Team UMO: a theory, for reference purposes

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Quantus noted the other day that I hadn't actually put this all in one readily findable place, so I thought it might be worth doing so.

CORE HYPOTHESIS

Premises:

There's a storm coming. Odin mentions this to Harry at the end of CD. At least some Great Powers have access to foresight and/or intellectus.  They can plausibly have known this for some time.

The Great Powers work together.  Sources; WoJ on Uriel and Odin being in very different divisions pointed at the same general end, Bob in GS telling Harry Mab is working with Uriel. At least those three, and possibly others we've not met yet or not seen enough to know about, are in a loose alliance

The Great Powers have to act indirectly. Sources; WoJ and text on it being minimally possible for Great Powers to act directly on Earth without endangering reality, iirc Mother Winter in CD is an example and Ferro in GP makes sense retrospectively as another.  (This appears to have held up for approximately 2000 years and may have something to do with the WG - cf. the bassanid in "Last Call", Harry in PG talking about old gods existing out in the NN.)

Human free will is Significant: According to WoJ and to Uriel.  Also, it is correlated with ability to summon Outsiders.

Given these premises, the central notion is:

Starborn are a Manhattan Project carried out by the alliance of Uriel, Mab and Odin (and possibly others), hence referred to as Team UMO.  The object of the exercise is to concentrate in a free-willed human, preferably one of good moral character, as much as possible of the different kinds of power available in the DV, to have a champion/weapon/Swiss Army chainsaw/supernatural equivalent of Programming in Perl available come the BAT.

Harry is one of several potential candidates (WoJ confirms this) of whom Elaine may be another.

Elements of the plan in more detail:

The original idea comes from Mab via Lea:
- Motive: Winter is, in this age of the Earth at least, the guardian of reality against the Outsiders (CD)
- Means: The folkloric Leanansidhe's thing was providing inspiration to mortals, and we have a WoJ saying this innovation was how DV Lea got to be so high up in the Winter hierarchy.
- Opportunity: Maggie leFay, powerful wizard, on the outs with the Council over what appear according to Luccio in SmF to be serious political differences, willing, according to Eb in BR to break the Laws; a strong female wizard is a good candidate for parent to a strong wizard given that magic is mostly inherited in the female line (Harry in PG) and Maggie's demonstrably an easier sell than many on her own judgement of the right thing to do being something she will put ahead of Council policy (just like Harry).
- Complementary argument; We know the Council go all Fahrenheit 451 on information about how to break the laws (cf, Kemmler's writings, Bob, chapter 3 of DB).  Therefore, information about Outsider-related magic is difficult and dangerous to find.  Yet Maggie (starborn child) and both her known associates, Justin (summoning HWWBh) and Lord Raith (summoning HWWBh, protection against magic which Harry identifies as feeling Outsidery) all visibly have it to some degree.  It seems most Occamian that it came to them from the same source and was shared among them, which would be a necessary element of them managing the breeding of starborn.

Mab always intended to get her hooks into Harry
- Lea was often hanging around when Harry was a child. (WoJ)
- Lea's deal with Maggie requires her to protect Harry (siren noise and grumpy neighbour in SK, primrose garden and alliance at the end of Changes) but not to inform Harry that she is required to protect him. (It's news to him in SK that she's even trying.)
- Logical deduction from these two facts: Lea expects Harry to get into some form of trouble and turn to her for help, and intends to make a bargain that will give Faerie a hold on him. (Why was it Lea that Harry turned to for assistance against Justin, out of all the possible supernatural entities to deal with ?  We don't know, but her having in some way planted the relevant  information where he could get it is what makes sense to me; I'm not seeing Justin as very likely to teach his apprentices "Twenty Entities You Could Call On To Defeat Me In Battle")
- The way we have seen for a Faerie Court to most invest their power in a human is through Knighthood.
- Therefore, the plausible long-term goal of all Winter manipulation of Harry is to put him in a situation where he will take up the offer of Knighthood.  (cf. offers in SK and DB; Winter keeping their Knight on ice despite major handicap of so doing in PG;  actual knighthood in Changes)
- Odin's direct role in this, in Changes; giving Harry the information he needs to make it absolutely clear he needs to look to a major power source beyond what he has available in order to have a chance against the gathered Red Court.
- Uriel's direct role in this, in Changes; showing Harry Maggie, giving his motivation the final push to call on Mab and accept the Knighthood.
- Odin's indirect role, in Changes; as a member of the Grey Council, capable of influencing them by what information he provided with them (or presumably just making suggestions; I doubt any of them fail to take the All-father seriously).
- Uriel's indirect role in Changes; powering up the Swords is a Heaven thing.

