The Cowl = Simon theory has been discussed in a huge number of threads. This is an attempt to write a reference thread summing all the knowledge about it. Criticism of the theory and of the OP is encouraged.
The theory is old and well-known, so I haven't been able to identify its original author. Still I would like to thank Raptor, 123456789blaaa and Neurovore, as I stole much from their posts to write this one. Many, many others wrote insightful posts on the subject, thank you all.
Cowl is Simon Petrovich
Everything we know about Cowl
"Sheesh," I said. I glanced up at Bianca, who was in converse with one of the robed and hooded shadows. The pair of them vanished to the back of the dias while Bianca watched, and then returned, lugging something that evidently weighted a good deal. They settled the fairly large object, hidden beneath a dark red cloth, on the dias beside Bianca.
His voice was… odd. Male, certainly, but it didn't sound quite human. There was a kind of quavering buzz in it that made it warble, somehow, made the words slither uncertainly. The words were slow and enunciated. They had to be, in order to be intelligible.
"Bite my ass, Cowl."
Kumori's hood twitched back and forth between Cowl and me. She took three steps back.
"Just as well," Cowl murmured. "I have wanted to see for myself what has the wardens so nervous about you."
"I have nothing but disdain for the madman Kemmler," he spat. "Have a care what insults you offer. This need not involve you at all, Dresden."
"At Bianca's masquerade. You were there on the dais with her." As I spoke the words, I became increasingly convinced of them. The two figures I'd seen back then had never shown their faces, but there was something in the way that Cowl and Kumori moved that matched the two shadows back then precisely. "You were the ones who gave the Leanansidhe that athame."
"Perhaps," said Kumori, but there was an inclination to her head that ceded me the truth of my statement.
"If one of the Wardens thought he might be about to practice black magic, he'd probably cut off his own head on pure reflex."
"All of them?" Kumori asked in a quiet voice. "Are you sure?"
I looked back and forth between them. "Are you telling me that someone on the Council is after Kemmler's power?"
"The Council is not what it was," said Cowl. "It has rotted from the inside, and many wizards who have chafed at its restrictions have seen the war with the Red Court reveal its weakness. It will fall. Soon. Perhaps before tomorrow night."
"Dorosh," he snarled in reply, and extended his right hand.
I've traded practice blows with my old master Justin DuMorne, himself at one time a Warden. I fought him in earnest, too, and won. I've tested my strength in practice duels against the mentor who succeeded him, Ebenezar McCoy. My faerie godmother, the Leanansidhe, has a seriously nasty right hook, metaphysically speaking, and I've even gone up against the least of the Queens of Faerie. Throw in a couple of demons, various magical constructs, a thirteen-story fall in a runaway elevator, half a dozen spellslingers of one amount of nasty or another, and I've seen more sheer mystic violence than most wizards in the business. I've beaten them all, or at least survived them, and I've got the scars to show for it.
Cowl hit me harder than any of them.
The point being that Cowl wasn't some kind of demon. He was a wizard. Human.
"Cowl," I said. "He made himself scarce last night. My guess is that he was too busy setting it up to take a swing at Grevane or the Corpsetaker."
"Why Cowl?"
"Because this is a major hex, man. If you'd have asked me yesterday, I wouldn't have thought this was possible. I don't know how he did it, but…" I shivered. "His magic is stronger than mine. And from what I saw of his technique, he's a hell of a lot more skilled, too. If he's as good at thaumaturgy as he is at evocation, he's the most dangerous wizard I've ever seen."
She was silent for a moment more. Then she said, "Do you know why Cowl has made a study of necromancy? And why I have joined him?"
"No."
"Because necromancy embraces the power of death, just as magic embraces the power of life. And as magic can be twisted and perverted to cruel and destructive ends, necromancy can be turned upon its nature as well. Death can be warded off, as I did for the wounded man that night. Life can be served by that dark power, if one's will and purpose are strong."
"Uh-huh. You're a Schubert fan boy, aren't you? You've got the look."
"Goethe, actually," he said.
"You really intend to make yourself into a god?" I asked.
"I intend to take power," Cowl said. "I regard myself as the least of the possible evils."
"Uh-huh," I said. "Someone is going to get the power. Might as well be you. Something like that?"
"Something like that," Cowl said.
"What if no one got it?" I said.
"I don't really see that happening," he said. "Grevane and the Corpsetaker are determined. I intend to beat them to the prize and use it to destroy them. It's the only way to be sure one of those madmen does not become something more terrible than the earth has ever seen."
"Right," I said. "You're the correct madman for the job."
