Grave Peril Questions

[kbrizzle]

@Bad Alias
I think you’re right about resisting bloodlust being something of note in the RCV hierarchy - given what we know about their elite jaguar warriors (remaining half turned) etc.

@Kindler
I suspect this is exactly what the Outsiders promised mortals - the ability to become immortal. This is why we see mortals like Cowl & Kumori on the BC. To take it a step further, I suspect the Outsider offer immortals the ability to change their natures/ nature of their mantles.

[Yuillegan]

Kbrizzle: The Outsiders seem to promise everything you want. Mortals want power, knowledge, immortality etc. The Outsiders can provide. Immortals want Free Will and the ability to overcome their limitations, the Outsiders will provide. The cost? Your actual Will. Maybe not all at once, maybe not overtly at first. But in the end they all serve. It is the difference between the illusion of choice, and actual choice. Maeve could lie, but she was not true to herself, and therefore against her own nature. A violation of the natural order. It felt freeing and powerful, but that's all it really was: a feeling. Most of what the Outsiders promise mortals seems to violate Choice and Free Will, either yours or another's.

Kindler: Agree. The whole life-death concept in a series that involves Necromancy and afterlife's is a bit hard-edged. Just because you're dead doesn't mean your out. Look at Carmichael and Captain Murphy, or Harry's dad. Although I think Jim has stated if you truly want to raise the dead (not just control spirits and animate corpses) you have to kill someone. A life for a life. So not sure those people would have been able to come back without killing a whole bunch more...seems redundant. Not to mention - their souls/spirits still would exist. The body may perish but the soul seems to be fine (basically the entire point of Ghost Story).

For the rest: I think we will all have to wait and see on the Drakul front. I have convinced some of you, but others require further conversation. I certainly could be wrong, but for now I have yet to see a credible reason yet to convince me the Blood of the Dragon is anything beyond what it appears - a paladin's curse (not magical btw). Sometimes gray curtains are just that - gray curtains. 

g33k: I think you summed up my concerns about Michael well. Cheers! Whether he was literally meaning that the Devil was involved in the creation of the Black Court (and that he knew that for a fact - or that it was just a mere accusation, like accusing all witches of drawing their power from the Devil - is another question). I will argue though that on further reflection, I think the Antichrist is the least likely option. Why? Because he only shows up in the End of Days anyway. And Drakul has been around for at least over 600 years. Pretty ineffective, if not downright lazy, Antichrist. Why even have a prophecy about it? I won't even go into the fact that the Book of Revelations was only added into the Bible around the end of rome, written likely about the End of Days when Nero was Emperor. Besides which Nephilim are not "trapped" they are scions (carrying the blood of the Nevernever in them, half mortal half immortal, exactly like Changelings btw). Drakul is something more...at least at current rewrite. A true immortal that has been bound inside a mortal body, for whatever reason. So Antichrist is probably a bad fit overall.

Bad Alias: Thank you

[Bad Alias]

You're welcome.

[g33k]

...
... I will argue though that on further reflection, I think the Antichrist is the least likely option. Why? Because he only shows up in the End of Days anyway. And Drakul has been around for at least over 600 years. Pretty ineffective, if not downright lazy, Antichrist. Why even have a prophecy about it? I won't even go into the fact that the Book of Revelations was only added into the Bible around the end of rome, written likely about the End of Days when Nero was Emperor. Besides which Nephilim are not "trapped" they are scions (carrying the blood of the Nevernever in them, half mortal half immortal, exactly like Changelings btw). Drakul is something more...at least at current rewrite. A true immortal that has been bound inside a mortal body, for whatever reason. So Antichrist is probably a bad fit overall. 

I find there to be too little actual evidence -- canon from stories, or WoJ commentary -- for me to find any answer very convincing.

My "antichrist" speculation is a very-very-W kinda WAG, I admit!  But I wanted to clarify what I meant, which I guess I didn't explain well...

In this WAG, the Son of Lucifer (literal "Blood of the Dragon," in the Biblical meaning) came on the millenium, to rule and destroy the world, and otherwise perform antichrist assholery.
 Lots of millennial apocalyptic thinking back around 1000AD... and lots of it was right!  There was a rough draft of Jim's  BAT.  BUT ...

But then Something Happened.  Maybe the Knights of the Cross, maybe a prior Starborn Wizard, maybe a prior whole "Team Dresden" scooby-gang, maybe some funky Outsider bargain, I dunno.  Not enough info.  Maybe all the above, and more, and maybe some topspin by Uriel (which wouldn't be out of character for that jerk, would it?)

The apocalypse was kinda... apocalimp.  Lotsa foreplay, big expectations, but the finale... fizzled.

The world went on, with maybe a kind of stunned shrug on some people's part.

Especially on the part of the Antichrist.  "WTF, dude!  I was supposed to come for a little while... a few decades, basically.  Then destroy shit, and go chill.  Now...?  Dammit:  now.  WHAT now?  I don't even.  I mean... pretty sure I'm immortal (thanks, Dad) barring the end of the world.  And... I have no purpose?"

So the antichrist went tourist for a few centuries, ended up in Wallachia in the early-to-mid 1400's deciding to play king for a while... and the rest, as they say, is history.

That's my WAG (and despite arguing for it, I'm not even that invested in it; I mean, it's probably wrong).  But I think this WAG has at least as much evidence as any of the other WAGs have, regarding "what Drakul really is."

[Yuillegan]

G33K: Your theory is very interesting. It reminds me a lot of what happened to Supernatural (season 5 had THE apocalypse and it...fizzled. The pages were torn up and what do you get? Another 11 seasons. Sometimes I wish they lost... )

I like the spirit of it - even if it is wrong, it is a fun idea! You are certainly right, it has as much chance as any other. Not that I necessarily think it is MORE right than my own WAG. But I like it none the less.

[g33k]

... You are certainly right, it has as much chance as any other. Not that I necessarily think it is MORE right than my own WAG. 

So far as I can tell, there is little enough on "the Drakul Question" that pretty much EVERY one of the WAGs is equally likely.  Or equally unlikely.  Whichever way you want to phrase it.