If you are playing the Dresden Files in Asheville, NC, I request you please read no further.
stop reading.
I mean it.
Okay, here we go. Let me give the state of the Autumn Court in my game. This is kinda long.
The Reaper King has long been a proponent of neutrality and noninterference. As long as Spring was willing to not make a play for power and just live and let live, he saw no need to even appoint a Knight. Spring and Autumn were essentially at peace, with a powerful working erasing them from memory yet allowing them to act freely in the time before you forget.
They are signatories of the Accords, just as Seelie and Unseelie. They can act as a Court and as full representatives of the Accords, but the agent is forgotten or obscured. You know someone showed up at the meeting, but you don't remember the name or who they represented. You know there is a signature, but it's an illegible scribble though it seems legit. When they're standing in front of you, you remember everything you need to but when they leave you again forget. This is a hugely powerful defense, but the effect is reliant upon the Changing Courts' neutrality. If either court breaks the peace, or takes sides in a conflict between signatories, or even moves in an aggressive manner, the glamour starts to unravel.
The Reaper King is King of Autumn (he goes by many names, but the Reaper King is what he prefers now). It's a misconception that Winter is about Death. In fact, Winter is about being dead. Autumn is about death and the process of dying, but also the harvest, the feast, the bounty...the last celebration and enjoyment before winter sets in. He's also not cruel, or at least unnecessarily cruel. He's Fae, and that makes him dangerous and alien, but his pact of nonaggression with his opposing court is unique and representative of how reasonable he is compared to most other Fae.
Jack is his Autumn Prince. Which Jack, you ask? All of them, none of them. Legends tell of him tricking giants, the Devil, and Death itself. In demeanor, he's far more approachable than the Reaper King, being a merry prankster who likes to do things with panache and a sense of whimsy.
In truth, these two are in conflict and have been for some time. There is a generational divide that plays into some themes in my game of old fighting against new fighting against even older things come 'round again. Jack chafes at the restrictions. The King knows Jack would upset the whole board if picking up the pieces would be more interesting. Neither one is truly acting against their nature as the trickster and the harvester are two strong archetypes of Autumn, though perhaps Jack has been more influenced by mortal legends than the other way around. And now, with several plots underway, he has approached his endgame:
The death of the Reaper King, and his own ascension to the Harvest Throne.
Obviously, this would be a huge upset to the supernatural world. Even if the Spring and Autumn courts are not widely known or understood, the loss of a King of Fae would throw the world out of balance. If the Reaper King dies, the entire Forgotten Seasons working would collapse and suddenly there would be two new players free to act. So, now I finally get to my questions:
What should the Spring Court do if they get wind of Jack's machinations? Remember they can't act aggressively without unraveling the spell. The appointing of a Knight by Autumn has already caused some threads to fray and Oberon does not want it to collapse completely. Appointing a Spring Knight is almost mandatory, but would only make things worse. The Autumn Knight is key to Jack's plans, so killing her could solve the problem, but how can Spring accomplish that?
What would happen to the Autumn Knight if the King dies? Obviously, the Prince would be promoted, but I think that Lily being promoted to Summer Lady was kind of a special case. Would someone else take the Autumn Prince role? Or could it throw things even further out of balance by leaving that slot open?
And how badly would the world be thrown off if either Spring or Autumn get the upper hand in a decisive way? We know what would happen if Summer or Winter win, but the Changing Courts are a lot more nebulous.
And, as a plot thing I'm still trying to figure out, how could Jack's endgame play out here in getting the Reaper King killed as a result of his own Autumn Knight?
