OutLines

3 ~ Outlines

Downhill

‘So same can the humble thrush well know it’s north.’

The university campus is where most of our action takes place and it is now time to move back above ground to draw a more useful map for new students to navigate by. Pat has already drawn his, and there is a tantalising fragment, deliberately cropped imho, available to see on the blackboard behind him in [this hyperlink] early publicity photo. However, Pat enjoys a good laugh and the first thing that most folk would assume is that this map has North at the top. But it doesn’t. North is at the bottom!

The object of this exercise is to redraw the chalkmap and fill in the important but sadly lacking buildings of Mains, Mews and of the many chimbleyed Alchemists complex which they call the Crucible. This might get messy again at times but it should all come together eventually to form a satisfactory map if we just lay all the little clues out clearly into three piles so as to build up a fully interconnected university jigsaw.

One of the first clues we are given to orientate ourselves by is that Haven is found to the north, along a wide dirt road as Elodin takes us and then off into the fircone woods, where Kvothe later built a bonfire to test his gram. He also went here to practise his ketan. Another clue about Haven is provided by Auri in The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

Out-Look

‘She took the final piece of Mandrill more by memory than sight, stepping carefully until she stood behind the upright runoff grate that looked out onto nothing much except the bottom of a gully. Auri moved to stand next to the heavy bars. From there she saw the bulk of Haven up upon the hill.’

Mandrill appears to be a drainage water run off on the level Sub-One and she mentions that she might have gotten wet feet if there had been any recent rain. So outwards from here there is the gully which carries the overflow away to find its own way down to the Omethi river valley. In the uphill direction we see the Crockery telling us that we are still looking northwards… and possibly a little off to the west.

One more scene is available from a highground viewpoint when Auri obliges us kindly with the information once more when she is out on top of things after climbing up her applecourt tree to the rooftops of Mains.

‘She could see the prickly chimbleys of Crucible, and winged Muse all full of flickerlight. To the East she spied the silver line of the Old Stone Road cutting gulley-deep into the forest, off to Stonebridge, over the river, and away away away…’

This last vista gives a view of these three buildings and they are exactly the three missing buildings that Pat’s map does not include, which should tell us everything that we need to know to begin navigating for ourselves. Pat’s chalk map can now be rotated to a more usual orientation to show the vague area of these three missing buildings to be all on one side and to also reveal Pat’s missing road, a road in a cutting between some more trees, only this time to the trees are to the east. With the forests to the north already pencilled in we can now see that the whole university town appears to be built at least half surrounded by a forest, and also to be built on the side of a hill whilst all the time remaining on a truer level all of it’s own making as it is said to be filled with many flat courtyards, with never a mention of anyone climbing any outside staircases.

This last piece of info also describes for us how the ‘flat as a table, straight as a nail’ Stone Road must now begin to turn itself underground as the wooded hills climb up on both sides to surround it’s deepening gullied walls. At some point the always flat road must ‘appear’ to rise uphill and leave the true Old Stones buried beneath it as a newer stone road takes over the path, one that is only as young as the archives are. This newer road must now begin to make it’s way uphill into the township proper leaving the much older stone road to continue underground on its now untrodden path, onwards to it’s original, earlier, and now very secret terminus deep in the depths of the university’s library.

[Landscape doodle? Jigsaw pieces]

Muse

‘The University itself consisted of about fifteen buildings that bore little resemblence to each other.

Mews is the students residence block mentioned by Kvothe on his initial arrival from the East.

Mews had a circular central hub with eight wings radiating in each direction so it looked like a compass rose.

Every map needs a compass, so this double usage description is an absolute gift. Knowing that it must be in an unmapped western quarter is a good start, but that doesn’t tell us wether it is to the north-west or the south-west. Kvothe later tells us that it is three stories tall which is an outside view guess proven quite wrong soon after as once inside he is primarily housed in the cheap bunks on the fourth floor in the eastern wing. Clearly mews may appear to be half the height of the archives but the ceilings must be much less high than as standard to allow for this extra level… a fine example of Pat playing silly buggers again. High up in this furthest corner he notes that his bunkroom is far from the bathing facilities on the ground floor and therefore also as far as you can get from the adjacent mess hall and kitchens across the lawn, which is described as a long building with seating for 400. These top floor bunks are the cheapest rooms with the least access to facilities and food.

