Nice theory Serack. I like it.
Edit: Nice theory, Serack. However, I have a question regarding it.
As with most of the things I have ever posted, I feel like this is more a gathering of information than a theory, with the exceptions of a few minor conclusions at the end, and the stuff I said in the 1st reply.
If the Fae are largely accounted for as having been mortal at one point, we have Namshiel in SmF stating that he watched as Harry's "kind" crawled from the muck. While he may have been lying and/or deceptive in that instance, with the chance that he's telling the truth... perhaps the Sidhe and/or Dewdrop faeries ultimately formed from the same substance as well. The legends regarding the Fae's emergence often give no time or reference frame to humanity's emergence, to my knowledge. It would seem to make the most sense to take the one link of commonality that we know they have in the DF lore, via Jim, and work backwards from that, right?
The one link I can easily cite is that Jim has said that every single Fae has a bit of mortal in them... I'm not confident I understand what you are trying to work backwards towards from there though...
TCF and I are working together to do a major update to the WoJ compilation, and over the course of this work, several interesting WoJ's are coming forefront to my attention. Two interesting ones that in some ways seem to be contradictory in my mind, and in other ways build off each other in interesting ways are:
Dudesan: What we've seen of the cosmology of The Dresden Files seems very Earth-centric. Is that because everything really does revolve around the Earth[1] , or because we're seeing only a tiny slice of a much bigger picture? Are there other planets in real-space inhabited by extraterrestrial sentient beings? If so, do they have their own analogues of wizards, fairies, gods, etc? Are supernatural things influenced by their belief as it is by those of humans? If so, to what extent do these "spheres of influence" overlap?
Jim: 3) Everything revolves around /this/ earth, in the Dresden stories. But not necessarily around all (or even a majority of) the other earths that exist in the continuum of possibility created by free will. Other, parallel realities have other worlds playing a more central role, and some of them have earth in a nice quiet backwater, peaceful, relatively conflict free, and boring.
Dudesan: The same story [Backup] seemed to imply that entities could gain or lose power retroactively, in a wibbley-wobbly timey-wimey sort of way. For example, The Almighty is the Creator of the Universe, but He hasn't always been the Creator of the Universe[4] . Is there anything to this assumption, and if so, might we see it explored in greater detail later?
Jim: 7) You're assigning limits where there aren't any. In the Dresden Files universe, what changes really isn't the actual beings. It's our understanding of who and what they are.
And here is another, older WoJ that is also pertinent:
There is a rather long discussion as to what constitutes free will as an element in the back end of this book (Ghost Story). Is what is presented and discussed as a concept, your own philosophy? How did that come about, the idea that free will is making your choices based upon truth.
Right, and in the Dresden Files universe it's a vital component. It's what divides mortals, human beings, from everybody else. Is that we're the ones that have elements of both good and evil inside us, we're the ones who get to chose what to do. And because that's who we are, we make the world around us through those choices. The forces of the universe, these cosmic forces are always balanced against one another, and we're the ones who can tilt that see-saw one way or another with our actions. I think that is largely true in real life, but it is certainly a very fun, dramatic use of the concept of free will for writing with. It's very important in general, and that's why Harry, as he's gotten more mature, he's striven so much harder to make sure that other people have a choice, you know, he's not trying to make choices for people any more, he's trying to make sure that they know what's going on, and can make an informed choice.
What does this mean, and how does it apply to the origins of the Fae? Welllll, in terms of "the cosmic forces of the universe" these forces could be considered beings who "don't change" yet, apparently Mortal, Free Will driven choices can determine their prominence in reality, to the point of altering which forces in a particular version of reality hold sway over that reality...
Now for the actual theorizing... This is dipping into my "Mantle Theory" ideas, something that I'm working hard to make a major post about in the next month or so.
So what if some of these choices made by those with free will that cause certain cosmic powers to come to prominence in reality also involve taking on some of the aspects, powers and responsibilities of these cosmic powers/entities. And one of the flavors of how this could have happened in the past, could have involved changing some of these pivotal mortals into Sidhe.
Now for another what-if, which IMO is not as pivotal but is a deliberate nod to some of what Orbweaver seems to be looking towards. What if there was another ancient human-like race hewn from the muck of Earth in parallel with the human race. This hypothetical race also possessed free will, and in making some of these reality deterministic choices
they were the ones that morphed into the Sidhe and took on those roles and responsibilities.
In my opinion, this last what-if adds some unnecessary but interesting complexity to the DF back-story. I prefer to stick with the Sidhe originally being humans, but it certainly is a valid hypothesis.
Edit: I think I will be splicing some of these thoughts into the 1st reply.
