Author Topic: Speculation: Dark Ages  (Read 3068 times)

Offline Thanatos

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Speculation: Dark Ages
« on: March 20, 2020, 03:59:32 AM »
I recently made a character to play in a Vampire: Dark Ages game (though the superflu may mean that we don't actually end up playing for a while), and it occurred to me that "Dark Ages" would work as a Dresden Files title. 

Harry has a habit of skirting or occasionally breaking (with some degree of justification) the White Council's laws of magic, but we don't know of him messing with chronomancy yet.  What if Harry did go back in time and end up becoming/training the original Merlin?  Maybe Mordred/Kemmler/Cowl are likewise related?  Maybe by the end of the series, Harry becomes the Blackstaff and ends up time-hopping to counter & combat the entity that turns out to be more than just an extremely powerful necromancer.  Maybe that entity is similar to the Fallen, and killing one host will only delay it for a time until it infects the mind of another mortal.  If Harry discovers that black magic acts as a gateway to let this entity into a wizard's mind, maybe he forms the White Council and its laws as a way to proactively detect and hunt budding dark wizards before they can grow powerful enough to become the next embodiment of the capital 'D' Dark.  If strict enforcement of those laws had cost his younger self his head, that would be ironic, but also a serious paradox, so maybe he's had to tweak the timestream in other ways to avoid that, which could take literal Ages of work... Dark Ages! 

Of course I'm likely nowhere close, but with the excitement of the next book finally coming out, such wild speculations come to mind. 

Offline 123Chikadee

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2020, 10:17:13 PM »
Oooh, that does sound fun, hope ya'll do get to play it at some point.
I really like this idea, though for me, I'm wondering how this would effect the timelines. Would Harry have to do something special to make sure that this is a 'Stable Time Loop'? Would his memories be effected or would have to make himself forget?
But yeah, I love the irony of Harry creating the system that almost killed him.
Hmm, maybe Peace Talks will tell us about how Time Travel works.

Offline Thanatos

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2020, 05:03:05 PM »
I'm not sure why his memories would be affected, except that the new perspective could change how he feels about certain events in his past. 
Some of the legends about Merlin refer to him 'living backwards in time', so it seems likely that he was/is a chronomancer.  When Merlin established the first Council, he probably had personal experience with how dangerous such uses of magic could be, and tweaking a timestream without creating paradoxes (paradoxae? paradoxen?) would be an arduous process.

Online g33k

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2020, 06:10:55 PM »
... Some of the legends about Merlin refer to him 'living backwards in time', so it seems likely that he was/is a chronomancer ...

Based on Cold Days (where we learned that Merlin created the wards on Demonreach "in five different times" with a single casting) I think we know beyond doubt that Merlin practiced chronomancy!

Offline Thanatos

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2020, 01:48:23 AM »
Based on Cold Days (where we learned that Merlin created the wards on Demonreach "in five different times" with a single casting) I think we know beyond doubt that Merlin practiced chronomancy!
Well yes, but what I'm wondering is if he started life in the future and then went back in time to set up the Council?  That might be 'living backwards in time'. 
Oh, and maybe he takes Amoracchius with him, and that's where Arthur Pendragon got Excalibur. 

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2020, 05:10:45 AM »
Or he forges Excalibur. I've read (here) that Excalibur predates the design of Michael's sword. It has been said that Amoracchius hasn't been reforged (by Micheal, I think). If that's the case, Harry does time travel shenanigans, and Excalibur does predate the design and Jim sticks with it, then it could be the case that Harry travels back to the initial forging of the blades. Or angels made them what with being beings that exist outside of space/time and all.

Offline Snark Knight

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2020, 12:20:11 AM »
Harry has a habit of skirting or occasionally breaking (with some degree of justification) the White Council's laws of magic, but we don't know of him messing with chronomancy yet.

Assuming Future Harry wasn't behind most of the weirdness in PG.

Offline Bad Alias

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2020, 12:46:55 AM »
Well, we don't know he was behind any of the weirdness in PG, so I don't think we have to assume he wasn't to say we don't know of him messing with chronomancy yet.

Offline Thanatos

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Re: Speculation: Dark Ages
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2022, 02:52:41 AM »
Oooh, that does sound fun, hope ya'll do get to play it at some point.
The GM didn't care to play over voice chat, so that game never happened.  I'm playing in a D&D game and also running one myself over Discord now, though.