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The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness
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alt title(s): Supreme Council Of Vagueness; Omniscient Council Of Vagueness 
Excellent, my sufficiently vague plan is nearing its completion. Soon our goal will be accomplished via the least revealing and most circuitous path possible!
Mayor: Er, Master Betty, what is the Evil Council's plan? Master Pain Betty: It is EVIL. Nnng...it is so EVIL! It is a bad, bad plan...that will hurt many... people...that are good. I think it's great that, 'cause it's so bad!
This is the group that appears, usually early in the plot, when the Hidden Agenda Villain or the Powers That Be gather their peers or most trusted servants and talk about what's going on. Don't expect anyone to be clearly lit , though.
A magic ball or screen on the wall showing the hero's every move is a required accessory.
Keep in mind that, plotwise, they should know most of the details, including spoilers that should be kept from the audience or details the writers themselves haven't decided on. This often is the setup for a Xanatos Roulette. Anything that happens, even unlikely combinations of luck and choices, are "just as planned."
The result is a lot of vague and pretentious doubletalk about how they know everything that's happening but don't actually mention what any of those things are, not even to themselves. Expect comments like "Everything is going according to Plan." and "Great Darkness is coming. We will see if the hero can handle it." Except for what little tidbits the writer feels obliged to reveal, as little detail as possible is given. Also, as The Hero (and by extension, the audience) finds out more of "The Plan", The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness will have no problem discussing those parts directly, even when it was apparently taboo previously.
If they're pretending to be good, or only the head(s) of the organization are evil, then the organization may undergo a Conspiracy Redemption.
Compare Sinister Silhouettes.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
- Neon Genesis Evangelion has not one, but two councils, which meet by holographic videoconference. The first is the Instrumentality Committee, seen in the earlier part of the series, each member designated a specific colour with visible faces. The second is SEELE, of which the Committee is a subset, depicted as blank, floating monoliths with "SEELE XX - Sound Only" written on them. The mysterious character Keel Lorenz heads both councils, and members of the Human Instrumentality Committee can be recognized by voice when SEELE meets (especially the bizarre screeching of the French representative).
- Eureka Seven does the same thing with the Three Sages Council, kicking the pretentiousness of the members way up: while SEELE was actually nigh-omnipotent and omniscient, even if they severely underestimated Gendo Ikari, the Sages are in fact revealed to know much less about the world that they liked to believe, and also get completely screwed by their supposed Dragon Dewey Novak
- In Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Fei Wang Reed is very fond of monologuing in this manner to his henchwoman, Xing Huo. Likewise the Dimension Witch Yuuko talks to herself this way. She's actually bound by a rule that says she cannot tell anyone valuable information unless they pay a price "of the equivalent value."
- The conversations between Mashiro, Fumi and Nagi throughout Mai-HiME — even after the Grand Finale.
- The country of Lacryma in Noein is ruled by such a council.
- Pretty much everybody in Rah Xephon other than the main character gets a shot at this, but Bähbem and anybody he's talking to at any given moment are the champs.
- Les Soldats' high council in Noir shows up in this fashion in the later half of the series, though they're pretty much more worried about Altena than the main heroines.
- Gundam 00 had one meeting of an Omniscient Council Of Vagueness with the Surveyors deciding if the Gundam Trinity should be acknowledged. Instead of silhouettes, they used various pieces of art to represent different councillors.
- Macross Frontier has it in form of a bodyless voices engaging in a vague, but ominously sounding dialogues inside Grace's head. Or not.
- The nameless Time-Space Administration High Council of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who are revealed to be the very founders of the Bureau themselves, complete with audio-only monoliths they're hidden behind whenever they converse with Regius and Jail.
- This is subverted a little later on in the series when it is revealed that they don't know nearly as much as they think they do, including that Jail had snuck a cyborg in disguised as the one who took care of them so that she could kill them at the drop of a hat.
- For onece, it's perfectly reasonable that they're shown as monoliths only - seeing as they're brains in jars
- The "Book Men" of Princess Tutu are shown towards the end of the series in this way—a group of members with their faces hidden by cloaks, gathering in a torch-lit room to gasp and worry over the "awakening" of a mysterious someone. They're talking about Fakir remembering his Reality Warper powers. It turns out they're an Ancient Conspiracy that cut off Drosselmeyer's hands...and will do the same to any of his ancestors who abuse their powers.
- Death Note subverts this a bit in the Yotsuba arc, where there is a shadowy council of eight people at the top of an organization, secretly killing enemies of the corporation — and our main characters spy on, manipulate, suspect, and use them as pawns in yet another complex Xanatos Gambit while the council mostly has no idea they're being spied on.
