Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Identity of Sophie's Creator

The purpose of this post is to reveal my personal theory about the true identity of Sophie's creator in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series.  I have split this post into two sections.  The first section is safe to read if you've read to at least partway through book 6.  As I read book 6, I figured out an anagram of a character's name that appears in book 3. 

I don't think I would have wanted to know that information quite as early as book 3, simply because the questions I had led to me enjoying the series more than what otherwise might have happened.  I feel that waiting until around book 6 is best, even though the information is available in book 3.  Knowing this information while I was reading book 6 did not spoil my reading experience.  

STOP READING NOW if you have not read books 1-6.  You've been warned.  

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I did not allow myself to read any reviews or run any online searches for this series during the one month that I was reading the books.  Since I wished to avoid spoilers, I had no way of answering my own questions other than searching through the books and examining every detail.  Avoiding everything online caused me to draw certain conclusions that many other readers haven't.

We know Sophie's creator, the leader of the Black Swan, as Mr. Forkle.  For a time, I thought that his true identity was Magnate Leto.  I then realized that Forkle's true identity was unknown to us.

Meanwhile, Councillor Kenric died.  At least, Sophie is told that Kenric has died.  She didn't see it happen, and it doesn't seem that anyone else truly saw what happened.  Kenric supposedly burned up in the Everblaze with Fintan.  How convenient.  Whenever a body isn't found, I'm suspicious.

I kept wondering about Kenric's death.  There was no body.  It didn't sit right with me.  I mean, it really bothered me.  I'll admit this was mainly because I love Kenric, want him to be alive, and refuse to accept that he died in a scene that was only vaguely described. 

After I learned that Magnate Leto was one of Mr. Forkle's identities, I searched for Leto's name, finding that Leto's last name is Kerlof, an anagram for Forkle.  

I then wondered more about Kenric.  I wondered if he was involved with the Neverseen, since he disappeared/burned to death with Fintan, a member of the Neverseen.  However, Fintan later reappears very much alive.  If Fintan is alive, then why not Kenric as well?  I worried that Kenric's disappearance with a member of the Neverseen who then turns up alive meant that Kenric was in on the plot against Sophie.  Oh, no!  I was rather alarmed by this thought.

At some point I started thinking about Forkle and whether Kenric could be Forkle.  I had noticed that Forkle doesn't become prominent until after Kenric dies.  From Kenric's death forward, Forkle appears quite often.  Even though I wondered about it, I thought it was a long shot, since Sir Astin (another Forkle identity) insists that Kenric must be dead because he wouldn't hurt Oralie by not telling her that he is still alive.  That did fool me some, but I continued to be suspicious.  If Kenric is Forkle, then Kenric is Astin as well and would cover for himself. 

Since I had found an anagram in Leto's name, I wondered if there was an anagram in Kenric's name.  Kenric starts with "K" which is a letter in Forkle.  I felt like I had seen Kenric's full name somewhere, but I couldn't find it.  For some reason, it wasn't showing up in my Kindle book searches.

Note:  I could, of course, have found the full name online quite easily.  But I might have been spoiled, so I didn't look online.  That was not an option.

I kept looking at every mention of Kenric, trying to find clues.  Somehow, I finally stumbled across Kenric's full name, which apparently wasn't appearing in the search results because it was italicized.  Honestly, I found that a little strange, and it made me feel certain that I could find an answer in Kenric's full name.

Kenric's full name is Kenric Elgar Fathdon.

Now I could get to work!  I saw the "F" and immediately pulled "Forkle" out of the name.  It could have been a coincidence, but I felt like I was onto something.  That left me with:

e n r i c g a a t h d n

I came up with some words like "grand" which led nowhere.  After struggling for a while, I finally came up with the word "grin."  Oh!  Kenric grins.  This is stated several times in the books.  I was getting excited.  Where there's smoke...

So I had "Forkle grin" with these letters left:

e c a a t h d n

It didn't take long to pull "and" out, leaving me with:

e c a t h

And that word is "teach."

So I had "Forkle grin and teach."  I was astonished and thrilled, because it made perfect sense.

Kenric grins.  Leto teaches.

The phrase then translates to "Forkle, Kenric, and Leto."  I interpreted that to mean that all three identities are the same character and that Kenric isn't dead!  Yay!

Even though I felt 100% certain that I was right, I also wanted to back it up.  As I continued reading through the books, I looked for anything that could back up my belief about the three characters.  I do feel that the books have many subtle clues about Forkle and Leto that support what I gleaned about Kenric from the anagram.

This is a spoiler warning for the remainder of this post.  STOP READING NOW if you have not read all of books 1-9 as well as book 8.5.  You've been warned.  MAJOR LATE SERIES SPOILERS follow immediately after this warning.

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I read through the books a second time to find additional clues.  While I will be including all of the passages I marked in a series of upcoming posts, I want to make a few points right now.

We learn in book 8 that Oralie is Sophie's biological mother.  Sophie has an odd habit of tugging out an eyelash when she gets nervous.  In book 8, we learn that Oralie had the same odd habit, which she went to a lot of effort to break.

If Sophie has an odd habit in common with her biological mother, then she might have one in common with her still-unknown biological father.  Sophie's other odd habit is that she counts the seconds.  Here are a sample of the many instances.

Book 1, Page 81   Sophie counted the seconds as they ticked by.  Two hundred seventy-eight passed before he pulled away—so much for less than a minute.

Book 3, Page 569   Two hundred and twenty-nine seconds passed before he released her, his swollen face paler than she'd ever seen.

Book 4, Page 581   Another two hundred and thirty-three seconds went by before dust rustled above them.

Book 8, Page 173   Five hundred and twenty-nine seconds later they were still climbing—and yes, Sophie counted.

Sophie counts a lot of seconds.  She always does this silently, so nobody knows.  When I read through the books for the second time, I realized that two other characters mention counting the seconds one time apiece.

Book 5, Page 474   "Yes you have," Mr. Forkle said [to Gethen].  "I can see the twitch in your eye.  I bet you have no idea how long you've been in here.  Maybe you should've thought to count the seconds."

Book 9, Page 199   "It's been about three hundred seconds," Kenric announced [to Bronte in a cached memory] several minutes later.

Hmm... I don't think it's a coincidence that Forkle and Kenric just happen to be the two characters who mention counting seconds.  This information points to Kenric being Sophie's biological father and to Kenric being Forkle's true identity.  In book 9, there are also a number of other clues that point to the same, which I'll get into when I post about book 9.

I've mentioned that many fans who discuss this series online don't think that Forkle is Kenric.  They do wonder about certain things.  One fan wondered why we know Kenric's full name, Kenric Elgar Fathdon, when we know only the first name of every single other Councillor.  Um, probably because Kenric's name is an anagram.

The fans also wonder why Kenric is mentioned so much in books 8.5 and 9, since he is dead.  Oh like, maybe he isn't dead... maybe he is Sophie's biological father... maybe he is Mr. Forkle...  He is being mentioned often for some particular reason that has yet to be revealed.

Additional observations will be included in my upcoming posts.