Probably would have been better to post it in the story idea thread, since it will likely never happen in canon, but I've been having an odd thought the last couple of days, and it wont go away. I'd shoot myself in the head to teach it a lesson, but I'm deathly allergic to bullets.

Anyway! Onward to greatness (Read: A horrible idea I should feel ashamed of having.):

So. Einherjar. Dead dudes that got ferried off the Great Hall in the Sky. Except Nick. I mean, if you're gonna get beheaded, get beheaded. Who is nearly headless? (Also its sad that the first auto-suggestion on Wikipedia for Nearly is Nearly Headless Nick.) And having gone on a tagent for humor, another retarded idea:

New way to tie HP and Dresden together and even possibly get him and Dresden to cross paths: The Headless Hunt. D: Nearly-Headless Nick wants to hunt with the Erlking?! D:

Anyway. Back on point. The Einherjar. Supernatural mercs in canon, but according to myth, are actually dead supernatural mercs hired for the battle at the end of the world. Though hired probably means having a choice, but do you really want to say no to Gard or anyone like her?

So, you have three entities/organizations dealing in souls so far:

• Heaven, with the Knights of the Cross, plus the clergy.1
• Hell, with the Knights of the Blackened Denarius.
• Æsir, with the Einherjar.

Though, admittedly, only the last one is technically dead (Myth-compliant version anyway) by the standard of what I was thinking. Obviously, Hell gives you a one-way trip to the Lake of Fire, the World's...Afterworld's? worst beach ever. Heaven gets you ... a boring afterlife. The Einherjar get the best deal: Booze, broads, and battle.

Kind of a two fould question/idea on how it would work, rather than being a "Could this happen" thing....

Part One:

Say someone (Molly in this example.) sells her soul to Dresden for ... Whatever reason she comes up with/he offers to buy for. Two years down the line, as Dresden's supernatural Hit-Girl, she gets got herself.

[Important bit]
So, what happens to the soul at this point? Does she get shipped off to Boot Camp in the Down Below for selling it off to someone? Does it go to Dresden's jar of souls or Merge with his own?
[/Important bit]

[Unrelated bit]
Or, if you wanted to look at it from a different view: What about Non Judeochristian/Abrahamic religions? Do those of Indian religions (Hindu, Buddhists, etc...) get reincarnated?
[/Unrelated bit]

Part two:

Preface: I am well aware that this would, practically, cost six metric fuckloads of power, not just because it breaks the Fifth Law and you'd have the White Council on you like Giovanni if Obama came out and said all LGBT bills are fucking retarded and unnecessary.2

Now, lets assume the important bit up there works like I think it should, and Dresden made some fancy jar to keep souls in after he bought them. Lets also assume that, with possession of Bob, he can recreate the other three books Kemmler wrote.

Here Harry is with all this necromancy shits and a boatload of souls and nothing to do with them.

So, what would stop him from ... say... Calling up his own Darkhallow and creating his own special Einherjar by raising and reraising the souls into physical forms somehow? Possess a living body, make new bodies3, res the old ones... Maybe toss in something to boost their stats a bit and make them Heavy Duty Canon Fodder or what not.

Obviously, you aren't gonna build a story out of this, but I thought it was an interesting thought. Brings out some potential for discussion at least where souls and possession of souls goes.

Notes:
1: Technically speaking, anyway, you do 'sell your soul' to god when you go into work as a member of the clergy in certain traditions, if I remember right. Celibacy vows and what not...
2: I will ban you if you derail my thread with your faggotry, Giovanni.
3: For new bodies, maybe some sort of homunculus or Frankenstein's Monster if you want to make them a bit more intimidating.

 

Souls are the currency that down below, hell, and heaven are fighting for but what about the faeries? Do they just want bargains and knowledge? I know that they have a balance thing from GS but how does that give them more power?
Dont forget the naagaloshi, shagnasty, who was basically a godlike being with a religion built around him so why would reincarnation not be possible?

 

Feel bad.

Anyway, the entire issue of souls is way too flexible. Even if you've been a baby-eating demon for a century, you can still give up the denarian and go to the pearly gates.

The idea of facilitating possession is really interesting though. Dresden loses a loved one, Molly, Elaine, Murphy, whoever, and decides he wants them back. He finds someone receptive, turns their mind to mush, and lets the ghost have some fun.

 

Brings up a good question: The Down Below & Hell. I know Dresden says most demons in the classical sense of the word, such as Chauncy, are denizens of the Nevernever. But are they like the Fae and the Fomor, and separate entities, or does the Down Below count as part of the Hellfire club?

Personally, I think the Fae don't much care for souls because it doesn't really do much for them outside of possible servitude beyoned death, which... Isn't much benefit to them after you're dead. It seems they gain the most benefit the same way Shagnasty does: Influence and/or reverance.

Case in point: Toot-toot. He starts out small as fuck, and ends up at something like half-a-foot tall, and Dresden stating outright he's the largest dew-drop faery he ever saw...

And its mostly because of how Harry has been working his relationship. The other little ones throw in with Harry for pizza, which Toot spreads knowledge of and getting more followers of the Za-Lord.

Toot got taller in direct proportion of how many people (or Fae, if you want) knew who he was. Its implied Mab started out the same way too.

Which begs a question: If the supernatural big wigs change based on belief, as is implied poorly in Backup, does that mean Muslims get 72 virgins? D:

Wat? D: I don't get that one.

Eh, true. But then it could be read as giving back the powers nullifies the deal with the Denarians. Someone from the Down Below? Expect a knife, since they can physically interact with the world a bit more freely than the coin-bound Fallen.

Finds someone receptive...

"Hey, sure, Harry. I don't mind letting you turn my mind to mush so you can have your fucktoy back. I was done with this mind anyway."

I would think by the nature of the act that it would be an unwilling party accepting the ... otherworldly touch.

Of course, the individual might not be too happy about it either, since they would likely also have the possessed host's memories in addition. Then agian, that could be your story conflict if you made a story out of the scenario...

 

Well, there is that girl Marcone wants cured. She's already brain-dead/soulless.

That being said, I'm pretty sure that this is extremely subtle (Merlin-level) magic, so Harry probably wouldn't be able to do it for at least another century.

 

...No pedovibes in that at all. D:

If even by then.

Possible though, in theory, that if Dresden does the darkhallow, and you keep Kumori alive, you could have him do a Sponsored Magic to have her raise the body, Dresden stuff the soul in it, rinse and repeat when needed.

 

As of Death Masks, she's an estimated late teens or early twenties. As Bob says, it's best to get in there before they begin to sag!