Grand Unifying Cosmological Mantle Theory [Series spoilers including MM WoJs]

[Mith]

Meh, I'm sorry, but I'm not interested in that discussion at all.

I'm sure that those that care have a sufficiently strong counter argument for that in their arsenal, or find that to not be sufficiently strong enough to sway them. 

I'd rather just let the point lie.  It's a good point (both yours and his), that has been debated vigorously for millennia.  I don't see it getting resolved in this topic...

Fair enough.  And it also looks like Jim deals with it by the "lay of the land" metaphor that Uriel uses in The Warrior anyways.

[KG]

KG's George concepts are especially thought provoking.  The main place where they break down for me is that one of "Edna's" 6 faces she uses to interface with Harry happens to be his apprentice of several years.  However, I must say that it holds together pretty much as well as my vaunted "GUCMT"

For me, it works best because I feel as though the Mothers are indeed putting on a face when they interact with Harry in order for him to best understand with his limited perceptions what they are.

I'm not 100% sure I understand why the bolded portion gives you pause, but I'll try to clarify some more and you can let me know if I'm coming at it from the wrong angle.

Edna is the whole being, but in Harry's reality she manifests as 6 Queens to interact with mortals that help her do her Job.  What Harry knows as the Queens is only a small portion of the true Edna.  Think of Edna as the full entity/body.  The Queens together might just be a hand (this is kind of a different way of describing Griff's Tree metaphor).  In Harry's reality, a couple of Edna's fingers got infected, so the lopped them off to keep the entire hand from getting infected.  However, Edna has sufficient power to "regenerate" her amputated fingers.  This is obviously a metaphor for killing off the Nemesis-infected Queens and replacing them with new ones. 

At first blush it seems a little too convenient to say Edna is so powerful she can just grow new digits, and that's why new Queens are made.  But, if you think about it from the immutability standpoint, Edna /must/ have a full compliment of fingers because she, as the full being, cannot change.  The only thing that can change is how Harry perceives her.  However, in Harry's reality, he (and everyone in the know) perceives it as a law of nature that there are 6 Queens, so it /must/ be so that when one Queen dies another takes her place.  Until some event takes place in Harry's reality that makes people start to believe the laws of nature/magic are changing such that there may no longer /have/ to be 6 Queens, there will always be 6 Queens.  Over time the perception in Harry's reality might change, and Edna will manifest in that reality differently based on how mortal perception shifts.  However, the full being that is Edna will not change.

So if there /must/ be 6 Queens in Harry's reality, then there /must/ be a mechanism to change who the Queens are, if needed.  The Mantles are this mechanism.  While I agree that it's pretty damned inconvenient for Molly to have received the Winter Lady Mantle, she made choices with her own Free Will that led to the circumstance.  She wasn't fully drafted into the war against her will, but she didn't fully volunteer to serve, either.  It's a weird grey area, but she made sufficient choices to open herself up to becoming a part of this interface system, and now she's got to deal with it.  She's still Molly, to a degree, but the Mantle is also changing her some.  She literally can't tell Harry when he asks about her new job, but she can use a cell phone.  However, we have evidence that she will always retain a portion of her Free Will, because Maeve was slacking off on her job for 150 years.  Unless we assume Maeve was infected for that length of time, we can deduce that she exercised Free Will in deciding not to do her job.  This is similar to the way Mab can make Harry do some things, but she cannot make him /choose/ to do them.  Free Will still exists in the being, but it might be a little more constrained by the Mantle.

I don't know if that addressed the issue that was bothering you or not, but I'm enjoying the conversation.  Let me know if I got your concern all wrong and I'll regroup. 

And please, no jokes about Edna's malformed, six-fingered hand!  She's really quite sensitive about it. 

[Griffyn612]

Edna is the whole being, but in Harry's reality she manifests as 6 Queens to interact with mortals that help her do her Job.

The question, at least for me, is whether or not Hecate still exists in some form of higher awareness, or if Hecate ceased to exist in order to bring the six queens about.