POTENTIAL ADDITiONAL ELEMENTS

(Note: I think any of these might be the case.  I'm not proposing all of them as a unified theory, so if some of them are contradictory to others, that's utterly beside the point.)

Evil
- We see several attempts by villains (Nicodemus in DM, Kumori in DB) to subvert Harry to their particular dark side
- Therefore whatever Harry is being built towards, the character he is along the way has potential utility to evil as well as good.

Heaven
- If the "Swiss army chainsaw" theory is true, Uriel always intended for Harry to have soulfire.
- Therefore (speculative) it may be the case that Nicodemus was in some way serving Heaven's ends by exposing Harry to a coin, thus enabling Harry to fight off (?) Lash and thereby enabling Uriel to give Harry soulfire.  Either unwittingly, or having deniably figured out a way to help Uriel that Uriel does not have to take responsibility for.  (Like Captain Jack in GS; and that might be an explanation for why Nicodemus thinks he could come out of all this a saint.)
- Michael regularly gets missions from On High (we see this on stage in PG)
- Michael met Harry and insisted on a soulgaze when they were both investigating the same missing child (WoJ)
- Therefore it is possible that Michael meeting Harry, and exposing Harry to both his moral influence as a good person and awareness of the Swords, is on Heaven's orders.

The All-Father
- It seems tolerably obvious that anyone in Harry's line of work in DV Chicago will have to be aware of Marcone and will likely cross paths with Marcone sooner or later.
- We don't, IIRC, know when Marcone first became aware of the supernatural world. It is possible (and appealing to me on plot-aesthetic grounds) that his soulgaze with Harry was it.
- Of all the jobbing sorcerers Marcone could have hired, Gard being the one he ends up with suggests the All-Father had an eye on what was going on there.
- Likewise the All-Father being willing to sponsor Marcone as a freeholding lord (WN).
- Gard acquires Harry's professional respect as a sorcerer (the wards of hers that he has to overcome in DM) his personal respect as a warrior and sometime ally (DB, "Heorot") and ultimately serves as the conduit for him to turn to when he contemplates the necessity of looking to the All-Father for help (Changes)
- Given the All-Father's foresight, some or all of this was planned in advance.
- Harry eating in Odin's halls gives, in the original Norse mythos, Odin a claim on him.  Whenever Harry does eventually end up dying for good and facing judgement, whatever he expects, he'll end up in Valhalla being kept handy until Ragnarok.
- Speculative notion; whatever it was that happened about a thousand years ago when Mab last saw Titania is tied into events surrounding the battle of Hastings.  That happened just after the Saxon King Harold had defeated the last great Viking invasion of England at Stamford Bridge, and then marched south to be defeated by the Normans under William the Conqueror.  The Normans (Latin Nortmannii, same root as Northmen/Norsemen) were just Vikings who happened to have lived in northern France for the past century and a half.  Chances of the All-Father not having a hand in there seem low to me.
- Speculative notion 2: Merlin's apprenticeship to the All-Father (cf. Eb in TC) has some connection with the building of Demonreach (CD), likely in acquiring the knowledge of how to do it.
- Speculative notion 3; given Odin's level of foresight, both those prior sets of events are plausibly prep for the coming storm.

Dead Beat
- Incidental observation that feels like it fits in with this model somehow; one thing DB accomplished was to show Harry that necromancy is not inherently evil (Kumori saving the life of random gangster dude) and then give him experience of using it himself in a not inherently evil manner (Sue). One more blade to the Swiss Army chainsaw as needed.

I have a feeling there's one more related point I am forgetting, but I will come back and add it if it comes back to mind.

[Quantus]

Excellent, thanks.

(comments to follow after proper digestion)

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Ah. here's the other potential additional element I was forgetting:

The Grand Alliance
- The original plan for birthing a starborn was presented by Maggie and Lord Raith to Eb, Arianna, and, it is postulated, representatives of other major supernatural powers.  (The meeting Eb alludes to at the end of Changes where Arianna recognised Maggie was his daughter)
- This fell apart partly because of Eb butting heads with Maggie at that meeting (same ref in Changes) and partly, either as a result of that or because one or other of them had always planned it, by Justin and Lord R attempting to subvert the project for their own ends (either separately or together)
- The continued divide-and-conquer approaches of the villains of the piece, most notably the Red Court/White Council war, are because a grand alliance is the thing they fear most, and forming one will be a key element of the BAT.

[peregrine]

Doesn't the last Starborn predate Mab being in her position though?  When was the Last Starborn active, about a thousand years ago?  And Mab has been WQ since Hastings, was it?  Which is maybe a thousand years ago, but it's also off by 5%.  And that assumes that she jumps right into it immediately.

