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"Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?


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I was joking about how the Freemasons were ALWAYS the bad guys a few days ago. THis got me thinking, "Wouldnt it be interesting to make them the good guys for once?"

 

So, what would be some interesting ways to make the Freemasons a secret society with the goal to save/free the world rather than one set up to control/destroy it. **

 

** I am not necessarily making this campaign, universe or genre specific per se. I just want to see some ideas.

 

 

 

Example: One I thought of might be they are a society whose goal is to stop DEMON and their goals at any cost. Recruiting from all walks of life to "spy" on DEMON's possible activities. (well this was off the top of my head on the fly, so I didnt think about it in detail)

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

Many years ago I read a fantasy/historical novel (the name of which escapes me at the moment) in which the Freemasons used their ritual magic to assist the American Revolution. Some historians believe that George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and several other American founding fathers were Freemasons themselves.

 

Making them practioners of ritual magic would work well with csyphrett's notion of using them as background and support characters. With time and access to tools and references they can find out a lot, but they can't equal superheroes when it comes to combat. The Trismegistus Council in the Champions Universe functions this way. They also have fought a centuries-long duel behind the scenes with their evil counterparts, the Circle of the Scarlet Moon.

 

In that vein, how about an age old shadow war between the Freemasons and the Illuminati for the destiny of the world? :sneaky:

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

Masonry was part of the 'good guys' in The Adept series By Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris a few years back.

 

In that series, the Knights Templar had been charged with guarding and hiding the Seal of Solomon (and possibly other relics, etc). The masons in general were part of the overall 'force for good' in the world, and masonic connections played a role in coordinating efforts from time to time.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

Some historians believe that George Washington' date=' Benjamin Franklin, and several other American founding fathers were Freemasons themselves.[/quote']

 

Consider, in that era (and since), Freemason Lodges were basically gentlemen's clubs / networks (at least, that's what they WANT you to think ;) ).

 

Any well-connected, well-educated and/or well-off adult male of good background and (arguably) good character was, in all likelihood, either a Mason or had acquaintances who were. Given that many of the USA's Founding Fathers fill most of these criteria especially well, Masonic connections there don't seem so strange.

 

Given the ancient lineage that the Freemasons traditionally claim (great architects in Ancient Egypt, etc..), maybe they protect the rest of humanity from 'Secrets That Man Is Not Meant To Know' - major artifacts, heavy-duty occult stuff, etcetera.

 

Kind of like the Men In Black, only they worry about magic and occult-based dangers rather than mere aliens.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

There was a DC comics Elseworld comic where the JLA was a freemason lodge and it keep all of it's activities secret, The leader of the lodge was Clark Kent. It fell apart when events caused the lodge members to turn on one another. But at the end of the story an FBI agent by the name of Bruce Wanye refounded it with the help of Mr Wally West. But for the life of me I can not think of the title.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

Not surprisingly, there is a list of famous (or at least 'well known') Freemasons...

 

Famous Freemasons (link)

 

Excellent Find. I had known that Washington was a Mason--I was taking a traip trip through Virginia a long time ago and passed by the memorial they had built for Washington. Quite an impressive sight--

 

http://www.gwmemorial.org/

 

I was surprised to see Douglas MacArthur and John Pershing listed as Masons--I would have thought that the duties of a career military officer would have precluded any involvement in an outside service society.

 

I was also surprised to see Thurgood Marshall listed as a Mason. Perhaps they are the good guys.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

I believe Katherine Kurtz was also the author of the one-off with Freemasons and the American Revolution. A little tiresome; she needs to move on from the whole Ritual Design for Dummies moment. But then I haven't read any of her recent stuff, so maybe she has.

As for American Freemasonry, my crazy theory is that while the overarching structure was European, in practice it worked as a way of assimilating Indian myth and ritual practice into a Christian context.

And as for good guy Freemasons, well, the key to stopping DEMON is to put the souls back into some of the more important vessels from which the person behind DEMON has stripped them. To do that you need the Soul Gem, or perhaps all four of one of the "elemental" gems. We know that Robert Caliburn has Fire Gem, having taken it from evil cultists. His enemy, the evil Druid Bloodstone, has the Earth Gem. Belial of the Descending Hierarchy is seeking the Soul Gem, through his catspaw, Josiah Brimstone. That leaves the Chaos Gem, and there are too many Chaos/Entropy agents on the loose on the Earth right now to even count. And I imagine the Soul Gem being very useful to Archimago's plans, too. If it works like a "get out of Hell free" card, which is what Brimstone has been told, it will be the key to Archimago's ascension.

In short, there better be some good guys more formidable than the Trismegistrus Council looking for the elemental gems, or the world is doomed. Doomed, I say!

