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The Dresden Files => DF Spoilers => Topic started by: groinkick on February 10, 2021, 06:39:52 PM

Title: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 10, 2021, 06:39:52 PM
Demon Reach has Bane Fire as a last ditch effort to destroy the prisoners if an escape happened.  The fire is described as crimpson, and blue becoming white (if memory is accurate)...  This to me sounds like Hellfire, and Soulfire combined...  Like a matter, and antimatter explosion or something.  With Harry having access to Soulfire, and possibly Hellfire....  I wonder if he could wield the power to kill Immortals...  I mean if Bane fire does it to the prisoners why not a Bane Fire spell? 

Perhaps this is why he is a weapon?  Perhaps Starborns are destined to wield this kind of power.  Mortals who can kill gods.  I believe Merlin was called "The Conquerer" in Battle Ground, and Morgan was worried about Harry being a Destroyer with a capital D.  Maybe that's what this is about? 
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: didymos on February 10, 2021, 06:47:03 PM
I believe Merlin was called "The Conquerer" in Battle Ground...

Not according to a text search.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Bad Alias on February 10, 2021, 06:52:44 PM
Demon Reach has Bane Fire as a last ditch effort to destroy the prisoners if an escape happened.  The fire is described as crimpson, and blue becoming white (if memory is accurate)...  This to me sounds like Hellfire, and Soulfire combined...  Like a matter, and antimatter explosion or something.  With Harry having access to Soulfire, and possibly Hellfire....  I wonder if he could wield the power to kill Immortals...  I mean if Bane fire does it to the prisoners why not a Bane Fire spell?   
My reading of CD is that the Bane Fire will not kill an immortal. That they'll comeback from it eventually.

Not according to a text search.
Merlin cast Mab out and Mab rode with the "Conqueror." Most assume that the Conqueror is William the Conqueror, but a lot of the William the Conqueror references (maybe all of them) haven't been explicit. Why wildest wag is that they're misdirection.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: didymos on February 10, 2021, 06:56:31 PM
Merlin cast Mab out and Mab rode with the "Conqueror."

Yeah, that was mentioned in Peace Talks.  In any case, the "Conqueror" didn't refer to Merlin.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: morriswalters on February 10, 2021, 08:42:51 PM
For what's worth bane fire translates as bone fire.  The Destroyer is a magical suit of armor in the Marvel comics.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 11, 2021, 02:16:50 AM
Merlin cast Mab out and Mab rode with the "Conqueror." Most assume that the Conqueror is William the Conqueror, but a lot of the William the Conqueror references (maybe all of them) haven't been explicit. Why wildest wag is that they're misdirection.

To be honest when I read the passage I thought it meant she was riding around with King Arthur and he was going around the country side as a KOTC, slaying the enemies...  To Korb that would be like a Conquerer. 

It was only when I read on the Wiki or something like that, and it said Mab rode around with Merlin that I took Conquer to be Merlin which I could understand if Merlin is simply a really powerful bad ass like Harry but with a few hundred years more experience.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 11, 2021, 02:19:45 AM
The Destroyer is a magical suit of armor in the Marvel comics.

Well if Dresden is one that could bring in an Outsider or Demon, I guess he would be like the armor containing such a being.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: TheCuriousFan on February 11, 2021, 08:17:20 AM
On the note of William the Conqueror, he was the guy that won the Battle of Hastings and Mab and Titania haven't talked since Hastings.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Mira on February 11, 2021, 11:33:09 AM
On the note of William the Conqueror, he was the guy that won the Battle of Hastings and Mab and Titania haven't talked since Hastings.
Oh a love triangle... ::)
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: TheCuriousFan on February 11, 2021, 12:04:53 PM
Oh a love triangle... ::)
Probably more that they were backing opposite teams.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Conspiracy Theorist on February 12, 2021, 02:07:36 AM
Yeah, that was mentioned in Peace Talks.  In any case, the "Conqueror" didn't refer to Merlin.

1066 and all that, the Conqueror was William
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 12, 2021, 02:13:11 AM
On the note of William the Conqueror, he was the guy that won the Battle of Hastings and Mab and Titania haven't talked since Hastings.

Didn't Jim say that they had been in love with the same guy and it didn't end well for him?
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: didymos on February 12, 2021, 02:16:49 AM
Didn't Jim say that they had been in love with the same guy and it didn't end well for him?

That guy was Oberon (https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,34849.msg1667174.html#msg1667174):

Quote
Oberon... well, the guy kind of wound up between Mab and Titania in one of those romantic triangle things, back around Shakespeare's day. He didn't make it.

Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 12, 2021, 02:18:04 AM
That guy was Oberon (https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,34849.msg1667174.html#msg1667174):

Thank you.  LoL I love how jim said "he didn't make it"
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: ZhonLord on February 12, 2021, 02:26:55 AM
Demon Reach has Bane Fire as a last ditch effort to destroy the prisoners if an escape happened.  The fire is described as crimpson, and blue becoming white (if memory is accurate)...  This to me sounds like Hellfire, and Soulfire combined...  Like a matter, and antimatter explosion or something.  With Harry having access to Soulfire, and possibly Hellfire....  I wonder if he could wield the power to kill Immortals...  I mean if Bane fire does it to the prisoners why not a Bane Fire spell? 

Perhaps this is why he is a weapon?  Perhaps Starborns are destined to wield this kind of power.  Mortals who can kill gods.

