Posted in the wrong thread! Reposting:
I have a half-baked theory that’s tangentially involved here.
What is the purpose of the Winter and Summer ladies?
When they are first introduced, we as readers are influenced by Harry’s ignorance into thinking that the courts are balanced. They’re not. Mab has far more temporal power, but Titania acts as a kill-switch against her personally. This, in short, is enough to show that the queens aren’t mirrors.
What do we know about the Ladies? Very little.
1) Maeve has her own coterie of supporters
2) Per Molly, Maeve hadn’t done her job for at least a century
3) Per Molly, we learn that at least one aspect of those duties is collecting the “tribute”- the children- of Winter fae to draft as soldiers in the war on a periodic basis
4) Per Molly, we learn that the vamping of the Winter Lady- her seductiveness- is involuntary, and that she also must remain virgin
5) We know that the Ladies move together- if one moves, the other follows
6) We know that many Fae only reproduce with mortals, per WoJ
7) We know that the war against Outside causes unfathomable casualties and Winter needs a massive army to fight it.
A necessary corollary to #7 is that there’s a need for a large population of prime-age Winter beings to be breeding constantly.
So, WAG: The duties of the Winter Lady include the following:
1) Induce changelings to Choose Fae, making them draft-eligible. Her seductiveness would be an aid in this regard, arousing their Winter instincts.
2) A “rotation” to maintain Winter’s numbers- the Winter Lady is also responsible for making sure/escorting Fae “off the front lines” to breed.
3) Corollary to #1: If the Winter Lady exists to tempt Fae toward Choosing, the Summer Lady must exist to guarantee their free will- the balance.
Three significant members of Maeve’s coterie are the Redcap, Jenny Greenteeth, and the Rawbones. We’re told the Rawbones need to keep absorbing dead matter to stay alive- and dead Nevernever creatures turn to goo, so as soon as he went on the front he’d be on a countdown to extinction. If, as I suspect, Lily is Greenteeth’s daughter, then two of the changelings Reuel was protecting were children of Maeve’s close supporters. If in turn they would go back to the frontlines as soon as they had a replacement- say, for instance, there always must be a Redcap- then he’s off the lines knocking up ladies until he has a Sidhe heir, at which point it’s back to fighting until dead.
What I like about this is it gives “within-Sidhe” rules for Maeve to be mucking about. To put an example name on it, the Redcap needs an heir. Until that’s accomplished, Maeve is to take him around to sexy parties. If she induces said heirs to not Choose Fae, well, she’s still on item #1 of her in-order checklist, now isn’t she? Especially if she’s using her supporters to torment the Changelings, not doing it herself (mantle may not allow it). For their parents, since the front is probably a death sentence aside from “breeding rotation”, the incentive to support Maeve is obvious- especially if, like the Redcap, they suffer from compulsions they can’t satisfy on the front.
So Maeve can ignore her duties simply by not being diligent about a checklist. Put differently, if she is compelled by duty to put on her shoes, then go outside, and she gives one of her supporters a cookie to throw her shoes outside where she can’t get to them without going outside without shoes, then she never has to go outside, item #2 on the checklist.
Maybe it’s not even an heir- maybe she’s supposed to use the Redcap to breed units of vicious fighters, but the effect would be the same- until the numbers come in, she just has to keep throwing wild parties.
