Ancient Conspiracy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''[[Conspiracy Theorist|The Question]]:''' Reaching back to [[Ancient Egypt]], there's been a single cabal of powerful individuals directing the course of human history. But the common man prefers to believe they don't exist, which aids their success.<br />

When it appears in a television series, it is usually the [[Big Bad]] behind almost everything, [[The Man Behind the Man]] to all others. Expect to see a lot of them in the form of [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]. They also tend to employ the [[Xanatos Gambit]] and the [[Gambit Roulette]]. In modern times, an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] commonly overlaps with [[The Syndicate]].

{{examples}}

* SEELE in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has the trappings of one, but they can't possibly have existed before the 1950s - when the actual Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered - and powerful shadowy cabals like that don't just appear overnight either.

** Then again, maybe they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls ages ago, and only informed the rest of the world in the 1950s...

* Both the "Symbol" organization and the Gowa clan in ''[[Gasaraki]]''.

* Enfant in ''[[Madlax]]'' had the feel of an ancient conspiracy and used the power of ancient texts, though the actual organization seemed to be [[The Syndicate|more recent]].

* Both the British Library and Dokusensha in ''[[ROD the TV]]''.

* The Hunters in ''[[Spiral]]'' look this way in the anime, but the manga reveals that they've only existed as long as the teenage Blade Children have been alive.

* Esset in ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]''.

** The Mage's Association itself qualifies. As does the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament.

** In the Manga {{spoiler|Father/the First homunculi is both the founder and leader of said Ancient Conspiracy which has some ''[[Government Conspiracy]]''-ish traits.}}

** In the Anime {{spoiler|it's slightly less conspiracy-centric but Dante acts as the founder and leader of a conspiracy dating back to a quasi-dark age. Her plan is simply to use the philosopher stone and transfer herself to a new body.}}

* The Book Men in ''[[Princess Tutu]]''.

** The ancient history is recorded on the Ponyglyths, as well as the location of various ''[[Lost Technology]]'', capable of massive destruction.

** And in a peculiar twist on the trope, this [[Ancient Conspiracy]] is mostly staffed by the heroes. {{spoiler|The resident [[Big Bad]] is also a member, who is trying to co-opt the organization's resources for his own means.}}

* The Vist Foundation from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn]]''.

* The Daath Organization in ''[[Guilty Crown]]''.

== Comic Books ==

* The Conspiracy from the [[Batman]] ''Legends of the Dark Knight'' three-issue [[Arc]] of the same name.

* The Grail in ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]''.

* The Catholic Church in ''numerous'' [[Chick Tract|Chick Tracts]].

* The Nine Families in ''[[Le Scorpion]]'' who ruled ancient Rome and seek to control the world by controlling the catholic Church in the 18th century.

* The Secret Monarchy of the World in Ed Brubaker's ''[[Sleeper (Comic Book)|Sleeper]]''.

* The villains of ''[[The Unwritten]]''.

== Film ==

* The Masonic group protecting the ''[[National Treasure]]''.

* The League of Shadows in ''[[Batman Begins]]'' is an example of an Ancient Conspiracy that [[Knight Templar|does evil in service of a "good" goal]].

* The House Targaryen from ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'', once masters of dragons, had served as the ruling family of the Seven Kingdoms for three centuries, during which {{spoiler|they attempted to resurrect the long-dead dragons (well dead for about 150-200 years as of the start of the series - Aegon conquered Westeros for the Targaryens using his dragons) and find [[The Chosen One]] for at least a hundred years}}. As by the series standard, the family has not been portrayed as wholly good or evil, but some individuals frequently swerve to some extreme.

** Also, in a straight example, the Maesters, the fantasy equivalent of [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist|Omnidisciplinary Scientists]] (they literally learn a little bit about everything, in order to be better advisor-types). Their love of science and the codifiable, however, has apparently lead them to {{spoiler|attempt to destroy all magic, possibly by weakening the dragons, as mentioned above; an old legend states that without dragons in the world, there can be no magic}}.

* The Consult in ''[[Second Apocalypse]]''.

