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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: kbrizzle on October 03, 2019, 04:03:28 AM
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On a reread of Stf, a few things jumped out at me that confirm some of theories bandied around this forum.
- Malcolm Dresden is described as being a traveling magician who took little Harry around with him - while Harry rationalizes this as Malcolm taking small jobs at random little towns, it seems to me that this is Malcolm’s best effort to hide little kid Harry from his mother’s enemies
- I don’t think Victor Sells was Nfected - when Monica reveals all she knows about what’s going on, she says that she drank 3Eye & looked at Victor, a memory that makes her almost throw up - I imagine looking at an Outsider with one’s Sight would drive a normal human insane, let alone a wizard.
Also, other (somewhat sane) people would have looked at Victor with their Sight (like Helen Beckett) & while I’m sure that was a highly unpleasant experience, it’s nothing compared to seeing an actual Outsider - Despite being a very angry man, Sells decides to use lust as a way to power his spells instead of rage - something that is way more easily available than setting up sex rituals. This screams of the White Court to me - a way for Lord Raith to control Sells, leading credence to theory that he was Sells’ sponsor
- The dark emotions that Harry feels when he sees Sells’ lake house with his Sight - the ones that make him feel like he can just take power & use it for his own ends, seem like the corruptive influence of black magic on someone whose soul has already been tainted by such - it is overt & appeals directly to Harry’s greed (we know goateed Harry exists). This doesn’t seem like Nemesis, which I imagine is infinitely more subtle (sorta like Lash)
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I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.
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That's one tangle of plotlines I can't quite understand - Bianca was extremely shirty about her employee being killed (by someone who was nemfected), but seemed to be complicit with Cowl later on.
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I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.
Yes, and the persons mentioning his first cases were very trustworthy indeed.
Mind, there's an escape to make it true as an Outsider plot and yet not true as Nemfection - if Raith (with Bianca?) was running the gig, well, he has very tight Outsider connections.
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In what book does it explicitly or otherwise attribute Victor Sells as a nemfection? In Proven Guilty Harry attributes Sells to the Black Council. In the exchange between Harry and Rashid in Turn Coat Sells isn't mentioned and in Cold Days Rashid says, in the last couple of years, and Sells is ten or more years back.
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In what book does it explicitly or otherwise attribute Victor Sells as a nemfection? In Proven Guilty Harry attributes Sells to the Black Council. In the exchange between Harry and Rashid in Turn Coat Sells isn't mentioned and in Cold Days Rashid says, in the last couple of years, and Sells is ten or more years back.
If I remember correctly Sells was a guy with some talent.. However no formal training or guidance, experimenting with that talent, as we know by now is almost always the quick road to warlockhood... Apparently according to Monica, he lost his job and bought some books on magic, we are not talking Harry Potter books. From them he began to enhance his talent, bought more darker books, was able eventually to call up a demon, make Three Eye, and with the help of an electric storm and a sex orgy remotely rip people's hearts from their chests... I doubt that he was infected, he was just a poor slob with magical talent that made some very bad choices.
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Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.
The Nemesis part is generally accepted to be factual - as every being that knows of it that Dresden encounters confirms it's existence one way or another.
Many believe that Maeve lied to Lily, and therefore the information is compromised. Personally, there is no valid reason that I have yet heard why she would lie. Nemesis, and indeed Maeve, gain no benefit from lying about those cases.
But I am always open to theories.
Mira - you are pretty much right about what Sells was. However, none of that disproves him as being infected. The statement from Lily was "It changes that which ought not to change. It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition." She is directly talking about Sells. Everyone always assumes Nemesis allows some big magic change, like allowing Fae to lie. But changing someone's love and turning it into something evil, something terrible like horrible ambition is pretty bad right on its own.
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@Yuillegan & Con
I believe Outsiders were involved in Stormfront - just not in the form of Nfection. Sells’ magical knowledge was extremely patchy - very poor in some basic areas but fairly advanced in others.
Molly herself tells Harry in PG that she looked for magical books & people in the know for a couple of years unsuccessfully. Harry despite being a trained wizard for almost 2 decades at this point still needs Bob to help with potions, yet Sells in 3-4 years is mass manufacturing 3Eye? This screams of a sponsor - someone with a large library of magical books & a need of a magical enforcer - Lord Raith, who has strong connections to Outsiders.
@Vodyanoy
Where are you getting the notion that Bianca’s employee was killed by someone Nfected? I thought StF strongly implies & GP outright says that Bianca killed her own employee after Harry leaves her place in StF because Harry’s actions “mandated it”.
@Mira
That’s true on the surface, but reading between the lines, it would seem that the White Court is involved. Sells was working for a company called SilverCo (which follows the naming conventions for Raith business concerns); he used sex rituals to power his spells; he was clearly being guided/ groomed by someone higher up in the food chain - if you think about it, his main enemies are Marcone & later Harry - 2 people who would be the largest obstacles to power in taking control of Chicago (except for, of course the Raiths).
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Kbrizzle - no reason he couldn't be nfected AND sponsored by Lord Raith or some such person (like Cowl). His level of ability and knowledge is unusual although some of that may also be down to Jim being a novice writer and not everything being fully fleshed out. He even talks about this in relation to veils in Fool Moon. But yeah, someone definitely helped Sells out. Cowl fits the bill better in some ways, he has a history of giving tainted gifts...and creating lackeys. But probably Cowl and Raith are working together at least somewhat...so perhaps it is both.
Bianca did kill her own employee...hence her rage. Vodyanoy is wrong.
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Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.
The Nemesis part is generally accepted to be factual - as every being that knows of it that Dresden encounters confirms it's existence one way or another.
Many believe that Maeve lied to Lily, and therefore the information is compromised. Personally, there is no valid reason that I have yet heard why she would lie. Nemesis, and indeed Maeve, gain no benefit from lying about those cases.
But I am always open to theories.
Mira - you are pretty much right about what Sells was. However, none of that disproves him as being infected. The statement from Lily was "It changes that which ought not to change. It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition." She is directly talking about Sells. Everyone always assumes Nemesis allows some big magic change, like allowing Fae to lie. But changing someone's love and turning it into something evil, something terrible like horrible ambition is pretty bad right on its own.
Lily had no certain knowledge other than what Maeve might have told her. And Maeve was nemfected by a known vector. Victor Sells can be accounted for by the damaging affect of Black Magic. The FBI agents by the effects of the hexen wolf belts and so on. Harry actually suggests the Black Council as the behind the scenes operators in Proven Guilty.