Considering mortals can already kill gods on Halloween and Ethniu's big weapon could do so any time of the year, I think it's safe to say that there's more than one way to bypass immortality if you really want something dead.  That said, I like your theory of it being hellfire and soulfire clashing.  There are many stories where directly-opposite forces contacting each other react in an explosive manner as the two forms reject their antithesis, matter/antimatter as you suggested along with many others.  It's not uncommon, and if the original Merlin was powerful enough to weave this prison in five different times at once then it's hardly a stretch to imagine he could have given Demonreach both forms of power.  Especially since we know the resulting explosion would be on par with a nuke, annihilating Chicago and several miles around it in the process of killing the prisoners.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 12, 2021, 05:06:26 PM
Considering mortals can already kill gods on Halloween and Ethniu's big weapon could do so any time of the year, I think it's safe to say that there's more than one way to bypass immortality

It does change things for sure
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Bad Alias on February 15, 2021, 02:12:27 AM
In any case, the "Conqueror" [almost certainly] didn't refer to Merlin.
You never can be sure. But you can be pretty sure.

Especially since we know the resulting explosion would be on par with a nuke, annihilating Chicago and several miles around it in the process of killing the prisoners.
It doesn't kill the prisoners according to CD.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: didymos on February 15, 2021, 10:39:50 PM
You never can be sure. But you can be pretty sure.

We can be sure:

Quote
“Old woman,” Corb taunted. “I remember you as a bawling brat. I remember your pimply face when you rode with the Conqueror. I remember how you wept when Merlin cast you out.”

Butcher, Jim. Peace Talks (Dresden Files) (pp. 278-279). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

That's referring to two different people.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: The_Sibelis on February 16, 2021, 02:23:57 AM
We can be sure:

That's referring to two different people.
I'd disagree it has to be, it could be a continuation.
"I remember when Drakul drained you. I remember how you wept when the impaler left you upon the spike." See?
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: morriswalters on February 16, 2021, 03:50:47 AM
That's referring to two different people.
Do the whole quote.
Quote
“Old woman,” Corb taunted. “I remember you as a bawling brat. I remember your pimply face when you rode with the Conqueror. I remember how you wept when Merlin cast you out.” Mab’s face . . . . . . twisted into naked, ugly, absolute rage. Her body became so rigid, so immobile, that it could not possibly have belonged to a living thing. “Tell me,” Corb purred. “If he was yet among the living, do you think he would still love you? Would he be so proud of what you’ve become?”

Butcher, Jim. Peace Talks (Dresden Files) (pp. 278-279). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Subject and predicate. It's pretty straightforward. The Old Woman is Mab. There is also a subtle reference to the Triple Goddess.  Mab as a baby, Mab as a Maiden and then Mab as a Old Woman. Also Korb the idiot said that Merlin died and in most of the stories he didn't, he was sealed under a rock or a tree, or somewhere. One of these days I'll reread La Mort du Arther if I can summon the interest.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Yuillegan on February 16, 2021, 12:16:53 PM
Do the whole quote.Subject and predicate. It's pretty straightforward. The Old Woman is Mab. There is also a subtle reference to the Triple Goddess.  Mab as a baby, Mab as a Maiden and then Mab as a Old Woman. Also Korb the idiot said that Merlin died and in most of the stories he didn't, he was sealed under a rock or a tree, or somewhere. One of these days I'll reread La Mort du Arther if I can summon the interest.
Not necessarily idiotic if the legends got it wrong. But he actually doesn't say Merlin died, just that he isn't among the living. It's not 100% the same thing. Dare I say it, Jim might have phrased it like that on purpose. Merlin might have ascended into a divine being, or perhaps is trapped between life and death, or in an underworld but more as a visitor than a denizen. I mean, it's meant to make us think Merlin is dead and so that might well be true. But it isn't necessarily either.

It's a fine read, but a little bit dry. If you can be bothered go have a dig into the older Welsh tales around Merlin. It's much more interesting I think.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: groinkick on February 16, 2021, 05:04:56 PM
Do the whole quote.Subject and predicate. It's pretty straightforward. The Old Woman is Mab. There is also a subtle reference to the Triple Goddess.  Mab as a baby, Mab as a Maiden and then Mab as a Old Woman. Also Korb the idiot said that Merlin died and in most of the stories he didn't, he was sealed under a rock or a tree, or somewhere. One of these days I'll reread La Mort du Arther if I can summon the interest.

If the stories are accurate it was likely Mab who locked him away...  If she loved him, and locked him away....  Perhaps it was something like Harry locking away Thomas... 
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Bad Alias on February 18, 2021, 02:06:23 AM
That's referring to two different people.
Are you sure?  :P

But seriously, how are you sure? Even if you can lay out a bunch of rules of formal English that lawyers and judges would use interpreting a statute or something, you'd have to also say Corb was speaking in strict compliance with those rules.

I think that it's highly unlikely that Merlin is the Conqueror, but I don't think those two sentences make it certain. Beowulf, Vadderung, and Santa are the same person, so there's even more reason to be cautious about claiming they're definitively not the same person.
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: morriswalters on February 18, 2021, 10:33:44 AM
Well that zoomed right over my head. Merlin as the Conqueror?
Title: Re: Bane Fire
Post by: Bad Alias on February 26, 2021, 05:32:22 PM
Well that zoomed right over my head. Merlin as the Conqueror?
Quote
I remember your pimply face when you rode with the Conqueror. I remember how you wept when Merlin cast you out.”
The quote can be interpreted as the objects of the italicized prepositional phrases are the same person. It's probably not an accurate interpretation, and if I had to lay down a bet, I'd be putting money on the Conqueror being William the Conqueror or at least not Merlin.