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| 4 | %% Zero Context Example entries are NOT allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. Add context to the entries before uncommenting them. %% |
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| 10 | '''WARNING!''' Due to the books relying heavily on mystery and surprise, the pages would be virtually unreadable with excessive spoiler tags. Therefore, all spoilers except for the most recent novel (''[[Literature/BattleGround2020 Battle Ground]]'') are '''UNMARKED'''. Tread carefully. |
| 11 | %% This includes keeping spoiled any short story or comics revelations that come out between the most recent publication and the next one. |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[WMG:[[center:''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' '''[[Characters/TheDresdenfiles Character Index]]'''\ |
| 15 | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesHarryDresden Harry Dresden]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesHarrysHousehold Harry's Household]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheWhiteCouncil The White Council]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheChurch The Church]] | '''Vampire Courts''' | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheDenarians The Denarians]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheFae The Fae]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheFomor The Fomor]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheKemmlerites The Kemmlerites]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesChicagoMafia Chicago Mafia]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesOtherPowerfulPeopleAndEntities Other Powerful Entities]] | [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesOrdinaryPeopleAndBadassNormals Ordinary People and Badass Normals]]]]]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ---- |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Vampires take many forms, but they all have two things in common: they were human, once, and they must now feed on the life-force of other humans to sustain themselves. Of course, the Courts don't always get along even among themselves. Predators don't like competition. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | There are four Vampire Courts that we know of: The Black Court, of Stoker-esque walking corpses with magical powers, the Red Court, who hide their bat-like demon forms behind flesh masks and dull their victims' reactions with narcotic saliva in order to feed on their blood; the White Court, beautiful albinos who incite and feed on primal human emotions, such as lust, and the Jade Court. The last of these [[HufflepuffHouse has only been mentioned once]], exists in Asia, and has yet to make an appearance in the series. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | According to [[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/8ntzo3/my_name_is_jim_butcher_and_i_write_stories_ask_me/?st=jhwa6r0j&sh=4390dbea a question-and-answer session held by Jim Butcher in June 2018]], Jade Court vampires rarely act outside of the Yangtze River Valley, do not deal directly with outsiders (instead moving through allies and agents), and are not signatories of the Unseelie Accords, but will act against those who don't treat them with the respect due to signatories. There are also three other types who act mainly in southeast Asia (in the region of South Korea and Thailand), but aren't numerous enough to have organized Courts, instead acting as thugs who run drugs and human slaves through the local seas and sometimes hire out as assassins. They are described as being "mosquitos" in comparison to the four organized vampire Courts. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | !The Black Court |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[header:Black Court Vampires]] |
| 30 | |
| 31 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 32 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_court_vampires.png]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | The classic vampire, the Black Court are animated corpses who drink the blood of the living. They are the most innately powerful of the vampire courts, and the most straightforwardly malevolent, but because they have ''all'' the traditional vampire weaknesses (''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' was commissioned by their rivals in the White Court as an expose on them) they are also currently the rarest. |
| 35 | ---- |
| 36 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Big time. |
| 37 | ** The Black Court usually attack first and ask questions never, though Mavra at least can be more subtle when she needs to be. |
| 38 | ** The short story "It's My Birthday, Too" implies this is inherent in their condition, with two security guards who were brutally and painfully turned being completely loyal to the woman who killed them only minutes prior. |
| 39 | * AnimalMotifs: They're often likened to spiders in terms of the unsettling, skittering way in which they move. Additionally, their voices have been likened to the sound of whistling cobwebs more than once. |
| 40 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: They can induce a couple of levels of this, from an easy-to-reverse charm all the way towards turning the victim into a permanently-unhinged mook. These victims are called "Renfields" after the character in the book who became such a victim to the book's Dracula. |
| 41 | * ChekhovsGun: There is some connection between them and Outsiders, as said by Lash before her HeroicSacrifice. |
| 42 | * DarkIsEvil: They are called the Black Court, and of all the vampires, are the only ones to truly exhibit the AlwaysChaoticEvil actions among their members: While both the Red and White Courts can at least try to suppress their murderous urges, the Black Court does not even bother. |
| 43 | * DyingRace: In spite of the fact that they can reproduce easily. Due to ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' making their weaknesses common knowledge, the court is hunted down to near extinction. The ones that survive tend to be the oldest, strongest and smartest. This leads to the Black Court being composed of extremely powerful vampires and cannon fodder mooks. |
| 44 | * EldritchAbomination: What they truly are, given that the author himself has said that they're really human corpses animated by hideous, monstrous entities from outside known reality. Any potential connections to the Outsiders, however, are unknown, and it's possible that they're "only" as eldritch as, say, a skinwalker is. |
| 45 | * ExplosiveBreeder: They can "reproduce" faster than any of the other vampire courts by the simple fact their kills can become new vampires (unless their heads are preemptively ripped off or whatever) with no half-breeds like those of the Red Court. |
| 46 | * HealingFactor: An '''extremely''' powerful one, being able to survive being turned to LudicrousGibs even without feeding, and could in time reform. Without being struck by any of their weaknesses, this makes them pretty much unstoppable. You need to ''reduce them to paste'' at the very least. |
| 47 | * HelpingHands: Capable of this as well when they are dismembered. |
| 48 | * HolyBurnsEvil: Likely as bad, if not worse, than the Red Court vampires. |
| 49 | * HumanoidAbomination: [[invoked]] Even putting aside the fact that they're basically eldritch monsters wearing a mask of flesh, their bodies being human corpses who are still subjected to entropy results in them falling ''hard'' into the UncannyValley given enough time. |
| 50 | * HumanSacrifice: They're seen preparing for one in ''Battle Grounds''. [[spoiler:It has something to do with giving blood to the "stars and stones" that Harry so frequently curses by.]] |
| 51 | * InSeriesNickname: Harry nicknames them "blampires" from an amalgamation of "Black Court vampires." |
| 52 | * MadeOfEvil: They're actually TheSoulless, being literally animated corpses operated by hostile {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 53 | * NighInvulnerable: In addition to their above mentioned HealingFactor, they are the physically toughest of the vampire courts. |
| 54 | * OurVampiresAreDifferent: Classic undead ones, albeit without the fangs. Black Court {{Mooks}} are basically blood-drinking zombies, while more powerful ones like Mavra are more like Dracula (and Dracula himself is Black Court, though he's never shown up in person). They also have the weaknesses the undead typically have: garlic, holy water, sunlight. |
| 55 | * TheSoulless: According to Word of Jim, as soon as someone is killed by a Black Court vampire, their actual soul leaves their body and the void where the soul used to occupy is replaced with "[[EldritchAbomination something hideous and unworldy]]" while using the original person's memories to form a personality. |
| 56 | * SuperStrength: All of them are shown to have enough strength to pound hardened concrete into dust with just their fists. |
| 57 | * TragicMonster: Heavily downplayed; Functionally, they're all ruthless sociopathic Darwinist monsters that are almost literally MadeOfEvil. However, they can sometimes still feel melancholy over their cursed existence and mourn for the days of their original humanity. It's best summed up with the below quote from Jim Butcher during [[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3lye65/i_am_jim_butcher_author_of_the_dresden_files_and/cval9ok/?context=3 a 2015 Reddit AMA]]: |
| 58 | -->'''Jim Butcher:''' [on Black Court vampires] They're actually tainted by something hideous and unworldly. They are driven to kill to survive. They don't really have a lot of choice about it. They enjoy being what they are, and doing what they do. They can be sad that they don't have someone who loves them, or upset that the world has passed them by and has changed on them, but at the end of the day, they're basically black-hearts who occasionally pull out a few of the tattered remains of their humanity, fail to fit back into them like they used to, and get maudlin about their glory days when they could watch the sun rise. |
| 59 | * UnskilledButStrong: New blampires just "born" are considered very dangerous and not to be underestimated. They have all the super speed and herculean strength born right into them and accessible from the get go. They become even more dangerous with age. |
| 60 | * VampiresAreSexGods: [[invoked]] Thoroughly inverted; at ''best'', Blacks are UncannyValley-tastic, and at worst, they're visibly decomposing corpses. |
| 61 | * WeaksauceWeakness: Garlic, holy water, direct sunlight, and (as with the Reds) symbols of faith. |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:Vlad Drakul]] |
| 65 | !!Vlad Drakul |
| 66 | |
| 67 | A ''very'' powerful entity, and a Freeholding Lord under the Unseelie Accords. |
| 68 | ---- |
| 69 | * BloodKnight: [[spoiler: Genuinely takes delight in his fight against Listens-to-Wind and River Shoulders and seems to consider Harry a WorthyOpponent by virtue of their shared status as a Starborn.]] |
| 70 | * TheDreaded: Ebenezer [=McCoy=], a wizard responsible for massive cataclysms such as the Tunguska explosion and the Krakatoa eruption, admits that he considers Drakul 'dangerous'. |
| 71 | * FauxAffablyEvil: [[spoiler: Actually much better at taking on this kind of façade than all other Black Court vampires. His almost permanent mood can best be classified as "detached amusement" and he never loses his almost aristocratic cool and control, but everything else about him ''screams'' HumanoidAbomination and it's made very clear to Harry from the get go that the monster behind his façade is far deadlier and more terrifying than most enemies Harry has faced before.]] |
| 72 | * GodInHumanForm: [[WordOfGod Word Of Jim]] says that Drakul is something inhuman and ''very'' powerful who was somehow [[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3lye65/i_am_jim_butcher_author_of_the_dresden_files_and/cvaiyz6 stuck in human form]]. |
| 73 | * HalfHumanHybrid: Averted. [=McCoy=] says Drakul is a scion in ''Literature/BloodRites'', but [[WordOfGod Word Of Jim]] contradicts this and says he isn't a scion (although his son, Dracula, is), but something inhuman who got stuck in a human body. |
| 74 | * HiddenAgendaVillain: [[spoiler: It's not entirely clear what Drakul even wants in ''Battle Ground'', other than that he was interested in recruiting more minions and having a bit of fun in the process. He briefly shows up to smack around Harry, the other Wardens, River Shoulders, and Listens-To-Wind (killing Yoshimo and Wild Bill in the process), make it clear he was only aiding Ethniu's attack ForTheEvulz, mock Dresden for not knowing about the finer points of being a Starborn (while stating that he's one himself) and hinting at larger plans in the works, before leaving.]] |
| 75 | * KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Kills the Wardens Yoshimo and Wild Bill pretty much just because he could]]. |
| 76 | * NoSell: [[spoiler: Even though Harry's super-strong, armored, armed, and ready, he and five of his most powerful allies get treated like children when they go up against him, and it's implied all their power just equates to a particularly engaging video game for him.]] Time to [[TookALevelInBadass level up]] some more! |
| 77 | * PhysicalGod: [[spoiler: Harry easily compares him to the Lords Of Outer Night in terms of power during their encounter with him in ''Battle Ground'' (and its ''strongly'' hinted that he was drastically holding back his true might) and he basically powers through everyone and everything he encounters, including Listens-To-Wind and River Shoulders, ''simultaneously'', even ''after'' River shuts down his TeleportSpam.]] |
| 78 | * ThePrettyGuysAreStronger: He's the most powerful of the Black Court and the only one not to look like a withered corpse, instead sporting menacingly good looks. |
| 79 | * TeleportSpam: [[spoiler: His favorite tactic in combat, which River Shoulders stops - though that doesn't help very much.]] |
| 80 | * VillainTeleportation: Drakul makes his first in the flesh appearance in ''Literature/BattleGround'' and is not only one of the strongest physical foes in the battle he's also a magic user whose favorite tactic is the frequent use of a teleport spell no one recognizes which he uses to port himself all over the field and to send [[spoiler:Chandler]] to an UncertainDoom. |
| 81 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: In lieu with older vampiric folklore, Drakul appears to be capable of at least limited shapeshifting, transforming into a giant black wolf [[spoiler:during his fight with River Shoulders and Listens-To-Wind]]. |
| 82 | * WhyAreYouNotMySon: [[spoiler: With a WorthyOpponent tint to it. During ''Battle Ground'', he is impressed by Harry's defiance, resisting his raw will, and lamenting that his own heir lacked that same strength. However, he also observes that while he would normally offer "the dark gift of immortality", five minutes of Harry is about as much as he can stand.]] |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Vlad Tepesh, aka "Dracula"]] |
| 86 | !!Vlad Tepesh, aka "Dracula" |
| 87 | |
| 88 | {{Dracula}}, in the Dresdenverse, is the most well-known Black Court Vampire, thanks to the publication of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''. Less widely known is that he is also the ''creator'' of the Black Court. |
| 89 | ---- |
| 90 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: He and his lover cared for one another so much that they begged the Queen of Air and Darkness to make sure they'd be together forever. Unfortunately, [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor they got their wish]]. |
| 91 | * HumanPopsicle: [[WordOfGod Word of Jim]] revealed that one of the 'ice sculptures' Harry comes across in Arctis Tor is actually Tepesh. Apparently he wanted to be together forever with his lover, and Mab granted his wish... by encasing him and his lover in ice forever. |
| 92 | * HistoricalDomainCharacter: Along with PublicDomainCharacter. Since the fictional character of Dracula is an interpretation of UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, this Dracula is of course both. |
| 93 | * KillItWithFire: In ''Grave Peril'', Dresden mentions that Tepesh established himself by inviting a bunch of rivals [[NastyParty to a feast]] and then burned them alive. |
| 94 | * MonsterProgenitor: According to [[WordOfGod Word of Jim]], Dracula is the creator of the Black Court. |
| 95 | * RebelliousSpirit: In ''Blood Rites'', [=McCoy=] says that Dracula "went to" the Black Court as a form of teenage rebellion. |
| 96 | * WellDoneSonGuy: [[WordOfGod Word Of Jim]] says that Dracula didn't just become a Black Court vampire, as [=McCoy=] implied in ''Blood Rites'', but actually ''created'' the Black Court -- [[https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/3lye65/i_am_jim_butcher_author_of_the_dresden_files_and/cvaiyz6 all to make his father proud of him]]. |
| 97 | [[/folder]] |
| 98 | |
| 99 | [[folder:Mavra]] |
| 100 | !!Mavra |
| 101 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mavra.png]] |
| 102 | |
| 103 | A very old, very nasty Black Court vampire with a grudge against Harry. So far, she seems to have succeeded fairly well at using him as a pawn in her schemes, and has yet to get her comeuppance; we don't even know what her long-term goal is. |
| 104 | ---- |
| 105 | * AlwaysABiggerFish: Is the subject of one in ''Battle Ground'' when it comes out that despite being good enough to tangle with [[PersonOfMassDestruction Harry]], she's [[spoiler: the ''least'' powerful of the higher Black Court members.]] |
| 106 | * ArchEnemy: Seems to be shaping up to be one of these for Harry Dresden. |
| 107 | * BadassTeacher: Turns Bianca from a vanilla vampire to a powerful mage within few years. Unfortunately, she didn't learn common sense. |
| 108 | * TheBusCameBack: She finally comes back in ''Battle Ground'' after not having appeared for ''ten'' books in a row. |
| 109 | * CastingAShadow: ''Grave Peril'' shows her having power over shadows with her sorcery, with dark shadows being described as ''writhing'' and surrounding her hands when she gets ready to cast at Harry. |
| 110 | * DarkActionGirl: She is a powerful and dangerous sorceress and physically powerful as well. Harry always goes out of his way to never fight her directly because he's sure he'd lose in a straight fight. He doubted he could even bind her magic when he assaulted her and called on Ebenezer [=McCoy=] for that job. |
| 111 | * DidntSeeThatComing: She had countermeasures for wizards prepared. Fortunately, Harry has Toot-Toot. |
| 112 | * DudeWheresMyRespect: The other members of the Black Court, save perhaps Drakul himself, don't seem to care much for her. She's openly bitter about this. |
| 113 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She does love her children. |
| 114 | * EvilIsHammy: It's subtle, but Mavra does have a flair for the dramatic. For instance, when she first sends Dresden the pictures of him and Murphy raiding her hideout, she puts in a couple of small details in the envelope simply to unnerve Dresden, seemingly for no other reason than she wanted to scare him. Later, when Dresden comes to the meeting, she appears in Dresden's grave, coalescing out of the fog. Again, for no practical reason, except to scare Dresden. |
| 115 | * FrozenFashionSense: Wears ancient clothing, though at least some of it is modern clothing made in an old style. |
| 116 | * GeniusBruiser: Highly intelligent, knowledgeable, and magically powerful and very strong physically, and TaughtByExperience. |
| 117 | * IGaveMyWord: She will honor her word to the letter of it, but when she promises to meet Harry under an umbrella of truce he trusts her to keep that part up. |
| 118 | * ImmuneToBullets: Via HealingFactor. |
| 119 | * KnightOfCerebus: Every time she's turned up, Harry's and the supernatural community's life goes FUBAR and problems start piling up. |
| 120 | * LadyOfBlackMagic: An ancient, malevolent vampire sorceress with a specialty in veils. |
| 121 | * LightningBruiser: Fast, strong, [[GeniusBruiser smart]], and stealthy. Her only problem is she's a rotting corpse. |
| 122 | * LoopholeAbuse: |
| 123 | ** Bringing in mortal authorities into the supernatural affairs is a big no-no for all sides, but her threatening to send pictures of Harry and Karrin killing "defenseless" men are permitted as her intended target for the fallout is Karrin, who by being a muggle, isn't protected like Harry is. |
| 124 | ** She manages to work out the LogicalWeakness of Harry's original shields, horribly burning his left hand and temporarily leaving him pyrophobic. |
| 125 | * MasterOfIllusion: Veils are her specialty. |
| 126 | * MindRape: Another specialty of hers, for [[TheRenfield quick, easy mooks]]. |
| 127 | * MuggingTheMonster: With the twist being the monster is Harry Dresden. She thought him to be a good puppet, as mentioned in XanatosGambit either Harry ends up dead or she has blackmail on him, and so thinks she can use him for a job in ''Dead Beat''. When he completes the job, he lays down a deadly and vicious verbal smackdown, highlights include he knows how to use necromancy on Black Court vampires like her and he has a Fallen in his head eager to help him, and if she tries something like her gambit again, he will hunt her down. She is genuinely scared when he forced her to swear to never do this action against him again. |
| 128 | * OutGambitted: By Kincaid, though his plan isn't acted upon. Kincaid's plan to deal with her and her scourge is to throw some bombs into the place, watch it burn and burn what remains. This would have killed her, along with her Renfields, and the children they had hostage. But she would be dead. Toot-Toot's presence screws over her plan to kidnap Harry as well. |
| 129 | * SuperStrength: Easily overpowers Harry. Even with the strength of the Winter Knight's Mantle, he cannot even pry a single ''one'' of her fingers off his neck. |
| 130 | * UnwittingPawn: Implied in ''Cold Days'', since she gave the Black Athame to Lea, an ArtifactOfDoom which infects people with Nemesis, a sentient corrupting force that makes its victims ally with the Outsiders. |
| 131 | * WouldHurtAChild: She had a group of children tied to an ''anti-personnel mine'' as a BatmanGambit to kill Harry. It would have worked if not for Kincaid's SuperSenses. |