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That’s true on the surface, but reading between the lines, it would seem that the White Court is involved. Sells was working for a company called SilverCo (which follows the naming conventions for Raith business concerns); he used sex rituals to power his spells; he was clearly being guided/ groomed by someone higher up in the food chain - if you think about it, his main enemies are Marcone & later Harry - 2 people who would be the largest obstacles to power in taking control of Chicago (except for, of course the Raiths).
That doesn't change the facts that he was merely someone with talent that fell into the same trap so many warlocks fall into. Once he became one or a sorcerer, not sure what exactly is the difference is, he became a cat's paw.
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Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.
Implicitly, not explicitly.
"And ... this plague. What does it do?" I asked.
"It changes that which ought not change," she said quietly. "It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition. ...
"Victor Sells the Shadowman," I whispered. ...
"Yes," Lily whispered. "each of them was tainted by the contagion. It destroyed them."
Let's assume Lily knows what she's talking about and hasn't been fed a line by Maeve on this count. This is a fairy talking, so we can't take what she says at face value. We have to parse it for weasel words. Kravos is one of the "them." We can use him for an example of how "tainted" and "destroyed" don't necessarily mean infected. The events of Grave Peril were obviously orchestrated by a faction tangled up with Outside. Who's a pawn and who's moving the pawns will probably be unclear for a good long while. Kravos could have been manipulated (or down stream of someone manipulated) by Nemesis. Therefore he was tainted, but not infected, by Nemesis. It's obvious that he was destroyed by the scheme's being played out in Grave Peril.
My opinion is that if Lily hasn't been fed a line, then it's more likely than not that Victor was infected. Without that assumption, I can't say it's more likely than not.
Why would Maeve lie? Because she can. Because the effects it has on Dresden. The shock alone affects his judgment. He now "knows" he can't necessarily trust any of his mortal friends because mortals are susceptible.
Victor Sells can be accounted for by the damaging affect of Black Magic. The FBI agents by the effects of the hexen wolf belts and so on.
Sells could have been fed black magic by a Nemesis infected agent. This would have "tainted" and "destroyed" him. Same with the wolf belts.
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Sells didn't need to be Infected. I believe that a Nemesis ally could've influenced a man like him very easily, without requiring direct Infection. Ditto the FBI agents.
They both reek of the kind of mental attacks Molly discussed in Turn Coat. They were made "more of what they are," so to speak. Sells was angry at his situation and greedy; he was made angrier and greedier, enough to do the things he did. The FBI agents were furious that the System they worked for couldn't touch someone like Marcone, so their indignation was redirected and given an outlet. Even Bianca's grief was used against her in Grave Peril, and she was basically totally nuts by then.
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They both reek of the kind of mental attacks Molly discussed in Turn Coat. They were made "more of what they are," so to speak. Sells was angry at his situation and greedy; he was made angrier and greedier, enough to do the things he did. The FBI agents were furious that the System they worked for couldn't touch someone like Marcone, so their indignation was redirected and given an outlet. Even Bianca's grief was used against her in Grave Peril, and she was basically totally nuts by then.
I think it is much simpler than that, it is the corrupting influence of the dark magic. Remember Molly's attitude about going into the minds of her friends almost indifferent to the damage she had caused. It is all part of the addictive nature of dark magic and the ability of the warlock to rationalize what they are doing is right.
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I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.
According to Lily, who was deceived about a lot.
According to WOJ, the first N-fected character to appear on stage was in GP. I'd be surprised if that was one of the rare occasions when he had to lie in a Q&A to prevent spoilers, since Sells is ancient history at this point. I think the N-fected character was Sells' teacher, either Lord Raith or Cowl.
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@Con
I’m not sure the Ramps were involved with Sells given Bianca’s reaction to Harry’s questioning in StF - granted Bianca may not have been in the know, but that seems unlikely given her status as head of the Ramps in Chicago. Although the use of the heart-ripping spell is interesting & probably not coincidental.
@Kindler
The mental attack thing is interesting - I hadn’t thought of that angle. That kind of mental ‘realignment’ would need a wizard or a Whamp.
@Mira
Oh absolutely - Sells was an alternate path Harry could have gone down (given that they were both being groomed into becoming magical bruisers with little in the way of refinement).
@Bad Alias
It’s fairly apparent that Lily knew very little of Nemesis - I mean she thought she could actually detect it through a touch-based spell (a useful fiction concocted by Maeve no doubt). I think Maeve listed Harry’s first 3 cases as a way of throwing suspicion on him - that Harry & Nemesis are somehow connected & it’s possible that Harry has since been Nfected.
Remember that Lily thinks Harry is Nfected until his genuine befuddlement about what’s going on convinces Lily to use her Nemesis ‘test’.
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@Con
I’m not sure the Ramps were involved with Sells given Bianca’s reaction to Harry’s questioning in StF - granted Bianca may not have been in the know, but that seems unlikely given her status as head of the Ramps in Chicago. Although the use of the heart-ripping spell is interesting & probably not coincidental.
Not coincidence could also mean, of course, that a deeper play was played against the reds. Even before Papa Raith was ousted, the Whites were seemingly reluctant allies only, rather than frontrunners in the war.
So maybe the Raiths ran a trial, told the Reds (after Bianca was safely dead) what a good idea it was, then got Harry to abuse their stupidity by using the loaded gun on the Reds.
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Lord Raith being behind everything, including the heart-ripping spell, seems unlikely. He may have a library full of deep occult knowledge, but he was more a ritualist than a sorcerer. Also considering he was defeated rather easily...he hardly seems like the big bad.
The House of Raith may have been attached to everything that is going on, but I think the WOJ is that Raith knows what is going on this cycle and wanted to come out on top, but Maggie (Dresden's mother) ruined it for him.
According to Lily, who was deceived about a lot.
According to WOJ, the first N-fected character to appear on stage was in GP. I'd be surprised if that was one of the rare occasions when he had to lie in a Q&A to prevent spoilers, since Sells is ancient history at this point. I think the N-fected character was Sells' teacher, either Lord Raith or Cowl.
Can you find that WOJ? I haven't had much luck tracking it down. Not that I am saying he didn't say that - but it seems odd. He has also been quoted as saying that he set up things in Storm Front that won't appear till the BAT. He has planned a lot of big stuff long term.
