Who was the real target of the bloodline curse at CI?

[ebliss1]

I was talking with a friend about this and we got to thinking about the power that was wrapped up in the CI bloodline curse. There was a LOT of power in it.

Consider that we first saw this spell in Storm Front where a 2-bit hack like Victor Sells could use a regular thunderstorm to power a spell capable of ripping the hearts out of two people - 1 the target, one just in proximity. Now, the CI bloodline curse was magnitudes more powerful. If Sells' spell was a match, the CI spell was a whole compliment of a Triden Missile Submarine ICBMs. WAY more than would be necessary to fry Harry. Way more than would be necessary to fry Eb (even with the Blackstaff - which doesn;t seem to make him immune to magic - it just shields him from negative influences). So who up the line from Eb (or Maggie Sr.) was the real target? And how come that person needed so many human sacrifices to power the spell, plus days of rituals, plus the collected power of the Lords of Outer Night, plus the Red King, plus the inherant power of CI itself, etc. The end result was the instant genocide of the Red Court - a large collection of powerful, near immortals. Something was in the Red Court's crosshairs that needed that much power.

OR

Could the RC have been duped into overpowering the spell to such a ridiculous degree as a way of ensuring it was powerful enough to wipe out the Red Court itself, and Harry was maneuvered into making the decision to make Susan turn and then murder her to eliminate the Red Court using their own spell? We have seen a few beings who could engineer something like this. Mab and Uriel spring to mind immediately. We have also heard Nic say that the Red Court was a problem that would be disastrous to his long term plans.

So - who was the target? Or who loaded the gun for the Red Court and got Harry to pull the trigger on their own assisted suicide?

[jonas]

Consider who Harry Might be a decendant of, Merlinus himself. The path backwards up the family tree would have went directly to Merlin. The origin of Wizardry. Practitioners were the true target.

[raidem]

I'd agree that Merlin could be a possibility, but so to could be vadderung.  He was there after all.  There could be quite a few sidhe involved too.

There may be further targets if there are already any future=>past TT bloodlines in existence.  I had wondered about the status of Bonnie and the effect the curse would have on her line.

[Romulan Cmdr]

Part of what also unknown is how far distant the branchings?
Hypothetically it could be just about all of the White Court at of the Raith's side.
Another factor with the ritual and place of power is that it needs to find people ANYWHERE on Earth so thats a factor.

One thing I am wondering is how does a bloodline curse find the people? Is it based on blood itself or DNA?
Hear me out, lets say a bloodline curse was done on me. I gave blood at DragonCon and I give plasma periodically as well, would that person die due to having some of my blood in their system?

[peregrine]

From what are you getting that the curse was overkill for Eb?  One of the oldest, most powerful wizards on the planet?  Yeah, the CI curse was a salvo of nukes compared to Sells' curse, but Eb is Cheyenne Mountain compared to some random mobster's metaphorical toolshed.

[groinkick]

I think this topic goes in line with the one I started about things going on behind the scenes, and different factions showing up to help Harry.  I think the White Council as a whole would have taken massive casualties because I believe Harry has a more direct bloodline to Merlin, and as a result most of the White Council would have been hit.  Also as I suspect that Odin is actually the Mantle of Merlin, he was also a target.  The curse itself I think would have been a massive blow to those best suited to defending Earth.

[wardenferry419]

The bloodline curse seems like a long-range sniper shot that takes out several players in a row. Eb would be a tough kill. Harry would be a tough kill. Others, like maybe Thomas, would have been icing.

[Ananda]

I think the targets were Eb, Dreden, et al and the curse was that powerful because the story required it to be. I don’t think there is more to it.

[forumghost]

IMHO Eb was the target.

The Curse seems like overkill because they needed to breach the wards at Edinburgh to get to him- and remember DB? The last time someone tried to punch through those they needed Mab-level entity for the job.

To paraphrase Harry "It would take a God to break through and kill them"

[ebliss1]

Breaching the Edinburgh wards would be an explanation for the power level.

