1 Does it exist?
Yes
1 A If so, what is it's ultimate agenda? Distributing hexenwulfen belts, exploding heart curses, and the other chaotic muck we've seen makes for great novels, but what is the ultimate point?
Control of most of, if not all of, the supernatural world. That which they cannot control they will cripple and/or attempt to destroy. Whenever possible, they have contingency plans and play all angles trying to come out ahead even in losses. On the side they also dabble with power acquisition to further their ends and frequently destabilize the current balance of power in order to make control easier.
Power plays and events in the Dresdenverse from this context.
Storm Front is Dresden blundering in to what is effectively a BC power experiment. Through a catspaw Victor Sells, the BC is playing both with third eye and entropy magic.
Fool Moon is something special. I'll explain my theory in 1B
Grave Peril is where a lot of things happen and the BC starts to really put its plan in to motion. An attempt to remove one of the knights swords and the likelyhood of war are the obvious things. The gift of the athame to Lea was their opening bid on controlling the Faerie courts. (Ideally Lea controlled through the athame would gain control of Winter. As a back up plan, if Lea fails, Mab gains the athame and the BC has another route to their pawn of a Winter Queen) Whatever got handed to Ferrovax is their play on the dragons.
Sumer Knight a continuation on the play on Faerie. Destablization and the movement of one of their pawns up the ladder in Summer. Strengthening of Winter for when the Athame plan played out.
Death Masks is not related to the BC.
Ditto for Blood Rights. This is just general politics and supernatural goings on, although possibly more entropy magic experimentation and possibly Marva.
Dead Beat is a reactive power play. This one might not have started with the BC but the BC had to get involved to either take the power of a dark hallow for itself or keep it out of the hands of the other Kemmler disciples.
Proven Guilty contains fall out of the Athame plan going sour. Maybe Mab was to strong to be controlled, maybe Mab was never meant to receive the Athame in the first place. Whatever the case, the BC storms Arctis Tor to correct the problem in a smash what they can't control bid (which is also not quite successful). Harry merely sees the aftermath.
White Night is the BC's attempt to gain control of the White Court. When it fails the super ghouls are the smash what they cannot control alternative.
Small Favor was the BC's attempt to gain control of the Archive. If the attempts to break Ivy had been successful, BC members of the Fallen would have been in control.
Turn Coat was a crack in the BC's control of the White Council. I don't know if LaFortier was beginning to figure things out or if the BC simply wanted a member directly on the Senior Council, but thats where the book starts. The rest of it is about maintaining the control they have through Peabody and a smash attempt with the mordite/mist fiend when he is discovered.
Changes is the BC playing the Red Court and the White Council off against each other on crack. If Ortega had succeeded, the BC got its pawn in control of the Red Court and did some serious damage to the White Council through plauge and black staff elimination. As it played out, the BC instead got its destroy what it could not control back up plan employed as well as getting its hooks into Dresden. (more on that below)
1 B Who is involved?
Cowl. The Circle is the Black Council. I favor the theory that he is Simon from Arch Angel.
Maybe Marva. I can go either way on this. I can make a case for her just being out to protect herself in Dead Beat. Alternatively she is BC and another part of the BC plan to acquire the Dark Hallow/prevent others from getting it. Either way Marva was only in Blood Rights for the blackmail opportunity on Dresden which was used in Dead Beat.
Odin. My theory is he is BC in a big way and is pulling many of the strings. There is no reason he should know as much as he does about what the Red Court was doing in Changes. He is positioned near Eb to retrieve the Black Staff if the bloodline curse had killed Eb or to simply point a grief maddened Eb at the Red King if Harry died en route but before the curse went off. Quite possibly important, he maneuvers Harry into accepting food and drink. I speculate that this is Odin's intended route for Harry's resurrection and it will let Odin get his hooks firmly into Harry.
Getting back to Fool Moon... the Wolf Belts are Odin's. The point of the entire book is that the incident is something manageable by Dresden but convinces Marcone that he needs something to handle the supernatural. The result is it gives Gard a plausible reason for being in Chicago and a reason for her to interact with Harry. And Odin and the BC have plans for Harry if none of their other plans kill him (permanently) first... Outsiderbanes don't exactly grow on trees...
