Winter Court and Summer Court Balance of Power

[rientelfon]

Hey everyone,

From my understanding, there is a balance of power between the Summer Court and the Winter Court, but I was just wondering some suggestions on how to upset this balance. One way I know for sure is provided from the books, but that was just one instance and have never really discovered any other sources. What have you used or would you use to stir things up between the courts?

Thanks in advance!

[blackstaff67]

Kill off a Knight.
Recruit an extra Knight!
Unveil a new battleground that one side must have or occupy before the other gains dominance.
Gain/Lose a Lady.

[Haru]

Steal or destroy the Stone Table.
Get the wild fae to do lots of stuff that will sway large numbers of them to one side if called for a war. Then start a war.

[Theogony_IX]

Trap or capture any of the queens (though not the mothers really).
Push any of the queens into an action outside their normal realm of influence.
Invade a section of Faerie with enough force to demand a response from one or the other of the queens strong enough to leave them open.

[blackstaff67]

Oooh, oooh!  Leave LOTS of iron near one of their castles or on their most frequently traveled paths.  Liberally salt approaches with nails--they love that.  Seriously.

[rientelfon]

Thanks for the suggestions! 

I pondered about the adding a knight/lady. The book seems to frown pretty heavily against this actually insisting you keep the theme "There can only be one!".

[Haru]

It doesn't even have to be a knight. There are tons of positions a mortal could fill. We only know of the knight. There might even be positions that can be filled by fae or mortal alike, but having a mortal in that position could have all kinds of effects. Or better yet: having a winter changeling in a summer position and pushing him to choose to be fae, so the summer position will now be in winter's hands.

[Shaft]

Make arrangements for the Erlking to regain his past position of Autumn King.

Give Cthulu the keys to the Outer Gates.

[g33k]

Mess with the Mantles (this may not be possible... but if it is...)

Faerie-tales have selkies & swanmays & the like:  fey shapeshifters, who can shed a skin and become essentially-mortal; steal the skin and you have captured them.
So far as I can see, the Mantles of power are (non-physical?) "skins" that empower the leaders of the Courts.

(click to show/hide)

We already know that some Mantles can be taken off and put back on at will...  a being who "owns" the Mantle but is not "wearing" the Mantle is NOT acting in (nor obligated by) the empowered role of the Mantle-Bearer (I am wondering if that might just be the "fix" for Dresden's little Winter-Knight problem -- take off the Mantle, get his mind in order without one of the Queens getting into his head, and don it again ONLY when fulfilling his deal with Mab...