Justine DuMorne is Kemmler (Theory)

[Con]

Alright so this is my WAG.

I think Kemmler did a body switch into DuMorne at his final showdown.

It would explain how he knew where to pick up Bob from.

Also Kemmler is known to have loyal fanatical followers. Just like he tried to do with Elaine and Harry.

It also fits with Elaine being the leading contender for Kumori. Having been mind wammied enough to have a predilection towards Necromancy vs her good intensions.

It would fit with Jim's cryptic answers about Justine and Kemmler being equally dead:

WOJ: Okay, I just wanna say I finished reading Proven Guilty  just a while ago and I have a real quick question before the serious interview:  "Justin's behind everything, isn't he?"
Justin's dead...look, look...he's dead, he's dead.
Dead, dead?
Jim:  He's dead!
Very dead?
Jim:  D-E-D dead.
Are you ever gonna change your answer, dead?
Jim:  Dead.
2010 Bitten by Books Q&A:
#245 “How dead is Kemmler? About as dead as Justin, maybe?”
Oh, at least that dead.

[Mira]

 

On one hand, there is nothing cryptic about Jim's answer, both are dead.. But on the other hand, dead can have different meanings in the Dresdenverse..  It appeared that Harry was dead, but it turned out he was only mostly dead, but in fact was slightly alive.. Murphy is dead, but she went to Valhalla and you know what that means... I'd spell what she is now,but it is too early and I haven't had my coffee yet.. So there is merit in your theory. 

[Con]

On one hand, there is nothing cryptic about Jim's answer, both are dead.. But on the other hand, dead can have different meanings in the Dresdenverse..  It appeared that Harry was dead, but it turned out he was only mostly dead, but in fact was slightly alive.. Murphy is dead, but she went to Valhalla and you know what that means... I'd spell what she is now,but it is too early and I haven't had my coffee yet.. So there is merit in your theory. 

;p

[Regenbogen]

That's exactly my WAG, too. I'm with you.
Harry never knew the real Justin, because the real Justin was trapped in Kemmler's body, when the White Council defeated him. Kemmler in Justin's body had a little less use of his power, because as we saw with Luccio's new body, age and magical potential matter.

And this is also how "Justin" knew where to find Bob. Because Kemmler hid him somewhere he alone knew.

Kemmler/Justin didn't actually die when he was burned by Harry. I believe he survived terribly burned and soon recovered the use of his body just like Harry recovered the use of his hand. And I think he let himself be defeated by Harry on purpose, because he knew he could recover even in a slightly weaker body. Justin was older and more powerful than Harry when he burned his hand. The healing process might have been quicker. I suspect, he had Elaine extract his burned body and take it to safety so he had time to recover. Or he even let himself be found as a "burned corpse".

This explains, why he is wearing that cowl as Cowl. Not to not be recognised, but to hide his terrible burn scars.

In Dead Beat, Harry sees Cowl's burnt arms when his sleeves slip during the attempted Dark Hallow. And he attempted the Dark Hallow the make up for the power he lost because of the body switch.

[vincentric]

Why didn't he take back Demonreach?

[SerScot]

Alright so this is my WAG.

I think Kemmler did a body switch into DuMorne at his final showdown.

It would explain how he knew where to pick up Bob from.

Also Kemmler is known to have loyal fanatical followers. Just like he tried to do with Elaine and Harry.

It also fits with Elaine being the leading contender for Kumori. Having been mind wammied enough to have a predilection towards Necromancy vs her good intensions.

It would fit with Jim's cryptic answers about Justine and Kemmler being equally dead:

WOJ: Okay, I just wanna say I finished reading Proven Guilty  just a while ago and I have a real quick question before the serious interview:  "Justin's behind everything, isn't he?"
Justin's dead...look, look...he's dead, he's dead.
Dead, dead?
Jim:  He's dead!
Very dead?
Jim:  D-E-D dead.
Are you ever gonna change your answer, dead?
Jim:  Dead.
2010 Bitten by Books Q&A:
#245 “How dead is Kemmler? About as dead as Justin, maybe?”
Oh, at least that dead.

