We've all observed that the White Council is freaked out because Harry is accumulating power and connections at a tremendous rate, and starting to remind them of Kemmler.  But it occurs to me to wonder, purely speculatively (it has to be speculative since we have little data), if there are more parallels than we know.

Bob informed Harry and us that Kemmler was one of the causes of World War I (I'm sure he was not the sole cause, there were a lot of quite mundane reasons why a big European war was likely in the early 20C, but we know from Bob that Kemmler played a big role building that up ver the previous century, too).  Bob told us that Kemmler had connections with the major vampire courts, the nastier Fae, and so on.

It occurs to me that no matter how brilliant and naturally magically strong Kemmler was, building up all that would take a long time.  Kemmler might have been a major innovator in necromancy, but I'm sure he didn't come up with his knowledge overnight.

Why did it get so far?  Why was in only in freaking 1961 that the Council finally punched Kemmler's ticket, after all that?  World War I ran from 1914 to 1918/19 (depending on when you count it ending) and its aftereffects went on for decades.  Necromancy is a straight Law violation in itself.

What I'm getting at here is to ask, given the Council's chop-happy approach to the Laws, how is it that Kemmler wasn't neutralized fairly early, while it would still have been relatively easy?

My speculation is that the Council wasn't always as chop-happy as Harry has known them.  Any human organization, over generations, goes through phases and changes, things get stricter or easier, attitudes get softer or harder.  Wizard lifespans would make the Council slower to change, but it's over 2000 years old, so it's certain to have gone through such phases.

My speculation is that in the late 1700s/early 1800s, maybe all the way up to the turn of the 20C, the Council was a lot more easy-going.  I'm sure they still executed warlocks and enforced the Laws, but they might well have been more willing to see grey areas or grant second chances, too.  I wonder if it was in a 'more relaxed' phase.

Which might have enabled an up and coming young warlock to grow into Kemmler himself.  There might have been doubts about his intentions.  Maybe he hid the bad well, or maybe his first indulgences in necromancy were technically legal, like Harry and Sue.  Maybe he even did some good stuff, so the Council wasn't sure about him, and they erred on the side of mercy.

And the result was World War I (and as a side-effect of that, the USSR, World War II, the Holocaust, the Cold War, etc.  All that stuff flowed from World War I one way or another.) and a near-miss elevation of Kemmler to Mab-level power in a darkhallow.

OK, the Council finally caught up with Kemmler and put him down in 1961.  Harry killed Justin sometime around 1988-1992.  (If Harry is born in the early 70s, that makes him 16 around then.)

If my speculation is right, post-Kemmler the Council is probably traumatized and maybe guilt-stricken over the scale of the deaths and suffering and horror Kemmler caused, and determined 'never again'.

If we count in everyone that the USSR either starved intentionally in the 1930s or mass-murdered in the gulags, and everyone the Nazis murdered, plus the deaths of soldiers and civilians in the World Wars, plus the maimed, the blinded, the mentally broken, then Kemmler's direct and indirect butcher's bill is in the hundreds of millions.

Then on top of that, Kemmler is narrowlly stopped from becoming a small-g god in a Darkhallow.

So it would be completely understandable if the post-1961 Council took the attitude that public safety now takes absolute precedence over justice or mercy, with no meaningful gray areas.  So the post-1961 Council is chop-happy, they no longer err on the side of letting the innocent slide, they're more concerned with making sure no more mega-warlocks get past them.

(If I'm right, eventually that phase too would pass and things would relax somewhat again, but given Wizard lifetimes that might take a century or more.)

This theory might explain Maggie Sr. too.  Apparently Margaret had been a thorn in the Council's side for a very long time, but she still lived.  But if my theory is right, after Kemmler went down the Council was no longer prepared to tolerate such thorns, and the orders went out to the Wardens to hunt her down and kill her.  Lord Raith beat them to it, but we have it straight from Ebenezar that the Wardens were hunting her, not just watching.

