And this is different from sacrifice how? If anything, it's "human sacrifice with extra torture (training) steps". Because you don't get to retire. You die. Horrifically, at the hands of outsiders. End of story.
This is not true.
Soldiers live and fight. Many die. We know fuckall about what happens to Winter's tributes after they are recruited; the fact that they dont go back to their tribes is not the same thing as never retiring or being a sacrifice.
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I hasten to disappoint you [
1,
2]. Archeological evidence of child sacrifice by vikings exists.
Thanks.
Thats stronger evidence, but not conclusive as to goals.
Compare this to reports of Inca religion, where children are selected from the community, fattened for several months/years, and then sacrificed. With records being substantiated by the discovery of well-preserved bodies where the cause of death could be substantiated forensically
en.wikipedia.org
I'm not even talking about the tribute situation I'm just talking about the mythological situation of fairies just do take children in the night sometimes that is just a thing they do and everything we see about Dresden Files it seems to suggest nothing about that has changed in fact everything we see in Dresden files seems to suggest that it's worse now than it was even in the past simply because there are more children just to take if they get lost at night somewhere because no one's caring around the iron to Ward away fairies while they're out at night.
Again the lord of the hang the ill-fated one believe it or not not really opposed to Human Sacrifice at all to the point where there's significant records of Vikings performing sacrifices and At Trelleborg a sacrificial site was found from the time before the Viking fortress was erected in 980-81. In five c. 3 metre-deep wells human and animal skeletons were found, together with jewellery and tools. Of the total of five human sacrifices, four were young children aged between 4 and 7. Source National museum of Denmark.
Not in the Dresden Files as written. Fae cant just take children without some sort of justification/agreement.
As far as I know, that hasnt changed.
Even changelings in the Dresdenverse appear to be primarily raised by their human parent.
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There is allegedly pretty good historical evidence of the sacrifice of enemy prisoners in Norse culture, and also slaves on the death of important people to accompany them to the underworld.
Children less so.
I hate to be defending the Norse here, but there isnt sufficient evidence to conclusively tie specifically child sacrifice as a part of their
religious practice.
Trelleborg is strong evidence of child sacrifice, but not really conclusive of it being a religious thing.
@uju32 I will admit I don't really get the need to try and soften the image of mab the queen of Air darkness and Odin killer of Yimr even just from a mythological standpoint he's like a Mega murderer just like all the time and for a lot of different beings he's literally drowned entire Realms in Blood and killed all of their occupants except for two before. All of the old gods and their contemporaries are so why even make pretend that they weren't. People and beings are capable of changing with the times even if at their core they're still the same beings that's part of the problem that most of the people that read Dresden Files have with Mab she was an evil fairy leading Romeo to his death when Shakespeare wrote about her and she still is a evil fairy all of the Winter Court is still exactly the same not at all changing with the times Still Loving eating people Still Loving kidnapping children still just being awful Odin despite having a lot of reasons not to change apparently managed to get with the times but not Mab.
It'd be like reading Percy Jackson but all of the Gods act exactly like they do in Myth as in go around raping people killing people just generally being awful rather than having changed with the eras even if they are still generally detached and callous. Then rooting for the gods to win their War any of them.
There is literally no need to pretend either of them are good people or were good people at any point. They're useful now and they'll be useful later so we'll tolerate them for as long as we need to. Do you think anyone would put up with map just herself the way that she acts both the implacable and Ill diplomatic manner that she puts up if they had any other option that wasn't another kind of fairy just in the opposite direction well diplomatic but extremely prone to emotion. Just like the skinwalker is useful just like the queen is useful just like Odin is useful this God can be useful in this situation.
Im being lore accurate as per Butcher's stated intent and portrayal of the Fae in the Dresdenverse.
The fae who eat people still exist; if a spider fae or a bridge troll catches you in its territory, it will treat you like a prey animal. Wyldfae goblins will happily torture you to death.
Mab isnt supposed to be evil in the Dresdenverse, and the more the protagonist gets to associate with her, the more he begins to see through the public image to the person underneath.
A little alien, sure. Ruthless, vindictive, hell yes. Evil, no.