Secret societies in popular culture

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This "In popular culture" section may contain too many minor or trivial references. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivia references. (January 2009)

Secret societies appear in many works of fiction. Further information is available in Conspiracy theories (fictional).

[edit] References to secret societies

• Freemasonry, as depicted in National Treasure
• The Illuminati are referred to in many works. See Illuminati in popular culture.
• The Mafia is a very powerful secret criminal society.
• Order of the Dragon, used in Elizabeth Kostova's novel The Historian.
• Yale society Skull and Bones in the films The Good Shepherd and The Skulls.

[edit] Fictional secret societies

• Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), in the Marvel Comics universe
• Shadaloo in the Street Fighter(saga) series
• Aes Sedai Ajahs in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, particularly the Black Ajah
• Akatsuki, in popular anime, Naruto, consisting of 9 S-ranked ninjas.
• Alias (TV Series) includes a number of secret societies, chief among them being the 'Alliance of 12' and its subsidiary groups, including 'SD-6', which were involved in the illegal trade of weapons and intelligence. Other groups include 'K-Directorate', a similar organisation made up of former KGB agents, 'FTL', another similar group based in Hong Kong, along with others that emerged as the show progressed.
• The Amphora Society in the TV show Greek
• The Awakened in Omikron - The Nomad Soul
• Baroque Works from One Piece
• The Bene Gesserit and Bene Tleilax from the Dune universe by Frank Herbert
• The Black Crusaders from the "Cleveland" episode of 30 Rock. Also mentioned by Dave Chappelle.
• Blue Cosmos and LOGOS from the Cosmic Era in Gundam Seed and Destiny
• The Bookhouse Boys in Twin Peaks
• The Brethren Court in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• The Brotherhood in the cult comic book Mister Blank.
• Brotherhood in Nineteen Eighty-Four.
• Brotherhood of the Bell from a 1970 movie of the same name.[1]
• Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
• The Brotherhood of Evil and the H.I.V.E. from Teen Titans, comics and the animated series.
• The Brotherhood of Nod, a secret society which became a new world religion as well as an unconventional superpower in the Command & Conquer universe of video games.
• Cabal, in the works of Robert A. Heinlein
• Central Anarchist Council in G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday
• Children of Lieutenant Schmidt Society in The Little Golden Calf
• Circle of the Black Thorn in the "Angel" series
• Committee to Unelect the Patrician in the Discworld series
• The Company, a fictional covert international organization in the U.S. television series Prison Break
• The Conclave of Shadows, in Conclave of Shadows Book series by Raymond E. Feist
• CONTROL and KAOS in the TV series Get Smart
• The Cult of the Damned in the Warcraft video game series.
• Dark Angel's second season had a secret society plotline.
• Darkfriends, in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time
• The Dead Poets Society in the film, Dead Poets Society.
• Delta Theta Gamma appears in the video game Obscure II, first as a seemingly harmless fraternity, but turns out to be a secret international society seeking an elixir of life from the spores of the mortifillia plants within the game. The groups symbol "ΔΘΓ" is identical to that used by the real life Delta chapter of the Theta Gamma Fraternity, but bears no other resemblance.
• The DHARMA Initiative is a secretive group of scientists in the television series Lost.
• The Dollhouse as depicted in Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (TV Series)
• Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night (Discworld)
• The Fathers and The Friends of the Comic book and TV miniseries Wild Palms
• Fight Club of the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, and film directed by David Fincher
• The Guild of Calamitous Intent
• The Grail from the Comic book Preacher.
• Get Rid Of Slimy girlS (G.R.O.S.S.) from Calvin and Hobbes
• The Hare Club for Men from South Park
• House Dimir from Magic: The Gathering
• House of Flying Daggers (in the movie of the same name)
• HYDRA, in the Marvel Comics universe
• The Inner Circle, in the Max Payne video game series.
• The Individual Eleven from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig
• Knights of the Eastern Calculus in the anime series Serial Experiments Lain
• Latnok in the TV series Kyle XY
• The League of Assassins in the DC Comic universe
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
• The League of Shadows in the movie Batman Begins
• The Legion of Doom
• Les Soldats in the anime series Noir
• The Life and Death Brigade in the TV Series Gilmore Girls
• (The) Lycoris, featured in both the popular online story The Twilight Chronicles and novel The Better Man.
