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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: KurtinStGeorge on August 29, 2025, 01:10:07 AM
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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.
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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.
Nic may have known Judas, I have always thought that he was Judas. However I seem to remember, though I don't remember which book or short story, that it was stated that Nic wasn't Judas. The noose itself however, most likely was the noose that Judas hanged himself with. It could be admittedly too obvious a conclusion to come to, but the noose that Judas hanged himself is the most famous or infamous noose in history. If Nic isn't Judas, my theory is he was one of his friends, or a Jesus groupie that was among those who followed Jesus and the Apostles around as they they preached. Nic might have become disenchanted with the teaching of Jesus and had a hand in Judas actually betraying Jesus. Nic might have been the one who cut Judas down from the tree after he hung himself, in the process picked up Andriel's coin as it fell from Judas's body. Andriel told him or then convinced him to place that noose around his neck and that he would be forever protected by it.
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The is a legend about a centurion at the cross cursed to live until the end of the world. The discussion about Nic always bring it back to mind, Not saying that's Nic but i think the legend probably inspired jim.
In Universe i think that he was probably a roman who was in the region at the time a got caught up in events and was lucky(unlucky) to come across the noose and coins.