What's Up With Marcone?

[WereElephant]

This may have been addressed elsewhere, but Marcone seems to be of abnormal interest to the supernatural community. He's the only Mortal free-holding lord of the Unseelie Accords. A Valkyrie is in his service, and Monoc Securities seems to have a vested interest in him. He's made deals directly with the Queen of Air and Darkness.

Now, I like the idea of Marcone just being a regular mortal. Extraordinary in character and accomplishment, but still vanilla. However, he's displaying the same level of impact in the world that we see with the likes of Harry Dresden, Knights of the Cross, and Fae Nobility. I don't see other vanilla Mortals in the series with the same level of impact, apart from Dresden, and to a lesser extent with the Paranet, Elaine Mallory.

Has it been confirmed that Marcone is a Starborn? It would seem a little too obvious, and possibly redundant, but his signature seems to match the profile. If he's not a Starborn, is he really just a remarkable vanilla Mortal? Or is he something else?

[peregrine]

Note that Monoc and the valkyrie are the exact same thing, since the valkyrie works for Monoc.  And that's because he hired them.

As for making deals with Mab, yeah, but she makes deals with regular mortals all the time, depending on what exactly she wants.

Mostly I chalk it up to him being a big wig in the Chicago area and Jim only has so many characters he wants to bother dealing with.

[Kindler]

I think he's a Genre-Savvy vanilla. You know how horror movie characters never seem to know they're in a horror movie? Marcone realized he's living in an urban fantasy story (not literally, but you get what I mean), and started doing all of the things someone with resources and intelligence should do—build defenses, forge alliances, hire competent contractors, et cetera.

If that city was ever devastated by something—plague, explosions, invasion, whatever—I'd put my money on Marcone to be the one to survive it (and figure out how to profit from it). Marcone is a character who took Clint Eastwood's mantra from Heartbreak Ridge to heart: "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome." Makes sense, as he was a Marine.

[raidem]

My bet is that he is Mab's son.  My next best guess is that he is the son of Lucifer or Hades.

I personally like to view Marcone as some screwed up timeline child of Murphy/Mab and Harry.  It makes Harry/Marcone dynamic more interesting than the already interesting one they got going on.  It doubles down on the paternal vibe Marcone likes to give off when dealing with Harry.  And, that same paternal vibe pisses Harry off such that Harry pushes Marcone's buttons because of it.  Storm Front and Dresden Files is devoted to Jim's father.  First chapter or two of SF has Harry and John Marcone interacting with fatherly, grandfatherly, father talking to son references dropped liberally in their interactions.  The soulgaze in White Knight between Demeter and Harry has Harry seeing a young Marcone. The description kinda reminded me of Harry too.  Young Marcone has longish dark hair.

One of Marcone's mission is to save Chicago/world from Harry.  If you ever need someone to put Harry down because he goes bad, I think Marcone would be a good guy to make it so.  I'm reminded sometimes of Marcone telling Harry that he have Harry killed, I'd even do it myself... Thinking upon the temporal effects if Marcone killed his father prior to 'him' being born, that would be saying something.

[Rasins]

I kind of see Marcone and Butters as two sides of the same coin.  The real difference being that Marcone has money to be able to DO things in the supernatural world, where as Butters could only use his intellect.

[peregrine]

One of Marcone's mission is to save Chicago/world from Harry.  If you ever need someone to put Harry down because he goes bad, I think Marcone would be a good guy to make it so.  I'm reminded sometimes of Marcone telling Harry that he have Harry killed, I'd even do it myself... Thinking upon the temporal effects if Marcone killed his father prior to 'him' being born, that would be saying something.

Absolutely not.  When Marcone was talking about killing Harry, it's because Harry was a threat to Marcone, not to Chicago.  Marcone does head up a criminal empire, remember.

[Snark Knight]

Absolutely not.  When Marcone was talking about killing Harry, it's because Harry was a threat to Marcone, not to Chicago.  Marcone does head up a criminal empire, remember.

I mean, if Harry went dark in a way that offended Marcone's rules (no kids, no excessive public order disruptions) he'd probably order the hit. Maybe that's why MM Marcone is "interesting".

[Mr. Death]

Has it been confirmed that Marcone is a Starborn? It would seem a little too obvious, and possibly redundant, but his signature seems to match the profile. If he's not a Starborn, is he really just a remarkable vanilla Mortal? Or is he something else?

