Istanbul 1905 - Ebenezar and Kincaid

[Yuillegan]

Yıldız assassination attempt - 1905 Istanbul.

Eb states that he and Kincaid were contemporaries of sorts and during the early 1900s Kincaid crossed professional boundaries in Istanbul. After which, Eb swore he would kill him if they met again. Which only got tested 100 or so years later.

The Yıldız assassination attempt was a failed assassination attempt on Sultan Abdul Hamid II by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation at the Yıldız mosque on 21 July 1905 in Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire (later Istanbul). It is described as one of the most sensational and greatest political conspiracies of modern times.

I will give you the cliff notes version. Essentially the Hamidian massacres and the Sultan's anti-Armenian policies created a climate of rebellion. Lots of major resistance movements took place to try and create awareness and fight for freedom. It seems that the ARF started producing explosives in secret and worked out the Sultan's movements. They had some setbacks, including the deaths of the original planners but moved forward anyway. The Sultan prayed every Friday at the mosque and usually left around the same time. The ARF planted a man to drive his carriage on the day. He set the time for 42 seconds, but because the Sultan was delayed and got caught in a conversation with the Sheikh ul-Islam, when the bomb was thrown he had a chance to take cover and survived. The terrorist died, as did 26 others and 52 wounded. A Belgian anarchist was also arrested in the subsequent investigations.

In Dresden Files terms? I think it might have been Kincaid himself who threw the bomb. Perhaps Ebenezar was protecting the Sultan. Or perhaps the reverse. But bombs do seem more Kincaid's style. Either way - this is the only historical event that matches up.

What do you all think was the thing that made them such bitter enemies? What line did Kincaid cross?

[KurtinStGeorge]

I think it is more likely that in the DV their were other supernatural players working in the background.  If you want to use the history of that time I would point to the rise of the faction known as the Young Turks starting around 1908.  You might ask why I think the rise of those leaders is important.  Remember that Bob told Harry that Kemmler was responsible for engineering WW1.  The Young Turks helped bring Turkey closer to Germany and eventually to join the war on the side of the Central Powers in 1914.

So I suspect Kemmler was involved; possibly directly or through the use of catspaws, in the attempted assassination of the Sultan.  He wanted to bring down the already tottering Ottoman Empire.  I doubt that either Ebenezer or Kinkaid was the bomb thrower.  In fact, my guess is that they were nominally working together to oppose Kemmler or his agents.  Only they would have had different reasons for doing so and different employers.  Obviously, Kincade is not part of the White Council, but just as Harry has worked with Marcone, Mr Hendricks, Ms. Gard and Lara Raith; in his time Ebenezer has formed temporary alliances with people and not people who weren't always friendly towards him or the White Council in general.

I think Ebenezer's anger towards Kincade is not based on them being on opposite sides in 1905, but that they were on the same side and after they accomplished their mutual mission; or perhaps in the course of that mission, Kinkade fulfilled a second contract that undermined or betrayed everything Ebenezer had been working towards.  And whatever Kincade did, I bet it was really nasty, or led to something that could be described that way.  Eb's anger felt to me like it came from someone who was personally betrayed by an ally, not anger at an old enemy.  So in the end, Kemmler's ambitions were served.     

[Yuillegan]

Excellent alternate theory, and a story I would love to read one day!

Certainly fits better than my explanation - in terms of Dresden Files.

And we know who Kincaid worked for at that time - he was still called the Hound of Hell/Hellhound. He worked for Drakul. I wonder if that is how Eb met Drakul in fact. It seems related. But perhaps it seemed like they were on the same side, as you say, but then in order to save himself Kincaid exposed Eb or interfered with his mission.

I say that because Eb talks of proprietaries between assassins, a measure of professional courtesy and respect, boundaries. Which Kincaid violated. A normal boundary would be you do your hit, I do mine - we don't cross. Another might be don't reveal me to the authorities, or the target. One wonders why Kincaid did it actually - he generally seemed more terrified of Eb than the other way round. I expect he either had an attack on conscience, or had conflicting orders, or both. But it certainly ruined things between them.

[Bad Alias]

It's got to be something huge for Ebeneezer to hold a grudge like that, but not so huge that Eb didn't drop a satellite on his head. The only time we've seen him loose his cool is when Harry has been threatened (also in Changes when Harry was talking to him on the stones and Eb ordered Harry to the meeting; I don't remember that scene well enough to characterize it), but that's not really helpful because we only see Eb when he's with Harry. We don't know him well enough to know which buttons he has.