The "League Of Shadows"

I'm sure most of us have seen the new Batman movie and at least have some idea of what I'm talking about. The "League Of Shadows" is mentioned throughout as being a society that has existed for "thousands of years". Sacked Rome, introduced plague rats, burned down London, etc.
Me, being the lazy idiot that I am, come to you to find my answers. And, as I am new here (how original), I'm not all that in the know about secret societies. Thus bringing us to my question: Is there any society that is similar to the League of Shadows?
Remember that the League is doing this for their own 'twisted sense of justice', saying that when things get too out of hand, everyone has to suffer.

I'm sure somebody is going to tell me that I should know this sort of stuff before I come on here and try to be intelligent. You would be right...

Originally posted by oxgoad
I'm sure somebody is going to tell me that I should know this sort of stuff before I come on here and try to be intelligent. You would be right...

....... or you could use this:

www.google.com...

... to get this:

www.google.com...



The League of Shadows is to ancient worldwide secret societies as Gotham City is to Manhattan.

Originally posted by intrepid

Originally posted by oxgoad
I'm sure somebody is going to tell me that I should know this sort of stuff before I come on here and try to be intelligent. You would be right...

....... or you could use this:

www.google.com...

LOL well you guys made me laugh lol...but as far as i know. there is no league of shadows, that i've ever heard of.

umwolves123,

Yes - and we like it that way!

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
... to get this:

www.google.com...



The League of Shadows is to ancient worldwide secret societies as Gotham City is to Manhattan.

And when I get to your link I find info on an author that wrote a book of fiction called the "League of Shadows", a poker group, and some blather between idiots on a rather confusing message board saying something about Tuesday.
My question remains unanswered. You mention "ancient worldwide secret societies" even after I explain that I really know nothing about any sort of secret societies, ancient or not.

Hawaii has a legend of the night warriors. Many people have reported seeing them. Supposedly you can hear them marching and their metal clanging and they chant. When you see them coming you are supposed to fall to the ground and never ever look up at them. A lot of folks in Hawaii are truly very affraid of them.

Well funny when I did a google search on league of shadows I got your posts rather than anything relatively useful ... but as far as secret societies go the oldest known (at least to the Western world) "secret" societies date back to the Crusades. Many modern orders such as the Freemasons tie into older Christian Knights (Knights of Malta, and so on) societies that were generally created by middle and upper class citizens who pledged their lives towards the many crusades (battles with Islam).

I think your question is not at all stupid I found myself wondering the same things when I saw Batman, and while I suspect this idea is fictional, it's quite a curious one, which is simply asking the question "are there secret societies in the Eastern world?" Certainly there are many well known and lesser known cults of martial arts of various flavors (the League of Shadows in Batman is purportedly a Ninja cult) that largely trace their roots to the flow of Buddhism through China and to Japan.

It's interesting to me now thinking about this to see how these ancient "orders" were generally tied to religion in some way. In the Western world this relates to the tales of King Arthur and the search for the Holy Grail, with ancient knights who would pledge their lives to the re-capture of Jerusalem from the Islamic armies, and contrary to what Bin Laden professes, was actually held successfully until the breakup of the Ottoman Empire less than 100 years ago.

There was a huge ideological battle between Catholic/Christian-based society and Islamic society, much of this centered about the control of the "Holy Lands" after the fall of the Roman Empire, which had taken the province of Judea, in which time Jesus is said to have lived (see the movie Ben Hur).

Similarly, the modern forms of martial arts derive from the teachings of the Shaolin Monks and earlier, which are supposedly remnants of certain survival and hand to hand combat skills taught by the Buddha himself as he traveled over the Himalayas from India to China. Many strains of Kung-Fu claim "pure" roots to these ancient styles and are therefore "better" than some of the newer forms, although their purpose in today's political structure is essentially health, fitness, and self-defense. As travelers learned and brought these forms to the Koreas and to Japan, new forms arose that each society claims are superior to the older forms. It is in my own brief studies of karate and more recently kendo that I have found this information out, mostly by reading random books on the history of the martial arts.