- Initially done in Naruto with Akatsuki before they where shown at which point some of them where killed, one quit, and rest quickly fell in line with the secret leader.
- The closest thing One Piece has is the Gorosei. They're just a bunch of old men who allegedly run the World Government, but between the Council of Kings handling international affairs, and Sengoku controlling the Navy, there's really no telling what they do.
- In the third round and second Revival Round of Liar Game, the masked LGT officials (I forget their names) are watching the game via videoscreens while making incredibly vague comments about the players' schemes and aptitudes.
- In the third round, it's Leroniro and Nearco, but Solario inexplicably takes their place in the second Revival Round.
- Ergo Proxy had a group of well, proxies taking the shape of classical statues which the "benevolent dictator" of Ramdo, Re-l's grandfather would speak through.
- The Letztes Bataillon is one of these for the first 2 volumes of Hellsing.
Comics Books
- DC comics had The Quintessence.
Film
- The example at the top of the page is from Kung Pow, where the evil council turn out to be French aliens with ships shaped like pyramids. Yes. In a kung-fu movie.
- Eraserhead's Man In The Planet manages to be a one-man council of vagueness. Theories on just what he is range from Satan to God.
- Early on in Zoolander, main villain Mugatu receives his instructions from some kind of Legion of Fashion Doom (Georgio Armani is apparently a member). The whole group remains cloaked in shadows.
- Harlan Ellison's Movie (never filmed, but the script is published) subverts this beautifully. The hero explores a strange building intercut with commentary from the council, then he opens one last door and steps into the council chamber.
- The Bellarians, in MST 3 K target Space Mutiny, apparently do nothing but dance around a room, worshipping plasma globes and telepathically sexing up some of the villains, though why they do this is unknown. They also have no impact on the plot, but the lead Bellarian eventually teleports to speak to the Commander and apparently impart knowledge on him - which amounts to a great pile of nothing. The film still treats them as if they're extremely important characters even though their subplot could have been cut from the film completely and made no impact on the plot.
Literature
- The Arisians of E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman saga may be the prototype; in several scenes, they discuss the progress of Kimball Kinnison and other major characters in terms of their "Visualization of the Cosmic All" — making this Older Than Television.
- The Second Foundation (Asimov's Chessmaster extraordinares) take this to an extreme. One chapter ends with two Second Foundationers summarizing everything that just happened: "Intersection point?" "Yes! May we live to see the dawn!"
- A council of conspiring nobles in Terry Pratchett's "The Truth" is one of these. They call it "The Committee To Unelect The Patrician."
- And there was one in "Guards! Guards!", though it might be a bit more culty than councilly.
- The latter wasn't exactly this trope; it was a flock of utterly incompetent Black Cloak mooks being guided by one villain who (sort of) knew what he was doing.
- The Spinner's End scene in Harry Potter, even for being based around a notoriously unforthcoming character, is simply uncanny in not showing any details about "the plan".
- Interesting in that J.K. Rowling actually does have a plot based reasoning behind it: they were ordered (separately) not to discuss "the plan" with anyone, not even other Death Eaters, and Narcissa didn't even know Snape had been informed about it when she came to him for help.
Live Action TV
- Up until "The Deadly Assassin", the Time Lords in Doctor Who were sometimes presented as The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness, most blatantly in "Colony In Space". In "Assassin" they were Retconned as The Blinkered Council of College Infighting, and they never really recovered.
- In the early season of Babylon 5, the Grey Council fit this to a tee, though they weren't villainous.
- In the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, the Xindi Council make a rather good attempt at being one of these. Somewhat undermined by the fact their entire plan is revealed to us in the first episode, though.
- They wasted a perfectly good Omniscient Council Of Vagueness?
- And thanks to this, the writers are forced to spend nearly an entire SEASON showing them meeting only to delay initiating their plan again and again. We know their plan is to blow up Earth, we know they have the means and the motive to do so, but since the plot can't allow that to actually happen, various contrived roadblocks crop up preventing them from actually taking action until near the end of the season.
- The X-Files had about six of these over the course of the show.
- The Others. Just the Others. After 4+ seasons of lies and doublespeak, the sum total of our knowledge concerning their origins and motives is as follows: 1) they're all manipulative little bastards, 2) they claim to be the good guys, and 3) apparently some guy named Jacob gave them a list at some point.
- Latnok in Kyle XY. Played straight, complete with shadowy figures sitting around a table watching Kyle on TV screens. Later in the series, it becomes less shadowy as Kyle actually meets some of the members.
- On Charmed, the had The Triad as the evil version and The Elders as the good.
- The Powers That Be in Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel.
- As well as the mysterious, presumably government affiliated group seen in the penultimate episode of season 4 after the failure of The Initiative. They claim they will keep an eye on Buffy and her pals, but are never mentioned again. Until the comics, that is.
