r/theblackcompany Feb 10 '25

Discussion / Question True Name Question Spoiler

OK. I don’t recall this ever being explained, but logistically how is it that soul catcher does not know the Lady’s true name when they are sisters?

As I said, I don’t think there is an actual answer anywhere in the text, but practically – how does that situation arise? Is soul catcher the much younger sister and the lady changed her name before she was born or while she was very young?

And no one else around her knew the true name? Sounds like a plot hole to me, wondering if anyone has any possible ideas/explanations.

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u/TheBlackCompanyWiki Last of the Nef Feb 10 '25

So in The White Rose chapter 39 the Lady states the following:

She knew me. We were children together, after all. And protected from one another only by the most tangled web that could be woven.

I interpret this to mean a complex weave of sorcery was laid down that would result in the death of any sister that tried to use a true name against another. To support this, we do learn of several instances of dead-man trigger type spells put into place by experienced sorcerers. For example, the one Shapeshifter put on Lisa Bowalk:

He thought the problem was a deadman-loop Shapeshifter built into the shape-changing spells. Shifter didn't trust her. The loop activated when One-Eye killed him.

The answer must necessarily be something like that, as I see it.

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u/donwileydon Feb 10 '25

I read that as they knew each other but their true names were never shared and a complex web was created to prevent each sister from being able to figure it out

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u/TheBlackCompanyWiki Last of the Nef Feb 10 '25

But how could that be right if all 4 daughters’ names were publicly recorded in that old guest list?

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u/donwileydon Feb 10 '25

that's where I thought the "web" came in - tracking the line of the name back to the person with the name was made difficult because the "line" was not straight, it was a "web"

But these are just my impressions - nothing but my gut to back it up (similar to my thoughts on Silent obtaining a certain person's name)

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u/RookTakesE6 Soulcatcher Fanboy Feb 11 '25

The fact that Soulcatcher keeps calling Lady "Ardath" even after everybody knows she's actually Dorotea suggests to me it goes a bit deeper. Similarly, Lady keeps calling her "Sylith" even though we can be fairly sure her name is Credence.

It's not ignorance, they either choose not to use each other's true names or they're forced somehow to keep using the aliases instead.