| 132 | * XanatosGambit: We don't find out until the next book, but her actions in ''Blood Rites'' qualify. No one interferes, and she has a strong, growing power base. She guessed (correctly) that this wouldn't be the case, as well as who the most likely party-crasher would be (namely, Harry) and prepared countermeasures against him specifically. So if he tried to go in alone, he'd die. If he brought a whole group, they might ''still'' die, and if they didn't, she had a [[KansasCityShuffle decoy downstairs to make them think they'd killed her; if it hadn't been for Kincaid, Harry might have fallen for it. In addition to that, she took pictures of the group when they were fighting her Renfields; this gave her blackmail material on one of Harry's friends so she could force him to do what she wanted in future. The countermeasures she prepared for Harry also leaves him hobbling for few books]]. No matter how it turned out, she'd be ahead. In fact, the only way to have actually ''defeated'' Mavra in that instance would have been to go with Kincaid's earlier suggestion: blowing up the whole building, even with the hostages inside. Which means the only person who knew how to outwit the most powerful Black Court vampire we've seen was the guy given his nickname by Vlad "Father of Dracula" Drakul himself. |
| 133 | [[/folder]] |
| 134 | |
| 135 | [[folder:Constance Bushnell, aka "Drulinda"]] |
| 136 | !!Constance "Drulinda" Bushnell |
| 137 | |
| 138 | An unattractive nerd who was unpopular even with other nerds, Constance was not happy with her life. She ran away from home and somehow found a member of the Black Court who made her into one of them. Now reborn as the vampire Drulinda, Constance returns to her Live Action Roleplaying (LARP) group to get her revenge. |
| 139 | ---- |
| 140 | * AlasPoorVillain: She was a regular, bullied girl that was so unhappy she ran away - only to be found by and have her body turned into an insane monster. |
| 141 | * AxCrazy: Oh so very much. Her expression when killing people can only be described as maniacal glee. |
| 142 | * BadBoss: When one of her underling vampires talks out of turn, she rips out his throat, then threatens [[AndIMustScream to cut off all his limbs, throw him into Lake Michigan, and let him drift helplessly for all eternity]] the next time he does that. |
| 143 | * DidntSeeThatComing: Her plan to entrap her former group during their annual late night Valentine's Day party was solid. What happened was that they had two wizards and a White Court vampire as [[SpannerInTheWorks guests]]. She also didn't expect Harry to have planned for being disarmed of his magical weapons. |
| 144 | * DisproportionateRetribution[=/=]EvilIsPetty: Even without the whole vampire angle, bringing in goons, entrapping, threatening, attacking and trying to murder fellow players simply for making fun of you, even killing a security guard for it, is a bit over the top. |
| 145 | * FacialHorror: Harry uses garlic powder to melt her face off. |
| 146 | * KillItWithFire: Her ultimate fate, courtesy of Dresden. |
| 147 | * MeaningfulRename: Drulinda was the name of her vampire character in the LARP group, and it's the name she took after becoming a vampire herself. |
| 148 | * PlainJane: Her human form was described as plain by one of her roleplaying partners. Of course, her appearance only deteriorates once she joins the Black Court. |
| 149 | * {{Revenge}}: Her motivation for attacking the LARP group. |
| 150 | * SuperSpeed: Can dodge attacks as a blur. |
| 151 | * SuperStrength: Overpowers Thomas of all people. |
| 152 | * VillainBall: She knows of Harry Dresden. She doesn't think it odd he isn't mouthing back at her. When she gets close, she gets some garlic spat at her. |
| 153 | [[/folder]] |
| 154 | |
| 155 | [[header:Black Court Thralls, Servitors, and Staff]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Renfields]] |
| 158 | !!Renfields |
| 159 | |
| 160 | Humans who have been enthralled by Black Court vampires through sheer psychic brute force. Nothing remains of their original personalities; they are essentially puppets and act however their vampire master wishes. |
| 161 | ---- |
| 162 | * BigDumbBody: They have no minds of their own and are only useful for their physical capabilities. |
| 163 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: They're brainwashed into being the suicidally-devoted thralls of their master. |
| 164 | * DeathOfPersonality: After being turned into Renfields, nothing remains of the original individual. |
| 165 | * EmptyShell: What they are once they become Renfields. |
| 166 | * FeelNoPain: No matter how badly they're hurt they don't even notice. They just keep trying to fulfill their orders. |
| 167 | * MeatPuppet: Describes them in a nutshell. They are just bodies which do whatever their vampire master commands. |
| 168 | * MercyKill: They're one of the vanishingly few exceptions to The First Law. Once someone is turned into one, they're basically an extension of their creator's will inside a living shell of a body. |
| 169 | * MindRape: Crushed into thralls by pure psychic force. |
| 170 | * TheRenfield: They're actually called this in-universe, and they fit the prototype — thralls serving a vampire master without even a thought of resisting. |
| 171 | * WoundThatWillNotHeal: The mental damage that the Renfields have suffered is apparently irreversible; even the original Merlin couldn't heal them. |
| 172 | [[/folder]] |
| 173 | |
| 174 | !The Red Court |
| 175 | |
| 176 | [[header:Red Court Vampires]] |
| 177 | |
| 178 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 179 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_court.jpg]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | These vampires are demons who can change themselves into (superficially) human forms; like Blacks, Reds feed on blood, but are less supernatural, meaning that both their powers and {{Weaksauce Weakness}}es are less. Because they masterminded a war between the vampire courts and the wizards, they are some of the most visible villains in the series. |
| 182 | ---- |
| 183 | * AchillesHeel: All Reds have a "blood reservoir" in their stomach that holds accumulated blood. Cutting it open will spill the blood, robbing the Red of its power and crippling it. |
| 184 | * AffablyEvil: Moreso than Black, but less so than White. |
| 185 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Unlike blampires, Reds can at least put on a show of humanity, and are capable of loyalty towards each other, but they're completely consumed by bloodlust and have absolutely no regard for human life. The [[VampireRefugee Fellowship of St. Giles]] excepted. However there is a sub-class of the Red Court known as ''esclavos de sangre'' or "blood slaves". These are RC vampires who are completely feral and subjugative to their need for blood. They cannot make a flesh mask and can barely be controlled. |
| 186 | * AwakeningTheSleepingGiant: They seem to have trouble thinking ahead and are all too eager to unleash DisproportionateRetribution without regard to who it might piss off. Bianca's vengeance against Harry gets her and her court killed (and in a roundabout way contributes to the court's destruction), the court angered ''all'' of Faerie by trying to pursue fleeing wizards (which also contributed to the court's destruction, as the first rule of crossing Mab is to ''never cross Mab, ever''), and kidnapping Harry's daughter results in him going after them in full PapaWolf mode and ultimately exterminating them all. |
| 187 | * BlackEyesOfEvil: Mystical full body tattoos in this case placed on members of the [[VampireRefugee Order of St. Giles]] to help their operatives control their thirst for blood and warn other operatives (and anyone who understands them) when this is happening. Usually invisible they turn red (and hurt) when the wearer is in danger of giving in to their thirst for blood, darkening to black if they do so. |
| 188 | * CannonFodder: The ''esclavos de sangre'', aka "blood slaves." They are Red Court vampires who have given in entirely to their blood thirst, going completely feral and thus are unable to form flesh masks or behave in any civilized manner. They are considered scum by the rest of the Court and are used as disposable troops. By the reckoning of the Red Court, letting the blood slaves get killed in combat is no waste, as they're just a strain on the Court's food supply. The Red Court considers their ''non-combatant human slaves'' more valuable than these guys. |
| 189 | * DaywalkingVampire: The most powerful Reds can form flesh masks of sufficient potency that they can shield themselves from sunlight. |
| 190 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: They serve as the most common antagonists for the first twelve books. Then Harry ''kills them all.'' |
| 191 | * DisproportionateRetribution: Very common. See EvilIsPetty below. |
| 192 | * EvilIsPetty: Seems to be a very common trait. |
| 193 | ** Bianca starts off the Wizard-Vampire War because Harry was tangentially involved in the death of her lover ([[TheDeadHaveNames whose name she can't even be bothered to remember]]). |
| 194 | ** Ariana has two distinct moments. |
| 195 | *** She buys Harry's building, installing a bomb inside the walls, but also slowly increases the rent Harry has to pay over the course of a few years. |
| 196 | *** She wants Harry and all his line dead because of what they did to Paolo, whom she married just to torment him. |
| 197 | * FangsAreEvil: Interestingly, they are the only vampires in the setting with actual fangs - Black Court ones merely have regular rotten teeth that just happen to be strong enough to pierce through human skin, and the White Court doesn't have any need for teeth due to [[EmotionEater not drinking blood to begin with]]. Moreover, these fangs only are visible in their true forms- their flesh masks display normal teeth. |
| 198 | * FantasticDrug: Their saliva is an highly addictive narcotic. An antitoxin potion can be created to numb the effects that requires neutralizing eight aspects of pleasure. |
| 199 | * FunctionalAddict: As the whole Red Court are blood-addicted monsters, the one way to prove one's self in rising up the pyramid is to be this. Those who can control their urges, think rationally and plan are highly sought after. Those who lose themselves to their urges are seen as pathetic and disposable. The fact the King is (seemingly) losing his functional parts to his addiction is the reason their war plans aren't always clear and well thought out. |
| 200 | * GodGuise: The King and his Lords of Outer Night are very powerful vampires, but in the end are still just vampires. They are impersonating the real deities of the regions' original human society after the gods went to sleep. The vampires secretly fear the day the real gods return because they are no match for the pissed off deities. |
| 201 | * HolyBurnsEvil: They are repelled by sacred objects. Even the half-turned suffer from touching them, like Susan grabbing a falling ''Fidelacchius'' even though her intent is nothing malevolent. That said, a half-turned using the Sword for its purpose and swearing to do so may, like Susan using ''Amoracchius'' to rescue her daughter. |
| 202 | * HumanoidAbomination: All Red Court Vampires are this to varying degrees, from the simple fact of wearing a "flesh mask" to hide their real nature, to PhysicalGods like The Red King. Their skin also tends to ''[[BodyHorror ripple]]'' when they get upset or pissed off. |
| 203 | * KnightOfCerebus: They appear to play this role early on in the series - but once the Denarians show up, they begin to become more of an offscreen menace. Subverted in ''Changes'', however, where they're consistently shown to be both super-competent and absolutely terrifying. |
| 204 | * {{Mayincatec}}: It's repeatedly indicated that their origins are Mayan: their most sacred site, Chichen Itza, is a Mayan locations, and Esteban (one half of the Eebs) states when arguing with his wife that they will never win total favour of the Red King because they are 'not of the First Maya'. Additionally, their unmasked imagery derives from Camazotz, an ancient Mayan bat-god with a lust for human blood and a possible small army of lesser bat-like servants - in this case, perhaps the earliest Red Court vampires. |
| 205 | * MassOhCrap: Harry postulates that the Red King and his Lords of the Outer Night who are trying to kill Maggie when detained by a shining Holy Light that takes the arm of the King are seriously scared because with all the other events that night, the Three Swords of the Cross, one of whose bearers has a Holy Being speaking through her, and then a second spirit shielding her from mental attacks in the form of a halo, they thought that the gods they are impersonating have awoken and come back to punish them as well. It’s really just an invisible Susan holding ''Amoracchius'' but they don't know that for those few minutes. |
| 206 | * MoralEventHorizon: [[invoked]] As lampshaed by Jim Butcher himself out-of-universe, this is a literal requirement to become a full Red Court vampire. To further clarify, a Red Court half-vampire needs to directly kill someone else to complete the transformation and satisfy a desire that (as shown by the Fellowship of Saint Giles) does not ''need'' to be satisfied in order for them to continue living, selfishly ending someone else's life for their own short-term gain. |
| 207 | * NeverMyFault: Red Court vampires never really recognize when something was their own fault, instead blaming enemies who happened to be tangentially related to whatever happened. Bianca is a shining example of this -- Due to Harry's interview with her, she gets a bit shaken up, and when she feeds on one of her whores immediately after, she doesn't stop in time and the girl dies. Bianca blames Harry for this and all her later time in the series is devoted to making Harry's life miserable and/or killing him. She even turns Susan into a half-vampire just to spite him. |
| 208 | * OneWingedAngel: Most of them spend most of their time in human form, but almost always shift to demonic bat-thing to fight or feed. |
| 209 | * OurVampiresAreDifferent: Formerly-human batlike demons who can assume human form, they're burned by sunlight and repelled by sacred objects. Generally speaking, they're influenced by Mayan legends surrounding vampires. |
| 210 | * VampireRefugee: The Fellowship of St. Giles are humans who were half turned into Red vampires, but never drained another to death and so retain actual human form instead of being bat-things in skin masks - they oppose the Red Court proper wherever they can, and are allies of the White Council. Harry's girlfriend Susan is one. See their information [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesOtherPowerfulPeopleAndEntities here]]. |
| 211 | * VampiresAreSexGods: Deconstructed. They're only ''superficially'' this way, and it takes their narcotic saliva to cement it. When they [[OneWingedAngel take off their flesh masks,]] to humans they're pure FetishRetardant. |
| 212 | * VoluntaryShapeshifting: All Reds (except for those who've been completely consumed by their bloodlust) can assume a human "fleshmask". The most powerful can create fleshmasks with a variety of appearances, rather than just based on what they looked like as humans. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Kukulcan, the Red King]] |
| 216 | !!Kukulcan, the Red King |
| 217 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/red_king_5.png]] |
| 218 | |
| 219 | ->''"A god does not converse or bargain with cattle. He uses and dispenses with them as he sees fit."'' |
| 220 | |
| 221 | Absolute lord of the Red Court, his extreme age and the devotion of both his mortal and vampiric minions have allowed him to ascend to a state approximating ''godhood'' (and indeed, he was venerated as a god by the Mayans). |
| 222 | ---- |
| 223 | * AmbiguousSituation: It's not made clear whether the Red king is genuinely losing himself to his bloodlust and hence his at times erratic behavior or its all an act to manipulate his court into not viewing him as a threat. |
| 224 | * ArcVillain: Of the war with the Red Court, as their leader and founder of all of their evils. He becomes the main villain in ''Changes''. |
| 225 | * BigBadEnsemble: With his daughter Arianna in ''Changes'', though he's ultimately more dangerous. |
| 226 | * TheCaligula: As Harry describes him, he's basically a junkie with blood as his fix, and his behavior can be somewhat erratic as a result. All or part of this may be part of his ObfuscatingStupidity, however -- we don't see enough of him to really tell for sure. |
| 227 | * CompletelyUnnecessaryTranslator: He speaks Mayan with Harry during their first meeting but later reveals that he can actually speak perfect English. The trope is inverted in that he was using his translator as a proxy for his 'negotiations.' He felt completely justified in breaking the terms of it because it was the translator who made the deal, not him. And nobody could apparently speak ancient Mayan to realize that whatever he was saying, it wasn't an agreement to the terms. |
| 228 | * EnemyMine: Briefly with Harry in order to take down Arianna. It doesn't last long. |
| 229 | * EvilOverlord: As the lord of the Red Vampires, he acts as this. |
| 230 | * ExactWords: When Harry demands the right to challenge Arianna for the life of a soon-to-be-sacrificed hostage, the Red King guarantees the safety of said hostage during the duel. Surprise, surprise: no one said anything about ''after'' the duel. |
| 231 | * EyeScream: During his final battle with Harry, he's beaten when Harry impales his eyes and sets them on fire. |
| 232 | * FalseReassurance: Uses this along with his LoopholeAbuse and CompletelyUnnecessaryTranslator to double cross Harry. |
| 233 | * FantasticRacism: Only vampires of original Mayan ancestry can rise to the highest levels of the Red Court under his rule. He also views all humans in general as cattle. |
| 234 | * AGodAmI: Views himself as a god, having effectively replaced an Aztec one. |
| 235 | * GreaterScopeVillain: Of the Red Court Wizard War. He only takes center stage in ''Changes'' after Harry wastes Arianna. |
| 236 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Hoist by his own curse. |
| 237 | * KarmicDeath: He and his entire "family" are wiped out by the very curse he was trying to set off. |
| 238 | * KnowWhenToFoldEm: In ''Proven Guilty'' he has no problems running from battle when things don't go his way and it looks like they will lose. Morgan coming close enough to kill him helps him in this choice. |
| 239 | * LoopholeAbuse: |
| 240 | ** Harry weasels a promise out of him to let him take his daughter away after killing Arianna for him. However, since the Red King was going through a translator to make that promise, he ''technically'' didn't promise ''Harry'' anything... |
| 241 | ** He also used this to HELP Harry, believe it or not. The Eebs say that he cannot interfere in a blood feud; but because Harry has what also amounts to a blood feud, he does have a legitimate right to challenge Arianna. The Red King does have the power to accept Harry's petition (since allowing Arianna to go ahead would ALSO count as interfering with a blood debt), which he uses to allow Harry to fight Arianna. |
| 242 | * MasterActor: He's actually far more intelligent then he first appears to be. He's able to fool Harry into thinking that he can't understand English, and it's possible that his signs of losing himself to his bloodlust is just him putting on a show to put his Court off guard so he can manipulate them more easily. |
| 243 | * TheNapoleon: The Lords of Outer Night and other high-ranking Reds are of superhuman stature, but the king is only a little over five feet. That being said, he presumably has shapeshifting abilities like the rest of the powerful Red Courtiers, so he may not have to be. |
| 244 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: |
| 245 | ** He's much more on-the-ball than he seems; he plays Harry and Arianna against each other quite well. |
| 246 | ** He also demonstrates that he had to have understood Harry before Alamaya actually talked to him; as such he may have been faking entirely. |
| 247 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Looks to be middle aged but is more than 4000 years old. |
| 248 | * PhysicalGod: Roughly on par with ''Odin'', no less (though it should be noted that Odin is nowhere near as powerful as he used to be, having sacrificed a lot of his power to stick around). His chief minions, the Lords of Outer Night, are also godlike. |
| 249 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: He's still got more raw power than almost any other villain in the series. |
| 250 | * RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: He has no problem fighting on the front line in the war. |
| 251 | * SquishyWizard: Relatively speaking. He's got vast psychic and magical power, and significant superhuman strength, but he still seems to be broadly as physically vulnerable as any other Red Court vampire. |
| 252 | * SmugSnake: An ego huge enough to view himself as a god, but at the end he loses. |
| 253 | * TactfulTranslation: Amusingly averted. While holding up the charade of not understanding English, Alamaya tries to take Harry's statement of ThisMeansWar and relate it tactfully. The King slaps Alamaya, and Harry can tell that he's telling the mook "Translate it the way he said it, damn it." |
| 254 | * TimeAbyss: His true age is unknown-- because humans on his continent of origin haven't had a written language for that long. |
| 255 | * VampireMonarch: He is the king of the Red Court vampires. |
| 256 | * VillainousBreakdown: After Harry beats the crap out of him he goes from confident and intelligent SmugSnake to a thrashing screaming lunatic who summons his soldiers (despite knowing that they will kill him for being defeated by a mortal) without caring about the consequences. And he cuts one of his own deputies in half with the sheer magical backlash. He does not even say a word, just screaming mindlessly. |
| 257 | * WouldHitAGirl: Not just hit, ''torture and slaughter''. |
| 258 | * WouldHurtAChild: Same as above. |
| 259 | [[/folder]] |
| 260 | |
| 261 | [[folder:Duke Paolo Ortega]] |
| 262 | !!Duke Paolo Ortega |
| 263 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paolo.png]] |
| 264 | Born in Spain at the end of the 15th century and one of Cortez's conquistadors. During his time in South America, he fell in love with a local princess and married her. She turned out to be a Red Court vampire, and turned Paolo into a vampire. Paolo's abilities allowed him to rise through the ranks, and he was a Warlord of the Red Court. |
