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Messages - Avernite

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1
DF Spoilers / Re: Harry's full name
« on: November 19, 2024, 07:54:37 PM »
My personal thesis is that, for mortals, a True Name simply makes a conduit between the speaker and the Named. Harry is stubborn as can be, and uses his full being to repel Mother Winter. Against the Outsider, because he's Starborn, his full being is also enough.

Of course if he had used his Name against Mother Winter she could randomly reconnect to Harry at inconvenient times, but Outsiders are Out, and speaking Harry's name on the Outside does nothing. Bit asymmetric, since names of outsiders do call them in to reality, but eh... that's my WAG anyway :)

2
Yes, they do appear civilized, but are they really?  They are cultured, clean, rich, attractive, so they are allowed to thrive, we think of them as civilized.  However these are the same beings who will suck the life out of a mortal by feeding upon his or her emotions. This a group of beings that think of vanilla human beings as "kine" or prey to be fed upon.. This is the group that would imprison the little folk so they can have nice colorful lanterns at their parties.  So as long as they have a source of food, and can create their own "civilized" islands they can thrive in a post apoplectic world as well as the Black Court in my opinion.

Eh, I could see some deluded megalomaniac thinking that, but not the sophisticated strategists that actually lead the White Court. It's easier to prey on a thriving species over one that's marginalized and you have to actively farm.

Humans also started farming fish on a serious scale only when the seas stopped providing quite so plentiful.

3
The problem is, at some point star born Harry is going to have to unite all these factions otherwise they won't have a chance against Nemesis and the Outsiders.

Just a thought, Mab's intentions for the marriage might be a stronger alliance between Winter and the White Court.  However as many of you pointed out, that alliance might make uniting everyone against Nemesis/Outsiders in the coming BAT a whole lot harder because of infighting between the allied factions.. Hmmm... I wonder if this will be an instance where Mab is totally wrong in her planning?  If she is, will she openly admit it?

Alternatively, Mab intends it to blow up because she believes the White Court is fundamentally compromised thanks to Papa Raith's connections. She did also blow up Nicky and the Nickelheads, despite the now-proven value of Infernal power against some dangerous artifacts.

Alternatively Alternatively, the library has weapons so valuable, it's going to upgrade Harry's growing armory more than any downsides.

4
DF Spoilers / Re: Who wanted the Fomor to rise?
« on: September 06, 2024, 06:41:34 PM »
I would caution against seeing too much in the Fomor's abilities...

If only because we saw just how ridiculously outmatched their army was against the Sidhe. It makes the whole 'Fomor buildup' look like the Fomor sent their strength out skirmishing, while everyone else kept to their own skirmishing back. When one side brings the army, the other brings skirmishers, the army looks quite impressive.

And sure that's a sound strategy, kind of an inverse Trachenberg plan - if your ace can win any battle almost alone, why not fritter away your strength on skirmishes while your opponents must remain careful to husband reserves for a big battle.

So to me it's plausible that, in some sense, the Fomor HAD been building up, for something. They then went into overdrive when Changes happened, before they were ready; their skirmishers were strong, but having to put too much in reserves behind it. Then they gathered on Chicago, aiming to bring Ethniu out as an ace in the hole / the only way to win a battle, but with the army too weak to back her up, the defenders managed to keep (just) enough strength out of the battle to pitch it against Ethniu herself.

5
DF Spoilers / Re: Warden Survival Rate and Current Strength?
« on: August 29, 2024, 10:45:50 AM »
The Hospitallers still exist.

There are about 40 "First Class" members, 600 "Second Class" members (mainly titled "Knights in Obedience") and 12,400 "Third Class" members.
(per Wikipedia, fwiw)
Sure, but it's not exactly a military society anymore. I wouldn't translate those numbers to '640 soldiers, 12400 hangers-on'. What I'm thinking to compare to is them circa siege of Malta, or even during the wars in the Levant.

6
Right up to the last moment on the boat going to Demonreach Justine/Nemesis had Harry fooled..
I disagree there; Harry felt something off, just wasn't sure what.

When it was about 'emotional reaction to sad news' it didn't trigger a total 'huh', sure...
But if it was towards Thomas about 'our literal worst-possible thing' I'd think even a 'huh that's weird, is it really THE thing'.

And of course Justine had plenty later interactions with parties on the Outsider team, to allow 'act of true love was real, nemfection was later'.

7
This is a very-interesting notion.

I don't think Jim's going to write it this way; but it's very interesting!

The pieces hang together well-enough for me to now think it's likely that "replace Lara's Hunger-Demon with a Wintermantle" may very-well be part of Mab's planning (if only 2nd or 3rd tier contingency).

I've intentionally not specified the Queen-Mantle... Lara of course hardly qualifies as "virginal" but maybe the magic can admit of a "from now on" definition.  It'd be incredibly-ironic for "Queen of the Sex Vampires" to become mythically-virginal!   :o   And we know (from the disastrous Carlos/Molly event) that Jim's very willing to torment other characters than Harry, with this sort of thing.  And it'd give Molly an "out" from the Ladymantle, if Harry could find a way to initiate the transfer without killing the current owner...

Or, just do the "normal" Queen dies + Lady-becomes-Queen + Ladymantle-needs-host sequence, with the Winterknight's fiance close to hand.  Ratchet the Molly/Harry tension another notch, I'm sure Jim would like it for that if nothing else.

Or just some direct Lara-gets-Queenmantle path.  That might eliminate the "marriage" elements, though, if there's any incompatibilities between the mythic Winterlaw ideal of "marriage" and the Queen/Knight relationship.  I think Jim's more-likely to write the complex one that loops-in Molly, ratchets-up tension, and tweaks Lara's twerk.

