[PT Spoilers] Why Wait?

[vultur]

I'm really surprised by how powerful Ethniu is.

If she was there all along, why did the Fomor have to wait for the power vacuum after the fall of the Red Court? I had kind of figured that meant they were weaker than the Red Court, White Council, etc.

But if Ethniu is significantly stronger than Mab, she could have just killed off the Red Court personally anytime she felt like it, if she wanted the Fomor to have more territory/power.

It also seems odd that the rest of the major god-like beings are 'retired' in some way or constrained from acting in the mortal world (by their natures?), but Ethniu can just come in and declare war on Chicago.

[TheCuriousFan]

We still don't know what she wanted all those minor talents for. She could have had herself a great big meal before showing off in Chicago for all we know.

[Arjan]

It might not have been her decision if she is infected.

The stars are getting close but the time is not completely there for the outsiders. They are still softening things up.

They are not at their strongest yet and Ethniu might be weaker than she looks as Marcone suggested.

[The_Sibelis]

🤔 she might be infected yes... I realize her attitude matches an old theory I had on Nemesis despising Humanity for taking over the balance.. and now Ethniu is behaving very similar.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

To create splits in the Accord nations and create defections. They might have been expecting the White Court to join them, or Marcone to withdraw, or Ferro.

All they got was the Ghouls, nobody likes the Ghouls. “Bah”, said Corb, “all we got was the Ghouls, do you know how much they need to eat? And the smell!” He said raising a perfumed handkerchief to his toadlike face. “Pure muscle, and no magic”

Marcone was probably a miscalculation, they assumed a mere mortal would fold. The White Court, maybe under Papa Raith, but less likely so under a distracted Lara, unless there is a coup going on in the background at the White Court. The former makes it more likely Thomas is not being used by the Black Council, the latter does.

If as posited they had already split off Drakul this makes sense, building an alliance to take on the mortals. The White Court would be singularly used in undermining mortal leadership with their sexual favours, although to be fair they seem to slip up sexually enough on their own.

[morriswalters]

She may have been eating low lever practitioners and taking their magic to bolster her power and doesn't have deep reserves. And she's running a game and trying to pull off some kind of ascension ritual. Everybody is acting weird and it's either poor writing or something not yet revealed.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

She has to power Balor’s eye, she might only have a limited number of shots before it has to be recharged, if she had infinite shots she could level Chicago on her own.

Please have Harry distract her by blowing up a bottle of hot sauce right next to her eye.

[Mira]

   They waited because they wanted their job to be as easy as possible.  Why invade when the Red Court is capable of taking out a lot of their enemy?  Remember, I believe it was at the end of Dead Beat when Harry told Morgan that he believed that the Red Court among others were mere cat's paws for a bigger power?  When Harry took out the Red Court, it did nothing to weaken the Fomor, however the White Council was weakened in their war with the Reds.

[The_Sibelis]

She may have been eating low lever practitioners and taking their magic to bolster her power and doesn't have deep reserves. And she's running a game and trying to pull off some kind of ascension ritual. Everybody is acting weird and it's either poor writing or something not yet revealed.

human magic has a little slice of thing we call free will to it... If they eat practitioners for it... Why, it'd give them the ability to hex things like mortal wizards with particular effectiveness

[ClintACK]

Flip the question around.

She's a multi-thousand-year-old immortal -- what's the rush?

[Mira]

Flip the question around.

She's a multi-thousand-year-old immortal -- what's the rush?

Indeed, plus getting other groups to soften things up just made her job easier..  One gets smart after a couple of thousand years..

[Grifter]

She thinks she waited for everyone to be weakened and softened up for her attack.  Meanwhile, the Outsiders are using her to weaken and soften up everyone for their attack.

It's a vicious cycle.

[ClintACK]

And in Battle Ground, Ethniu will learn that she's been handily outmaneuvered.

Lots of wild speculation:

• Mab is at the Outer Gates. Lea is "standing in" for Mab at the Peace Talks, in disguise. (I didn't notice a single mention of Chicago having unseasonably cold weather -- which we've always gotten before, when Mab's in town.)
• Similarly, the Gatekeeper is at the Outer Gates, while someone pretends to be him at the White Council meeting that Harry is missing.
• Molly's brought a small army of Leshiye (shapeshifting wood fae) into Chicago disguised as mortals and using mortal transport, so as not to alert the fomor.
• Vadderung has a much larger force in reserve than he's letting on.
• The Svartalves brought in a bunch of reinforcement from other enclaves, in reaction to the assassination attempt.
• Lara's new magical security is hiding a much larger force than she's letting on -- both vampires and mercenaries (Monoc or mortal or both).
• The Archive is ready to give Harry Ethniu's true name, as a part of her Oblivion War Purpose.
• Harry's got access to Weapons that the fomor have no way of realizing he has, thanks to Mab's last big scheme.

Unfortunately, a bunch of heavyweights are going to come in on the other side, too -- Drakul, Mavra, Cowl, Evil Bob, the Genoskwa, Shagnasty...

And I've got no idea which side Titania and the Erlking will be on. If Titania is compromised or just still angry at Harry and Mab, who knows what she might do.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

You missed Harry is going to sneeze out a T-Rex (that will be a nice surprise for the Genowskwa). “The best defence is a T-Rex” Harry Dresden, Peace Talks. This version of Sue will be able to do the Dino Serenade though.

The Erlking is Wild Faye immensely dangerous and not an Accords Member, it would require a real idiot to summon the Erlk..... oh never mind. Harry is an accredited leader of the Wild Hunt since Cold Days, he could summon them and lead them into battle, especially riding Sue.

A goblin army would be nice, it would be good PR after the Lord of the Rings etc and Chicago FBI is a Never Never portal to Erl’s Hall, it one of the places Odin wouldn’t need to guard, indeed I would leave that as a breach in the defences for the Fomor to try to get through, the goblins would enjoy it, the Fomor, not so much.

The archive will only know Ethnui’s true name if it was written down with all the correct pronunciation points. It will be interesting to see how she interacts with the Placard though.

The Swartalves are providing weapons, not manpower, so I wouldn’t rely on them unless they give Hendricks Mjolnir and it turns out he is Thor, amnesiac from playing far too much college football (he has the Beard now). He will never finish his thesis now if that is the case.

Harry will create a rapprochement between Titania and Mab, by making them so angry at him they agree for the first time since 1066

Titania is not at the Peace Talks which also bodes that it is Lea posing as Mab

[ClintACK]

I definitely expect to see Sue, but I doubt even Mab will have planned for that.

I'd love to see what happens if Harry uses soulfire to stabilize Sue -- I'm thinking he might get a permanent T-rex mount. I'm suddenly wondering how deep Lake Michigan gets between Chicago and Demonreach...