I suspect that Mews will be placed the North west corner of our map as we can just make out the words Masters Hall on Pat’s chalkmap in this same quadrant and since the Masters also need feeding and assuming that the most important university people should receive the fastest service you would assume that they would like their meals delivered hot from the kitchens nearby and not cold from being carried overly far, something that we can draw a parallel to is the arrangement which occurs in Severen which Kvothe remarks often about during his days housed and fed by the Maer. More practical University thinking however would tie up the entire NorthWest corner of universtity campus as being the location of all the residential quarters.

Hollows

Hollows was simple and square, with stained glass windows showing Teccam in a classic pose:…

I had a bit of trouble with Hollows as there is some apparent evidence that it is one and the same place as the masters hall of residence, but actually, it is not. However, we also know that you can reach the Masters Halls of Residence from the rooftops of Mains, you just need to jump a narrow alley and traverse a sloping inn roof to reach the broad flat roof of finished stone which is where we can find master Lorren’s sleeping chambers. This puts at least a pubs width of difference between Mains and Mews, making it an inn that caters for the masters tastes, possibly it is called the White Hart where we later visit with ElxaDal and hear the tale of the Ignorant Edema.

The confusion with Hollows occurs when Kvothe is first summoned ‘On The Horns’ when Jamison’s runner boy found him in the mess hall and informed him that he was wanted ”…in the Masters’ Hall.” but there is a nasty little use of the possessive going on here, and what he really means is ‘in the hall where the masters hold all their meetings’, and not ‘where they go to sleep’. Pat can be a tricky bugger at times. This misinterpretation is exposed on the following page when Sim leads Kvothe to his doom at the correct building where Jamison is waiting and Kvothe notes that ‘they reached Hollows far too soon for my liking’ which reveals our destination to be one and the same building as that which all the admissions interviews are held. We already know how to find this place from Wilem’s first scene, you go back out of the archives doors then…

‘down, then left, short building with …colour-windows. two big… trees out front. Maple? Is that the name for a tree?’

The colour-windows are made of stained glass and show Teccam in a classic pose, barefoot in front of his cave teaching students.

Pat’s chalk map marks hollows as being in exactly this location which as good as confirms the real masters hall of residence to be the half legibly worded building that is diametrically opposite from Hollows, and also across a smaller courtyard from the main door to the Artificiary. This all tallies up nicely with Pat’s chalk map when we add in the small clue that we get when Elodin sets fire to Hemme’s chambers as Kvothe had initially spotted him entering a side door to the masters’ halls of residence as he was crossing ‘the courtyard’ as he himself was heading towards the fishery to see if his lamps had sold.

Mains

Mains was the most distinctive building of the lot. It covered nearly an acre and a half and looked like it had been cobbled together from a number of smaller, mismatched buildings.’

This rough description can be used to fill up all our remaining mapspace in a ramshackle way. It’s overall footprint can only be guessed at but no matter what shape it is, we have a starting point described when Mola comes with Kvothe to Applecourt starting from a courtyard ‘halfway to Medica.’ from his room at Ankers.

‘I led her to the South-West corner of Mains where there were a trio of decorative chimneys.’

Now it could well be that these chimneys actually for part of The Crucible, which is famous for it’s chimbleys, which would make the Alchemy complex one of the assorted buildings that clump together to make up the larger block of Mains. That’s about all I can find about Crucible to go on although it is clear that Auri’s own room has a door that leads into the Alchemy complex’ secret lower levels. I know nothing about alchemy but the rooftops of Mains are all one great highway for Auri to explore in secret when she is out on top of things.

π ~ Applecourt

West Side Story

you can probably picture Applecourt quite well already, and it would make a simple square map to draw it, but every map needs a compass, and as usual Pat doesn't disappoint. We know that his sun rises in the east and so when Kvothe first brings us 'here' it is after lessons and before his evening work at the fishery, we know that at this time of day the sun is now setting in the West

'...when the sun slipped out from behind the clouds. Golden light covered the rooftop spilling over the edge of the roof into a thin slice of the courtyard below.'

when this sudden bright light scared Auri into hiding she was obviously in the sunlit slice of the square at the time, by the Easternmost wall.