Morris - be that as it may, it doesn't really explain why Maeve would lie about it. Why reveal your hand just to fuck with little old Dresden. Had Dresden not known of Nemesis, he wouldn't have worked out Maeve was infected. It only slightly helped point him in the direction of Mab instead, but it would have been easier to just kill or infect Dresden himself.
I also think that just because black magic drives people mad, doesn't mean it is the only thing that does. Why did Sells even reach for power in the first place? It twisted him. Why did the FBI take magic belts to enforce and execute the law? Corruption. Otherwise these instances would be far more common place. Sells wasn't some young warlock first discovering magic, he was an average if unhappy Father who suddenly became incredibly ambitious beyond reason and turned to occult and strange dark methods.
Bad Alias - Explicitly. In the law if I ask you if you have drugs, and you say yes, you are not implying you have drugs. You are explicitly admitting to it. Dresden was checking with Lily, and she confirms. That is explicit enough.
Secondly, if Ebola taints you, you have been infected. Why would Nemesis be different?
Thirdly, Maeve wants to fuck with Dresden. Nemesis seems rather to view him as an annoying impediment, based on his one brief chat with it (Cat Sith). But this whole scene doesn't work if Lily's reveal is a lie. This reveal allows Dresden to understand his theoretical Black Council might just be an offshoot of something larger, and might not even just be Wizards. He begins to understand that his problems are so much bigger - which is what this whole book is about. To then go and retract this later just to say "gotcha" devalues the scene and will confuse his revelation.
Kindler - why would Nemesis worry about some random sorcerer via manipulation? A cosmic level power worrying about Sells beggars belief. How and why Sells was infected is one of the most important things.
No one has accounted for what Nemesis is trying to do. Nemesis had a goal when it infected Sells. To test the heart-ripping spell. Perhaps the Three-Eye too. Perhaps it too was testing its reach into mortal law with the FBI. With Aurora, it wanted to upset the Fairy balance to weaken Winter's position at the Outer Gates. But had Aurora succeeded in her plan, she would have made Winter stronger.
Almost all of the event seem to rope Harry in, and one might wonder if it was done to test him as well. But the real goal of Nemesis has been to upset the Status Quo, which every normal supernatural entity and nation seem very protective of (even the more evil ones).
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@Yuillegan
I don’t think Lord Raith is behind everything - I do think he is behind Sells though. Given his ‘impotence’, Lord Raith needs a magical enforcer to maintain power (WN shows that it has been slipping for decades). His absence from Bianca’s ball in GP is also noteworthy given that it is this cycle’s opening salvo - perhaps this is one of the reasons both Mavra & Cowl take pot shots at him in BR & WN.
About the Heart Spell
The Ramps could’ve tested the heart-ripping spell any time they wanted, had they known about it (they don’t really need Sells’ proof, they could obtain it in a few days) - iirc, Martin is the one to tell the Red King about it in the first place (so maybe he read the same book Sells had?). Besides, Sells performing the ritual sloppily on one person at a time when he has their hair/ fluids vs. the Ramps using it to erase an entire bloodline globally from a child are almost 2 separate things - like the difference between stabbing person X & launching laser-guided missiles at X & the 10-15 people directly related to him simultaneously.
Regarding Nemesis
While I don’t disagree with Outsiders being involved in StF, I don’t see why Sells had to be Nfected for any of their plans to work - after all, Lord Raith or Cowl could have manipulated Sells well enough without Nfection into performing some of the stuff you mention. For Nemesis to make sense it has to have limits - one of which is likely the number of people it is allowed to Nfect at one time (so not like Ebola). All of it’s confirmed targets so far (Aurora, Lea, Maeve & Cat Sith) are high-ranking Fae - they all have a significant amount of power in their courts. Sells is however, a poorly educated but moderately powerful sorcerer.
What was Nemesis’ end goal of a Nfecting Sells? It is clear that he would not have stood a chance against a real combat wizard. If Harry wasn’t able to stop him, Morgan surely would.
If I were a believer in the humans can be Nfected theory, I’d wager that one of the SC (or Luccio) is Nfected - it follows Nemesis’ pattern of Nfecting the Elders of whatever Court they are infiltrating.
Or
Since it is hard to possess older wizards, a candidate like Hannah Ascher would make much more sense - she is already trained in basic magic theory & is fairly powerful. If she were Nfected, kept in the shadows & made deals where she could, she could’ve potentially become Kemmler 2.0. I don’t see Sells being able to do this - he’s just too much of a noob.
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About the Heart Spell
The Ramps could’ve tested the heart-ripping spell any time they wanted, had they known about it (they don’t really need Sells’ proof, they could obtain it in a few days) - iirc, Martin is the one to tell the Red King about it in the first place (so maybe he read the same book Sells had?). Besides, Sells performing the ritual sloppily on one person at a time when he has their hair/ fluids vs. the Ramps using it to erase an entire bloodline globally from a child are almost 2 separate things - like the difference between stabbing person X & launching laser-guided missiles at X & the 10-15 people directly related to him simultaneously ...
I think Sells got the spell from Papa Raith.
I think the Ramps have had that spell for millennia (Aztecs and heart-ripping, doncha know).
I don't think we necessarily have good evidence for the "origin" of the spell.
But I am inclined to think it does have a single origin, because of what Vadderung said -- that the Sells spell, the Raith spell, and the Ramp ritual are all versions of the same spell, and being used as part of a concerted plan.
Given Vadderung's reveal, I peg the spell to be Black Council, (possibly learned from the Ramps, who presumably had a seat on the BC); possibly an actual Nemesis or even Outsider spell.
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g33k - perhaps Sells got the spell from Raith, perhaps it was someone else. But you touch on part of what I am getting at. Vadderung says it isn't coincidence right after Harry learns the the Reds wish to target him through the same spell Sells used. Perhaps the Reds have had the spell for millennia, and I agree it fits thematically with the human heart sacrifice, but it is more than that. You are exactly right I think - it is all part of a greater plan that I believe the Outsiders are heavily involved in, if not directly responsible for. Vadderung seems to take deep offense at that particular type of magic, and considering he taught Merlin and Merlin made the Laws of Magic, one might conclude that Vadderung doesn't like death magic/blood curses of that nature.