* In [[Orson Scott Card]]'s ''Homecoming'' series, the true nature and purpose of The Oversoul could be considered an ancient conspiracy.

* Humorously subverted in ''[[The Areas of My Expertise]]'':

{{quote| "It is true that all of the past fourteen presidential candidates have been Bonesmen, with the exception of Ralph Nader, who was merely of member of the much less prestigious consumer-advocacy society Scroll and Seatbelt. And it is also true that Skull and Bones was originally chartered by the Illuminati and Knights Templar in order to infiltrate the Secret World Government at Yale's New Haven campus. But having failed to make any progress in this goal, the Bonesmen now focus almost entirely on tending to the pterodactyls on their private island and on ritual masturbation."}}

* In ''[[Angels and Demons]]'', the Illuminati are a secret organization of scientists who oppose the Catholic Church, and try to destroy the Vatican with an antimatter bomb. {{spoiler|Subverted in that the organization does not exist anymore and all of the Illuminati symbols were planted by the Camerlengo in an attempt to get himself elected pope and restore faith in Christianity. He...kind of succeeds.}}

* Spoofed in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novel ''Trading Futures'':

* The Cahill Family from ''[[The 39 Clues]]''.

* The Grail Brotherhood from [[Tad Williams]]' ''[[Otherland]]''. It isn't that old (its leader and founding member is a mere 200 years old), but it fits all the other criteria.

* The Second Foundation fits in the ''[[Foundation]]'' Series, by [[Isaac Asimov]]. While admittedly they are "only" five hundred years old by the end of the series, which takes place ''thousands'' of years into the future, they nevertheless manipulate the course of Galactic events towards their own ends for centuries. And until the end, quite successfully. However, they get beaten by an even older Ancient Conspiracy, {{spoiler|Gaia. Which itself is a 9,000 year old [[Batman Gambit]] by R. Daneel Olivaw, whose plans are more than 20,000 years old. Wow.}}

* ''[[Dune]]'': The Bene Gesserit worked for thousands of years to produce the Kwisatz Haderach, meaning they seduced every political leader that showed some talent, however inane, while portraying themselves as being mere servants to those political leaders.

* The Bane Sidhe are a "good guys" variant on this, from [[John Ringo]]'s [[Posleen War Series]]. Also mentioned is the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), who are working with the Bane Sidhe against the [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Darhel]] (who are an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] of their own) and human collaborators.

* [[David Weber]] is quite fond of these:

** The first book in ''[[Empire From the Ashes]]'' reveals that the Moon's mutinous crew have been manipulating human civilization from the very beginning, sometimes to halt scientific progress... and sometimes just [[For the Evulz]]. They have complete control over a variety of terrorist organizations and have puppets in all the major governments as well. {{spoiler|And then there are the counter-mutineers who have been waging a secret war against them.}}

** In the [[Safehold]] novels, the entire Church of God Awaiting is a conspiracy so ancient they've forgotten about it. The counter-conspirators in the form of the Order of St Zherneau do remember things, though.

** [[In Fury Born]] has a huge conspiracy as well, backing the pirate raiders.

* "Comes a Horseman" by Robert Liparulo has the Watchers who were waiting patiently for Antichrist so that they can use all of their power and money to help him rise and they themselves can enjoy unbridled freedom. The twelve council members had either followed a parent into the position or have been recruited. {{spoiler|They were created before the middle ages to combat the rise of Christianity. They also have control of the ancestors of a norse colony that dissapeared by moving deep into Canada to avoid being forced into Christianity.}}

* The eponymous resistance movement in Keneth Bulmer's ''The Secret of ZI'' have been preparing for Earth's liberation from alien conquest for nearly 300 years... because {{spoiler|Earth's counterstrike was launched at sublight speeds and will take that long to reach the aliens' world.}}

== Live-Action TV ==

* The Grim Reapers from the Series ''[[Grimm]]''

* The "Syndicate" group from ''[[The X-Files]]''.

