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Secret Circle of Secrets
- 389 statements
- 73 feature instances
- 76 referencing feature instances
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Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Some Cults are all about the mental manipulation and brainwashing in order to inspire devotion to a leader. Other cults, however, are all about the whole "meddling with dark powers" thing. Let's face it. Secret societies make good villains because you can do almost anything you want with them. If your story needs some hidden group to be the bad guys, you can't go wrong with a shadowy cabal of masked figures chanting Latin or some other long dead language. The members of such groups meet in the middle of the night, and when they meet are almost always garbed in cloaks that hide their body shape, along with identity-concealing masks. The leader of the cult, of course, will almost always be wearing a much more extravagant, often differently colored cloak (red is a popular option), and his mask is usually more elaborate as well. Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_2'); })Expect black robes, evil magic, Human Sacrifice (especially of the virgin kind, and usually in a painful manner), and dark plots to destroy or conquer the world. Synchronized chanting, bonfires (including the occasional burning cross or wicker-man), odd sexual practices, and blood sacrifice is popular among such groups, but not always necessary. The members of the group itself will be loyal to various degrees. Some will end up being Punch Clock Villains, others in it for the money or murdering, while others will be hardcore true believers. Don't expect much of a detailed, coherent religious philosophy beyond "serve the God of Evil in return for power (or to keep him from smiting us)," a bit of Pseudo-Nietzschean nihilism, and perhaps a bit of Social Darwinism with special focus on "culling the weak." Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_3'); })A Subtrope of Religion of Evil. May overlap with The Omniscient Council of Vagueness. Often found in works of Religious Horror. Has connections with the Department of Redundancy Department. Often a form of Mystery Cult, Apocalypse Cult, Breeding Cult or The Klan. Examples: |
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| Secret Circle of Secrets / int_15d17004 | type |
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Demonstrated in the opening of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. | |
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| Secret Circle of Secrets / int_1d3bb251 | type |
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Chzo Mythos has the Order of the Blessed Agonies. | |
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The Whisperer in Darkness (2011). The Cthulhu Mythos cult attempting to open a wormhole to the Mi-Go's planet for an Alien Invasion. | |
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Leviathan: The Tempest has this as one of the forms a Leviathan's Cult can take. The emphasis on secrecy makes it easier to jettison part of the Cult if it starts drawing heat, but you run the risk of losing track of some of your Beloved and having them go do something stupid. | |
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RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: The not-a-cult of Nightmares Yet to Come act like this, dressing all in black (or having black fur), following some nebulous goal they are unwilling to explain to the audience's benefit, and gathering in a circle when possible. Though, again, they insist they're not a cult, and that the black is simply for appearance's sake. | |
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And of course, the spinoff Angel has the Circle of the Black Thorn (referred to in the title quote), Ancient Conspiracy and The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, complete with black robes and Venetian masks. | |
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Star Trek: Picard reveals that within the Tal Shiar — the Romulan Secret Police — is an even more secretive cabal known as Zhat Vash, which exists solely to protect a terrible secret capable of breaking the minds of those who learn it. | |
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A lot of Hammer Films productions featured cloak-wearing demon worshippers of one stripe or another. | |
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The cultists in The Final Sacrifice are a bunch of machete-wielding madmen in black tanktops and hoods out to Take Over the World by summoning the spirits of an extinct Native American civilization. Mike and the bots can't decide if they're pro wrestlers or if "Canadian rules football is quite different." | |
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Angels and Demons: The Illuminati are a secret society, originated as a pro-science organization in a time when the Catholic Church was anti-science. It is almost exaggerated, as they have convinced the entire world for 400 years that they didn't exist anymore, and they managed to deeply infiltrate even the Freemasons, who themselves can be considered a secret society of sorts. At the end of the book, subverted, though, as it turns out they indeed stopped existing centuries ago, and their come-back was only feigned by the villain. | |
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In Harry Potter, Death Eaters behave this way. When they gather, they all wear uniform robes in a cult of personality of sorts for Voldemort. They wear masks as well in a Faceless Goons sort of way. | |
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In a subversion of the "cult leader wears red" thing, the Cult of the Mythic Dawn in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has the mooks wearing red. The leader wears blue. Also, the Speakers of the Black Hand wear black robes, but their leader, the Listener, wears a green overcoat. Justified, as he is the one who has to show himself in public when visiting the Night Mother's shrine smack-dab in the middle of Bravil. | |