| 265 | ---- |
| 266 | * AllLoveIsUnrequited: Paolo seems to be quite devoted to Arianna. Arianna is equally devoted to making his life miserable. |
| 267 | * AndYourLittleDogToo: Threatens to kill all of Harry's friends and allies to get him to accept the duel, then threatens to do so anyway to convince Harry to let Ortega kill him. Naturally, this just convinces Harry to end him. |
| 268 | * AscendedExtra: Has a small appearance near the end of ''Grave Peril''. Is a secondary villain in ''Death Masks ''. |
| 269 | * ColonyDrop: Ebenezar takes him out by dropping a derelict Soviet Satellite on Ortega's home. |
| 270 | * CombatPragmatist: He will use a gun hidden in his side to take out Harry during a battle of just will power over controlling a dangerous item. |
| 271 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He appears to be polite, friendly even to his enemies and opponents, and is willing to sit down and have a beer with someone he's planning to kill. However it's a load of crap, with Shiro pointing out that the only reason he's doing it that way is because he thinks it's the most efficient way to kill someone. When he thinks he's going to lose, he drops the act. |
| 272 | * GeniusBruiser: Paolo is definitely no slouch in hand-to-hand combat, and a highly skilled strategist, as one would expect from a Red Court Warlord, and someone who is implied to be the Red Court's counterpart to the Blackstaff. He is also officially employed as a professor of mythology. |
| 273 | * HeroKiller: Was behind the attack on Simon Petrovich's homebase at Archangel. |
| 274 | * JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: He seems like a NobleDemon and AffablyEvil at first but when the gloves are down he proves it's all an act and that he's really a vicious monster underneath. Even if he won his duel against Harry, he was still going to kill all of Harry's friends. |
| 275 | * LaserGuidedKarma: Killed by the Blackstaff, a.k.a. both the grandfather of the man he just tried to kill ''and'' the best friend of the White Council's expert on vampirism whose death he personally arranged. |
| 276 | * NobleDemon: Zigzagged. He acts the part of the honorable, cultured WorthyOpponent when things are going his way, but by the end of ''Death Masks'' he has lost his cool and admits to some very foul play. It is noble he wants to spare his court the war and risk his own life for it when someone else could well have been sent, expressing similar care for Bianca and offering Dresden a third option - not so much the turn his behaviour takes when that third option is declined and the affable mask is gone entirely by then end. Furious, cheating and arranging the murder of associates of Dresden. |
| 277 | * PapaWolf: Possibly. While he is trying to achieve victory/peace for the Red Court, he is also aggreived of the deat of Bianca. |
| 278 | * PetTheDog: One of his few redeeming qualities is that he does seem to care for his "child" Bianca. He does also at least present Dresden with a third option to death otherwise or duel fighting him, even if it is a relatively poor one, which he admits would be controversial of him to do at all. |
| 279 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Paolo was one of Cortez's original conquistadors. |
| 280 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Ish. His side is the monsters who causes harm for others, but he does seek the betterment of the Court and his people within it even to the Detriment of himself. |
| 281 | * UnholyMatrimony: To Arianna, see AllLoveIsUnrequited above. |
| 282 | [[/folder]] |
| 283 | |
| 284 | [[folder:Duchess Arianna Ortega]] |
| 285 | !!Duchess Arianna Ortega |
| 286 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arianna.png]] |
| 287 | |
| 288 | Wife of Paolo, daughter of the Red King, highly placed in the Red Court, and a sorceress. |
| 289 | ---- |
| 290 | * AchillesHeel: Loses her final battle with Harry because she is unable to adapt to the artificial handicap placed on both individuals. Harry actually implies that if she had been allowed to use hand-to-hand combat, she would have won whether or not he had powers. |
| 291 | * BigBadEnsemble: Arianna kicks off the events of ''Changes'' in order to overthrow her father. However... |
| 292 | * BigBadWannabe: While the Red King is clearly a junkie, it's also clear that he still retains a degree of competence, leading to him manipulating her into getting killed by Harry. |
| 293 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: During her first meeting with Harry she pretends to be compassionate, telling him she knows exactly how much pain he's feeling (since she had his daughter kidnapped). |
| 294 | * BlatantLies: Almost everyone in the White Council knows she is lying her ass off. Due to political reasons, they are forced to play ball. |
| 295 | * BreakTheHaughty: After Harry kicks her ass all she can do is stammer in shock. Needless to say it was VERY satisfying. |
| 296 | * ChekhovsGunman: Mentioned in passing in ''Proven Guilty'' as one of the bidders in Madrigal Raith's auction of one Harry Dresden, slightly used. |
| 297 | * DisproportionateRetribution: The entire plot of ''Changes'' happens because Ebenezer killed Paolo Ortega. She'll kill Harry's daughter, Harry and Susan, their siblings, their parents and ''their'' siblings, ad infinitum. All because Harry killed a guy she personally hated and spent centuries tormenting. |
| 298 | * EvilIsPetty: Showcases the Red Court's pettiness rather well. As discovered in ''Changes'', she bought Harry's office building so she could raise his rent. She also married Ortega not out of any kind of affection, but to romantically toy with him, because he was one of the Spanish conquistadors who invaded the lands of the Mayan people some centuries back. |
| 299 | * ExactWords: Oh yes. She apparently gave her word not to attack anyone during her peace treaty meeting at White Council headquarters. Nobody said anything about lacing the place with some sort of magical plague that went active after she left. |
| 300 | * TheHeavy: She’s not actually the BigBad of ''Changes'' - that's her father who manipulated her actions throughout the novel. That said, she’s still the driving force of the plot by kidnapping and threatening the life of Harry's daughter. |
| 301 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Harry impales her with a dozen icicles, one of which is the size of his arm. |
| 302 | * KillItWithWater: Uses it defensively to counter Harry's fire spells and serve as a scalding smokescreen; however, she has absolutely no tactical flexibility, and this backfires horribly when Harry [[KillItWithIce switches elements]]. |
| 303 | * LadyOfBlackMagic: She's a noblewoman described as gorgeous in a goddess kind of way (or at least, her flesh mask is) and powerful sorceress. |
| 304 | * LaserGuidedKarma: She revels in having unfair advantage over her enemies. She meets her end when an enemy has unfair advantage over her. |
| 305 | * MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Oh yes. Arianna's entire marriage to Paolo was for the sole purpose of punishing Paolo through the use of mixed messages for what the conquistadors did to the people of South America. |
| 306 | * {{Revenge}}: She kidnaps Maggie to target the bloodline curse in a revenge plot. Harry originally thought it was to target ''him'' in revenge for killing Bianca and starting the war. Arianna is actually targeting Ebenezer for killing Paolo. While she isn't very fond of him in life, decorum and tradition demanded that she get revenge for the killing of her husband. |
| 307 | * SecretKeeper: She knew Ebenezer was Harry's grandfather before Harry did. Sometime in the past, Harry's mother Margaret—then a close associate of Lord Raith—invited Ebenezer to dinner at the Raith estate. Arianna, in her capacity as a powerful, high-ranking vampire of the Red Court, was also in attendance. Ebenezer and Margaret were familiar with each other—''too'' familiar—and it showed when they got into an arguement there. Arianna noticed. Lord Raith, never having had a functional familial relationship his life, missed the subtext completely. |
| 308 | * {{Shapeshifter}}: Downplayed, but she can alter her meatsuit to her whims. |
| 309 | * ShockAndAwe: Uses lightning spells as her offensive choice during the duel; one hit is enough to send [[BlownAcrossTheRoom Harry flying and land dazed]]. |
| 310 | * SmugSnake: Constantly refers to Harry and humans in general as cattle. Cue Harry's BondOneLiner: "Moo." |
| 311 | * TheStarscream: To her father the Red King, though it's implied she was genuinely loyal previously, his downward spiral means it's time for his replacement. Unusual for this trope, she isn't in the position of Court hierarchy to succeed her father; one of the Lords of Outer Night would have been selected to be the new Kukulcan, but she would have been in a strong position to fill in the new vacancy. |
| 312 | * TimeAbyss: She is implied to have been a few thousand years old when she met Paolo in 1519. Is also implied to be the ''biological'' daughter of the Red King. Luccio implies she is older than writing itself. |
| 313 | * UnholyMatrimony: To Paolo Ortega, as part of her mission to screw up his life as much as possible. |
| 314 | * VillainousBreakdown: After Harry defeats her, she just stammers incoherently saying: "Cattle. You are c-cattle." To which Harry has only one thing to say before he kills her: [[BondOneLiner "Moo."]] |
| 315 | * WouldHurtAChild: She plans to sacrifice Maggie personally. Only Harry's arrival and the fact that he has an equally legitimate claim (meaning that her dad has the perfect excuse to delay her until after Harry's claim was settled) as well as her death at Harry's hands in the resulting duel prevents her from doing so. |
| 316 | * YourHeadAsplode: After Harry finishes with her, all that’s left is a smoking headless corpse, since his final blow causes her head to blow up. |
| 317 | [[/folder]] |
| 318 | |
| 319 | [[folder:Margravine Bianca St. Claire]] |
| 320 | !!Margravine Bianca St. Claire |
| 321 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/biance.png]] |
| 322 | [[caption-width-right:175:Bianca in her human form...]] |
| 323 | |
| 324 | [[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bianca2_stormfront.png]] |
| 325 | [[caption-width-right:175:...and her true form.]] |
| 326 | |
| 327 | Initially a minor character in the book ''Storm Front'', though her role greatly expanded as the series went on. After Harry's actions indirectly caused her to kill her lover, Bianca enacted a plot of revenge that ultimately started the first magical war in centuries. She's also the vampiric daughter of Paolo Ortega, and the great-granddaughter (in vampire terms anyway) to the Red King. |
| 328 | ---- |
| 329 | * BigBadDuumvirate: With the Nightmare in ''Grave Peril'', Bianca serving as the mastermind and Kravos as TheHeavy. |
| 330 | * BlueBlood: Considering that her vampire grandmother is the Red King's daughter, she's practically royalty. |
| 331 | * BullyingADragon: She bullies, badgers, hurts, torments and molests Harry in every way possible. He proceeds to completely lose it and reduces her and her minions to charred corpses. |
| 332 | * DefeatByModesty: Non-nude variation; in their first meeting Bianca becomes very subdued after Harry winds up revealing her true form. |
| 333 | * EvilIsPetty: |
| 334 | ** The reason she hates Thomas and Justine is because Thomas got Justine to be his sex partner instead of one of her whores. Also vamps Susan to give the middle finger to Harry. This turns out to be a very bad idea. |
| 335 | ** Also, she hates Harry because she blames him for the death of one of her girls in ''Literature/{{Storm Front|DresdenFiles}}''. To recount: she baselessly blames Harry for the death of the girl he came to interrogate Bianca about; Bianca then attacks Harry and makes him bleed; Harry defends himself and hurts her back; and Bianca gets who is now caught herself in bloodlust carried away when feeding afterwards and blames Harry for the death that ''she'' caused. Oh, and to make matters worse? ''She doesn't even remember the girl's name.'' |
| 336 | * EvilRedhead: Her meatsuit has auburn hair when Harry first meets her. |
| 337 | * EvilVirtues: Despite all of her flaws, she does make a point of making sure her girls are taken care of and she’s furious when one is killed while on the job in "Storm Front". |
| 338 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: By the end of her appearance in ''Storm Front'', she makes it perfectly clear that she intends to make Harry regret causing her pain and humiliation, which was the result of him defending himself from her essentially [[HairTriggerTemper throwing a tantrum and trying to kill Harry]]. |
| 339 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Bianca and most of her coven are [[KarmicDeath killed by a ghost army comprised of her victims]] that Harry summons up, including the lover she killed in ''Storm Front.'' Note that Harry couldn't have done this without her coven having killed all of those people, and having stirred up all the ghosts in Chicago. |
| 340 | * KarmicDeath: She's killed by Harry summoning an army of ghosts of those she's killed. After tormenting spirits across Chicago and using the ghost of Leonid Kravos as part of her plan against Harry, she is ripped to pieces by the spirits of those she slew, with the spirit of the woman she killed [[NeverMyFault whose death she blames Harry for]] delivering the final blow. And the only reason Harry was able to rile up so many spirits anyway was because Bianca had spent the time messing around with ghosts in the first place. |
| 341 | * LesbianVampire: Introduced with a nearly naked female prostitute on her lap. |
| 342 | * IJustWantToBeBeautiful: Harry speculates this is the reason why she became so subdued after Harry takes out her flesh mask. |
| 343 | * MuggingTheMonster: Yes, let's try to mess with Harry Dresden, the BlackSheep of the White Council. No way ''that'' will backfire. |
| 344 | * NeverMyFault: Bianca accidentally kills her lover by draining all her blood, because Harry defended himself against the vampire and hurt her (Bianca) -- so she blames Harry. Never mind the fact that ''she'' attacked ''him'' first, with almost no provocation, or that the woman was really more her slave than her lover, considering she'd gotten her addicted to her narcotic saliva. Still, this is very much the Red Court mindset. |
| 345 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: How have Bianca's actions screwed over her own side? Let me count the ways: |
| 346 | ** First, starting the vampire war that ended in a total annihilation of the Red Court, at the hands of the very man she wanted revenge on no less. |
| 347 | ** Turning Susan into a half-vampire ended up providing the means to create said total loss. |
| 348 | ** That gravestone and tomb she gave to Harry saved his life (ish -- he was a shade at that point). |
| 349 | ** Giving that [[ArtifactOfDoom athame]] to Lea screwed over ''everyone'', but Lea's revenge for it also helped destroy the Red Court. |
| 350 | * NotMeThisTime: Harry initially seeks her out to question her about the Three-Eye operation and the attacks on Marcone's people. And while she's guilty of a whole lot of horrible things, she's innocent of that particular plot. |
| 351 | * RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The first and third books, as well as half of the fourth, are a direct result of Bianca's misdirected desire for Harry Dresden's death. |
| 352 | * SingleTear: After Harry subdues her. Harry being Harry, feels bad about it. |
| 353 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Only really important in the first and third book, but her actions effect the whole series at least up to ''Cold Days''. Seriously, that party of hers was the catalyst for a ton of later events (and not all of them were negative). |
| 354 | ** The most obvious is, of course, the Vampire War and everything that resulted from it. |
| 355 | ** The Grave she gave Harry turned out to be a big help in ''Literature/GhostStory''. |
| 356 | ** Giving Lea that athame led to her (and later on Maeve) being infected by Nemesis, and thus the events of ''Literature/ColdDays''. |
| 357 | ** She likely helped out Cowl and Kumori in some dangerous way (or vice versa), though what will result from that remains to be seen. |
| 358 | * TookALevelInBadass: Adds sorcery to her repertoire from Mavra's coaching, becoming very powerful. However, while she can match Harry in power, Harry has '''decades''' of ''combat experience'' compared to her ''three years'' of '''training'''. |
| 359 | * VampiresAreRich: The Velvet Room was the nicest brothel in the city of Chicago and made her lots of money. That also ignores the fact she's probably had close to a century of building interest. |
| 360 | [[/folder]] |
| 361 | |
| 362 | [[folder:Baroness [=LeBlanc=]]] |
| 363 | !!Baroness [=LeBlanc=] |
| 364 | |
| 365 | A Red Court noble and scientist trying to develop artificial methods of creating true love. Unfortunately, her experiments lead to three murder-suicide pacts within a single month, resulting in Dresden and Murphy going after her. Appears in the short story "Love Hurts". |
| 366 | ---- |
| 367 | * EvilBrit: She has the accent for it. |
| 368 | * {{Irony}}: Her love spell is based in the "Tunnel of Terror" ride. |
| 369 | * LoopholeAbuse: When discovered, she thought that she had a measure of protection since the war with the vampires had hit a cold point, and she would be within her rights to kill Harry for interfering. After a brief conversation with Harry and Murphy on why she did it, it was clear they weren't going to let her go, so she ribs Murphy a bit. She would have possibly been victim of this herself since it was ''Murphy'' who killed her, but the one witness would likely not know who to report it to and the Red Court would likely just kill him out of hand. |
| 370 | * LovePotion: The belts of her ride act as one, binding the two riders in the car under the enchantment. This happens even if they are [[BrotherSisterIncest blood siblings]]. |
| 371 | * MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: Her work on inducing [[OneTrueLove true love]] seemed to work out for thousands of couples, barring a few outliers [[DrivenToSuicide which were adversely affected]]. [=LeBlanc=] brushed them off as an unfortunate but inevitable result. And when Dresden calls her out on experimenting on the minds of the unsuspecting masses, she made the argument that the world would ultimately be a happier place with love and without the White Court, but she didn't even try to hide that she was doing it for purely selfish reasoning. |
| 372 | * ThePowerOfLove: Her experiment is about creating True Love artificially as a means of poisoning the well, so to speak, against the White Court. If she can create Love, the strongest of the emotions, then there could be a way to destroy the White Court by tainting their food supplies. |
| 373 | * VillainBall: |
| 374 | ** Given all the damage Dresden inflicted on the Red Court by that point, going up against him and Murphy with only a couple of human thugs as backup was a very unwise idea. |
| 375 | ** Secondly, trying to pressing the buttons on ''[[ActionGirl Murphy]]'' by describing [[ToThePain what the Reds had in store for Harry]] was a bad move on her part. |
| 376 | * YourHeadAsplode: Courtesy of Murphy, though [[TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain the first bullet was a painful hindrance]], Murph ended up using the better part of a full magazine of her pistol. |
| 377 | [[/folder]] |
| 378 | |
| 379 | [[folder:Baron Bravosa]] |
| 380 | !!Baron Bravosa |
| 381 | [[quoteright:240:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bravosa_warcry.png]] |
| 382 | [[caption-width-right:240:The Red Court's man to take out a Venatori stronghold.]] |
| 383 | |
| 384 | ->''"We only die if we are stupid."'' |
| 385 | |
| 386 | A Red Court noble who led the attack on a Venatori outpost that was guarding a Shoggoth. Appeared in the comic ''ComicBook/WarCry''. |
| 387 | ---- |
| 388 | * BadBoss: He beats up his aide when she annoys him. |
| 389 | * DirtyCoward: Begs for his life after Harry pushes him into the jaws of a very hungry Shoggoth. |
| 390 | * FauxAffablyEvil: His genial attitude vanished as soon as the Wardens and Venatori put up a serious fight. |
| 391 | * IronicDeath: He told his assistant that, in contrast to humans who can die of old age or illness, vampires die only when they are stupid. Then he dies...on account of his own stupidity. |
| 392 | * MeaningfulName: His name sounds like "bravado", which is an apt description of his character. |
| 393 | * TooDumbToLive: He spent the whole series demanding the Shoggoth. Once Harry let it loose on him, he had no idea how to handle it and was devoured. |
| 394 | * {{Troll}}: During the attack on the outpost, he at one point has his troops throw rocks through the house's windows. The rocks aren't nearly as effective as a hail of gunfire would be and he knows it, but it freaks out his opponents nonetheless. |
| 395 | [[/folder]] |
| 396 | |
| 397 | [[folder:Bravosa's Aide]] |
| 398 | !!Bravosa's aide |
| 399 | [[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bravosaaide_warcry.png]] |
| 400 | [[caption-width-right:150:Baron Bravosa's number two.]] |
| 401 | |
| 402 | A female vampire who assisted Bravosa during his attack on the Venatori outpost in ''ComicBook/WarCry''. |
| 403 | ---- |
| 404 | * ButtMonkey: Slapped around by Bravosa for her perceived stupidity, then stabbed through the mouth by Thomas Raith. |
| 405 | * DumbassHasAPoint: While it’s ambiguous how intelligent she actually is, she is prone to impatience and Bravosa views very poorly about her intellect - but she’s absolutely spot on to be worried about a new arrival [[spoiler: who turns out to be Thomas Raith]]. |
| 406 | * GoodThingYouCanHeal: Getting stabbed through the mouth would be quite fatal otherwise. |
| 407 | * IncompletelyTrained: Bravosa quickly susses out that she’s relatively newly Turned and not as experienced in Court matters or tactics as many other vampires are, evident with her still being said to have the impatience of a mortal. |
| 408 | * ScrewThisImOutOfHere: Attempts to flee when [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination Shoggoth]]]] is summoned. |
| 409 | * TheWatson: Serves as this so Bravosa can explain his plan and his philosophies. |
