The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

Denarians and/or Circle in Storm Front?

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Yuillegan:
I know this doesn't quite fit the pattern, but could there be Denarian or members of the Circle in Storm Front?

Someone had to give Victor Sells the knowledge of the heart-ripping spell, which Vadderung implied was the same one as the Red Court uses in Changes.

Someone had to give Sells his Three Eye recipe, or at least guide him on how to invent such a thing.

Someone had to give him the knowledge of how to summon the Toad Demon.

My bet is the Circle. We are introduced to Bianca in this book, and we know that the Circle/Black Council wanted the war between Wizards and the Vampire Courts to happen. This whole book, the heart-ripping spell in particular, led Harry to Bianca. Where she ended up killing her assistant, and held Harry responsible.

Interestingly, Harry says that no Vampire sorcerer could pull that spell off (outside of the Nevernever). My belief is that Harry was wrong and that he was too naive and arrogant to believe any being but a mortal could do it. He also mistakenly believed that it was more likely a woman who did it as "women hate better". Aside from that ridiculous unsubstantiated statement, I also believe that these little issues were a result of Jim being such a young and inexperienced writer at the time. So perhaps much was retconned.

But if Harry's initial hypothesis is (still) true and even a Vampire Sorcerer couldn't pull it off outside of the Nevernever, I think that indicates that knowing Bianca couldn't pull it off they (the Circle/Black Council) had to use someone else.

The Circle killed a girl from the Velvet Room and one of Marcone's employees. So to me that seems plausible enough that they might have wished to get the only local loudmouth wizard to investigate, knowing he did consulting work for S.I. and knowing he might aggravate Bianca. Hell perhaps they actually knew something like that event would happen, as Wizards gain foresight over time AND clearly many supernatural types have prescient powers.

The whole book is a set up for the war, in order to end the White Council and establish an unobstructed New World Order (assuming that is the Circle's end game).

g33k:

--- Quote from: Yuillegan on December 18, 2019, 05:17:25 AM --- I know this doesn't quite fit the pattern, but could there be Denarian or members of the Circle in Storm Front?
--- End quote ---

I /absolutely/ believe "the Circle" or "the Black Council" (or some agent(s) of theirs) was behind things in Storm Front.

As you say, the Heart-Ripper was likely from the Red Court, who Harry pegged as a Black-Council catspaw.

But it could also have been Papa Raith, who seems to have had a copy of the spell (was planning to use it on Thomas and Harry, to break Mama-Maggie's death-curse).  But we suspect from Raith's magic-immunity ward, and know from the appearance of an Outsider at the big curse at the end, that Raith had Outsider backing... which we suspect points to Circle/Blouncil involvement.

I wonder if the Reds got it from Raith, or vice versa... or if each were given it by a 3rd party (e.g. the Circle).

Three-Eye was another OP tool given to Sells; the effect is too potent and too precise to be the formula of a rando-warlock newly come to power (as per his wife's testimony).  A good potion like that (or at least, the formula for it) is really hard to create!

It's possible Sells just stumbled into some Grimoire of the Toad, and the Lightning-Fuel Spell, but the pattern is that Sells was being fed a bunch of OP tools.

Note the repeating pattern, BTW, of "minor/moderate badguy gets a serious powerup from being given OP tools."  Burnt-out FBI agents get hexenwulf belts; Bianca gets Mavra-tutored, Kravos gets a power-up'ed (twice!), etc...

I'm... not really seeing Denarians anywhere in this.  Except maybe Thorned Namshiel, who seems to be the best "wizard" amongst the Denarians, AND a member of the Black Council... and thus may have been the agent who created the Heart Ripper and other magics, and gave them to designated agents of the Circle, or the Blouncil, or whatever we're calling it this week.  Of course, we suspect several very-senior & very-powerful human wizards (e.g. Cowl) are also on the Blouncil, and could equally-well have done it without calling Nammie for any "pointers".

===

Also, I'm pretty sure we have WoJ that the whole series, including Storm Front, is a contiguous arc; not just "Harry's Story" but all part of the Bad Guys' grand plot (I mean, besides the grand "Jim Butcher gets rich and famous" plot).
 

Bad Alias:
The "mysterious bad guy(s) behind everything" was definitely behind Sells.

Raith wasn't using the heart exploding spell. He was just using Thomas as a sacrifice for the entropy spell. Two different spells.

g33k:

--- Quote from: Bad Alias on December 18, 2019, 05:00:56 PM --- Raith wasn't using the heart exploding spell. He was just using Thomas as a sacrifice for the entropy spell. Two different spells.
--- End quote ---

Raith was breaking the Death-Curse so he could feed again; THAT was (supposed to be) the Heart-Exploder; and it needed one (or both?) of Maggie LeFay's blood-children to do it.

But yes, the entropy-curse is a different spell, and ALSO came from Raith's library of magic (and WTF, dude... where'd he GET all those uber-powerful spells? (the Blouncil, obvs)  And more to the point, at this point:  does Lara have them now?  Why isn't she using them?  If she doesn't have them... who does?)

Bad Alias:
Raith was breaking the death curse by killing Maggie's children. He was doing this by sacrificing Thomas as fuel for the entropy curse targeting Harry. It was being done at a specific time. The heart exploding curse doesn't have to be done at a certain time.

Why do you think Raith was using the heart exploding curse in Blood Rites? The only reasons I can see for thinking that is that they tried to kill Thomas by stabbing him in the heart and Harry and Thomas are related.

As to Lord Raith's library, I don't think we can assume where it came from or even that it all came from one place. I imagine he collected a great deal of it from various sources. The only reason I see to suspect the heart exploding spell came from Raith's library is the theory that he was Sell's employer. That theory is possible, but I don't think it's more likely than not.

Lara probably has the library. Maybe she is using the library. It's probably unlikely for her to use that specific spell to deal with problems. Not every solution calls for the same spell that Harry would be likely to recognize if used where he would become aware of the death.

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