I see your point.  Most would lack the training and finesse to “fake” the tests.

Or even to need to.

Elaine is more than good enough that she is properly entitled to demand a seat on the Council if she wants it, but for her own reasons she doesn't want it.  She's even good enough to 'fake it' well enough to pass as almost Council level, good but not quite good enough.  Not only can she fake it, she can fine-tune the fakery.  Which is useful for her because faking it at that level means she can wield some pretty potent magic without alerting the local Wardens of just how hot her talent is.

But if she had not been raised and trained by a rogue Council member, she probably not only wouldn't be able to fake it that precisely, but she wouldn't actually be at Council level for real.  If she knew any magic at all, it might be strong spells, but nothing like what would get you a Council seat.

Murphy, by Mika Blackfield

That may be the best image of Murphy I've ever seen, or at least the one closest to what I picture in my own mind when she's in the story!

Agreed that the scars are an important detail and probably a clue about Cowl's identity, I just don't think he's Kemmler. And recall the conversation he has with Harry, where he states, "I don't perceive myself to be mad." So he spits on Kemmler's name and calls him a madman, then later claims he doesn't think he, himself, is insane.

Only possibility I can see is Cowl not realizing that he was Kemmler; too many bodyswaps left his personality in flux until he became Cowl, and perceived Kemmler as a wholly different, and abhorrent, entity.

That thought occurred to me, it might be Cowl's way of saying, "I'm not Kemmler anymore."  Also, that would explain why Cowl needed Bob's help to do the Darkhallow, while Kemmler would presumably already know how to do it.  If somebody mind-blasted Kemmler at some point, so big chunks of his personality changed and his knowledge base got scrambled, that could explain a few things.  Also, like Bob, the real Kemmler might 'hiding' behind Cowl, waiting to come out again when the surface persona finishes its work.

What could mind-scramble him?  Well, apparently the White Council really, really, really killed Kemmler in 1961, several times.  Even if he could come back from that, it might explain why his mind is all out of whack.

I'm not saying I think it's true, but I can't rule it out.

As for scars and the magical healing, I can think of possibilities that could prevent it, or maybe make the scars follow him from body to body.  Nothing definite, just possibilities.

I think Jamie and Adam would rate the 'Cowl=Kemmler' theory as 'possible but very improbable.'

I'll start by answering my own question so as to better define it.  We learned from Lea in Ghost Story that Mort Lindquist hid his true ability from the Council.  Lea said that Mortimer's power level was likely greater than Harry's, though limited to his own field of expertise.  Elaine deliberately hide her abilities from Warden Ramirez.  Harry knows Cowl is White Council material, he even speculates that Cowl and Kumori hide their identities because they are Council members, but Harry could be wrong.  At least one or maybe both Necromancers hide their identities of the more obvious reason that they simply don't want to be recognized at any place or time.  Even Necromancers have to go to the supermarket after all.  They can't really send a ghost and sending a zombie would require too much effort and defeat the purpose of being incognito.

I wonder if there are a significant number of wizards who are hiding their true abilities.  Some of them might be like Cowl and Kumori who chose a dark path and need to hide from the Council, while others might have met a warden when they were younger; say someone like Morgan explaining what happens to a person who breaks the laws of magic, and decided, "These White Council guys are as**oles, I don't want to be any part of their organization."

I find it hard to believe Elaine is alone in her feelings about the White Council.  I wouldn't be surprised if not everyone Harry dismisses as the "have nots of magic", the people who hang out at Mac's, are really below White Council standards.     

There almost certainly are some other Council-level 'wizards' who hide their power and ability from the Council, but there aren't likely to be very many.

Why?  For one thing, Council-level potential is rare.  There aren't very many people in the world who have even the potential to reach that level to begin with.  Of them, the majority probably never get trained to the point where it matters, or else end up blowing themselves up or getting beheaded experimenting on their own.

To become a Council-level talent requires both that raw potential, and training to use it, and it's hard to find the kind of training that will bring you up to Council-level except from Council-level adepts.

Harry and Elaine, for example, if they had been adopted out to normal people and not Justin DuMorne, would likely never have come anywhere close to realizing their potential power.  They might or might not have learned to use some magic, but without high-level training they'd probably have remained minor players or worse..

DuMorne, of course, was a rogue Council member.

It's going to be a rare, rare person who can reach Council-level without the proper training, and it's going to be rare for anybody not linked to the Council to be able to provide it.

There are several thousand Council members, IIRC.  That sounds like a lot, but that's out of closing in on 8 billion people.  I doubt if there are more than, at the most, say a 100 people in the world with Council-level talent and training who are not part of it.

If the question is 'want to see', I wouldn't mind seeing Billy gain a bit more magical power (not Council level or even close, but more firepower than just the shapeshift).

OTOH, the character who most needs something from a meta-POV is Murphy.  JB has said it won't happen, but absent it the story is beginning to leave Karrin behind, I can't see how something isn't going to have to give.

OTOH, I'm not all that eager to see it happen, because Karrin plays the role of the badass normal.  But the problem is on the edge of becoming acute.

  From what I've noticed all of practitioners who have been shown to have a long life span and faster/better healing compared to mortals have been skilled magic users. So what about the practitioners with low to moderate skill? Do they have these abilities as well? And what about the specific examples like the street wolves? Will they live to be hundreds of years old if they aren't killed? Or people like Charity who were born with the magical talent but stopped using it? Will she outlive her children and husband if she isn't killed? (Except for Molly) What exactly causes a practitioner to be granted the abilities of a longer life span and better healing?.... Thoughts?

Anybody who uses magic much gets some benefit (unless something about the magic itself messes them up, which is probably possible with the nasty forms).  But the minor talents and minor practitioners get minor benefits.  The stronger you are, and the more you study it and use it and refine it, the better the side effects.

So a minor practitioner might lives a little longer, and age a little slower, and heal a little better, but probably nothing too noticeable, it might easily just be mistaken for good genes.

That sort of thing.  As the power levels rise so do the benefits, until you get to Council level and potential life spans of 400 years.

  But that would be merely revenge if Nic gets Maggie..  Very hollow if she ends up with a coin which would be really horrible..

This is actually more what I would expect, something along those lines.  Not necessarily exactly that, but simply killing Maggie is too easy, too quick.  From revenge, it would probably be more interesting and more manageable to somehow corrupt or taint Maggie.  Ideally, from Nicodemus' POV, that creates a situation where Harry must either kill his own child (thus in Nicodemus' twisted thinking equivalent to him and Dierdre) or live with the knowledge of what she has become.

I doubt giving her a Coin would be the preferred option, though.  Nicodemus would want something subtler, and harder to deal with, Coins can be and have been given up, after all.