| 410 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Shows up again after her injury by Raith, where Bravosa again grabs her - her seeming to be trying to flee the released [[spoiler:Shoggoth]]. Given her boss is soon distracted and she isn’t seen again, the most likely answer to this is that she did successfully flee soon after. [[spoiler: Although even then, with what later happens to the Red Court...]] |
| 411 | [[/folder]] |
| 412 | |
| 413 | [[folder:Kyle and Kelly Hamilton]] |
| 414 | !!Kyle and Kelly Hamilton |
| 415 | %%Despite the name of the picture, it's clearly of the Hamiltons. You can tell because of the tennis accoutrements; Harry repeatedly says that the Hamiltons look like tennis players. |
| 416 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/eebs.png]] |
| 417 | The Hamilton are a brother-sister team who serve as Bianca's henchmen, running her various "errands" for court business. They appear in ''Literature/GravePeril''. |
| 418 | ---- |
| 419 | * ButtMonkey: Kelly especially is on the receiving end of this, receiving the most punishment for their trouble. |
| 420 | ** They move in to intimidate and deliver an invitation to Harry, Kyle has legal protection as a messenger and Kelly gets fingered as not having the same luxury. |
| 421 | ** They attack Harry, Kyle gets injured and Kelly gets fried by sunlight. |
| 422 | ** They accost Harry and Michael at Bianca's ball, Kelly gets her hand burned by Michael's power of faith. Really, you would almost feel sorry for her. |
| 423 | * CostumePorn: For all their flaws, they sure do dress distinctively. [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl Especially Kelly.]] |
| 424 | * TheDividual: In their case it's played as a Syndividual. They are reasonably distinct, but for the purposes of the plot, they move and act as a single entity. |
| 425 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Kyle at least demonstrates care towards his sister (and Kelly likely cared about him too) - although this goes out of the window when they are both driven mad by bloodlust. |
| 426 | * KillItWithFire: Harry uses the power he stole from Kravos to kill them in a fire spell quite unlike his ''Fuego'' spell, and burns them to death during his attack on Bianca's mansion. |
| 427 | * SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Implemented in a pretty dark way. Kyle is more restrained, cheerfully FauxAffablyEvil, and keeps his mounting anger behind a fraying false smile. Kelly, on the other hand, is much hungrier and enthusiastic with her vampirism, and is clearly the less stable of the two because of it. After Harry kills them, Bianca remarks that Kelly's mindset would ensure that she wouldn't survive in the Court for long, and while Kyle would have outlasted her, it wouldn't be indefinitely. |
| 428 | * SiblingTeam: The Hamiltons are brother and sister, and they're never seen apart. |
| 429 | * WithFriendsLikeThese: In their last confrontation with Harry, Susan tosses Kyle hard into Kelly. Already insane with bloodlust, Kelly begins attacking the thing that hurt her last, Kyle, and he loses it too. Their fighting gave Harry the moment he needed to kill them both. |
| 430 | [[/folder]] |
| 431 | |
| 432 | [[folder:Esteban and Esmerelda Batiste (The Eebs)]] |
| 433 | !!Esteban and Esmerelda Batiste |
| 434 | The Batistes, referred to disparagingly as the "Eebs" by Harry, are a pair of highly-skilled Red Court assassins dispatched by the Red King to either kill or capture Harry. They generally pose as a married couple, and have something resembling love and affection for one another. |
| 435 | ---- |
| 436 | * AffablyEvil: The Eebs know their manners. |
| 437 | * AmbiguousSituation: Perhaps uniquely among their Court - behind the nigh impenetrable wards of the Erlking's abode, deep within the Nevernever where magic struggles to cross over to, there is a chance they may actually still be alive. |
| 438 | * AxCrazy: They like their job. |
| 439 | * BattleCouple: They're a highly dedicated vampire assassin couple. |
| 440 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: They are genuinely surprised by the concept of the Red King simply telling Arianna to not do her ritual. |
| 441 | * BoringButPractical: Described their entire methodology. The Eebs prefer to hunt their prey using constant, low-risk pressure, such as sending mortal hitmen, doing drive-by shootings, firebombing buildings, and so on. Though individual hits have a low chance of success, they can keep up the pressure on their target until it sticks. |
| 442 | * CombatPragmatist: Their entire strategy is to keep a constant stream of low tier, but still fatal attacks. They are also fully prepared to run from a stronger opponent. |
| 443 | * DirtyCoward: The Eebs do ''not'' expose themselves to danger if they can avoid it. Most famously, when Esteban first meets Harry face-to-face, his ([[TheDreaded admittedly]] [[PersonOfMassDestruction warranted]]) response is to scream and run for his life. |
| 444 | * FantasticRacism: They suffer a slight version of this. As they aren't from the original Mayan group of vampires, it is unlikely they will be allowed to ascend into the upper crust of Red Court nobility. |
| 445 | * FateWorseThanDeath: Implied, when they lose the trial by combat in the Erlking's lair, he outright tells them that they're going to be subjected to ColdBloodedTorture for the Goblins' amusement. |
| 446 | * HugeGuyTinyGirl: Esteban is about height with Harry, while Esmeralda is even shorter than Butters. |
| 447 | * NeverFoundTheBody: First being held as quarry by the Erlking's minions, then being hit by the Death Curse, it seems likely that they won't make it. Then again, Harry mentions that a place deep in the Nevernever could be enough to shield them from the Death Curse, so they might have survived when Harry obliterates the Reds. |
| 448 | * TooDumbToLive: Lies to the face of ''a fae king'' and later '''threatens''' him. Not many supernatural beings in Dresdenverse are ''that stupid''. |
| 449 | * UnholyMatrimony: The Eebs seem to be quite affectionate and happy to be around each other. Martin disparages it as "complementary insanities". |
| 450 | * TheVamp: In one scene, the Eebs kidnapped Harry so that they could "negotiate" with him against pursuing his feud with the Red Court. As for her attempts at dialogue, Esmerelda all but ravishes Harry there and then. Esteban acts like ''he didn't even notice.'' |
| 451 | [[/folder]] |
| 452 | |
| 453 | [[header:Red Court Thralls, Servitors, and Staff]] |
| 454 | |
| 455 | [[folder:Rachel, aka "Paula"]] |
| 456 | !!Rachel, aka "Paula" |
| 457 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paula_rachel.PNG]] |
| 458 | [[caption-width-right:300: A regular woman with a tragic fate, whose impact was felt long after death.]] |
| 459 | |
| 460 | One of Bianca's employees at the Red Room. After Dresden wounded Bianca, Bianca accidentally killed Rachel by completely draining her blood, kicking off the conflict between them. |
| 461 | ---- |
| 462 | * BigDamnHeroes: Her ghost arrives JustInTime to prevent Bianca from murdering Susan in spite. |
| 463 | * {{Revenge}}: Toward the end of ''Grave Peril'', it turns out her ghost has been haunting Bianca, but she didn't have enough power to really do anything until Harry poured a ton of magic into her and all the other victims haunting her house. |
| 464 | * SmallRoleBigImpact: Rachel is a minor character who doesn't even survive the first half of the first novel. Dresden doesn't even learn her real name until the third novel. But her death instigates the vampire war which drives most of the first half of the entire series. |
| 465 | * StageName: Rachel used the name of Paula on stage. Dresden didn't even know this wasn't her real name until later, and he didn't start referring to her as Rachel until the ''Grave Peril'' case. |
| 466 | [[/folder]] |
| 467 | |
| 468 | [[folder:Alamaya]] |
| 469 | !!Alamaya |
| 470 | |
| 471 | A mortal priestess of the Red King who takes charge of Dresden and his group once they arrive at Chichen Itza. Utterly devoted to her lord. |
| 472 | ---- |
| 473 | * CompletelyUnnecessaryTranslator: For the Red King, who turns out to speak English perfectly well. |
| 474 | * TheHost: Of the duel between Dresden and Arianna. |
| 475 | * KarmicDeath: She helped the Red Court sacrifice thousands of prisoners. When the remainder were freed, one of them caught her and bashed her head in. |
| 476 | * MsFanservice: Her only clothes are a ceremonial cloak which barely covers her naughty bits and a belt. She takes ''even'' them off for some ceremonies. |
| 477 | * NonActionGuy: Gender-flipped. She is a priestess, not a fighter. Her killer was several decades older than her, armed with only a rock, while Alamaya had knives on her person. |
| 478 | * TactfulTranslation: She tries this, but the Red King slaps her and Dresden can tell he's ordering her to just translate whatever Dresden said no matter how rude it was. |
| 479 | * UndyingLoyalty: She offers to let Dresden either kill her or, ahem 'defile her', just because the Red King told her to do so. |
| 480 | * VirginPower: She's a virgin, but her abilities are not affected by it. |
| 481 | [[/folder]] |
| 482 | |
| 483 | [[folder:The Green Beret]] |
| 484 | !!The Green Beret |
| 485 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/greenberet_warcry.png]] |
| 486 | [[caption-width-right:200:He's the psychopath on the left.]] |
| 487 | |
| 488 | An experienced veteran mercenary who supports the Red Court during their assault on a Venatori Outpost in ''ComicBook/WarCry''. |
| 489 | ---- |
| 490 | * BadassNormal: He's a human in an army of vampires, but he actually inflicts all of the casualties that the Venatori suffers -- he gets three kills, none of the vampires or other mercenaries get any. |
| 491 | * BerserkButton: He remains professional through most of his fight, but when [=McGuckin=] begins to taunt him, he snaps and savagely assaults him. This distracts him for long enough that Ischenko can grab the gun [=McGuckin=] knocked from his hand and shoot him. |
| 492 | * ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: It's mentioned he was a Green Beret before joining the Red Court. |
| 493 | * IronicDeath: Killed by his own former hostage, Ischenko. |
| 494 | * LoopholeAbuse: The vampires can't cross the threshold of the house, but pure mortals like this guy can. |
| 495 | * SociopathicSoldier: A veteran who is gleeful about the chance to kill the Venatori. |
| 496 | [[/folder]] |
| 497 | |
| 498 | [[folder:The Ik'k'uox]] |
| 499 | !!The Ik'k'uox |
| 500 | |
| 501 | A Mayan devourer demon under the Eebs' command that's used as their heavy-hitter when [[BoringButPractical normal tactics]] aren't effective. Harry [[TheNicknamer calls it the Ick]] due to pronunciation problems. |
| 502 | ---- |
| 503 | * AbnormalLimbRotationRange: Seems to be able to rotate its whole body if necessary. |
| 504 | * BlackEyesOfEvil: Its whole body is black but shares its eye color with the Red Court. |
| 505 | * BullFightBoss: In addition to being the size of one, this is the best tactic for fighting it. |
| 506 | * CombatByChampion: Serves as one for the Reds during the Erlking's trial. |
| 507 | * TheDreaded: Susan has a major freak out in the FBI building after hearing its heartbeat. |
| 508 | * FourLegsGoodTwoLegsBetter: Can switch between them if necessary. |
| 509 | * GameBreakingInjury: Gains one from Mouse, slowing it down enough to be defeated. |
| 510 | * HellIsThatNoise: The sound of its heartbeat signifies two things. First, the monster is in the general vicinity. Second, ''it's coming''. |
| 511 | * ImplacableMan: Takes Harry dropping a city bus sized stalactite on top it to put it down. |
| 512 | * LightningBruiser: A pretty strong and fast creature. |
| 513 | * MeaningfulName: It's Mayan for Dark and Eater respectively. |
| 514 | * OurMonstersAreWeird: It has the pitch-black combined facial features of a human, jaguar, wild boar and crocodile. |
| 515 | * TheUnpronounceable: Harry just calls it the Ick. |
| 516 | * SignatureSoundEffect: Its drum-like heartbeat. |
| 517 | [[/folder]] |
| 518 | |
| 519 | [[folder:"Fido" the Guard]] |
| 520 | |
| 521 | A security guard for Bianca's Velvet Room. |
| 522 | ---- |
| 523 | * BadassInANiceSuit: Harry takes note of the expensive suit specifically tailored for the guard, hiding his muscles. |
| 524 | * BlatantLies: His lie of Bianca not being present didn't fool Harry. |
| 525 | * NoNameGiven: Fido is just Harry's nickname for him |
| 526 | * OhCrap: When he realises Bianca killed Paula. |
| 527 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Luckily for Harry. Confisticates Harry's hidden knife and cane since they could be used as weapons. He does not confisticate his pendant thinking only a crucifix or cross will be problematic (not knowing ''any'' religious symbol will do) and lets in Harry's potion despite it not at all smelling like a cola as Harry claimed. Harry lampshades it as usual |
| 528 | [[/folder]] |
| 529 | |
| 530 | !The White Court |
| 531 | |
| 532 | [[header: White Court Vampires]] |
| 533 | |
| 534 | For Vittorio Malvora, see [[Characters/TheDresdenFilesTheOutsiders The Outsiders]] |
| 535 | |
| 536 | [[folder:In General]] |
| 537 | [[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/white_court_vampires.png]] |
| 538 | |
| 539 | The most human of the vampires, the White Court feed on emotional energy, rather than blood. White Court vampires are born, not made, and they look like eerily beautiful humans. They're immune to most of the traditional vampire weaknesses, but are literally allergic to the opposite emotion they feed off of. (Lust-Love; Fear-Courage; Despair-Hope). Also notable for their cultural ComplexityAddiction. |
| 540 | ---- |
| 541 | * AffablyEvil: Most of them at least try to be this. |
| 542 | * AllergicToLove: It burns the Raiths, literally. |
| 543 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted. Thomas proves that, unlike the other Courts, Whites ''can'' resist their darker urges. It's hard, though, and most don't really bother. |
| 544 | * TheBeautifulElite: All of them are achingly beautiful. Harry describes Thomas as the lost Greek god of body cologne. |
| 545 | * CombatPragmatist: Anastasia Luccio notes that without the protection of SacredHospitality, even more friendly vampires like Lara will not hesitate to use things like hidden claymores at the entrances to deal with troublesome wizards. |
| 546 | * ComplexityAddiction: Whites hate getting their hands dirty and prefer to work through catspaws, pawns, and fall guys- the more complex a scheme is, the more respect it gets from the rest of the Court. It helps that they're usually regarded as the physically weakest of the Courts, lacking the ferocity of the Reds or the raw strength of the Blacks. As a result, it's viewed as a sign of weakness within the Court for a plan to rely on physically overpowering a foe. This bites Madrigal in the ass when Dresden arrives to confront him for killing magic-users that don't meet, or haven't yet met, the qualifications of the White Council to try and deprive the White Council for future members. Lord Raith/Lara immediately points out that this was an entirely predictable outcome to his 'cunning' plan because of how obviously wizards would react to their own being poached during 'infancy.' |
| 547 | * DecadentCourt: Managing to combine this and terror itself with their treatment of their sexually enslaved human servants. |
| 548 | * DepravedBisexual: Most of the Raiths, and other lust-feeders, aren't choosy about which gender they feed upon. |
| 549 | * {{Dhampir}}: Averted, as offspring of humans and Whites are potential full vampires whose traits manifest at puberty. They become full vampires the first time they use their powers in a sexual act, which typically leaves the sexual partner dead. |
| 550 | * EmotionEater: Lust for the Raiths, Fear for the Malvoras and Despair for the Skavis. |
| 551 | * FantasticDrug: Being fed off of by a Raith (and possibly all Whites, though Thomas suggests otherwise) is addictive. Their blood can inspire the same emotions that they feed on, as well. |
| 552 | * HeroicHost: Villainous host, rather (Thomas excepted). A well-fed host has access to SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, and a powerful HealingFactor. |
| 553 | * HorribleHollywood: It's implied the White Court has extensive ties to the film industry. Making porn and slasher flicks is presumably a good practice for creatures that feed on emotions, and as Harry points out, it potentially goes much deeper than that - porn, for instance, can essentially be used to 'train' humans in how they should express desire/respond to certain situations. We also know they've been tied to other forms of entertainment for awhile; they commissioned Bram Stoker's ''Dracula''. |
| 554 | * HorrorHunger: Known simply as 'the Hunger'. Some fight their hunger, curtailing it on a disciplined diet such as Lara and Thomas, while others have given into their Hunger so completely they feed on anything that moves. In the later case, it becomes their bane when the person is protected by some their weakness but the vampire cannot help but to feed. |
| 555 | * ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Harry remarks that you could mistake the White King for Thomas, and that Thomas, despite being the older sibling, looks ''younger'' than Harry by ''Cold Days''. |
| 556 | * ImperiledInPregnancy: The human women who bear the children of White Court males have a 50-50 chance of death either from the fetus killing the mother or complications post-birth. It isn't said how bad things are when the mother is a female White Vampire. |
| 557 | * InSeriesNickname: By ''Peace Talks'' some members of the Paranet have started calling them "Whampire" as an amalgamation of "White Court vampire." Harry finds this silly, despite him calling Black Court vampires "Blampires." |
| 558 | * LightIsNotGood: The White Court favors a color scheme of white, silver, or some colors similar to them. From their clothing to the color of their cars all fall under that selection of colors. Their eyes have silver flecks when they start feeding and become fully silver when they’re in a deeply famished state. It’s also a sign they’ll likely kill the next person they feed on. |
| 559 | * LogicalWeakness: Each of the Houses' feeding diets can be stopped and hurt the vampire if they touch a person who represents the opposite of their preference. |
| 560 | ** Lust-feeders like the Raiths suffer from touching one who is deeply and genuinely in love with another person. Even touching a symbol of that love, whether a wedding ring, gifted flower, or handmade scarf, will hurt the vampire. |
| 561 | ** Fear-feeders like the Malvoras suffer from trying to consume a person who’s courageous. It’s presumed symbols of that courage will be similarly bad for them. |
| 562 | ** Despair-feeders like the Skavis will "choke on hope." It’s presumed symbols of that hope will be similarly bad for them. |
| 563 | * MotivationalLie: As discussed in "Bigfoot on Campus" the entire methodology of keeping the children in the dark, so the first time they have sex will kill their lover (in the case of the Raiths), is described as this. The child becomes a murderer and transformed into a sex monster, but is told this is okay. It’s fine to kill humans and hurt them. It is what their parents' parents told them when they were young like the child now. And so on. They continue the lie because if they were to stop, it would mean ''everything'' the parents were taught and made to believe is false, and so on and so on. And so they became murderous monsters for no other reason than some ancient bastard's beliefs. |
| 564 | * OpenSecret: Within the Court's higher ranks, the fact Papa Raith is merely a figurehead with Lara holding the strings is this. Everyone knows it, but because that’s the current game, it’s what they must play until it’s time for a coup of their own. |
| 565 | * OutWithABang: Victims of the Raiths can die this way if they give too much. |
| 566 | * RaisedByHumans: At least in the Raith family; Lord Raith makes very certain that none of his children know anything about their true nature or the supernatural world at large before they start to turn in late adolescence. It's implied this is a means of ensuring they cannot become human by finding someone who will truly love them and they love, because if their first meal as a vampire is someone who they love and loves them, it frees them from the vampire demon inside of them. |
| 567 | * ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: They don't age and don't appear to die from old age either. Lara is at least as old as Luccio is. |
| 568 | * SuccubiAndIncubi: The Raith family feeds on Lust, and have the ability to generate it in their victims. |
| 569 | * SuperSpeed: When moving at full speed, they tend to be described as blurs. |
| 570 | * SuperStrength: While physical combat is a White's last resort (excepting Thomas), when well-fed Thomas is capable of matching a Black Court vampire (physically the strongest breed of vampire) in hand to hand combat, even when mortally wounded - though the effort nearly kills him. He's also shown mowing through ghouls on a boat deck in such a way that Dresden notes that they're the faceless extras of an action movie by comparison, armed only with a quarterstaff. Lara Raith is also mentioned as being 'capable of changing a fire truck's tyre without a jack'. However, they lack the stamina to keep it up and need to feed to replenish their reserves. |
| 571 | * TheSymbiote: The Hunger of a White Court vampire results from a spirit known as a Phage attaching itself to a human. It's possible to drive the Phage off before the host's first feeding, leaving them fully human. Even after the Phage has fully bonded with the vampire, however, a White still retains their human soul to the point that they can still engage in soul-gazes and even are potential candidates to become Fae Knights. |
| 572 | * ThisMeansWar: The unjustifiable murder of any noble in their court is grounds for war against the individual or group who causes it. |
| 573 | * UhOhEyes: White Court Vamp eyes act as a handy barometer for their internal state. Blue eyes are the mark of a well-fed and happy vamp. They get paler as they get hungrier, and the demons get stronger. [[BlankWhiteEyes Silver eyes]] mean it's past time to run. |
| 574 | * VampiresAreRich: The Raiths have an entire series of mansions around the world. The lesser houses presumably also have substantial fortunes. |
| 575 | * VampiresAreSexGods: Thoroughly straight, especially for the Raith family, who literally ''feed'' on lust. |
| 576 | * VampiresOwnNightClubs: The Raiths do, at least. |
