Quote Originally Posted by Drolyt View Post
Also, as regards Faerie
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does this mean the summer and winter courts, or even all of faerie itself was created for the purpose of defending the Dresdenverse (is there an official name for this?)? Were all faeries originally mortal? How did this system come about anyways?
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Most likely Faerie just "is" like any other part of the Nevernever, and they were given/took on the job of protecting against Outsiders because they're the group of immortals most concerned with and connected with the natural world, so (A) they have a vested interest in keeping the Outsiders out, as opposed to fallen angels that might hold a grudge against the world or Black Court vampires who have nothing to lose or similar, and (B) they're basically everywhere that nature is whereas the old gods, vampires, etc. seem more geographically restricted.

We haven't seen any other faction yet that exists for something--the White Court, for instance, are all about preying on mortals but they weren't (so far as we know) specifically created by the White God or anyone else to serve as a predator on humans--and we haven't seen evidence yet that any one creature or faction created everything with a Plan in mind, so I think it's leaping to conclusions to assume Faerie has a Purpose they were created to fulfill.

As for the whole mantles-of-power system, I always took that to essentially be the Faerie method of reproduction. Immortal beings who don't reproduce in the usual way but can be killed or otherwise removed need to have some way to keep their numbers up, so the passing of mantles from particularly powerful or significant individuals to keep their power and identities around is sort of like an adaptation that the magical natural selection of the Nevernever provided them. So there was likely an original set of Mab and the rest that didn't start off as mortals, but by now almost everyone (probably with the exception of the Mothers) has been killed and transferred at least once.