Kbrizzle - I think your theory about Raith needing Sells as an informer is plausible enough. I think Bianca's whole masquerade was interesting. We haven't heard of anything similar before or since. Perhaps sessions in the Faerie Courts would be similar. But the fact that some mere Vampire was ascending to a higher tier on the Ziggurat (so to speak) and required the attendence of no less than a Dragon, the head of the White Court, the 2nd most powerful faerie in Winter, one of the last (and oldest) Black Court vampires, the local Wizard (of course the area Warden wasn't invited - but had it been not about revenge on Harry the invitation should surely have gone to someone more senior amongst the White Council), and perhaps a few other significant players that we are not aware of yet - seems really odd to me.
My take is that the real reason for those guests for something that should have been smaller and probably internal, was that it was a recruiting session. Not a voluntary one of course. But likely every important guest who was not allied with the Black Council/New Force (Nicodemus' term)/Nemesis/Circle etc was there to be recruited. Ferrovax and Lea were probably heavies that "they" wished to corrupt. Mavra is likely already on the team so she didn't get or need a Nfected gift. Bianca (if she wasn't nfected, was not really required as she was giving the gifts and not that useful) and I think Lord Raith while perhaps not nfected per se, I think he might still have been a part of the Circle but his impotency might have been slowly pushed to the bench and as he resented that, sent Thomas by way of insult. And I agree that perhaps that is part of why Mavra and Cowl move against him later on.
What are the chances that Martin is reading the same black magic book that Sells is? Just to be clear too - Harry suspects Martin would have known about the blood curse as a former priest. But even that is just speculation. I think it is more likely that someone Nfected on the Red Court team supplied that spell to Sells (perhaps via Raith). Perhaps it wasn't a test run for that spell using the Sells. But it was no accident he ended up finding it.
It doesn't matter to us that Sells was infected. But for some reason Sells was caught up with the "new force"/nemesis etc. I wholly agree with you that Nemesis has limits. I think we have discussed this before. But I think it's limits are the same as any virus - it's ability to transmit to new hosts. Hosts normally have to have compromised immune systems or the virus has to work in special ways in order to live in the host. I think Nemesis' limits are a combination of its ability to transmit from host to host, and perhaps that because it is "aware" it chooses its victims. More like a sentient Ebola (a truly terrifying thought). I suppose I just do not get why people are so against it being able to infect regular old mortals but are perfectly fine with it infecting supernatural beings. Truly I think we will not see the clues in Storm Front until the BAT as Jim is withholding key information, but I think when we do get that info we will see Nemesis and perhaps other players fingerprints in Storm Front.
I agree that he was never a strong pawn, but I think the goals of cosmic-level entities are less centered around fights of the physical nature, and more around the smaller and more important things like Choice (at least that seems to fit the theme of the series). And yeah, I am sure there is at least one high-level Wizard apart from Peabody who might be nfected or associated with the Black Council. Luccio is too obvious, and she had her mind control thing already. Not sure she fits the bill really. Cristos probably, maybe Simon (if you buy he is still alive). LtW would be great for the shock reveal and fit his character of past resentments, but not of his ability to learn from them. And he was struck down in Changes. Martha Liberty would also be interesting but we have seen so little of her anyway. Rashid is almost impossible - he works the Gate which helps detect Nemesis amongst other things and sees the Queens pretty regularly.
I don't think Langtry just because that robs the character of just plain old being a dick. Which I think is his worst quality, not that he is actually evil. Same for Mai.
Ascher would have worked but being on the Denarian team...I think that rules her out. Unless Lasciel is infected...but I think there is WOJ that angels are immune or something.
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I wholly agree with you that Nemesis has limits. I think we have discussed this before. But I think it's limits are the same as any virus - it's ability to transmit to new hosts. Hosts normally have to have compromised immune systems or the virus has to work in special ways in order to live in the host. I think Nemesis' limits are a combination of its ability to transmit from host to host, and perhaps that because it is "aware" it chooses its victims. More like a sentient Ebola (a truly terrifying thought). I suppose I just do not get why people are so against it being able to infect regular old mortals but are perfectly fine with it infecting supernatural beings. Truly I think we will not see the clues in Storm Front until the BAT as Jim is withholding key information, but I think when we do get that info we will see Nemesis and perhaps other players fingerprints in Storm Front.
IIRC Mab says that the Nfection jumped out of Lea & into Maeve - why would it need to do that if it can Nfect as many people as it likes? Viruses copy themselves into a new host, they don’t leave the old one to get to the new one.
The reason I do not believe that Nemesis can Nfect humans is its whole shtick is that it is able to change that which cannot - like the natures of individual Fae. As immortals, they do not possess free will & thus cannot make a choice to change themselves/ their fundamental natures (sorta like angels) - humans however do possess free will & are fungible enough to change themselves as they please. It is easier to emotionally/ financially manipulate a human into doing something than wasting valuable resources on Nfecting them.
Additionally, if humans could be Nfected, why wouldn’t Nemesis try to Nfect the POTUS & start a global nuclear war or something? Maybe launch a nuke at the WC Edinburgh facility & Demonreach?
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Kindler - why would Nemesis worry about some random sorcerer via manipulation? A cosmic level power worrying about Sells beggars belief. How and why Sells was infected is one of the most important things.
No one has accounted for what Nemesis is trying to do. Nemesis had a goal when it infected Sells. To test the heart-ripping spell. Perhaps the Three-Eye too. Perhaps it too was testing its reach into mortal law with the FBI. With Aurora, it wanted to upset the Fairy balance to weaken Winter's position at the Outer Gates. But had Aurora succeeded in her plan, she would have made Winter stronger.
Almost all of the event seem to rope Harry in, and one might wonder if it was done to test him as well. But the real goal of Nemesis has been to upset the Status Quo, which every normal supernatural entity and nation seem very protective of (even the more evil ones).
This assumes that Nemesis actually infected Sells, which isn't necessarily a concept I'm 100% sold on. None of his, the FBI Wolves, or Bianca's out of character behavior requires Nemesis to explain it; it can readily be explained either as mental manipulation by a Wizard (Cowl is a prime suspect, for example, and Bianca was being instructed by Mavra, so she might've handled her), White Court Vampire, demonic influence (as in Fallen more so than one like Froggy that Sells calls up), or any number of things. Mira's explanation about the corrupting influence of black magic is possible, too. There's very little reason for Nemesis to bother with the kind of control he gets over Cat Sith, or even Maeve—money, power, lust, greed, pride, and righteous indignation are all enough motivation for them to do what they did, and those aren't exactly in short supply. I mean, the Beckitts are a prime example of what normal humans will do when it comes to revenge.