- The Cylons. "They have a plan..." But the writers won't tell us what.
- Wordof God finally admitted that there was never a plan, but "they have a general set of goals, an agenda, if you will," didn't make for a very good tag line.
Music
- The Priests of the Temples of Syrinx in the song 2112 by Rush, a strawman communist government.
Tabletop Games
- The Illuminati in Paranoia, who end up giving their blackmailed minions tasks ranging from "kill this man" to "place a bucket full of paint in a dustbin in HPL Sector."
Toys
- Bionicle's Brotherhood of Makuta can be considered such a council, but some of the sillier aspects of the trope were averted by not even showing the council at first. The Brotherhood got merely name-dropped for about three years (real-time) before some of them became the main villains for an arc; at which point the audience was given names, faces, the works. The fact that some parts of their plan are still left vague are justified in that they're focused on their current mission and not concerning themselves too much with what is happening elsewhere (and therefore not discussing it).
- And why would they discuss the plan, after all? All of the Makuta know nearly every aspect of it, and the writers don't want the audience to know any more than the heroes do. Luckily, they also avoid too much Expospeak this way.
Video Games
- Pretty much everyone other than the three playable characters in Fahrenheit (known to some of you as Indigo Prophecy) are part of an Omniscient Council of Vagueness. Yes, including Agatha, the wheelchair bound old woman. And, she's actually a holographic robot computer virus. But don't worry, because it's Better Than It Sounds.
- Likewise, the Playstation game Xenogears is riddled with lengthy purposeless conversations between members of the Gazel Ministry, a group of barely visible and largely indistinguishable talking heads on video screens whose relevance to what's actually going on for the player won't be revealed until much, much later — 40 hours or more — in the game.
- This example is shamelessly spoofed by the flash movie, Shadow Government Puppet Show, right down to the dialogue. It turns out that these talking heads are just really, really bored.
- It's worth noting that the Gazel Ministry isn't teleconferencing. They actually are talking heads on computer screens attached to a giant rotating sphere. They pretty much can't do anything but rotate and make evil plans, and get killed by basically hitting the "off" button.
- Its creative descendant (not quite a sequel), the PS2 game trilogy Xenosaga, kicked it up a notch — literal hours of dialogue were dedicated to this.
- The Legion Of Doom presented in the PS2 game Kingdom Hearts early on met this way as shadowy figures standard to the trope. However, their distinctive body shapes and iconic voices make easy for anyone familiar with Disney to identify them.
- Forget "distinctive body shapes"; turning up the brightness all the way makes it even more apparent who they are.
- In Kingdom Hearts 2, the Beta Baddies of Organization XIII form a similar omniscient council (though are only seen meeting together in the Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition.) Enhancing the effect was the fact that the members each wore a hooded Black Cloak, which concealed their face until they became part of the story directly.
- Throughout Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, scenes show Seraph Lamington and an obscured individual discussing their plan in this mannner. However, not only is the plan not particularly evil in any way, but the other man involved is the comic relief character Mid-Boss.
- The X Hunters appear this way in the beginning of Mega Man X2.
- Breath Of Fire V: Dragon Quarter had one of these, in the form of the Regeants. They are, however, apparently at cross-purposes with each other, and its leader is running plots so convoluted that he's trying to help you and kill you at the same time.
- The final scene of PC game Baldurs Gate 2 shows The Council of Six debating whether or not the protagonist needs to die. They agree to do nothing, because "This Spawn of Bhaal is doomed. There can be no escape." There is also a hint that they themselves are working for Bhaal.
- Where's the indication that they are the Council of Six? From the point of view of the games, they seem like a rejected idea for future villains. A precursor of The Five, perhaps. The scene goes nowhere either way.
- In Half Life the sinister G-man makes passing references to his employers. Said employers are never revealed, but it is heavily implied that they're some sort of dark, omniscient cabal pursuing a mysterious agenda.
- Or are they? Many fan speculate that G-man's employers are part of an inter-dimensional alliance of sentients devoted to the destruction of the Universal Union through the hiring of extraordinary individuals which they use to sow seeds of destruction on planets taken by the Combine. I guess that's kinda good.
- Some of us just think it's Valve.
- Some of us think it refers to the players who are literally controlling Gordon's every move.
- The Patriots are presented like this in Metal Gear Solid 2. At the end of the game, you talk with the AI claiming to be the Patriots. The Patriots are are later presented as individuals with depth, and quirks. The AI was programmed to self-identify as The Patriots.
- There's one of these in Wild Arms 4, but it turns out that they were completely out of touch with the reality of the situation and they end up being betrayed by The Dragon.