| 577 | [[/folder]] |
| 578 | |
| 579 | [[folder:Lord Raith, the White King]] |
| 580 | !!Lord Raith, the White King |
| 581 | |
| 582 | ->''"I've taken thousands like you, lovely child. Taken them and broken them. There was nothing they could do. There is nothing you can do. You were made to feel desire. I was made to use it against you. It is the natural cycle. Life and death. Mating and death. Predator and prey."'' |
| 583 | |
| 584 | The King of the White Court, head of the Raith family. |
| 585 | ---- |
| 586 | * AbusiveParents: Rapes his daughters, using his vampiric abilities to turn them into his slaves by doing so. All his sons before Thomas have met with [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident tragic accidents]], and the same happens to rebellious daughters. |
| 587 | * AntiMagic: He's protected, apparently by one of the [[EldritchAbomination Outsiders]], so that most magic doesn't affect him. |
| 588 | * AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: He’s the king of White Court, and in his prime the most powerful of them. |
| 589 | * BigBad: He's the main antagonist of ''Literature/BloodRites'', being the one behind the murder of Arturo's workers and planning on killing Harry and Thomas to regain his lost glory and power, and in the backstory, he was described as leading the White Court to serious power. |
| 590 | * BigBadWannabe: By the time of the series, he's been reduced to this. While he used to have the power to back up his reputation, after years of being unable to replenish his energies he's much less formidable than he was, and relies on bluffing his way out of conflict. |
| 591 | * BrandishmentBluff: His method of surviving nearly thirty years after Margaret stripped him of his ability to feed is to rely solely on the fearsome reputation that he spent centuries building. However, he could still throw down and had his reserves, but unable to refill them meant he was very careful about how much of a display he would put on, and he also still had his Outsider protection. |
| 592 | * CainAndAbel: Sent Madrigal and Madeleine's father skydiving without a parachute or clothes. |
| 593 | * CoolButInefficient: His apparent insistence on using identical twins for servants may be nicely symmetrical, but doesn't exactly ensure the best quality of service, especially when he has conditioned them into thralls with guns. |
| 594 | * DecadentCourt: He ''used'' to be an energetic and expansionist kind of king. But Margaret's death curse forced him to completely refocus his priorities, pitting the other players against one another to hide his own weakness. |
| 595 | * DeadpanSnarker: While it's unclear whether it's whatever is left of him speaking or Lara speaking through him, he displays a considerable capacity for dry wit in ''White Night'', getting an absolute gem when Dresden and Ramirez call out Vittorio and Madrigal. |
| 596 | * DecoyLeader: As of ''Blood Rites'' Lara is the real leader of the White Court, but pretends he's still in charge to avoid being challenged by the other houses. |
| 597 | * DepravedBisexual: {{Averted|Trope}} — unlike every other Raith we've seen, it's strongly implied he's strictly heterosexual. Hence why he rapes his daughters into submission, but kills his sons. |
| 598 | * EngineeredPublicConfession: ''Public'' is stretching it a bit, but Harry arranged that he would admit to his weakness with Lara secretly close enough to overhear. And also that he didn't care about Lara beyond her use as a tool. She didn't take this revelation — or at least, confirmation, going by the rest of the conversation — very well. |
| 599 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: When he and Margaret invited [=McCoy=] to a dinner they were holding, the two of them [[BigScrewedUpFamily fought like only family members can]]. Arianna, who was in attendance, clicked to it immediately. Raith, who never had any sane, normal definition of family, screwed-up or not, never did. |
| 600 | * FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: He's described as a very handsome man and near identical looking to his son [[MrFanservice Thomas]], but is wicked to the core. |
| 601 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He's very polite and well mannered but is a vicious sociopath and SerialRapist underneath that. |
| 602 | * HiddenDepths: Turns out he’s a very good painter. |
| 603 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Lara enslaves him as he did his daughters. |
| 604 | * InformedAbility: Across ''Blood Rites'', he's built up as an epic badass without doing anything on page to justify it. This turns out to be a plot point; with Harry and Thomas' mother's death curse still on him, his ability to feed — and thereby replenish his powers — is cut off. The only way he's stayed in power is by maintaining the illusion that he's at full strength, and when Lara hears from his own lips how weak he is as well as an admission that he never saw her as more than a tool, [[LaserGuidedKarma well...]] |
| 605 | * KissOfDeath: Coined the phrase, according to Thomas, by ''literally'' killing people with a kiss. |
| 606 | * LaserGuidedKarma: |
| 607 | ** He kills Margaret with an entropy curse. She, with the last of her life, curses him right back and inhibits his ability to feed, turning the Court back from its expansionist ways and forcing him to spend the rest of his life afraid of all the enemies he's made finding out how weak he really is. He also gets brought down by her children. |
| 608 | ** He abuses and rapes his daughter into a servant (as he does all her younger sisters too) who he can dispose of should she become useless. When Harry and Murphy weakens him thoroughly, and Lara finds out he’s weak and can’t defend himself, she turns the tables and now he’s her puppet after she rapes him right back. |
| 609 | * MadArtist: Lara described his gallery as his psychotic little egomania when she helped him hang Margaret's portrait into his collection after she died. |
| 610 | * MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Like all the Whites, his preferred method of dealing with people. |
| 611 | ** Many of his sons and rebellious daughters die from one accident or another which cannot be traced back to him. Thomas barely avoids these situations. |
| 612 | ** Margaret died in childbirth. He had ''nothing'' to do with it. |
| 613 | ** In ''Blood Rites'', he tries to kill Harry while Harry is under the protection of Lara and SacredHospitality by sending his coming-of-age daughter Inari to return Mouse to him. |
| 614 | ** His brother died in a parachuting accident he had nothing to do with either. |
| 615 | * NoNameGiven: His given name remains unstated, although most of his relatives' names are known. |
| 616 | * OffingTheOffspring: He kills all his male offspring since he won't rape them into submission. |
| 617 | * ParentalIncest: How he treats his daughters. Lara eventually returns the favor. |
| 618 | * PuppetKing: Turned into one by Lara at the end of ''Blood Rites''. |
| 619 | * ResignationsNotAccepted: When Genosa leaves Raith's Silverlight Studios to form his own production company, Raith refuses to allow it — not only is this a slight against him, but Genosa's pornography films focus on true love and meaningful relationships (both anathema to the White Court) instead of the cheap lust that Raith's films promote. He also hires performers that don't have the Greek God physique that White Court vampires use as seductive tools, thus depriving them of such psychological conditioning of public as well. Raith thus resolves to kill Genosa. |
| 620 | * SerialRapist: Of his daughters as well as in general. He's claimed to have broken ''thousands''. |
| 621 | * TheSociopath: Raith cares for no one but his own hedonistic desires, and is an extremly cruel monster on top of that. |
| 622 | * SmugSnake: He was arrogant and confident enough that he underestimated Harry to his own downfall. |
| 623 | * StrongFamilyResemblance: He and Thomas apparently look near-identical. |
| 624 | * ThickerThanWater: He deliberately instils this attitude in his family... because it makes them easier to handle. Ironic in that it makes his children loyal to ''each other'' as well as him, which eventually leads to his downfall when Lara has the choice between saving Thomas and destroying her now weakened father who admits he would sacrifice Lara if it means his survival, or helping her wounded father and damning Thomas to die and Inari to be raped like Lara herself was. |
| 625 | * VampireMonarch: Raith used to be the King of the White Court until his daughter turned him into her puppet — now he's still the White King, but as Harry notes, it's unclear how much of his mind is left. |
| 626 | * YourDaysAreNumbered: Lara hinted in ''Peace Talks'' that Raith will die sooner or later as his Hunger continues to feed on his life force. |
| 627 | * YouKilledMyFather: Mother, actually. Raith uses his entropy curse to kill Harry's mother in childbirth—that is, he uses magic so that she dies of natural causes. |
| 628 | [[/folder]] |
| 629 | |
| 630 | [[folder:Thomas Raith]] |
| 631 | !!Thomas Raith |
| 632 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thomas_raith.png]] |
| 633 | [[caption-width-right:250:Elegant. Handsome. And the most badass hair stylist you'll ever meet.]] |
| 634 | |
| 635 | ->''"One day, doubtless, the Hunger would gain the upper hand again, and feed and feed until it was the only thing inside and there was nothing left of me. But not today."'' |
| 636 | |
| 637 | A White Court vampire who doesn't want to be. Thomas is one of the White King's youngest children, and the only male one still alive. As an incubus, he feeds on life force, and as a Raith, his preferred emotion is lust. While the vampirism means he can occasionally manage feats of enormous badassery, afterward he gets very hungry, and that can easily kill the food source. For years, his primary "meal" was Justine, but when he almost killed her he finally got fed up (so to speak) with the usually incubus order of business and decided to try to break out of it. |
| 638 | |
| 639 | Narrates the short story "Backup". |
| 640 | ---- |
| 641 | * AgentPeacock: A powerful warrior with impeccable fashion sense. |
| 642 | * AloofBigBrother: To Inari, though it's clear to everyone how fond and protective of her he is. |
| 643 | * AlwaysCamp: At the end of ''White Night'', Harry finds out that Thomas is taking advantage of this trope to run his salon without suspicion. |
| 644 | * BadassInDistress: Thomas often gets kidnapped in the series. |
| 645 | * BeardOfSorrow: At the end of ''Ghost Story'', he's grown one of these after he learned that Harry died. |
| 646 | * BigBrotherInstinct: According to Lara, he's extremely loyal to and protective of his siblings, especially Inari and Harry. |
| 647 | * BigDamnHeroes: How he is perceived by many in House Raith after the events of ''White Night''. It is true he had to engage in physical combat, but, as they see it, his use of Harry and the White Council to ruin Malvora and Skavis' coup attempts and force them into combat, which they lost, is an excellent gambit. He only physically arrived to help when Vitto called in the uber-ghouls which threatened everyone, and he came with his own army of fighters to help save the Raith nobility. |
| 648 | * BreakTheCutie: In addition to getting broken after he breaks Justine, the naagloshii in ''Turn Coat'' tortures him into at least temporarily stopping his attempt at being a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire. |
| 649 | * CantHaveSexEver: With Justine, since they're in love. {{Irony}}'s a bitch. As of ''Ghost Story'', she's found a [[GirlOnGirlIsHot solution]]. |
| 650 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: In his first two appearances, and the second half of his third, he pretends to be more or less harmless, but proves that he's actually an extremely good fighter. He's also an extremely competent schemer when he wants to be, and his vampire demon is (according to Justine) the most powerful in the entire White Court save possibly for Lara's — and even then, it's suggested that his might be stronger. Oh, and in the background, he's fighting the Oblivion War, dealing with entities related to [[EldritchAbomination the Outsiders]], which even Harry is unaware of. He's also successfully concealed the fact that he actually ''can'' use magic — and while it's very minimal, only really good for things like the odd tracking spell, as "Backup" proves, those can come in very useful. |
| 651 | * DanceBattler: |
| 652 | ** Implied in a subtle way. Thomas hums "Froggy Goes A Courtin'" under his breath before major fights. Combined with his graceful movements, it's likely that he times his movements to the song. |
| 653 | ** Much more blatant in ''Changes'', where he breakdances to Molly's One Woman Rave spell, while dispatching enemies with saber and gun. |
| 654 | * DeadpanSnarker: He's just about the only person to invariably keep up with Harry in this regard, and "Backup", narrated by Thomas, shows that he's arguably an even better snarker than Harry is, memorably describing his brother as "Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull." |
| 655 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Does this without even trying. Harry describes him walking down the street as looking like "one of those silly cologne commercials." |
| 656 | * DualWielding: Thomas most commonly uses a cavalry saber and a kukri as his melee weapons. |
| 657 | * EvenTheGuysWantHim: Tends to prompt comments along the lines of "I'm not gay, but even ''I'' think he's hot." This gets amusingly lampshaded in ''Blood Rites'', when Harry mentally complains about "[[HomoeroticSubtext feeling damn uncomfortable and confused]]" when [[ItMakesSenseInContext Thomas is trying to lay the whammy on his sister Lara]]. |
| 658 | * EvilFeelsGood: After the skinwalker gets through with him, he appears to have this mindset. That said, the end of ''Turn Coat'' implies that it could just be an obfuscation to appear like a good vampire now, with ''Changes'' and ''Ghost Story'' tacitly confirming it, with the latter leading to Justine figuring out a neat way around his previous feeding problems. |
| 659 | * {{Expy}}: He whistles weird songs to himself during a fight, carries an ''enormous'' personal sidearm, is far more financially successful than the protagonist (for most of the series, anyway), has a really cool car, drives the protagonist around a lot, is a fashion plate, and his relationship with the protagonist is both close and heavily dependent upon constantly busting on each other. If Thomas was black, he'd basically ''be'' Hawk from the ''Literature/{{Spenser}}'' novels of Creator/RobertBParker. Butcher himself has admitted that Parker was a heavy influence on Thomas' character. |
| 660 | * FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires: The only one in the series who could possibly be said to play this straight. |
| 661 | * HeroicBSOD: Enters one after Harry dies. |
| 662 | * HeroesPreferSwords: And is very good with it too. He has slaughtered ''several platoons'' of Red Court vampires with it. |
| 663 | * HiddenDepths: "Backup" is a story from Thomas' point of view, allowing one to learn a lot about him that isn't apparent from Harry's point of view. Thomas had deep self-loathing about his nature as a vampire, he can also use magic (though his abilities are mostly limited to the odd tracking spell, and he describes his skill as nowhere near Harry's) and that he's got huge amount of respect and admiration for Harry, but he just doesn't say it. |
| 664 | * IHaveYourWife: [[spoiler:He fell a victim to this when Nemesis possessing Justine threatens to kill Justine and their unborn child if he doesn't attack Etri.]] |
| 665 | * KukrisAreKool: The most distinctive weapon Thomas has. |
| 666 | * TheLancer: To Harry. Their personalities are very different (though not quite as different as they immediately appear), but they love each other and won't hesitate to defend the other. |
| 667 | * LaserGuidedKarma: Thomas literally throws Harry's girlfriend Susan to the Red Court vampires to save his girlfriend Justine. And then he's unable to be with Justine. Karma's a bitch. |
| 668 | ** Perhaps even more than that. [[spoiler: Susan was a tough but an ordinary reporter. By causing her transformation into a vampire, he caused problems with Harry and Susan from being intimate or living together, Susan having to leave the country and job to fight the Red Court from the shadows, Susan and Harry's child being in danger which culminated in Harry having to kill Susan to protect their daughter. In return, Thomas nearly ends up killing Justine after feeding on her while injured, has physical and political problems in being with her, gets thrown out of the White Court, had problems holding down several jobs, gets his car permanently wrecked along with Harry's Blue Beetle by the Red Court, has to fight the even more secret and problematic Oblivion War, forced to attempt an assassination on the Svartalf king to save Justine and his unborn child, resulting in his assistant being killed thereby breaking his friendship with their relatives, and then it turns out Justine has been possessed by Nemesis for years. Heck he didn't even get Justine back from Bianca after betraying Susan, he had to go to Harry for it.]] Basically, everything Harry and Susan had to suffer, he had to go through with interest. |
| 669 | * LongLostRelative: Harry's long-lost half-brother. |
| 670 | * MateOrDie: Thomas deliberately starves himself, since he doesn't want to hurt people. After Justine finds a third option by bringing in another woman to be with, removing her protection and then being with Thomas, he’s a lot better fed. |
| 671 | * MeaningfulName: He has a Hebrew first name meaning "twin". This serves as a subtle bit of {{Foreshadowing}} for he and Harry having a closer connection than first thought, [[LukeIAmYourFather with him turning out to be]] Harry's ''older'' half-brother. |
| 672 | * MistakenForGay: |
| 673 | ** A deliberate case, since it was the best way he could come up with to keep women from constantly trying to seduce him. |
| 674 | ** People sometimes confuse him and Harry for gay lovers, especially when Thomas was living at Harry's place temporarily. [[TheGadfly Thomas doesn't exactly help with clearing things up.]] |
| 675 | ** His apartment is set up in a very flamboyant way with all but one room screaming CampGay. This is to hide the fact the last room is filled with ammo, explosives, guns, and other highly illegal or questionable things. And he set things up so when Harry visited, he would be mistaken for his lover. |
| 676 | * MrFanservice: Harry snarks that Thomas looks like "the forgotten Greek god of body cologne". Like the gods of myth, he has a suitable curse, i.e. SoBeautifulItsACurse since his MrFanservice-ness is is a huge part of why he can't hold down a part time job. As Harry observes, it's probably much easier being an incubus in nightclubs while hanging out with celebrities than it is while working at a drive-in. |
| 677 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: |
| 678 | ** The only reason he survived his father is because he intentionally appeared to not be a threat. As a Raith, that means appearing incapable of plotting or higher level thought. This is most evident in his early interactions with Harry, where he can best be described as "an embarrassment to his family". And, as later stories show, he may be continuing this, to a degree, with Harry himself so as to protect him. |
| 679 | ** Inverted for a time with Lara, who figured out his stupidity was an act. He countered this by pretending to be ''more'' wise and informed than he was, as she wouldn't go against him until she figured out what he knew. |
| 680 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: In "Backup", he tracks down the member of the Stygian Sisterhood who tricked Harry and tried to use him to get a book of eldritch lore released to the general public and give an ancient demon-god a foothold once more, and kills her by feeding her to his demon. |
| 681 | * PsychicPowers: Like all White Court vampires, he has a degree of these, mostly based around a "come-hither" effect. However, in "Backup", it's also noted that he instinctively knows what will turn a woman on — and thus make it easier to feed. |
| 682 | * ThePornomancer: Deconstructed. As an [[SuccubiAndIncubi incubus]], women literally throw themselves at him, and while that works just fine as part of the high-society playboy persona he's got going as a member of House Raith, it means he can't hold a minimum-wage job because when he inevitably gets sexually assaulted, ''[[TheUnfairSex he]]'' gets blamed. |
| 683 | * RedemptionFailure: After nearly killing Justine, he works really hard to become a VegetarianVampire. And then Shagnasty happens. |
| 684 | * RebelPrince: Doesn't want to join the family business, and actively works against them when it's the right thing to do. |
| 685 | * RomanceAndSexualitySeparation: Justine and the White Court vampire Thomas Raith truly love each other... which means ThePowerOfLove burns any vampire who touches her, ''including'' him. He still needs to feed on LifeEnergy, though, so he has any number of casual partners. |
| 686 | * SecretKeeper: |
| 687 | ** He kept the fact he and Harry were siblings from Harry for a few years after they met. |
| 688 | ** He is part of the Oblivion War with a job to make sure it stays secret. The more who know about the ancient demon-gods trying to get a foothold in the human reality the easier it is for the foothold to be established. |
| 689 | * ShipperOnDeck: For Harry and Murphy. Although he's fine helping Harry get together with Luccio if it means his brother finally gets laid. |
| 690 | * SiblingTeam: Thomas is very much a OneManArmy, but put him on a field with Lara Raith or Harry Dresden at his side and it's a slaughter-house for their enemies. |
| 691 | * SickeninglySweethearts: [[invoked]] WordOfGod reveals that he and Justine are like this in private. Harry actually gets to see this in a vision in ''Ghost Story''. |
| 692 | -->"I know what the relationship is in my head like right now. They're actually happier now than they've been in ever. But it's all happening behind the scenes and nobody can see because Thomas has to have his bad ass vampire face on whenever he's in public. But when they are alone together, nothing else going on, they're like totally cute. Justine wears like these grownup version of footie pajamas so that she can snuggle up next to him on the couch and watch TV without actually burning him. They don't have like a normal relationship or anything like one, but they've kinda adjusted, they're fairly happy." |
