Poor Spring Court, no one wants to play them.

Anyway, I'm looking at creating a character that's associated with the Autumn Court, in a game where Summer has a lot of power. It seems like we're going to create the fluff for Autumn from the ground up, and the GM has let me know he's reviewing my proposals, and working on some ideas of his own. But that leaves me thinking about what sort of power the court will have, and by extension, my character.

Autumn is a shadow of what it was, with barely any power of its own, let alone to grant. Refresh is 7.

The obvious option is to be the Autumn Knight, and take some sort of Faerie magic similar to Seelie and Unseelie. I was searching around and found the terms Adseelie and Abseelie, for Spring and Autumn respectively, and I like them. They have a real positive and negative, adding and subtracting feel to them. So as I was saying, the obvious choice for Knight is to take Abseelie Magic, which would involve... what? Weakening? Decay? Harvest? Chill? Halloween? Turning things gorgeous red and gold colors?

Other options are a changling, or a mortal/minor talent who is somehow bound by the court, and right now I'm leaning toward either the Knight or Minor Talent Template.

Please let me know if you have ideas for powers, purviews, and how the Autumn court would get stuff done despite being so anemic!

Well a couple of thoughts here. Since Autumn is the period of change between summer and winter change could be a power, chaos, uncertainty. It could also be that the court's role is as an intermediary, negotiating between parties (historically the changeover from summer to winter) but have been used/hired in other affairs, maybe they are the intermediaries for settling disputes between the accords?

Just because the Autumn Court is lesser known doesn't have to necessarily mean they are weaker, it could just mean they have less dealings with the mortal world. They could be of equal or even greater power but just haven't had as much dealing with the mortal world.

Or on the contrary they are fading/dying from the mortal purview and in desperation they put the bulk of their remaining power into a champion to bring them back to the forefront of peoples' minds and restore the court to prominence once again.

Just some idle thoughts for you to bounce around.

I would if at all possible love to see what fluff you've developed thus far but just based upon what you've offered up so far I would say. . . . ( insert drum roll) . . . .

Autumn is entropy a transition from fervent life and creation to death and winter. All of the things you listed would be great and they are all effects of entropy/ death: weakening=entropy, decay=entropy, chill=?hmmm? Not sure kind of kills my all or nothing statement (ignores and moves on. . . . Unless it's they chill caress of death?), Halloween= like the epitome of this the barrier is weak and degraded death and life are closer than any other time, harvest=the reaping time (entropy/death), the leaves changing color= Bamm!! Also entropy.

I'd say channeling entropy, and seeing the dead would be amazingly appropriate. . .

However we shouldn't forget that autum is the time of toil, endurance and preparedness. As we work hard to prepare for winter and bring in the crops. It is a time of trepidation and celebration sandwiched between hardship.

So I guess add to the list things that would effect endurance, and heartiness on top of entropy, and the spirit world.???

I am more interested in the fluff and how you would want to handle that though.

For example a slaugh changling would be awesome. . . Or maybe just maybe how Celtic are you feeling?

Maybe you're the scion/ heir of autumn and Manannán mac Lir was once the king but is now lost/dead leaving an empty thrown and his sword Fragarach the answerer??? This could also work for a Knight but might not be as awesome.

Below are some links

The Slaugh

Manannán mac Lir

Mag Mell

Fragarach

As I went to bed last night I too was thinking of entropy for this though the professor summed it up much better than I had.

I was also thinking that depending on what you wanted to do with your character you'd have the option of balance as well, as Autumn balances out summer and winter during the transition. So if you wanted your character could take a balancing role, letting no power/faction gain control over another. as I somewhat stated before if you wanted a social character you could take an intermediary concept, working between groups to facilitate transition.

I know they are faerie powers already but glamours (change) may make a lot of sense.

So entorpy, change themed magic, balance...?

Hope that helps or stimulates some further thoughts.

For the record Prof I liked your thoughts on this

Why thank you sir, I too was thinking balance but wasn't sure how to express it via powers or magic. . .

Here are some threads from the JB Forums in the DFRPG Section (The 'Official' DFRPG Forums):

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/i...c,17813.0.html
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/i...c,18699.0.html

So (from reading the above links) I guess add hunting, fear, and storms to what we've said above?

Another idea (just tossing it out there), budding off of Dumptruck's "transition" idea, would be for there not to be an Autumn Court. Instead of a court directly related to the season, create a court that simply handles the transition between summer and winter (whether the transition take place as spring or autumn). Call it the Court of Balance or Court of Seasons or something like that. Give them a "circle of life" sort of theme.

Aleternately, you could create the Autumn Court as a subsect of the Winter Court. Not a separate court in and of itself, but sort of like a "separate department" within Winter.

I think it's important to remember that, in the Dresden-verse, the onset of Summer and Winter are determined by the turnover of the Stone Table. Since it's already determined that the table flips on the equinox, any new season-related courts have to draw their power from a different source. (Well, assuming you guys are playing official cannon.)

Also there's a solid case for representing spring and fall as chaotic rather than balanced.???

I quite like the idea of the spring court, myself. Creativity, rebirth, growth, and chaos. All absorbed into the realm of Summer, but with the Summer Lady having proven to be slightly less than capable of coping, maybe a little of that power has returned to the Spring court once again. Not enough to do anything significant, but enough to imbue a few chosen ones from the mortal world with the power of Spring, in the hope that they can use it and make enough of a difference that it will be mirrored in the fae realm.