The Ninja cults tend to be less public and more obscure from the apparent purposes and presence in the Western world. It is less clear from these books what the history of ninjas are, and if they existed before the time of Buddha. But, the Batman movie adequately captures a sense that we in the Western world have of ancient mythical Eastern cults. People that I have met from Eastern countries (esp. China) often claim in conversation that their society is "older" than Western societies, and indeed, their calendar certainly is if nothing else, dating back before the time of Jesus Christ. While it's not clear how (and why) the sacking of Rome would have been carried out by roving bands of Ninja tribes, it is certainly well-known what Genghis Khan and his meandering warriors did to what is now Bahgdad Iraq (and why China built the Great Wall).

The best thing to do is to conduct your own research in the literature, and get back to us with your results, as Google will probably be limited since nothing much is available online on this subject.

Originally posted by oxgoad
My question remains unanswered.

He's trying to say that the so-called 'league of shadows' is not real, its from a comic book, just like Gotham city isn't a real city but is from a comic book. And just like gotham seems like a real city (because its based on chicago and NYC), the league of shadows sounds 'real' because it might've been based on things like the NWO and Illuminati (which, ironically enough, are also fictional in many repsects).

grad_student
are there secret societies in the Eastern world?"

The ismaleeh (or some such) branch of islam I have seen refered to as the 'Illuminati of the East'. This was said because the mainstream allways fears that they are secretly plotting to overthrow the proper government. The Sufis and the like are often associated with these sorts of things.

There was also a group in Japan called the Black Dragons, who were apparently in some way associated with the Aryan myth in europe. And there was also the society of the "Rigtheous and Harmonious Fist" that lead a rebellion in china. There is also, famously, the Assasin's in the Holy Land, an esoteric secretive islamic group. For that matter, the alawite sect in islam is somewhat esoteric and secretive, apparently. This is the sect that the ruler of Syria belongs to.

There are also the Unitarians in the levant, (not assoiciated with christian unitarians), sometimes called the Druze. They are a secret society with apparently an esoteric faith (that is 'flavoured' like islam but is not islamic). The preists are initiated into the group from the laiety and receive the special/secret knowledge that is their faith. There's a nice little thread about it here.

But of course several of these groups mentioned, like the Unitarians, are more religions than 'secret societies' like the masons and whathaveyou.

Generally, there was a fad to look upon 'eastern esoteric beleifs' as somehow superior to western and other non-eastern ones for a long while, that coincided with the uptick in popularity of buddhism and groups like the khrisnas years ago, and for periods before that too. So many esoteric groups would have a myth about the founder traveling to the east and gaining great wisdom from eastern masters, etc etc, like the theosophists and rosicurians. Often there is a 'mother' secret society that they learn these things from. The people over at DC comics picked up on this and made it so that Batman was trained similarly by Eastern Masters (in the himalyas nonetheless, with the buddhists and lamas, etc). And by a man with an 'arabic' sounding name 'Raz al-ghoul'.

When I originally posted with the question, I realized that the League of Shadows wasn't actually a secret society and wondered if there was anything similar to it.

Anyhow, the societies mentioned don't seem to have the same motive. The L of S had a (however twisted) moral purpose. They took care of 'evil' when they thought that it had gone too far. I think that the purpose of a secret society is far more important that their rituals. Therefore and thusly, I am really wondering if any secret societies claim to do (sort-of) vigilante work. What I mean by that is, is there any secret society that claim to be here for the sole purpose of justice (from anyone's viewpoint)?

Seemingly not ... one could assume that part of a religion is to prevent religious injustice to its members, being a sort of justice, but I think that's not quite the same sort of sense of batman justice that you are gunning for ... the post from Nygdan summarized some groups I hadn't heard of before perhaps you should do some research on their motivations.

I seriously doubt that any secret society has the sort of overwhelming society crushing and reforming level of justice that the L of S claimed in the movie ... although come to think of it I suppose that is exactly what Bin Laden is attempting to do with his Jihad.

BL claims that this jihad is supported as an extremist reading of the qu'ran but there are more moderate Islamic scholars that claim that he is quite wrong.

The League Of Shadows exists. I'm in it. We are not a secrete society, we are a pathway. Toshigatsu Takamatsu, the forerunner of Doctor Hatsumi said this about it. It pretty much sums up what we do.

“TO PRESERVE JUSTICE, HONESTY, LOYALTY AND LOVE ON THIS EARTH. TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF NATURAL LIFE. TO ENSURE JUST RESTRAINTS ON THOSE IN POWER. THAT IS OUR CAUSE. YOU MAY NEVER SEE US. YOU MAY NEVER HEAR US. BUT THE LEAGUE IS HERE WATCHING. SILENT ANGELS IN THE NIGHT, PROTECTING THE INOCENT.”

