Eh, I dont really see that happening, attendance on the sly I mean.  Either they are interested enough to attend and participate by the rules, or else they abstain from the proceedings.  Id view that sort of sneaking around to be a Disrespect to the Accords, which Mab would not tolerate.

I think the assumption Im making that is causing the disconnect is that when Hecate &Co combined Power to create the Modern courts, the Guardianship itself was part of that mix of Power that got move/reformed.  I dont think you could have that tier of Power without it's Purpose going right along with it; they'd be two parts of the same ball of wax Yarn (ill go with "Ball of Yarn" since the moirai are in there).  So, by that assumption at least, there'd be no way for them to become Empowered to current levels without immediately taking up the Guardianship.  Does that make sense?

Huh?  What do you mean by that part?

fwiw, Summer and Winter as courts technically might have predated the ascention to Gate Guardians and the consolidation of Powers that you describe.  They'd have simply been another pair of Wyldfae courts without the sort of qualified-supremacy we see now, but they might have been around, and even had a Lady and Queen it not the full triplet-form we see (or all three, who knows).  One Clue that always pushed me that way was the fact that Mother Winter is the only Mother Winter ever, but she is also The Queen That Was by definition, thus methinks she had to be a queen of some proto-winter Court that predates the ascension.

I once read a contemporary Arthurian series by an author named AA Antonasio told primarily from Merlin's POV, wherein Merlin was a demon/Fallen Angel that had been tricked into raping a woman and trapped in a human form which aged backward.  Thereafter he forswore his sinful ways and started working toward redemption and attempting to earn his childhood and eventual (re)Birth.  He was just aging backward though, not actually experiencing time backward or gaining knowledge of the future or anything.  Was an interesting take on the whole mythology as it tried to set up a magical world that still mostly embraced the laws of physics.  The Aesir, for example, were beings made of electromagnetic energy that inhabited the earth's magnetic field (which they perceived as The World Tree).

fwiw, according to tvtropes Gerald Morris' Arthurian novel The Squire's Tale uses this Merlin Sickness not for Merlin but for the hermit Trevisant. He ages normally but remembers less of the past and more of the future as time goes by,

Who is Cowl?

For the purpose of this poll, we're assuming that Harry's observation in Dead Beat is correct, and that Cowl is a mortal practitioner.

For the sake of keeping the list reasonable, Time Travel/Parallel Universe options have not been made available for anyone other than Harry.

Some that are listed seem highly unlikely, due to being dead, on-page with Cowl, the wrong gender, or some other limiting factor.  But as some theorize that Simon could be Cowl, I've included others that are normally overlooked as well.

Curator's note:  Griff followed my requested convention for this kind of thing by starting with "Other."  If you vote "Other" please post your choice so that it may be added to the bottom of the list.  Then you can change your vote to your actual choice.  ^-Serack

This, this, a thousand times this!
They may have seemed reasonable in other contexts, but they went nuclear over this issue.  WHY?

Did they know the DF stories?  How well?

The thing is, there was clearly a mismatch of expectations & understanding of what a circle is/does; a wizard, in-character, would know what a circle is/does, and wouldn't raise a circle expecting it to last in these circumstances.

Letting a PC do something in the clear player-expectation of ONE outcome, when the character would clearly expect something ELSE ... well, yeah.  I'd cry foul, too.

If I'm GM'ing a game where "draw a magic circle of protection" ONLY protects against magic, AND can easily be mundanely-broken, AND there are Mundane combatants around to break it ... well, I'd feel obligated compelled  :-]  to offer the player a caution, "Your character would know that this circle can easily be broken by THIS or THAT combatant, if they know they SHOULD break it."

OTOH, if the player was familiar with the stories, then I'd presume they already knew this, and were doing some tactical/strategic thing (and wouldn't bother with the caution).

Given this level of misunderstanding, I'd do a serious run-through of game mechanics and setting-expectations.