Theory - Cowl is the original Merlin

[dagaetch]

I know that the popular theory is Simon Pietrovich. It's possible, but...I dunno. This is a guy who never appeared on-screen (on-page?), has only been mentioned a bare handful of times, and yet is supposed to be a major big baddie? Seems like it would be a fairly big deus ex machina, and Jim doesn't tend to go in for those IMO. So I have another theory.

What if Cowl is the original Merlin?

note: all mentions of Merlin below are in reference to the original individual, not the current officeholder or title

We don't have a ton of /facts/ about Cowl to work from, but let's review what we do know.

• His magic is incredibly strong.
  Harry comments that Cowl hit him harder than Justin, Ebenezer, Lea, and Aurora. We've been told numerous times that there's only a couple dozen wizards with more raw force than Harry. Merlin, however, was probably one of the strongest wizards around back in the day, and if he's been floating around for a couple dozen lifetimes, imagine how much power he could have accumulated.
• He appears to have inside information on the Council. 
  Cowl comments that he knows the Wardens are nervous about Harry. Merlin supposedly won the Edinburgh complex from a Sidhe lord in a bet; what if he bugged it way back when? I mean, I'm guessing the guy who laid down most of the initial wards and such could probably figure out a way to keep an eye/ear on things. And Cowl says that the Council "isn't what it was." That almost sounds like someone who is disappointed...like, why aren't you living up to the example I set? Or even bitter, explaining his willingness to tear down the Council...
• According to Kumori, Cowl has "a certain measure of respect" for Harry. And on several occasions, Cowl has let Harry off lightly, all things considered; even tried to arrange things to avoid fighting. 
  The journals in Ebenezer's office draw something of a line (dotted, perhaps, but it's there) between Harry and the original Merlin. Maybe bloodline, maybe just the connection between master and apprentices. Either way, Merlin/Cowl would likely be aware of this, and might prefer not to simply kill Harry and be done.
• A certain knife. 
  The first time we saw Cowl (although we weren't introduced then) was at Bianca's party. Where he handed off a knife, or athame. Specifically, the athame that had once belonged to Morgan le Fay. Can you think of anyone more likely to have that around than Merlin?

Those are the facts that come to mind. A few more thoughts/ideas:

• We know from the creation of Demonreach that Merlin time traveled, despite the rules he wrote. So maybe he's been skipping his way forward, thus partially explaining the long life?
• Kumori, and according to her, Cowl, aren't actually looking to do great evil; they want to 'end death' and believe themselves to be working for the betterment of humanity. That...sounds somewhat like Camelot? I can see Merlin justifying lots of behavior with those goals. He (probably) watched his protege Arthur die...maybe his goal is to end death, so that great achievements like Camelot/round table/etc aren't lost needlessly?
• The name Cowl. This one is really a reach, but in lots of stories, Merlin was a druid, and druids have often been (incorrectly, it turns out) depicted similarly to monks, wearing a cowl.
• The voice. It's described very similarly to the Fomor voice we learn about later on. And the Fomor are described as "exiles from myth and legend." That seems a pretty apt description for Merlin, no? So maybe he hooked up with the Fomor at some point and was given some body mods, or something. This could also play into the long life thing. Also, the Fomor come out of Celtic mythology...hell, maybe Merlin founded the group.
• Kemmler. We don't know with any certainty (I think?) what Cowl's relationship to Kemmler was. He is expressed as having disdain for K's apprentices, although it's implied that he was among them at one point. Maybe Merlin hung out with Kemmler for a while in an attempt to learn more about necromancy? And Cowl claimed to be doing the Darkhallow more to prevent the power from going to another than for personal gain: "I intend to take power," Cowl said. "I regard myself as the least of the possible evils." My intuition is that Merlin was the kind of guy who did a lot of things for personal gain, under the guise of 'taking this burden' onto himself.

So, yeah. It's obviously not conclusive or anything, but the math adds up to me.

Where does this leave us with Kumori? No real idea. There's apparently a WoJ that her identity will break Harry's heart, but I can't find the source for that. But the best theory I have is that it's Margaret, Harry's mom. We know she wandered the Nevernever to an insane degree, so if Merlin/Cowl was hiding out somewhere, they may have run into each other. Plus she was nicknamed 'le fay'; maybe he was curious about someone who basically shared a name with his old nemesis? So she dies, he resurrects her, and she joins up.

And one more idea, just because. What if the English dude in Demonreach is Mordred? Maybe...Morgana fucked around and opened a gateway to Outside, using the athame, letting in Nemesis. It corrupts Mordred, thereby bringing about the downfall of Camelot. Merlin imprisons Mordred in an attempt to cure him, similar to Mab's approach.

Okay...now tell me why I'm wrong!

[nadia.skylark]

Okay...now tell me why I'm wrong!

You're wrong because, based on what Bob tells us about the magic used to create Demonreach, there's no way Cowl would have lost any of the times we've seen him if he were Merlin.

Also, there's a WoJ that Merlin would sound "so unintelligibly British that you wouldn’t be able to tell he was speaking English," and Cowl doesn't.

