So, in the OW entries for Slate, Fix, and the other Summer Knight, the catch for their Toughness power is "Trappings of Winter(for the Summer Knights)/Summer(for the Winter Knight)". My opinion, based on in-book anecdotes and logic, is that this is backwards. Summer Knights should have the catch "Trappings of Summer" and Winter Knights should have "Trappings of Winter". Now, I now this might initially sound crazy at first, so hang on to your britches as I explain myself.
Exhibit A: In Small Favor, Fix confronts Harry and Thomas while they are parked. There is snow outside, and it can be assumed that is rather cold weather. Fix is wearing unseasonably light clothing, and is noted to not be noticeably concerned about this. (If I remember the scene correctly.)
Exhibit B: In Proven Guilty, Lily provides protection for Harry's group from the environment of Mab's stronghold(Arctis Tor?), i.e. the extreme cold.
Exhibit C: In Changes, Harry acknowledges that despite being Winter Knight, he has no protection from the cold.
Now, what does this show us? That the Summer Knight has no trouble enduring the winter cold, that the Winter Knight is not protected from the cold, and that Summer magic can protect other people from the cold.
This makes sense. You cannot easily fight fire with fire, nor cold with cold. While it should be a simple matter for Fix to use his Summer Magic to keep himself warm, how can he use magic related to fire, heat, and growth to easily keep himself cool? If the Winter Knight went up against the Summer Knight and attacked him with Winter's Magic, the Summer Knight should be able to counter the cold, ice, and decay with his own heat, fire, and growth.
On the other hand, knowing that the Knights' power is granted by another higher power(the Queens), what possible reason would they have to give the Knights resistance to their own power(assuming they even could)? There is no reason. On the other hand, providing protection from the opposing court's themes makes a lot of sense and would serve to make the Knights more effective.
In conclusion, the Knights of the Faerie Courts should have the trappings of their own Court for catches, as they are explicitly and implicitly not resistant to them.
Exhibit C: In Changes, Harry acknowledges that despite being Winter Knight, he has no protection from the cold.
I think this has nothing to do with the winter Knight being vulnerable to cold...
It's just Harry being bashed by fate. Again.
Um, I've read Changes, but there's a sticky on the top of this forum that says not to use spoilers here. There's even a separate forum to talk about the game in relation to spoilers, and spoiler tags to black out things.
Reading some of the text above, I'd almost think that Harry has some relationship to the Winter Knight beyond what he had in Small Favors.
Richard
If your toughness power derives from faerie magic it makes sense that cold iron pierces it like all faerie junk. If Summer's tools are so poor against winter fae and their job is to counter them, why would their tools be ineffective? Same thing reversed.
The mortal knight tends to wield mortal weapons, iron based weapons. But if the summer and winter magics did not pierce the opposites so would the rest of the fey. Bane or no, each court would have to find a way to wield iron because they must assume the other side would.
Seems to me that the less dangerous option of throwing 'power' at each other is the only thing that keeps the courts from ruining faerie long term. Imagine if all the guns in the world fired depleted uranium rounds instead of lead.
I'm aware toot toot flits about with iron weapons but Harry's employment of the wild fey is still hugely unconventional. He is a drug dealer to tiny faeries after all.