** Also the Cult of Skaro.

** Plus the Silence, who have been ruling and controlling humanity secretly through post-hypnotic suggestion from when civilisation began {{spoiler|at least until the late 1960s}}. The Doctor had visited Earth literally hundreds of times and never even realised they were even there since he can't remember seeing them.

* The Cabal from ''[[Sanctuary]]''.

** And now 'Hollow Earth'

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''Illuminati'', a card game by [[Steve Jackson]] Games, is ''made'' of this. Each player takes on the role of one of eight ancient conspiracies: either the titular [[The Illuminati|Bavarian Illuminati]], the [[Swiss Bank Account|Gnomes of Zurich]], the [[Mystery Cult|Servants of]] [[Cthulhu Mythos|Cthulhu]], the [[Principia Discordia|Discordian Society]], [[The Hashshashin|the Society of Assassins]], [[The Internet|the Network]], [[The Bermuda Triangle|the Bermuda Triangle conspiracy]], or [[Alien Invasion|the UFOs]] (with a particular society, they can even be [[Aliens Steal Cattle|the cow-stealing variety!]]). Expansion packs introduce the [[Parody Religion|Church of the SubGenius]] and a [[Shamgri La|Shangri-La]] conspiracy. They then have to take over various interest groups (ranging from political parties to industries to fandoms to aliens). These generate money and can take over other groups, until your cards are arranged in a web. Each conspiracy has a specific goal, although all conspiracies can win by eliminating the competition.

** The Revised Edition, while [[Retcon|retconning]] out the "True Black Hand" nonsense, manages to deconstruct the trope fairly well. While the group in question had plenty of mortal and immortal "agents", the group itself was too fractional to do anything noteworthy with them, and the agents themselves knew so little about the group in question that they were useless for anything important.

** Also a [[Deconstruction]], in that their potential power is limited ''by'' their secrecy (as in, [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand]]) and that they spend so much of their time [[Deadly Decadent Court|fighting amongst themselves]] that their own schemes have a tendency to turn against them due to lack of supervision.

* Oh, where to ''begin'' in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]''? The existence of Chaos and daemons is kept secret by the Inquisition from as many people as it can be, the Orks and Eldar were originally created to fight the Necrons, the C'Tan spliced the pariah gene into proto-humanity for later harvesting, God-Emperor only knows what's up with the Adeptus Mechanicus... the list goes on.

** And then there's 'effing Tzeentch, a one-god ancient conspiracy who has his hand in ''everything.'' Yes, even the plans that oppose each other.

** Isn't the Emperor something like this as well? He's basically as old as humanity itself, minus the lives of those first shamans.

** Hell, in the grim darkness of the far future, the ancient conspiracies are riddled with ancient conspiracies.

* The Kolat from ''[[Legend of the Five Rings]]'' provide the obligatory shadowy conspiracy in that particular setting. Since the basic structure of Rokugan's society was set down by mystical beings from on high, the Kolat seeks to return control of the world to the hands of mortal men. Themselves specifically, of course, lest they be mistaken for having purely noble intentions. Of course, within the setting, doing away with the influence of the Kami would likely lead to an apocalyptic breakdown of the entire society.

* The name says it all. This is also probably one of the best examples of this Trope in existence. What is it? None other that ''[[GURPS]]'' Illuminati.

* ''[[Paranoia]]'' is a game set in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian city where everything is controlled by The Computer. The Computer is extremely paranoid about ancient conspiracies and has the players hunt them down. Some of the conspiracies actually exist. Okay, a lot of them do. Unfortunately, the players are always part of [[Flock of Wolves|at least one ancient conspiracy]], and have to hide this fact.

== Videogames ==

* The online game ''[[Exmortis]] 2'' has the main character seeking to save the final dredges of humanity in a post apocalyptic world ripped bare by monsters from hell. You solve the point and click puzzles, race the descending evil clouds of doom, follow the clues and scare the living ''hell'' out of yourself in the process, only to win and discover that {{spoiler|the bad guy you thought you were defeating was actually kicked out of his own cult centuries ago. You've been working to get rid of the Exmortis so that he can take over again with them out of the way. Out of the frying pan and into the furnace, in other words. [[Shoot the Shaggy Dog|Oh, and your character dies anyway.]] Damn.}} (It's a point and click game, but you know).

