it promotes the idea that it is never a simple thing. There is complexity, and I just view it as my responsibility, being an ethical human being, I do not want to present the world as clean and clear too much, because it creates a bad expectation of how life should be and it is gonna set you up for disappointment throughout your whole life.
01:29:15
In the draft of WMF that I sent to Betsy that made her decide to pull the book out of production, there was a chapter header saying “there is a couple of chapters here where Kvothe learns how to fight and it is cool”. And she is like - yeah, I am sorry, but.. I am like - I can do it, I can get this written! And she is like - we gonna give you more time bunny.
01:46:40
“You mentioned the cover, and I’ve noticed some stars visible in the circle of the Moon. Is that an error?“ Well, that is a good question. And what I will say is - you have to ask yourself, am I the sort of person that would make that sort of mistake, on a cover that I have approval of and helped design.
02:43:40
What are the brown bits in the metheglin recipe (https://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2013/09/on-the-making-of-metheglin/)? I think it ended up being powdered arco.
- Possibly Pat refers to Pau d’Arco tree bark - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapacho
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2209941394
Designing a Pirate with Pat Rothfuss and Ollo Clark for Blood, Rum & Thunder!
240729 - JMaddalina - Designing a Pirate with Pat Rothfuss and Ollo Clark for Blood, Rum & Thunder!.mp4
nothing
[a]"See you cannot ask a liar questions like this"
Also, he seems to confirm that Kvothe does not die... despite admittedly being a liar he still seems adamant that Kvothe dying was a joke he would never spoil if true.