[Tami Seven]

Doesn't the last Starborn predate Mab being in her position though?  When was the Last Starborn active, about a thousand years ago?  And Mab has been WQ since Hastings, was it?  Which is maybe a thousand years ago, but it's also off by 5%.  And that assumes that she jumps right into it immediately.

it is possible that the last Starborn was a fluke,  unplanned,  unexpected.  By the time the Great Powers realized what they had,  it was too late to use it/him. 

[Tami Seven]

Ah. here's the other potential additional element I was forgetting:

The Grand Alliance
- The original plan for birthing a starborn was presented by Maggie and Lord Raith to Eb, Arianna, and, it is postulated, representatives of other major supernatural powers.  (The meeting Eb alludes to at the end of Changes where Arianna recognised Maggie was his daughter)
- This fell apart partly because of Eb butting heads with Maggie at that meeting (same ref in Changes) and partly, either as a result of that or because one or other of them had always planned it, by Justin and Lord R attempting to subvert the project for their own ends (either separately or together)
- The continued divide-and-conquer approaches of the villains of the piece, most notably the Red Court/White Council war, are because a grand alliance is the thing they fear most, and forming one will be a key element of the BAT.

I like this idea,  in general.  Not sure why Lord Raith was given more of a role than anyone else. I do understand why he would get greedy,  power hungry,  and turn against the others. Not sure if he was trying to keep Maggie from having a Starborn child, or if he wanted to be the father of her Starborn child.

[Mercutio]

Doesn't the last Starborn predate Mab being in her position though?  When was the Last Starborn active, about a thousand years ago?  And Mab has been WQ since Hastings, was it?  Which is maybe a thousand years ago, but it's also off by 5%.  And that assumes that she jumps right into it immediately.

Two points:

1.  Where is this knowledge of previous Starborns coming from?  The only references that come to mind are Lash's comments in the Deeps and Erlking's acknowledgement of Harry's repulsion of Sharkface's mental whammy, there is one more from Maeve IIRC when she has Harry pretty much beat.  Since there is a name for it that at least 2 people know we can assume that they have occurred over the years but I have no other context to place them in the timeline.

If this is WOJ then if someone can include it that would be great.

2.  Why do we think Mab has only been Queen since the Battle of Hastings, that was the last time she saw her sister true but how does that fit with her Mantle.

Again if the is WOJ then could someone find it or at least state it as such?

Many Thanks

[Datakim]

it is possible that the last Starborn was a fluke,  unplanned,  unexpected.  By the time the Great Powers realized what they had,  it was too late to use it/him.

Presumably the knowledge on how to create Starborn had to come from somewhere. I cannot recall the WoJ exactly, but was it not said that the previous Starborn was running around when one of the Ladies died? Maybe that Starborn was an unplanned accident, but proved powerfull and usefull, and now people are trying to actively create more based on the knowledge gained from the previous one?

[Snark Knight]

Doesn't the last Starborn predate Mab being in her position though?  When was the Last Starborn active, about a thousand years ago?  And Mab has been WQ since Hastings, was it?  Which is maybe a thousand years ago, but it's also off by 5%.  And that assumes that she jumps right into it immediately.

We don't actually know that Mab started the gig exactly in 1066.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Doesn't the last Starborn predate Mab being in her position though?  When was the Last Starborn active, about a thousand years ago?  And Mab has been WQ since Hastings, was it?  Which is maybe a thousand years ago, but it's also off by 5%.  And that assumes that she jumps right into it immediately.

If the previous starborn was mortal, fifty years off is doable; if a wizard, even more so.  And that's assuming that thousand years is exactly accurate rather than plus or minus a few years.

I would also note that my hypothesis here does not make any reference to the last starborn; I don't think we know enough there to say more than "probably was involved somehow".

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

I like this idea,  in general.  Not sure why Lord Raith was given more of a role than anyone else.

I'd say that she had to go to someone who was not part of the White Council, and guess that he was the most plausible alternative compared to, say, the Red Court.

I do understand why he would get greedy,  power hungry,  and turn against the others.

I have no strong position on that; my own feeling is that he more likely changed plan when the meeting we heard about in Changes failed, but I do not have anything to argue that from.

Not sure if he was trying to keep Maggie from having a Starborn child, or if he wanted to be the father of her Starborn child.

Oh, neither; I am positing that he wanted her to have the Starborn child according to the recipe, but to bring it up as a weapon for himself rather than to protect all of reality.

[Tami Seven]

I'd say that she had to go to someone who was not part of the White Council, and guess that he was the most plausible alternative compared to, say, the Red Court.

