Unidentified Winter Knight Abilities

[toodeep]

We all know that becoming the winter knight has:
1.  Increased Harry's physical strength and speed, including probably increased reflexes.  Butters posits that this isn't necessarily magical (just the removal of normal limitors)
2.  Additional magical juice.  Not sure if Harry can actually pull much more of normal magic, but he seems to be able to pull cold magic more easily in addition to his normal magic
3.  Increased healing.  Not sure if this is true, but Harry seems to believe that the winter mantle helps with healing
4.  Innate balance on ice, ability to work with/break ice, and apparently a resistance to cold

We've seen indications it can do additional things like
A.  When attacking an actual outsider, Harry experienced a innate winter response of coating his hands with ice-blades that helped hurt the outsider.  This seems to indicate that winter magic might be institutionally inclined to be more effective against outsiders.

And other things seem possible
B.  We've seen that Toot appears to be able to at least speak any language.  Might Harry be able to tap into that cool ability?
C.  Additional synergies if he ever uses the Blackstaff considering its possible winter origins.
D.  It sounds like most knights die by violence.  Might it make him as longer lived or otherwise slow aging compared even to most wizards?

Any others?

[nadia.skylark]

He seems to have the ability to know on a large scale either when Winter magic or just when Mab is affecting things vs. when it's just normal stuff. In Skin Game, he knows instinctively that the snowstorm isn't Mab, it's just regular Chicago weather.

[Yuillegan]

He also had instinctive predatory abilities, like those of a wolf, when fighting Fix and against Maeve.

We also know that his power is tied to the power of the Queens, which gives a unique advantage against them. Not a lot, but not nothing either (which is most beings). Mab cannot defend against her own power, it seems.

A massive resistance to regular pain and fatigue...although again as Butter's points out this might be more to do with removing natural limits in the brain.

Harry has often described that he adds "winter" to his magic missile attack ("something Mab gave him") that he often describes as part of his best shot.

[Mira]

   Making oversized snow angels?   Happy Holidays!

[g33k]

  Making oversized snow angels?   Happy Holidays!

Well... he DOES have Winter magic, and Soulfire... So...

[nadia.skylark]

We also know that his power is tied to the power of the Queens, which gives a unique advantage against them. Not a lot, but not nothing either (which is most beings). Mab cannot defend against her own power, it seems.

Do we know this? My recollection is that the only place we hear this from is Maeve in Cold Days, when she's on her lying spree. Given that, and given that she would quite enjoy getting Harry killed by convincing her to attack Mab, I wouldn't consider her a reliable source.

Otoh, I may be misremembering. Do we ever hear this from anyone else?

[Snark Knight]

3.  Increased healing.  Not sure if this is true, but Harry seems to believe that the winter mantle helps with healing

He seemed to be basing that on empirical evidence that his recovery from injuries during Mab's rehab / training sessions was markedly faster than normal.

[Yuillegan]

Do we know this? My recollection is that the only place we hear this from is Maeve in Cold Days, when she's on her lying spree. Given that, and given that she would quite enjoy getting Harry killed by convincing her to attack Mab, I wouldn't consider her a reliable source.

Otoh, I may be misremembering. Do we ever hear this from anyone else?

Lily actually confirms this, and she would know, she wouldn't need Maeve to tell her. This would be instinctual and perhaps also trained knowledge, because she did spend almost a decade training with Titania.

But also - Occam's razor. It makes sense. Although I would say the crucially left out piece of information is the Winter Knight's mortal nature in combination with Winter's power is what makes him truly dangerous. He can choose to kill her. Which is much more than her other vassals.

Also Maeve didn't need to lie. If Dresden died trying to end Mab she wouldn't become Queen, which was one of her main objectives. Maeve could have killed Harry much earlier if her intention was that. But she didn't. She truly wanted Mab dead, she hated Mab most of all.

And it is foreshadowing how Mab will die. If that wasn't obvious.

[Bad Alias]

He seemed to be basing that on empirical evidence that his recovery from injuries during Mab's rehab / training sessions was markedly faster than normal.

Didn't he state that Mab explained it to him, or am I remembering something that didn't happen? I think it was in Cold Days after Andy shredded his back when someone was giving him first aid.

[Snark Knight]

Didn't he state that Mab explained it to him, or am I remembering something that didn't happen? I think it was in Cold Days after Andy shredded his back when someone was giving him first aid.

I'm not sure if it was the damage from Andi or Lacuna's hit squad, but he told Molly some moderately bad cuts would heal themselves in a few days at the rate he was running then.

