Harry only went to the Gold Coast to visit Thomas and Justine, and the last time he was there he and Eb were attacked by Outsiders. Was Nameless or Laplander responsible for whistling them in?

I'm not sure either of them qualify as enough of a free-willed mortal to summon Outsiders.

As a scion of a dark god and a mortal, Nameless might have qualified ... before completing whatever ascension his 'apotheosis' entailed. But if a scion turns himself into something entirely inhuman, doesn't that count as Choosing the immortal side of your parentage?

It's not totally clear whether hags (I'm figuring the Scandinavian ones are presumably cousins of the Hecatean hags from Welcome to the Jungle) are dark witches who've enhanced themselves, or something entirely inhuman. She'd probably have a better chance of being able summon Outsiders than Nameless, though.

Nonetheless, I still doubt Nameless and Laplander are Cowl and Kumori.  Kumori at least thinks she's a well-intentioned extremist - she used necromancy to save life, and she talked to Harry after getting the drop on him instead of just blasting him in the back. Ms. Laplander is just going through life looking for excuses to do violence, and Bob's analysis suggests that's entirely normal for what she is - it's not Nemfection twisting her, or a personal grudge Harry foiled the Darkhallow.  And Nameless himself doesn't have any good reason to explain having been plugged in to the White Council's Warden files on Harry and wondering what all the fuss is about. Nameless might well be involved with the Circle, but it doesn't seem credible he's been posing as human to infiltrate the Council and get high-clearance insider information.

The White Court knew but this wasn’t common knowledge even in the White Council, Wizards and their secrets, look at Eb’s abject horror when he realised Maggie was staying with Harry.

Ariana was at the dinner with Eb and Maggie when they showed too much of their cards by "arguing like family". Changes was her plan; she was the only one who needed to know the connection.

Remember how many of the SC came to Demonreach when Harry arranged his "parlor scene" / confrontation?  On the island, the Warden is a credible threat against Mab herself.  Those councilors -- senior as they are -- would fall like ninepins.  If they knew what Demonreach was, what it could do, they wouldn't have put themselves there when they had such doubts about Harry.

QED:  the "senior council" -- as a body -- doesn't know what the island really is, what it can really do.  Only a few of the individual wizards have any idea... and they're busy smoking their own crack-pipes, not sharing with the others.

Plus Ancient Mai talked about it like she didn't realize why the island was "unpleasant".

From his notes and Vadderung's "Most of the people", I think Eb was in the know as to what the island is.  LtW possibly also. But Rashid may not have shared with them that Harry had taken up the Warden mantle before they came to the island. Even those in the know probably expected Alfred to be "asleep".

Also I believe she knows that Namshiel had something to do with the attack on Arctis Tor, that Marcone had the coin and that it was only a matter of time before he took it up.  So Nameless is useful to her as one who can keep an eye on Marcone and all his business dealings, thus Namshiel.

I'm not sure why she'd react like Harry addressing Marcone as "Sir" at the end of BG was filling in a piece for her if she already knew.

I think the intent in Turncoat was for Peabody to become Warden (he is an expert on summoning and binding, his book on Erl indicates that) but to do that he needed the current absentee Warden Dead, and if that was Fortier it explains why Peabody aimed the Captain at him for an otherwise motiveless killing. Unfortunately Harry by pure fluke beat him to it.

Perhaps. It would certainly be a stronger motive to take him out than what TC made clear.

But it depends on the WOJ that the rest of the Senior Council would turn on any of their fellow SC members who jump to a preemptive strike on any of their own fellow members who grabbed such personal power (and they only spared Harry because they realized he did it out of ignorance) being a strategic misdirect.

It's an odd thing to lie about, considering there's no obvious reason LaFortier being that previous Warden would be too spoilery to answer, let alone so spoilery to require misdirection. Especially when Jim volunteered Kemmler being the next-to-previous Warden quite near that comment, and that seems like a much bigger lore point than if the previous one was indeed LaFortier.

Also says that it will be released soon on e-book format.  But no further information as to when, but said more announcements later this week, if that is so, that is great news for a lot of us.

Yeah, I'll wait. Not starting an Audible trial that I'm just going to have to cancel to get at this.

This means that it’s return could be requested at any time. I suspect that will occur when the Merlin tries to appoint a new Black Staff claiming Eb is no longer physically fit to wield it, and won’t against Harry. He needs only a Council majority.

Is it actually awarded by Council vote? The senior council would have to vote on it secretly, since the Blackstaff's very existence isn't even acknowledged to all the membership.

I seem to remember something about the blackstaff choosing the successor - although it was ambiguous whether that meant the office-holder or the artifact itself. If the staff itself is semi-sentient and choosing the wizard, it might not give a damn for political niceties like "is the wizard actually a member of the White Council".

The swords do no change shape either, they change form. The Sword of Faith has moved more into the spiritual and away from the physical, but it is still a Sword. Nick has also had it since the time of Christ.

Michael did say they had records of the other two besides Excalibur being reforged at some point in the KOTC's history, though. They may have changed shape somewhat then.

But I agree with the core point. Nic probably got his coin and the noose direct off Judas' body and has been holding it ever since.