The Outside, or Netherworld,[1], is a place not of our reality. It’s first mentioned at the Duel in Death Masks.
Description[]
It is where Outsiders are locked away from our reality beyond the Outer Gates.
The White Council's Seventh Law of Magic forbids the contacting of Outsiders.[1]
In the series[]
Death Masks[]
- Main article: Death Masks
In Death Masks, the Archive brings mordite for the test of wills in the duel between Paolo Ortega and Harry Dresden. They describe mordite as not of this world, or this galaxy or this universe—not of our reality. According to Dresden, it's from Outside. Being near it draws the life from a person, touching it will kill.[2]
Dead Beat[]
- Main article: Dead Beat
In Dead Beat, the Red Court vampires pursue the White Council carrying many wounded into Faerie and call up both demons and Outsiders from the Netherworld, the Outside. Only a mortal can call the Outsiders, indicating the existence of a traitor.[1]
Cold Days[]
- Main article: Cold Days
In Cold Days, the Outside is compared to World War One, with troops of Outsiders and the Winter Court fighting and moving around the landscape constantly.[3] The Outside is physically a land of dust, mud, and loose shale, covered in hillocks and steep gullies. The plants growing there appear to be able to poke, scratch, and sting.[3] The land itself is lit with a sourceless, ambient light, and according to Harry Dresden the sky is "as black as Cat Sith's conscience, without a single star or speck of light to be seen—and it is an overwhelming sky, enormous, like in the open, rolling lands of Montana and Wyoming."[3]