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Cowl and Kumori are...

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Yuillegan:
Cowl is Justin and Elaine is Kumori. Time to drag out this old theory again.

Cowl:
1. Cowl has appeared in several books - first notable one is Death Masks at the Bianca's ball. He delivers a gift (possibly nemfected) to several guests, but only confirmed through Mab about the Leansidhe. Morgana's Athame is traded for Amoracchius (Excalibur).
2. In Dead Beat Cowl mentions many things of significance happened that night, Dresden is only aware of a few of them. Cowl likely conspired with Mavra and Bianca and her progenitor (Ortega), who's wife Ariana was part of the group that Margaret Le Fey, the White King, and possibly Justin Dumorne were all a part of. A group that might have decided it was time for the White Council to end.
3. A shadowy figure sponsors and is seen in White Knight. Harry seems to recognise his magic as Cowl's. In this book, the Circle is mentioned for the first time.
4. Cowl is an expert at Evocation, Neuromancy, Veils, Ways and Necromancy. He also mentions his skill at swordplay. Why would Cowl have a sword? Most wizards do not carry them. But an ex-Warden would. All his magical skills and talents would make him an excellent warden (excluding the fact he can't use Necromancy).
5. Justin is likely a skilled Nueromancer - he enthralls Elaine before Harry gets to the confrontation.
6. Justin was in the assault on Kemmler. Cowl says he despised the "mad man" Kemmler, despite being his student. He may well have taken the opportunity to erase his enemy for his own ends.
7. Justin was Simon's apprentice. It is stated in Summer Knight that Simon's fortress was impregnable, and the Warden's forensics suggest that someone let them in past the defences. Eb says it would still have required someone who knew the place inside out. Justin is only discounted on being dead, but otherwise as a rogue Warden and Warlock would have been a candidate, who the Council suspect passed on the knowledge to Harry. Now we know that it wasn't Harry - so it doesn't leave much leeway.
9. Simon is said to have been found dead, along with the brute squad. Whilst it doesn't explicitly state his body was found, it would be a hell of a thing for them not to notice his missing corpse. A whole plot point in the series is built around how intolerable it would be to have a high-level wizard turned to the enemy. A missing Senior Council member might have provoked a stronger reaction.
10. We only have Harry's word that Justin died, and that he fought Justin in earnest. Most people thought is unlikely he beat Justin. Fires in stories tend to be useful covers for other events, a physical symbol of chaos.
11. Jim says Justin is dead. D-E-D dead. He has also said not to trust a word he says. JB has also described death as "a squishy line in the Dresdenverse"
12. Many characters, including Mab, have said Death is a spectrum.
13. Harry believed Elaine was dead. Harry was wrong. If he was wrong about her...
14. From a writing perspective, consider Star Wars (one of Jim's favourite stories). Luke is raised an orphan by others, his lovely aunt and uncle. He then goes on an apprenticeship with a wise old mentor. He is told his father was a Jedi, who his most feared enemy killed. Vader reveals he is Lukes father, which Luke is in denial about but realises must be true. Obi-wan does the fae-speak of half truths (When your father became Vader, he killed Anakin Skywalker). The trope of Harry thinking his foster father and first mentor is dead, who actually isn't would be a good technique and mess with Dresden's psychology majorly.
15. Cowl hides his face, the other Necromancer's do not. Harry suspects White Council. He might be right, but likely that is not the only reason. They even distort their voices. Vader hides his face too - and was a jedi once. Luke just did not know it.
16. Cowl wishes to end Death. Why? The Outsiders might want that, perhaps it would limit the power of TWG. But why would Cowl? Kumori seems to believe him. I suspect it is because he is traumatized by the Death of someone he loved.
17. Justin and Cowl both have links to HWWBH.
18. If Justin is dead, why no Death Curse?

Kumori:
1. Kumori is tall enough to hold a knife to Harry's neck - Harry is 6'9" roughly so not an easy feat.
2. Elaine is described as being tall, tall enough she only has to stretch a little to kiss him on the cheek.
3. Elaine is described as being a better at magic than Harry, while Harry is brawnier. She is skillful enough she is not worried about people seeing through her veils. 
4. Kumori seems to use less brawn and more subtler magic than Cowl; less of a duelist but still deadly.
5. Kumori is a distinctly japanese name.
6. Elaine uses japanese as her magic words.
7. Kumori shows compassion - she resurrects a dead gunman of Marcone's for apparently no other reason than because she thinks she should.
8. Elaine has shown much compassion for her fellows, whilst still distrusting the institution of the White Council.
9. Elaine was the Emmisary of Summer/Harry's opposite. She says she was part of the Summer Court for a long time. Summer has been involved unusually in the books. Mostly ambivalent or directly in contest with Dresden. Rarely against the foes of Dresden.
10. Kumori and Elaine show compassion for Dresden, but not so much that it impedes their goals.

Bit of a wild theory here. I believe Justin was in love with Maggie. They had a relationship and they both felt the White Council was too harsh and too rigid. Maggie and Justin had two children - Elaine and Harry (perhaps twins?). Elaine is older than Harry - he is always referred to as Margaret's youngest. When Maggie was killed by the White Court - Justin was furious. But he could not yet move against them. He finally gets his children back when Malcolm died. He raises them to be his disciples and enforces but it goes wrong and he either dies and is revived or fakes his own death. He finally gets his revenge by "accidentally" murdering half the White Court when his uber-ghouls start murdering everyone. He definitely would want to end Death as he is still grieving Maggie.