Not only not confirmed, but not even hinted at.

Marcone is smart and savvy, and that's all he really needs -- Harry remarks constantly about how most people are willfully ignorant, and Anna Valmont in Skin Game says that if you're actually looking for it, supernatural stuff is easy to find all over the place, as are supernatural connections.

He doesn't have to be a starborn or Mab's son or anything like that to have the drive and will to recognize the world for what it is and take steps accordingly. Hell, that's how he's introduced -- one of his men is killed by magic, so he tries to hire Harry. When that doesn't work, he shops around until he finds someone he can work with.

It's really not that different from how you'd operate an entirely mundane operation. And note that it's Odin of all people who he ends up with -- Odin valued cleverness and sheer chutzpa. A pure mortal who gets punched in the nose by the supernatural and then turns around and goes, "Come at me, bro," is definitely going to get his attention.

Remember, knowledge is power. You don't have to be supernaturally empowered, a Starborn, the son of a fae or anything like that to be dangerous. You just need to know the right things and have the will to act.

[raidem]

Well. We do know his parentage is hidden from us.  His real name is unknown.  His age is unknown.  His timeline is sketchy with regard to when he was in the Marines when he took over the criminal underworld etc. (I created a thread going into his timeline and there seems to be inconsistencies with regard to it.)  We do have Nic making some suggestion that Marcone would be a good fit as a Baron (or something) a few hundred years ago.

We have seen Jim using a description of Marcone shooting a gun and thinking he could follow the bullet; Jim uses a similar description with Murphy and her shooting a gun and following a bullet.

We haven't seen Marcone outright use supernatural abilities, but it doesn't preclude him from having some.  It may be that he just hasn't yet been forced to use them.  We have seen has some mad skills in martial abilities, soldier skills likely acquired in the Marines per WOJ on Twitter.

I think when you have connections to Mab, Odin, Hades, Ferrovax, etc, I think that pretty much lends itself to being circumstantial evidence that Marcone isn't exactly vanilla mortal.  I mean he even has Hendricks who I think wields a sword/weapon in a short story associated with a line descended from Norse mythology.  It's more evidence to suggests that Marcone has another link via Hendricks to Norse pantheon.

[Rasins]

I would be disappointed if Marcone turns out to be a supernatural.  He's a badass because of his organization.  He's learned about the supernatural and is using it to his advantage.  His knowledge and tutoring by Gard and probably others on the supernatural situation is based on his power, based in his criminal enterprises.

Now, I have no doubt that he'll try to figure out how to extend his life, but that's something anyone with that kind of power/money would do.  He just has a leg up due to his knowledge of the supernatural.

[Mr. Death]

Marcone being supernatural downgrades him from a badass who's able to stand toe-to-toe with things that could obliterate him out of sheer savvy and chutzpah to, "Oh, another one."

[Rasins]

Marcone being supernatural downgrades him from a badass who's able to stand toe-to-toe with things that could obliterate him out of sheer savvy and chutzpah to, "Oh, another one."

THIS

[Snark Knight]

The other reason he's not a Starborn is that he's at least a decade older than Harry. The astrological conjunction is only one of the prerequisites for making a Starborn, but it's one that doesn't come around all that frequently. Elaine is eligible because their birth dates are within a few months, but that's about the limit of 'close enough'. Plus I'm not even sure if a non-wizard can be Starborn at all - it very well may be one of the important parts.

[peregrine]

Also, being a Starborn is the kind of thing you might think comes up in a soulgaze.

[jonas]

Also, being a Starborn is the kind of thing you might think comes up in a soulgaze.

Cause we'd know what to look for would we?(or Harry the perspective gazer)
Funny thing is besides the naming, what do you THINK a starborn can do that would ruin his 'vanillaniss"?
Cause honestly... between Harry's confrontation with Hwwb4 and the one with MW i'm thinking Starborn simply means a 'prime' personality amongst the stars. So if we think about reality as nothing more than 'Gods' mind and Outsiders as the invading consciousness we get a pretty good mock up for how the War actually is. I mean it's not like Earth has a literal dark Planet Named Nemesis that is supposed to come around and cause apocalyptic scale destruction or anything...(yes, we do!)
TWG/C is our Aeon.