This entry provides a summary and structured mechanical analysis of ritual magic as it appears in Changes, the twelfth novel in The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher.

In Changes, Dresden learns that he has a daughter — and that she’s been kidnapped by the Red Court for use in a powerful blood ritual. The story builds to a climactic act of high-scale magic involving an ancient sacrifice rite. Multiple rituals appear, but the final one annihilates the entire Red Court, permanently shifting the supernatural balance of power.

Dresden performs a catastrophic ritual using the sacrifice of his own daughter’s blood (though he stops short of the killing blow himself), fulfilling an ancient condition that triggers the destruction of the entire Red Court bloodline.

• Intent: Annihilate the Red Court by fulfilling a bloodline curse
• Domain: Sacrificial Magic, Curse Activation
• Scale: Global (limited to all Red Court vampires)
• Link: Blood of a born scion (Dresden’s daughter)
• Catalyst: Ancient spell conditions, spiritual intent, blood ritual site
• Resolution Type: Ritual
• Cost: Moral compromise, loss of control over consequences, possible damnation
• Complications:
  • Massive metaphysical ripple effects across all vampire courts
  • Permanent severing of certain magical balances
  • Dresden is marked as someone capable of invoking world-shaking forces

The Red Court prepares to enact their own version of the ritual — sacrificing Dresden’s daughter to fuel their own rise and empowerment.

• Intent: Strengthen or ascend the Red Court using the blood of an enemy’s bloodline
• Domain: Sacrificial Magic, Empowerment
• Scale: Global (ritual potential)
• Link: Blood of Dresden’s child
• Catalyst: Sacrificial altar, enchanted bindings, ancient incantation
• Resolution Type: Ritual
• Cost: Life of a child, public magical working, risk of ritual hijack
• Complications:
  • Their ritual is overtaken and reversed by Dresden’s interference
  • Leaves a vacuum in the supernatural world

While not directly ritualized on the page, Dresden’s growing connection to Demonreach and later events suggest reinforcement of magical bonds through conscious attunement.

• Intent: Secure a deeper magical bond with Demonreach
• Domain: Warding, Symbiosis
• Scale: Site-bound (Island)
• Link: Dresden’s mental link and magical resonance
• Catalyst: Focus, alignment, spoken intent
• Resolution Type: Approach (narrative handoff for future consequences)
• Cost: Psychic strain; possible long-term tethering to place
• Complications: Unclear — seeds for future tension

Changes showcases the narrative extreme of ritual magic — an act that reshapes the supernatural world. While most rituals in DFA should avoid world-ending scope, this sets precedent for what happens when ancient conditions are met, sacrifices are accepted, and magic responds at full scale. Use sparingly and with immense consequence.