My guess is that Hecate was too powerful to interact with the world.  She decided to divide herself into three aspects: one that was still to powerful to truly interact with the world, in order to retain as much power as possible; a second that was a balance between the real world and the never-world; and a third that was particularly weak, in the great scale of things, that can interact abundantly with the real world.

Traditional beliefs dictate that Hecate was One, and then she became the Triple goddess.  Perhaps she became three, and then those three further divided as she took on more Power due to her expanded roles.  She then became two of each, for a total of six.

But in my interpretation, that initial being, Hecate, is no more.  The Queens can be collectively referred to as Hecate, and they may serve the roles that she served, but I don't think she can be reconstituted.  I think that's the price she payed for more interaction with the real world.

Others, like Hades, never broke apart their power, so they cannot act upon the real world.  They are the original Aeon spawn, given shape and purpose by faith and belief.  I think the compromise is that Hades, as a shapeless and nameless Aeon, already bore characteristics and traits that he has now, but faith and belief gave him the shape and name he has.  Whether he recalls a time before he was what he is, or whether he truly existed before that, is hard to argue.

I swear, a while back, there was a WoJ that Uriel might not be an archangel that has existed from the dawn of time; instead, he might be a being that believes he is. 

That would play into the faith/belief aspect of shaping Aeons.  Uriel might be an upper-level Aeon that hasn't divided, or spawned, but he didn't have a Uriel personality or purpose until after humanity thought of him.

I understand the desire to try and keep the theory focused on the Fae, rather than other houses and pantheons, because it gets all jumbled.  How could Uriel only be 2,000 years old, and remember everything that happened before as if he were there?  It would be as if an Aeon existed that entire time, but wasn't shaped until after Christianity gave him shape. 

[Mith]

How could Uriel only be 2,000 years old, and remember everything that happened before as if he were there?  It would be as if an Aeon existed that entire time, but wasn't shaped until after Christianity gave him shape.

A way to look at this problem may be that a mantle carries the memories of the previous hosts, and that different pantheons are interpretations of a finite number of mantles.  So Uriel may not have existed prior to the start of Judaism, but the mantle has existed prior to that, and so he remembers farther back than that through the mantle.

[Griffyn612]

A way to look at this problem may be that a mantle carries the memories of the previous hosts, and that different pantheons are interpretations of a finite number of mantles.  So Uriel may not have existed prior to the start of Judaism, but the mantle has existed prior to that, and so he remembers farther back than that through the mantle.

But Uriel, of all of them, doesn't seem to recall being anything other than Uriel.  Mab admits to being human once.  Odin is a demi-god at best. 

But Uriel seems to be under the impression that he has always been Uriel, never being either a mortal host or another powerful entity.  Its as if Uriel, mantle or Grace or what have you, has always been an Archangel guarding Creation.  So did he and the others shape the faith by their existence?  Or did the faith shape them, and they were nothing like they are now? 

He could have always been an Aeon serving a higher Aeon that he sees as the Creator Aeon.  But that would mean he isn't aware of there being a higher Aeon.  Yet we know there are different branches of this theoretical pantheon/tree of Aeons.  Does that mean his memory if flawed, or shaped to be that way by TWG of the Dresdenverse? 

[Quantus]

[Tag to read through when I have more time]

[Serack]

Ok back in the saddle, I stepped back from responding last night, and I'll start again today with KC's post... I'll try to bold the two things that best represent the "breakdown" for me in KC's explanation.

I'm not 100% sure I understand why the bolded portion gives you pause, but I'll try to clarify some more and you can let me know if I'm coming at it from the wrong angle.

Edna is the whole being, but in Harry's reality she manifests as 6 Queens to interact with mortals that help her do her Job.  What Harry knows as the Queens is only a small portion of the true Edna.  Think of Edna as the full entity/body.  The Queens together might just be a hand (this is kind of a different way of describing Griff's Tree metaphor).  In Harry's reality, a couple of Edna's fingers got infected, so the lopped them off to keep the entire hand from getting infected.  However, Edna has sufficient power to "regenerate" her amputated fingers.  This is obviously a metaphor for killing off the Nemesis-infected Queens and replacing them with new ones. 