From a writing perspective (and fitting nicely with the Star Wars inspiration) - it would be a major shock to discover not only is Justin alive, but he is Cowl and been orchestrating all the terrible stuff in Dresden's life. It would also majorly freak Dresden out is he realised Elaine was his sister, something Justin would have definitely encouraged (like a good cult leader). It also matches the weird Luke-Leia thing. Finally, you might argue Dresden should have recognised Justin's magic. I think he sort of did without realising it. Cowl's magic is human, with a bit of Dark Magic in it - unlike the Mavra or even the Corpsetaker. Harry recognises so is his, which makes sense when you realise he was taught all the basics by Justin/Cowl. I also believe Justin will likely kill Ebenezar while he tries to protect Harry. Very common trope. Harry might find it very hard to be good when he realises his whole life is a lie, he was born to be a weapon, he commited incest (potentially) and that his mother was in on it for a long time. Harry is given power over Outsiders. Yes he uses this as a weapon - but perhaps the real purpose is to be a leader (very Hellboy in my mind).

Anyway, have at it. Let's debate this all again!

groinkick:
Main problem I think is it was inferred that Harry and Elaine had sex as teenagers......  I don't think Jim would do that if they were brother and sister.

ViperMagnum357:
Another one of these, eh? I will do what I usually do, and throw my hat in the ring for Kumori being Faith Astor. Never had a strong opinion on Cowl, oddly enough-that particular mystery just never interested me all that much.

Yuillegan:
Why not? It is messed up, so was that plot point in Star Wars. They never had any kid either - so despite that it is incest it causes no physical trouble. And even though the grew up together from 10 to 16, and even though it might be understandable they had sex (as they were both hormonal teens), it is still weird as even if they wern't blood relatives as they were closer to being brother and sister than just regular friends. I mean they shared the same bedroom, lived in the same house, lived as brother and sister in a way. Being blood related isn't all that stops people having sex (unfortunately history is full of people screwing their relatives, not to mention there are cases of it happening all the time), despite the danger to children born of incest. It is less weird in many ways to start having sex with someone you know a lot less well than a family member. It is very weird grow up with someone in the same house and then start having sex with them, even if you didn't know they were blood you probably still shouldn't be doing it. Knowing that someone is your blood relative should not be the main reason not to sleep with them.

Why Faith Astor? That seems quite out of left field.

ViperMagnum357:
I zeroed in on Faith Astor because of a few WOJ's, some of which have been floating around longer than I have been reading the series. One of them is the Faith Astor will return near the end of the series and bring Harry a case that helps kick off the BAT; a couple others I kinda-sorta remember but could have mixed the details concern Kumori. I think one of them is that we have met Kumori elsewhere in the series under another name, and that 'her identity will hurt Harry'. (if someone has those WOJ's feel feel to chime in and correct me, since my computer ate those bookmarks).

Working from that, I think there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence: Kumori would have been approximately the right age to attend the soiree in GP alongside her master as an apprentice, and another 3-4 years on in Dead Beat she would be the right age to be a newly minted spellslinger in her own right. When Harry meets Faith in the chronologically first story, she is young enough that she has not hit puberty and her growth spurt; that means if she developed magical talent it would likely have been after, and it is difficult to get a fix on someone's adult height at that age; let alone what their voice will be. That would explain Harry not recognizing Kumori at all, yet Kumori having a genuine care about what happened to Harry's hand and (apparently) warning him off without the say so of her superior.

As for hurting Harry: finding out one of the first people he saved in Chicago developed into a Wizard level talent under his nose, who was exposed to the supernatural and likely at least partly inspired to develop those abilities on account of her interaction with Harry...then getting scooped up and corrupted by some of the worst bad guys around? That might hurt Harry more than anything that does not involve his children, his brother, Murphy, or Michael's family. Having Molly version 0.5 with a terrible family now working for the baddest of the bad guys, except he never saved her, is going to hit Harry right in his little orphan heart.

The last piece of circumstantial stuff is that whatever Faith does will at least partially light the final fuse of the BAT; in keeping with the original noir-ish trappings of the series, Faith showing up at whatever serves as Harry's office at the point as the archetypal femme fatale would be very appropriate. And of all the things that could touch off a final scramble before the BAT, a high ranking member of the Circle offering to turn the equivalent of state's evidence on the bad guys in return for protection and the chance to walk away might be near the top of the list. If Kumori approaches Harry Dresden and offers to tell him everything she knows about the bad guys, that is the 'break glass in case of emergency' moment for the bad guys, exactly the sort of thing that would incite them to jump the gun and touch off something apocalyptic before all the pieces are in place; and give the good guys a chance to steal a win they would have little hope of achieving on their own.

 Faith being Kumori provides a good explanation linking all the pieces together without creating any obvious contradictions I can see; and it does not rely on alternate universes, time travel, or Elaine being evil (I think she will replace Fix as Summer Knight within the next 3 books).

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