That said, I do think that someone wanted Three Eye on the streets. I've toyed with the idea that the Circle/Black Council/Outsiders/Whoever the Hell are pushing for a Mass Awakening from vanilla mortals. I think it's possible they want the Masquerade to come to an end, so they can take advantage of the absolute chaos in the mortal world to do whatever it is they want to (establish the New Order, Destroy Reality Itself, it's basically motivation roulette). I think the main issue with them doing it by hand (like Cowl summoning a demon on live TV or whatever) is a matter of scale. People will handwave and rationalize any number of supernatural events, especially in the DV (the Wal-Mart Gas Leak, for example) as having some kind of mundane cause.
It's something we see in the real world all the time. Look at how many people desperately search for motives for murderers. Some simply don't have one, and they tend to be the ones that get books and movies made about them, many trying to explain why.
So for a real WAKE UP Call for Humanity to happen, there's got to be something that happens on a significant scale. Three Eye (or Third Eye? I can't remember) gave normal humans a watered down version of the Sight. If that gets into enough people's hands, you're going to see things that can't be rationally explained eventually. Imagine if there was suddenly thousands of people who could, essentially, read people's minds—people who'd never been able to do anything like that before. It's not what Three Eye does, but that's how it would seem to people. Ramping up production of that drug and distributing it at scale would eventually cause enough people to start asking questions.
Basically, I think humanity has to come to the conclusion that the Supernatural Is Real on their own. They have to launch an investigation and find evidence. Hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people who can suddenly see things they shouldn't might cause enough people to begin asking the right kinds of questions to lead Humanity to believe that yes, there Are Things That Live In The Dark.
Extremely wild ass guess of mine, but I think it makes sense.
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[1]Bad Alias - Explicitly. In the law if I ask you if you have drugs, and you say yes, you are not implying you have drugs. You are explicitly admitting to it. Dresden was checking with Lily, and she confirms. That is explicit enough.
[2]Secondly, if Ebola taints you, you have been infected. Why would Nemesis be different?
[3]Thirdly, Maeve wants to fuck with Dresden. Nemesis seems rather to view him as an annoying impediment, based on his one brief chat with it (Cat Sith). But this whole scene doesn't work if Lily's reveal is a lie. This reveal allows Dresden to understand his theoretical Black Council might just be an offshoot of something larger, and might not even just be Wizards. He begins to understand that his problems are so much bigger - which is what this whole book is about. To then go and retract this later just to say "gotcha" devalues the scene and will confuse his revelation.
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[4]With Aurora, it wanted to upset the Fairy balance to weaken Winter's position at the Outer Gates. But had Aurora succeeded in her plan, she would have made Winter stronger.
1. Lily says they were "tainted" and "destroyed." She does not say they were infected. It's more like you asking me if I have drugs, and I say I'm corrupted by drugs. This could mean that I launder money for a drug dealer or some other such thing that doesn't involve me possessing drugs, but makes me a worse person.
2. Nemesis would be different in that it is sentient and can taint people without infecting them.
3. Nemesis isn't in complete control of Maeve. The example of Cat Sith shows us this. For Nemesis to be in complete control, it has to basically destroy the hosts personality and its own ability to use the host to infiltrate.
4. Jim has said dumping Summer into Winter would be like mixing matter and anti-matter.
IIRC Mab says that the Nfection jumped out of Lea & into Maeve.
I don't recall anything like that.
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I mean, how would Lily even know that Sells and Denton's pack were Infected? She was a changeling girl at the time. I don't think she was even eighteen yet. What she says is speculation; it could be correct, and it could be based on information she'd gathered since becoming the Summer Lady, or it could be something Maeve told her (but, again, how would Uninfected Maeve know? She wasn't around those first two incidents at all—I don't think she was even around Chicago at the time; I'm pretty sure she moved into Undertown when Mab came to the city).
Lily's accusation is basically a guess—maybe an informed guess—that may or may not be right, and isn't verifiable any longer. Barring time travel, of course.
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I'm with Kindler on this. Lily isn't a reliable narrator and Meave had no reason to give her the complete truth about how Nemesis works. For that matter, depending on how Nemesis works on its victims, nemfected Maeve might not have known the exact facts.
Allow me to explain. When Harry was talking to nemfected Cat Sith, he eventually got to the point where he was speaking to the thing possessing the malk. That thing would have known all the secrets, but it wasn't very talkative. The being Harry spoke before that, the one who kept saying, "I am the real Cat Sith" might not have been lying or not realized it was lying. It may have been Cat Sith with his strings being pulled by Nemesis. Whether taken over by deception, or by force or a seemingly willing convert like Maeve, I doubt Nemesis would share its secrets with the original personality. It would be too easy; especially for someone like Maeve, to accidentally share something important it shouldn't have.
So I think it was far more likely that while Victor Sells; and in Grave Peril Leonid Kravos, played roles in plans that originated with Nemesis or its top allies, neither of them were possessed by it. They were corrupted the old fashion way. They both wanted more power and an outsider ally used their desires to make them into useful tools. I doubt either one of them had a clue of the deeper game that was being played.
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Maeve totally would have blabbed. She was on a complete power trip just from being able to speak falsehoods for the first time, and went full "Nyah-nyah-nyah!" by the end of Cold Days.
Now, I do think she knew quite a lot. I'm not sure if she was exactly aware of the full implications of unleashing Demonreach (personally, I think self-preservation would have kept her from participating; Maeve cares about Maeve). Personally, I believe that Maeve was manipulated into doing the stuff she did between Summer Knight and Cold Days. The Thing In Her Head offered her the power of deception, fundamentally altering her core Purpose, and convinced her that Doing These Things Will Get Back at the Mother You Hate So Much.
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I'm pretty sure she [Maeve] moved into Undertown when Mab came to the city.
Harry surmises that they moved to Chicago after the events of Grave Peril because the barrier between the Nevernever and Chicago were weaker than most places. It makes sense, but is only Harry's speculation.
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... Additionally, if humans could be Nfected, why wouldn’t Nemesis try to Nfect the POTUS & start a global nuclear war or something? Maybe launch a nuke at the WC Edinburgh facility & Demonreach?
Harry doesn't think most of the supernatural world really grasps how potent the mortals have become... and the Outside is probably even less-connected/aware than that.
POTUS? Why would they target some doofus that lets the plebes un-elect him every 4 years? How could he possibly be worth anything to them?