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In the Discworld novel Guards! Guards! the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night are a secret society behind the plot to summon a dragon and overthrow the Patrician. While the leader is a cunning manipulator, the members are pathetic petty-minded lower-middle class losers who mainly want to get back at people. (What they have going for them is anger.) But apparently they aren't as unique as they think... there's a whole street full of secret societies, with all the trimmings. The other societies are similar enough that early in the book, two characters exchange esoteric passphrases for most of a page before one of them says something the other isn't expecting. They then spend most of another page arguing about whether the good mother makes bean soup for the errant boy or the ill-built tower trembles mightily at the butterfly's passage. Finally the person trying to get in says something that clues the doorkeeper in that he's looking for another secret society that meets three doors down. Not long after, it turns out one of the people already at the gathering was at the wrong society, only realising it when the full name of it was mentioned. |
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Hilariously subverted in Hot Fuzz - black robes? Check. Meeting in secret? Check. Killing people off? Check. Being generally evil? Big damn check. Having anything to do with a reasonable, normal, evil bunch of black-clad homicidal night-meeters' goals? Noooot quite... | |
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In Planescape, there are the Primals, a group who is based in the Inner Planes. They seem to have discovered some big secret of the universe, but aren't eager to share it. (Most assume it has something to do with Elemental powers, given their location and name.) Due to the secrecy, most other folk assume they're up to no good, even though there's no concrete proof. | |
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The secret society in The King of Shreds and Patches fits this bill, having ties to several high-profile figures (from noblemen to the Queen's own occultist) all in service to The King in Yellow. | |
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The Genoharadan in Knights of the Old Republic are a secret society of assassins and bounty hunters that operate behind the scenes, guiding galactic history. | |
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The Masquerade in Persona 2: Innocent Sin certainly qualifies. In this case, they even have different robes to indicate which leader commands them, though they will all take orders from the Joker. | |
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The Warcraft universe's Cult of the Damned is a group that worships The Lich King in order to achieve eternal life through undeath. In contrast, the apocalyptic Twilight's Hammer cult exists to awaken the Old Gods sealed beneath Azeroth's surface, knowing full well that doing so will bring about the end of the world. | |
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ObsCure II has Delta Theta Gamma, which at first glance appears to be a hard-partying fraternity but is slowly revealed, as you explore their frat house, to have a lot more in common with the likes of Skull & Bones than with Delta House. The finale reveals them to have been a Greater-Scope Villain secretly involved in the events of both games, with most of the main villains working for them in some capacity. | |
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The story in Resident Evil 4 revolves around rescuing the daughter of the President of the United States from a cult called "Los Illuminados". Interestingly, the most obvious example of this trope is only in one particular level. The rest of the game involves you fighting villagers and soldiers that have been infected by the cult. Oddly, the Cult seems to have their wires badly crossed about HOW to go about their mission - they actually spend most of the game trying desperately to kill people their principle strategy hinges on being alive. | |
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The Silent Hill series has an evil cult which has a large role in every game except arguably Silent Hill 2. Hints to some sort of actual religious theory beyond "serve the evil god in exchange for power," appear in the third game (for example: that Alessa is both the mother and daughter of God). The third game also has examples of true believers (Claudia) and people mostly in it for power and money (Father Vincent). | |
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The cult in World of Horror faithfully serves their chosen Old God, and attempt to summon it in order to bring about The End of the World as We Know It. The Final Boss is one of their head honchos. | |
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A rare heroic example from The Sanity Circus: The Nameless Organisation is concerned with tracking down, monitoring and keeping a lid on the Scarecrows, but they do with maximum secrecy and all information is strictly limited. They're even called 'The Nameless Organisation', after all. | |
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The Dark Circle in Legion Of Superheroes. In original continuity they were an ignorance cult that viewed knowledge as dangerous and wanted everyone to act on instinct. In Reboot continuity they were The Man Behind the Man of the Affiliated Planets, and were mostly working towards power for the individual members and so that Brainiac 4 could feel something - which she finally did when she sent the AP fleet to a pointless death and killed the rest of the Circle. | |