Wouldn’t Bob have told Harry that DuMourne was Kemmler?

[SerScot]

@Regenbogen:

The healing process might have been quicker.

Upon what do you base that?  Wizards still age… just more slowly.  It makes more sense for the “good copy” cell replacement to break down over time for wizards as they age… since they do age and will eventually die of old age… just a lot later than normals.  Consider River Shoulder’s worries about Listens to Wind because of LTW’s age…

[Con]

That's exactly my WAG, too. I'm with you.
Harry never knew the real Justin, because the real Justin was trapped in Kemmler's body, when the White Council defeated him. Kemmler in Justin's body had a little less use of his power, because as we saw with Luccio's new body, age and magical potential matter.

And this is also how "Justin" knew where to find Bob. Because Kemmler hid him somewhere he alone knew.

Kemmler/Justin didn't actually die when he was burned by Harry. I believe he survived terribly burned and soon recovered the use of his body just like Harry recovered the use of his hand. And I think he let himself be defeated by Harry on purpose, because he knew he could recover even in a slightly weaker body. Justin was older and more powerful than Harry when he burned his hand. The healing process might have been quicker. I suspect, he had Elaine extract his burned body and take it to safety so he had time to recover. Or he even let himself be found as a "burned corpse".

This explains, why he is wearing that cowl as Cowl. Not to not be recognised, but to hide his terrible burn scars.

In Dead Beat, Harry sees Cowl's burnt arms when his sleeves slip during the attempted Dark Hallow. And he attempted the Dark Hallow the make up for the power he lost because of the body switch.

I agree with everything except for Cowl. Cowper explicitly states Kemmler is a mad man and that he is not one of his followers.

I think cowl is Simon pietrovich.

Wouldn’t Bob have told Harry that DuMourne was Kemmler?

I think kemmlers new body meant he was still too weak to control Evil Bob. So he locked it away but didn't destroy it planing to bring it back later.

Why didn't he take back Demonreach?

Again visa v weak in new body. Was biding his time developing Star Born minions.

[Regenbogen]

@Regenbogen:

Upon what do you base that?  Wizards still age… just more slowly.  It makes more sense for the “good copy” cell replacement to break down over time for wizards as they age… since they do age and will eventually die of old age… just a lot later than normals.  Consider River Shoulder’s worries about Listens to Wind because of LTW’s age…

Yeah, probably with extremely old age the process of cell renewal would be slowed. But we are talking about a wizard in this prime.

My theory: wizards age more slowly than vanilla humans. According to Butters, Harry's cells renewed themselves to more exact copies than usual. This means that the healing process of severe injuries appears quicker compared to vanilla humans, because a vanilla human doesn't heal completely.

Take severe burn scars for example: they never go away completely and patients often loose at least part of the function in the burned areas, which never heals completely. So they are never again near as healthy as they were before. Harry by now has full functionality in his burned hand. So severely burned that a doctor tried to convince him to let it amputate. If he wasn't a wizard, his hand would still lack a lot of functionality.

Wizard in his prime:
According to the impression I have from the books, young wizards seem to age at the same speed as vanillas up to let's guess their fifties or sixties. When they reached that age, they seem to age more slowly than before and stay in this phase of appearing 50/60ish for centuries until they slowly reach the 80/90 years and show signs of old age. I guess this is as individual as with vanilla mortals. Some age faster and die sooner than others. Only with wizards, the difference is counted in centuries not decades.
So a wizard in his centuries lasting 50s or 60s (one of those, I guess, Kemmler was) who ages more slowly than at a younger age, will therefore heal faster than a younger wizard, because his cells regenerate faster. Once he has reached a wizards old age after maybe 5 to 7 centuries, the healing speed will decline.