It might be that the late 50s/early 60s war with Kemmler caused the Council to say, "Enough of this crap!" and start cracking down hard on warlocks and proto-warlocks and anyone who looks like they might become a warlock.

 

It strikes me that there might eventually be an issue with Butters and Bob playing Batman, and that's the Council.

Remember, Luccio told Harry that they knew about Bob, as a former assistant-spirit to Kemmler.  She also said that the Council had a 'destroy on site' order out for Bob, because he was too dangerous to be allowed to run loose, and in fact that he had been destroyed.  In fact, of course, Justin had taken the skull from Kemmler's base and Harry had inherited him.

But now Butters is out there using Bob to energize various magical weapons and tools, and using them relatively openly.  If the Council notices that Butters is suddenly wielding devices using way more magical energy than he should be able to manifest, someone might get curious as to how the former medical examiner is suddenly tapped into so much power, and if they took a closer look and realized how he was doing it, then suddenly Harry and Butters and the Chicago Alliance have Trouble with a capitol T right here Lake Michigan City.

I wonder if anybody's thought about that risk...

I think you are underestimating how much Sarissa is part of the conspiracy to kill Maeve and make Sarissa the Winter Lady.  The whole book is written essentially under one context and Harry (and us) take that to be the truth.  But go back to events and remember that she is Mab's daughter.

Let's roll it back to the very start of the book.  Sarissa never says, "Mom" to Mab.  When she talks about her relationship with Mab, she doesn't outright lie but does not tell the truth.  Then she shows up at Molly's place.  I want to remind you at this point in the book Harry thinks she is a young, Mortal woman.  Under 30, maybe under 25.  The Redcap would know that she is Mab's daughter.  He likely pre-dates Mab.  So, do you think he is really going to KILL Mab's daughter?  How would that go for him?  More likely she let her self be captured by him and sent to Harry.  I suspect all her hiding is not her fear of Harry, but instead fear that he will recognize her as Maeve's twin.  The next event is the "team" crossing the circle at the top of the island.  There is no way to force her into the circle and make her stay.  She went into the circle willingly.  The plan was to have Maeve killed and pop the Winter Lady's Mantle into Sarissa.  Mab knew it AND so did Sarissa.  Look at her argument with Maeve.  She clearly knew that Maeve was nFected.  She compared Maeve to Lea and how Mab could cure Maeve. 

We tend to assume that the people working against Harry and the good guys are Nemesis-infected or Nemesis-influenced, and obviously some of them, like Maeve, are so.  But it's not clear that Aurora, for example, was suffering from exactly the same thing Maeve was.  There was no indication that Aurora could actually lie by commission, for ex.

Likewise, there are people working for the other side who almost surely are doing so of their own free wills (or as close as the supernaturals have in some cases).  They may or may not be allies, but they probably do work together sometimes (and maybe against each other at other times).  I strongly doubt Cowl is Nemfected, for ex.

Regarding Sarissa, see nambkas' comments above.  Sarissa looks to be far more than what Harrry took her to be in Cold Days.  But just as a speculation, suppose Sarissa is actually Circle, or working for/with them (presumably even unknown to her mother).

That might seem improbable, but it might also explain a few things.  For ex, Maeve hated being Winter Lady, apparently.  She apparently also hated Sarissa, though that may have been jealousy over her relationship with Mab, and/or her personal freedom.

But how did Maeve end up as Winter Lady in the first place?  Why Maeve and not Sarissa?  From Mab's POV, Sarissa looks like the better candidate.  More self-disciplined, more serious.  I would think that Mab would have preferred Sarissa to be the Winter Lady.  Yet somehow Maeve ended up with that 'honor'.

But if Sarissa was with the bad guys, even back then, of her own free will, it might make sense to let Maeve have the title and the power, since that way Sarissa retains her freedom of action and her semi-immortality.  She can always become Winter Lady later, if need be something can be arranged to happen to Maeve...

If Maeve was somehow forced into taking the Winter Lady status, that might also have contributed to her hated for her sister.

Just speculating...