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In The Facts in the Case of Mister Hollow, has an investigator researching "paganism" in northern Ontario in 1933. Evidence of a cult's operation is presented piecemeal, via newspaper articles, letters, reference materials and a specific photo, gradually detailing a Greco-Roman Mystery Cult that is involved in a spate of disappearances. The viewer is meant to infer that these Keres-worshippers are hard-to-track and have been operating in secret for quite some time. | |
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Many Call of Cthulhu adventures have them, in accordance with the original Cthulhu Mythos source material. | |
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Subverted with the Lords of Waterdeep from the Forgotten Realms D&D setting, who dress like this trope, engineer secretive political schemes, and conceal their membership from the public, but aren't actually evil and work to ensure their city's security and prosperity. | |
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A Mummy's Cult also tends to operate in this fashion. Mummy Cults are among the few people in the modern world who know of Sekhem and the Nameless Empire, and also have the ability to direct a Mummy through his Relics. A Cult that abuses this authority, though, may regret it once the Mummy starts getting its memories back... | |
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I Batman, The Court of Owls have ruled Gotham City from the shadows for centuries. They also feature prominently in the animated feature Batman Vs Robin. | |
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The Lychee Light Club has shades of this, especially in the opening, which depicts them from the perspective of an outsider. | |
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In Broodhollow, the Society of the Skull and Shovels seems like this at first. Brooding chants, dark robes, mystical significance, check, check, and double-check. But then Wadsworth actually gets inside and is shown that it's really just a (seemingly) harmless gentleman's club of sorts. | |
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The Regents from Warehouse 13 invoke the general idea of this trope as an acerbic jab at Artie's expectations. | |
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Foucault's Pendulum is a hardcore postmodern deconstruction of this trope. In addition to numerous literary and historical references to various Secret Circles throughout the ages, two of them feature in the main plot: the first is a generally benign Druidic cult at an alchemical retreat, but the second is a full-on evil secret society led by a major supporting character, Senor Aglie. | |
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The Cult of Kefka in Final Fantasy VI. They have given their souls to Kefka, and spend all their time walking around thinking about him. | |
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Girl Genius: Most of Queen Albia's Mad Scientist division goes renegade joining a secret little conspiracy, complete with hooded cloaks, Human Sacrifice, and the summoning of an Eldritch Abomination. | |
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The Cult of Kira, seen at the end of the Death Note manga, don't get much screentime, but they fit the bill. | |
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The sex cult in Eyes Wide Shut (see picture above). Exactly how sinister they really are is left somewhat unclear. | |
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The Darkfriends of The Wheel of Time. Since they are all about helping the Dark One bring about The End of the World as We Know It (in exchange for personal power and immortality), membership is banned on pain of death throughout the world, and their cells are even called "circles" with strict limits on who knows whom. One book has a "Darkfriend social" where all the guests wear obscuring hooded robes and masks — and are still looking for dirt on each other. | |
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The first Discworld videogame is based on Guards! Guards!, mentioned above, and so has a similar secret society. | |
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In Curse of the Crimson Altar centres a witchcraft cult established by Lavinia Morley, a woman executed for witchcraft in the 17th Century, which still operates in the present day. The cult practices Human Sacrifice, but it is unclear what its actual goals are. | |
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Dark•Matter, a roleplaying game for the Alternity system based strongly on contemporary conspiracy theory and The X-Files-like science fiction, had the Final Church, THE worldwide conspiracy for demons and satanists. Basically, pretend that every paranoid rumor regarding Satanism mentioned in the 'Real Life' section was actually true, and you get the gist. There was even a web book devoted solely to the group at the end of Alternity's run, and the group makes a comeback in the d20 Modern Menace Manual. | |
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The Satanists in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens lampshade and parody this concept, with a coven of secretly Satanist nuns who are doing their best to fulfill the prophecies leading to the conception of the Antichrist, but are otherwise just decent people following the tenets of the religion they were raised in, not that different from anyone else. | |
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1957's Night of the Demon was all about an investigator who discovers one of these groups. The 2009 Sam Raimi film Drag Me to Hell took a lot of inspiration from this film. |
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In Opplopolis, Tomaj Pangolin's young godson Marvin uses his hacking/googling skills to determine that "marvedyne" has something to do with a secret society of aristocrats. | |
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Princess: The Hopeful: Many Dark Cults end up looking like this. Between getting supernatural powers from The Dark Side and the need to remain undercover so that Princesses and mortal authorities can't find you, it's a fairly natural place to end up. | |