[g33k]

WoJ states that wizard-longevity is a function of them doing magic.  The more magic they do, and the more powerful it is, the longer they live.  Charity won't have any extended lifespan, because she stopped and let her magic wither away.

Butters theorizes (and there seems to be pretty decent evidence for the argument) that the main physical benefit to the WK-mantle -- the strength & speed &c -- is just to take off all the inbuilt "governors" and "safeties" that let an organism live long-term, letting the WK act full-time as if they were on an massive adrenaline-spike, without regard to pain or injury.

Wizard healing is, I think, a related thing to wizard longevity.

What if the main magical benefit is a similar "governor off" effect, letting the WK (if a wizard) do more & stronger magic... leading to a boost in the longevity AND the healing?

 

[Bad Alias]

If Butters is even mostly right, then it's my belief that the mantle has been retconned big time both from Cold Days and Summer Knight.

As to toodeep's point D, I think the answer to that has more to do with the job description than anything else.

[nadia.skylark]

Well, in the Paranet Papers, when talking about a suspected Winter Knight, it says:

people have said that he is perpetually surrounded by a cold, misty fog, and that he brings a chill into the room when he enters and is never affected by even the most bitterly cold winter wind. Some say his piercing stare can freeze a man’s heart, and in more than a metaphorical way. If these peasants’ tales can be taken to have even a grain of truth to them, he displays many
qualities of Winter Knights past...

[Arjan]

If Butters is even mostly right, then it's my belief that the mantle has been retconned big time both from Cold Days and Summer Knight.

As to toodeep's point D, I think the answer to that has more to do with the job description than anything else.

Much like the knights of the cross the amount of power the winter knight wields is not always the same. If Mab wants it Harry can have more power and can even be shielded from the mantles influence to a certain extend as was shown in Changes.

Slate wasnot that powerful but he was one of Maeves throw away knights so that was to be expected.

The main thing the mantle offers is power. Spiritual power with a winter nature. Too much of it and he would probably become winter sidhe and not mortal so the power is limited. The extra tricks Butters speculates about are probably tricks to get the most out of it.

Harry is a wizard so he has his own spiritual power and good ideas how to use both his mantle and his own power. The more he uses the more he heals the further he can drive his own body ignoring limits. A winter knight who is also a wizard can do so much more.

In cold days Harry lets go and he has to struggle to keep his identity. In some aspects that looks like a more powerful knight than in Skin Game when Harry has much better control of himself.

But actually skin game Harry is a more dangerous opponent.

[spiritofair]

Much like the knights of the cross the amount of power the winter knight wields is not always the same. If Mab wants it Harry can have more power and can even be shielded from the mantles influence to a certain extend as was shown in Changes.

Slate wasnot that powerful but he was one of Maeves throw away knights so that was to be expected.

The main thing the mantle offers is power. Spiritual power with a winter nature. Too much of it and he would probably become winter sidhe and not mortal so the power is limited. The extra tricks Butters speculates about are probably tricks to get the most out of it.

Harry is a wizard so he has his own spiritual power and good ideas how to use both his mantle and his own power. The more he uses the more he heals the further he can drive his own body ignoring limits. A winter knight who is also a wizard can do so much more.

In cold days Harry lets go and he has to struggle to keep his identity. In some aspects that looks like a more powerful knight than in Skin Game when Harry has much better control of himself.

But actually skin game Harry is a more dangerous opponent.

As I was re-listening to Cold Days, I was getting annoyed with Harry always whining about how he was cursed to go bad because of the Winter Knight mantle. He has been dealing with temptation to go dark for his whole adolescent and adult life as a wizard. The difference betweeen vanilla human and wizard is probably an order of magnitude greater than that between wizard and winter knight. Perfectly fine for Harry to worry about going bad... that trait probably helped him avoid going dark as a wizard, but it was getting annoying that he couldn't see that he has the ability to avoid going dark.

Tack on being the Warden of Demonreach and knowing the Darkhallow and, far more importantly (because the temptation was greater since the shadow was living in his head) avoiding taking up Lasciel's coin, and he really should have a little more confidence in his ability to write his own future and not succumb to temptation.

I wonder if Jim is telling us something here. Harry has been getting lectures from Uriel about the importance of free will. Maybe Harry will finally get that confidence in himself someday and actually take up Lasciel's coin, but be the master of the coin, much like Nicodimus is the master of Anduriel.