'I couldn't see through the thick hedge that covered most of the Eastern edge of the courtyard'

This hedge cuts the yard in twain, from north to south, from Kvothe's initial western viewpoint, (and also from brandeurs window) all that he see are wild flowerbeds, a bench and the old apple tree. This is a high window, upper floor, so as to discourage students from attempting to climb down regularly, their view of the garden ends at the hedge, but out of sight beyond this hedge is a further small strip of wild land where we find the metal drainage grate. There is only one, high window which overlooks applecourt.

'I could see from here that the high window was closed,'

Brandeurs window was lit when Kvothe first approaches applecourt, but can only be seen to be shut later on from below, which means that logically, it must be found in the one wall that Kvothe couldn't originally see, the Western wall, i.e. the one directly below his view where he could see light shining but not the window itself, which means kvothe was probably playing pretty much right above his the Masters head when he began to practice. Simmon had heard some rumours about such.

Lady Larbour

Applecourt is what Auri calls her front door, but once in Auri's tale she uses a specific name for the tree itself, Lady Larbour, which is intriiguing but means nothing to me... its a way away from Lyra? The positioning of this tree is now down to a choice of two walls and I'm going to go with the apples growing up against the one which is South facing as to get the best of the sunlight. This would also be the correct placefor the lady's bench, too. This will place the drainage grate in the south-eastern corner, so to be as far from the tree as possible, too far for an apple to simply fall there at any rate. This is also the corner which would, geographically, be nearest to the Omethi river, since water always runs down-hill and it is up-hill to Haven in the North, this would also be the best drainage position for any rainfall. And that's about it for the courtyard, small things I know, not much fun to study or to map, but small things lead to big things and the the underthing is huge. If we were to attempt a map it would probably be best to start at the bottom and applecourt is actually the top. Down hill to the water. Always.

Clinks. Is where Auri comes to bathe, that's why it's private. The water here roils and has big fishy things in it which is quite normalfor underground lakes and being running water it clearly has some relation to the Omethi River, the water table if nothing else.

The wide stone stairs that rise up out of the water spiral up and around, up and around as they define the shape of a tall tower. Auri calls this place Darkhouse, prolly because it has window cills which means that once upon a time, before it got buried underground, it used to be more of a lighthouse since it is circular stone tower many stories tall. Kvothe himself counted fifty steps down but he only joined the staircase halfway, it climbs further than that, quite likely up to the surface.

Mapping is not going to be easy, its like 3D chess. Since the number 7 turns up everywhere and my investigations so far reveal seven levels deep a grid 7x7 might be the best thing to begin with. Clinks appears to be an edge, but it is also a corner, so we should put it in the bottom left corner square and stack darkhouse on the six squares directly above it. See, it's filling up nicely already. The bottles you throw into clinks disappear, yet often refurn, and I will use this clue to suggest that the rest of the seventh level is taken up by a vast underground lake. The damp level six is called Scaperling.

We hear of at least three ways of getting to clinks, and all of them involve the staircases of Darkhouse. Kvothe enters at a point 50 steps up from the water, Auri climbs onto the stairs via Withy but later goes there via Tenners, which she points out was not her quickest option stating that she could instead have gone through Downings. Not having a name for Kvothe's hallway entrance might well make it one and the same thing but Withy is easier to find. Keep climbing the stairs and you will reach the top which must be also blocked off at the summit since the sun does not shine in Darkhouse, there is a way out of the staircase from her though from which Auri can descend back down one level and make her way into Port through it's slanting doorway. This really ought to put us near the surface now and this is confirmed by Auri who can climb through the crack in another of Port's walls to take us into Van where we can at last see some daylight.

'Van was a tall room with straight white walls of fitted stone. It was an echo-empty place save for the standing (vanity) mirror. But today there was one other thing, the gentlest breath of sunlight. It snuck in through the peak of an arched doorway filled with rubble: broken timber, blocks of fallen stone. But there, at the very top, a smudge of light.

