This is a background thought that i’ve been having as I was re-reading all the main Rick Riordan books (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard). There might be clues in the other series but what made me start thinking this was in the Kane Chronicles where they talk of secret names and having power over things if you know the secret name. Also in the Kane Chronicles where he introduces sympathetic magic. I know sympathetic magic is simply a type of magic but with so many clue hinting at KKC-esque stuff it’s hard not to wonder if old man Riordan is also waiting for Doors of Stone.
EDIT: To be clear I am not saying that the power of names or sympathetic magic is unique to king killer chronicles. I never said that.
Hopefully this finds people who would think it’s interesting. Thank you!!
by Igglywampus
4 Comments
Naming things to have power over them is not unique to the Kingkiller Chronicles. The concept is at least as old as the tale of Rumplestiltskin.
Same thing as above: sympathetic magic is also a concept that is not uniquely related to Kingkiller. Voodoo dolls is a much older tradition that uses the concept of sympathetic magic.
it’s all one big giant bag of “can Ido this slightly differently than all the other people who have done this”
It could be that Rick was inspired by KKC, but having similar concepts doesn’t prove that he was
The power of true names is really old. For a modern fantasy take there’s Eathsea.
I remember the name thing in the Eragon series. That came out in the 2000s.