Cowl was silent for a long moment in the rain. Drops fell off the end of my pistol in his gloved hand. Then he said, his voice pensive, "I do not perceive myself to be mad. But if I were truly mad, would I be able to tell?"
"No," I spat. "Cowl knew that Bob used to be Kemmler's. Somewhere in there, Bob knows everything about the theory that Kemmler did."
"Gosh. That's so altruistic of him." I shook my head. "If he kills me, he'll have my death curse to contend with."
"He has already contended with such curses," Kumori said. "Many times. I advise you to retire from the field."
Cowl set the skull aside on the grass, then raised his hands above his head and let the sleeves fall back from his long, weathered arms covered in old scars. He began a chant in a low voice, steady and strong.
Cowl held up a miniature hand for silence, a gesture that looked, somehow, stiff and pained. Then his hood panned around the room.
So we know that Cowl:
- is human
- is a wizard
- is a SC level wizard, in skill and power
- has studied necromancy with 'good' intentions
- claims not to be a Kemmlerite
- knew that Bob used to be Kemmler's propriety
- knows well the members of the WC
- has a strange, inhuman voice
- has a female apprentice
- is male
- has survived deathcurses
- has sustained serious injuries
- uses 'Dorosh' as keyword for his magic
- is a fan of Goethe
- gave the athame to Bianca
- hopes not be mad
- has a magic that do not feel completely dark
- has connections with the outsiders
- wanted to see Harry for himself
Cowl is Simon, Klaus or a new character
The core argument of the Cowl=Simon theory is very simple and very powerful:
we know that Cowl is a human SC-level wizard, so the list of suspect is very short:
- Langtry
- Rashid
- Eb
- Lafortier
- Mai
- Martha
- LTW
- Simon Petrovich
- Klaus Schneider (the Toymaker)
During Dead Beat the SC was fighting the Reds. So we have two possibilities: Simon or Klaus.
It's impossible to rule out Klaus, but we have arguments against it:
Injun Joe interrupted. "Wizard Schneider is a fine enchanter, and he has a reputation for skill and honesty. But he is young for such a responsibility. There are wizards present who are his senior in experience and the Art. They deserve the consideration of the Council."
"Wizard Schneider."
A small, round-cheeked man with a fringe of gauzy white down over his scalp and a round belly stretching his robes stood up and gave Ebenezar a brief nod. Then he looked up at the Merlin and said, in Latin with a heavy Germanic accent, "While I am grateful for the offer, honored Merlin, I must respectfully decline your nomination, in favor of Wizard McCoy. He will serve the Council more ably than I."
Klaus is small, whereas Cowl has long arms and is taller than Kumori, who is tall enough to held Harry's hair (she has to stretch to do so).
Klaus shows no sign of injury.
LTW implies that McCoy is a greater wizard than Klaus, and Klaus seems to agree.
This quote:
"Bite my ass, Cowl."
Kumori's hood twitched back and forth between Cowl and me. She took three steps back.
"Just as well," Cowl murmured. "I have wanted to see for myself what has the wardens so nervous about you."
seems to imply that Cowl has never met Harry before (and yet he already has in GP...). Klaus has already met Harry.
And on the other hand, the case for Simon is really strong.
The case for Simon Petrovitch = Cowl
Simon was a male, human wizard, member of the senior Council.
He was living in Archangel, Russia, so he knew Goethe (his works at least) and could have used 'Dorosh', which seems to have East-european origines.
He's the leader of the 'Brute Squad', which went against Kemmler, so he knew Kemmler.
His apprentice Justin took Bob from the ruin of Kemmler's lab. So it's a fair bet he knew about Bob.
Justin had extensive contacts with the Oustsiders, implying that Simon would have no problem getting connected to them.
Simon had a female apprentice:
You’ll see direct translations from sources like Simon and his apprentice Larisa Yevtushenko
He was not evil/mad as Kemmler was.
So we see that Simon would have no problem filling all the characteristics of Cowl, and is the only character to do so in the Dresdenverse.
In reverse, it would be far easier for Cowl to carry his plots if he were Simon:
Martha shook her head. "Simon Pietrovich. Senior Council member. Our vampire expert. He was killed less than two days ago. The whole compound in Archangel , Ebenezar. All of them. I'm sorry."
Ebenezar shook his head slowly. His voice was a pale shadow of its usual self. "I've been to his tower. It was a fortress. How did they do it? "The Wardens said that they couldn't be sure, but it looked like someone let the killers in past the defenses. They didn't get away unscathed. There were the remains of half a dozen nobles of the Red Court . Many of their warriors. But they killed Simon and the rest."