Van is exclusively described as being a tall room, which indicates to me that it was once actually two rooms one atop the other but now lacking any floor in between which has collapsed into rubble. This arched doorway was most likely once a doorway into Upper-Van, which is now inaccessible.

This tells us that Auri lives on the level Sub2, and upper-Van is actually on Sub1, the level immediately below street level. Van also has a bricked over window which means it, too, once opened onto the outside world, just like all the darkhouse windows once did.

Port-Mantle

we know more about Auri's chambers than anywhere else,

Trip Beneath : the trap door. Kvothe cannot ever open it, but Auri can, it has sygaldry to keep it closed, university made. Built by the masters to keep people either out or in.

The journey down is also mentioned by Kvothe in notw. He describes various tunnels and pipes before arriving at the top of three spiral staircases of black wrought iron which take them down to Grey 12. Grey 12 is a deep shaft beneath a (second?) drainage grate and the grey part indicates the light. By day it is called yellow 12, and is the same place that Auri went diving for Fulcrum at the start of Srost. Silver 12 would indicate moonlight, together these are 'The Twelve' and the iron staircases (also referred two as Old Ironways?) should bring us down to level sub3 where Auri's pool begins and prolly goes down about three more.

Thiss is the way Kvothe takes when Auri takes him to Clinks. Which is as far from Trip beneath as you can get as we follow a path down through all seven sublevels.

'We went further down. Through Vaults, past Cricklet. Then we moved through several twisting hallways and down again using a stone spiral staircase I'd never seen before. After about fifty steps the wide, spiralling staircase disappeared into a roiling pool of black water.'

Thinking things, drawing things and describing things are all different things. Getting the data across to plot such things is not easy, imagine how written notation for 3d chess might need to be poterayed, but thinking in only two dimensions might help our thinking and so plotting the words onto a graph may help. starting at the top of the page in apple court, we drop down into sub 1, follow a corridor to the vertical ironways and go spiralling down three times until we reach the bottom of The 12 which is the level sub3 ( or possibly 4) . Travelling on horizontally from The 12 takes us across Vaults , past Cricklet and eventually the corridors lead us to the stone staircases of Darkhouse, where we now descend 50 steps before we reach the water level at Clinks. Fifty steps is at least one level, and probably no more than six. Down and around, down and around...

Auri says that clinks is private. It is also where she goes for a proper wash which happens on a few occasions. This reveals a few more clues about darkhouse. The stone stairs are builf like a tower, thew hug the wall of a square and there are window cills. Which indicate windows, once.

Trip Beneath: 'She darted out the door, her feet tapping all the way through Grimsby, then down Oars and finally up to Trip Beneath.'

this little thread describes the quickest route from here to there. Up and Down should not be ignored although I suspect we are going down one level then up back up for two .grimsby must be all on the same level as Mantle. Trip beneath has a hidden catch allowing her to climb through into Applecourt

It's been a while since I last mapped the university, the real world has made tinfoil redundant and so at 2/3 done, I put down my pencil. Pat would approve of that. But it occurs to me th

at there is one small corner left unexplored, a quiet corner where I might f

3 ~ Reprise 

Apple court deserved a new map all of it’s own as it is the gateway to the underthing but the immediate roofops surrounding it have a few more details to give when Elodin shares a dinner here with Kvothe and Auri, high up on the tar and tin. After they depart together Kvothe lets Elodin take the lead towards his own chosen exit, a destination that was unknown to us. On their way they they pass an old observatory before their discussion leads to a sudden changing of direction, turning instead towards the masters residence hall by the straightest route. This should eliminate north as being his original destination, and east is unlikely since that way leads further away from the university proper. Neither did they did back up on themselves which leaves Elodin’s original exit strategy as most likely following a westerly path back towards the archives and the centre of the map, which pretty much completes this latest guided tour.

Coda

Ok, that’s enough for now, I might have missed a few more clues but the meat of it is here, enough to draw up some proper architects plans to accompany the script at least,but anyone should be able to bo that now…