At first blush it seems a little too convenient to say Edna is so powerful she can just grow new digits, and that's why new Queens are made.  But, if you think about it from the immutability standpoint, Edna /must/ have a full compliment of fingers because she, as the full being, cannot change.  The only thing that can change is how Harry perceives her.  However, in Harry's reality, he (and everyone in the know) perceives it as a law of nature that there are 6 Queens, so it /must/ be so that when one Queen dies another takes her place.  Until some event takes place in Harry's reality that makes people start to believe the laws of nature/magic are changing such that there may no longer /have/ to be 6 Queens, there will always be 6 Queens.  Over time the perception in Harry's reality might change, and Edna will manifest in that reality differently based on how mortal perception shifts.  However, the full being that is Edna will not change.

So if there /must/ be 6 Queens in Harry's reality, then there /must/ be a mechanism to change who the Queens are, if needed.  The Mantles are this mechanism.  While I agree that it's pretty damned inconvenient for Molly to have received the Winter Lady Mantle, she made choices with her own Free Will that led to the circumstance.  She wasn't fully drafted into the war against her will, but she didn't fully volunteer to serve, either.  It's a weird grey area, but she made sufficient choices to open herself up to becoming a part of this interface system, and now she's got to deal with it.  She's still Molly, to a degree, but the Mantle is also changing her some.  She literally can't tell Harry when he asks about her new job, but she can use a cell phone.  However, we have evidence that she will always retain a portion of her Free Will, because Maeve was slacking off on her job for 150 years.  Unless we assume Maeve was infected for that length of time, we can deduce that she exercised Free Will in deciding not to do her job.  This is similar to the way Mab can make Harry do some things, but she cannot make him /choose/ to do them.  Free Will still exists in the being, but it might be a little more constrained by the Mantle.

I don't know if that addressed the issue that was bothering you or not, but I'm enjoying the conversation.  Let me know if I got your concern all wrong and I'll regroup. 

And please, no jokes about Edna's malformed, six-fingered hand!  She's really quite sensitive about it. 

You said in your first post:

at the end of the day it all adds up to Edna just doing her thing.

You use the term "being" to refer to Edna, but we also have descrete, wholly formed beings with Free Will who end up being part of how Edna manifests.  Which would constitute more than "just Edna" and makes the model turn all skelter in my mind.  (I don't know why, but using the word "skelter" in a sentence like that was fun)

Let me propose a corresponding interpretation... Not exclusive, just an explanation that could flesh out how these "fingers" manifest.

Phenominal Cosmic Power (PCP... oooh, I like that acronym) wielded by static cosmically powerful beings can't be directly applied on the Free Will dominated planes where things can truely be dynamic.  That's because these dynamic places are a bit squishy when it comes to that kind of power being wielded. 

However, if say a free willed being were to come along and take on some Power/Responsibility that happens to be a portion of that PCP, then that Free Will will be a bit of a buffer that allows that PCP to act within that level of dynamic reality.  Interestingly enough, frequently this taking up of power and responsibility also involves major changes to the individual with Free Will as well, sometimes including some loss of that indivual's mortality/Free Will.

We have seen this in many different varriances (and levels of power) in the DF. 

• Susan gained some Rampire power, and if she chose to take it up fully by drinking lifeblood, she would have come into the full power of a Rampire. 
• Standard Changelings
• Wampire's first kill
• Fae Knights (Harry is fighting so hard to retain himself)
• Denarians
• Fae Queen upgrades
• (In theory) The Blackstaff
• (in reverse) Vadderung (Jim says he can act on the mortal plane the way he does because he choses to be vulnerable to being killed)

However, it would seem that the more the individual wielding the Mantle becomes powerful, the more restrained they become or they could squishy things.  In my coming up with my topic on how the Fae and Fae realm came into being, I started thinking that as a Race the Fae began taking on power and responsibility and such thus losing some of their mortality.  As a result of these changes their entire Reality ended up responding to these choices such that it split off and became less mortal/dynamic and paralleled the Dresden reality across the NN veil.  I created a section in "reply #2" dedicated to these ideas.