| 693 | * SignificantBirthDate: As discussed in "It's My Birthday Too", he was born on Valentine's Day. |
| 694 | * StarCrossedLovers: With Justine. |
| 695 | * SuccubiAndIncubi: As a House Raith vampire, he definitely qualifies. |
| 696 | * SuperStrength: From what we've seen, Thomas is ''the strongest'' White Court vampire, able to beat down Black Court vampires who are usually magnitudes stronger than White Court vampires. |
| 697 | * SwordAndGun: As mentioned below, this is his preferred fighting style. |
| 698 | * TellMeAboutMyFather: Unlike Harry, Thomas actually has some memories of their mother, something which makes Harry very envious. |
| 699 | * ThickerThanWater: As Lara says, he'd rather saw off his right arm than see any of his siblings hurt. Even the evil ones. |
| 700 | * {{Troll}}: He's not above messing with Harry just for the fun of it. See MistakenForGay for a good example. |
| 701 | * TheUnfavourite: His father tries to kill him, like he did the rest of his sons (though given what Lord Raith [[ParentalIncest did to]] [[MindRape his daughters]] [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil against their will]], attempted murder might be better...) Also, his mother abandoned him when he was five to give birth to his brother Harry (though that was at least in in part to get away from Lord Raith. However, she did gave him her amulet for his 5th birthday and asked Harry to give him her love during their soul gaze). [[spoiler:Ebenezar didn't know until ''Peace Talks'' that Thomas was his other granson. Once he discovered his identity, he immediately tried to murder him in blind rage due to his profound hatred towards the White Courts]]. |
| 702 | * VampireDoctor: Thomas gets a job where he poses as a gay hairdresser in order to feed on non-harmful bits of his clients' emotions without harming anyone, save himself. This level of feeding leaves him constantly starved but is just enough that he can keep his Hunger in check and not give in and feed more deeply on anyone or manipulate their emotions so that they want him to. |
| 703 | * VerbalTic: Occasionally uses his sister's, referring to Harry as "brother mine". |
| 704 | * WarmBloodBagsAreEverywhere: He suffers from this during his vegetarian phase. When he feeds, not only did he just resist and take only a nibble of the women, because of his inherent powers drawing in prey when he's hungry, it makes maintaining a muggle job practically impossible as his female coworkers assault him. |
| 705 | * WatchThePaintjob: Anytime he is on a mission with Harry, his vehicles tend to get messed up. |
| 706 | [[/folder]] |
| 707 | |
| 708 | [[folder:Lara Raith]] |
| 709 | !!Lara Raith |
| 710 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lara_1.png]] |
| 711 | [[caption-width-right:200:The queen of the succubi.]] |
| 712 | |
| 713 | ->''"At what point did you forget that I am a vampire, Dresden? A monster. A habitually neat, polite, civil, and efficient monster."'' |
| 714 | |
| 715 | White Court vampire, older half-sister of Thomas Raith through their father the White King. Noted as the most powerful of her sisters, if not the most beautiful (no, really). As a succubus, she feeds on life force, and as a Raith, her preferred emotion is lust. After the events of ''Blood Rites'', she unofficially became acting head of the Raith family; her father the White King is now merely her puppet. Also a member of the Venatori and a participant in the Oblivion War. [[spoiler: And, as of ''Battle Grounds'', [[ArrangedMarriage Harry's fiancée]].]] |
| 716 | |
| 717 | When acting, she uses the stage name Lara Romany. |
| 718 | ---- |
| 719 | * ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Harry mockingly calls her an "apex sexual predator" in ''Peace Talks'', all Lara does is give an amused smirk and point out that he's [[SuccubiAndIncubi not wrong.]] |
| 720 | * AffablyEvil: In the folder quote, she actually calls herself a "habitually neat, polite, civil, and efficient monster". And then she eats the soul of a wounded security guard. |
| 721 | * AntiVillain: She's not as anti as Marcone, but in any conflict with another villain, she's almost always the lesser evil (you've really got to root for her against both her father and the Skinwalker, for example). It's not that she's ''not'' evil, just that really blatant, destructive evil isn't her style, and doesn't suit her purposes. However, as ''Turn Coat'' makes clear, she ''is'' still a monster, and is thus on Harry's hit-list. |
| 722 | * ArrangedMarriage: [[spoiler:Ends up engaged to Harry after failing to consider all the ramifications of seeking a long-term alliance with the Winter Court. While neither of them actively dislikes the other, and they understand that it's of vital political importance, they're both about as reluctant as you might expect, especially after the trauma of ''Battle Ground''.]] |
| 723 | * BadBoss: Zig-Zags between this and BenevolentBoss. On the one hand, she doesn't habitually feed on her security staff to control them, she pays them well, treats them with respect, and listens to their advice and trusts their expertise... but if they get critically injured and she or her family are in need, she won't hesitate to eat them. |
| 724 | * BerserkButton: It wasn't that Harry refused her offer of alliance, forces her to pay wergild to the women killed by her Court, the destruction of the Raith Deeps, or destruction of part of her home as a consequence to Harry saving their lives from the destruction of the Raith Deeps that pissed her off that one night. It was Harry [[StealthInsult asking for some Listerine after their prolonged kiss]], as he has "a weird taste in his mouth". Second is accusing her of not caring for her family which lead to her to threaten to cut someone's throat. |
| 725 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: [[spoiler: In ''Battle Ground'', she finally achieves her goal of an alliance by marriage with Harry. But since it was forced onto her by Mab after an emotionally and physically grueling battle, she doesn't feel exactly victorious]]. |
| 726 | * BeneathTheMask: Lara's default reaction to anything is being playfully polite. From casual conversation, to meetings of state, to life-or-death battle. It’s noted by everyone, even brainless fools like Trixie Vixen, that there’s something terrible behind that smile. They are right. The few times where that mask slips shows a vicious calculating predator bent on domination and control with an iron will to back it up. |
| 727 | * BigSisterInstinct: Is ''only'' protective of her siblings, to the misfortune of her cousins... in her own twisted way. For example, she decides the only way to protect Thomas from their father's wrath and torture is by ''killing him'' first -- though she does immediately back down when another, more-likely-to-succeed course of action is presented. |
| 728 | * BullyingADragon: |
| 729 | ** A carefully invoked example. In ''White Night'' she purposefully uses dew drop fairies, the small ones like Toot-Toot, on her land as lamps to line the way to the meeting, just to see what Summer and Winter will do (after their apparent total lack of response to the Red Court's infringement on their territory), with Harry describing it as a small, but deliberate insult. |
| 730 | ** She thought she could call in favors with Mab the Winter Queen and have it go her way. Anyone who knows about the Dresdenverse fae would know how ''spectacularly wrong'' she is. |
| 731 | * CharacterFocus: She serves as the SupportingProtagonist of ''Peace Talks''. |
| 732 | * TheChessmaster: Goes with the territory, since she's a high-ranking White Court vampire. |
| 733 | * CoitusUninterruptus: In "Backup", Thomas notices that as she's giving him orders over the phone she's also having sex with at least two women. |
| 734 | * CombatStilettos: In two senses. Early in "White Night", she demonstrates the ability to fight as well in six-inch heels as she can the whole rest of the time - and once she gets the shoes off (as in, gets physically punched out of them, cartoon-style), one ends up stabbed into the middle of an opponent's back. |
| 735 | * CoolCar: In ''Turn Coat'', she loaned Harry a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith. It’s so unspeakably awesome that most of the cast spends at least a couple of minutes worshipping at its shrine. |
| 736 | * CoolSword: Is normally described as wielding what Harry calls a "wavy-bladed sword" (probably a kris or kalis), or occasionally a rapier accompanied with some type of pistol. |
| 737 | * DaddysLittleVillain: [[invoked]] But considering this is [[ParentalIncest Lord Raith]] [[{{Squick}} we're talking about...]] |
| 738 | * DarkActionGirl: She makes no bones about the fact she’s not a good person. She also doesn't shy away from a direct confrontation if there’s no other alternative. |
| 739 | * DepravedBisexual: At the climax of ''Turn Coat'', she rapes one of her female cousins to death. While disemboweling, and possibly ''eating'' her (there's mentioned to be very little left of said cousin once she's done). Making said cousin enjoy every second of it. While purring about how's she's dreamed about it since they were both girls (which means decades, if not centuries). |
| 740 | * EpiphanicPrison: In ''Blood Rites'' she finally realizes in her heart her father sees her as disposable and has never loved her. While she knew this in her mind, her heart refuses to accept it and only when Harry got Raith to confess to these fact did she finally accept it and know she could break from her father and never have to worry about being harmed again. |
| 741 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She does truly love her siblings and wants the best for them despite her being evil. |
| 742 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: She is a powerful succubus who consistently drains the life of brainwashed slaves to sate her demonic Hunger. Similar to her father, her ultimate goal seems to be to gain control over pretty much the entire First World through proxies (brainwashed and otherwise) via the White Court's resources, and then use cultural brainwashing through the erotica industry to wipe out the concepts of sex-positivity and TrueLove so she can live virtually forever in a secure life of comfort and hedonism. And then there's [[CruelAndUnusualDeath what she did to Madeline]]. That being said, she has a deep sense of honor and duty, especially to her family. Even if it costs her her life, she will abide by her standards. In ''Peace Talks'' she outright admits that as much as a monster as she might be, taking revenge on the family of her enemies is not something that she indulges in (which is actually quite fitting, considering she herself is an example of EvenEvilHasLovedOnes). Furthermore, in ''Battle Ground'', [[spoiler:she's horrified when Mab casually states that she and Dresden [[AltarDiplomacy will be wed]] to arrange a formal alliance between the Winter and White Courts, as Harry's love Murphy has been dead for less than four days at that point. Eventually, Mab is willing to move the ceremony into taking place one year in the future... but they will still be wed no matter what. Lara also winces in sympathy when Mab orders Molly (who still has been holding a torch for Harry) to plan Lara and Harry's wedding]]. |
| 743 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: After the climax of ''Peace Talks'' it takes several minutes of Harry calmly explaining [[spoiler:that binding Thomas into Demonreach's prison cells to safeguard him from pursuers and save him from his own Hunger devouring him]] is not some elaborate long game by Harry to make sure Lara will keep Harry alive and well and maintaining the moral superiority at that, and even then she is shocked by his noble actions. |
| 744 | * FanDisservice: ''Turn Coat'' has the lovely Lara providing one of '''the''' most hideous and nightmarishly horrifying moments in the entire series when she finally tracks down the White Court's traitor to the Black Council. Her method of killing the traitorous Madeline involved pulling out her cousin's intestines while psychically feeding off her (and possibly about to physically eat her — there was apparently very little of Madeline left afterwards). And all of this while Lara was black and crispy after surviving a bomb going off next to her. |
| 745 | -->'''Lara:''' ''(to Madeline)'' I've wanted to do this since we were girls... |
| 746 | * FlashStep: When in a ''very'' bad place (like the climax of ''White Night''), she shows she's capable of this. |
| 747 | * {{Foil}}: With her father, Lara's former king and and now mouthpiece. In his prime, Lord Raith was a feared expansionist king with great vision and an obsession with controlling a rogue wizard, not unlike his oldest surviving daughter. The difference being Daddy Raith cared for nothing but his own hedonism and saw his own family as little more than tools and toys, with him being one who would rather demand good seating to his children's deaths than prevent them. Lara's highest priority, by contrast, is the well-being of her siblings (though ''only'' her siblings, sorry cousins). Only the possibilities of a suicidal CivilWar[=/=]violent rebellion have stopped her from bringing all of the White Court under an iron heel just to save just one of her blood. |
| 748 | * FriendlyEnemy: With Harry. Lara's seemingly always had a soft spot and degree of infatuation for Harry, regardless of the fact that she sometimes finds him infuriating or on antagonistic terms, and especially since she's aware that he's technically family. They know each other well enough to be affable when not in combat, but Lara makes it clear she is still a monster who will sacrifice three injured men if it means saving the lives of her sisters and healing her own severe injuries. Harry replies for that reason he will stop her one day. [[spoiler:"Luckily," things don't go that way. Lara asks Mab for a political alliance with Winter as a Favor, and Mab agrees by engaging her and Harry on the spot in an ArrangedMarriage to seal the alliance. While they don't dislike each other, Harry and Lara, and especially Molly, are shocked at the abruptness and aren't really in a place where they can deal with that at the moment.]] |
| 749 | * IgnoreTheFanservice: She has been ignored ''twice'' in a single century when she pursued expanding a professional relationship into something more intimate. The ones to refuse her? Harry and Marcone. According to Thomas, she was not pleased by this. |
| 750 | * {{Irony}}: See her ArrangedMarriage. [[spoiler: After multiple books featured her very stridently trying to either seduce Harry to her side as a thrall or ally, it’s only right as she becomes a ShipperOnDeck for him and Murphy that Mab sets them up for a political marriage - one neither she nor Dresden want.]] |
| 751 | * ILoveYouBecauseICantControlYou: Unsurprisingly with Harry Dresden. As hilariously explained by Thomas Raith, Lara has been ignored twice in a single century, WITH Harry being the first. Strangely enough, Lara does not have this with the second, Johnny Marcone. While both are frenemies to some extent, the former has helped Lara in a much more personal level than Marcone. This is likely in part because Harry is more of a WildCard who can be manipulated into serving as an UnwittingPawn, while Marcone is Lara's direct competitor for control over Chicago. |
| 752 | * KingpinInHisGym: On two occasions, Harry comes to her for information while she's training in her dojo, and has to spar with her for it. |
| 753 | * LadyOfWar: While she doesn't fight often, when she does it's a textbook example of this trope. Take Harry's narration of Lara in the climax of ''White Night'': |
| 754 | -->'''Harry:''' ''[thinking]'' In that moment, Lara was more than simply a vampire of the White Court, a succubus, pale and deadly. She was a reminder of the days gone by, when mankind paid homage to blood-soaked goddess of war and death, revered the dark side of the protective maternal spirit, the savage core of the strength that still allowed tiny women to lift cars off their children, or turn upon their tormentors with newfound power. Lara's power, at the moment, hovered around her, deadly in its primal seduction, its sheer ''strength.'' |
| 755 | * LesserOfTwoEvils: PlayedWith. Harry teams up with her because she's pragmatic and keeps her word. But she's still a dangerous monster whose reign over the White Court has only made it stronger. |
| 756 | * MeaningfulName: "Lara" is a Latin name meaning "protection"; not only does Lara have her own twisted form of BigSisterInstinct for her younger siblings, but she is also basically the most powerful and dangerous [[SuccubiAndIncubi succubus]] alive, resulting in her being someone who a lot of people need protection ''from''. |
| 757 | * MexicanStandoff: She is stuck in one with Harry, with secrets being their weapons. Harry knows she is the woman behind the man and outing that would destroy her political power in the White Court. Lara knows Harry and Thomas are brothers and outing that would destroy Harry's credibility with the White Council. So, they decide to keep each others' secrets for the time being. |
| 758 | * MoralSociopathy: This is easily the best way to describe Lara's equivalent of a moral compass. On the one hand, she freely calls herself a monster and doesn't care at ''all'' about the fact that her family eats people to survive. On the other hand, she has something vaguely analogous to a conscience in that she sincerely loves her family and also has a fiercely honorable side that she refuses to stray from. |
| 759 | * MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Much more ruthless then Thomas or Harry and willing to end threats to her power in very brutal ways. Harry wonders if helping her seize control of her House through her puppet-father made the White Court was a good thing, in the long run — under the crippled Lord Raith, the White Court was going nowhere, with internal rivalries breaking out within House Raith and the Court at large. Under Lara, the Court is unified once more, as well as being much more ambitious, practical, and downright deadlier than it was under the previous administration. |
| 760 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: While Harry admittedly didn't go to her until his back was to the wall, Lord Raith's crippling had meant that the White Court's agenda suddenly became a ''lot'' less aggressive and expansionist, wracked by infighting as Raith tried to stay in power despite his personal weakness. As Harry later admits, putting Lara in charge instead means they're on the road to recovery, which is ''not'' a good thing for almost anyone else. |
| 761 | * NotHyperbole: Viciously snarls in ''Turn Coat'' that she will "tear out Madeline's entrails" after learning that her cousin betrayed her and was trying to mastermind a revitalization of hostilities between the White Council and Vampire Courts. And as a thoroughly nauseated Harry learns shortly in the same novel, she was ''not kidding'', as she disembowels Madeline while simultaneously raping her to death. |
| 762 | * NotMeThisTime: She openly states she had nothing to do with Evelyn Derek's enthralling. For one thing, it was hideously crude. |
| 763 | * OpenSecret: Within the White Court at least, Lara is now effectively the White Queen and her father little more than a figurehead. Everybody involved pretends that Lord Raith is still in power to project an image of business as usual and a probable lack of evidence, and fear of the consequences of defying Lara. |
| 764 | * PetTheDog: She ''really'' cares about her family, and looks out for [[TheOphelia Justine]] when Thomas can't. |
| 765 | * ThePlan: She's White Court. It's what she does. And she's '''''good''''' at what she does. |
| 766 | * PragmaticVillainy: She's a lot [[AffablyEvil nicer to have as an enemy]] than her father was, but she's ultimately much more dangerous. |
| 767 | ** She fights in the Oblivion War because if the ancient evil forces win, she will lose her feeding stock of humans. |
| 768 | ** The same applies to her role in the fight against the Fomor in ''Cold Days'', on the grounds that the Fomor are challenging for ''her'' herd. And while her teams are very effective backup, each instance of helping out leads to her getting just a little bit more intel on the more vulnerable magical talents... |
| 769 | * PromotionToParent: In ''Peace Talks'' she reveals that she was Thomas' nanny in his infancy, changing his diapers and watching him when Margaret was busy or out of the house. She also taught him how to read and write. As she is the oldest living sibling, she likely did the same for many of her other siblings. |
| 770 | * RoyalRapier: Is seen using one in ''Blood Rites'' and ''Turn Coat'', with the ''Blood Rites'' version having rubies in the shape of a rose on the hilt. |
| 771 | * ScarsAreForever: She bears a circular scar on her hand from the time she grabbed the wrong wedding ring and the Love within it burned her. |
| 772 | * SecretKeeper: |
| 773 | ** She is one of a handful to know her father is a puppet now and wants to keep it that way. |
| 774 | ** She is part of the Oblivion War with a job to make sure it stays secret. The more who know about the ancient demon-gods trying to get a foothold in the human reality the easier it is for the foothold to be established. |
| 775 | * SecretSecretKeeper: In ''Peace Talks'' she reveals she has known for decades [[spoiler:Thomas is Ebenezer's grandson]] but never acted on this information because of the harm it can do to her family. |
| 776 | * ShipperOnDeck: Despite the fact that it gives him a magical protection that burns her to the touch, [[FriendlyEnemy Lara]] is genuinely pleased in ''Peace Talks'' to learn that Harry and Karrin have finally [[WillTheyOrWontThey gotten together]], and is [[spoiler:visibly sickened when Mab tries to arrange a marriage between her and Dresden just ''days'' after Murphy's tragic demise]]. |
| 777 | * StageName: She goes by Lara Romany when working as an actress in Genosa's movies. |
| 778 | * StupidityInducingAttack: Lara uses this to turn Lord Raith into her weak-willed puppet, using [[MindRape the same methods he used against her and her sisters.]] |
| 779 | * SwordAndGun: Like brother, like sister — she often wields a pistol alongside her sword. Given that she and Thomas are both Venatori, one supposes it comes with the territory. |
