How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"But all of those who have the gift, as you seem to, even if they do not practice themselves, can tell when they are in the presence of magic, unless the magician is already powerful enough to set wards around him and thus disguise what he is doing. This is far beyond what I can do, but such people are known to exist. Alnor said you are looking for someone like that, but they cannot be found unless they choose to be. You will need, for a start, to know his name." (6.66)
Lananeth identifies the importance of a moniker when doing magic. The heart of a magician—and his power—resides in the magician's name, which can cut past the magic and get to the individual within.
Quote #2
"His true name!" Lananeth whispered.
"As far as we know," said Alnor. "It is in the story we tell in the Valley."
"I have heard that in the old days, before the Watchers, the names of magicians were openly spoken," said Lananeth, shaking her head. "Now every little country magician, for safety, is forced to take a true name and tell it to no one. My own is not Lananeth. Still, I would not have thought that even such a name was enough. This room is well warded." (6.99-101)
A magician's true name is the most essential part of who he or she is, so much so that those with power have to hide their true names and use fake ones in public. Now that magicians are in danger from the Emperor if they're not under his control, no one can risk using a true name in public and getting caught.
Quote #3
By the time they reached it even its name had become uncertain. In the Valley it had been Talak; north of the Pirrim Hills Talagh; but in the twenty-seven days of travel since then she had heard it called Talarg and Dalarg and Dhawak and Tallak-Tallak, and Ndalag and several other names, by travelers who had joined the traffic on the Grand Northwest Road by one of the scores of roads that fed into it from north and south. (8.2)
Talagh has a ton of different names—unlike for a magician, a name isn't the key to what the city is. For Tilja, it's an overwhelming place of excitement and crowds. For Meena, it's likely an annoyance to navigate the crowds. Ellion might think of it as a place of complex political alliances. In fact, Talagh can be lots of things to different people.
Quote #4
She was remembering a fist the color of moonlight rising above a parapet and grasping great eddies of raw force as if they had been cobwebs dangling from a beam in a barn. She needed a name for the enemy, a way of thinking about him. Moonfist. Yes, that would do. (15.84)
Tilja decides she's had enough of having an enemy without a name, so she dubs him "Moonfist" after what he looked like on the walls of Talagh. Tilja doesn't have power over Moonfist by possessing his true name, but she has the next best thing—an identity she bestows upon him. By giving her amorphous enemy a name, Tilja makes him human—potentially conquerable and someone she can fight—not just an all-powerful guy.
Quote #5
He reached out his cupped hand to accept it. At the last moment she let go with her left hand and snatched at a finger, while her right flung the ring into the darkness where the mouse had gone.
"Ramdatta!" she cried.
In the shadows something moved, began to explode. Then she was in darkness. (17.98-100)
Tilja finally faces off with Moonfist. To call on the Ropemaker, she invokes him by calling on his secret—and true—name, "Ramdatta." Only saying his name brings him to her side in a moment of crisis. Tilja has saved this highest form of magic for the moment when she needs it most.
Quote #6
"It is a secret name. None of you, not you or your daughter or any of the daughters after, must ever tell anyone that name, except the one who's going to have Woodbourne after you." (20.130)
Tilja tells Anja about the importance of the Ropemaker's real name when she—or her descendants—need to call on him. Tilja stresses the secrecy of the name to protect future generations of Urlasdaughters, and perhaps so no one uses the power unnecessarily. Once again, a name is the key to the magician and his powers.
Quote #7
No, I will not, she thought. I am Tilja, Tilja, Tilja. (17.105)
When she is desperately trying to fight off Moonfist, Tilja tries to prevent him from absorbing her into himself. She finds the essence of herself—starting with her name—which allows her to remain an independent entity.
Quote #8
"Well, here I am," she snapped. "Take a good look at me. I'm Meena Urlasdaughter from Woodbourne, and I'm here to tell you the old gaffer's right." (3.108)
When addressing the Gathering, Meena attempts to persuade everyone that the Valley is in danger. One of her biggest sources of credibility is her name. That simple "Urlasdaughter" proclaims her the heir to Dirna's magic and the source of authority on what's going on with the forest.
Quote #9
"Your journey will be little stranger to you than it would have been to the real Qualif and Qualifa. Those are your names from now on, Qualif and Qualifa Jaddo, but there'll be no harm in your calling Meena Meena." (6.51)
When Lananeth gives Meena and Alnor cover stories for traveling throughout the Empire, she insists that they assume the identities of her former servants. They must take on the names "Qualif" and "Qualifa"—these names arrange their safe passages throughout the Empire, since an unauthorized name would likely get the Valley folk in jail.
Quote #10
"How are we going to find the person we're looking for if we aren't allowed to say his name?"
asked Tahl."There I can't help you," said Lananeth. (6.114-115)
When Faheel's name causes a commotion in Lananeth's chamber, no one can say his name aloud there anymore. Tahl wonders how they're supposed to find Faheel without the single biggest clue they have to go on, but Lananeth warns them that using a name is just too dangerous—the nature of a name attracts unwanted attention from the powers that be (i.e., the Emperor), and the Emperor wouldn't be happy that strangers are trying to track down a magician he doesn't control. The name is the key to their (lack of) safety.