"Let them in?" Ebenezar breathed. "Treachery? But even if it was true, it would have to be someone who knew his defenses inside and out."
Firstly, we know there was traitor at Archangel. Since it's improbable that any of the victim was the traitor, Lafortier logically assumes that Harry is responsable. We know that to be false. So someone in the complex was the traitor. Someone who was not killed. Simon being Cowl solves that mystery.
Secondly, Simon was the WC vampire expert. Cowl planned two big vampires operations during the books: the war with the Red Court and the coup in the White Court. Cowl was very close to Bianca and Vittorio, and maybe Madrigal, Madeline and Mavra, Bianca's teacher. Cowl needed extensive knowledge of the vampires courts, and many contacts/allies among them to accomplish his plots, so being Simon would definitely make his life easier.
Little WAG: We know Cowl has sustained serious injuries and survived deathcurses. I believe that several members of the Brute Squad understood he was a traitor, and used their deathcurses against him. He survived, but with heavy injuries.
The deathcurse WOJ problem
There is one major objection to this theory, caused by one WOJ:
See what happened to all the vampires around Simon when they assaulted his compound immediately prior to the onstage events in Summer Knight.
It
seems to imply that Simon throw his deathcurse.
However, three counter-arguments are possible:
- the WOJ does not explicitly says that Simon casted his deathcurse. Maybe the vampires were around Simon because he was the one leading them.
- maybe he did cast his deathcurse, but still managed to resurrect the CorpseTaker way. After all, non soulfire powered deathcurse should not use up the soul.
- maybe he faked his own deathcurse, which is not completely impossible per WOJ:
Definitely a qualitative difference. I mean, we rate nukes in terms of "how many thousand tons of TNT is this equal to?" but let me see you try to deploy 80,000 tons of TNT as a weapon. If you could, the destruction would be the same, in theory, but the nuke has a quality all its own that makes it stand out. A death curse is the same thing. A really powerful practitioner (any member of the Council) could probably simulate a death curse with enough time and forethought, but there would be traces that an investigator could find, afterward. "Hey, why are there tire tracks worn into this road? Because someone was using it to haul 80,000 tons of TNT to the site of the explosion, and you can't do that without a LOT of trucks."
Paranet Papers
In the new RPG, there will be a lot of info about Simon. Which may be imply that Simon is not that important after all.
[looks at notes]
Hmmm, it looks like that quote is not as clear cut as I remember it.
It's from a podcast from 2d6 feet in a random direction, #56 (from April 2010, I believe). I have a transcript for the relevant parts (5-7 minute mark), the rest of the hour is not really about the DF. Serack -- I don't know if you have this down already, so you may want to add it.
Regular font is Fred, bold face is the interviewers. Fred is talking about how much input Jim had for the new material.
So, we got a few tidbits from him, we will be getting to invent details; far more detail than we invented for the core books. Um in a number of cases, but we'll also be drawing from "Hey Jim give us a few bullet points about a particular location". You know, if we want the people to work for the, the player characters stand in the Nevernever chapter to work for the Gatekeeepr in some capacity, what do we need to know about that, and what came out of that was Jim telling me about where the Gatekeepers demesne is. Where his domain is, where his private citadel is ensconced somewhere in the Nevernever, and the route to it, and I will reveal that here involves walking across the surface of the moon.
Nice, I mean clearly some sort of magical protection...
So you've got that sort of thing in there, but we've also got things like where Simon Pietrovich, Justin Dumorne's mentor, and the Senior Council member that was a... um... removed from power, shall we say in book four, he clearly lived somewhere in Russia, likely during the Russian Revolution, so we, how much control do we have over him. {quoting Jim} "Fair amount, I don't really have a lot in mind for him, so obviously I'll want to look at it, what your ideas are, but you can do, you can mess around with that". So we're like "OK, we're going to make him a friend of the Czar, as the Russian revolution is breaking out and have that, you know, tie his hands a little bit and push some things into a direction the is going to be a problem".
That's pretty cool. What a terrible terrible set of constraints you have for a licensed product.
So on the on hand you've got Jim's "I don't really have a lot in mind", but on the other, you've got Fred seemingly avoiding declaring that Simon is dead.
Motivation
For a very long time, no obvious motivation was available to explain Simon's potential fall. After Cold Days, and taking in account that Cowl was the one supplying the infected athame, it seems probable that Cowl is infected. It's interesting to note that Aurora, who was infected, thought she was working for the greater good. The same may have happened to Simon, as Cowl seems genuinely concerned by the morality/sanity of his actions.
Sources Memories of old threads and:
- Serack's WOJ compilation
-
this long thread on the subject-
this even longer one
Poll