Ok, back to my hangup with your interpretation on things...  You appear to be describing (with names) what I refer to as "Cosmicly Powerful Beings" as immutable, just manifesting in to mortals in... costumes (sorry that's my term, I couldn't come up with a better one) that make sense to them.  However, I say that these costumes aren't your named cosmic being's costumes they are fully formed beings in and of themselves. 

I might have some time to read through and respond to some of the other great posts since yours... lets see.

[vultur]

He could have always been an Aeon serving a higher Aeon that he sees as the Creator Aeon.  But that would mean he isn't aware of there being a higher Aeon.  Yet we know there are different branches of this theoretical pantheon/tree of Aeons.  Does that mean his memory if flawed, or shaped to be that way by TWG of the Dresdenverse?

Given this recent WOJ (my emphasis)

Q: Is there a qualitative difference in the Dresdenverse between Christian mythology and any other kind, or is it just a matter of scale?

A: Let's see how to phrase this... I'm tempted to steal a line from [Cabinet??] “God hates when you call it mythology” … It's not just a matter of scale, it's a matter of where the books are taking place. Much of the story is focused in North America and in Western Europe where Christianity is the dominant religion ... which is not to say ... the way the Almighty in the Dresdenverse works is 'he's pretty cool, it's all of us who are stupid' so really there's a lot more crossover as far as someone with a viewpoint like Uriel, there's a lot more crossover between the religions than people who are on the planet think there is.

Generally speaking, mostly why other religions haven't come into it is because I'm not as well versed in them as I am in Christianity. I'm fairly sure I can do a reasonable portrayal of Christianity, I don't know if I can do as well with Islam because I don't know as much about it. I don't know if I can do as well with Hinduism because I don't know as much about it. I don't know as much about Buddhism … except that it's got a lot of really cool sayings. “No snowflake falls in the wrong place”

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,41782.0.html

I have the feeling that the absolute highest level isn't divided between the different 'branches' if you will, that the Dresdenverse Christian God is actually the same being as the Dresdenverse Brahman, etc.

So Uriel isn't necessarily unaware of any higher levels, he may genuinely be one level from the absolute top.

[Mith]

That was what I was thinking as well.  I think a better reword of what I meant would be that Uriel may not have existed since Creation, but the being we call Uriel might have in different forms.  After all he didn't say that he was fighting wars as Uriel since the solar system was an expanding ball of gases.

[hamiltond]

@Serack
As I'm ready through your, quite frankly, beautiful and elegant theory I came upon a rather interesting parallel between human beings in the DV and quantum level interactions.  Specifically the thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat.
In this scenario mortals are the cat existing in a sort of quantum state of indecision and any direct observation from the TRULY "PCPs" would irreparably damage the "experiment". (Predestination / quantum locked reality)  Thus in order to affect change it/they must act through smaller and smaller instruments (emanations) AND in a roundabout fashion, thus why so many higher beings act in "mysterious ways" and cannot take direct action, in order to make a desired outcome.  Meanwhile we lowly humans existing in a  indeterminate state afforded to us by our infinitesimally small "size" that WE perceive as "free will". Am I anywhere near the ballpark?

[Serack]

@ Vultur
Thanks for finding that WoJ.  I'd already spent so much time and effort, I wasn't going to hunt that particular one down, but it was on my mind, especially after some of the other comments made in responses.  I might be writing up another bevy of thoughts in a reply #3 soon.  The good news is that Priscellie just informed me that the post character limit has been expanded to 50k characters.  So far the 20k character limit is only broached by a few hard core theorist and reference topic generators such as myself.  Reply #1 with the WoJ quotes was getting close to bumping against the old character limit, but with this expansion, I should be fine.

