Aleph

[Paweł]

So I have a bit problem with this character. Here's the reason:

When Kvothe starts to tell his story, he begins like this:

“In the beginning, as far as I know, the world was spun out of the nameless void by Aleph, who gave everything a name. Or, depending on the version of the tale, found the names all things already possessed.”

All seems cool and Aleph is some sort of God. The problem lies when Skarpi tells the story of Larne, in the scene where Larne binds Selitos, there is something like this:

"Selitos knew that in all the world there were only three people who could match his skill in names: Aleph, Iax, and Lyra. Lanre had no gift for names-his power lay in the strength of his arm. For him to attempt to bind Selitos by his name would be as fruitless as a boy attacking a soldier with a willow stick."

Here Aleph is referenced as a Namer, not a God. He seems to hold power comparable to that of Selitos, Iax or Lyra, who while powerful, were just accomplished Namers/Shapers (as it seems more like an ideological difference at the time). Also later in their dialogue they say something like this:

“This is my doom upon you and all who follow you. May it last until the world ends and the Aleu fall nameless from the sky.”

Note that the name for the "God" is Aleu not Aleph. They both use this phrase, so I guess it's not a typo.


Moving on to the next reference to Aleph in the second story by Skarpi:

“…Selitos One-Eye stood forward and said, “Lord, if I do this thing will I be given the power to avenge the loss of the shining city? Can I confound the plots of Lanre and his Chandrian who killed the innocent and burned my beloved Myr Tariniel?”

Aleph said, “No. All personal things must be set aside, and you must punish or reward only what you yourself witness from this day forth.”

Selitos bowed his head. “I am sorry, but my heart says to me I must try to stop these things before they are done, not wait and punish later.”

Here it's clearly seen that Selitos is lower standing than Aleph, but it seems more like a nobleman and his king rather than a powerful wizard and a God.

So in the end who is Aleph? I know that this character has little meaning for Kvothes story but I'm trying to find the equivalent of Devin in the 4C setting, that is who is Encanis, outside Trapis story. He can't be Larne/Haliax as Encanis destroyed 6 cities, and Larne 7.

"But eight cities remained. They were Belen, Antus, Vaeret, Tinusa, Emlen, and the twin cities of Murilla and Murella. Last was Myr Tariniel, greatest of them all and the only one unscarred by the long centuries of war."

"Six plumes of smoke rose from the land below. Myr Tariniel was gone, and six cities destroyed. But that meant all was not lost. One city still remained…"

So it's 6 of the other cities + Myr Tariniel that got destroyed, 7 cities total and 1 is left standing. Accounting for a total of 8 cities as said in the beginning. Encanis destroyed 6 out of 7 cities.

"For six days Encanis fled, and six great cities he destroyed. But on the seventh day, Tehlu drew near before Encanis could bring his power to bear and the seventh city was saved. That is why seven is a lucky number, and why we celebrate on Caenin."

Now I was thinking if Encanis was realy the The Cthaeh, but the only bit of info leading to that can be the fact that The Cthaeh is the closest thing to a demon there is and this quotes:

"Encanis, whose voice was like a knife in the minds of men."

"Tehlu bent and with great effort lifted one edge of the wheel and set it leaning against a tree that grew nearby. As soon as he came close, Encanis cursed him in languages no one knew, scratching and biting."

All that Is because I want to find out where exactly did Larne gain power? Since all of the other powerful Namers are either good on well more like neutral( Iax doesn't strike as a evil character, more like something alike to Kvothe, as in a brilliant Shaper who wanted to show off), who is the one bringing the darkness to this story?


Edit: Just to make sure, Larne is Haliax, since there was some kind of discussion about that on other topics but this part makes it rather clear:

“But I knew the truth. I am no longer the Lanre you knew. Mine is a new and terrible name. I am Haliax and no door can bar my passing."

[Michael]

Have you heard the story of the three blind men who meet an elephant? If not look it up, but I think the four corners is very much the elephant and each culture one of the blind men. We are just in on the joke. (well partly) Ask a muslim, a jew and christian who Jesus was, and while they all believe he lived...they tell three very different stories.

I actually love that aspect of PR's storytelling.

[Gabriel]

“This is my doom upon you and all who follow you. May it last until the world ends and the Aleu fall nameless from the sky.”

I never got the meaning of Aleu in this as god. It might be the moon, it might be the sun, I never saw it as god. But overall I feel this has a meaning we still don't understand, like how we didn't understand why people talked about the moon in NotW.

I'll always see Aleph as the closer thing to god, Encanis as Haliax and Cthaeh as just Cthaeh.
About the city thing, just remember that Myr Tariniel was set apart from those in all the stories. It was seven cities and one city, and what makes Myr Tariniel so special might eventually explain why it was present in Skarpi's story but not in the priest's, specially considering the nature of the second.

[Amber, Master Sympathist]

So in the end who is Aleph?

Aleph is simply the creator of the world. I guess you could quantify him as a god, but I always just saw him as the first Shaper and Being in a nameless void.
I also never took the Aleu to be a reference to god, I have thought they are possibly the stars.

Sorta like, when fae is shaped, they all name a star to brighten the sky, so I similarly concluded this was done previously by beings like Aleph during the creation of the universe. (this is just my opinion on the topic however)

Also Selitos says only those people could match his power, not that his power was equal to those characters. Also, Aleph isn't necessarily just a namer, Iax is specifically a shaper/namer, since Aleph spun a whole world, it's likely he is also a shaper. What quantifies a difference is still unknown however.


As far as Encanis, it's really not clear who or what he is, but I think it's pretty safe to assume he is some kind of malevolent fae creature. I never thought about him being Ctheah but that's an interesting idea. I think the only detractor is that Encanis occurs after Lanre becomes Haliax. Tehlu is an angel who has to be reborn as a man to fight Encanis, however, Tehlu doesn't become an angel until the end of the creation war, during the time period just after Myr Tarinial is attacked. So effectively, Encanis attack occurs after The Chandrian burn the first cities.
When Lanre speaks to Ctheah, it's already trapped at the tree. Therefore, Encanis likely isn't Ctheah, due to the timeline in my opinion.

As far as who is the one bringing the darkness to this story?

It's the Ctheah. Lanre seeks out the Ctheah to get the information to become Haliax. How that is done is unknown, but it doesn't work out they way Lanre hoped.

Iax seeks out Ctheah to gain the information to steal the moon which is the catalyst of the Creation War.

The Ctheah is the darkest most worst thing in the known worlds.