I was going to start this thread for one single issue, but decided it might be more fun to let anyone speculate on any issue or event relating to any Dresden Files character. My issue is with Nicodemus. Maybe someone else has asked this question before but I’ve been a member here for a long time and don’t remember anyone else bringing it up.
So almost anyone; only referring to vanilla mortals here, can become one of the Denarians. You just have to have the bad luck to be in a location where a Denarian has died and for some reason their coin hasn’t been grabbed by a KotC and you pick it up. According to Lash, no one before Harry turned down the offer to join. No one had held a coin for three years and continued to resist the temptations it offered. Maybe that was just for Lasciel’s coin, but it’s a good guess that very, very few people who ever picked any of the Fallen’s coins were able to resist the deal they were offered.
So the same may have been true for Nicodemus, he could have picked up Anduriel’s coin without knowing what it was. I suppose another Denarian could have offered Nic the coin, the way Nic offered Lasciel’s coin to Harry, but that doesn’t make much sense, because Nicodemus also got a magic noose that protects him from everything, except the noose itself. That would be an extremely valuable artifact to just give away. How did that happen? How did Nicodemus get this artifact that makes him invulnerable to anything else?
It makes sense if Nicodemus was the very first Denarian. Nic found “the betrayer” shortly after he hanged himself and there was a bag at his feet with thirty pieces of silver. It might even explain how the coins were called “the Blackened Denarius.” Maybe Nicodemus saw Judas receive the payoff or saw him afterwards with thirty shiny silver coins. When Nic opened the bag the next day all the coins now had a mysterious black patina on them. Silver often gets such a patina, but not overnight.
Did Nicodemus know Judas, Jesus or any of the other twelve Apostles? Who knows, but I believe he was in the vicinity of those people and the events that surrounded them. Nicodemus picked up the bag with the coins; touched Anduriel’s coin, and removed the noose and put over his own neck when Anduriel told Nicodemus it would protect him. That seems the most likely explanation to me.
You can agree, disagree and give a (hopefully) reasonable counter explanation. On the other hand, maybe there is something about another character that bothers you, that gives you an itch you need to scratch; and now, you think you have an explanation that metaphorically scratches that itch. Post it here.