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g33k - I agree. Outsiders even if they are aware of Nuclear weapons, likely don't care. They have reality-ending power, Nuclear weapons are firecrackers compares to the power of the Sun, let alone an event that would end everything. Hell they are firecrackers compared to Hurricanes, at least in terms of energy. Humans are powerful, sure. But we are mostly really only capable of ending Life on our little planet, not everything everywhere. As Bob says, destruction is easy. All you really have to do is wait and let Entropy do its work. Creation is hard. Hence its value.
POTUS, if they are even aware of the position, probably doesn't really rank very highly in their eyes. Humanity and mortals are much more deadly to beings of our world than them in the traditional sense. Mortals' real strength comes from our ability to Choose, I suspect.
Kbrizzle -
1) Maeve is a high value target, considering her influence in Winter and her potential to become Queen. Nemesis' is a sapper, and wants to open the Gates from the inside. And sorry for the confusion, metaphors become difficult when dealing with the supernatural. I did not mean that the entirety of Nemesis jumps from host to host - far from it. I do not necessarily believe it behaves like any virus from Creation either, I am merely borrowing Jim's analogy. I believe that this thing has no such limits - it is more like a gestalt being, able to exist in many bodies. It doesn't copy itself, it doesn't exactly move, it merely "spreads". Think a large amount of butter on many pieces of bread. It's all the same butter, the bread is different. And I believe as we don't know the exact mechanism of infection, it makes it difficult to ascertain why it hasn't spread further. However I think the biggest hint we have so far is power. The acquisition of power, perhaps of specific types of power, seems to be the door.
2) What is interesting to me about your argument here is you are perfectly willing to accept that Lily is correct and truthful about Nemesis changing that which it ought not to change, based on information from a source you believe is untrustworthy. But you won't accept the rest of her statements...because you believe the source is untrustworthy. You can't cherry pick here - either you accept that Maeve gave credible information, or you don't. We have literally no other frame of reference to figure out which bits are true or otherwise. As for the rest of your statement -see above.
Kindler -
1) I suppose that is true, if Sells was never infected then the issue doesn't exist. However what you say does not address a key factor: why one reason but not another? Why is Dark Magic, Mental Manipulation, Demonic Influence etc explain these out of character behaviors better than Nemesis. Assuming all these things are not linked (which is a definite possibility, plausibly at least some of those things are linked) why are these reasons more plausible than Nemesis? And we are dealing with probability here, not possibility. There are many more possible reasons that Sells, the FBI agents, and Kravos would act they way they did - what we are trying to do here is eliminate the possibilities and focus on what the probabilities are. We have in-text a character saying that these beings were affected by Nemesis, and that is why they went for Dark Arts in the first place. What we do not have is a plausible explanation for why any of these characters would pursue the Dark Arts in the first place. We can assume many reasons, but we have a very small pool of actual evidence, and the evidence we do have says directly that the reason they pursued Dark Arts in the first place was Nemesis. If there is an alternative, backed up by hard evidence, I am all ears. But so far no one yet has found anything to the contrary beyond speculation and theory. Interesting theories though they are.
3)I really enjoy your theory on the reason for Three Eye (that is the correct name, to answer your question) emerging. I do believe that many beings want an end to the Masquerade - for various different reasons but almost all would give them more power. However there are many who oppose this as well, I think, because there positions are already quite secure and feel no need to upset the Status Quo. This I believe goes a long way to explaining the seemingly opposing actions within certain supernatural organisations and nations. Great WAG btw.
3) To answer you other post - how would Lily know that Denton etc were infected? Knowledge and Power go hand in hand, and even the minor Faeries Queens have a lot of Power. So even if Lily wasn't up to speed on all the big secrets in Faerie, I suspect in terms of current affairs she would have a pretty good knowledge. What is also interesting about your comment, is that for the first two cases (Sells and FBI agents), Maeve hadn't yet been introduced and did not even know Dresden. She would not have even been infected back then. So how would she have known either? Considering Lily becomes Winter Lady around the same time we first are introduced to Maeve, and Maeve was still a book or two from being infected, there is still plenty of time for both to learn about this new Winter Emissary of Mab's who killed Aurora and saved Faerie. And as Bad Alias points out - Harry speculates Maeve moved to Undertown when Mab came to the city, we don't actually know that. I think we cannot simply dismiss Lily's accusation as merely a guess, especially when we have so very little hard evidence to say that her information was false. Theories must fit facts, rather than facts being made to fit theories. And the facts are that we have an accusation that Harry's first few cases were all Nfected. We have the Gatekeeper saying that Harry's actions over the past few years have resulted in a series of well-placed thumbs (as he puts it) in Nemesis' eye. We have Vadderung saying everything is connected and Harry is only just learning who the players are (in a talk that discusses Sells and the Red Court). And we have the Gatekeeper and Mother Summer's reveal that it is an Outsider, that is a sapper trying to open the gates from this side. We also have Lily saying it is an Outsider virus, and Titania confirming that it has a name (and that she would know if Mab was infected). And we learn of Outsiders in the very first Dresden Files case. The theory that Lily was wrong does not fit, considering the evidence.
KurtinStGeorge - As Kindler points out, Nemesis wasn't using Maeve as a sock puppet. It mostly appears to influence, rather than puppet its hosts. Maeve was merely enjoying her knew ability. And she had no idea how dangerous the ability to lie really is. It got her killed. We are also assuming that the reason Maeve knew about Nemesis was from Nemesis telling her. Except as Dresden points out in Cold Days, it is because of Lily's relative newness in being Summer Lady that she likely didn't know. Maeve has been around for several centuries, she knew quite probably knew about the Adversary. At least in part. She knew about starborns and the Sleepers, I would say her knowledge of the big stuff far outstripped young Lily. And I am not saying btw, that Sells or any other Mortal was a sock puppet. I think they were mostly just being nudged along. We never saw any other evidence to the contrary that they were being possessed. I just think that Nemesis is more like ringworm or botfly, it just lives inside making the host sicker until it can't fight it off. Hell there are zombie worms that control snails in nature. Life is weird enough, who knows what something beyond reality would do. I think they were corrupted, but how and why is contentious. See my argument to Kindler.
Bad Alias -
1) She used synonyms. It is semantics at this point. But to use your analogy - you may not possess or partake drugs, but the money and culture of it may have influenced you. However we are also talking spirit here, and so in the Dresden Files, you would in a sense have been "corrupted". Jim often talks about how you can lose your soul without any supernatural thing being involved. The key word in her sentence is "them". She says they are tainted, not their lives. She makes a great deal out of the fact it has changed them, not that it is merely affecting their lives indireclty. Mab directly says (and she cannot lie) that the Leanansidhe was tainted by Morgana's Athame, and she spread it to Maeve. I don't know how much more proof you want, but I think the definition Jim is using means infected.