- Final Fantasy VII has the meeting of the Shinra executives where they discuss their plans for Aeris and Neo Midgar.
Web Comics
- The heads of Hereti-Corp in Sluggy Freelance meet this way on a regular basis.
- They also parody this all to hell.
- Though the set-up is different, the Fate Spiders discussing the lines of fate getting tangled and leading to potential disaster very much fulfill the role.
- The Eternal Council in Adventurers! functioned this way at first, complete with fire-bordered silhouettes. Later, as its members were introduced one by one, they dropped their ominous shadows (save for Eternion, who having already been introduced, didn't get one; it was explained that this was his "punishment" for his behavior earlier).
- DMFA has one of these in the form of the Creature Council. Amongst the various ominous silhouettes, a phoenix complains about being the only source of light.
- Anti Hero For Hire has the "council of all-consuming fire" show up in this strip
 to hang a lampshade on this trope.
Brother Southeast: He has proven receptive to the idea of the power, plus he has the resources to recover the items.
Brother Northeast: That is quite good, but can we be less vague? We could finish these meetings in half the time if we were just straightforward.
- Order Of The Stick has had a few moments of this, including Lord Shojo's chat with Miko early on, and more recently, the three fiends.
Western Animation
- Parodied in Metalocalypse. Dethklok is observed by The Tribunal, with its members continuously asserting that Dethklok is incredibly dangerous to the world, and how their latest antics could be disastrous. For almost half a season, they carefully review their tactics, and the president of the council invariably opts to do absolutely nothing, claiming that "it's too soon" or "we must observe them" or "we will let this play out".
- The 2000s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series has two mysterious warriors led by three even-more-mysterious Omniscient Council types who look nothing alike but all speak with the same voice. They turn out to be the good guys, more or less.
- Clone High was created by The Evil Board of Shadowy Figures in an attempt to create Super Soldiers because Lamarck Was Right.
- The Season 3 premiere of The Venture Brothers features the Guild of Calamitous Intent's Council of Thirteen as they interrogate the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend, in the process parodying this trope about as far as it can go. Of the course of the episode, they trip over each other's sentences, argue about what to call themselves, make gestures that can't be seen by their subjects, and complain about their inability to use The Palantir Ploy.
- And their voices and silhouettes gave out some (most are old cartoon villains)
- Tarantulas' superiors, who were supposed to be outed later or so this Troper was led to believe by evil internet websites only appeared as three robots in shadows discussing about what had to be done about Megatron.
- Futurama has the council of robot elders. Their main goal is to instill a fear of humans into the populace to distract them from the crippling lug nut shortage... and the fact that they are being ruled by incompetent robot elders.
Silence!
Web Original
- The Shadow Men in Broken Saints, Lear and Palmer.
- In the Whateley Universe, we've seen The Faceless group known as 'the Syndicate'. We might even know who the head guy is. But it seems like they don't even want each other to know who they are. And they do seem to be the superpowered version of the Mafia.
Real Life
- The Usenet Cabal. Yes, it did exist at one point, and all members had to repeatedly say that "There Is No Cabal." Of course, ironically, the Cabal's control over Usenet collapsed with the rise of the .alt hierarchy.
- When editing larger Wikis, the editors who wind up peer-reviewing articles (deletion discussions as a prominent example) are an essentially arbitrary group assembled from such a large pool of motives, goals, and expertise they might as well be an Omniscient Council of Vagueness. You get the impression that a cabal of uncaring, misinformed twits is running the whole show with the sole intention of pissing you off. Really, there is no cabal. It's just the universe which hates you.
- In the Japanese education system, the PTA fills this role, being made up of mainly highly respected members of the local community (school principals, chief of police, etc) and having enormous sway with the Board of Education and individual schools. They can easily get a teacher they don't approve of fired or transferred, and their complaint about the Bobobobo Bobobo anime being "too violent" supposedly was one of the factors that caused its cancellation.
- Subverted in the British and Australian political systems with the Shadow Cabinet, who consist of the current government's opposite numbers in the opposition party and exist entirely to criticise and annoy the people trying to do things. However, it makes the news much funnier to imagine that they ARE this trope.
- Seriously though, how many of the people in the Shadow Cabinet joined just so that they could say that they are a member of the "Shadow Cabinet"?
- Happens when feedback cycles run too far beyond inside jokes into fully self-feeding content. Like in terminal cases of fanwank. "Some people (i don't know who they are) for some reason have something to say to someone. No, if you don't get what the hell i mean, it's not you!". When something becomes full of these "somethings", this means it's time to apply something... Something incendiary.
- The Directorate if Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI.
- Various decision making bodies of the the United States Federal Reserve and other central banks tend to opperate in total secrecy and without oversight from any body accountable to the people.
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