Some thoughts on Stormfront

[kbrizzle]

On a reread of Stf, a few things jumped out at me that confirm some of theories bandied around this forum.

• Malcolm Dresden is described as being a traveling magician who took little Harry around with him - while Harry rationalizes this as Malcolm taking small jobs at random little towns, it seems to me that this is Malcolm’s best effort to hide little kid Harry from his mother’s enemies
• I don’t think Victor Sells was Nfected - when Monica reveals all she knows about what’s going on, she says that she drank 3Eye & looked at Victor, a memory that makes her almost throw up - I imagine looking at an Outsider with one’s Sight would drive a normal human insane, let alone a wizard.
  Also, other (somewhat sane) people would have looked at Victor with their Sight (like Helen Beckett) & while I’m sure that was a highly unpleasant experience, it’s nothing compared to seeing an actual Outsider
• Despite being a very angry man, Sells decides to use lust as a way to power his spells instead of rage - something that is way more easily available than setting up sex rituals. This screams of the White Court to me - a way for Lord Raith to control Sells, leading credence to theory that he was Sells’ sponsor
• The dark emotions that Harry feels when he sees Sells’ lake house with his Sight - the ones that make him feel like he can just take power & use it for his own ends, seem like the corruptive influence of black magic on someone whose soul has already been tainted by such - it is overt & appeals directly to Harry’s greed (we know goateed Harry exists). This doesn’t seem like Nemesis, which I imagine is infinitely more subtle (sorta like Lash)

[Con]

I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.

[Vodyanoy]

That's one tangle of plotlines I can't quite understand - Bianca was extremely shirty about her employee being killed (by someone who was nemfected), but seemed to be complicit with Cowl later on.

[Avernite]

I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.

Yes, and the persons mentioning his first cases were very trustworthy indeed.

Mind, there's an escape to make it true as an Outsider plot and yet not true as Nemfection - if Raith (with Bianca?) was running the gig, well, he has very tight Outsider connections.

[morriswalters]

In what book does it explicitly or otherwise attribute Victor Sells as a nemfection?  In Proven Guilty Harry attributes Sells to the Black Council.  In the exchange between Harry and Rashid in Turn Coat Sells isn't mentioned and in Cold Days Rashid says, in the last couple of years, and Sells is ten or more years back.

[Mira]

In what book does it explicitly or otherwise attribute Victor Sells as a nemfection?  In Proven Guilty Harry attributes Sells to the Black Council.  In the exchange between Harry and Rashid in Turn Coat Sells isn't mentioned and in Cold Days Rashid says, in the last couple of years, and Sells is ten or more years back.

   If I remember correctly Sells was a guy with some talent..  However no formal training or guidance, experimenting with that talent,  as we know by now is almost always the quick road to warlockhood...  Apparently according to Monica, he lost his job and bought some books on magic,  we are not talking Harry Potter books.  From them he began to enhance his talent, bought more darker books, was able eventually to call up a demon, make Three Eye, and with the help of an electric storm and a sex orgy remotely rip people's hearts from their chests...  I doubt that he was infected, he was just a poor slob with magical talent that made some very bad choices.

[Yuillegan]

Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.

The Nemesis part is generally accepted to be factual - as every being that knows of it that Dresden encounters confirms it's existence one way or another.

Many believe that Maeve lied to Lily, and therefore the information is compromised. Personally, there is no valid reason that I have yet heard why she would lie. Nemesis, and indeed Maeve, gain no benefit from lying about those cases.

But I am always open to theories.

Mira - you are pretty much right about what Sells was. However, none of that disproves him as being infected. The statement from Lily was "It changes that which ought not to change. It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition." She is directly talking about Sells. Everyone always assumes Nemesis allows some big magic change, like allowing Fae to lie. But changing someone's love and turning it into something evil, something terrible like horrible ambition is pretty bad right on its own.

[kbrizzle]

@Yuillegan & Con
I believe Outsiders were involved in Stormfront - just not in the form of Nfection. Sells’ magical knowledge was extremely patchy - very poor in some basic areas but fairly advanced in others.
Molly herself tells Harry in PG that she looked for magical books & people in the know for a couple of years unsuccessfully. Harry despite being a trained wizard for almost 2 decades at this point still needs Bob to help with potions, yet Sells in 3-4 years is mass manufacturing 3Eye? This screams of a sponsor - someone with a large library of magical books & a need of a magical enforcer - Lord Raith, who has strong connections to Outsiders.

@Vodyanoy
Where are you getting the notion that Bianca’s employee was killed by someone Nfected? I thought StF strongly implies & GP outright says that Bianca killed her own employee after Harry leaves her place in StF because Harry’s actions “mandated it”.

@Mira
That’s true on the surface, but reading between the lines, it would seem that the White Court is involved. Sells was working for a company called SilverCo (which follows the naming conventions for Raith business concerns); he used sex rituals to power his spells; he was clearly being guided/ groomed by someone higher up in the food chain - if you think about it, his main enemies are Marcone & later Harry - 2 people who would be the largest obstacles to power in taking control of Chicago (except for, of course the Raiths).

[Yuillegan]

Kbrizzle - no reason he couldn't be nfected AND sponsored by Lord Raith or some such person (like Cowl). His level of ability and knowledge is unusual although some of that may also be down to Jim being a novice writer and not everything being fully fleshed out. He even talks about this in relation to veils in Fool Moon. But yeah, someone definitely helped Sells out. Cowl fits the bill better in some ways, he has a history of giving tainted gifts...and creating lackeys. But probably Cowl and Raith are working together at least somewhat...so perhaps it is both.