2) Ok so hypothetically if we go with your definition for taint in this context, sure. But by that logic, Nemesis has tainted Harry and just about anyone else affected by it's actions. But Lily doesn't go "Dresden you have been tainted" even if her ability to check for Nemesis was bulldust. She clears him, even though his life has been greatly impacted by the actions of Nemesis. So has just about everyone in those cases, but Lily doesn't mention them either. She specifically mentions the villains. Food for thought.
3) Nemesis briefly took full control of Cat Sith. We have no idea of the long term effects of that. We don't know if his personality remains, if he would remember the incident. What we do know is that it changed his fundamental nature so thoroughly that he couldn't fulfill his oath, his duty to Dresden even before Cat Sith was aware of the infection. Also as above, I don't think Nemesis uses sock puppets much. We haven't really seen anything to suggest that it would do so unless revealed (which Titania implied, as did Lily and Maeve, that that would force it to either infest or kill anyone aware of it, within its power). By that logic, Nemesis isn't in complete control of any of its hosts most of the time. Which is likely. Easier to keep pushing its victims to doing its bidding than actually actively controlling everything. Perhaps it can't. We don't know its limits. Mostly, it only seems to resort to that sock puppet move when discovered - to which it promptly tried to kill Dresden (which I think we can take as a good sign Dresden is not yet infected).
4) The WOJ you are referring to was discussing what would happen if a Knight had both mantles. I think he was saying it would destroy the Knight, not the Mantles though. If as you suggest, the power of Summer would blow up if combined into Winter, Aurora's entire plan to destabilize the Courts makes no sense. Which pretty much every powerful being thought was a credible threat. There is a WOJ answering a fan who said what they believed happens is that the Power in the mantle is transferred into the Court that holds the Stone Table, not the mantle itself. The energy therefore is not destroyed but changes. Which is consistent with physics. It is the Mortal form that is weak and cannot handle the energies, not the Courts. I believe that they often has stolen/eaten each others Power before. How else would anything change? The power-sucking Stone Table in Tir-Na Nog is there for a reason.
Also yeah, I think what happens is Dresden says in Cold Days it was Leah was tainted by the knife, and spread it to Maeve. p463 of Cold Days.
Everyone - I sincerely apologise for the 2000 word essay. There was a lot to come back to after two days.
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[1]Why is Dark Magic, Mental Manipulation, Demonic Influence etc explain these out of character behaviors better than Nemesis.
[2]We have the Gatekeeper saying that Harry's actions over the past few years have resulted in a series of well-placed thumbs (as he puts it) in Nemesis' eye. We have Vadderung saying everything is connected and Harry is only just learning who the players are (in a talk that discusses Sells and the Red Court). And we have the Gatekeeper and Mother Summer's reveal that it is an Outsider, that is a sapper trying to open the gates from this side. We also have Lily saying it is an Outsider virus, and Titania confirming that it has a name (and that she would know if Mab was infected). And we learn of Outsiders in the very first Dresden Files case. The theory that Lily was wrong does not fit, considering the evidence.
[3]It is semantics at this point.
[4]Ok so hypothetically if we go with your definition for taint in this context, sure. But by that logic, Nemesis has tainted Harry and just about anyone else affected by it's actions. But Lily doesn't go "Dresden you have been tainted" even if her ability to check for Nemesis was bulldust. She clears him, even though his life has been greatly impacted by the actions of Nemesis. So has just about everyone in those cases, but Lily doesn't mention them either. She specifically mentions the villains. Food for thought.
[5]We don't know if his personality remains, if he would remember the incident.
[6]If as you suggest, the power of Summer would blow up if combined into Winter, Aurora's entire plan to destabilize the Courts makes no sense. Which pretty much every powerful being thought was a credible threat.
[7]There is a WOJ answering a fan who said what they believed happens is that the Power in the mantle is transferred into the Court that holds the Stone Table, not the mantle itself. The energy therefore is not destroyed but changes. Which is consistent with physics. It is the Mortal form that is weak and cannot handle the energies, not the Courts. I believe that they often has stolen/eaten each others Power before. How else would anything change? The power-sucking Stone Table in Tir-Na Nog is there for a reason.
[8]Everyone - I sincerely apologise for the 2000 word essay. There was a lot to come back to after two days.
[1]I got the impression in Storm Front that Sells had always been an abusive husband. The kind of guy who would abuse any power he had. I would expect him to use black magic if he isn't told about the White Council and the Laws of Magic. As to the FBI agents, corrupt law enforcement doesn't surprise me in the least. The FBI has been pretty shady to full on corrupt for most of it's existence. We don't know enough about Kravos to know if he was even acting out of character. My point is that these people weren't acting well outside of ways I would expect them to. Perhaps better put as they wouldn't take much nudging to do what they did.
[2]We have a great deal of evidence that Harry has been in the middle of "it" in every or almost every case book. The question of "it" is somewhat debatable, but we should be pretty sure that Outsiders are in the middle of "it," perhaps to the extent that "it" is Outsiders. The question of how the Outsiders are involved in most of his cases is still a pretty wide open question in my opinion.
[3]My point is semantics should always be closely looked at when faeries are involved. Unless they say something very literal several different ways or one way incapable of multiple interpretations, no one can trust what they said. I'm not saying Lily is being deceptive; I'm saying it is basically always possible a faerie is being deceptive.
[4]The definition of taint can have a spectrum from direct infection to somehow affected the course of your life. There is a middle ground of "working towards Nemesis's ends." But my it doesn't really matter if we can agree to my point in [3].
[5]I took Cat Sith's final statement in Cold Days to mean that he couldn't be a covert asset anymore, even if he killed Dresden. It's open to interpretation. A pity. I would have been more useful to them as an active, covert asset.
Ch. 44
[6]I imagine an explosion or whatever would destabilize the Courts, and would be much worse than a simple imbalance in Winter's favor.
[7]Is there an answer in that WoJ?
[8]Apology rejected on the grounds of it being completely unnecessary. ;)
Also, if anyone can find the purported WoJ that states that no one infected showed up until Grave Peril, that would be helpful.
