The Dresden Files > DF Reference Collection
Who Attacked Arctis Tor, and Why
Griffyn612:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on February 14, 2015, 02:43:07 PM ---the Hellfire blowing the doors in and killing the trolls and goblins being by a Denarian working for Mab, with the intent of letting Harry in to kill the Scarecrow and rescue Molly, fits together and is different from either of those two; and it doesn't even (necessarily) involve time-travel.
--- End quote ---
A single Denarian killing thousands of Arctis Tor defenders for Mab, only to let Harry in? Why not just order all of the defenders away from Arctis Tor as part of the guard-the-borders program that was running? You don't needlessly waste resources, you don't put yourself into debt (or cash in a token) for something unnecessary, and you don't pretend to make yourself look vulnerable.
Eldest Gruff:
--- Quote from: namkcas on February 14, 2015, 04:10:32 AM ---So, I have enjoyed the many thoughtful posts in this thread. It has led me to another question. I don't have a theory yet, but wanted to post it to allow others to add it to the questions here.
If the WoJ is that Mab is as powerful as stated, then why did she the attack on Arctus Tor to continue? It seems to me that given the location that she could have shown up and pretty much crushed any attacking force. Which leads me to ask, why do we think Winter was defending? If Mab was distracted, Maeve could have been in control of Arctus Tor and that the battle was an attempt to retake it.
--- End quote ---
I see one of two possibilities for this coupled with Maeve being in control of the forces at that time...possibly her failure hinted to Mab that something was seriously wrong with her. But either theory requires Mab to be 'indisposed'.
Option 1: Mab was AT the Outer Gates. We know from Rashid that certain years the battling is more intense than others. The Red Court's decimating of the Council forces coupled with their 'invasion' of Fae territory in the NeverNever was both done with the help of them calling up Outsiders. What if a subsequent or parallel push was made at the Gates themselves, enough that Mab HAD to step in even if just briefly. This is either a plan to get her away from Arctis Tor to attack it, OR they are just opportunistic enough to take advantage while she is gone and Maeve is probably in charge with Lea incapacitated.
Option 2: Mab was busy curing Lea. This is admittedly the weaker of the two choices because we still don't have nearly enough information regarding Nemesis, how it infects, and what it takes to rid a person of their influence. But supposing for a moment that it requires someone more or less of Mab's power to eradicate it thoroughly from the system, that could take some working...maybe she has to slip into Lea's consciousness and actively burn Nemesis away. As she is busy at work, enemy forces are at the gate ready to strike because Maeve has informed them she is in charge while Mab sees to Lea.
Either way I think overall Maeve WAS in control of the forces at Arctis Tor for some reason or another. Whether Mab is at the Gates or in Lea's head she could still be aware of what is going on around her, (hence the statue wink), but could not pull away from one of those tasks because doing so would mean she lost something...either a pivotal battle, or her right hand woman.
Carl:
My best guess of what happened given we've seen nashciel, (spelling? sry), and tessa since, and they're probably the only two that could have pulled it off, is that the denarian was just hired to blow in the doors and wisely GTFOOH'd after doing so. The main attack was outsider plus Black Council who'd summoned them. A whole metric ton of them. Assuming Mab won't to mostly avoid friendly fire at first she's going to have to target her attacks carefully and the outsiders are pretty magic resistance so she could genuinely have issues hitting more than a handful at once from a simple power control PoV. Eventually the attackers start to win through and Mab decides to invoke the Nuclear option and just mass cleanse the whole of Arctis Tor Fae and Outsider alike.
Also semi-related WAG. Anyone want to bet Arctis Minor is now positioned on the NN side of the Carpenter household?
Griffyn612:
Just going to add this for consideration.
--- Quote from: Butcher, Jim (2007-02-06). Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files, Book 8) (p. 299-302). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition. ---The bones piled higher as I went, forcing me to walk atop them as best I could.
...
Bones spilled out in a wave from the gate, rapidly tapering off after a few yards. Beyond that were only scattered groupings of bones.
...
The remains of perhaps a thousand creatures lay scattered about.
...
“These trolls were her personal guard.” I gestured back at the gate. “Covering her retreat to the tower, maybe. Some of them got taken down along the way. The others made a stand at the tower’s base. Died there.”
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Butcher, Jim (2012-11-27). Cold Days: A Novel of the Dresden Files (p. 332). Penguin Group. Kindle Edition. ---But I had noticed something. Those layers and mounds of shale? They weren’t shale. They were bones. Millions and millions and millions of fucktons of bones.
--- End quote ---
Harry clearly describes piles of bones lying in the remnants of Arctis Tor's defenses. The only other time I can recall piles of bones is in COLD DAYS, describing the bones of the fallen guards at the gates. There would seem to be a correlation there.
And I can't see Mab sacrificing at least a dozen or more of her personal guard along with a thousand other troops just to let Harry stroll into Arctis Tor. If Harry is right, then whoever was attacking Arctis Tor had Mab retreating. That's got to be a seriously powerful coalition of troops, even if they were someone like the Circle with Outsider support. It makes me think of the horde of Outsiders we saw in COLD DAYS storming Demonreach.
Of course, maybe the bones weren't all defenders. Maybe they were the attackers too. Maybe it was Circle and Ramps and Outsiders and others all working together, and some of those bones are Ramps and such. But still, I can't see all of that being a setup for Harry walking in to save Molly.
peregrine:
Pretty sure the similarity between the two situations with bones is that there were a lot of dead bodies around.
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