How did the Red Court Originate?

[Yuillegan]

Mira is correct - I believe the false god statement is not referring to the notion that there is only one "God" as in the TWG, but the fact that they are feeding and impersonating the Mayan gods (the ones mentioned in the RPG).

Yes I just had a re-read. Good pick up. So I think we can then take at face value that every court has elders and the White King is not the progenitor. We still don't know enough about their origins, or what happened to the original White King.

Also, in that part of Blood Rites I picked up on another interesting clue. Eb mentions that Maggie Le Fey and Justin were associates. Make of that what you will.

[dspringer1]

“False gods!” she cried, her blue eyes blazing as she stared at the Red King and the Lords of Outer Night. “Pretenders! Usurpers of truth! Destroyers of faith, of families, of lives, of children! For your crimes against the Mayans, against the peoples of the world, now will you answer! Your time has come! Face judgment Almighty!”

By the text  the Red King was the progenitor, otherwise the bloodline curse wouldn't have exterminated the Reds to a monster.  JB goes all Abrahamic  with that bit.  The White God is a jealous God.  However it may be that the Lords of the Outer Knight themselves would have survived the curse had they survived Lea, et al.

I think nobody disputes that all the vampires at the end battle in Changes were descended from the Red King, including the lords of outer night.   However many people have speculated that "some" red court vamps survived as they were not of the blood.  If true, then all of the reds could NOT have descended from the Red King. 

[Bad Alias]

Are the Paranet Papers canon?

I'd say they are semi-cannon. It's like authority in law. There's the statute, then court opinions, then "secondary" materials like treatises and law review articles. Even in opinions, you will have different levels of authority.

In the DF's, we have the books and things Jim says (I don't know which one should carry more weight), I'd say the comics come in third, and then you have the Paranet Papers.

But even in the Paranet Papers, Billy (and others he's working with) often questions the veracity of reports they're getting that make up the Paranet Papers. The origins of the LoON are a fourth hand account. (It might have been third or fifth hand). I've also heard mention of a WoJ that the gods they were feeding on have now escaped.

[1]It was stated that most of the red court was descended from the Red King, but clearly some were "not of the blood".  ...

[2]We know that older vampires sometimes lose control as it was stated in changes.

1. I took that to mean that they weren't Mayan. Not that they weren't "descended" from the Red King.

2. I don't think it is necessarily an age thing. I think Kelly was likely to become a "blood slave" if she survived much longer. Harry says some things that make it look like an age thing, but that was his speculation. Bianca also had a problem. That's why she killed her assistant. I think they were all addicts and each individual's level of control was a large part of where their status came from inside the court.

[toodeep]

I still like the idea that many of the bad creatures at one time or another served a "good" purpose.  The Red Court was really supposed to stay at the half-red stage and at that level they were the super warriors of the Mayans that fought off the supernatural threats of other tribes.  Similar with the White Court and the Etruscans.  My favorite is the Ghouls as symbiots in the Sumerian culture - think of it, as carrion eaters in a large enough population of humans with a small enough population of ghouls they could very simply serve as the elite warriors and consume the dead of the humans (serving a sanitary and spiritual purpose as well) of the Sumerian tribes.  They may even have been rulers.  But eventually they overpopulated, became a menace to the mortals, and the mortals had to rise up and drive them off into the spirit world.  It would explain why so many different cultures have different creatures associated with them instead of everyone having the same legends/monsters.  And it also seems necessary, since any nation with supernatural forces like ghouls or vampires as their special forces would easily overwhelm nations without them, so most cultures would have to develop some special line of allies to help them.

[Bad Alias]

@toodeep: And we've seen at least one way that protector creatures can be corrupted into evil by Butters' story, Day One.

[g33k]

@toodeep: And we've seen at least one way that protector creatures can be corrupted into evil by Butters' story, Day One.

Surely the Fallen count, too!
And the Naagloshii.

[Con]

I mean we've seen Super Ghouls that were supposed to be the precursor to Ghouls the same way Neanderthals are too human in White Night. Ghouls were once again servants of White Court in the College Bigfoot story, where Rivers in his Shoulders fought off twenty. So Ghouls have twice been associated with the White Court.

As to Paranet Papers being canon. I'd say canon until proven otherwise. Paranet is referenced as a significant community in Ghost Story. Hell we are discussing this on a site called Paranet.

As to the Red Court and the LoON being Gods. A) Vaddderung. B) Snacking on Mayan Gods you are what you eat. C) Being Worshipped by the Red Court and there servants. D) It's in the name Lords of the OUTER NIGHT.

[Bad Alias]

Surely the Fallen count, too!
And the Naagloshii.

Didn't even think about them, but definitely.

[g33k]

I mean we've seen Super Ghouls that were supposed to be the precursor to Ghouls the same way Neanderthals are too human in White Night...

I'm pretty sure Jim Butcher just took his normal workaday Ghoul and applied the d20/D&D3.X  "Dire..." template.