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[1]I got the impression in Storm Front that Sells had always been an abusive husband. The kind of guy who would abuse any power he had. I would expect him to use black magic if he isn't told about the White Council and the Laws of Magic. As to the FBI agents, corrupt law enforcement doesn't surprise me in the least. The FBI has been pretty shady to full on corrupt for most of it's existence. We don't know enough about Kravos to know if he was even acting out of character. My point is that these people weren't acting well outside of ways I would expect them to. Perhaps better put as they wouldn't take much nudging to do what they did.
My impression is Sells was borderline, as long as things were going well financially etc, he was difficult to live with but tolerable. However the tendency was always there, so plenty of tinder upon which to light a fire.
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Here's a very simple reason: one requires entities from Outside to be brought to some street-level nobodies. The other requires more understandable, human behavior.
We don't know how Nemesis infection even works. Is it instant? Is it a process? Is it a disease vector that takes time to incubate? How would he even have been Infected in the first place? Who would have noticed Sells? Because his behavior seemed to have changed when he started doing Black Magic, not "When he met that man in a Cowl" or something. There doesn't appear to have been a single event that caused the change. His shift to villain seemed more like a gradual degeneration, from Monica's description. That smells more like Black Magic than Nemesis, to me.
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My argument against that is: Why would Lily bother to learn about a dead small-time warlock and a corrupt FBI agent? Grave Peril I can kinda understand, because that involves lots of major powers and explains a great deal about the ongoing Red Court War, which is important for a Queen to know and understand. But a guy selling drugs and a handful of werewolves killing mobsters? Who cares?
Even if she did make the effort to find out some more details about them, how does she know they're Infected? Did she spend the time to backtrace their movements to pinpoint the Nemesis vector that got them? Cuz remember that this is coming from the Lady who thought she could detect Nemesis infection with a simple test that takes seconds.
I think it's more likely that when Maeve clued her in, she simply told her about Sells + Denton. I think that particular move was designed to put doubts in Lily's head about Dresden. "Hey, he's been exposed to Nemesis... look at all the stuff he's done over the years... he's upset so many balances... now he's working for Mab, and is in a position of terrible power... maybe it's not just Dresden..." That kind of thing. Since Maeve can't lie, Lily takes her word as gospel.
Sells's behavior is perfectly understandable for a bastard. A petty abuser loses his job, which screws with his superiority complex, so he turns to the dark arts to get revenge and make a ton of money, roping in a handful of financial backers motivated similarly. Denton wants to take down Marcone, but can't, so uses the power offered to him to kill him rather than trust a system he believes has failed. I mean, we saw what the belts do to a mortal when they're used; there's no Nemesis necessary. In fact, Denton held it together a little too well for me to really buy him being Infected; he was way saner than the rest of his Pack.
Money and justice are all the motivation necessary for some people. None of their actions require Infection to be explained. And the only point to the contrary comes from a source that is extraordinarily untrustworthy, both because of her naivete and her own sources.
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[1]... As to the FBI agents, corrupt law enforcement doesn't surprise me in the least. The FBI has been pretty shady to full on corrupt for most of it's existence...
No, Denton was trying to do the right thing, at least at first. He was trying to keep a lid on things as he watched his team spin out of control.
Eventually, he was doing more harm than good, but so caught up in the press of the moment that I don't think he had stopped to see the big picture... or maybe he'd kinda-sorta noticed it, and was scrambling hard to keep his nose to the grindstone so he could keep denying to himself how bad it was...
He got into the Hexenwulf gig out of initial frustration with watching bad guys skate free on technicalities.
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No, Denton was trying to do the right thing...
He got into the Hexenwulf gig out of initial frustration with watching bad guys skate free on technicalities.
I'd say that a law enforcement officer going outside the system to deal with a criminal they can't convict inside the system is corrupt. As soon as he decided to murder Marcone, he was corrupt. He did that before he got the belts.
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I'd say that a law enforcement officer going outside the system to deal with a criminal they can't convict inside the system is corrupt. As soon as he decided to murder Marcone, he was corrupt. He did that before he got the belts.
Do we even know how long they had the belts? I had thought it was for at least a year, maybe several years. I'm not clear whether it was Marcone, or some other bad guy, who got away and led them to become vigilante's.
This is doing something wrong, but it isn't being "corrupt." They aren't taking bribes or kickbacks, they aren't extorting people, etc. "Corrupt" law enforcement is going after personal gain.
They were instead trying to catch/punish criminals. They became murderers to do this... it's even worse than mere financial gain. But it's not corruption.
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When they got the belts is unclear. When they started using them is when the murders started about a month before the book starts.
It was investigations into Marcone being shut down that was what drove them to murder.
Corrupt isn't just use of office for financial, or even non-financial personal, gain, though that has become the main (almost exclusive) use of the term, which is a shame. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corrupt (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corrupt). Think of a corrupted file or something being tainted. Law enforcement's only job is to uphold the law. Murder and denial of due process is the opposite of upholding the law. A good example of a corrupt law enforcement agency is the FBI under Hoover doing all sorts of things it shouldn't. Blackmailing private citizens and elected officials, spying on civil rights leaders. Hoover used his office to subvert the will of the people. That is a corruption of his purpose as Director of the FBI; therefore, it is a corrupt act.
Also, not every act that results in personal gain is corrupt. The most obvious personal gain is that they get a paycheck. Law enforcement also get all sorts of discounts and special treatment. Another example is parlaying connections and experience into lucrative private sector jobs.
They became murderers to do this... it's even worse than mere financial gain.
That's basically my original point. If you don't accept my definition of corrupt, then go with a synonym like depraved, perverted, debased, nefarious, or villainous. You can even go with the Latin origins which is basically "broken."
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Yep, the first Werewolf murders were committed a month before Fool Moon. The wolf motifs and the lunar cycle aligned enough that Murphy called Dresden and basically asked, "Hey, are werewolves real?" I believe they got the belts around that time, but it's not specifically stated.
I took Harry's soulgaze with Denton to mean that Denton had decided the only way to deal with Marcone was to kill him, since they couldn't prosecute him. He started looking for a way to do that, and eventually stumbled upon someone super helpful! Not only were they able to tell him that yes, werewolves are real, but there's a rival gang of lycanthropes nearby you can pin the murder on! Or, you know, you can just mess up Harvey MacFinn's circle and let him deal with it, since he's got a grudge against Marcone.
I like Fool Moon well enough, but it's a rather messy book. I think the Berserkergang Gang bit could've been removed without affecting the structure, bu I take it that Jim really wanted to just do every kind of werewolf myth in one shot.