| 780 | * TookALevelInBadass: She has trouble killing a Black Court Vamp in ''Blood Rites''. By ''White Night'' and ''Turn Coat'' she's taking on Uber-Ghouls and survives tangling with a skinwalker as well as surviving a point-blank landmine as a corpse powered by pure rage. Guess being in charge has its perks. |
| 781 | * TortureTechnician: While its never been shown to the readers- several threats from Thomas and other members of her house have stated Lara is rather adept at this. Ranging from castration, to flagulation, to flaying alive. |
| 782 | * VampireMonarch: Currently the ''de facto'' White Queen, in a ManBehindTheMan kind of way. Lord Raith is still alive and the ''de jure'' White King, but in his weakened state he's been dominated by Lara, and it's not entirely certain how much of him she left over. She's culturally obligated to keep the matter secret, at least in appearance and it may be an OpenSecret amongst the Whites so long as she has plausible deniability. Lara explicitly stated that he will be dying sometime soon, in which she will probably still need to do some deft political maneuvering to maintain her position. |
| 783 | * TheVamp: Being a succubus and social predator, it sort of comes with the hat. |
| 784 | * VerbalTic: When speaking [[TermsOfEndangerment affectionately]] to others, she'll sometimes call them "(title) mine", i.e. calling Harry "wizard mine" or Thomas "brother mine". |
| 785 | * VillainousValor: Lara is by her very nature a predatory killer seeking to dominate and rule humanity as her food source... but shows quite plainly that she by no means lacks personal bravery, in particular during the climactic battle in the Deeps; she forsakes opportunities to escape and stay with Harry because she gave him safe conduct. |
| 786 | * WeCanRuleTogether: Offers Harry a position in House Raith several times. [[spoiler:Ironically, neither of them are particularly pleased when it actually happens.]] |
| 787 | * WorthyOpponent: She has respect for Harry ever since [[BatmanGambit he tricked her into being in the right place to hear her father confess to his crippling and his view of Lara.]] She thought she was using him and learns she was very wrong. |
| 788 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: While she greatly respects her security forces and their skills and the sacrifice they made for the House, if it comes to a choice between nursing the injured security back to health and her recovering from a serious injury, she will have the men make one final sacrifice to her House. |
| 789 | * YouOweMe: Lara's part of the plot in ''Peace Talks'' kicks off with her calling in this to Mab. She did somethings impressive enough to be owed ''three'' favors from the Queen of Air and Darkness. She is being paid back two of them with Mab enforcing Harry to fulfill them. |
| 790 | [[/folder]] |
| 791 | |
| 792 | [[folder:Madrigal Raith]] |
| 793 | !!Madrigal Raith |
| 794 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madrigal.PNG]] |
| 795 | |
| 796 | One of Thomas and Lara's cousins, Madrigal prefers to feed off fear instead of lust. He masquerades as the horror movie director Darby Crane. Harry first meets him in ''Proven Guilty'', when he tries to sell Harry to his enemies on [=eBay=]. |
| 797 | ---- |
| 798 | * AntiMagic: He has a pair of enchanted gauntlets that shed magic quite easily. However, they don't hold a candle to Luccio's work on the silver swords of the Wardens. |
| 799 | * BigBadWannabe: |
| 800 | ** He wants to be the Big Bad in ''Proven Guilty'', but then it turns out he's being set up by the real culprits. |
| 801 | ** In ''White Night'', he tries to be in a BigBadDuumvirate with Vittorio (and wants to get into the Black Council), but in the end he ends up being TheMillstone, because he got Harry involved [[RevengeBeforeReason due to a personal vendetta]], with Vittorio bluntly asking Cowl if he should just kill Madrigal for his stupidity. |
| 802 | * DirtyCoward: Bolts when the Scarecrow shows up after he kidnaps Harry, and later on he tries to back out of the DuelToTheDeath in the Deeps when Harry and Ramirez show up. |
| 803 | * DumbassHasAPoint: When trying to back out of the DuelToTheDeath at the Deeps, he points out that this sort of thing is what Harry does best, and it's an ''extremely'' bad idea to fight him. He turns out to be completely right, and he is killed in the battle (though not by Harry) — he dies when Ramirez uses his Warden sword to cut loose an enchantment protecting him from physical harm. The energy of the spell backfired and killed him, though Harry applied the coup de grace with a force blast that sent him flying into the wall and down into the Deeps). |
| 804 | * EmotionEater: Prefers fear, saying it is more satisfying than lust. |
| 805 | * FalseConfession: He and Vitto claim responsibility for the murder of female practitioners, hoping to steal the thunder from House Skavis. This bites him in the back as it gives Harry the perfect justification to demand justice — i.e. a DuelToTheDeath with the murderers — for these crimes. |
| 806 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Less so than Lara or Papa Raith, but he can be charming, when he tries. That happens rarely, however; he prefers to simply use his vampire mojo. |
| 807 | * RedHerring: In ''Proven Guilty'', Madrigal was meant to take the blame for the phage attacks on the convention. |
| 808 | * RevengeBeforeReason: Deliberately draws Harry into the GambitPileup in ''White Night'' in hopes that Harry will get killed. Not only does Harry not die, but he figures out exactly what has been going on and shows up at exactly the right moment to ruin the Malvoras' plans. The [[IdiotBall stupidity of doing so]] is lampshaded several times. |
| 809 | * SmugSnake: He tries for magnificence. It doesn't work out, mostly because he keeps on thinking that Harry is nothing but DumbMuscle. |
| 810 | * TooDumbToLive: Deliberately gets [[SpannerInTheWorks Harry Dresden]] involved in the Malvora and Skavis' plans, in the attempt to kill him. Harry survives, figures everything out, challenges Madrigal and Vitto to a duel (resulting in Madrigal's death at the hands of Ramirez), and ruins the plans of both the Malvora and the Skavis. [[ItMakesSenseInContext And then the Deeps]] [[DestructiveSavior explode]]. |
| 811 | * VillainsNeverLie: In ''Proven Guilty'' when he swears to be honest with Thomas, Thomas trusts his word on him not being the one behind the attacks. |
| 812 | * XanatosGambit: He ''tries'' doing this by luring Harry to attack the Skavis — if Harry wins, great, their competitor is gone, and now they can claim credit for what he did. If Harry loses, then he dies — and Madrigal has personal reasons to want Harry dead. It doesn't work because [[TooDumbToLive he underestimates Harry and neglects the option]] that Harry might figure out what was really going on and stop it. |
| 813 | [[/folder]] |
| 814 | |
| 815 | [[folder:Madeleine Raith]] |
| 816 | !!Madeleine Raith |
| 817 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/madeline_9.PNG]] |
| 818 | [[caption-width-right:250:Not one for restraint.]] |
| 819 | Twin sister to Madrigal and cousin of Thomas and Lara. Vapid and not particularly bright, Madeleine has little restraint and aggressive appetites. |
| 820 | ---- |
| 821 | * ChekhovsGunman: Mentioned in passing a couple of times in ''Blood Rites'', along with Madrigal. In ''White Night'', it's mentioned that she is responsible for the one injured thrall on the path to the Raith Deeps. Harry doesn't meet her until ''Turn Coat''. |
| 822 | * DecapitationPresentation: Her head is given to the White Council as part of Lara's actions to make amends for Madeleine's crimes. |
| 823 | * DepravedBisexual: As is White court norm. She drains an unknown man, tries to seduce Harry and threatens to feed on Justine. |
| 824 | * EmotionEater: Lust. She takes great pleasure in it. |
| 825 | * HandCannon: Carries a Desert Eagle, unfortunately she's a crappy shot with it. |
| 826 | * OutWithABang: Lara drains her dry. And possibly eats her alive. |
| 827 | * PsychopathicManchild: Madeline has no motivation besides a spoiled child, "I want this" or "I want revenge" mindset. She also lacks the patience and forethought of the rest of her family. Her role in ''Turn Coat'' is one big temper tantrum. |
| 828 | * RichBitch: She's essentially what happens when a RichBitch is given supernatural powers. She refuses to use her powers with restraint or skill, draining any and all humans she wants even if it's inadvisable to do so. |
| 829 | * RichInDollarsPoorInSense: She presumes Harry is on par in financial terms and would have the funds to escape or hide Morgan. Binder has to explain to her that Harry can't afford to flee town. He's not even 100 yet, and had to hide Morgan in a tiny storage unit with minimal security measures. |
| 830 | * TooDumbToLive: She threatens her far more dangerous cousin's lover not only in front of him, but in front of Harry Dresden, who has a reputation for brutally killing those who harm his friends, and someone who crippled her brother with one blast. Predictably, she ends up on the receiving end of a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown, has her forehead and torso burned, and crucified. |
| 831 | ** She attacks Harry and Lara Raith with a bomb. Lara kills her for it. |
| 832 | * VampiresOwnNightClubs: She appears at the Raith-owned nightclub cum sexclub Zero to harass Thomas and Harry. |
| 833 | * VillainousGlutton: Sans the physical gut, but one still. As Thomas describes her, she has given into her hunger so deeply she devours people like many breathe: on instinct and without restraint or consideration to the fact that there might be poison. Madeline cannot stop herself even if she knows the person is protected by True Love, as is the case with Justine. All Madeline's instincts saw is "Prey, must feed on." Cue getting horribly burned by ThePowerOfLove. |
| 834 | [[/folder]] |
| 835 | |
| 836 | [[folder:Felicia Raith]] |
| 837 | !!Felicia Raith |
| 838 | |
| 839 | A member of the White Court acting as the contact between the Chicago Alliance and the Court. She tries to steal from Murphy and [[PistolWhipping gets thoroughly rebuffed]]. |
| 840 | ---- |
| 841 | * BadassBoast: When meeting with the Chicago Alliance and having her powers drained due to a threshold when threatened she merely states "I give you one chance in four". Granted, it's somewhat undermined when Murphy promptly kicks her ass, but at least she tried. |
| 842 | * EvilBrit: Though her provenance is in question, she has the accent. |
| 843 | * TheFakeCutie: She's described as short and rather adorable. Let's not forget she's a member of the White Court. In a moment displaying the interplay between those two factors, she bends over in front of Daniel Carpenter wearing a low cut blouse and gives him [[EatingTheEyeCandy something to gawk at]] when she realizes she caught his eye. |
| 844 | * SecretKeeper: Albeit involuntarily. Daniel, in an impassioned moment, [[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud let's it slip]] that Murphy's keeping two Swords of the Cross. In private, Felicia makes Murphy an offer to buy her silence if she allows Felicia [[SexualExtortion to feed on her]], but Murphy's [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown "counteroffer"]] makes it clear that if she suspects Felicia's silence is broken, ''Murphy will find her.'' |
| 845 | * TheVamp: She's White Court, it goes with the territory. |
| 846 | * VillainBall: Lara being Lara, likely has a file on every member of the Chicago Alliance, including Murphy. This likely details many of her exploits and the threat this mortal woman possesses. Felicia still decides to antagonize and threaten Murphy. She is lucky to walk out alive of that confrontation, and is visibly shaken afterwards. |
| 847 | * WorfHadTheFlu: Harry remarks that since Felicia stepped through the threshold and wards of Murphy's house she is nowhere near full power. Which makes it [[TooDumbToLive even dumber]] that she is giving {{ImpliedDeathThreat}}s towards a group of Harry's friends - and to further clarify, the group consists of a BadassNormal ActionGirl who has killed her share of vampires, two highly experienced werewolves, a RetiredBadass who was once a vampire hunter, a magic practioner with a dog and an ex-soldier who is the son of an former Knight Of The Cross and just returned from an Afghanisthan tour, ''anyone'' who would be a threat to her at full power. |
| 848 | [[/folder]] |
| 849 | |
| 850 | [[folder:Elisa Raith]] |
| 851 | !!Elisa Raith |
| 852 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elisa_raith.png]] |
| 853 | |
| 854 | A member of the White Court who took part in the battle against Shagnasty. |
| 855 | ---- |
| 856 | * ActionGirl: One able to hold their own in fights that aren't against a naagloshii - she also makes an appearance sparring with some of her sisters in "Wild Card". |
| 857 | * AmbiguouslyBrown: Her appearances in "Wild Card" establishes her as biracial, with Elisa having significantly darker skin than any of the white characters. Although, while her father is Caucasian the exact ethnicity of her mother is unknown. |
| 858 | * BadassBoast: Tag teams with Ms. Gard to make one to Dresden, in ''Wild Card'', which is lampshaded by Dresden on him at least having given them something to agree on - |
| 859 | -->'''Ms. Gard:''' I trust you and your friends will be on their best behaviour in there, wizard.\ |
| 860 | '''Elisa Raith:''' Better, perhaps, if they’re not - it will give my sisters and I opportunity to claim him, body and soul. |
| 861 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: In her appearances at least, she doesn't say much at all - but she's still a White Court vampire. |
| 862 | * DualWielding: Two swords being her favoured weapon. |
| 863 | * NakedOnArrival: During the naagloshii attack, she shows up with nothing but her weapons and her piercings. Justified in this case, as the attack was an unexpected one in the middle of the night where chance to prepare was not had. |
| 864 | * ThickerThanWater: Doesn't take kindly in any of her family members being threatened and is willing to move to defend them - or as in the case of Wild Card, ''avenge'' them. |
| 865 | * TheWorfEffect: White Court vampires have been shown as relatively powerful, so Shagnasty's easy defeat of Elisa and her sister Natalia helps to show off how powerful he is. |
| 866 | * ThoseTwoGuys: Most often seen with her sister Natalia. |
| 867 | [[/folder]] |
| 868 | |
| 869 | [[folder:Natalia Raith]] |
| 870 | !!Natalia Raith |
| 871 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/natalia_raith.png]] |
| 872 | |
| 873 | A member of the White Court who took part in the battle against Shagnasty. |
| 874 | ---- |
| 875 | * AmazonianBeauty: Noted as tall and muscular, and has the requisite unnatural beauty of all Raiths as well. |
| 876 | * ActionGirl: One able to hold their own in fights that aren't against a naagloshii, also making an appearance sparring with some of her sisters too. |
| 877 | * BadassBoast: Makes one to Ms. Gard in "Wild Card", albeit seemingly unaware that the woman is a Valkyrie: |
| 878 | -->'''Natalia Raith:''' Mortal cretins, do not tempt fate... lest you find your self enslaved for the rest of your pitiful lives! |
| 879 | * MessyHair: Described to have such. |
| 880 | * TheWorfEffect: White Court vampires have been shown as relatively powerful, so Shagnasty's easy defeat of Natalia and her sister Elisa helps to show off how powerful he is. |
| 881 | * ThoseTwoGuys: Most often seen with her sister, Elisa. |
| 882 | * ThickerThanWater: Cares about her family, with the above boast being due to Marcone's people being suspected to have murdered three of her sisters - something ''not'' taken kindly. |
| 883 | * {{Tomboy}}: Notably described as more masculine in her attire than any of the rest of her sisters, wearing mens or butch clothing. |
| 884 | [[/folder]] |
| 885 | |
| 886 | [[folder:Tania Raith]] |
| 887 | !!Tania Raith |
| 888 | |
| 889 | A minor member of the White Court who works as a public prosecutor's assistant. Appears in the story ''Jury Duty''. |
| 890 | ---- |
| 891 | * AmoralAttorney: She knows Hamilton Luther was justified in killing Gregor Malvora, since Malvora was about to torture a child, but she's helping prosecuting him anyways because Malvora was White Court and she can't let someone get away with killing one of their own. That said at least some of what she said to portray herself as this if Dresden didn't back off was only bluster, as when he actually became violent he could tell that was completely unexpected by her. |
| 892 | * BullyingADragon: She's a 20 year old vampire who tries to get Harry to back down by intimidating him with mortal goons. Despite Tania's arrogance and self assurance, this goes as one might expect with Harry and Will taking out all her goons and Harry taking her hostage. Harry notes that one of the goons (Riley) was sent by Lara to keep an eye on her, and Lara purposely let her pursue this course knowing it'd fail [[MiseryBuildsCharacter so she'd learn from it]]. Harry repeatedly notes that Tania is clearly out of her depth. Heck, Harry doesn't bother even using magic to beat her, instead just using the Winter Knight's SuperStrength. |
| 893 | * EnsignNewbie: ''Extremely'' inexperienced, whether in combat or anything else. Lara appears to be tutoring her to ammend this fact. |
| 894 | * HelloAttorney: A gorgeous prosecutor's assistant. |
| 895 | * HumanShield: Harry uses her this way. |
| 896 | * OhCrap: When Harry reminds her what he did to the Red Court. |
| 897 | [[/folder]] |
| 898 | |
| 899 | [[folder:Inari Raith]] |
| 900 | !!Inari Raith |
| 901 | [[quoteright:176:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/inari_raith.png]] |
| 902 | |
| 903 | The baby sister of Lara and Thomas and the apple of Lord Raith's eye, who's been kept in the dark about her heritage. |
| 904 | ---- |
| 905 | * AllergicToLove: Briefly as her powers hadn't kicked in yet. |
| 906 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: Her older siblings are {{Fully Embraced Fiend}}s who, by and large, have come to terms with their succubus natures and act the part. Inari is largely unaware of any supernatural shenanigans, works a regular job, is deeply in love with her boyfriend and wears "Franchise/WinnieThePooh"-pyjamas. Lara and Thomas may not see eye to eye on much, but they agree that Inari needs to be protected. |
| 907 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Triggers this instinct in Thomas, who puts a ''lot'' of ''Blood Rites'' into motion simply to protect Inari. |
| 908 | * BilingualBonus: Inari (稲荷) is the Japanese fox god, whose favorite food is fried tofu. What sort of pizza topping does [[MeaningfulName Inari]] offer Harry? Furthermore, [[AsianFoxSpirit fox spirits in Oriental mythology]] do need to feed on ''yang'', and some aren't choosy about how to get it. |
| 909 | * CoolBigSis: Sees Lara as this and [[PetTheDog Lara acts the part]]. |
| 910 | * {{Dhampyr}}: Same as with the rest of the Raiths, though her abilities kicked in during her twenties. |
| 911 | * DaddysGirl: She seems to adore her father and he seems to be protective of her, though that may only have been because she hadn't developed her powers yet and he hadn't needed to establish "[[ParentalIncest dominance]]". |
| 912 | * FromBadToWorse: It's impossible not to feel bad for the poor girl, as she gets attacked by Black Court Vamps and gets her arm broken, unconsciously tries feed off Harry and gets burned, shot at by her father's guards and finds out her family is made of emotional vampires who've intentionally kept her in the dark her whole life. |
| 913 | * ThePowerOfLove: While True Love burns full White Court vampires, in Inari's case it could kill her demon and leave her an ordinary human. |
| 914 | * PutOnABus: Hasn't shown up since the end of ''Blood Rites'', when she left Chicago and her family behind. |
| 915 | * SexySecretary: To Genosa, though she is hired for competence rather than looks. However, her looks screw her over when the WomanScorned ex-wives of her boss suspect she is involved with him and tries to kill her with a curse. Had Harry not been right next to her when the curse is set off, she would have been killed. |
| 916 | * TheOneWhoMadeItOut: Was able to find True Love, killing her demon and enabling her to escape the Raith BigScrewedUpFamily. |
| 917 | * VegetarianVampire: Completely literally. She insists on getting Harry a bean curd pizza in ''Blood Rites'', and also seems to have decided to not try and feed on other humans. |
| 918 | * YoungestChildWins: Luckily, she gets a chance to walk away from all of it and find True Love. |
| 919 | [[/folder]] |
| 920 | |
| 921 | [[folder:Lady Cesarina Malvora]] |
| 922 | !!Lady Cesarina Malvora |
| 923 | |
| 924 | The leader of House Malvora. |
| 925 | ---- |
| 926 | * BadassBoast: Makes a hell of a speech to Lord Raith. |
| 927 | * DoesNotLikeMagic: Calling those who use it “freaks”. |
| 928 | * HorrifyingTheHorror: Dresden is the horrifying thing to her fear-eating vampire horror. |
| 929 | * MamaBear: Not happy at all when her son is challenged and tries to protest - before being reminded that in this situation, she’s powerless and there’s nothing she can do. |
| 930 | * MeaningfulName: Named after Caesar, another powerful leader. |
| 931 | * NewEraSpeech: Tying in with a RousingSpeech, she gives one of these to the rest of the Court in the Deeps. Cue Harry and Ramirez making a BigEntrance. |
| 932 | * OhCrap: When Dresden walks in on the WCV meeting. |
| 933 | * OutGambitted: Much like Lord Skavis below, she too is a victim of Lara playing a very mean game. After Lara carefully set Skavis up to begin a plot he'd come up with some decades ago (of culling the weak female practitioners), she allowed House Malvora to learn of it and try to take credit, which would leave either one an open target for the White Council (and Harry Dresden) to strike at. |
| 934 | * ParentsAsPeople: Actually doesn’t seem to be abusive to her son and genuinely cares about his wellbeing - but she’s the head of a house of fear eaters and still involves him in schemes most parents would never dream of. That and her likely being where his views on regular humans comes from. To put a sum to it - better than how most white court vampires seen so far are at the gig, but still very critically flawed. |
| 935 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: A tiny woman (barely 5 feet according to Harry) who takes on an uber-ghoul by herself in hand-to-hand combat and wins. Unfortunately, she's still not a match for the rest of the uber-ghouls when they attack her together. |
