Blampire WAG.

Drakul first created them by using necromancy combined with soulfire.

IIRC Dracula created himself as the first Blampire, I don't think Drakul actually created them. Dracula, being a scion with mortal Free Will, could have been gifted Soulfire.

Now he is commanding them in BG, but maybe he just kind of "reverse inherited" command over them when Dracula was killed in the Stokerlypse.

Although... I wonder if the soulfire/necromancy thing was actually ghouls, not Blampires. There doesn't seem to be anything "soul" like about Blampires, they're just animated corpses. Ghouls are actually alive.

In the last 200 years, sure. But the Maya go back much further than the Aztec- we're talking 0AD. Back then I think the Forest People were responsible for choking them off into South America only.

Maybe, but the Red Court might just not have been that interested. The population density in pre-Columbian times was way higher in Mesoamerica than in North America north of Mexico, really pretty amazingly high given that they were doing all their agriculture without draft animals or anything.

And the Red Court probably avoided the overly-sunny and thinly-populated desert of northern Mexico; they would try to expand southward rather than northward.

Looking at the info, the root 'rafa' means 'to tie', which comes up in the analysis of why he was chosen to imprison Azazel.  And Raphael/Rafael in the series is the demon binding angel, so...

I thought the name 'Raphael' means 'God heals', 'God has healed', or something to that effect?

Not sure about Rafael vs Raphael, but Rafael is the Spanish form (eg San Rafael, CA).

I think Susan in Mirror Mirror world will probably be a full Red Court Vampire and a significant player in Alternate Chicago (either Bianca's second-in-command or having replaced Bianca), since the point of divergence is at the end of GP.

Although depending on the exact decision that is made differently, maybe Harry chose to protect Susan and let Michael die trying to retrieve Amoracchius. So I guess it's possible that she's alive and human. Doesn't seem that likely, though.

To me this goes in direct violation to the deal where Harry said "And you give me your word that you will never command me to lift my hand against those I love"

It sure sounds like it. But I think it's probably a matter of the wording "Should I fall, I have one last command" meaning that Mab is not actually in fact giving that command. It only becomes operative if she dies, at which point her breaking her oath or not is meaningless.

It's a stretch, but I think that's how Faerie work.

Are we agreed that during the BAT stars will fall and Mab will break her word? or will Mab breaking her word lead to the stars falling.

More or less, but 'keeps not her word' doesn't necessarily mean 'actively breaks her word', it could also mean she is prevented from doing something she promised to do (such as by being killed).

Or she dies and this command to Harry then becomes operative... "Should I fall" doesn't actually limit it to this battle.

Yeah I expect Mab's death to start the BAT... not that my track record for predictions is any good (I expected Eb to die in BG and Murphy not to).

"Stars will fall" might not be literal, could have something to do with the 'Stars and Stones' bit... or could refer to Eb using some kind of Tunguska attack...

in my PDF it's

Changes - pg 446

"...And you give me your word you will never command me to lift my hand against those I love."

Thougn Mab never expressly agreed to it. But could be considered part of the agreement since it was noted as a condition of his acceptance.

Hmm. So I wonder how she could say that at all. "The stars shall fall from the sky when Mab keeps not her word" IIRC.

Possibly there is some trick involving it being a conditional order - "Should I fall". IE it's not really an order until Mab is dead, and therefore breaking her word is impossible/irrelevant?

I mean, Jim mentioned that the fighting was focused on preventing him from returning to the island at all after he went bad so I think it's a safe assumption that he didn't have access to Demonreach after he went full necromancer.

Sure. It just seems like Kemmler was a long-term planner, not just a destructive thug (Bob mentions 150 years of planning going into WW1) and it seems like using Demonreach to destroy the Council should have been his first move, IE before the Council knew he was a warlock.

Now maybe something went wrong and he was revealed early... but it seems like he was an active villain for something like 150-200 years. Was the Council really able to keep him off the island that long? How could you even do that, given that Kemmler had various supernatural allies and could travel through the NN?