PEACE TALKS SPOILERS Rashid/Starborn Theory

[Conspiracy Theorist]

“Clintack, that's fair enough. Although Peace Talks isn't in 2020. I think it's still 2015 or something. Jim said something about it in a recent interview.”

Quite true, in the Dresdenverse they will be probably be having the BAT in their version of 2020. This is merely the Pre -Apocalypse Duology, or PAD, it is 2015, and Obama is still President,  with all his Chicago connections.

[Grifter]

I think the Timeline hashed out that Storm Front was 2000, and Skin Game (14 years after SF) would be 2014, making PT and BG still 2014. 

[cleoslemonade]

I love "PAD." Let's totally use that term 

[Bad Alias]

I found it interesting that we saw the elder Senior Council members appearing... Elder. 

(click to show/hide)

Eb seemed ancient, like an old man raving against this new millennial wizard outlook on vampires being more than just monsters.  We saw Liberty injured and hobbled, and we saw Listens ask for help getting out of the car/looking tired and being called all but dead by Rivers.

It seems like the comment about the older wizards was about all of them.  Given that we've also got literal "Ancient" Mai, 1,000+ Rashid, and Old Man Langtry... I'm wondering just how many of them are going to survive the next few books.  My money's on Rashid outlasting most of them.

It'd be interesting to see one of the Senior Council members die of old age in a time of great violence.

@Grifter -- Yep. It depends whether you're looking at the year when the Starborns are born, or the years in which they are active adults, or the year of the Big Apocalyptic Thing that we've been ominously told is Coming Soon for Harry and for which the starborns are born.

Another random speculation -- could Nicodemus be starborn, from 23 BC or so?

I'd say we should start with the birth year because they weren't active before that.

The problem with Nicodemus as a starborn is that he doesn't appear to be a practioner.

I think the Timeline hashed out that Storm Front was 2000, and Skin Game (14 years after SF) would be 2014, making PT and BG still 2014.

From the semi-official timeline:

Smallpox aside, the timeline editor believes the most compelling data points to Storm Front taking place in 1999,

[Walter the skull]

I think Rashid is a star born, and that star borns are a double edged sword.   

The council probably figured out that Harry was a star born pretty soon after he was captured.  Many of them still wanted to kill him.  Many still would be fine if he was dead.  My guess is that the council is like screw this Dresden guy, we've got our own star born.  Another possibility is that star borns can actually wield outsiders against people from our reality.  If Harry can bind them and banish them, why couldn't he have ordered them to go kill Marcone or something.  The council sees Harry as tainted, and a rogue star born is worse than no star born.

Either or both of the above could have played a part in the council's desire to off Harry.

[Grifter]

From the semi-official timeline:

I think that was the original guess, but it changed over time with new data points.  Later in the second post we have:

https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,1592.msg28576.html#msg28576

0 ASF, March: Storm Front.  Harry is 25, according to Jim, and he's been wizarding professionally for two years.  We can reasonably place the year 0 in the timeline within a year or two of 2000, and there's a fair amount of evidence indicating that it could be 2000.

That's at least supported by the line in SF about it being past the dawn of the new millennium (although not definitive, since it was all written sometime later).  I think there were other things mentioned in the thread about years with full moons in certain dates and events corresponding to SF being in 2000, but I don't recall all the specifics.

[wardenferry419]

Either way, it would be 1975-666.  So 1309, 643, 23 BC, 689 BC, etc, etc

If Rashid is, possibly, the 643; and Nico is, possibly, the 23 B.C. Who in history, or fictional history, would be the Starborn around 1309?

[Grifter]

If Rashid is, possibly, the 643; and Nico is, possibly, the 23 B.C. Who in history, or fictional history, would be the Starborn around 1309?

Kemmler seems unlikely to be that old, at least to me, but others like that idea. 

Maybe Abramelin the Mage?  He was born around that time but the exact dates seem to be in doubt. 

EDIT: I also like the idea of the Witch trials of that age being a plot to hunt and eliminate a female Starborn that the bad guys know exist but don't know her identity.  But that's a completely wild speculation. (Not the Salem witch trials, the ones like Alice Kyteler in 1324; she'd make an interesting possibility but it doesn't match her birth date and she'd be too old to be a Starborn of 1306)

[ClintACK]

If Rashid is, possibly, the 643; and Nico is, possibly, the 23 B.C. Who in history, or fictional history, would be the Starborn around 1309?

The Black Court was founded during the Black Death, in the late 1340's, when that Starborn would be in his or her late thirties. So, a few potentials: Drakul's scion (if scions are eligible, and not just full humans), possibly Kinkaid, and my favorite: Mavra, a human starborn wizard before she was turned.

[Bad Alias]

I think that was the original guess, but it changed over time with new data points.  Later in the second post we have:
That's at least supported by the line in SF about it being past the dawn of the new millennium (although not definitive, since it was all written sometime later).  I think there were other things mentioned in the thread about years with full moons in certain dates and events corresponding to SF being in 2000, but I don't recall all the specifics.

I just always go with the version of the timeline available here: https://www.jim-butcher.com/timeline. It's got stuff like the below on it, so we know it's being updated.

14 ASF: Job Placement, an Irwin Pounder-POV microfiction.

14 ASF, July: Peace Talks and Battle Ground

14 ASF, December 24th: Christmas Eve, a short story.

The timeline itself says 1999 is a best guess. My point in sharing was just that SF is 1999ish. Not that 2000 is wrong. More to reinforce that it's 2013-2015ish in PT. Almost certainly not today. There was one thing in PT to suggest it was later than it should be. I'm going to have to read it again to remember.

I know they killed men a lot too in the later witch trials. I assume it was the same in the earlier ones, so it could have just been a plot to eliminate a Starborn, regardless of gender.