Just a quick question/WAG. Do we know if the Merlin, as the head of the white council, is merely a title or also a mantle? Is there a WOJ that speaks either definitely for or against this idea? I

 I think there could be some fun story telling that would go along with this if it were true.

So with the updates on the website I have been propelled through the Dresden Files on the wave of mounting excitement.

This got me to thinking about which long standing questions we could have answered for us in Peace Talks, kind of like how in Cold Days we got to know more about the broader context of the fight going on.

So, which bomb shells do you think Jim will Drop? I personally hope to see more of Cowl in this book and get more knowledge about him. But also knowing more about what it means to be Starborn would be nice too (maybe from Bonnie).

We know that the Gatekeeper is the oldest wizard in the council. Would it even be possible for him to be a wizard with an immortal mantle? I liked Salusen's idea about Heimdall.

I'm with simple, too. Harry is a human that actually learns to exercises free will. By the end of the books, what Ferrovax does to him at the party with just a part of Harry's name Ferro won't be able to do with all of Harry's name, because Harry's free will will just say no.

Thus, conjuring by Harry's name won't get you power over him, it will just make him aware of your existence and possibly displeased.

I really like this explanation coupled with what appears to be his precipitous power creep. In CD we see Harry resisting Mother Winter based off of his humanity. I seem to recall a WOJ where he mentioned that one of Harry's latest "powerups" is having his daughter as a part of his life. This being a powerup because, in my paraphrase, "You have to become so much more mature. It's like, 'One of us has to grow up and it's not going to be you.'" This plays in with Harry's humanity being the foundation of his prodigious power.

So when Jim has Harry do something insane (like Darkhollow on Demon Reach with the Black Staff) Harry will be able to utilize that power more decidedly because of how he has been shaped to be decisive and "mature" in character.

That is what I was thinking. I'm confused about when Harry says, "My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk." (SF pg 2). Since the series is written as a reflection of post BAT Dresden we're supposed to envision Harry as a super powerful being giving an ultimatum you wouldn't want to take. However, with the difficulties you mentioned above, this would be a useless ultimatum if he were merely human. So what Butcher do to remain true to Harry's character while still bestowing Harry with the requisite dehumanizing abilities/mantles.

I don't have the book with me, and its been a while since I've read it, but in the scene where the main etherialist is trying to get drunk, the Olympian whose rooms they took comes in and the etherialist says something along the lines of, "He seems possessed by a great fury, which if you know your history is quite amusing." This is my favorite basis for an argument saying that this is Alera + some thousands of years.