I have no strong position on that; my own feeling is that he more likely changed plan when the meeting we heard about in Changes failed, but I do not have anything to argue that from.

Oh, neither; I am positing that he wanted her to have the Starborn child according to the recipe, but to bring it up as a weapon for himself rather than to protect all of reality.

That last part doesn't make sense,  only in that apparently the recipe for a Starborn involved a man more like Malcolm.  So...when Maggie ran away to find him, LR killed her. Admittedly just as she was giving birth to her Starborn child. Why did LR keep her for 6 years? Why didn't he work with her to make sure she had her Starborn child as per the recipe?  Whatever that recipe is. And why did he put her life at risk by having a child with her (someone Maggie's age, there is always a risk that a pregnancy could have complications.  Unlikely,  but not impossible. )

[Tami Seven]

I've had some theories of my own in the past, but in light of this one, which I find very interesting,  I see a conflict. If LR wanted Maggie to have a Starborn,  then Thomas should never have been born. Unless LR was convinced that he would be a suitable father for this child. But considering that Thomas wasn't born anywhere near the auspicious date to make a Starborn,  I question LR's intentions.

[knnn]

Hey Neuro great job in putting all these ideas into a very clear and organized format.

My thoughts:

1) Even if UMO aren't actually working hand in hand in the traditional sense, the fact that each of them has omniscient-level omniscience, and that they are all presumably working against Outsiders means that they must be "sharing future threads".

2) WoJ:

Q:  How/when did Harry find out Lea is his godmother?  Is Lea Thomas’s godmother, too?
A:  Lea was around when Harry was in middle school, although he didn’t know who she was.  She was just a lady who sometimes did nice things for him.  He found out who she is after he became Justin’s apprentice.  Lea is not Thomas’s godmother

Not sure how what this brings to bear on the theory, but worth mentioning.

3) We are told (end of SmF) that the only way Uriel could give Harry Soulfire is if Hell broke the rules first.  It is not impossible that UMO manipulated the Denarians into making a play for Ivy just so Harry could get Soulfire (and possibly have a first meeting with Demonreach).

4) I think we have evidence that a Starborn is a double-edged (or possibly multi-edged) sword from the memory of the HHWB encounter in GS.   Consider that HHWB seems to be toying with Harry.  I submit that if a Starborn had no  use for Outsiders, HHWB would have simply killed him and called it a day.

5) Re: Thousand years and previous starborns, there's the following WoJ:

You said the Winter, rather, Knights’ mantles change fairly often? How often do the Ladies’, Queens’ and Mothers’ mantles change?

Uh, the Ladies, Queens and Mothers, their mantles change very, very, very rarely in general. I mean, Mab’s been there for better than 1,000 years. And Maeve’s been there….there was a Winter Lady before Maeve, uh, in Mab’s time. And she didn’t fare so well the last time a Starborn was running around. And so….Mab and Maeve, um, **unintelligible**, I leave things here, don’t miss ‘em. I love to drop teases and hints and walk away smiling, but anyway. They don’t change very often at all. The Knights’ mantles change, like, constantly. Most Knights are Knights who pick up a sword for a night. And then they’re done. It’s just some random Joe, who happens to be a decent guy, and it’s like, “Look, magical sword, horrible danger! Do something!”. **unintelligible** Just because you’re a great guy doesn’t mean you’re smart enough to survive an encounter with demons, for example. And we’ll see a bit more of that in the next book, too.

So apparently, there *was* a previous Starborn during Mab's tenure.

[knnn]

That last part doesn't make sense,  only in that apparently the recipe for a Starborn involved a man more like Malcolm.  So...when Maggie ran away to find him, LR killed her. Admittedly just as she was giving birth to her Starborn child. Why did LR keep her for 6 years? Why didn't he work with her to make sure she had her Starborn child as per the recipe?  Whatever that recipe is. And why did he put her life at risk by having a child with her (someone Maggie's age, there is always a risk that a pregnancy could have complications.  Unlikely,  but not impossible. )

Personally, I am not 100% convinced that it was really Lord Raith who killed Maggie Sr.  Sure, Ebenezer believes it, but then he may well be blinded by his prejudices -- automatically blaming the "drug dealing scum of a boyfriend" for her death.  We don't really know recipe is required for birthing a Starborn, but the fact that Elaine (known potential per WoJ) is also an orphan suggests to me that we can't rule out death during childbirth as being one of the ingredients. 

1) IMHO it is not impossible that Maggie killed herself deliberately to create a Starborn.

2) It is even possible that the mother needs to die with an entropy curse in order to create a Starborn (HHWB-Entropy curse connection in Blood Rites).  Maggie could well have done this to herself.

3) Note also that technically it was Maggie's Death Curse that killed her.