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The Dresden Files/Characters/The Fae: Difference between revisions
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== '''The Fae''' ==
Exactly as the name implies, these guys are [[The Fair Folk]]. They're mostly divided into the warring Summer and Winter Courts, with those outside the Courts known as "wyldfae." The Fae are ruled by a Byzantine series of laws and restrictions that govern how various members of each Court can act, but they have become masters at working within these restrictions. For example, as a rule they [[Can Not Tell a Lie]], but they're absolutely ruthless rules lawyers about [[Exact Words]], and being in debt to a faerie is... bad, to say the least. They range in power from the relatively harmless (pixies) to the greater-than-godlike (Mother Summer and Mother Winter). Luckily for the [[Puny Earthlings]], all Fae have an [[Achilles' Heel]]: iron and steel will burn them and cut through their magic instantly.
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: Iron and steel in general, which is considered the equivalent of toxic waste. Leaving iron objects in Faerie is considered a dire insult.
* [[Can Not Tell a Lie]]
* [[The Dragon]]: Both of the Courts have a Knight who serve as agents for the Queens to carry out their will in the mortal world, as the Queens are unable to directly harm or kill any mortal who does not first either attack them or otherwise represent the opposing Court. The Knights are mortals given some of the power of their Queen, making them far tougher, stronger, and swifter, as well as giving them powers related to their Court, i.e. the Summer Knight gaining power related to flame, while the Winter Knight gains power related to ice.
* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: Fundamental to their nature. If you harm a faerie, they ''must'' harm you back. Obtain power from them, and they ''must'' gain power from you in return. If you make a deal based on something you provide then and there, you're not going to have a problem. But if you make an open-ended trade, then you're going to regret it. This is also why they don't like charity, as an act of kindness ''obligates'' them to return the favor.
* [[Exact Words]]
* [[The Fair Folk]]
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* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: If her name alone isn't enough, try on her titles for size: "The Queen of Air and Darkness" for starters. Incidentally, her name comes from a line in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' and the title is from, appropriately enough, Celtic mythology.
* [[Out-Gambitted]]: {{spoiler|Harry tried to escape his deal with Mab by setting up a [[Thanatos Gambit]]. But he never expected Mab to team up with [[Genius Loci|Demonreach]] to bring him back to life.}}
* [[Speak of the Devil]]: Say her name three times, and she must appear.
== '''Leanansidhe "Lea"''' ==
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Harry's [[Our Fairies Are Different|fairy]] [[The Fair Folk|godmother.]] The second most powerful being in the Winter Court, next only to Mab. Genuinely cares about Harry, and for a long while tried her best to keep him safe... by [[Baleful Polymorph|turning him into a hound.]] Is strongly suspected to be batshit insane.
* [[Axe Crazy]]: well, in many of her appearances, but not always. Other times she's nice enough.
* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: She simply doesn't ''get'' human standards of morality.
* [[Can Not Tell a Lie]]
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{{quote|"Even in Winter, the cold isn’t always bitter, and not every day is cruel."}}
* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Has shades of this, some of her behaviors are noted by Harry to have "a childish glee" or similar.
* [[Sink or Swim Mentor]]: varies between this and straight-out [[Evil Mentor]]. Fortunately, she has a much more limited amount of influence over Harry than his other mentors. {{spoiler|''Un''fortunately, Molly is a different story...}}
* [[Stealth Mentor]]: She claims that many of her efforts to attack Harry were actually this.
* [[Skunk Stripe]]: In ''Changes''.
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* [[Bigger Is Better]]: The Gruffs come in waves, with each "older brother" bigger, stronger and tougher than the last. Then subverted: the Eldest Gruff is barely 5 feet tall and yet is orders of magnitude more dangerous than any of the others.
* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: Most other faeries hunt with swords or magic. The gruffs? ''Machineguns''. The others aren't slackers at nasty fighting either; the youngest brothers ambush Harry with a feint and surprise attack.