• Meliorare Society, a eugenics organization from Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth universe.
• Millennium Group in the television show Millennium
• New-Path A Scanner Darkly
• Nine Unknown Men, from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race
• The Operation, an unsuccessful extortion racket led by the Piranha Brothers
• The Other Operation, another unsuccessful extortion racket led by the Piranha Brothers
• The Other Other Operation, a considerably more successful extortion racket led by the Piranha Brothers
• O.R.I.O.N. a secret intelligence agency from TSR's rpg Top Secret/S.I.
• The Order from the web-series Lonelygirl15.
• The Order of Rosenkreuz, or The Rosenkreutz Orden, from the anime series Trinity Blood.
• The Order of Aurelius from the Buffyverse.
• The Order of Mata Nui from Bionicle is a secret society for good.
• Order of the Phoenix, the Death Eaters and Dumbledore's Army in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
• The Order of Rose & Grave, the "Ivy League Novels" series by Diana Peterfreund
• The Order of St. Dumas, in DC Comics' Batman series
• The Order of the Royal Protestant Knights (or Hellsing Agency) from the Hellsing manga and anime series.
• The Order of The White Lotus in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, a group not affiliated with any government that assists its members and passes messages through the fictional board game Pai Sho
• The Patriots and The Philosophers in the Metal Gear video game series
• The Order & The Syndicate mentioned in various stories in the JS Universe.
• Pentavirate, in the Mike Myers film So I Married an Axe Murderer, a character speaks of this secret organization, consisting of "the Queen, the Vatican, the Gettys, the Rothschilds and Colonel Sanders(before he went tits up. Oh, I hated the Col. with his wee beady eyes, and that smug look on his face, Oh your gonna buy my chicken....Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave for it fortnightly,") which controls everything in the world, including the newspapers, and meets triannually at a secret location in Colorado called The Meadows.
• The Post-War Administration Bureau in the Guilty Gear video game series.
• Project Mayhem Fight club
• The Puffs in the television show Gilmore Girls
• The Regal Order of the Golden Door to Good Fellowship in the TV series The Andy Griffith Show
• Rimlæth in Insurrection
• Sapientes Gladio, in Shadow Hearts: Covenant
• Second Foundation, in The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov
• Secret Empire, in the Marvel Comics universe
• The Secret Society of Super Villains in DC Comics modern and silver age continuities and in Bruce Timm's Justice League
• The Seekers in The Last Rune series by Mark Anthony (writer)
• Seele (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
• The Sims 2: University has a secret society for each of its three colleges. Sims become members after befriending three or more existing members.
• Six Fivers – Secret order in pop. kite culture
• The Seven Dials, a secret society of amateur sleuths in the Agatha Christie novel "The Seven Dials Mystery"
• The Seventh Sons, a mysterious organisation that was believed to manipulate events to kill its enemies and cover up the truth at a mental hospital. Part of the Urban Hunt Alternate Reality Game.
• The Shapers in the Bruce Sterling SF Novel Crystal Express and Schismatrix.
• Sisters of the Light and Sisters of the Dark in The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
• The Sith in the Star Wars film series.
• The Skulls in The Skulls.
• SPECTRE, in the works of Ian Fleming
• The Spider Society, in the Marvel Comics universe
• TRES, in the Foucault's Pendulum (book) by Umberto Eco
• The Stonecutters, from The Simpsons
• The Talamasca, in Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles
• THRUSH in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• Torchwood, a secret agency that investigates and defends the earth from supernatural occurrences. It is featured in the TV show Doctor Who and has a spin-off series.
• Tribulation Force, founded by a group of post-Rapture believers in Christ in the Left Behind series
• The Tritons in the television show Veronica Mars
• the Trust in the s.f. novel series, Outlanders
• The Trust in the television series Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.
• The Trust, in the Vertigo/DC comics series 100 Bullets
• The Trust on the TV series Alias, a supersecret committee in the U.S. government interested in the works of Milo Rambaldi.
• United Network Command for Law and Enforcement (U.N.C.L.E.) in the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
• V.F.D. from a Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
• The Vigils in The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
• W.A.S.T.E. in The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
• W.E.B. an evil adversary secret intelligence agency from TSR's rpg Top Secret/S.I.
• The Invisibles.

[edit] See also

• Conspiracy theories (fictional)
• Vril