But we are not as secrete as you may think. We activly encourage people to follow this line of thought. And one can follow the pathway of the league without being in it. We have hundreds and hundreds of followers throughtout the U.S. (i think) If anyone is really truely interested in learning more about LOS, i will provide you with the phone number of the current head of LOS NYC.

I must say I am impressed with some of your information on the League. According to history (always a very shakey untrustworthy thing) we were once associated with the Illuminati, however that was long ago when the Illuminati was not a voilent satanic group. It was once a group much like the League, activly pursuing the sciences, protecting inocent life from corruption, ect. sacking of Rome? I dunno so much about that. I highly doubt that. Loss of a single innocent life is unaceptable to the Leage. Anyways, we are not a cult, nore a gang. It's not really a secret either, as I am proving by telling you, so I hesitate to call us a secrete society. Obviously we do not wish our identies to be discovered by those who would consider us their enemies. However, if you are truely interested I can give you the number of the guy who can tell you much much more.

Thanks so much for you interest in us. We truely respect that, and we will honor you interests if you retain them.

The League Of Shadows exists. I'm in it. We are not a secrete society, we are a pathway. Toshigatsu Takamatsu, the forerunner of Doctor Hatsumi said this about it. It pretty much sums up what we do.

“TO PRESERVE JUSTICE, HONESTY, LOYALTY AND LOVE ON THIS EARTH. TO PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF NATURAL LIFE. TO ENSURE JUST RESTRAINTS ON THOSE IN POWER. THAT IS OUR CAUSE. YOU MAY NEVER SEE US. YOU MAY NEVER HEAR US. BUT THE LEAGUE IS HERE WATCHING. SILENT ANGELS IN THE NIGHT, PROTECTING THE INOCENT.”

But we are not as secrete as you may think. We activly encourage people to follow this line of thought. And one can follow the pathway of the league without being in it. We have hundreds and hundreds of followers throughtout the U.S. (i think) If anyone is really truely interested in learning more about LOS, i will provide you with the phone number of the current head of LOS NYC.

I must say I am impressed with some of your information on the League. According to history (always a very shakey untrustworthy thing) we were once associated with the Illuminati, however that was long ago when the Illuminati was not a voilent satanic group. It was once a group much like the League, activly pursuing the sciences, protecting inocent life from corruption, ect. sacking of Rome? I dunno so much about that. I highly doubt that. Loss of a single innocent life is unaceptable to the Leage. Anyways, we are not a cult, nore a gang. It's not really a secret either, as I am proving by telling you, so I hesitate to call us a secrete society. Obviously we do not wish our identies to be discovered by those who would consider us their enemies. However, if you are truely interested I can give you the number of the guy who can tell you much much more.

Thanks so much for you interest in us. We truely respect that, and we will honor you interests if you retain them. Thanks again! -Night Owl

Right ok sorry, i did that 2wice! Woopsie! BTW. Anyone interested from the NYC area can also check out a myspace page. profile.myspace.com...
I hope that works. Anyways. If you have a myspace you can request to see it. Peace people! I'll be back on in a month or something rediculous like that! -Night Owl

Suprised that no one has mentioned the tong


A tong is, according to wikipedia, "a place where extended family meet." I found this humorous, when compared to a problem that freemasons have---most outsiders use "lodge" to mean a place, a building; when for masons, a lodge is a body of masons duly assembled and meeting together.

It's funny because law enforcement says "tong" to mean the criminal organization. When it's a place. Conspiricy investigators say "lodge" to mean a place, when it's actually a bunch of people.

Another type of Asian secrety society is a triad.

You can read the link about how the triads were originaly political resistance movements against the Qing dynasty, later became mystico-religious, and have finally ended up as crime syndicates in the west.


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Night Owl you are a silly sod. You want people to post phone numbers so you can contact them so you can give them a call? Why don't you just ask for bank accounts straight out? I thought someone was monitoring the messages posted on this forum. Is the forum mediator asleep at his keyboard? HELLOOOOO??!!!

you are all not that intelligent, if this secret sociaty really does exsist then you wouldn't find out about it on the internet!!!!!!!!!!!

In the Comics it was based off of the Arabian Assasins of the Crusades.

In the Comics it was based off of the Arabian Assasins of the Crusades.

reply to post by Urufu


Well Where is the phone number to the LOS in NYC ?