@Griff
I really like how you discussed how PCP's (my term) splinter their power to address mortal issues more directly in a tiered approach.  It follows closely on my own ideas on how things could be working according to this theorizing, but from a slightly different tack that works well.

Excellent points about the dilution of power.  I think part of my future comments in Reply #3 will include references to the Vadderung comments in Changes that support this.

I am dubious about the concept that the dilution is irreversible though.  It was said in CD that the beings that run around on All Hallow's Eve can snatch power from each other, which to me implies that there are mechanisms for consolidation of power after distribution.

Also, I think it is likely that the PCPs are so powerful that the "Aeons" are really only representative of a disproportionately small piece of their power, and that in a way, although the original being may be effected by having that power distributed, in another way, because that power is out there effecting things, the power itself is no less significant.  I point to the Blackstaff as a poignant example of this type of thing at work.  Some aspects of Mother Winter (Who in some ways is the same being as Mother Summer, hence my saying some aspects, also I am sure that when she is wearing different hats, she gets to follow different rules much like Vadderung) are more restricted by the lack of her "walking stick" but at the same time, her power is out there ripping life out of people and stuff and doing all kinds of interesting things that we only have a limited perspective on, all because it is being wielded by a Mortal with Free Will.

@Serack
As I'm ready through your, quite frankly, beautiful and elegant theory I came upon a rather interesting parallel between human beings in the DV and quantum level interactions.  Specifically the thought experiment of Schrödinger's cat.
In this scenario mortals are the cat existing in a sort of quantum state of indecision and any direct observation from the TRULY "PCPs" would irreparably damage the "experiment". (Predestination / quantum locked reality)  Thus in order to affect change it/they must act through smaller and smaller instruments (emanations) AND in a roundabout fashion, thus why so many higher beings act in "mysterious ways" and cannot take direct action, in order to make a desired outcome.  Meanwhile we lowly humans existing in a indeterminate state afforded to us by our infinitesimally small "size" that WE perceive as "free will". Am I anywhere near the ballpark?

That is a freaking awesome analogy for this whole "GUCMT" concept from the cosmic level down.  It is limited in how it explains things from the... lowly indeterminate state human's perspective UP in how they can climb the ladder up in power, but yah from the "PCP" level down it ROCKS.

My hard core quantum physics is limited, but with my limited engineer's understanding, it is like how "Schrodinger's Equation" can mathematically model some of the same things as Heisenberg's Matrix Mechanics representation, but they both get there in such different ways that for some work one is more practical than the other. 

Hopefully, we will come up with... EUREKA I've got it!

(click to show/hide)

Edit: By the way, the file name for that image is "faerynman-diagram"

I am way too pleased with myself right now.

[Phil Boswell]

Hopefully, we will come up with... EUREKA I've got it!

(click to show/hide)

Edit: By the way, the file name for that image is "faerynman-diagram"

I am way too pleased with myself right now.

So now I have this picture of Mab and Tatiana glaring at you identically, saying in chorus "Are you saying my bottom quark looks big in this?"

[knnn]

I've been out for a while (Darth Real Life), and expect to be busy for a bit longer, but this thread is too interesting not to show it some love (so much so, that I'm writing this a second time after accidentally deleting my post !!@!@#).

This is serious headache-inducing stuff, so I will probably re-read everything again, but for now, a couple of points:

1) Serack pointed this out in the OP, but it bears repeating that while a dipole model is easy to visualize, there is no reason why there may not be more than two ultimate powers.  Note that even in the Amberverse, there is arguably a third ultimate power by the end of the first series (though technically two of the powers are on the same side.  Kinda).

2) I really liked KG's True Name == IP address theory.  Consider how we are told how a mortal's True Name changes slowly by the decisions they make (and see Harry description of calling Elaine in WN), and how it parallels the creation of new universes by Free Will.  Basically, the difference between the same individual in two difference universes is the Choices they made.  Thus, their Names are ever-so-slightly different, and saying their name in a very particular manner will choose one or the other.

In fact, this may be how MM Harry is summoning his doubles.  He basically summons himself but says his Name just a random tiny difference, so the spell summons one of his "nearby" clones.

