Mildly incoherent this morning, but in the interest of random gibbering.
Quite fine! I do it all the time! Helps get the ideas out.
Jim has given us some hints of the structure. Model the Never Never like fluid in a pipe. The water doesn't move at the surface of the pipe. The Never Never is the water touching the pipe. The boundary between Creation and everything outside it. The further away from the pipe wall the more stable reality.(evidenced by time being variable in the Never Never)
Really curious about this - do you have know where the quotes are on Nevernever structure? If I understand you correctly (the Water is the NN, the Pipe is Outside? And what is the Reality/Universe in that example?
Given that the Sidhe don't have free will they aren't part of the multiverse. Humans only thank you. Human reality is like a tree with many branches. Each new branch representing a choice, but not all choices. Only important ones.(Vadderung in Cold Days referencing his model of temporal inertia) The Mothers can see the tree grow and branch.(Cold Days referencing Harry learning of the Adversary)
I think I understand your view, as explained in your follow up post, that most Fae (being quite mortal) could exist in several realities but the really powerful Fae (like the Mothers) are so powerful that is unlikely there is more than one (which is why they can "see" all the branches of Creation). Though I have a theory that Immortals might only have just one of themselves - but we will see.
Why do the Outsiders want in? Who knows. But it could be more about opposition to the Creator rather than any property of Creation. Jealousy maybe? Or maybe they are a property of the void, anti Creation. Model this as entropy with the Outsiders representing the Heat Death of the Universe.(Empty night. If Jim loves physics, then as the universe expands there comes a point where there would be no stars to be seen in the night sky)
Sorry for going on
No no, going on is good. Gave us lots to discuss! Quite so - it could be about opposition to the Creator, in fact I think in all cases that is highly likely. The question is
why. I believe it because Creation itself makes them uncomfortable, or in outright pain. Jim has hinted at this - see the WOJ on Reality being noisy and loud. They (for want of a better word) ARE natural. They are not synthetic. They may represent Chaos/Disorder/Anti-life but that is what they ARE. Their sole reason for existing. Like a swarm of locust or a plague - but sentient. And as the current thinking is starting to go towards that EVERYTHING has a form of "consciousness" (on a massive spectrum of complexity - humans are highly complex, an atom is very low complexity etc) that would actually make a lot of sense.
The Heat Death theory as Empty Night is interesting. I always interpreted Empty Night as dissolution of reality; non-existence (no stars, no matter, no energy, no time, no anything at all). Which again I think has been hinted at in the books. Mother Summer says that should the Outsiders get in everything stops, and Vadderung says something similar about the Sleepers being released. Also the fact that when the Mothers are discussing the new branches appearing, the idea that even the Destroyer (MW) would prefer bright futures to Empty Night suggests that even Death and Destruction would be irrelevant. In such an event - as Time would be rendered meaningless - it would be as though nothing had ever existed or would ever exist. Creation ending would be a pretty crazy event - scientifically speaking, let alone magically/spiritually.
Bad Alias is pretty right, not all possible realities yet exist, depending on how many choices are currently available to mortals. Even though Fae can't do such a thing perhaps (as their will is not entirely Free, like Angels - which Jim have said have a measure of Free Will, enough to rebel anyway) I wonder whether the River People and Big Foots/Yetis etc choices affect Creation in the same way as humans.
It's too confusing to explain in a direct fashion so, consider seven branches where the Red Cap exists. He's needed to fight at the Gates. How many Redcaps answer the call and show up at the Gate? All seven? If there is only one gate, that is the question you're left to answer.
Jim has hinted at something like this with Toot Toot. When he needs to know Russian, he knows Russian.
I think your premise might be false there...I think there is more than Outer Gate (bear in mind Harry just saw one Gate) and they are called the Outer
Gates plural. So I think each parallel version of Winter/defenders of Gates exist in each reality separately. So if the Red Cap is to defend the Gate, he defends his Universes, not Spider Man's or an alternate Harry Dresden timeline. Think on the fact that Jim and several characters have reminded Harry that within the Contiuum of parallel Earth's/Universes that Spider-Man, Star Wars and Alternate Harry Dresden all exist within Jim's multiverse. Jim even once made a joke (with a wink) that who would write several novels in separate Universes and actually secretly have them all connected in the same Multiverse (btw this is not uncommon, many writers have done this, and this story smacks of when he talks of how he created the Dresden Files when he didn't realise how crazy it was to write a massive 20-something book series).
Where did you get that hint on Toot? Very interesting info there if true. I think we can safely assume the Adversary did not get every Aurora as there would be still an nemfected mantle in play. Aurora's human self (assuming she was a scion or mortal who received the mantle, and not like Toot or Leah and comes from the original stock) is not multiverse spanning. That is impossible by the nature of Free Will - you cannot create choice if you exist in all possible choices all at once. I agree that mostly your choices are made well before you choose them (the same discussion around consciousness also discussed how it is likely that most of our "thinking" is actually done like computers do - in back of house systems that are far faster and more efficient than our consciousness, and so our choices are made long before we realise even in the moment, let alone in advance. It is our illusion of being self aware that creates the problem here) which is our advantage over the humble atom or even a mouse - we can be aware of what we are thinking and doing and
change. That in itself is very significant - and how you might "cross the road" as you put it.
And yes your post did make sense - I found it very intriguing.