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The 2009 Sam Raimi film Drag Me to Hell took a lot of inspiration from this film. | |
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In Spider-Man comics, the Cabal of Scrier, which worships an ancient alien, and a breakaway cult led by Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) called the Order of the Goblin. | |
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Resurrection: Ertuğrul: Dragos’ legion counts as this since he and his members operate under aliases around Sogut, doing so while preventing most outsiders from figuring out their true identities in order for them to take over the city and eventually all of Anatolia, plus the fact that his subordinates display an unyielding devotion to him. | |
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Damien from The Omen has a secret cult of devil-worshipers that serve and protect him. When they're not murdering people or attending black masses, they're care-takers, teachers, priests, and Cub Scouts. Since there doesn't appear to be any influential people in this cult, it could almost be a Milkman Conspiracy if their plan wouldn't revolve around ending Christ's life as soon as possible. All of the cultists have ample access to children. | |
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Chaos Cultists from Warhammer (and Warhammer 40,000) qualify. Khorne's worshipers often organize into martial brotherhoods or murder cults, orders devoted to Tzeentch tend to be influential secret societies or sorcerous cabals, cults of Slaanesh are at best bands of artistes and hedonists or at worst mobs of depraved sex-crazed sadomasochists, and Nurgle's followers are nihilistic groups spreading disease and despair. | |
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The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble: You find one inside the Schnibble Cult. | |
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Doctor Who has the worshippers of Azal and the Cult of Demnos, though the former leans more towards a Religion of Evil. In "Image of the Fendahl", a local black magic cult learn of the coming of the Fendahl and the leader believes that he can control it and use it to dominate others. This ends badly. |
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Some in Fritz Leiber's Nehwon stories, too: Earth God, Gods of Trouble, Hate, Rat God, Spider God, Tyaa. | |
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In Teen Titans there are two: the Church of Brother Blood, and the unnamed cult that worships Raven's demon father, Trigon. Turns out they are one and the same. |
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When the fans get a hold of the Black Cloak Society in King's Quest, they usually get this treatment. AGD Interactive's Fan Remake of King's Quest II has several hints that they're prepping to survive The End of the World as We Know It - possibly the events of King's Quest: Mask of Eternity. AGD puts another example in their version of the game by having the benevolent monk from the original turn out to be running a Fur Against Fang racket against what turns out to be the Friendly Neighborhood Vampire. | |
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Disenchantment: The Secret Society, which claims to be the true power behind the throne of Dreamland. Most of the time, their get-togethers just seem to be to have wild orgies, though in Part 3 it turns out they can be dangerous. When they're not having orgies. | |
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The Keepers from Thief are a rare heroic example, using their ancient knowledge and secrecy to protect the ordinary people from great evils. | |
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The cultists in Race with the Devil, who chase the heroes across Texas after they witness the cult carrying out a Human Sacrifice. | |
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Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido has such a group that has already taken over most of the land by the time the game begins. They're known as the Sushimancers, serve directly under Emperor Octavius, and the majority of them have Purposefully Overpowered Sushi Sprites that you're not allowed to have. Considering they deal in sushi-themed sorcery, these Elite Mooks are Played for Laughs. | |
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Strong Bad insists that his true age is a closely-guarded secret guarded by a sect of closely-guarded monks, who bake crustly-guarded bread. | |
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Showed up at all the time in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In "I Robot, You Jane", Moloch the Corrupter apparently auto-generated them wherever he went. In "Reptile Boy", a frat house sacrificed people to a demon snake in exchange for the power and wealth of their families. The Mayor was a particularly effective single person version of this, to the point that most of the demons that appeared were working for him. The Harbingers of the First Evil probably qualify, a group of high school cultists tried to sacrifice a fellow student in exchange for money, and on and on. Even Giles was a member of one when he was younger. And of course, the spinoff Angel has the Circle of the Black Thorn (referred to in the title quote), Ancient Conspiracy and The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, complete with black robes and Venetian masks. |
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In Unknown Armies it's very likely that the robe-wearing, secretive cultists with an agenda for the entire world are actually the Player Characters themselves. Also their main antagonists. And some of the side characters too. The Occult Underground being defined as a subculture of secrecy is a fertile breeding ground for all manners of secret cults, with varying degrees of evilness (or, for that matter, efficiency). | |
