King Arthur's Scabbard

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Shape is the physical structure of an object, form is what it is.

[g33k]

We have no idea how long she was Lady, she may have ascended at the time of the Conqueror.

FWIW, we don't even know that she was ever the Lady!  If both the prior Lady and the prior Queen died in the same battle, Mother Winter might have grabbed 2 unexpected choices -- even mortals! -- straight into those roles.

... the actual quote in Battle Ground Chapter 13 “This was never about raising an army, fool' Mavra hissed. 'It was about acquiring new blood for the stars and stones.” Add a comma after blood and the sentence changes completely, she is cursing ...

I don't think so.  Add that comma, and the phrase "for the stars and stones" becomes more ambiguous, not clearly a curse (which would be "by the stars and stones" (akin to the curse "by God")).

But if this is a crucial hint/foreshadowing, I think Jim would have taken special care to get it right; no typos are likely.

... I still have no idea WTF Starborn means. Unfortunately I suspect neither does Jim.

I'm quite sure you're wrong on that last part.  Our inability to be sure of the meaning (based almost-entirely upon the "unreliable narrator" elements -- and, largely, the complete ignorance -- of Harry himself) is intentional on Jim's part.

But Jim has been using "Starborn" and "Stars and Stones" for YEARS now; hse even had Eb point out that Harry himself had no idea (and therefore neither do we!) what "stars and stones" even means.

We know "Starborn" is a potential, shared by those (presumably those with wizard/magical power) born under a certain configuration of portents (mostly astrological; but perhaps not entirely?).

We know the Starborn have particular power over Outsiders, and resistance to Outsider powers; we surmise this is a reaction to the Outsiders by Creation itself (or by the Almighty (or by one of his agents (looking at you, Uriel!))).

[seanham]

I agree to an extent with the star born thing, especially since we are now finding them under every other rock in the story.  So if they are really relatively common, what is so special about them and why the secrecy?

I am not sure why you are saying that Star Borns are common. I can only think of a few that we know of for sure, Harry, Listen, the Gatekeeper, and Drakul. There may be a few more I'm missing but this is only a very small handful of characters out of the entire "cast" of characters and even smaller when compared to the world population.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

FWIW, we don't even know that she was ever the Summer Lady!  If both the prior Lady and the prior Queen died in the same battle, Mother Winter might have grabbed 2 unexpected choices -- even mortals! -- straight into those roles.
I don't think so.  Add that comma, and the phrase "for the stars and stones" becomes more ambiguous, not clearly a curse (which would be "by the stars and stones" (akin to the curse "by God")).

But if this is a crucial hint/foreshadowing, I think Jim would have taken special care to get it right; no typos are likely.
I'm quite sure you're wrong on that last part.  Our inability to be sure of the meaning (based almost-entirely upon the "unreliable narrator" elements -- and, largely, the complete ignorance -- of Harry himself) is intentional on Jim's part.

But Jim has been using "Starborn" and "Stars and Stones" for YEARS now; hse even had Eb point out that Harry himself had no idea (and therefore neither do we!) what "stars and stones" even means.

We know "Starborn" is a potential, shared by those (presumably those with wizard/magical power) born under a certain configuration of portents (mostly astrological; but perhaps not entirely?).

We know the Starborn have particular power over Outsiders, and resistance to Outsider powers; we surmise this is a reaction to the Outsiders by Creation itself (or by the Almighty (or by one of his agents (looking at you, Uriel!))).

I am saying Jim deliberately left the comma out to troll the fans. He can blame Harry as an unreliable narrator. Clearly Mavra is exasperated that one of their number really hasn’t been listening and when she talks about fresh blood, she is thinking about replacing them with someone with a longer attention span.

It is a curse which Harry picked up from Eb. Eb is in the direct line of descent Master to Apprentice from the Merlin who was an eye witness, something like 9 generations.

[Fcrate]

Mab if Arthurian would be about 1700 years old and existing solely within the causal flow of time. Ethnui like the gods, dragons and angels existed before then so has also existed the entire flow of time. Ethnui is describing Mab’s relative youth compared to the beings she counts almost or previously as peers like Odinnor Ferro. Ethnui is a gist against the young

It must therefore have especially galling to lose to the mewling babe, the newborn Starborn Harry Dresden.

So you're saying that a titan, who has never been human, and thinks of humans as cockroaches, understands that adolescent humans have pimples, and uses it as an insult to relate to relative youth? I highly doubt that. More likely it was literal.
I'm not sure that Mab was ever a Lady, anyway.

[g33k]

So you're saying that a titan, who has never been human, and thinks of humans as cockroaches, understands that adolescent humans have pimples, and uses it as an insult to relate to relative youth? I highly doubt that. More likely it was literal.
I'm not sure that Mab was ever a Lady, anyway.

Maybe young mortal Mab was pimply-faced, and got elevated straight into Winter's royalty by Extreme Events.

Or maybe she's just grabbing a colloquial insult she had heard used, without really understanding it.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

The Murphyonic effect which prevents Harry from using technology has evolved, it used to turn milk and to cause pimples and boils amongst practitioners. We know Mab was originally a human practitioner, it is therefore highly likely that as a mortal practitioner 1,700 years ago she had pimples and other skin blemishes. Every practitioner would have. Ethnui’s dig isn’t just at her comparative youth, but also her mortal origins both of which Ethnui looks down upon compared to the older established non-human members of the Accords.

Ethnui alludes to Mab’s human origin at other times during Peace Talks and Battle Ground in a derogatory fashion. Taking on a Mantle would have erased all the skin blemishes.

Given that none of the Senior Council exhibit the remnants of skin blemishes  this shift would have occurred before the last 4-5 centuries. Rashid who is older than this habitually wears a cowl hiding his face in shadows and leather gloves hiding his hands. Perhaps habit from his pimply youth?

[g33k]

The Murphyonic effect which prevents Harry from using technology has evolved, it used to turn milk and to cause pimples and boils amongst practitioners ...

I recall the "sour milk..." but not the pimples & boils (I thought that was traditionally seen as one of the chief effects the Evil Eye could inflict on victims; not practitioners)

Also, some traditions say that a witch always has an "ugly mole" somewhere on the body.  Personally -- not knowing the exact origins -- I suspect the less of being a genuine "folkloric" tradition, and more of being the invention of some pervy medieval inquisitor-type, who wanted an excuse to strip women naked.

... We know Mab was originally a human practitioner ...

Do we?  I'm not up on my WoJ's.  We know she was mortal, but do we also know she was a practitioner (or anything of her "practice")?

...
Given that none of the Senior Council exhibit the remnants of skin blemishes  this shift would have occurred before the last 4-5 centuries. Rashid who is older than this habitually wears a cowl hiding his face in shadows and leather gloves hiding his hands. Perhaps habit from his pimply youth?

Once the "aura of ugly" moved to become the "Murphyonic field," I presume the wizardly "healing factor" would have fixed most scars &c.  I'm pretty sure the modern version is newer than 4 centuries old, however.  I bet it's newer than 200 years.