** Human Revolution [[Deconstructed Trope|examines this]]: As it turns out, the reason the Illuminati survived for so long is that {{spoiler|they're only an organization in the loosest sense of the term: they're more like an old boys' network whose members barely know each other.}} One of them even claims that {{spoiler|"'Illuminati' is just a name used to get rich people to invest more money", meaning that at the end of the day, they're just an aspect of "ordinary" economic power.}} Also, ''every'' scheme they've ever done in order to control the world has {{spoiler|backfired in some way or another,}} due to unforeseen factors such as {{spoiler|[[Ridiculously Human Robot|Eliza]] developing a conscience or due to the differing goals of their members (Darrow hijacking the biochip signal). Ultimately, the real threat of Majestic 12 is that they happen to be ''competent''.}}

** {{spoiler|And, ironically, this turns out to be their downfall.}} As ''Human Revolution'' reveals, {{spoiler|the Illuminati's greatest strengths have always been sticking to the shadows while letting proxies do much of the dirty work and also preselecting fall guys to cover their ass. True, they occasionally failed, but they always had a fallback.}} In the original game, {{spoiler|Bob Page ruined that by forcing the Illuminati to have to work directly with JC because he eliminated their other indirect options when he splintered off from them. And, by the same token, despite Majestic 12's competence, he also eliminated the ability to have a proxy to cover his ass if things went badly, which meant that he essentially undid his victories from ''Human Revolution'' at the same time.}}

* The Patriots from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. However {{spoiler|it turns out the Patriots are a fairly modern conspiracy formed in the 1970s which has rather [[Genre Savvy|genre savvily]] taken on all the trappings of an ancient conspiracy as protective coloration, formed using the missing funds of another organization already on its last legs, The Philosophers, who themselves only dated back to around the beginning of the 20th century.}}<br />{{spoiler|La-li-lu-le-lo! La-li-lu-le-lo! La-li-lu-le-lo!}}

** Granted, although they were meant to be ''highly secretive'' assassins...

*** And the option is open to have Revan kill the entire Genoharadan leadership. This was 4,000 years before the first film.

*** Of course a few of the involved were just some poor schmucks or descendants of "[[Precursors|Those Who Came Before]]", who, more or less unwittingly, got themselves rolled into the conspiracy. This group of people often caused some disruption to the balance of the power struggle, and would soon there after face a very untimely demise. People in this category includes [[Jesus]] and [[John F Kennedy]].

** While their impact in the first seems minor, if Subject 16 can be trusted then the involvement of Templars and opposition by Assassins is even wider-reaching than originally believed.

** Which is a bit hypocritical, since all three playable factions are in fact, Ancient Conspiracies -- The Templars are [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well Intentioned Extremists]] ([[Knight Templar|go figure]]), the Dragon are an aggressive form of [[Ancient Tradition]], and the Illuminati are, as the site puts it, [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job|"Sex, Drugs, and Rockefeller"]].

** Come the second game, however, the Inner Circle turns out to be a [[Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy]] rather than an [[Ancient Conspiracy]].

** It's also a [[Government Conspiracy]], having senators among their ranks and being connected with top secret [[Super Soldier]] projects like Valhalla.

* The Cabal from ''[[Blood]]''. They become more publicly known in the sequel, reforming after their god's death as CabalCo.

* {{spoiler|Puritas Cordis}} from ''Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis''. It's unclear whether it was continued from the original, or collapsed and restructured, though.