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What the Sisterhood is accused of being in The Sisterhood of Night. | |
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From another New World of Darkness game, Mage: The Awakening, you have the Guardians of the Veil, who both qualify as this trope and manufacture this trope for mortals. As the Mage equivalent of the Secret Police, they obviously act in secret, and also fit this trope by believing in an apocalyptic philosophy that is actively trying to bring about the birth of a mage messiah. But they also like to make mystery cults that deliberately spread disinformation about magic, in order to prevent curious individuals from accidentally discovering real magic. | |
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Sound of My Voice: two undercover documentarians get themselves recruited into a secretive cult built around a young woman claiming to be a time traveler from a post-apocalyptic future. The first scenes show the two leads running a gauntlet of security measures to meet the cult leader. | |
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Dead Rising had the Raincoat Cult. As the name says, they didn't wear cloaks, but they did wear masks. | |
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The Grey Council from Babylon 5 is the senior level of government for the Minbari Federation. It is comprised of three members of each of the three castes (Worker, Warrior, Religious) at least until the fifth season when Delenn breaks the Council and reconstitutes it so that the Workers gain a majority over the other two (usually more dominant) castes. Unlike the other examples, the Grey Council isn't so much evil as it is manipulative and ultimately corrupt. It meets in secret aboard a warship in deep space, so that its deliberations (and for that matter the identities of its members) remain unknown even to most Minbari. All members wear dark grey cloaks with head-concealing hoods. They also have a habit of withholding information even if doing so is ultimately self-defeating. | |
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The Dracula Dossier: During Dracula's initial visit to England, he took over a Satanic cult with a large proportion of upper-class members. Edom later suspected the cult was acting as a "stay-behind" network for Dracula. | |
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City of Heroes features The Circle Of Thorns, a group that one poster to the COH forums characterized as "a bunch of demon-worshipping asshairs". Missions where the players go against the Circle of Thorns are never popular. That's at least partially due to the Scrappy Level maps the missions tend to use. Also, this trope is being invoked in-universe: the trappings of the Circle hide the fact that they aren't a secret society at all. They're actually the ghosts of a fallen civilization using their rituals to possess the bodies of both innocent victims and recruits. They act like a secret society both to get a greater pool of bodies to incarnate into and to look like a different kind of threat to law enforcement and the government. The masks and robes ensure their low-level recruits don't notice the replacements. |
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The "vampires" from The Ωmega Man wore cloaks and engaged in mystic rituals as per this trope, but also were the brainwashed minions of a charismatic leader too. | |
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Gravity Falls introduces the "Society of the Blind Eye" in the episode of the same name, though they had been hinted at in previous episodes. They turn out to be a Memory-Wiping Crew who erase people's troubling memories of the supernatural, which explains the show's Extra-Strength Masquerade. | |
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Secret Circle of Secrets | |
| Secret Circle of Secrets / int_fdf7a632 | comment |
Vampire: The Requiem features the Shadow Cults, an invention of the Mekhet that allows them control over humans (and other fringe benefits) by promising to unearth the secrets of existence. One of them, the Moulding Room, promises to reveal the power behind modern pop culture but is explicitly revealed to be a Situationalist prank — in other words, founded entirely For the Evulz. From another New World of Darkness game, Mage: The Awakening, you have the Guardians of the Veil, who both qualify as this trope and manufacture this trope for mortals. As the Mage equivalent of the Secret Police, they obviously act in secret, and also fit this trope by believing in an apocalyptic philosophy that is actively trying to bring about the birth of a mage messiah. But they also like to make mystery cults that deliberately spread disinformation about magic, in order to prevent curious individuals from accidentally discovering real magic. A Mummy's Cult also tends to operate in this fashion. Mummy Cults are among the few people in the modern world who know of Sekhem and the Nameless Empire, and also have the ability to direct a Mummy through his Relics. A Cult that abuses this authority, though, may regret it once the Mummy starts getting its memories back... Princess: The Hopeful: Many Dark Cults end up looking like this. Between getting supernatural powers from The Dark Side and the need to remain undercover so that Princesses and mortal authorities can't find you, it's a fairly natural place to end up. Leviathan: The Tempest has this as one of the forms a Leviathan's Cult can take. The emphasis on secrecy makes it easier to jettison part of the Cult if it starts drawing heat, but you run the risk of losing track of some of your Beloved and having them go do something stupid. |
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| Vampire: The Requiem (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
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