Senior Council

The Senior Council is the ruling body of the White Council.

Description
The Senior Council consists of seven members. It is responsible for controlling the Wardens and maintaining the order of the general body.

Members wear dark robes with purple stoles.

All of the Senior Council were very dangerous and also protected by details of wardens. Senior Council members all have extensive contacts in the Council in general and centuries of experience and skill to back up enormous amounts of raw strength.

Seats on the Senior Council are awarded geriatrically: whoever has the most years of service in the White Council is offered the next position on the Senior Council.

Council politics
There is a traitor with a suspected connection to the Black Council  within the White Council and mostly everyone in the suspect pool is on the Senior Council—and they are all beyond reproach.

Most in the Council know that justice of the Council was blind, especially to annoying things like facts, any one accused of being a traitor would run, like Morgan. If one of the Senior Council members put up a fight, it would mean internal strife in the White Council and that would be disastrous for the Council as a whole. The Council has barely hung on during The War with the Vampire Courts. If the Council dissolved now due to internal strife created by the traitor and started by setting up Morgan for the murder of one of the Senior Council, that could start a feeding frenzy amongst their enemies. And, that could bring about the collapse of the Council.

Merlin presses Listens-to-Wind to work spell to reconstruct crime of LaFortier's murder. If Morgan is proven guilty, the Merlin's credibility and power will wane, and if he's undone as leader, that could cause chaos in the supernatural world. Listens-to-Wind says that LaFortier's supporters are demanding justice for LaFortier's murder believing that the Merlin's right-hand-man killed their only friend on the Senior Council. If Morgan is found innocent, it could lead to civil war—the Council must get Morgan even if he's innocent.

In Turn Coat, after Morgan's trial, there was an enormous outcry from LaFortier's supporters since they suffered the most from the Mistfiend attack. They claim the Merlin ignored their safety. They ignored the fact that the true killer was unmasked. Rumors went out immediately that Morgan and Peabody were conspiring together and both were killed during an escape attempt. The premise being that wizards are safer if everyone believed the Council acted with swift, deadly power. But the ones behind Peabody, presumably the Black Council, knows the Council killed an innocent man—one the Council's largest military assets. Rashid says that if Morgan had not acted so quickly, both Morgan and Luccio would have been arrested and the Wardens themselves, may have started a civil war.

In Turn Coat, LaFortier's seat is given to Gregori Cristos instead of Klaus the Toymaker who should have been next in line. Cristos is not even on the near the top of the seniority list. According to Ebenezar McCoy, Cristos told the Merlin that he and his allies would secede from the Council if he didn't get the seat.

Official Statement essentially states that it was an act of individuals motivated by profit—there was no conspiracy and there is no Black Council. There was a majority who voted for it: The Merlin, Cristos, Mai, Martha Liberty, and Rashid the Gatekeeper. It is after this that the Grey Council is formed.

Summer Knight
In Summer Knight, one of the Senior Council members, Simon Pietrovich, was killed in the battle at Archangel. They held a vote and Ebenezar McCoy was voted to replace him. At that same meeting, The Gatekeeper proposes that he base his vote on a trail: let Harry fulfill Mab's request and secure safe routes for the Council through Faerie.

Proven Guilty
In Proven Guilty, they execute a teenage boy who is a known warlock. He was never taught the Laws of Magic or guided on the proper use of magic. Clearly, The Merlin held the speedy trial and execution in Chicago and invited Harry Dresden with the intention of sending a message to Harry. Harry was once in that position when he was sixteen and was just barely spared. According to Ebenezar McCoy, The Merlin wants Harry stripped of his powers as Warden.

The Senior Council convenes again for a trial against Molly Carpenter. Many of the members are missing due to a battle waging in aid of the Venatori. These missing members would most likely be at least open to giving Molly a chance. Eventually, those missing members return from battle in haste, thanks in part to Michael Carpenter who aided their escape. The Senior Council votes to make Molly apprentice to Harry Dresden, both are under the Doom of Damocles.

Turn Coat
In Turn Coat, one of the Senior Council members, Aleron LaFortier, has been murdered and Donald Morgan is accused of the crime. Four Senior Council members answered Harry's invitation to Demonreach with a promise of presenting an informer: Ancient Mai, Listens-to-Wind, Ebenezar McCoy, and Rashid the Gatekeeper. While there, they were mainly occupied by giant spiders brought by the traitor.

During Morgan's trail, Peabody is ousted for the crime and for tampering with the minds of many the Senior Council members via chemicals and alchemicals in his inks used for psychic-manipulation. Cornered, Peabody smashes an ink pot on the floor that contains a Mordite infused Mistfiend. The Senior Council members present worked together to contain it. Immediately afterward, the Senior Council began an investigation on the extent of Peabody's psychic infiltration led by: the Merlin, the Gatekeeper, and Listens-to-Wind—through the ranks of the Wardens. And, through the Senior Council itself, its members having to go back over all of their decisions for the past several years.

Known members

 * Ancient Mai
 * Arthur Langtry (Merlin)
 * ‎Joseph Listens-to-Wind
 * Martha Liberty
 * Rashid (Gatekeeper)
 * Gregory Cristos
 * Ebenezar McCoy (Blackstaff)
 * Simon Pietrovich, replaced in Summer Knight by Ebenezar McCoy.
 * Aleron LaFortier replaced in Turn Coat by Gregori Cristos.