Okay,this thought hit me while reading Groinkick's post about Marcone in the time traveling thread.
On one hand not sure if it is a deep enough thought to warrant it's own thread, but on the other it would have totally hijacked the other topic, so here goes.

I guess desperate times call for desperate measures and power corrupts even the already corrupted, but it is weird that Marcone would take up a coin.  The Denarians did a number on him on Demonreach back in Small Favor.. So much so that he and Mab planned and got revenge on Nic and company in Skin Game..  So now they kiss and make up?  Or are there going to be unforeseen consequences down the road?  At the moment Namhiel is glad to be back in business with a ruthless intelligent host, and Marcone was happy to save Chicago and getting more power, but who is using whom and what is the ultimate goal?

Namshiel also was not on good terms with Nic post Arctis Tor, so it may have been part of the bargain he and Marcone made.

I've toyed with this idea specific to Nicodemus.

Nic is Harry's personal enemy and foil- right down to gaining a daughter in his life (Cold Days he was out of commission, in the interim she was at the Carpenter's) when Nic loses his own. Nic falls as Harry rises.

And they hate each other.

Story wise, that's made for Jim for a final teamup. Exactly what he loves.

The Denarians are not monolithic. Nic and Tessa each head groups; a few like Lasciel are generally (apparently) solo artists who only rarely play with the band.

Tessa's group may be classic evil- Jim played DnD, chaotic evil.

Nic's group appears to be lawful evil.

Mab needed a favor from Anduriel for which he loaned her Nic early in her career as Winter Queen, per WoJ. That favor is repaid in Skin Game. Mab's job is holding against Outside. Implication: Nic (at least) learns about Outside.

Mab's only been Winter Queen a millenium, tops. Nic last worked with Tessa on the Black Death. Posit: Nic stopped doing "evil" and became busy trying to stop the Apocalypse.

Alternate: Nic hosts Nemesis and is the true big bad of the series. He and Nemesis both used the same quote about apocalypse being a state of mind. In that case, Tessa becomes an ally at the end, due to knowing Nic so well.

Like the idea of Harry gaining knowledge so he might be prepared for the future, will the knowledge transfer over? Sure the character's names will be the same but will every detail be the same? With people just the opposite of what they are now ("good character" becomes "bad character")? Also, what about the neutral people?

The point is more that Harry himself is different, plus the general lit concept of chaos theory. So anyone Harry has interacted with significantly. Maeve may be back, Slade might be Winter Knight. No Evil Bob. Butters is dead or just a coroner.

It's why I favor how he killed Bianca changing to a violation of the Accords. No duel with Ortega. No friendship with the Archive. No followup at Shed's Aquarium. No Soulfire. Lots of branches become viable or fall away when links in chains alter.

Myself, I think they are about the overturn of the old order without full knowledge of what that order is for- with a few nihilists and anarchists tossed in.

Take the Outer Gates. Wizards like Eb know what Outsiders are, but do they know that the Winter Court is responsible for keeping them outside the Outer Gates, or do they just think the Gates are "shut" instead of being a citadel under constant siege. If they have that misapprehension about the Gates- that there is no need for them to be defended- then there would be much question of the Accords.

I've brought this up before, but why the Accorded nations? It makes the most sense to me if they are a mix of B-string and heirs to Winter's duties on the Gates. With the human population exploding, Red or Black Courts could take over manning duties, for instance. I've mentioned before too that I am partial to the idea that vampirism "plugs into" the port Outsiders would need, making vampires immune to direct control by Outsiders (Though not willing participation).

So what is the Black Council for? Is it a wizard-centric organization that takes the passivity of the White Council as unacceptable? Is it a union of beings looking to overturn the old order to forge a new Accords in ignorance of the threat to reality? Is it a collection of Nemesis pawns- or some combination of all of these?

Hints in the series indicate there's some kind of astral cycle that at some point, only starborn can do something, and it's a time of change- so maybe it's those planning ahead on the cycle. Maybe it's no more than a temporary union of disparate players aiming to control starborn.

The distinction between Gray Council and Black Council is based on Harry's trust of Eb- if I recall correctly, a careful parse of Changes reads that the Council showed, and also Vadderung showed, but that doesn't mean they showed together. If they messed with Kukulkan, or otherwise were traceable to the success of the Red Court, they eliminated that evidence by backing Harry.

There's another choice Harry made that has some really great story potential, and that's what he did to Bianca.

He didn't turn tail, he didn't start a war where the White Council was in violation of the Acccords, he found a third path- empowering her already-slain victims (already across her threshold) using the thinning of the veil she'd helped build- so it was Red Court vs. White Council only.

There's also his choice to take Michael as his second to the party.

I really like that it was his empowering her victims, versus striking her himself, that caused the divergence.

Vadderung is committed to defending this reality against the outsiders and removing the red court was a major blow against the outsiders. This was too important. Besides Mab and Uriel were also involved.

He was protecting the old order against the red court.

Right. But we don't know what the Black Council is *for*. The Red Court, amongst other things, is the cutout

Vadderung's a practical guy and a gambler. His target might be overturning the old order

If Langtree is involved, kicking Harry out of the Council makes him a Disavowed asset for the Grey Council.