The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers

The Hounds of Tindalos - who were they after? SPOILERS

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Yuillegan:
The Hounds show up seemingly attacking Harry and Eb but who were they really after?

In Lovecraftian mythos, the Hounds of Tindalos attack time-travelers and hunt them forever. Obviously they can be defeated but why send those beings specifically? There are plenty of nasty Outsiders to use as hit men.

The Hounds of Tindalos (or Cornerhounds) are supposedly creatures from Earth's distant past when other life was merely single-celled organisms. They are currently ruled by Mh'ithrha - the Arch-Lord of Tindalos. He is supposed to be invisible to the human eye, but his physical form is that of a gargantuan wolf (somewhat like Fenrir). He has also been engaged in a war against Yog-Sothoth for eternity. Curiously, this suggests that the Outsiders may not actually all be working together. Yog-Sothoth is also essentially the same as the Outer Gates, Cthulu is it's grandchild and Azahoth is his grandsire. Worse still, it manifests as avatars as it is too potent for the multiverse. The fact the Mh'ithrha has survived against this being is testament to it's might, I should think.

Also, Eb says that "they" (read: Black Council) sent the whole pack - 13 Cornerhounds. I think that's significant. Perhaps a mortal can only create 13 ectoplasmic bodies per entity. This would provide a limit on such an entity, unless they came through the Outer Gates (I suspect).

I suspect Mh'ithrha could well be Fenrir, in which Loki and Angrboda are at least part Outsider because the Fire Jotuns of Muspelheim would have to be Outsiders (and Surtur "the Black One" is their leader - perhaps an avatar of Azahoth?). This might also explain Vadderung's role in all of it, but we also now have seen the claws of his eventual killer (theoretically). Convulted, I know. But that comment by Vadderung about the Jotun's retreating is interesting.

Anyway, the first hound leaps at Eb...or does he? Harry says Eb puts a shield between them. Perhaps the real target was Harry? But either way, why send a time-travel hunter monster? Eb is more likely to have time-travelled than Harry (especially with his ability to break the Laws).

Or what if they were there for someone else...like Justine? Or perhaps Harry from the future in the background of the scene (unmentioned but there - like Avengers: Endgame).

What do you all think?

Mr. Death:

--- Quote from: Yuillegan on July 20, 2020, 01:59:35 AM ---Also, Eb says that "they" (read: Black Council) sent the whole pack - 13 Cornerhounds. I think that's significant. Perhaps a mortal can only create 13 ectoplasmic bodies per entity. This would provide a limit on such an entity, unless they came through the Outer Gates (I suspect).
--- End quote ---
I forget where, but it's been established that only mortals can summon Outsiders at all -- back during the war, the fact that Outsiders had shown up among the Red Court ranks was taken as proof that they had mortal practitioners helping them.

Yuillegan:
Agreed, only Mortals can summon them. But why would they attack the Outer Gates if they couldn't even get through?

Clearly, Harry doesn't know everything there is to know on the subject. If an Entity managed to get to the actual Gates themselves, I suspect it doesn't need a mortal to actually cross through them. Which does fly in the face of the whole "invitation to a home/crossing the threshold" problem.

It has also been shown that there is at least a partial difference (if not a complete one) in how some entities enter the mortal world. When the Cornerhounds attack Eb seems to suggest that whoever is summoning them (who must have been fairly close by....conservation of energy and all) summoned them directly from the Outside - rather than summoning them first and then sending them through the Nevernever to them.

Same in Blood Rites, when the three ex-wives summon He Who Walks Behind he appears to come directly from Outside (as he notes he has returned to the mortal world after Harry banished him). Whether he physically passed through the Outer Gates at the borders of Faerie is another question. Remember that far out in the Never never things are very abstract and metaphorical, Harry only interprets the Gates as best his mind can. Jim talks about the fact that's the best Harry's mind can do to understand what his senses are telling him. Up until Harry actually went to the Outer Gates, he assumed (wrongly) that the Gates were purely metaphorical. Which isn't entirely wrong, if you think about it, but he just never realised that metaphorical and "physical" in the spirit world can be one and the same.

Second Aristh:
If anything, the Hounds seemed like a distraction tactic to me.  Harry and/or Eb needed to stop investigating the area around Thomas's apartment for some reason according to whichever BC outsider-summoner was paying attention.  The Hounds seemed like they would rank as "Formidable enough to warrant my full attention" to Eb's scale of monsters, but not high enough for "Flee into the NN and regroup after preparing".

forumghost:
They weren't really 'investigating' though- Harry and Eb were about 5 seconds out from a throwdown when the Outsiders popped up.

Maybe someone didn't want Harry pasted on the sidewalk just yet, so they called up some Eldritch horrors to distract them both?

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