Not always. They're kind of sloppy with the term. Sometimes wizards aren't considered mortals and sometimes they are.
Perhaps, but really what is meant is the difference between the supernatural community and the natural one; muggles and magical worlds (to use JK Rowling's term). When they refer to Mortal Magic (such as when summoning Outsiders) there is a qualitative difference between it and vampire magic, yet also seems to be a difference between Faeries and their Monarchs, between Gods and their servants. Jim is rather loose with his terms, but that is probably because the terms
are loose intrinsically, and so is their usage today. It would be more helpful if Jim had specific nouns for such things, but I imagine he didn't want the reader to need a glossary to read his book (rather like another famous author).
Dead is dead, there may be conditions, times, and places only that they can be killed.. But dead is dead. That is why I mentioned that Jim seems to be going by Tolkien's rule for elves, they are immortal for the most part, but they can be killed in battle, lots of dead elves haunting the Dead Marshes for example.
Titania wouldn't be so upset if she knew for a fact that Aurora would live again, she isn't.
Actually, dead isn't dead - at least not in the Dresden Files anyway. We may not know about the Fae afterlife (or if they have one) but we have been repeatedly told that death is a squishy line, a spectrum of colors in the Dresden Files. Titania was upset that her daughter was gone beyond her reach. But even regular people who believe in an afterlife get upset when a loved one dies. Why should Titania be any different? Life has more meaning than the idea that we do or do not get an afterlife.
Except your Tolkien analogy is not strong enough. Tolkien's elves were eternally young, and immune to disease. But could be killed by conventional methods, such as in battle or by falling over and breaking their neck. They had a "mortal" biology. Immortals, at least in the Dresden Files, are not like that. If they can be damaged at all, they always eventually regenerate, with the will returning to the beings corporeal form. However, in the specific circumstances I have previously mentioned, the beings essence is changed. Perhaps they are absorbed, or the energy moves to another host (such as the Mantle of the Winter Lady to Molly), I suspect that couldn't have happened in almost any other circumstances. Consider the Mothers to Harry in Summer Knight:
"But think, wizard. How was it done? Theft is theft, whether the prize is food, or riches, or beauty or power."
Since it didn't seem to matter either way, I did my thinking out loud. "When something is stolen a couple of things can happen to it. It can be carried away where it cannot be reached."
"Hoarded," Summer put in. "Such as the dragons do."
"Yeah, okay. Uh, it can be destroyed."
"No, it can't," Mother Winter said. "Your own sage tells you that. The German fellow with the wild hair."
"Einstein," I muttered. "Okay, then, but it can be rendered valueless. Or it can be sold to someone else."
Mother Summer nodded. "Both of which are change. "
I held up a hand. "Hold it, hold it. Look, as I understand it, this power of the Summer Knight, his mantle, it can't just exist on its own. It has to be inside a vessel."
"Yes," Winter murmured. "Within one of the Queens, or within the Knight."
This is pretty much exactly what Bob is talking about, but on a much more significant scale. The power within Immortals can't be stolen under normal circumstances, their essences cannot be hoarded, rendered valueless, given away or absorbed. If you think of the vessel of immortality being a time-lock safe, and the power within is the valuables, it can only be opened at certain times (or in the case of immortals, certain places too).
Morris is right, don't get too hung up on the standard definition of the word immortal. Jim has reinvented the term to fit his own purposes within his universe. Go off that evidence. If you go off the standard definition, then nothing (not Uriel, not the Fallen, not even the White God) would be immortal - at least according to the series. But they
are a category in the series, and therefore must be examined from that base, not from our own notions. Note what Bob actually says in this passage:
"I know how to kill an immortal."
"Like Maeve?" I asked him.
"Maeve," Bob said. "Mab. Mother Winter. Any of them"
...
If the skull knew how to subtract the im from immortal
Any of them. Any immortal is mortal on Earth on Halloween. Uriel is in that category. Although you actually have to be able to still damage them, which might be hard enough anyway. And they still will fight back probably.
Consider this as well:
“Because there’s no reason for it,” Bob said, his tone unhappy. “I mean, when Maeve dies, there will just be another Maeve.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Bob sighed. “You keep thinking of the Faerie Queens as specific individuals, Harry,” Bob said. “But they aren’t individuals. They’re mantles of power, roles, positions. The person in them is basically an interchangeable part.”
“What, like being the Winter Knight is?”
“Exactly like that,” Bob said. “When you killed Slate, the power, the mantle, just transferred over to you. It’s the same for the Queens of Faerie. Maeve wears the mantle of the Winter Lady. Kill her, and you’ll just get a new Winter Lady.”
“Maybe that’s what Mab wants,” I said.
“Doesn’t track,” Bob said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because the mantle changes whoever wears it.”
My guts felt suddenly cold.
(I’m not Lloyd Slate.)
(Neither was he. Not at first.)
“Doesn’t matter who it is,” Bob prattled on. “Over time, it changes them. Somewhere down the line, you wouldn’t be able to find much difference between Maeve and her successor. Meet the new Maeve. Same as the old Maeve.”
I swallowed. “So . . . so Lily, who took the Summer Lady’s mantle after I killed Aurora . . .”
“It’s been what? Ten years or so? She’s gone by now, or getting there,” Bob said. “Give it another decade or two, tops, and she might as well be Aurora.”
Just because the safe is unlocked, doesn't mean that the valuables are lost. The will that drives the mantle changes, but the mantle can be left intact.
In fact there are only a few ways we know of to truly get rid of Immortals. Banishment to oblivion, by causing humanity to forget them is one way. Absorbing them into another being and creating something else would be another.
Morris - Thank you, you understand the issue. To answer your problem, it is because they wouldn't have died, they would have reformed. They would have been released on November 1st and therefore the banefire would have only put them down for a while, not in any permanent sense. Possibly that is why Maeve was angry...it is certainly implied to some degree. But it could also be that she wanted to be the favorite. At the end of the day, she eventually gave up. Also, I think it rather defeats the purpose if you kill most of the mortals - an explosion that separated a continent might well end life on Earth. Think about what one meteor did for the dinosaurs!
Arjan - Maeve may not have been unhappy with the job originally. Consider that. Molly has only just begun her career. She might feel differently in 50 years or 100 years when all her family is dead.
g33k - I quite agree that he might have done it for that reason, but it was inelegantly done. It creates conflicts!
