Haliax

He's hated, hopeless, sleepless, and sane! You love to see it.

You know the guy. Leader of the Chandrian. Hated. Hopeless. Sleepless. Sane. He bears the shadow’s hame. He goes by many names. The Adem call him Alaxel because it’s his true name and he knows it. His first lover called him Lanre because that was his name. He has been called Jax, Iax, and Haliax. He has been called Encanis, the Lord of the Seven, and many others. He has earned those names. Bought and paid for them.

I don’t know what I did there: transitioned between page 189 of The Name of the Wind and page 849 of The Wise Man’s Fear. But let’s get into it.

For this post, I will also introduce some other characters. Encanis, who is the antagonist of the Tehlin religion in the series, Jax, a mysterious child who traps the moon, Lanre, a warrior from a long time ago, and Iax, a very mysterious person who was trapped behind the Doors of Stone.

First we come to Lanre. When Kvothe is in Tarbean for the first time, you might recall a storyteller at a bar named Skarpi who tells a story about a character named Lanre. Towards the end of the story, Lanre says: “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. All is lost to me, no Lyra, [his dead love] no sweet escape of sleep, no blissful forgetfulness, even madness is beyond me. Death itself is an open doorway to my power. There is no escape. I have only the hope of oblivion after everything is gone and the Aleu fall nameless from the sky” (189, The Name of the Wind).

What a passage.

But this reveals something very obvious: Haliax is Lanre. This passage also proves:

1. Haliax is sleepless. This phrase is important later.

2. Haliax cannot be insane. Therefore he is sane. This phrase is important later.

3. Haliax has only the hope of oblivion after everything is gone. Therefore, he wants the world to be destroyed.

Now we come to Iax. Not much is said about Iax, but first of all, you will notice the names. Hal-iax. Half of Haliax’s name is Iax. Now on to Iax himself. We have established that Haliax is Lanre, but Lanre is also Iax. In Skarpi’s story (Chapter twenty-six: Lanre Turned, The Name of the Wind) Lanre unexpectedly learns some names and defeats a powerful namer called Selitos. And according to Bast, “Lanre spoke to the Cthaeh before he orchestrated the betrayal of Myr Tariniel” (691, The Name of the Wind). Either Bast or Felurian also claims that Iax spoke to the Cthaeh before stealing the moon, but I can’t for the life of me find where. This means that Lanre (aka Haliax) spoke to the Cthaeh, and Iax also spoke to the Cthaeh. They also came out alive, which according to Bast, no others have. So with that, and his name, it is clear that Haliax is Iax.

Now Jax. This is a simple one. Like the Haliax and Iax naming, Iax and Jax are incredibly similar names. In Hespe’s story about Jax, (Eighty-six: The Broken Road, The Wise Man’s Fear) Jax steals the moon by putting part of it in a box. (Is this the Lackless box? Maybe. Probably.) So if they both stole the moon, (Much like Vector from Despicable Me) Iax and Jax are the same person. Iax and Jax are Lanre, and Lanre is Haliax.

(Note: Nina, the person who remembers the painting of the Chandrian, also remembers a shadow-hamed figure surrounded by phases of the moon. Page 267, The Wise Man’s Fear.)

Now Encanis. This is a fleeting thought, but Encanis, basically the equivalent of the devil but for the Tehlin religion, but he might also be Haliax. When Kvothe is in Ademre, he hears a rhyme about the Chandrian, and it says thus: “Last there is the lord of the seven: Hated. Hopeless. Sleepless. Sane. Alaxel bears the shadow’s hame” (849, The Wise Man’s Fear). This rhyme is one of the most important passages in The Wise Man’s Fear, because it gives us the true names of the Chandrian. Alaxel is obviously Haliax, because 1: He’s the leader of the Chandrian, 2: He’s sleepless, as mentioned in the part of this post about Lanre, and 3: He’s sane, as mentioned in the Lanre part. So Haliax also bears the shadow’s hame, and so does Encanis. Go look at Trapis' story in The Name of the Wind. Haliax might be Encanis. There’s also a quote somewhere about how Encanis can’t be contained in bars, and that connects with the whole “my name is Haliax and no door can bar my passing” thing. It’s in Trapis’ story about the Tehlin religion.

Stick around for Part Two of the Chandrian, on Cinder, but don’t do it until you read Denna: Part One.