[Con]

I think once they reach 50s/60s it's about a decade per century ratio. Ancient Mai's in the equivalent of her late 90s. Ebenezar and LtW are unusually fit mid to late 70s. Rashid 80s. etc

[Regenbogen]

I think once they reach 50s/60s it's about a decade per century ratio. Ancient Mai's in the equivalent of her late 90s. Ebenezar and LtW are unusually fit mid to late 70s. Rashid 80s. etc

And I also believe that there are ways to gather life-force via black magic rituals, which surely are used by wizards like Kemmler to extend their life span. So maybe a warlock using black magic can be 700-800 years old, but appear "only" 300 due to stolen life-force.

[Cthoniq]

If we're assuming Justin = Kemmler = Cowl, why would JKC need bob to pull off the Darkhallow? Why would he openly act at all until the last 10 minutes before the darkhallow goes off when he would be completely confident in his ability to defeat his own apprentices and steal the prize? Why would he fight his apprentices at all when he could just rock up and demand their cooperation?

If Kemmler = Justin =/= Cowl, why would Elaine = Kumori be working for some random guy?

To be honest the entirety of the book makes way less sense if K = J = C. Cowl being justin works, but kemmler? Nah. Dude would have no need to do 80% of the things Cowl did, even if you assume he was weakened by several deaths, burnings, etc.

[g33k]

If we're assuming Justin = Kemmler = Cowl, why would JKC need bob to pull off the Darkhallow? Why would he openly act at all until the last 10 minutes before the darkhallow goes off when he would be completely confident in his ability to defeat his own apprentices and steal the prize? Why would he fight his apprentices at all when he could just rock up and demand their cooperation?

If Kemmler = Justin =/= Cowl, why would Elaine = Kumori be working for some random guy?

To be honest the entirety of the book makes way less sense if K = J = C. Cowl being justin works, but kemmler? Nah. Dude would have no need to do 80% of the things Cowl did, even if you assume he was weakened by several deaths, burnings, etc.

Maybe the Justin-Body had some magical deficiency, and he couldn't be sure of defeating ALL his apprentices at once, since they all had an extra half-century of plotting & maneuvering for more power (while he was stuck Justin'ing his Starborn pets).

Personally, I'm still very fond of (though not at all convinced by) the WAG that Cowl = Future!Harry.   
 

[Con]

If we're assuming Justin = Kemmler = Cowl, why would JKC need bob to pull off the Darkhallow? Why would he openly act at all until the last 10 minutes before the darkhallow goes off when he would be completely confident in his ability to defeat his own apprentices and steal the prize? Why would he fight his apprentices at all when he could just rock up and demand their cooperation?

If Kemmler = Justin =/= Cowl, why would Elaine = Kumori be working for some random guy?

To be honest the entirety of the book makes way less sense if K = J = C. Cowl being justin works, but kemmler? Nah. Dude would have no need to do 80% of the things Cowl did, even if you assume he was weakened by several deaths, burnings, etc.

I think Kemmler=Justin.

I just think Cowl=Simon Pietrovich.

Cowl expressed disdain at Kemmler called him a Mad Man. Cowl also wanted to test himself against Harry because the Wardens had been afraid of Harry. That suggests he has no personal experience with Harry himself only rumours from the Whie Council specifically the Wardens.

[vincentric]

Maybe the Justin-Body had some magical deficiency, and he couldn't be sure of defeating ALL his apprentices at once, since they all had an extra half-century of plotting & maneuvering for more power (while he was stuck Justin'ing his Starborn pets).

Personally, I'm still very fond of (though not at all convinced by) the WAG that Cowl = Future!Harry.   
 

If Justin was Kemmler and was worried about having a body with enough talent, why didn't he just take Harry's?

If that was a problem, he shouldn't have trained Harry at all beyond his first use of magic. A completely untrained Harry wouldn't have been able to fight him off and once he had Harry's body, he could have kept Elaine in thrall and trained her with Bob as his backup.

The only thing I could see stopping this would be a direct intervention from the Leandsidhe and several wardens before he takes Harry over.