Bianca did kill her own employee...hence her rage. Vodyanoy is wrong.

[morriswalters]

Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.

The Nemesis part is generally accepted to be factual - as every being that knows of it that Dresden encounters confirms it's existence one way or another.

Many believe that Maeve lied to Lily, and therefore the information is compromised. Personally, there is no valid reason that I have yet heard why she would lie. Nemesis, and indeed Maeve, gain no benefit from lying about those cases.

But I am always open to theories.

Mira - you are pretty much right about what Sells was. However, none of that disproves him as being infected. The statement from Lily was "It changes that which ought not to change. It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition." She is directly talking about Sells. Everyone always assumes Nemesis allows some big magic change, like allowing Fae to lie. But changing someone's love and turning it into something evil, something terrible like horrible ambition is pretty bad right on its own.

Lily had no certain knowledge other than what Maeve might have told her.  And Maeve was nemfected by a known vector.  Victor Sells can be accounted for by the damaging affect of Black Magic.  The FBI agents by the effects of the hexen wolf belts and so on.  Harry actually suggests the Black Council as the behind the scenes operators in Proven Guilty.

[Mira]

That’s true on the surface, but reading between the lines, it would seem that the White Court is involved. Sells was working for a company called SilverCo (which follows the naming conventions for Raith business concerns); he used sex rituals to power his spells; he was clearly being guided/ groomed by someone higher up in the food chain - if you think about it, his main enemies are Marcone & later Harry - 2 people who would be the largest obstacles to power in taking control of Chicago (except for, of course the Raiths).

That doesn't change the facts that he was merely someone with talent that fell into the same trap so many warlocks fall into.   Once he became one or a sorcerer, not sure what exactly is the difference is,  he became a cat's paw.

[Bad Alias]

Morris - Explicitly, in Cold Days. Lily (Summer Lady) tells Dresden about Nemesis, and tells him of his first three cases and confirms it.

Implicitly, not explicitly.

"And ... this plague. What does it do?" I asked.
"It changes that which ought not change," she said quietly. "It destroys a father's love for his family by twisting it into maniacal ambition. ...
"Victor Sells the Shadowman," I whispered. ...
"Yes," Lily whispered. "each of them was tainted by the contagion. It destroyed them."

Let's assume Lily knows what she's talking about and hasn't been fed a line by Maeve on this count. This is a fairy talking, so we can't take what she says at face value. We have to parse it for weasel words. Kravos is one of the "them." We can use him for an example of how "tainted" and "destroyed" don't necessarily mean infected. The events of Grave Peril were obviously orchestrated by a faction tangled up with Outside. Who's a pawn and who's moving the pawns will probably be unclear for a good long while. Kravos could have been manipulated (or down stream of someone manipulated) by Nemesis. Therefore he was tainted, but not infected, by Nemesis. It's obvious that he was destroyed by the scheme's being played out in Grave Peril.

My opinion is that if Lily hasn't been fed a line, then it's more likely than not that Victor was infected. Without that assumption, I can't say it's more likely than not.

Why would Maeve lie? Because she can. Because the effects it has on Dresden. The shock alone affects his judgment. He now "knows" he can't necessarily trust any of his mortal friends because mortals are susceptible.

Victor Sells can be accounted for by the damaging affect of Black Magic.  The FBI agents by the effects of the hexen wolf belts and so on. 

Sells could have been fed black magic by a Nemesis infected agent. This would have "tainted" and "destroyed" him. Same with the wolf belts.

[Kindler]

Sells didn't need to be Infected. I believe that a Nemesis ally could've influenced a man like him very easily, without requiring direct Infection. Ditto the FBI agents.

They both reek of the kind of mental attacks Molly discussed in Turn Coat. They were made "more of what they are," so to speak. Sells was angry at his situation and greedy; he was made angrier and greedier, enough to do the things he did. The FBI agents were furious that the System they worked for couldn't touch someone like Marcone, so their indignation was redirected and given an outlet. Even Bianca's grief was used against her in Grave Peril, and she was basically totally nuts by then.

[Mira]

They both reek of the kind of mental attacks Molly discussed in Turn Coat. They were made "more of what they are," so to speak. Sells was angry at his situation and greedy; he was made angrier and greedier, enough to do the things he did. The FBI agents were furious that the System they worked for couldn't touch someone like Marcone, so their indignation was redirected and given an outlet. Even Bianca's grief was used against her in Grave Peril, and she was basically totally nuts by then.

  I think it is much simpler than that, it is the corrupting influence of the dark magic.  Remember Molly's attitude about going into the minds of her friends almost indifferent to the damage she had caused.  It is all part of the addictive nature of dark magic and the ability of the warlock to rationalize what they are doing is right.     

[Snark Knight]

I mean it's already confirmed some nemesis infection, when Dresden finds out about Nemesis it lists his first three cases. Oh and the Red Court were most likely involved given they tried to supercharge the spell to hit ancestors in Changes.

According to Lily, who was deceived about a lot.

According to WOJ, the first N-fected character to appear on stage was in GP. I'd be surprised if that was one of the rare occasions when he had to lie in a Q&A to prevent spoilers, since Sells is ancient history at this point. I think the N-fected character was Sells' teacher, either Lord Raith or Cowl.