3) I think Griffyn's point about Uriel giving up his Grace is important.  It seems inconceivable to me that an Ultimate Power would risk so much just for a minor win in a single universe.  If Michael had failed, and Uriel had Fallen, would he have Fallen across all universes?  This seems a little crazy.  If, on the other hand Uri himself is a local manifestation, then this is more plausible. 

Note that it is very possible that Uri is common to multiple universes, just not *every* universe.  Consider worlds in which the Arahamic religions arose in such a way that "Falling" worked with a diffent mechanic (heck, I don't think Judaism/Islam has the notion of a "Fallen Angel" -- this is only really a Christian thing).  I don't think Uri Falling in our universe could affect Uri's manifestion in such a reality.

From wikipedia:

No angel is able to disobey God due to the way God created angels. For this reason, Islam does not teach that Iblīs or Shayṭan (the Devil or Satan) was a fallen angel, rather he was one of the jinn.

4) Further down this line of thought, I think we need to consider the entire WG "pantheon" (WG/Uri/Luci/etc.) as manifestation of a single entity -- no different than Summer/Winter.

Actually, here is a nasty cool twist (heheheheh):

We know that Mab has the job of protecting the Outer Gates while Titania protects humanity from Mab.  In similar vein, perhaps it is Hell/Luci's job to protect Humanity from XXXXXXX (Nemesis?) while it is Heaven's job to protect humanity's Free Will from Hell?   


5) I really like the Edna/cutting off finger analogy.  It fits very nicely with the narrative as I see it.  It also works well with the whole Oblivion thing.  Basically, the whole war is about changing Humanity so that certain less-savory aspects cannot manifest.  It would still be worth exploring the notion of imprisoning such power (Demonreach/Coins).  If we hold that "the Fingers just regrow", then it seems hard to explain why putting such powers in a position where they can't affect the world is fundementally different from "Oblivion".  It's also interesting to think of this in context of Halloween.  On the one hand, it seems that Immortals can only be changed at specfic conjunctions.  On the other hand, the power of mortal belief can change the mantle (apparently) continuesly.  This may be accessing two different parts of the manifestation...

I'd really recommend reading C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy.  One of the ideas behind her world building is a very logical (and coherently described) system where human belief actually shapes how the demons/elemental forces of the world work (it also has similarities to Furycrafting for Alera fans).

6) Another thing I thought I saw mentioned (by Serack?), but the whole "Conservation of History" is interesting.  If you go back in time and change something, are you changing the same event in all the universes that spawned since then?  If yes, then this possibly explains how it gets harder to change something the farther back/bigger it is.  You are not only moving the tiller on your universe, but on countless others, making for a larger multimetawhatever mass to shift.


7) Finally, it seems (WoJ) that all these universes are somehow accessible through the Nevernever.  If this means that there is only a single Nevernever -- essentially a vast ocean with isolated islands of "reality" floating around in it.  I feel this could be an important point in the grand scheme of things, though I am unsure yet how.

[Serack]

I've been out for a while (Darth Real Life), and expect to be busy for a bit longer, but this thread is too interesting not to show it some love (so much so, that I'm writing this a second time after accidentally deleting my post !!@!@#).

This is serious headache-inducing stuff, so I will probably re-read everything again, but for now, a couple of points:

1) Serack pointed this out in the OP, but it bears repeating that while a dipole model is easy to visualize, there is no reason why there may not be more than two ultimate powers.  Note that even in the Amberverse, there is arguably a third ultimate power by the end of the first series (though technically two of the powers are on the same side.  Kinda).

2) I really liked KG's True Name == IP address theory.  Consider how we are told how a mortal's True Name changes slowly by the decisions they make (and see Harry description of calling Elaine in WN), and how it parallels the creation of new universes by Free Will.  Basically, the difference between the same individual in two difference universes is the Choices they made.  Thus, their Names are ever-so-slightly different, and saying their name in a very particular manner will choose one or the other.