** The gruffs also won't shy away from bringing "temp agents" to help out; Thomas is hunted by faerie elves while masquerading as Harry, and later on the boat carrying Harry is attacked by kelpies: plant faeries apparently made of seaweed.
** Tiny is actually very much a pragmatist as well. He won't attack Harry while he's inside MacAnally's, but he has no qualms about waiting right outside to crush him the moment he leaves. Also, when he storms the subway station, he does so under a ''huge'' combat veil; this doesn't generally get noticed because Harry triggered the fire sprinklers, which instantly grounded out the magic being used by the veil.
** It is played straight in one instance. {{spoiler|When Harry uses cold iron against them, even though they're way out of his league and would have easily killed him, they consider it [[Disproportionate Retribution]].}}
* [[Friendly Enemy]]: The gruffs don't despise Harry; in fact, Tiny and Eldest express both respect for his ability and regret at having to fight him.
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* [[My Master, Right or Wrong]]: The gruffs are disturbed at having to fight Harry, who is someone they deeply respect.
* [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse]]: Eldest Gruff can swat fallen angels like uppity pixies and has killed ''three'' members of the Senior Council in duels over the years. He's five foot three, at most.
* [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]: Each "wave" of gruffs is significantly smarter and tougher.
== '''Lady Aurora''' ==
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* [[Bigger Is Better]]: He's nine feet tall.
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: Well, two scene wonder. He pops up again in ''Changes'', and is similarly cool.
* [[Our Goblins Are
* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Genuinely respects and likes Harry, and even spared his life because the dinosaur thing was just that cool. Still plans to hunt him down one of these days.
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* [[The Pornomancer]]: She's able to tempt damn near anyone out of their pants. The fact that Harry (a human) can resist her drives her into out-and-out shock.
* [[Unskilled but Strong]]: When Will is made nervous by the waves of cold pouring off of her as she does magic, Harry points out that isn't an indicator of power, it's a sign that she's not controlling her magic properly. Still the Winter Lady though. And it could have been an act.
* [[Walking Wasteland]]: Flowers wither in her prescense.
* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Her hair is in dreadlocks, and every lock is dyed a differnt color, mostly blues, greens, and purples, in order to look like a glacier.
** [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance]]: [[An Ice Person]] with glacier-hair? Textbook example.
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One of Mab's retainers, the Scarecrow is an old and powerful faerie known as a fetch: a shapeshifting creature that feeds on fear and serves as Winter's enforcers, assassins, and messengers. Most fetches assume forms of creatures or people that their targets fear, i.e. movie horror monsters in the modern era, but these are simply illusionary forms or constructs made of ectoplasm. The Scarecrow, however, is old enough that he can shape his entire body to resemble his namesake: a massive, pumpkin-headed monster made out of old, supernaturally-powerful vines and roots covered in rags. The Scarecrow is behind the fetch attacks on the horror movie convention in ''Proven Guilty'' and {{spoiler|kidnapped Molly}}, though not all is as it seems....
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: Like all faeries, fetches are vulnerable to iron. As a Winter fae, Scarecrow is vulnerable to fire, too, particularly fire conjured by Summer. However, Scarecrow and his fetch minions are also vulnerable to those who are not afraid of them; they can neither sense them nor use their fear as a shield or source of power. {{spoiler|A fearless Harry wielding Summer fire is enough to panic Scarecrow.}}
* [[Anti-Magic]]: Harry slaps him with a Hellfire-boosted force attack with enough power behind it to knock him over Lake Michigan. Scarecrow walks through it without flinching. Later on it is implied that this works through fear; as long as the one tossing magic is afraid, Scarecrow can block their attacks.
* [[Badass]]: Massive and powerful enough to take on Harry, Mouse, and Thomas and maintain the upper hand.
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* [[Voluntary Shapeshifting]]: With the Scarecrow as his [[Shapeshifter Default Form]]. He only changes shape once during the novel, when {{spoiler|trying to escape from Harry as a flying creature. Harry, however, is great at anti-air fire.}}
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