Pure strength? Hard to say, on one hand Ethniu was born a goddess, so has a lot more experience at it than god/Cowl would have, that I think gives her an edge. We saw her totally slam Mab in Peace Talks, and I think one could consider her on par power wise to a god/Cowl.. But in the end when she got her act together, Ethniu couldn't take Mab out. If gods get some of their power from the worship of followers Ethniu might also have an edge over Cowl because he wouldn't have a power base of faith to draw from. Other than that I don't know how you can compare, we've seen goddess/Titan Ethniu in action, Cowl failed to complete the Dark Hallow, so he never became a god.
But wizard verses goddess one on one? I think the goddess wins.
Yes, I daresay Ethniu might have a bit more experience wielding her power. I think God-Cowl was meant to be stronger than Mab (although that doesn't necessarily mean he would beat her...Mab is like Harry in that she can fight outside her weight class and win). Would Ethniu have many worshippers left? She wasn't a prominent god even in Irish folklore. Perhaps a few dregs here and there. Nothing compared to a far more famous deity like Hades. And yet, it's clearly not the only factor either.
Well, I am only comparing them hypothetically. But you never know...God-Cowl might still happen. I doubt Cowl will give up after one attempt. The real question is why he hasn't already. It's been years and years.
Oh yeah, no wizard could ever compete with a goddess. Gods and Goddesses are just so far beyond that power. That being said, if you got the right tools for the job...just look at what Dresden achieved (with a truly staggering amount of help).
We still have no clue as to just how strong Cowl would be either.. He still might need shielding of some kind, and we don't know if he could generate enough juice to power the Eye.
Agreed. Our only frame of reference is Mab as Jim specifically said God-Cowl would have been stronger. But it's difficult to gauge how much. Even if he could wield the Eye, he might choose not to. Who knows what side effects come from it. At the very least you have to sacrifice your own eye.
Some gods have been mortals does not mean all gods have been mortal.
Besides not every darkhallow will be equally successful. Some will gather more power than others. Though with human population larger than ever.
Very true, and I think it's a really important point. Ethniu had FAR more respect for a god that was "born" a god than beings that became gods. The respect she had for Vadderung compared to her disregard/disgust/hatred for the others demigods was noticeable.
Indeed. Cowl went for a fairly small one and he would have been incredibly strong. Imagine one big enough to cover a continent. Let's say Kemmler tried to consume all of Europe when he attempted his Darkhallow in '61, he might have been able to challenge the Mothers.
Given that we can destroy the world with Nukes that gives us an idea of scale (I'm assuming Mab would consider the Muggles in this as well?)
I think Arjan is correct in that it was about personal magical might, rather than potential weapons. Let's say Mab could find a weapon that froze the Earth in an eternal winter blizzard. Yes it makes Mab incredibly powerful to have such a weapon, but unless it's her personal magic, it doesn't mean she herself has apocalyptic power. I mean, she could always stop defending the Gates and forfeit Reality - but aside from that it would be a pyrrhic victory it still isn't her power. It's an important difference I think. Besides, destructive power isn't necessarily the most potent expression of power. A god could do things like change the laws of nature or create new ones, maybe even new worlds. Cowl even discussed "ending" death. That's FAR more powerful than simply being able to devastate an area.
Well it can only be done on Halloween, when Immortals can die, and Mantles are known to be moved around. I suspect that's why.
I'm not Mira but a lot of what Ehniu was able to do was because of objects not created by her. The armor, and the Eye. She's undoubtedly powerful, but she had the armor for one reason, protection. She had the eye for one reason, destruction. If she was super duper powerful she wouldn't have needed either. She'd have just showed up, and beat down on everyone, and everything. Imagine if Mab had the Armor and the Eye, or Kringle...
So I'm doing with Cowl having more pure muscle than her after the Darkhallow.
Harry Dresden: What happens if one of his heirs is able to do it?
Mab: The heir would gain power such as has not been wielded by mortal hands in the memory of your race.
So pretty powerful.
To my understanding, and I could well be wrong, but the entire point of doing it on Halloween is that the states between being mortal and immortal are not fixed and so allow beings to go from one state to another. In any case, I think Cowl would hardly need to have been able to eat the Erlking to become a god. The sheer amount of spirits plus the deaths of all those mortals...the Erlking barely factors in at that scale.
I get what you're saying about Ethniu. Ethniu seemed to be a relatively inexperienced combatant in some ways, so naturally she went and got herself things that she thought would help her win any fight she got into. But I got the impression that the armour, whilst making her nigh-invulnerable, also made her less agile (in a more magical sense) than she would otherwise have been. A smarter god might not have brought all their power to bear in one location on the off chance they might get beaten or captured. The Eye was incredibly powerful but also made her even more predictable. I doubt she was really used to fighting in earnest, to really understanding what it takes to win. She wasn't used to struggling and it cost her the battle. She may have had other powers, we only saw her will manifest a few times, but did she bother to use them? Obviously she was able to do some magical combat, which she used to great effect against the other gods, but it taxed her. She should have isolated her enemies and weakened them before fighting them. She didn't get herself in the best position to win. Yes, if she were strong enough none of that would have mattered. But I wouldn't discount her strength either. She was stronger than any other being in Chicago (that we know of). Ferrovax was shaken by her. She wasn't worried about any of them.
I doubt Mab would ever use Titanic Armour (even if she could), as I believe that it creates limits and Mab is less about brute force and more about agility and precision. Still though, if she could it would make her pretty scary. Same for the Eye. However, even having both wouldn't make her base magical might stronger than Ethniu's. Ethniu is just an order of magnitude greater. That was expressed multiple times.
Kringle is another matter entirely. I wouldn't be surprised if he had Titanic Bronze hidden away somewhere. And I still wonder if he ever wielded the Eye of Balor himself. He is missing an eye after all. Not to mention Kringle's eyes and the Rudolph's eyes in the Molly xmas eve story reminded me of that same power of the Eye of Balor. Kringle would have been a far more powerful and scarier threat than Ethniu at the height of his power. Vadderung was the only one she respected that she spoke to. Including Ferrovax. Says a lot, if you ask me.
Fair enough, it's certainly possible that Cowl would have been stronger. However, it's important to remember that Ethniu was from before the mortal race. Probably before the universe and Creation. The question then becomes, has a mortal ever become stronger than any of those beings from before Creation?