* ''[[The Conduit]]'' has a government organization that's been kept under wraps for centuries. Turns out that the current-day leader, John Adams, {{spoiler|is under alien authority (you hear him speaking with his superiors in the credits) and part of a centuries old plot to take over the world. On top of that, the ending credits reveal that Adams is a couple of centuries old himself, hinting that he may actually be ''the'' Founding Father John Adams, as well as an alien.}}

* The Disciples of Andraste from [[Dragon Age]]: Origins. Originally the followers of the setting's most important religious figure, [[The Messiah|Andraste]], they secreted away her ashes to Ferelden after her death at the hands of [[The Empire|the Tevinter Imperium]]. For centuries they guarded the mountain temple where her ashes were kept. Interestingly, this [[Ancient Conspiracy]] lost its original purpose a long time ago and no longer care about guarding the Urn of Sacred Ashes. They have become an [[Ax Crazy]] dragon cult who believe that their prophet has been reborn in the form of a [[Our Dragons Are Different|high dragon]], who also makes its lair in the mountain temple. The [[Player Character]] has the option of assisting the cultists by defiling the Ashes, which they believe are somehow holding back the reborn "Andraste" from reaching her full power.

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' depicts a power struggle between a trio of [[Eldritch Abomination|Eldritch Abominations]] known as the Ancients, and an in-story choice made by the player at the beginning of the game determines which of the three becomes the [[Big Bad]] for the rest of the game. The rest of the story depicts the Ancient's [[The Dragon|Dragon]] and his secret cult working behind the scenes over thousands of years, and at one point, they're depicted as being the ''real'' reason why a certain historical figure died.

* Midway through the first ''[[Drakensang]]'' game you find out that the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|is working with the ancient Dragon Men serving the evil wyrm Andracor, and they plan to use the Adamantine Heart belonged to Andracor's father Umbracor to take over Aventuria and restore Andracor's powers.}}

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' has the Great Bird Conspiracy, which featured the birds of the K&Kverse doing its best to civilize the various animal people of Domain and ran things in the background via seemingly subservient jobs as teacher or secretary. Once it was made Y2K compatible, the GBC left the machinations to a computer program designed to do that job for them, allowing them to retire.

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' has "the Dave Conspiracy."

* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' Earth has been legally owned by the Nemesite Empire since the extinction of the dinosaurs. They're aware of the rise of humankind, but they still consider us wildlife largely beneath their notice. That is a ''good'' thing, because the day that they ''do'' decide to declare us full citizens of the Empire, the sovereignty of every nation on Earth will become meaningless, and we'll have to pay Nemesite taxes, be up for the draft in their military, etc.

* Subverted in ''[[Wapsi Square]]''. There is a group of immortal politicians from an ancient civilization who have been subtly manipulating everything for ages. However, they aren't particularly competent, and have been controlled themselves by Jin, one of the main characters, the entire time. On top of that, all of their manipulations have been for the purpose of fixing the calender machine and saving the world, though they don't know this.

== Web Originals ==

* Various [[YouTube]] conspiracy videos are full of information about various ancient conspiracies, from the Illuminati to the Freemasons to the Bilderberg Group and the New World Order, for anyone who is interested in listening to that sort of thing, and all of various [[Unreliable Narrator|questionable degrees of believability]], and usually overlapping with [[Conspiracy Kitchen Sink|subjects like chemtrails, 2012, and shapeshifting aliens for bonus fun]]. And if you believe these things (some of the evidence isn't... toootally unconvincing) you can file them under [[Real Life]] too.

* [[Doctor Steel]] believes (whether in actuality or whether it's part of the crazy act is anyone's guess) that the world is controlled by a cabal of alien "Illuminati".

* The criminal organization known as Tarot, in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', is a secret society founded in the late 1500s by Niccolo Machiavelli, with the express purpose of taking over the world through the power of economics. While they haven't quite achieved that goal by the modern day, they are so large and so powerful that they were beyond the power of any single superhero (or group of superheroes) to destroy.

== Western Animation ==

* Cobra-La, the secret ancient civilization of snake people in the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' [[The Movie|movie]].

* Parodied with the Stonecutters in ''[[The Simpsons]]''.

* Also parodied by American Dad with the Illuminutty, a group attempting to keep the secret that {{spoiler|George Washington Carver wasn't the one who really invented Peanut Butter.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Huntik|Huntik: Secrets & Seekers]]''. While the main villainous organization--unoriginally called "The Organization"--would have everyone believe that they are a centuries-old group with tendrils everywhere, they are in reality less than sixty years old.