piracy

Sevren/Severen

The largest gap in the narrative in which to insert a piece of Fanfic would cover Kvothe's journey from Imre to Severen. Now! Severen itself is not shown on the original maps but on the new map in the10AE there is a 'notable city' in Vintas called Sevren, located midway between Renere and Tinuë. However, the difference in spelling here to the text is not to be ignored as a mistake, such an error seems very wrong on so many levels that in such an authorised edition the mapmakers got the name wrong accidentally. The only tinfoil that makes any sense to me about these two spelling differences is that the meaning of this cities name is taken from the original Eld Vintic and in that language the difference is between what is essentially two different places, one high and one low. In such an instance the difference may be indicated not by adding an additional word, but by altering the original spelling in a small way. Severen is the name of the upper city and Sevren refers to the lower part. Threpe only speaks of the Maer and his palace and not the name of the lower city used on our maps. you might aslo apply this reasoning to the differences between Myr Tariniel and Mirinitel too, since Denna's version was also most likely researched from an Eld Vintic translation given her movements. IDK. We need a destination and Sevren is a dot on the map to aim for and it is at least in the correct vicinity, although I have my doubts about the location of the bandit camp too, but that's a different story. Kvothes intended route to Severen High is nicely explained for us.

'I would head downriver to Tarbean, through the Refting Strait , down the coast toward Junpai, then up the Arrand river.'

The use of up and down is important here for navigation and it clearly implies the Arrand river to be the large river that runs through the Small Kingdoms towards the Eld before branching off Sevren ways. This would be the logical route to follow as it is quickest but alsodoes indeed add several hundred miles to the crows path but also shaves the shoreline closely all the way. Denna travelled from Yll to Vintas, via the Small Kingdoms, to Tinuë which implies this to be the usual passage for travelers to take, despite the well publicised dangers of the roads in that part of the world travel by boat may prove the safest bet. The original journey was estimated to take about a dozen days, although in the end it took Kvothe sixteen.

During his adventure there was a storm, piracy, treachery, and shipwreck although for a very specific reason which is deliberately unmentioned this is Not the correct order, which gives us some license to play around with possibilities. We are also told that Kvothe was robbed, drowned and left penniless on the streets of Junpai, which does might put a little order to these things.

Moving on to our final destination sees Kvothe limping through the gates of Severen. Now that city as a whole has cardinal gates, we hear of a trip with Denna through the Western gate in Sevren Low and an Iron Gibbet is erected by the East gate in Severen High. The bandit hunters are met two miles North of town although no gate is actually mentioned there is a King's road which would certainly mean a gate. There are also docks which may be either on a river or a sea although the latter would more properly be called a harbour. A process of elimination implies that the water here must therefore be to a river to the South and any gate is to be found here it will face towards the Government seat at Renere and therefore imply another Kings highway continuing to the King's own three- part city, although boat travel may well be the norm for that direction.

Severen itself is split in two by the Sheer, a high white cliff which runs from North-East to South giving a view of the countryside from it's summit. The Eastern gate appears to enter directly into Severen High which would be the path taken by the nobility and and would put the docks to the SouthWest far away on the low ground as it is always down hill to find water. One more important piece of information we receive is that

'With the exception of Ambrose some miles to the South in his father's barony...'

We hear from Devi that the family estates are also called the pirate islands which gives us a hard fact, here be pirates. The only possible location for Baron Jakis estate is the land surrounding these islands which are what our map of the Eternal Aturan Empire describes as the Broken Sea, land which includes the only possible islands for the source of any piracy, this little nugget was also confirmed by Pat during a podcast about...maps.

An unexpected Journey.

Inline.

During Elodin's interesting fact class we hear of a famous river in Southern Vintas which flows the wrong way! it's a saltwater river that runs inland from the Centhe Sea. Now, if we open up all of our available maps and compare them next to each other we can spot one major possibility for this mysterious river which does seem to fit with things we need to know. Despite the presence of various pictures of tinkers and mules and compasses and cartographers info covering that part of the world, a major river can be traced in an unbroken line from the Centhe Sea around the edges of Embrandtani and offers a further direct link into to the Broken Sea and Vintas proper. If the current does indeed flow inland then it should also offer a faster way for sailors to travel deep into the heart of Vintas and so marry up the two loose ends of Kvothe's missing odyssey.

There are four main parts to the Broken Sea, each connected by rivers which would allow uninterrupted passage from Junpai to Renere or onto the docks at Sevren. We may also have the notable landmark of Deepen Falls to get past which just has to be a waterfall, doesn't it? Arriving in Renere may well have been the intention of the journey from Junpai but Kvothe limped through the gates of Sevren ragged, peniless, hungry and on foot. However a day ago he had eaten two apples and some salt pork... a food traditionally eaten by sailors on long sea vogages, which fits quite nicely to our assorted boats for tinfoil purposes. He still has his lute, which needs to at some point save his life, and all of his important letters, but his 'clothes' were described as grubby rags which he had stolen. Felas cloak is missing, apparently it was torn up for bandages back in Junpai.

Outline.

Here comes the tinfoil.

Striking up a connection with the nameless dark haired, pinch faced sailor on the way to Tarbean means that Kvothe knows at least one face in the world. At Tarbean he takes a new boat through the Reft towards the Arrant river passage but a storm strikes and the ship is wrecked on the coast of Junpai. All hands are lost yet Kvothe somehow survives with his cloak and lute intact but penniless and in dire need of bandages, bye bye cloak. Count Threpe was keeping tabs on things and he hears about the shipwreck before the month is out. Recognizing Pinch Face again in Junpai docks reveals that PF's own ship has docked for supplies and is onward-bound for Renere via Embrandtani and Kvothe seizes the chance to leave and earns a place aboard the crew, possibly by dint of his reciting of poetry for the delight of the ships captain as payment for his voyage, poets are pretty popular around these parts after all. Opting for this new route out of Junpai will re-aquaint us with pinch face which offers us a chance for treachery, which is another tick on our reading list, as treachery would require initial trust and pinch face is the most likely suspect given his strange and otherwise unnecessary double inclusion in our Pat's clues. The piracy part must stem from the pirate islands which are Baron Jakis lands and Ambrose was at home during this time, but he had also returned to the University in time for the start of next term to tell Simmon of Threpe's news. A meeting with any of the Jakis family members is unlikely... but anything is possible, however the pirates themselves are still a threat and the Broken Sea is where to find them. There is also scope for an adventure in the 'Three part City of Renere ' (something Pat mentioned once, he said 'the next book' would probably involve a trip there...a good enough reason methinks for it's inclusion in this book). Leaving Renere by way of the Deepen Falls should not be discounted as a bloody good place to be drowned, and any subsequent resurrection would occur if you went over the edge of the falls, stark naked of course, whilst strapped to a floating lute case for bouyancy, an item which will therefore save your life. A couple of days hard walking in stolen rags and we can then rejoin the official narrative at the southernmost entrance to Sevren Low.