Quick Question on the Faerie Knights

[RevengeofTim]

Very quick question (I hope)

Is your word binding around the summer or winter knight?

If dresden and fix made a bargain, would it be subject to the kind of stuff faeries can do?
Or are they considered mortals? Cos the Knights can lie, obviously.

[Haru]

I'll go with my usual answer and say... depends.

If Fix is promising Harry something as regular guy Fix, then it isn't binding in any way. But if he is promising something specifically as the summer knight, he is sort of promising on his queens behalf, and while that might not bind him directly, he damn well better make sure he fulfils his promise.

I kind of see it like the difference between Harry promising something and Harry promising something on his power.

[Tedronai]

I kind of see it like the difference between Harry promising something and Harry promising something on his power.

Perhaps Harry promising something in his role as a representative of the White Council would be a better comparison.  If the Council was less warm, fuzzy, tolerant, generally fond of Harry's continued existence, and unwilling to violate the Laws of Magic to resolve comparatively minor issues.

[UmbraLux]

If Fix is promising Harry something as regular guy Fix, then it isn't binding in any way. But if he is promising something specifically as the summer knight, he is sort of promising on his queens behalf, and while that might not bind him directly, he damn well better make sure he fulfils his promise.

I kind of see it like the difference between Harry promising something and Harry promising something on his power.

This. 

I'd go one step further...manipulating what her very human Knight knows allows the Queen present a lie through her Knight without actually lying. 

[Tedronai]

This. 

I'd go one step further...manipulating what her very human Knight knows allows the Queen present a lie through her Knight without actually lying.

Until he makes that promise as representative of her Court as a result of his lacking complete knowledge of the situation, at which point she is bound to it through him (see: Lea's 'reeducation') regardless.

[Becq]

There's a sidebar (actually the better part of a page) discussing this topic on page YS274.  The basic overview is that some oaths are considered 'binding'.  This includes an oath a wizard makes when he swears "on his power", or any oath made by or to Faeries.  In the case of wizard, a broken (binding) oath can result in the loss of power.  In the case of oaths broken to Faeries, it opens the oathbreaker up to the power of the oatholder.

As to the OP question, I would say that the Fae Knights are deliberately mortal so that they have the Free Will that is denied to full Faeries.  As such, I would lean toward saying that oaths made to them or by them are either not binding or at least less binding that to a true Fae.  Of course, if Harry swears on his power, it doesn't matter who he swears to, Fae or not -- its binding.

[devonapple]

I have a weird question: do you think the Dresdenverse is set up to allow multiple (presumably regional) Knights for each Court?

One could go several ways with the Chicago-centric elements of the Dresden Files series:
1) Chicago is just that awesome, and the high amount of human potential and industry there translates to an analogous amount of supernatural activity
2) Dresden is there, Mab has it bad for Dresden, which means Winter is there all the time, which means Summer kinda gets roped into Chicago simply to preserve balance
3) Chicago is just one place: there are similar tinderboxes of supernatural activity all over the globe, and while the Fairy Courts are theoretically in all places at all times, the local supernatural status quo is going to look different depending on your locale

[Silverblaze]

I have a weird question: do you think the Dresdenverse is set up to allow multiple (presumably regional) Knights for each Court?

One could go several ways with the Chicago-centric elements of the Dresden Files series:
1) Chicago is just that awesome, and the high amount of human potential and industry there translates to an analogous amount of supernatural activity
2) Dresden is there, Mab has it bad for Dresden, which means Winter is there all the time, which means Summer kinda gets roped into Chicago simply to preserve balance
3) Chicago is just one place: there are similar tinderboxes of supernatural activity all over the globe, and while the Fairy Courts are theoretically in all places at all times, the local supernatural status quo is going to look different depending on your locale

Yes, it could be allowed/balanced.  The courts would need a little tweaking; they'd need to hae the same number of knights or fall out of balance.

For game purposes if you keep with cannon events you have some options:

1.Extra knights (maybe more like squires?)

2.Knights have a special mode of travel to let them counter the other courts, serve the court's intrests, and have a semblance of a life - all while being at Chicago when needed as well as everywhere else.

3. Chicago is that important to your game (you'll have to accept that the game will have NPC's from the novbels then

4. Chicago is infact only a small % of what is happening and the Knights are very busy elsewhere also...somehow they find the time.

Also, this allows PC's to play Knights of courts regardless of setting used. 

It is your table, do what you need to do.  I wouldn't have issue with it so long as the table I was playing at handled it with some forethought.

[devonapple]

Yes, it could be allowed/balanced.  The courts would need a little tweaking; they'd need to have the same number of knights or fall out of balance.

Of course!

2. Knights have a special mode of travel to let them counter the other courts, serve the court's interests, and have a semblance of a life - all while being at Chicago when needed as well as everywhere else.

Sounds like they would get a lot of use out of the NeverNever?

[UmbraLux]

I have a weird question: do you think the Dresdenverse is set up to allow multiple (presumably regional) Knights for each Court?

From a Dresdenverse point of view, I don't think it's regional.  Doesn't mean you can't make it regional though - I prefer the fae from Seanan McGuire's books myself.    (Lots of courts with knights, counts, barons, dukes, even kings / queens.  Only a few High Kings / Queens though:  Oberon, Titania, and Maeve if I remember correctly.)

[RevengeofTim]

So then its;

'I swear by my queen and my court...'
Thanks for the responses!

[Tedronai]

I don't think it would take anything so specific, explicit, or personal for the word of a Knight to be binding upon that Knight's Court, and thus be enforced by the Queen(s) back upon the Knight.