The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
Whose the backup plan for...? - Battle Ground Spoiler
Snark Knight:
--- Quote from: KurtinStGeorge on October 27, 2024, 07:01:01 PM ---What I find striking about that encounter, is the three-eye addict; who would have been a total newbie to the world of magic compared to a wizard, recognized the name of the Walker, as if it was written in bold letters on Harry.
--- End quote ---
A newbie, yes ... but the drug was a project of some of the outsider affiliates.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sells and at least some of his accomplices had also been recruiting a lot of their customers into becoming outsider cultists, and teaching them enough of a smidgeon about the outsiders to become dangerous. The whole project starts to make a lot more strategic sense for Nemesis if you consider turning on the sight in otherwise negligibly magical humans as step one of mass producing summoners. (If so, JB is *really* owed some big props for burying a clue that deep, that early)
All of which is to say, sure, the addict saw something and knew what it meant ... but he might have been more educated about that narrow slice of the supernatural than one would think at first.
Mira:
--- Quote ---In this scenario we might see the Outsiders; perhaps one of the Walkers, did something to a mortal Drakul to make him change into "the creature" as Ebenezar describes him. It would be an effective way to remove a starborn individual from being a potential threat into one that serves the Outsiders own purpose, even if only indirectly.
--- End quote ---
It would, but again we do not have enough information about star born. Lash said, a star born, "has the potential to wield power over Outsiders. Interesting quote because when the word potential is used, it hedges all bets. In other words, the power and talent are there if everything goes right. We can say that Simone Biles was born with the coordination, strength, and size to have the potential to become the greatest female gymnast the world has seen up to this point. However, injury, choices, and a dozen other things can change that, so she never reaches that potential.
I think the Outsiders know a lot about star born, and as you point out, know how to twist it to their advantage. I also think timing is everything, that's why HWWB went after Harry when he was still a sixteen year old innocent as far as knowing anything about this.
--- Quote ---A newbie, yes ... but the drug was a project of some of the outsider affiliates.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sells and at least some of his accomplices had also been recruiting a lot of their customers into becoming outsider cultists, and teaching them enough of a smidgeon about the outsiders to become dangerous. The whole project starts to make a lot more strategic sense for Nemesis if you consider turning on the sight in otherwise negligibly magical humans as step one of mass producing summoners. (If so, JB is *really* owed some big props for burying a clue that deep, that early)
All of which is to say, sure, the addict saw something and knew what it meant ... but he might have been more educated about that narrow slice of the supernatural than one would think at first.
--- End quote ---
I think you may be on to something here, that addict may have been fascinated with the supernatural and became sucked into a cult, told a lot about Outsiders or maybe even meeting them through summons.. Then given the drug so they could see what normal mortals can't see, Outsiders. However the addict lacked any further talent or enough talent to be of use, so he was discarded and became yet another victim to drug addiction. Where as Sells, had enough talent that he was given access to knowledge, also addictive and eventually became a sorcerer brewing the 3 Eye.
Snark Knight:
--- Quote from: Mira on October 31, 2024, 01:00:03 PM ---However the addict lacked any further talent or enough talent to be of use, so he was discarded and became yet another victim to drug addiction.
--- End quote ---
Perhaps ... but what I'm suggesting is that maybe the 3-eye project was working towards not just expanding perception, but granting vanilla users enough power to perform summonings. Either through longer term use of what they were already making, or maybe Sells was stopped before he worked out a technical difficulty in getting a fully working formula.
From Nemesis' perspective, addicts who would summon some of its foot soldiers in exchange for their next hit would be pretty much ideal. It doesn't need them to be high-functioning for much else.
Which leads to another related speculation ... what if Sells' lack of fear of the Wardens wasn't, as Harry assumed, because his tutor just kept him ignorant of how dangerous they were, but rather because Sells meant to summon a protector that could tank anything the Wardens tried to do to it? That's got me wondering if Sells' toad demon that Harry fought was actually a minor outsider, and Harry just never considered it anything more than a Nevernever demon because his power actually worked on it, and it's received wisdom for him at that point that that means Nevernever demon, not Outsider?
Mira:
--- Quote ---Perhaps ... but what I'm suggesting is that maybe the 3-eye project was working towards not just expanding perception, but granting vanilla users enough power to perform summonings. Either through longer term use of what they were already making, or maybe Sells was stopped before he worked out a technical difficulty in getting a fully working formula.
--- End quote ---
Vanilla humans have always had the power to summon Outsiders. I believe that was the point in Blood Rites. My point is, without education the addict would see the Outsider but have no clue what he or she was seeing. Need to go back and reread the passage, because I cannot remember if the addict called what he saw by name or not. Even if he just called it an Outsider, he wouldn't know what he was seeing beyond a drug induced hallucination, which would be very real in that moment.
KurtinStGeorge:
The three-eye addict specifically named the Walker. Here is the exact quote:
"Wizard!" he trumpeted. "Wizard! I see you! I see you, wizard! I see the things that follow, those who walk before and He Who Walks Behind! They come, they come for you!"
Here is an edited version of what Harry said after this encounter:
"...I am marked, indelibly, with the remnants of the presence of a hunter-spirit, a sort of spectral hit man known as He Who Walks Behind...but even though the hunter-spirit had never gotten to me, the mark could still be seen upon me by those who knew how, by using the Third Sight, stretching out behind me like a long and horribly shaped shadow. Sort of a spiritual scar to remind me of the encounter.
But only a wizard had that kind of vision, ... And that junkie had been no wizard.
Was it possible that I had been wrong in my initial assessment of ThreeEye? Could the drug genuinely grant to its users the visions of the Third Sight?"
So, the three-eye addict saw the mark of HWWB. The addict also mentions "those who walk before." Maybe that refers to other Outsiders the addict saw or it could be something Jim has retconned out of the story. I used to think it referred to the Walker we met in Cold Days, but it doesn't make sense that HWWBf or any Outsiders would be running around Chicago at that time.
Now that I think about, it might fit with my, Elaine is nemfected idea, I posted in another thread. I don't mean the three-eye addict saw Elaine, I mean he saw the Outsider magical traces that Elaine left on Harry in the moments that led up to Harry's final confrontation with Justin. It is a reach, but it fits, maybe.
--- Quote from: Snark Knight on October 31, 2024, 02:39:36 PM ---Perhaps ... but what I'm suggesting is that maybe the 3-eye project was working towards not just expanding perception, but granting vanilla users enough power to perform summonings. Either through longer term use of what they were already making, or maybe Sells was stopped before he worked out a technical difficulty in getting a fully working formula.
From Nemesis' perspective, addicts who would summon some of its foot soldiers in exchange for their next hit would be pretty much ideal. It doesn't need them to be high-functioning for much else.
--- End quote ---
This is a good explanation why there were so many summoners on the barges that came to invade Demonreach in Cold Days and the summoner or summoners who; we were told in Dead Beat, called up Outsiders to fight the White Council on behalf of the Red Court. Morgan said, "the mortal wizards who betrayed us," suggesting he believed wizards called up the Outsiders. If you don't need wizards to call up Outsiders, only a ritual and maybe someone with a minor talent, then it doesn't have to be Cowl, Peabody (in Dead Beat) or any other Black Council wizard.
The summoners on the barges were cannon fodder. No need for wizards to expose themselves to the dangers of attacking Demonreach or being in the middle of a battle between the White Coucil and Red Court.
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