Okay so I’m going to try and get back into writing fanfiction for the first time in like three or four years, and I have an idea…

At the end of Blood Rites Lord Raith murders Thomas and succeeds in casting the ritual entropy curse the Malocchio at Harry Dresden, killing him.

This does not free the white king from the Margaret LeFay’s binding the ability to feed his Hunger, for the obvious reason that Susan Rodriguez has a one year old bundle of evil who is a living direct blood relative, maintaining the death curse.

If I set it late February 2030, that would make little Maggie Dresden twenty seven years old as of the start of my fanfiction.

Couple of random assumptions:

1/ because all protagonists are contractually obliged to be orphans Susan is dead, the Mendozas too.
2/ the white king is still holding onto power in the white court, if only barely.
3/ seems reasonable to assume Margaret Dresden knew or even learned magic from Hannah Ascher, who was a member of the Fellowship of Saint Giles like Susan.
4/ also Margaret Dresden is a wizard, that’s important.
5/ the Dark Hallow… I’ve got nothing, but whether or not it was thwarted I don’t want the senior council to have been wiped out. I want some nice White Council antagonism going on, and the dissolution of the White Council would likely stand in the way of that.

So why am I threading this?

DLP people are clever and I’d really like a little bit of help speculating on what you guys think would happen to the Dresdenverse the best part of three decades after Harry dies in book six. Bonus points if anyone has read the RPG guide.

Ideas, details, any gracenotes which come to mind? That’s a terrible idea and I should feel terrible? Random stuff you wouldn’t mind seeing in Dresden fanfiction like that? Thoughts?

Oh, and I wanted to make Molly Carpenter a Warden with a branded left cheek as she appeared in the Soul Gaze during Proven Guilty.

 

I think McCoy would get a bit upset that Lord Raith killed Harry. And what happens when the he gets upset? Satellites come out of orbit and crush estates. I wouldn't put it past him to do some black magic against his grandson's killer, especially when he finds the dude also killed his daughter.

 

He's already done that. Three times, I think. He tells Harry so when he wants to dissuade him from going after Lord Raith. A satellite falling from orbit would do the trick with Raith, but Ebenezar doesn't know that. For whatever reason, he never tried or pulled something similiar off in canon.

So let's go book by book.

7. Dead Beat. Maybe the Necromancers hobble one another to the extent that nobody manages to do the Darkhallow.

8. Proven Guilty. Molly would die if she used black magic. That said, if Harry wasn't around and she didn't want to impress him really badly, then maybe she would've gone to get help with her developing talent.

9. White Night. We don't know what state The Circle is in at this point, but odds are good they still plan to take out all potential threats. Lara is amongs them and she's also a Venetor. (Though we don't know if they're aware of this.)

Lara would likely be at her father's side and would likely die there. We do not know if the White Court operatives would still attempt to damage the relationship between the White Council and minor talents.

If Marcone's employee still dies, he'll still act. We don't know how he'd act without Dresden around, though.

Ellaine probably dies.

10. Small Favor.

No idea on this one. My gut says Nicodemus goes to Chicago every time with more in mind than just "Dresden is there and, well, no story if we're not in the same place."

My guess is that he and Deirdre are Venetors, just like Lara, Thomas and many others. It would certainly explain why they camp out on Demonreach, where many demons are held. It would certainly explain why they want the Archive, who leads the Oblivion War.

With no Dresden around, I'm pretty sure that both Michael and Sanya (and a potential third knight) all die bravely attempting to stop Nicodemus. Or fail to find him entirely.

His plans are likely on a scale that would change the landscape of the world. Much like The Circle, he regards organisations such as The Red Court threats that need to eventually be wiped out.


11. Turn Coat.

Morgan's fucked. So fucked. Most likely the Skinwalker he nuked that one time eats his face. Civil war likely tears The Council to shreds.


And this is pretty much expecting any of the events happen the way they did, or when they did. Lots of monsters didn't come to Chicago, or thought real hard before doing so because they knew Dresden was there. We have no idea how the butterfly effect of the first few events would splash out.

Overall, maybe you should set the story and the point of divergence elsewhere. Say... Harry dies because of the parasite and you've got Lasciel's spirit baby and Maggie kicking ass a few years down the line. She's... What? 10 or so in Cold Days? 11 in Skin Game?

Got a feeling she's a little bit younger, but add another 10 years to that with an adviser of that caliber and she'll be pretty dangerous.




Fuuuck that long-winded. I hope you manage to get something started. Way too few Dresden Files stories being written nowadays and large-scale efforts such as these could be a lot of fun because there aren't many of them. You can usually find me on the IRC if you wanna talk.

 

There's a lot more that would change if Harry died during Blood Rites and most of it would be terrible for the world.

Blood Rites - Lord Raith maintains his hold on the House and remains the White King in fact rather than as a puppet of Lara. Mab finds herself a rent-a-knight to fill the gap Harry left.

Dead Beat - Without Harry around the Kemmlerites get to fight it out amongst themselves and the Wardens wouldn't send their war party. Everything within a mile of the university (likely including the Alphas at this stage) would die and Cowl would become a new god.

Given that Cowl is an agent of Nemesis, this is not a good thing. On the plus side, the Senior Council would likely survive. Edinburgh might be subject to an invasion, however.

Proven Guilty - Given the stipulation in the first post, I'll not go with Molly being executed for black magic. Instead lets say she becomes afraid of magic after the Darkhallow went off; she's sensitive enough that she'd avoid the university area at all costs, at any rate. So she doesn't enthral her friends and doesn't break a Law. The Gatekeeper doesn't notice her use of black magic and she goes unnoticed for a while.

Mab isn't able to send the phobophages because there is no sympathetic link to follow, therefore Chicago has its first quiet year in a decade. The Red Court get smacked the fuck down since Mab has no reason to ignore them any more. Molly does not get abducted and maybe reconciles with her parents. She becomes an apprentice under some US based Wizard and is fast tracked through her training as much as possible.

White Night - Vittorio stages some other plot in, probably, another city to try and gather the Lords of the White Court together. There are rumours going around that Lord Raith is weakened at this point; his fight against Harry and Thomas took a lot out of him and he's finally running low on power. The Skavis make a power play and Vittorio pulls his Uber Ghoul rush. There are no survivors. Vittorio becomes the new White King and allies himself fully with the Red Court. Thousands of lesser practitioners die to the vampires.

Duchess Arianna heads to Edinburgh under the pretence of negotiating a peace treaty. It's a trap, but Molly is able to sense something familiar about her. It's the feeling of necromancy. Cowl launches his attack on Edinburgh, using Arianna herself as a sympathetic link so that he can open a Way directly into the Speaking Room, using brute power to force it open through the wards. Red Court vampires charge through. Dozens die in the first instants, though the Senior Council are quickly able to regain control and force the vampires back.

Then Cowl drops his second bombshell and raises the newly dead wizards as zombies. Listens-To-Winds is caught by surprise and dies immediately. Ebenezar kills everything non-human in the room, then offers to cover the retreat. He uses the Blackstaff, but it's not enough to let him stand up to a peer of Mab. He holds for a while, then dies. The Blackstaff is lost.

While this is happening, Morgan has called in his debt with the Summer Court to give the Council an escort through Faerie. When all is settled, another quarter of the Wardens are dead. More regular Wizards are dead as well. Molly's warning saves a lot of people though, and she is lauded for it. She joins the Wardens shortly thereafter. Luccio and someone else (not Cristos) take their places on the Senior Council.

After this so much has changed that it could go anywhere.