House Raith and the Venatores

[Con]

Just been thinking. How long has Lara Raith been a venatore? Presumably centuries, and when did she recruit Thomas?

What this question raises for me is did Papa Raith know, given his support by an unknown Outsider.

Given the Venatores are waging a millenial long wars against Old Gods to vanquish them to the Outside. How did this effect Lord Raith given his backing by the Outsiders. Did Lara get involved with the Venatores as a way to fight the Outsiders because of Lord Raith?

Basically if thats the case why didn't Lord Raith deal with Lara or did Lara manage to keep it a secret from her father?

[Snark Knight]

I'm not entirely certain the creatures the Venators are trying to eliminate are Outsiders. There may be some overlap, like they'd love to get humans to forget the named Lovecraftian monsters, but they're also after a lot of other 'competitor' monsters and such. Thomas even mentioned in Backup that they'd taken a run at the Faeries but been foiled by the Brothers Grimm spreading the folklore too widely via the Gutenberg printing press to stamp out. Succeeding there would have accidentally handed the Outsiders an insta-win.

It's a bit of a confusing topic, really. Lara seemed to doubt she could keep secrets effectively from her father in BR until she realized he was crippled, but I'm not sure he'd be OK with the possibility she'd actually succeed in capping any of the particular Outsiders he's been working with. Perhaps he knew what she was doing and undermined any Venator ventures that conflicted with his particular interests.

[ClintACK]

Lord Raith is a *user* of Outsiders, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he's opposed to the work of the Venators -- in fact, he could benefit greatly from their work, as long as they aren't erasing *his* knowledge.

In Blood Rites, Harry Dresden describes the kind of magic Raith's little coven of ex-wives uses as being like a vending machine, which can be depleted. He talks about the White Council sometimes going in the opposite direction from the Venators -- deliberately spreading around knowledge of a ritual, so that too many users will try to draw on it, not giving it time to recharge between uses.

So Papa Raith's goals would be that (1) he has the ritual in his library and (2) no one else does. Lara Raith in the Venators would be in a good position to serve both goals.

[nadia.skylark]

In Blood Rites, Harry Dresden describes the kind of magic Raith's little coven of ex-wives uses as being like a vending machine, which can be depleted. He talks about the White Council sometimes going in the opposite direction from the Venators -- deliberately spreading around knowledge of a ritual, so that too many users will try to draw on it, not giving it time to recharge between uses.

So Papa Raith's goals would be that (1) he has the ritual in his library and (2) no one else does. Lara Raith in the Venators would be in a good position to serve both goals.

Actually, that might explain how Lara became a Venator--Lord Raith ordered her to join so that he could use her to collect knowledge while denying it to others, only she came to agree with the actual intention of the Venatori and started covertly working against her father's interests when it came to that.

[exartiem]

Assuming, of course, that she IS working against him and not just taking his ball for her own game.

[Con]

Hmm thats an interesting thought Lara sent to gain knowledge for Lord Raith. It's certainly plausible and sounds like a manipulation she'd risk against her father if he thought she was working for him.