Cowl worked with the Red Court to wipe out 3/4 of the active Wardens before even attempting to start the Darkhallow. He picked Chicago because it had been the site of numerous significant supernatural events that had weakened the barrier between Earth and the Nevernever and because Halloween is the only day of the year such a spell could succeed, on top of being the year the Wild Hunt was due to ride.

A lot of factors had to come together for the Darkhallow to be possible, at least on the scale Cowl was hoping for, and even then it required a lot of prep work to get it going. The city-wide hex, the Cahokian artefacts Corpsetaker brought in, getting the Word of Kemmler from Marcone's smuggler. It doesn't seem like much when you're reading the book, but when you look back at it you realise that there was a huge amount of effort going into getting this spell right.

And Harry ended it with a glorified club to the head.

 

Yeah there were tons of things that went into making it possible and powerful.

The point of is something like: become powerful enough quickly enough that by the time people as powerful as you look up and realize what have happened, you're at their level and have enough allies and power that you've permanently upset the status quo.

If someone had done a similar ritual but on a much smaller scale, let's say in a smaller city with only a couple dozen thousand people, less auspicious circumstances, they might end up peers to someone like Lea or stronger, but someone like Mab would still stomp them flat.

So Cowl's ritual would have immediately taken him from Senior Council level -->Mab-level, at which point none of the usual forces that act to take down upstarts trying to seize a ton of power like Mab or White Council or the various courts would have been able to take him down that easily.

That's how I interpreted the political dynamics of the ritual's timing and power. There's a theme in the books of more power generally coming with more limited freedom. Someone like an Archangel or the Mother of Winter/Summer are unspeakably powerful but are constrained tremendously.

Mab is in something of a sweet spot of influence and power, where she's powerful but not so limited that she can't do anything at all.

Cowl would have fallen through the metaphorical cracks and been both powerful and relatively free.

 

It would have helped that he was human and had free will. That kind of power without any constraints would be able to wreak havoc upon the world. Worse still, he was probably under the control of Nemesis. I'm re-reading Dead Beat again and in the first meeting between Harry and Cowl, Cowl flees through a portal into the Nevernever. The power he uses to open it is described as darker than his regular power.

I suspect that was Nemesis at work as Cowl has been shown to open up portals to the same place on multiple occasions at multiple locations. That's not supposed to be how the Nevernever works, so I suspect that it wasn't the Nevernever. I think that Cowl has access to some realm that either borders or is within the Outside. I'm not sure how this would be possible, but Nemesis has shown a lot of ability in making the impossible happen.

 

You can create tailor made ways, but it's a fuckton harder. Odin does it at one point. As for repeats of the Darkhallow. Even if you do try it somewhere else, you'll have to remember that there are a lot of beings who are prescient. Wizards, too.

The kind of dark energy required for this to work needs to be built up, the way the Red Court built up power for their spell, and that mark does not go unnoticed.

 

Wasn't the book destroyed anyway, and the only reason Harry could still do it was because he had Lasciel at the time to memorize it word-for-word?

 

Harry gave the book to that black court vampire, can't remember her name to save Murphy or for something equally stupid. It was probably the most stupid decision he has made and still waiting for the consequences to reveal itself.

 

Marva, who I am still waiting to come back, I think we'll see her in the Trilogy.

 

Considering the line about how quickly the Black Court can propagate I'm sure we'll see a Blade 2-esque book eventually.

 

Yeah but their weaknesses are fairly well known and exploitable. Until they can pull off some Big Bad Voodoo they're probably never going to be able to do a lot at this point in the series, because the Black Court can be defeated by Vanilla humans, and basically everyone is interested in making sure they stay gone. I guess that's the point of them having the Big Book of Evil, but still...

 

Black Court are strong but have a glass jaw.

Garlic + cross + holly water = Immune to them.

They need to sleep during day so can be taken down by people of modest tallent.


The whole reason they are broken is because the few very old strong ones were taken down, now when ever a low one pops up people can easily wipe them out.

 

All rendered fairly useless by this thing called a gun. I wonder what happens in a human bring regularly drinks Holy Water. When does its effects end? Will some of it filter into ones blood for a while?

In my head, the Black Court is waiting for their moment. They're pissed and they want revenge, but they're not going to risk having humanity experminate them until the opportune moment. One would think that a eclipse related to the apocalypse might play into this.

 

Guns help humans far more than any supernatural force, they're an immense equalizer. Kincaid was also carrying holy water and garlic paintball gun, enough vanillas with those they have a decent chance, or at least a vastly improved one compared to the things that the original vampire hunters had that canonically destroyed the Black Court.

 

Those humans had a great deal of help and I'm certain thousands died to achieve that victory. Guns do not help humans more. Even a person who's trained in the use of guns would be vastly outclassed by a similarly armed vampire.

 

I don't think drinking holy water would do anything.

But taking the Eucharist. The body and blood of Christ. That would probably give you a holy shield of some kind.

 

Adding guns to a black court vampire makes them marginally more deadly, guns for humans makes them drastically more powerful. Even if the vampires use guns better adding them still closes the gap a little.

 

I'm not seeing the need for guns here. Bamps are fast enough to do a drive by neck slap. By the time they're smart enough to figure out a gun you'd think they'd be smart enough to find an easier method of killing someone.

 

A gun means they'll laugh at any idiot who holds up a crucifix to ward them off as they blow that person's head off.

 

Or they could rip a car door off and throw it at lethal speeds? My point was that getting a Bampire of the right age where its smart enough to effectively use a gun and a gun is its best option in resolving a conflict is highly unlikely. The smart ones, like Mavra, have better options. The dumb ones don't live long.

 

I disagree on that last note.

 

The dumb ones live long enough to start a bit of a 'coven' and go up against someone like Dresden.