Follow TV Tropes

Following

Playing With / Ancient Conspiracy

Go To

Basic Trope: A shadowy but insanely powerful group of villains secretly pulls every string in the story.

  • Straight: The Knights Templar have orchestrated a millenia-long Gambit Roulette (including their own disbandment, World War II, and the rise of the boy bands) to bring the Antichrist into the world. They are now two steps away from causing The End of the World as We Know It.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Every single secret society that ever existed (from the Freemasons to the White Lotus) is actually The Knights Templar in disguise. And they are also the true masters of every single government in history since Boethos and Gilgamesh.
    • The Templars have existed since (and probably caused) the previous Ice Age.
  • Downplayed:
    • The Knights Templar orchestrated the Thirty Years War and the American Revolutionary War.
    • The Knights Templar regularly disband and reform, more often then not, the new Knights Templar organization shares little similarities to the previous incarnation.
  • Justified: The Templars were started by the Precursors because they noticed some flaw in their project (the present race), which the Ancient Conspiracy was intended to avert. However, they are warped over time into Well Intentioned Extremists and become the villains.
  • Inverted:
    • The Templars are an Ancient Tradition dedicated to keeping the secrets of the Precursors until the world is ready.
    • The conspiracy isn't ancient.
    • An ancient rivalry among a group of people, all of them trying to foil each other's plans right up to the present day.
    • A powerful group openly 'known' to have existed and guided society for millennia never actually existed.
  • Subverted: The Templars get the bad rap because of, well, Knight Templar characters among them, who engage in little side projects like summoning the Antichrist. However, except for those bad apples, their methods and goals are no worse than those of any other large, old institution.
  • Double Subverted: ...except that said Knight Templar characters now sit on The Omniscient Council of Vagueness, too.
  • Parodied: "Nobody expects The Knights Templar!"
    • The Knights Templar are basically Chuunibyou who try to assert their power by taking credit for societal movements already happening on their own. When Alice skeptically mocks them asking if they also made teenagers horny they break down crying.
  • Zig Zagged: Noone knows the true goals of the Templars, as their acts fall anywhere between Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. Maybe they don't even exist.
  • Averted: There is no conspiracy.
  • Enforced: "We need a direct link between our villain and Adolf Hitler. Oh, I know! The Thule Society actually survived and they are now at it again!"
  • Lampshaded: "The Templars, huh?"
  • Invoked: A rather new conspiracy tries to make itself look older in order to seem more intimidating.
  • Exploited: A Knowledge Broker manages to /blackmail/ them with the threat of exposure and keeps himself alive with a Deadmans Switch They may be able to kill him but then his many deployed caches will deploy.
  • Defied: A documentary examining Urban Legends about the Templars and rating their plausibility based on current historical research. Final count: 0.
  • Discussed: "The Templars tried taking over Middle-East in the 19th century but — guess what? — the Hashshashin fought them back. Again. And with the Dragons in control of the Far East, they didn't gain much foothold in Asia since..."
  • Conversed: "So for the third season, they needed an ubervillain even bigger than a Physical God, so they took the next best thing, the Ancient Conspiracy."
  • Deconstructed:
    • A Conspiracy Theorist ends up in a nuthouse after his carefully compiled theory about The Knights Templar shatters on contact with reality.
    • The conspiracy started off with sinister aims or a particular goal, but as the world changed and the original founders died and moved into history, their successors gradually lost their way, drifting away or losing interest in the original goals until it eventually became unrecognizeable from what it started out as.
    • Nazi Germany propaganda, which depicted non-Germany-aligned nations as all part of an ancient conspiracy against Germany
    • The conspiracy is nothing bigger than the usual wheelin' and dealin' that happens in the background, and the groups aren't powerful enough to do whatever they want with the world.
    • The Ancient Conspiracy has been exposed or collapsed several times throughout history due to sheer logistics of secret keeping and has only gotten more ineffectual over time as the world moves on from their old assumptions.
    • The only reason the conspiracy has gone on for so long in the first place is because everyone involved is far too inept to actually achieve their goals.
  • Reconstructed:
    • However, a few opportunistic criminals get their hands on his research, find it profitable in a long run, and go ahead with the "Templars' Evil Plan".
    • Conspiracy Buffs are sent to Cuckoo's Nest insane asylum because the international Psychologists' conspiracy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ancient Conspiracy.
  • Plotted A Good Waste:
    • What starts off as a Conspiracy Thriller is soon revealed to be an accurate introduction into the world history, intended to raise the masses' awareness of it by wrapping knowledge into a fast-paced (if not overly complex) thriller plot.
    • Vive La RĂ©sistance! Aux armes, Citoyens! Formez vos battaillons!
  • Played For Laughs: Secret societies run so rampant that everyone is ultimately plotting against everyone. Nobody can so much as order a pizza without invoking a One Million Xanatos Pileup.
  • Played For Drama: The conspiracy is so good at what it does, nobody ever truly catches on. Tugging at the back of every sane person's mind is the thought that their Crapsack World is the result of collusion by wealthy elites, but those few that try to prove it are thoroughly crushed.

Back to Ancient Conspiracy. Unless, of course, TV Tropes is an Ancient Conspiracy which only needs you to return to the Ancient Conspiracy page to be able to summon the Eldritch Abomination...

Top