[dagaetch]

Okay, so Cowl's appeared 5 times by my count. (plus an unnamed appearance at Bianca's party)

• Initial appearance outside Bock Books. Harry surprised him by using Hellfire to drop a car on his head. But Cowl survived and was kicking Harry's ass when the Alphas appeared. I got the impression that Cowl and Kumori left because the cops were headed that way, not because they thought they might lose
• Outside Murphy's house. Cowl won that one, without even using magic.
• At the Darkhallow. Harry managed to disrupt the spell by smacking Cowl in the face, causing a massive backlash. And Cowl survived, which is pretty impressive.
• Meeting Grey Cloak, which Harry spied upon. Cowl kicked Harry's (projected) ass.
• In the Raith caverns. Cowl didn't engage in direct combat there either - he brought in the ghouls, blew the lighting, summoned some weird creature, and forcibly closed Harry's portal. Then he walked away.

So maybe Cowl didn't get exactly the outcomes he desired, but I don't see how having 2 or 3 times the power would have changed any of them, really.

The WoJ about his accent I don't have a good answer for. Maybe this is one of the cases where Jim is misleading us, or maybe he's using a translation spell or something. I dunno.

[nadia.skylark]

So maybe Cowl didn't get exactly the outcomes he desired, but I don't see how having 2 or 3 times the power would have changed any of them, really.

It's not a question of power, but of skill. To address your fights in order:

1) If Cowl were Merlin, he shouldn't have had to run away from the Alphas. He left (as I remember) because they were an unknown. But A) Merlin was a master of time magic; and B) we know that there is a way to see the future. Therefore, if Cowl was Merlin, he should have been able to look a minute or two into the future, say "oh, those are just wolves" and beat them too.
2) Yes, he did.
3) Merlin created Demonreach and you're telling me that he wouldn't have an on-the-fly spell to trap one wizard so that he couldn't screw up his ritual?
4) No real evidence, but I would have expected Merlin notice Harry sooner.
5) Cowl's allies in this battle were working with Outsiders. Given what happens in Cold Days, if Cowl was Merlin, then since we know that he's allied with Outsiders I see no possible reason why he wouldn't be involved in blowing up his own prison when the Outsiders were trying that.

[g33k]

If Cowl were Merlin, he wouldn't have needed the Word of Kemmler.

Merlin -- the guy who built the multi-temporal Demonreach prison -- knew enough to conduct a Rite of Ascension if he wanted to.
 

[Bad Alias]

there's no way Cowl would have lost any of the times we've seen him if he were Merlin.

Merlin did a lot of losing in the legends. What he's known for, Arthur & Camelot, was a failure.

The WoJ about his accent I don't have a good answer for. Maybe this is one of the cases where Jim is misleading us, or maybe he's using a translation spell or something. I dunno.

This WoJ was in the context of "the prisoner" in Demonreach having a British accent so, Merlin. So the response is that, in context, that WoJ isn't relevant.

Okay...now tell me why I'm wrong!

I think Cowl being Merlin seems more deus ex machina than Simon being Cowl.

Also, it contradicts one of my wags that Merlin did an ascension ritual, became Odin, and the that's where the rumors that Odin taught Merlin came from, or Merlin did an ascension ritual and took the original Odin's place.

Merlin -- the guy who built the multi-temporal Demonreach prison -- knew enough to conduct a Rite of Ascension if he wanted to.

I will now pretend this proves my theory.

[nadia.skylark]

Merlin did a lot of losing in the legends. What he's known for, Arthur & Camelot, was a failure.

True, but I didn't say that Merlin wouldn't lose ever; I just said that he wouldn't lose any of the times that we've seen Cowl lose.

This WoJ was in the context of "the prisoner" in Demonreach having a British accent so, Merlin. So the response is that, in context, that WoJ isn't relevant.

Not really irrelevant. It was certainly in response to someone suspecting that the British prisoner was Merlin, but that doesn't change the substance, which is that Merlin, if he appeared, would sound unintelligible due to language drift.

[zetadog]

there are wizards with shapechanging powers.  presumably some of the ones that are good at that could maybe get good at healing and life-extension too.

[morriswalters]

IMO the accent is a red herring.  Harry knows of no other Warden before him.  Yet the guy mentions new guys, plural.  Given that they are wizards, then two prior to Harry, would put them as far back as the 1700's and Shakespeare didn't speak the brand of English we know and recognize.

[Bad Alias]

@morris: Well we really have no idea when and for how long any prior Warden served, so the last serving Warden could have been in the 80's or the 1480's. Though it does raise an interesting question of how did Wardens find Demonreach before the New World was discovered. I could imagine that there was a way known to some wizards that lead to Demonreach, and the wizards basically had no idea where they were. Even if they knew enough astronomy to know where they were, that probably would lead them to believe there was nothing but ocean between them and Europe/Asia. Or maybe wizards have known about the New World for basically ever. (I doubt this because the Indians would have probably been exposed to Old World diseases).

Q:  Is the original Merlin still alive?
A:  Kind of… life… death… it’s kind of a squishy line in the Dresdenverse.

2010

The original Merlin, does he sound British?
He’d probably sound so unintelligibly British that you wouldn’t be able to tell he was speaking English.  No, he’s not the guy in Demonreach.

2015 Jim's point is that someone who has been in stasis since the time of the original Merlin wouldn't sound like what we think of as "British."

So the original Merlin is in some sort of limbo and he's not the guy in Demonreach. He's likely to show up at some point because he's not all the way dead. When he shows up, his speech will be ineligible because what's the point otherwise. If he has shown up, his speech was intelligible.

Scottish Ebeneezer sounds American unless he's emotional (maybe just angry). It's likely that Merlin sounds like whoever he's been around for the past 300 years or so. (The past 300 years or so that he's experienced, that is).

[morriswalters]

And and Toot shouldn't talk Russian. Yet he does. And most of the monsters in the prison shouldn't speak English of any variety./shrug/