In fact, this may be how MM Harry is summoning his doubles.  He basically summons himself but says his Name just a random tiny difference, so the spell summons one of his "nearby" clones.

3) I think Griffyn's point about Uriel giving up his Grace is important.  It seems inconceivable to me that an Ultimate Power would risk so much just for a minor win in a single universe.  If Michael had failed, and Uriel had Fallen, would he have Fallen across all universes?  This seems a little crazy.  If, on the other hand Uri himself is a local manifestation, then this is more plausible. 

Note that it is very possible that Uri is common to multiple universes, just not *every* universe.  Consider worlds in which the Arahamic religions arose in such a way that "Falling" worked with a diffent mechanic (heck, I don't think Judaism/Islam has the notion of a "Fallen Angel" -- this is only really a Christian thing).  I don't think Uri Falling in our universe could affect Uri's manifestion in such a reality.

From wikipedia:

I'm far from an expert on this, but I thought the doctrines/traditions on fallen angels predated Christianity.  Although apparently much of Judaism rejected this stuff as apocryphal. 

As far as Uriel's grace is concerned, a new thought I've come up with is that Michael had violated it, he would have probably done so outside of the boundaries of his own home turf reality (I.E. on the other side of the NN veil in Hades).  This could have had pretty huge ramifications on just how such a "Fall" would have shaken out.

4) Further down this line of thought, I think we need to consider the entire WG "pantheon" (WG/Uri/Luci/etc.) as manifestation of a single entity -- no different than Summer/Winter.

Actually, here is a nasty cool twist (heheheheh):

We know that Mab has the job of protecting the Outer Gates while Titania protects humanity from Mab.  In similar vein, perhaps it is Hell/Luci's job to protect Humanity from XXXXXXX (Nemesis?) while it is Heaven's job to protect humanity's Free Will from Hell?   

works great for me

5) I really like the Edna/cutting off finger analogy.  It fits very nicely with the narrative as I see it.  It also works well with the whole Oblivion thing.  Basically, the whole war is about changing Humanity so that certain less-savory aspects cannot manifest.  It would still be worth exploring the notion of imprisoning such power (Demonreach/Coins).  If we hold that "the Fingers just regrow", then it seems hard to explain why putting such powers in a position where they can't affect the world is fundementally different from "Oblivion".  It's also interesting to think of this in context of Halloween.  On the one hand, it seems that Immortals can only be changed at specfic conjunctions.  On the other hand, the power of mortal belief can change the mantle (apparently) continuesly.  This may be accessing two different parts of the manifestation...

I'd really recommend reading C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy.  One of the ideas behind her world building is a very logical (and coherently described) system where human belief actually shapes how the demons/elemental forces of the world work (it also has similarities to Furycrafting for Alera fans).

6) Another thing I thought I saw mentioned (by Serack?), but the whole "Conservation of History" is interesting.  If you go back in time and change something, are you changing the same event in all the universes that spawned since then?  If yes, then this possibly explains how it gets harder to change something the farther back/bigger it is.  You are not only moving the tiller on your universe, but on countless others, making for a larger multimetawhatever mass to shift.

I like how that works out.

7) Finally, it seems (WoJ) that all these universes are somehow accessible through the Nevernever.  If this means that there is only a single Nevernever -- essentially a vast ocean with isolated islands of "reality" floating around in it.  I feel this could be an important point in the grand scheme of things, though I am unsure yet how.

I'd like to think that Harry's concept of the "Nevernever" is about as nuanced as his early usage of the term "Demon"

Which is to say, a rather ignorant term for "not here"

[Rasins]

I wonder how much mantles held by humans get changed due to our free-will.  I'd bet that the fact that the SK and WK mantles are so different now is because of knight after knight believing that they were opposed and that leaked into the mantles themselves.  It COULD be changed so that one person could hold both, but it would take two very strong willed people or sets of people to make the difference to the Mantle.

I'm thinking that's how the Odin/Clause Mantles are held by one individual.  They were never held by folks who believe them to be in contention.