History Headscratchers / TheKingkillerChronicle

** There are two other.
** First, the Cthaeh lives in a place where times doesn't flow as it does in the real world, so "5000 years" to him might have a completely different meaning for the Four Corners. Second, Skarpi and Felurian. Felurian, old as she can be, is not quite interested in history, so she most likely just doesn't know (not everyone would know when the punic wars were actually fought, most would just know it was ''really'' a long time ago), and Skarpi is still a storyteller, he himself admits to have changed some details to make the story sound better, and "so long that no one remembers it" sound better than "something more than 5000 years ago" (plus, over 5000 years ago might mean two or three hundreds years, even more if you consider that the resulting empire is ruled by Aleph, by some believed the actual god who created the whole world).

It's entirely possible to engage in selective breeding while considering only the traits of the mother. It's not nearly as effective or efficient as understanding that both parents contribute traits to offspring, but it can be done - with many plant crops, in fact, that's traditionally how breeding WAS done, because the supplier of pollen often couldn't be known.

Why did Kvothe never use Sympathy while he was starving on the streets of Tarbean? He had enough training with Ben to make E'lir, and that was with being three years out of practice. He could have found a lot of uses for being able to move objects from a distance, start fires, or create voodoo dolls. In some cases these would have been matters of survival. Instead, he seemingly forgets he has this incredibly useful tools for three years.

Why did Kvothe never use Sympathy while he was starving on the streets of Tarbean? He had enough training with Ben to make E'lir. He could have found a lot of uses for being able to move objects from a distance, start fires, or creating voodoo dolls. In some cases these would have been matters of survival. Instead, he seemingly forgets he has useful tool for three years.

Why does Tempi train Kvothe in Adem martial arts and Lethani, [[spoiler: knowing that it's one of the worst taboos of his society, punishable by death or explusion]]?

** The Adem don't believe that animals reproduce through sexual intercourse either. They believe that sex has nothing to do with reproduction. They don't even have a word for father. If they did conceed that animals reproduce sexually, just not humans, then the argument would have been much different. The culture would also have a word for father, because they'd need to use it for animals.

*** Again, all that is beside the point: it was never said that they knowingly believe lies or that they deliberately live secret lives. They don't, but they still ''are'' hypocrites, they just don't know that they are and don't care about finding out. As for the Doylist explanation, it's really only a matter of perspective, it remains a headscratcher.

* Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the OP think that the Bursar is not overcharging the maer? As in, when Kvothe's tuition is 24 talents, he thinks the Bursar charges the Maer 24 talents, and then only actually gives 10 talents to the school? Because if it is, I think the OP just misread the implications, because what he's describing about overcharging the Maer is basically exactly what the deal is. Half of everything over 10 talents split between them means that if Kvothe's tuition is 24 talents, they're gonna charge the Maer 38 talents and split the extra between them. If that's not what the OP is getting at, then I think they're referring to Kvothe being immediately paid, meaning that the Bursar is going in the schools coffers and giving the money directly. Something like that would be noticeable in our modern economic system of paper money run by computers that record every transaction. The fantasy world of Temerant, however, uses not just metal coinage, but coinage of multiple currencies that I don't think can be accounted for with the same efficiency. So I imagine that the Bursar is comfortable taking money from the university because he replenishes it as soon he gets the tuition money from the banks - a short enough amount of time that someone discovering there is money missing isn't realistic. They'd basically have to do it as soon as the Bursar headed off to the bank, on the financially busiest day of the year. If we assume that the Bursar A. can take money from the coffers without recording the transaction and B. quickly replenishes the amount by overcharging the Maer, there is very little space where a discrepancy with money would exist.

* Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the OP think that the Bursar is not overcharging the maer? As in, when Kvothe's tuition is 24 talents, he thinks the Bursar charges the Maer 24 talents, and then only actually gives 10 talents to the school? Because if it is, I think the OP just misread the implications, because what he's describing about overcharging the Maer is basically exactly what the deal is. Half of everything over 10 talents split between them means that if Kvothe's tuition is 24 talents, they're gonna charge the Maer 38 talents and split the extra between them. If that's not what the OP is getting at, then I think they're referring to Kvothe being immediately paid, meaning that the Bursar is going in the schools coffers and giving the money directly. Something like that would be noticeable in our modern economic system of paper money run by computers that record every transaction. The fantasy world of Temerant, however, uses not just metal coinage, but coinage of multiple currencies that I don't think can be accounted for with the same efficiency. So I imagine that the Bursar is comfortable taking money from the university because he replenishes it as soon he gets the tuition money from the banks - a short enough amount of time that someone discovering there is money missing isn't realistic. They'd basically have to do it as soon as the Bursar headed off to the bank.