History Characters / TheDresdenFilesTheOutsiders

** At the basic level, Nemesis infection just makes the victim take actions that they ''might'' have taken anyway, but in a manner that aids the Outsiders (i.e. Bianca St. Claire would likely have blamed Harry for Paula's death and decided to rise up the Red Court ranks without any help, but Nemesis used her party to corrupt Lea), sometimes aided by a fall into evil that's nearly indistinguishable from a natural HeelFaceTurn. It is capable of outright MindControl when the situation calls for it, but it generally doesn't do this unless someone has already called it out.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Nemesis's corruption is behind a ''large'' majority of the early villains: [[Literature/StormFront Victor Sells]], [[Literature/FoolMoon Agent Denton]], [[Literature/GravePeril Kravos]], and likely [[Literature/SummerKnight Aurora]]. [[spoiler:It's also behind Maeve in ''Cold Days'', and orchestrates Ethniu's Fomor invasion in ''Peace Talks'' and ''Battle Ground'' as a distraction in order to gain access to Demonreach.]]

** To [[Literature/StormFront Victor Sells]], [[Literature/FoolMoon Agent Denton]], [[Literature/GravePeril Kravos]], implied with [[Literature/SummerKnight Aurora]], and quite possibly the entire Red Court. They don't actually become primary antagonists until ''Turn Coat''; prior to that book, Harry is mostly fighting cat's paws of theirs or encountering events connected to them.

* BadBoss: According to Vittorio Malvora, they react "murderously" to failure and incompetence.

* EvilCounterpart: Dedicated, a bit curmudgeonly, and uses dark power for what seem to be good-ish purposes. Yep, he's basically Harry Dresden but if he became TheUnfettered, went full black-hat, and decided to put his own goals above the value of other people's lives. It's getting even more pronounced as of "Zoo Day", where he's strongly implied to have acquired one of the pups from Mouse's litter, and "Fugitive" (from Mouse's POV) has him drop some of his usual formal language out of Harry's presence, grumbling in respect of Mouse's intervention, "Harry, you are an almighty pain my ass" - which also suggests he knows Harry personally.

* MysteriousPast: It is completely unclear who he is, how he got so strong without being noticed beforehand, and what he's up to. The most we get is a suggestion that he may have known Kemmler going by the way he referred to him as a madman, Kumori's claim that he's eaten a bunch of Death Curses before, and his sudden drop of formality and use of Harry's name in the familiar context when he's being thwarted by Mouse, remarking, "Harry, you are an almighty pain in my ass" - which might suggest he knows Harry personally.

* VillainRespect: While initially unimpressed (with him mocking Dresden by claiming that he was hoping that he was "ready to compete with the heavyweights"), Cowl quickly becomes very respectful of Dresden's abilities, both magical and deductive. He in fact notes that he believes Dresden really could have contained the Erlking the entire night, something Harry himself doubted he'd actually be able to do (describing his chances as a spider's chance of entrapping a tiger).
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Why does he want to become a god in ''Dead Beat''? He thinks it's inevitable that ''someone'' will and considers himself the least possible evil (and when you look at [[TheSociopath Corpsetaker]] and [[AxeCrazy Grevane]], he probably has a point...except for the slight problem that he's working with [[OmnicidalManiac Outsiders]]). Also, if his apprentice Kumori is anything to go by, his ultimate goal of seizing control of the Darkhallow and becoming a lowercase-g god was for the purpose of [[DeathTakesAHoliday ending death]].

* BigBadDuumvirate: The main antagonist of ''White Night'', though he's actually acting as TheHeavy for Cowl.

* EvilCounterpart: Dedicated, a bit curmudgeonly, and uses dark power for what seem to be good-ish purposes. Yep, he's basically Harry Dresden but if he became TheUnfettered, went full black-hat, and decided to put his own goals above the value of other people's lives. It's getting even more pronounced as of "Zoo Day", where he's strongly implied to have acquired one of the pups from Mouse's litter.

