Not confusing, merely misreading.  As far as the Black Court goes, since unless killed they live forever why do they need any elders?  They have a couple of leaders at the moment, Drakul and Mavra.

I think the Elders are the leaders - but it's also possible there is some ranks in that BCVs are not born like Whites, but turned like Reds. In at least some other legends, the vamp who turns you is your Lord, and you report to him, at least somewhat. Maybe not as strictly hierarchical as the whites, but something

<heh>
Probably would, at that!

Heck, for all we know Kincaid has a private side-deal with Sanya, and can buy a case of KotC-blessed bullets...  ;-)

Gotta be careful with blessed bullets - understand when guns started in Europe some claimed they were a tool of the devil,  and tested regular bullets against blessed silver bullets with crosses engraved... and the guns were considered cursed because the regular bullets shot markedly better.....

(DUH _ Silver is much harder than lead. The silver bullets do not take to rifling well, the spin is erratic, and so the trajectory is too. Sorry Lone Ranger.)

With the exception of Nicodemus the Nicklehead's aren't that hard to kill.  Ursiel dies the first time in Blood Rites.  Separate the head from the body and they die. Destroy the head and they die. And so on. And he stole the idea from the Highlander, whose writer stole it from someone else.

But if Butcher wants to raise him from the dead all it takes is a word processor and the desire. At this rate I expect a party with all the quasi dead people of the  Dresden Files in attendance.

Doesn't have to be decapitation, but it has to be quick. Eldest Gruff kills a denarian (Magog, maybe?) on the island without a decapitation. But it was a single shot. EG is well up the power ladder, I'd be thinking roughly Lea? 

I think Hades might be involved. He claims the dead in his realm. Nic killing his daughter, she is not coming back. But not for a keepsake coin. TWG wants them in circulation, and I think Hades trophy room is likely too far off the beaten path.  But Hades can likely refuse the soul and put it back in the body, and open a gate out. Hades is probably stronger than anyone we have seen other than Uriel, the Mothers, and HWWB. Odin isn't that class any more. 

Well, human memory is basically the start of history - so we do not have anything putting the Blacks or Reds first, and Etruscan predates Latin - but is it a language the Whites picked up because they were in the area? Or did the locals pick up what the WHITES were talking, with the WC being the seed?

Well, they are human enough to breed with humans.( hence River's son) So that could be enough for a coin merger.

Surviving the ice grinders will need some explaining though. Maybe Jim just wasn't done with the character's plot arc.

Especially because Rivers himself seems at a loss - so it is not a typical Forest People move

I suspect the Spear can separate Angel and coin, effectively taking the Angel out of the game. Same type of energy of creation,  so not destruction. The Eye is a different type of energy of the same magnitude so more likely to destroy. The Spear could be used without the type of blowback the use of the Eye would engender. Who knows, it might even reverse the Fallen status.

Wouldn’t that be terrifying for Nicky and Anduriel? Is that why he was after the Spear

I don't know if even the Eye could destroy one... I would guess it depends on who made the Coin. If TWG - likely indestructible, even to the Eye. They speak of the Swords being able to pierce even Titanic Bronze, and they are wielded by humans, though it might take a more powerful wielder to kill Ethniu with it, but if a Sword could destroy a coin.,.. I have to think that it would have been done at some point.

But.. who DID make the Coins? The idea passes they are NOT prisons for the Denarians, but the Denarians or the like MADE them. They are to be distributed among humans to gain power and corrupt humans. The Denarians are using them as a conduit to get into the world, and go voluntarily. So the Spear won't separate Damned and denarius - they want to be there, though maybe they can be driven out. I think the Fallen status remains. I think that status can only be lifted by TWG.  Possibly it could banish THAT Fallen from a Coin, and leave that Fallen unable to contact Earth. But maybe another Fallen can then hop into the Coin. "Lasciel, you are out - Belial, do you want to try?"

There's a few supposed Spears out there, claiming to be the real one. Unconquerable? Then I guess the one the Holy Roman Empire had wasn't real.... some also say the power is in seeing the future, not necessarily winning...  else, wouldn't Harry have just had to show up and stick it in Ethniu? Harry can't be conquered then, right? But maybe Harry thinks that, and the Spear telepathically tells him, "Nope. Try it and die. Come up with a Plan B" but doesn;'t tell him what to do.

Yeah, but Toot isn't short on ego!

So few people in these books are average height. Kringle/Vadderung, the Erlking and Hades are over 7 feet, Rashid is close to it, Harry is 6'9", Michael, Sanya, Kincaid, and Hendricks are all spoken of as well over 6 feet. For the women, the Gard sisters, Molly, Georgia Borden, and Charity are all spoken of as about 6 feet, as is Mab's most common incarnation (though it is a Fae woman's prerogative to change her height, and she does at times). But Butters and Murphy are short. Billy Borden is short but heavyset, as is Eb. Only large group of middles seems to be vampires...   Marcone one of the few normals around average of the main humans.

Yet they never nailed Mort did they?

I think as long as Mort TALKED, rather than controlled, he was OK. They watched him just in case.  Sue was OK as she was not human. Like Harry can toast a vampire, but not a human.