Lord of the rings
Unraveling
Rings are also the first piece of the puzzle given to us in the Lockless songs.
"One of them a ring unworn:
One a ring thats not for wearing "
They may appear to be the same thing but ring lore is a Vintish thing all by itself that has nothing to do with the rings inherent within eyes, apparently.
We hear from Bredon about the tradition of exchanging courtly rings among Vintish society as a time honoured way of displaying your perceived importance and that the three levels of rank are lowly Iron, Silver for parity and finally superior Gold. On that basis, whatever ring you give or receive displays your current rung on the social ladder with kings at the top and peasants at the bottom. Lady Perials two golden eye rings mark her as being accorded a status far above any kings in the true way of such things. And even if they didn't acknowledge her eyes as having any bearing , you must agree that any ring sent to her will always have been superior gold as no name could be held in higher regard than that of the mother of god. Not even her husband can claim that accolade as he was only Gods step-father and although we do not know his own ring status to properly compare their relationship, we can assume that he was likely regarded as a silver person in the three ring scale as you wouldn’t insult such a man with iron. If the eyes do indeed have it then I suppose sporting silver rings in your eyes would be closest matched to having grey eyes. The Maer has grey eyes you know which hints at some interesting thoughts about his own houses ancestors. Quite what colour eye will match with Iron I have no idea but the non specific dark eyes is the ubiquitous description for the iron loving Cealds so perhaps dark eyes of iron will just have to be used to cover 'everything else' (except blue!)
Now if Perial's gold came via her touch from God, and everyone else in the world received a touch of iron then where did these silver people all come from and what's their story? The Adem is the obvious answer but they don't believe in Tehlu which is a bit of a spoke in that wheel and I prefer a much deeper answer.
Silver eyes indicate eyes of Ergen origin and hence exclusive to the Ruach.
Now that bit of tinfoil probably deserves a chapter of it's own so let's just put it on the side for now.
Greenwood
Then we are told that there is a fourth ring to consider, an even lower rung of the ladder than iron which once appeared in the ring rankings long ago to (apparently) mark a servant. We are told that the practice has now fallen out of use completely and is only remembered as a plot device in a number of old plays which makes the origin of ring giving exactly the sort of place to go dig for answers. Perhaps a good wooden ring colour might be green or even indicated a touch of faen bloodlines...
Nb. Demonic pregnancy , demon inside you, not babies fault. Not wicked. Tehlu spoke to them a bit longer than the rest. Silver eyes are demon eyes?
In a modern day comparison to our historical investigation, the difference between the top ring and bottom rung of the ladder would be best depicted by when the Gold tier Lady Meluan Alveron-Lockless gives a member of the Edema Ruh family a wooden ring with her own name freshly burned into if. The gap between them is emphasized by the Lady giving a ring which shows to the whole world that she is taking the most extreme method of making her point by telling the recipient that he is to be considered as far beneath hers-elf in every shape, way and form imaginable, and that the ravel ruh are ranked in her eyes as the lowest of the low, that the Edema men are an excresence on the arse of world, or even that they are like the discharge that drips from it. Compared to her own lofty golden station they aren’t even bracketed as being the same species as herself*. This gives us the two opposite ends of the social spectrum and it is the view of the Lackless family as a whole who all famously disowned their own daughter for daring to side with a different family, the One family of the outcast Edema Ruh.
‘That means to her you aren’t even a person. You aren’t worth recognizing as a human being… It’s not the sort of ring you wear,’ Said Bredon uncomfortably, ‘It’s quite the other sort of ring actually.’
Stapes confirms this on the next page when he asserts that ‘You really shouldn’t wear it’ to which Kvothe, who understands her accompanying letter, replies ‘I’m not ashamed of what I am, If this is the ring of an Edema Ruh, I’ll wear it.’ Stapes sighed, ‘It’s more complicated than that.’
*If you count the Fae as being another species then suddenly my thought about a wooden ring being a faen ring suddenly starts to look a bit more promising as an answer.
Of course Faen Felurian asserted that were never any human Amyr meaning wood might also be their ring of choice, too. The Amyr were of course first formed out of Alephs Ruach and the Ruach were the survivors of Lanre day. We really need to go there next., and soon.
So, let's begin with wood then iron then silver then gold.