* BigBadDuumvirate: With Vittorio in ''White Knight''. Cowl is his master within the Black Council, but Malvora is more proactive in orchestrating the takeover of the White Court.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Directly responsible for much of the chaos across the series. Victor Sells, Agent Denton, and Kravos were all corrupted by it in a subtle manner, and Aurora and Maeve were also infected by it. It also seizes the Leanansidhe as well as Cat Sith. Whether or not it has infected other villains in the series is unclear.
* ManchurianAgent: Its specialty. Its posessees generally act completely normal and its corruption is hard to distinguish from a number of other character influences (for example, we ''still'' don't know if Victor Sells was ''always'' a jerk who got drunk on power or if his trip down the slippery slope was influenced by Nemesis)... until it needs said pawn to either take some action that will eventually benefit it, or go nuts and switch sides, in which case they'll do so without ever knowing why.

** At the basic level, Nemesis will subtly influence its victims, causing chaos and destruction respective to their individual natures, in a way that is largely just an intensification of their base natures. But if Nemesis is called out directly, it’s more than willing to resort to full MindControl.

* EvilIsPetty: He gruesomely kills poor Stan for no other reason than he could. Also, while he was clearly trying to shape Harry so as to accomplish something on his behalf, he does so through literally throwing poor Dresden around a convenience store and generally beating the crap out of him, and is furious when Harry actually tries to defend himself.

* TheManBehindTheMan: Behind [=DuMorne=], but it's not yet clear how this trope played out. When he initially showed up in Harry's life, Harry initially thought that [=DuMorne=] summoned him to kill Harry, then Harry suspected that [=DuMorne=] was influenced by He-Who-Walks-Behind. As details about Harry's life unfold, it's becoming less clear what the relationship between the Walker and [=DuMorne=] was, and it may have even been antagonistic.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: A downplayed variant; while he was clearly pulling his punches to an extent when fighting a teenaged Harry, he didn't ever think to consider "vanilla mortals" a threat, leading to Harry outsmarting him and destroying his physical form through blowing up a gas station.

* FrontlineGeneral: His role among the Outsiders.

** The Black Council's relation with Nemesis remains unclear. While the Black Council is responsible for infecting Victor Sells, the rogue FBI werewolves, Aurora, Leonid Kravos, the Red Court, the White Court, and Lea with Nemesis, it is unknown if the Black Council is using Nemesis, is used by Nemesis, or is working in partnership with Nemesis.

** At the basic level, Nemesis will subtly influence its victims, causing chaos and destruction respective to their individual natures, in a way that is largely just an intensification of their base natures. But if Nemesis is called out directly, it is more than willing to resort to full MindControl.

* ManipulativeBastard: It's what it does best. [[spoiler:In ''Battle Ground'' its revealed that it's had Justine under its thrall for ''years'' and it was under the Walker's influence that she started working for Lara and euphorically tells Harry its directly responsible for Thomas's actions in ''Peace Talks'' by using IHaveYourWife as a tactic, pointing out that VirtueIsAWeakness that can be easily controlled if one knows how. It is also made clear that it used Ethniu as an UnwittingPawn for its own personal goal: Ethniu's entire attack on Chicago was merely a distraction to prevent Dresden from noticing that Justine had been possessed so Nemesis would have access to Demonreach, allowing it free her and the many other prisoners, which would have ended the whole ordeal with its total victory, if not for Harry remembering Thomas's desperate and seemingly unconnected warning. Talk about one ''hell'' of a NearVillainVictory.]]

A self-aware entity or force (precisely which is unclear, though it's implied to be a kind of Outsider) that can infect and change the minds of those it intrudes into, which subverts people to the service of the Outsiders. It is not named until the events of ''Cold Days'', and Titania warns Harry that he should be careful to speak its name, and instead prefers to refer to it as "the adversary." In ''Battle Ground'' it is finally forced to admit its name is He Who Walks Beside.

* KnifeNut: Specializes in throwing knives. While Harry points out that throwing knives are not terribly great for humans, a being centuries of practice and with as much natural strength as Vittorio can chuck them at hundreds of miles per hour and rarely miss.

* KnifeNut: Very dangerous with a knife. He nearly kills Harry and an unnamed Warden with it.