BUt even that doesn't completely track for me. We've seen Eb many times leave the protection of those wards. He's not some sort of super-hermit who never comes out to the point where the "best" option for getting him is something as complex and powerful as CI. As for Eb's personal power level, I completely agree that he's a magnitude beyond Harry. But, he's still mortal. Presumably he's as vulnerable to a sniper round as Harry is. Kinkaide wasn't afraid to throw down with him, and he's a very risk-averse guy. Also, in the war with the RC, Eb wasn't the main problem for the vamps. Morgan was the one who seemed to be doing the damage. He was the one recognized by Summer for his valor on the field and he was the one who almost took down the Red King. They didn't seem to be having any Eb-centric issues other than Ortega's satellite incident that would indicate that the Red King decided that the entire focus of the Red Court should be directed at removing Eb from the field.

For me, if Eb were the target, there's better and easier ways to accomplish it. Easiest I can think of would be for an up-and-coming RC vamp (similar to what Bianaca was) who wants to make a big splash to go out and get herself a Seal Team. It would be child's play for a gorgeous RC vamp to find on off duty, and turn him. Next up is the rest of his buddies, and bang, she has her own uber-lethal hit squad. Then draw Eb into the field, probably by threatening Harry, and then let the long-range bullets do their work. Afterward, Bianca 2.0 presents Eb's bullet-ventilated head to the Red King and she's on the fast track.

Point being, in my opinion, CI was way overpowered for taking Eb off the board.

If it turns out that the reason for the overkill was to breach Edinburgh, then I'll accept that from Jim since he's at least hinted at that sort of power level being necessary to accomplish the task. I just don't think the narrative of the story has done enough at this point to show that the Red Court was that invested in Eb specifically. To me, the question remains, who were they that invested in destroying, or who wanted the RC out of the picture badly enough and who could have manipulated events sufficiently to bring about the outcome we saw?

[forumghost]

I mean seeing as they hit the Council with a Biological Attack under guise of peace-talks at the same time, I think The White Council was probably intended to be destroyed more-or-less in it's entirety.

Something like:

>Fake Peace Talks to get into the Stronghold at Edinburgh
>Use that twit Cristos to lock up the Non-Idiots 'Dissenters'
>Hit them with a pestilence to cripple them
>Heartblast the Blackstaff to remove that threat
>Clean-Up whoever's left

Sadly for the Reds things kinda broke down before those last two steps. If it had worked, the White Council would have been gone, or at least effectively so:

"My lord is too kind," Martin said. "Please accept my condolences on the loss of Arianna, my lord. She was a remarkable woman."

"Remarkably ambitious," the Red King said. "Determined to cling to the past, rather than exploring new opportunities. She and her entire coterie, determined to undermine me. Had she destroyed this animal and then made good upon her promise to break the back of the accursed White Council, she would have been a real threat to my power. I take no pleasure in thinking on it, but her death was meant to be."

[Lennoxx486]

They wanted to get McCoy and Dresden. They were both thorns in the side of the Red Court and black council.
They needed all that power to make it go through the generations. Victor Sells was only able to kill one person with the help of a freaking thunderstorm.
They needed all the built up energy to follow the bloodline beyond the first generation.

[Cozarkian]

The target was Eb, he's a very important cog in the White Council's ability to wage war. They might even have had a plan to steal or inherit the black staff after.

[Froklsnt]

If we're getting conspiratorial about CI, then the question isn't "Who were the Reds aiming it at?"  The question is "Who were the Black Council aiming it at?"   The reds, with their ties to so many likely N-fected individuals and the Outsiders, were in deep with whatever the overarching conspiracy involving the Outsiders is. We do ourselves a severe disservice if we think about this only in terms of the Red's enemies.

[Avernite]

It is also possible that it was a gamble.

As in, they didn't need it so strong - but Arianna had arranged things so there was a good chance Eb would be ill in Edinburgh. Use the curse, and Edinburgh's wards are torn to shreds - so a RC strike team can hit the council while half of it is ill and the other half surprised by the violent destruction of their pretty, pretty wards.

If she misses? Eb is still off the table, as is pesky Harry Dresden, and half the Council is both ill and cowering after seeing even the Senior Council is not safe from the Reds, even when prepared for war.