Fae/human/Ruach/gods
Green, dark grey gold
All of these words we can associate with our hero
The four corners of civilization
Husband
Unlke our first line 'a ring unworn' which I'm attributing to Lady Perial since you don't really wear your eyes. A wooden ring fits better into the boys line as being a ‘ring that’s not for wearing' which is verbatim what the learned Bredon and Stapes said and I think that's going to turn out to be the difference between the First Lord and the First Lady. Hers is always a golden ring and her own summoning ring for him , which would once have been her silver ring, is now a wooden one instead. Perhaps she caught him diddling the chambermaid.
It is not a summoning ring at all, quite the opposite in fact, It is the ring of the outcast.
Meluan Lackless should know better than any the gravity of using this old family tradition when she let her true feelings about the Edema Ruh be known to Kvothe. It's entirely possible she once sent a wooden ring to Arliden and maybe even to her sister Natalia, too. Kvothe's newly given ring he keeps as a memento of his own family reunion and it is also really an heirloom since it this is the ring of the original Lockless outcast and given his mothers bloodline this is his true birthright as well from his eternal grandfather. Now I bet you a jot that Meluan wasn't the first Lockless to ever give out a wooden ring. The best way to tie up this ring cycle would be to discover if/why Lady Perial once gave the outcast ring to her own mysterious husband. What a scandal that would have been, separation within house Lockless is just the sort of scandal that has dogged her house ever since and if my princess Ariel paper is to be believed then It's happening again right now. I wonder if Maer has gotten his wooden ring yet?
"It's generally accepted that there was some sort of falling out splintered the family. Each piece took on a separate name" pieces of 8?
This infamy that seems prevalen in house Lockless all had to start somewhere and a good story will start at the beginning. Lord and Lady Lockless must have had at least one child or their own in order for their family name to have continued on after them , which it obviously did but their offspring could never be the pure gold perfection of the mother as the fathers silver contribution would have muddied the well, so to speak. Even if there was nothing but inbreeding in the Lockless house thereafter they would none of them ever be quite as pure gold as greatⁿ granny Perial was.
I earlier proposed that to keep both of their noble houses supplied with heirs, the Maer and Meluan should agree share out their offspring with house Vint raising the boys and house Lockless inheriting the girls and I still have no fairer answer than that. If this has been the standard arrangement down the ages, part of the Lockless plenary powers perhaps, then Lockless is in fact a purely female house. This will nicely explain why so many family members flew the nest to make their names elsewhere in the world.
" Lack-key, Laclith, Kaepcaen"
These were all the male children given over to their fathers house to raise but not deserving of the Lockless name. In the worlds oldest bloodline all of the boys are considered bastards and only the golden girls get to stay.
Illian hair
Kvothe as a male is a direct descendant of this union on his greatⁿ grandfathers side and quite deserving of his ring that's not for wearing. It is a true Lockless male heir's ring, it’s even got the name burned into it. From his mother’s side of the family he already has the Golden rings of the Lockless family's greatⁿ grandmother and so now he has a matching set . OO. So if the Golden ring is from his ultimate grandmother, and through him the male bloodline is still unbroken. Kvothe the Bloodless is looking a lot like he ticks the boxes for being a 'son that brings the blood.'
Auri say’s that a wooden ring holds your secrets, and Auri is very wise about such things. Fin
It doesn’t look that complicated to me, it is twice clearly stated that a wooden ring is a ring that’s not for wearing and is therefore a match the ring of the original Lord Loeclos and of the Edema Ruh both. Lord Lockless is then considered as deserving the same rank as Kvothe does, and Lady Lackless is dismissing Kvothe Utterly. His rejection has further comparisons to the Adem’s act of ‘cutting away’, which is the ultimate in exile from their own silent family for breaking the unbreakable rules. The implication is that the whole Lackless family, their song, their history of misfortune and scandal and the origins of the old Vintish tradition the giving of ‘a ring that’s not for wearing’ is the same method the original family used to deliver the ultimate message to any that they consider the Edema Ruh men that the all Lackless ladies never want to ever even think of again. It is a banishment and an instruction to never darken their door again… which is a bloody good line to use here as their door in question is already lit by the ravel lord’s own candlelight as per the Lackless song. His initial contribution to the family bloodline is still burning away .Perhaps Stapes was right, it IS more complicated than that. Illian was the first Lord of music."One a son that brings the blood"