| 936 | * TheSocialDarwinist: Voices these views in her speech to the other White Court vampires, in relation to her views on mortals, wizards, and even calling out Lord Raith (and Lara by proxy). |
| 937 | [[/folder]] |
| 938 | |
| 939 | [[folder:Gregor Malvora]] |
| 940 | !!Gregor Malvora |
| 941 | |
| 942 | A White Court vampire who attempts to terrify a little girl and feed off her fear, only to be stopped by Hamilton Luther. |
| 943 | ---- |
| 944 | * AssholeVictim: He is about to torture a child and feed off her fear when Luther beats him to death. |
| 945 | * DidntSeeThatComing: It was supposed to be a simple kidnapping. He didn't expect to be stopped by Marcone's former lieutenant. |
| 946 | * TheGhost: Never actually appears in person. |
| 947 | * WouldHurtAChild: Yes he would. Didn't work out for him, as it lead to his death. |
| 948 | [[/folder]] |
| 949 | |
| 950 | [[folder:Lord Skavis]] |
| 951 | !!Lord Skavis |
| 952 | |
| 953 | The leader of House Skavis. |
| 954 | ---- |
| 955 | * FallGuy: Set up to look like the instigator of the "culling" plot, though Dresden accused Lara of being the real originator of the idea and Lara all but confirmed it. |
| 956 | * OutGambitted: He launches a gambit to destroy wizardkind by having his heir kill magically-sensitive people before their talents could develop. Unfortunately, Vittorio and Madrigal then arrange for his heir to be killed so they could take the credit for the culling. Even more unfortunately, it turns out this was all anticipated by Lara, who used the scheme to keep Skavis and Malvora fighting each other instead of Raith, and who ultimately seizes the opportunity to kill off Skavis and his entire retinue (as well as their equivalents in Malvora), thus decapitating the other houses and reign supreme. |
| 957 | * PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Lara mentions that Skavis was a notorious misogynist. |
| 958 | [[/folder]] |
| 959 | |
| 960 | [[folder:Heir to House Skavis/"Priscilla"]] |
| 961 | !!Heir to House Skavis, known as "Priscilla" |
| 962 | |
| 963 | A SerialKiller of female practitioners, intending on discrediting the White Council. He disguised himself as a woman named Priscilla. |
| 964 | ---- |
| 965 | * BurnTheWitch: First appears to be his motive for killing weak female practitioners, with hidden messages of bible verses decrying witchcraft. Actually, he is trying to make the White Council look weak and unable to defend them, opening them up for a mass slaughter of the mothers/grandmothers/etc of future wizards (since magic is passed primarily, but not exclusively, in the female line). |
| 966 | * DeceasedFallGuyGambit: Inverted, when he is killed Vittorio and Madrigal are open to claim responsibility for the murders he committed. |
| 967 | * DisguisedInDrag: Pretends to be a woman named Priscilla, when he is really the male heir-apparent to House Skavis. It was good enough to fool several women who regularly met her. |
| 968 | * EnemyCivilWar: Kills dozens of low level practitioners to discredit House Raith's attempts to make peace with Wizards, and thus take the Court. House Malvora, hearing of this, plans to take credit for the kills and take the Court for their own. |
| 969 | * FalseConfession: Vittorio and Madrigal claim responsibility for his murder of female practitioners, hoping to steal the thunder from House Skavis. |
| 970 | * MeaningfulName: Priscilla? As in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPriscillaQueenOfTheDesert''? |
| 971 | * MuggingTheMonster: He nearly kills Elaine with a surprise psychic attack. Once Harry helps her break out of it, he is forced to run for his life. He fails. |
| 972 | * RasputinianDeath: First Elaine hits him with a massive ShockAndAwe attack, then Thomas cuts off one of his arms, and Mouse finishes the job for good afterwards. |
| 973 | * SerialKiller: Targets female practitioners. |
| 974 | * VillainousCrossdresser: Pretends to be "Priscilla" and murdered many women. |
| 975 | [[/folder]] |
| 976 | |
| 977 | [[folder:Connie Barrowill]] |
| 978 | !!Connie Barrowill |
| 979 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/connnie.JPG]] |
| 980 | |
| 981 | An unawakened White Court vampire who falls in love with Irwin Pounder. Irwin was strong enough to survive their first sexual encounter, resulting in Connie awakening as a full vampire but not killing her man. |
| 982 | ---- |
| 983 | * BrokenMasquerade: After her father's orgy-inducing attack ends, she learns of the magical world's existence and that she is a vampire. |
| 984 | * TheCutie: She's absolutely adorable. Her father tries to CorruptTheCutie, but Harry and River Shoulders's intervention prevent this. |
| 985 | * DatingWhatDaddyHates: Falls in love with Irwin, which is a problem (for her father), since he's strong enough to survive having sex with her and as a White Court vampire, she's supposed to consume his life force and kill him in the process. |
| 986 | * {{Foil}}: To Inari Raith. Like Inari, she's an adorably sweet, young female White Court vampire who's completely ignorant of what she is, and is dating/genuinely in love with a big, brawny young man. However, Inari never manifests as a full vampire, while Connie fully awakens her vampiric hunger, but doesn't kill Irwin because he's a scion of a Bigfoot and is spiritually robust enough to survive the feeding. |
| 987 | * InterspeciesRomance: She falls into a weird playing of this trope, given that several sliding scales of "human" are involved. Nascent White Court vampires are born fully human, but with a spiritual symbiote attached. She falls for a [[HalfHumanHybrid scion]] of a Bigfoot. Further complicated by the fact that Connie appears to have fully manifested as a vampire without killing Irwin. |
| 988 | * PowerUp: In ''Job Placement'', her Hunger appears to have awoken and transfigured her into a full White Court vampire, as is the case with all inductees into the White Court. However, hers is unique only in that she hadn't killed her lover as per usual, by virtue of Irwin having [[HeroicSpirit insane levels of vitality]] from being half-Sasquatch. She remains his live in girlfriend in Chicago [[spoiler: and then his fiance.]] |
| 989 | * {{Protectorate}}: After she leaves with Irwin and his father River Shoulders, she becomes this to River Shoulders's tribe. They will keep the White Court from abducting her against her will while she sorts out this whole affair and learns what exactly she is. A few years later, in the short story ''Job Placement'', [[spoiler:her relationship with Irwin is now in a neutral arrangement where both his father's people and her father's people agree to not bother them]]. |
| 990 | * RelationshipUpgrade: In the short story ''Job Placement'' [[spoiler:she accepts Irwin's marriage proposal]]. |
| 991 | [[/folder]] |
| 992 | |
| 993 | [[folder:Charles Barrowill]] |
| 994 | !!Charles Barrowill |
| 995 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2022_03_20_at_105641_pm.png]] |
| 996 | |
| 997 | The father of Connie Barrowill, Charles is a White Court vampire who is willing to go to extreme lengths to make sure his daughter awakens as a full vampire. |
| 998 | ---- |
| 999 | * AbusiveParents: While nowhere near Lord Raith levels, he mentally compels his daughter to kill her boyfriend and her friend, and tries to kidnap her to coerce her to perpetuate their family's monstrous tradition, and attempts to murder her friend for interfering, so he definitely qualifies. |
| 1000 | * AppealToTradition: Discussed by River Shoulders, who points out that the reason he's trying to force his daughter to follow the tradition of screwing to death the boy she likes is probably because of the trauma ''he'' suffered when made to do the same thing as a young man. The only way he lives with himself is by clinging to the excuse that it was necessary to turn him into a "strong predator", and thus he has to force his daughter to do the same, to ensure that she grows up strong. |
| 1001 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Described as an oil man with a "stable" of congressmen. |
| 1002 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Played with. He ''does'' genuinely love his daughter, but his way of showing it involves deliberately forcing her to do something traumatic because of a tradition that, on some level, he knows is a lie. |
| 1003 | * LoveObstructingParents: He wants to get rid of Irwin and Connie's chance for a happy, healthy relationship because it won't turn his daughter into the cold, manipulative vampire [[ForYourOwnGood he genuinely believes she should be]]. He does this by manipulating events to put Connie in a position to kill Irwin with sex. |
| 1004 | * OhCrap: |
| 1005 | ** Harry notes that Charles, when he finally recognizes Harry when Connie says his name, looks around as if looking for something to duck behind, or a hostage to take. |
| 1006 | ** He does this again when River Shoulders steps in... by pitching Barrowill's car up, into, and ''through'' the college dorm. |
| 1007 | * PapaWolf: When his daughter doesn't become a "proper vampire" (i.e. kill the first person she feeds upon) after her first feeding, he personally intervenes to ensure that she gets it right the next time. He even blasts Irwin's dormitory with a lust spell powerful enough to instigate a massive orgy just to force Irwin and Connie to have sex again and again until Irwin finally dies and his daughter becomes a fully empowered vampire. |
| 1008 | [[/folder]] |
| 1009 | |
| 1010 | [[header:White Court Thralls, Servitors, and Staff]] |
| 1011 | |
| 1012 | [[folder:Justine]] |
| 1013 | !!Justine |
| 1014 | [[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/justine_3.jpg]] |
| 1015 | |
| 1016 | Thomas Raith's long-time girlfriend and primary food source. After he almost killed her in ''Blood Rites'', she was in a wheelchair for a while, got out of it, her previously dark hair turned white, and, ironically, she and Thomas could no longer touch since love burns White Court vampires. Largely due to this last characteristic, she is now Lara Raith's personal assistant, since Lara prefers to have an assistant that none of her family members can turn into a thrall. |
| 1017 | ---- |
| 1018 | * AmbiguousSituation: [[spoiler:It's completely unknown how much of her CharacterDevelopment following ''Death Masks'' has been genuine or has just been Nemesis' influence.]] |
| 1019 | * BadassPacifist: Downplayed; while she has not shown any pacifistic beliefs, Justine almost never fights other people. She has also blackmailed Harry into helping Thomas, tricked Marcone into helping her rob (and kill) the Fomor sorcerer lord Mag, freed the slaves of aforementioned sorcerer lord and got away with it, has been spying on the White Court for Harry and Thomas for several years, and recovered from her addiction to White Court feeding without any outside help while being a personal assistant to [[VampireMonarch Lara]] and surrounded by a DecadentCourt. Almost none of her best moments involve fighting. |
| 1020 | * BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:In ''Battle Ground'' it's revealed she's been a host of Nemesis, aka He Who Walks Beside, for ''years'' now, and it was under the Walker's influence that she started working for Lara, and possibly her entire mental stability she exhibited was a result of the Walker. Interestingly, this didn't stop her from burning Thomas or Madeline with ThePowerOfLove.]] |
| 1021 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Justine's mind is... off, especially when separated from Thomas. The "almost drained of life-force" may have cured this (and makes passing reference to medication in ''White Night'') as she seems far more stable in later books. |
| 1022 | * CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: By the time ''Turn Coat'' rolls around... |
| 1023 | * DamselInDistress: In ''Grave Peril'', although it's mostly because she's too crazy to think straight. She is quite resourceful otherwise. |
| 1024 | * HeadTurningBeauty: Enough so that [[PsychoLesbian Bianca]] hates [[OfficialCouple Thomas]] on principle for getting to her first. |
| 1025 | * ImperiledInPregnancy: She ends up pregnant in ''Peace Talks'' and Thomas has [[spoiler: to attempt an assassination to try to save her. And then it turns out she has being infected by Nemesis, and the being had invoked this trope by using its powers to enable the pregnancy and then blackmailing Thomas with two lives]]. |
| 1026 | * LockedIntoStrangeness: After the events of ''Blood Rites'', her hair turns white due to Thomas feeding on her so much it almost killed her. |
| 1027 | * MoralityChain: To Thomas. |
| 1028 | * ObfuscatingInsanity: One of the masks she wears in later books. |
| 1029 | * TheOphelia: When she's separated from Thomas in ''Grave Peril''. |
| 1030 | -->She brayed out a sharp laugh. "There is no out of here. This is the larder. The Christmas turkey doesn't get up and walk away." |
| 1031 | * ThePowerOfLove: This protects her from the White Court vampires. Lara being Lara, she realized that this was a very helpful trait in someone who would need to work around them. In ''Ghost Story'', she figures out a way to avoid this: sleep with others to remove the protection, then lay with Thomas. Rinse and repeat. |
| 1032 | * SilkHidingSteel: Definitely becomes this in "Even Hand", even getting Marcone to underestimate her. |
| 1033 | * StarCrossedLovers: With Thomas Raith. |
| 1034 | * SickeninglySweethearts: She and post-''Turn Coat'' Thomas are like this in private, as shown by a vision Harry has in ''Ghost Story'' of them snuggling while Justine is wearing a full-body romper. |
| 1035 | * TalkativeLoon: Justine is certifiably insane, but Thomas' routine "feeding" helps her keep her sanity. When separated from him in ''Grave Peril'', she ''rapidly'' slips into madness. |
| 1036 | ** Subverted in ''White Night'', where it's revealed that she's just faking so the rest of the White Court will leave her alone, and is actually stable now with the help of medication. |
| 1037 | * TookALevelInBadass: Volunteered to work as Lara's assistant to feed Thomas (and thus Harry, and thus the White Council) information on the Court's activities. However, she ''really'' takes on in "Even Hand", where she infiltrates the stronghold of Mag, a powerful Fomor sorcerer, frees his slaves, and steals his bank account information, and then manages to get Marcone to kill Mag — getting extensive information on his magical defences in the process. |
| 1038 | * VoluntaryVampireVictim: She regularly tended to Thomas' hunger before the events of ''Blood Rites'', but after being protected by Thomas' love for her, she couldn't even touch him without hurting him. Once she finds a work-around by sleeping with a woman to remove the protection, she is able to help feed Thomas once more. |
| 1039 | * WalkingSpoiler: [[spoiler:''Battle Ground'' reveals that she's been possessed by Nemesis for ''years'' now]]. |
| 1040 | [[/folder]] |
| 1041 | |
| 1042 | [[folder:Lucius Glau]] |
| 1043 | !!Lucius Glau |
| 1044 | |
| 1045 | Madrigal Raith's lawyer. Glau was actually a jann, and he assisted Raith outside of the courtroom as well, even helping to sell Dresden on [=eBay=]. |
| 1046 | ---- |
| 1047 | * TheDragon: To Madrigal. |
| 1048 | * HalfHumanHybrid: He was a jann, the scion of a human and a djinn. |
| 1049 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: He knew the real culprits of the ''Proven Guilty'' case, so he was killed by the Scarecrow Fetch. |
| 1050 | * MuggingTheMonster: He runs over Mouse with a van (though he was aiming for Harry and Rawlins and Mouse pushed them out of the way). When Mouse catches upto him, their fight ends with Mouse breaking Glau'd back and neck, crippling him. |
| 1051 | * NotQuiteFlight: Glau can "walk" a few inches above the ground. |
| 1052 | * OccultLawFirm: A magical lawyer serving more magical creatures. |
| 1053 | * OhCrap: When Harry introduces himself. |
| 1054 | [[/folder]] |
| 1055 | |
| 1056 | [[folder:Kevin Aramis]] |
| 1057 | !!Kevin Aramis |
| 1058 | |
| 1059 | The manager of a dummy corporation called Windfall which belongs to Lara Raith. |
| 1060 | ---- |
| 1061 | * DecapitationPresentation: Aramis's head was sent to the White Council as an apology for what he and Madeleine had done. |
| 1062 | * FrameUp: What he does to Morgan. He transferred six million dollars into Morgan's bank account so it would look like Morgan had been paid to assassinate [=LaFortier=]. |
| 1063 | * TheGhost: Readers never see him, though Dresden theorizes his body is in a hotel room that he tracks Madeline to. |
| 1064 | * MindRape: Possibly by Madeleine -- it's not made clear if she enthralls him, seduces him, or just convinces him to wire the money. |
| 1065 | * OffWithHisHead: After he was killed by Madeline, Lara has him decapitated, and his head sent with Madeleine's to the White Council as a peace token for their involvement with the spies in the White Council. |
| 1066 | [[/folder]] |
| 1067 | |
| 1068 | [[folder:Evelyn Derek]] |
| 1069 | !!Evelyn Derek |
| 1070 | |
| 1071 | A lawyer at the law firm of Smith, Cohen, and Mackelroy. First seen in ''Turn Coat''. She is enthralled by Madeline to spy on Dresden, which led to her hiring Vince Graver to do the job. |
| 1072 | ---- |
| 1073 | * MindRape: What Madeleine did to her to keep her from talking about who paid her to hire a PI to follow Harry. |
| 1074 | [[/folder]] |
| 1075 | |
| 1076 | [[folder:Freydis Gard]] |
| 1077 | !! Freydis Gard |
| 1078 | |
| 1079 | A valkyrie Lara hires from Monoc Securities. |
| 1080 | ---- |
| 1081 | * ActionGirl: She's a ''valkyrie.'' What '''else''' would she be? |
| 1082 | * BestHerToBedHer: Freydis is attracted to warriors who can outmaneuver her in combat, and she flirts with Murphy and Dresden pretty much whenever they put up a good challenge to her or even defeat her. |
| 1083 | * FantasticRacism: She views all Forest People as monsters [[spoiler: because Grendel was one of their kind ages ago]]. |
| 1084 | * FieryRedhead: While fiery might be putting it strongly, she is definitely more... expressive than the other Valkyrie seen so far in the series. |
| 1085 | * GeometricMagic: Like Sigrun Gard, she wields Norse runes to great magical effect. |
| 1086 | * InLoveWithYourCarnage: PlayedForLaughs; After Murphy threatens to blow the two of them up with grenades on a boat, Freydis grins and responds ''"Gods'', that's hot" before she jumps overboard. |
| 1087 | * MasterOfIllusion: One of her rune plaques, when broken, released an ultra-realistic illusion of two people getting busy. |
| 1088 | * MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Part of the valkyrie power set is being able to sense when warriors will die. |
| 1089 | * OlderThanTheyLook: Indefinitely prolonged physical youth seems to be part of the valkyrie package. |
| 1090 | * SignificantGreenEyedRedhead: Freydis has red hair and green eyes. |
| 1091 | * SuperStrength: She jumps out of water and onto a boat with leg strength alone. |
| 1092 | * WorthyOpponent: Clearly has this outlook regarding both Harry and Murphy. |
| 1093 | [[/folder]] |
| 1094 | |
| 1095 | [[folder:Riley]] |
| 1096 | !!Riley |
| 1097 | |
| 1098 | A mercenary assigned as the "babysitter" of Tania Raith when she went up against Dresden. He followed her orders, but also had the authority to pull the plug on the operation once Dresden took the upper hand. He's later seen as one of Lara Raith's lead security officers. |
| 1099 | ---- |
| 1100 | * BadassNormal: He has no magic powers, but he's still a tough foe, and Dresden is continually impressed by his intelligence and skill in combat. |
| 1101 | * HypercompetentSidekick: For Tania Raith during "Jury Duty". |
| 1102 | * VillainousRescue: Saves a drowning Harry at Lara's orders. |
| 1103 | * VillainRespect: Harry notes that Riley and his goons might've gotten the better of Dresden had Harry not brought Will as backup. However, Riley himself admits [[SubvertedTrope that he doesn't think so]] - [[WillfullyWeak Harry hadn't even really been trying]] and that's why they were doing so well. |
| 1104 | [[/folder]] |
| 1105 | |
| 1106 | [[folder:Emilia Alexandria Salazar]] |
| 1107 | !!Emilia Alexandria Salazar |
| 1108 | |
| 1109 | The first woman who bore a child for Lord Raith. |
| 1110 | ---- |
| 1111 | * TheGhost: Never met in-person, but Dresden sees a picture Lord Raith painted of her. |
| 1112 | * PosthumousCharacter: Dies long before the story began. |
| 1113 | [[/folder]] |
| 1114 | |
| 1115 | [[folder:Lord Raith's Twin Bodyguards]] |
| 1116 | !!Lord Raith's Twin Bodyguards |
| 1117 | |
| 1118 | Two sets of identical twins who protect Lord Raith in ''Blood Rites''. |
| 1119 | ---- |
| 1120 | * AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The female guards are identical twins, as are the male guards. |
| 1121 | * CoolButInefficient: They were apparently chosen because they were twins, not because of their combat skills, and so aren't the most effective fighters. Their being enthralled also cuts down on their initiative and prevents them from reacting appropriately when Dresden and Murphy do something unexpected. |
| 1122 | * InSeriesNickname: Dresden nicknames them "Kens" and "Barbies" on account of their doll-like physical perfection and identical looks. |
| 1123 | [[/folder]] |
| 1124 | |
| 1125 | [[folder:Victims of the Skinwalker]] |
| 1126 | !!Victims of the Skinwalker |
| 1127 | |
| 1128 | Security guards who were maimed when the skinwalker nicknamed "Shagnasty" attacked Lara Raith's mansion. They include: |
| 1129 | |
| 1130 | * Hennesy, whose back was broken |
| 1131 | * Callo, whose back was broken |
| 1132 | * Wilson, who lost both eyes. |
| 1133 | |
| 1134 | All three were killed when injured White Court Vampires drained them to recover their health. |
| 1135 | ---- |
| 1136 | |
| 1137 | * EyeScream: Wilson's injuries. |
| 1138 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: When Dresden challenges Lara on her decision to have them killed, Lara says they know too many secrets to just be released from service. |
| 1139 | * OutWithABang: All three of them were killed when White Court Vampires use their lust magic to enthrall them and then drained their energy during sex. |
| 1140 | * YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Lara's rationalization for why they had to be sacrificed to save the injured vampires. Their injuries were so severe they could no longer serve House Raith except by dying to save its members. |
| 1141 | [[/folder]] |
| 1142 |
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