History WMG / DresdenFilesCouncils

** Sorry but when Harry soulgazes Denton he sees a flashback of Denton KNEELING WHILE RECIEVING HIS BELT. Either way he does have an unknown benefactor, otherwise he would not have known of the White Council. Sells also knew far more than a mere acolyte should. Either way both had SOME kind of benefactor.

*** On that note, when it comes to an army or invasion force, where do the scouts typically walk? Also with that logic, and Butcher's penchant for [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority Asskicking Equals Authority]] and [=HWWBehind=]being the strongest, the general, and behind the mook wall makes sense.

* New take on this. There is no Black Council. There is no The Circle. This is what those in the know use to couch Nemesis in familiar terms. Ebeneezer knows Nemesis. Ebeneezer realizes that Harry doesn't know about Nemesis, so he presents Nemesis as a shadowy conspiracy. That's what he TELLS people he's fighting against, and that's a natural conclusion that others come to when they first become aware of Nemesis.

* Tying up, clarifying and slightly expanding this idea. First of all, 'Black Council' never refers to themselves as actual organization - they are dubbed this by members of White Council to highlight their antagonistic nature, and to people from hierarchical structures it's only natural to assume that their archenemy is also organized in a traditional way. Guessing their actual nature, they're not a Council, as in they don't have ranks and meetings, but still can be broken into several distinct groups: lowest tier is unaffected by [[spoiler: Nemesis]] itself, consisting of mercenaries, opportunists, cultists and other unrelated dupes, that are easy to manipulate and use to sow chaos and misdirection, then we have some fully claimed mooks, like warlocks from the first books and Cat-Sith (it seems like [[spoiler: Nemesis]] has some conditions for spreading, more difficult than a cold - [[spoiler: black athame or another specifically made artifact and high-ranked Outsiders being the main vectors so far]]), with their mind degraded to base desires and overriden by HiveMind whenever needed for a specific goal, above them are powerful or otherwise too valuable entities, which are given MoreThanMindControl treatment - still a part of a HiveMind, but given some freedom and additional sweetener to the deal (like [[spoiler: Maeve's ability to lie and opportunity to defy Mab]]), because [[spoiler: Nemesis]] doesn't have enough versatility to perfectly recreate their behavior while they're still undercover, and the whole thing is capped by [[spoiler: Outsider bosses, with the core personality of Nemesis itself counting as one of them (HWWBefore is a scout, Nemesis is a spy and infiltrator)]]. Cowl is an odd man out - he's a [[spoiler:Starborn and thus immune to Nemesis, instead having some measure of control over Outsiders himself]], and, presumably, there are several more like him, either immune or careful enough not to be infected (or, like Kumori, being someone direct subordinate, with all communications going through their higher-ups), acting of their own free will for their own agenda, which may go up to HijackingCthulhu.

* Tying up, clarifying and slightly expanding this idea. First of all, 'Black Council' never refers to themselves as actual organization - they are dubbed this by members of White Council to highlight their antagonistic nature, and to people from hierarchical structures it's only natural to assume that their archenemy is also organized in a traditional way. Guessing their actual nature, they're not a Council, as in they don't have ranks and meetings, but still can be broken into several distinct groups: lowest tier is unaffected by [[spoiler: Nemesis]] itself, consisting of mercenaries, opportunists, cultists and other unrelated dupes, that are easy to manipulate and use to sow chaos and misdirection, then we have some fully claimed mooks, like warlocks from the first books and Cat-Sith (it seems like [[spoiler: Nemesis]] has some conditions for spreading, more difficult than a cold - [[spoiler: black athame or another specifically made artifact and high-ranked Outsiders being the main vectors so far]]), with their mind degraded to base desires and overriden by HiveMind whenever needed for a specific goal, above them are powerful or otherwise too valuable entities, which are given MoreThanMindControl treatment - still a part of a HiveMind, but given some freedom and additional sweetener to the deal (like [[spoiler: Maeve's ability to lie and opportunity to defy Mab]]), because [[spoiler: Nemesis]] doesn't have enough versatility to perfectly recreate their behavior while they're still undercover, and the whole thing is capped by [[spoiler: Outsider bosses, with the core personality of Nemesis itself counting as one of them (HWWBefore is a scout, Nemesis is a spy and infiltrator)]]. Cowl is an OddManOut - he's a [[spoiler:Starborn and thus immune to Nemesis, instead having some measure of control over Outsiders himself]], and, presumably, there are several more like him, either immune or careful enough not to be infected (or, like Kumori, being someone direct subordinate, with all communications going through their higher-ups), acting of their own free will for their own agenda, which may go up to HijackingCthulhu.

They created it for the same reason Harry created the Grey Council; a sort of Shadow Cabinet or Black Ops division tasked with using methods the WC can't dare consider, the guys willing to use Dark in the service of Light. This assumes a Black Council that is, if not Good, at the very least well-intentioned, which I maintain is still a possibility. However, note that this does ''not'' mean the Black Council necessarily shares the White Council's goals 100%.

They created it for the same reason Harry created the Grey Council; a sort of Shadow Cabinet tasked with thinking outside the box, willing to use Dark in the service of Light. This assumes a Black Council that is, if not Good, at the very least well-intentioned, which I maintain is still a possibility. However, note that this does ''not'' mean the Black Council necessarily shares the White Council's goals 100%.

Not only does he know about the existence of the Black Council, but he's also got both influence (to feel out/monitor other Wardens) and some serious combat skills, both of which are traits you'd want with a team member. In addition, he's a PopCulturedBadass, and it's a long-running rule that the really bad guys don't get Harry's pop-culture references. Oh, and to top it off, he agrees with Harry's belief in the Black Council in ''White Night.'' If he were a bad guy, presumably he would have tried to downplay/laugh them off, rather than alert Harry to their existence.

Not only does he know about the existence of the Black Council, but he's also got both influence (to feel out/monitor other Wardens) and some serious combat skills, both of which are traits you'd want with a team member.

* Mac: he's a member but he's a spymaster and can't reveal

* Nicodemus seems to be out of the running as of [[SkinGame Skin Game]]. [[spoiler: Considering how he is on the edge of utter destruction now]], I think it's far more likely he'll do something very, very crazy to get back at Harry.