So, lots of elements come together very nicely indeed!  I like your theory a lot, @Avernite!

Thank you :)

For further 'support', I find Lara and Mab mostly have fairly similar outlooks. Low sentimentality except some 'defend our own', ruthless to the core, winner in a court of violent backstabbers... And both surprisingly good at understanding Harry Dresden (even if it feels for Mab it's partly 'characterization marches on' - she seemed much more alien in the early books).

8
DF Spoilers / Re: Warden Survival Rate and Current Strength?
« on: August 28, 2024, 09:29:24 PM »
You're absolutely correct.
My point was that the WC, as an organization, looks a lot more like a standing army; much more so than it resembles a nation.

Nevertheless, it also has things like meetings to vote, etc, that look kind of more like a civilian government than like a military.

Here's maybe a closer comparison:  some historic mercenary companies had IIRC a voting membership to whom the leaders were beholden, and to whom the leaders had to get a vote on key matters (or at least, this is a common fantasy trope (I'm only sure of a few historic exemplars)... but that's plenty for Jim to model from!).

I'm thinking more a Knightly Order like the Templars or Hospitallers. But I'm coming up blank on Knights vs Members for those orders.

9
I think the words "close to Lara" are meant to make us think it means when Justine started to work for Lara.
But in my theory it can also mean "close to Lara" in location. Meaning either Justine got infected during her imprisonment in Grave Peril and because she was Thomas' girlfriend and Thomas during that time often met with Lara offscreen. So she often was in proximity to Lara.

Or Justine was even the first vector, the first nemfected person.
Iirc the question in Battle Ground was "since when have you been in Justine?"
What if Justine was Nemesis' plant all along. Everything planned, from the moment she met Thomas till the end in BG. Becoming Thomas' girlfriend could also be seen as "close to Lara".
I always thought it weird, that the Reds wanted her before. What interest  could they have in one weak human girl? They could have any other girl. Why Justine?
And yes, all of this already implies that in theory the Reds worked for the Outsiders.

All of this almost purely speculation, of course.
 
Edit: the Reds' interest could have been faked to push Thomas to act and safe her, thus making it more probable for her to become his girlfriend.
One concern I have with the 'pre-planned plant' is that Thomas was convinced that Justine had true-love protection. That seems the kind of 'one of a kind' feeling a White Court Vampire wouldn't be wrong about.

Of course that's also a flaw with 'immediately after the near-fatal feeding' for Nemfection, because the True Love protection must have kicked in at/after that feeding.

I can't exclude the possibility Nemesis can simulate it... but in all other Dresden Files situations Love is a rather big deal. To be able to simulate it feels wrong to me.

10
Got to disagree here. The hero marrying the daughter of the villain that killed his parent(s) is fairly common in fantasy. It's jarring here, because Lara is not a damsel to be rescued but a mature power in her own right that had an equal role in taking down said villain. The key being, we don't know if she'll reform to the hero's morals. She'd have to do quite a bit to earn redemption, but if she really did seek it, she could have 300+ years as Harry's wife if they both survive.

Eh...

the Demon being what it is, I have my doubts Lara could be redeemed without booting the Hunger. In which case she might live a good few years, but she'd need some supernatural boost to be 300+.
Something like becoming the next Winter Queen after Mab? The Knight is to some extent consort of the Queens of Faerie, too, which a wedding would fit quite adequately.

11
Building alliances into the coming apocalypse does seem sensible. We've seen both Wodan/Odan/Kringle/Monoc and Mab act on it, we've seen the Nickelheads try, the White Council has allies and is dysfunctional... but Summer's seemed a bit passive.

So yes, Titania needs to get going.

The Svartalves could work, maybe, but the White Court and Winter are really a much closer philosophical match. Of course we don't really know the Summer philosophy too well, honorable and defensive could be near enough with the Svartalves... But the Svartalves seem a bit isolationist.

Another option would be the River People. They're quite naturalistic, they have come out looking for connections, and apart from the Harry-likes-one there's not much against it.

12
DF Spoilers / Re: Molly Sending a Hidden Message?
« on: July 30, 2024, 05:46:27 PM »
But what is the message?

I mean, putting in such a subtle message when all it warns is 'remember not to be lusting for Winter's power it might change you'... well, we had a whole book or two about that.

13
DF Spoilers / Re: Does Thomas get a free pass?
« on: March 07, 2024, 09:41:55 PM »
My money's on Lea, she has after all shown the ability to target Red Court parasites without serious harm to the human being parasited. Why not a full removal on a white, as her 'redemption' (and presumably by Harry making a deal, because that would give just enough pain to him during an otherwise significant triumph).

14
DF Spoilers / Re: The Mother's Cottage
« on: January 07, 2024, 09:29:18 AM »
Maybe it's seasonal decorations. It's summer's time of power so it's winter's time to decorate.

15
DF Spoilers / Re: Goodman Grey, nemfected?
« on: August 29, 2023, 03:27:10 PM »
This is interesting. If Lea hasn't been 'cured' but treated, then it could be that nemesis in some capacity remains with her or with Mab/Winter's Heart.  That split of power is a significantly higher investment than likely those of mere mortals.  It could be that like others said that power in stasis has led to a weakening of Nemesis' power that can be utilized outside of that stasis.
*mere* mortals?

As Harry aptly explained, mere mortals can defy absolutely everyone. Most don't, but they can. I wouldn't think infecting, say, Charity Carpenter would be cheaper/easier than infecting Maeve.

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