Lord Raith

Lord Raith is a White Court vampire, member of House Raith. He first appears in Blood Rites as the King of the White Court.

Description
Lord Raith is about six feet tall with dark, straight hair and pale skin. He wears a scarlet earring in his left ear and has long, spatulate fingers, broad shoulders, the eyes of a drowsy jaguar, and is handsomer than Thomas. (ref?)

Lord Raith is the King of the White Court, also known as the "White King". He is, however, currently an empty figurehead enthralled to Lara Raith.

Lord Raith has a habit of killing his sons before they attempt to overthrow him. He keeps his daughters under tight control.

According to witness testimony of several characters in the book Blood Rites Lord Raith has employed several special abilities over the years.
 * Kiss of Death: feeding off and killing a victim with a simple kiss.
 * Magic immunity: he seems to be immune from magic.
 * Ritual: Lord Raith is skilled in the use of rituals.
 * Seduction: common to White Court vampires of House Raith
 * Longevity: like all his peers he does not seem to age normally
 * Psychic aura: he is capable of imposing his will on others, and glamour himself into seductive good looks.

He is very vicious and always gets what he wants, usually working against his enemies in a round-about way. He uses his abilities of seduction to both seduce and capture. He has killed off many of his male offspring when they become a threat to him, and he strikes fear into his daughters forcing them to follow him.

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites, Ebenezar McCoy reveals that it was Lord Raith that killed Margaret LeFay with an entropy curse. In return, Margaret's death curse renders him unable to feed, which has seriously weakened him.

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites, Lord Raith sent his daughter Inari to Harry's room at the Raith Estate with the intention of having Harry be her first and always lethal feed. Inari knew nothing about what she was or what was happening to her as her Hunger was triggered and nearly killed Harry but he was protected by his love for Susan Rodriguez.

Harry sets out to show Lara Raith that he is not invincible and just how weak he is. He promises to take him down who she can take over if she will help him rescue Thomas.

Lord Raith had abducted his son Thomas, ties him to a stone table in the Deeps. With Madge Shelly actually performing the ritual, he intended to try to kill Harry Dresden by sacrificing Thomas by a ritual Entropy Curse. His intent is to end Margaret's Death curse by killing both of her sons in one stroke. He also has Murphy held captive and attempts to make her his thrall in a most insidious way.

Lord Raith is overwhelmed by his daughter Lara, who takes the leadership of the White Court by enslaving her father, making him her thrall, but keeping him as a puppet leader. The reason that he was overwhelmed is that he is unable to feed due to Margaret Dresden's death curse, which was used to this effect since most magic will just slide off him.

White Night
In White Night, there is an attempt by the other Houses in the White Court to overthrow Lord Raith, stop Lara Raith's peace efforts, and seize control of the Court. This is being done by culling magic practitioners to show how easy it would be to destroy the White Council. If they challenge his authority openly, it would expose that Raith is powerless and then Lara would have to fight openly—once driven to that, she's already lost, she'd be seen as incompetent.

Lord Raith was present at the White Court conclave of the three Houses held in the Deeps on the Raith Estate. Lara pulled all the strings making him say and do everything while acting as the Head of the White Court.

Word of Butcher
Maggie's death curse on Raith did /more/ than render him virtually powerless. It freaking crippled the entire White Court by rendering its head executive suddenly unwilling to get aggressive. It took that same executive's focus and warped it from an outwardly-oriented expansionist agenda to one of frantic power-defense, paranoia, and infighting. Had she merely killed Raith, another vampire much like him would simply have stepped into his shoes. Instead, her curse sandbagged the entire White Court for two or three /decades/.