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

In short' date=' there better be some good guys more formidable than the Trismegistrus Council looking for the elemental gems, or the world is doomed. Doomed, I say![/quote']

 

Now I'm having visions of the Order of the Triad dancing through my head. Seriously, the Freemasons were a secret society wherein your overt social rank was checked at the door, with members meeting on an equal footing not based on their "position in society", but on the brotherhood of Masonic ties. Several U.S. officers avoided mistreatment as POWs by flashing their "Masonic Brother in Distress" signal (I'm NOT making this stuff up!*) and being recognized as protected persons by their brother masions in the King's uniform.

 

* My dad was a freemason and, without divulging any details, he confirmed that the Freemasons had special recognition and distress signals.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

There was a DC comics Elseworld comic where the JLA was a freemason lodge and it keep all of it's activities secret' date=' The leader of the lodge was Clark Kent. It fell apart when events caused the lodge members to turn on one another. But at the end of the story an FBI agent by the name of Bruce Wanye refounded it with the help of Mr Wally West. But for the life of me I can not think of the title.[/quote']

 

JLA: The Secret Society of Super Heroes

 

http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jla/jlafaq08.html

 

As to the original question, it is true that the freemasons were one of the groups that Adolph Hitler had on his list of secretive groups to root out. It's easy to look good when Adolph Hitler is out to kill you.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

JLA: The Secret Society of Super Heroes

 

http://www.mykey3000.com/cosmicteams/jla/jlafaq08.html

 

As to the original question, it is true that the freemasons were one of the groups that Adolph Hitler had on his list of secretive groups to root out. It's easy to look good when Adolph Hitler is out to kill you.

 

Heck, I'd consider it a sign that I was doing something right if Hitler wanted me dead!

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

I believe Katherine Kurtz was also the author of the one-off with Freemasons and the American Revolution. A little tiresome; she needs to move on from the whole Ritual Design for Dummies moment. But then I haven't read any of her recent stuff' date=' so maybe she has.[/quote']

 

I believe you're right. Thanks! :)

 

And as for good guy Freemasons, well, the key to stopping DEMON is to put the souls back into some of the more important vessels from which the person behind DEMON has stripped them. To do that you need the Soul Gem, or perhaps all four of one of the "elemental" gems. We know that Robert Caliburn has Fire Gem, having taken it from evil cultists. His enemy, the evil Druid Bloodstone, has the Earth Gem. Belial of the Descending Hierarchy is seeking the Soul Gem, through his catspaw, Josiah Brimstone. That leaves the Chaos Gem, and there are too many Chaos/Entropy agents on the loose on the Earth right now to even count. And I imagine the Soul Gem being very useful to Archimago's plans, too. If it works like a "get out of Hell free" card, which is what Brimstone has been told, it will be the key to Archimago's ascension.

 

In short, there better be some good guys more formidable than the Trismegistrus Council looking for the elemental gems, or the world is doomed. Doomed, I say!

 

That is one helluva piece of Champions Universe continuity weaving. Kudos to you! :hail:

 

(I'll have to owe you Rep for now.) :(

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

You might want to check out the Order of St. George as used in the Shadowline series of Epic Comics. The Order exists to fight the Dragon (Dr. Zero) and does so, in part, by recruiting new knights (St. George) and providing them with magic armor and weapons.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

In one campaign, I had a lodge within a lodge of Masons fighting evil cultist magic. Much of it was based on the Adept series by Kurtz (referenced above). This way, some masons could be bad guys, or at least clueless/misled, while the core were fighting the good fight.

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

I was joking about how the Freemasons were ALWAYS the bad guys a few days ago. THis got me thinking, "Wouldnt it be interesting to make them the good guys for once?"

 

Well, some of history's known Freemasons include

 

Lots of American presidents, from Washington and Jefferson to both Roosevelts

 

Some Founding Fathers, like Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock

 

Heroes like Audie Murphy and Paul Revere

 

Explorers, from the famoous Captains Lewis and Clark to astronauts like John Glenn and Virgil Grissom

 

Leaders around the world, like Garibaldi, Bolivar, and Churchill

 

Writers like Mark Twain and Goethe, and more musicians and artists and composers than I'd care to list.

 

Stage magicians like Houdini, and occultists like Crowley

 

Thurgood Marshall...but also Strom Thurmond

 

And of course, J. Edgar Hoover and Trent Lott

 

So while there are some Masonic bad guys I think there are a lot of good guys (I'll leave it up to you how to categorize any of the examples I mentioned)

 

I happen to know of at least one lodge that went bad as a group and became a criminal conspiracy (low level fraud, nothing dramatic) and there are surely others.

 

But on the other hand - not all Masons are Shriners, but all Shriners are Masons.

And if you don't know about shriner's hospitals, you should learn:

 

http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Main/

 

Yeah, I'd say those are good guys.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Even if they won't admit a palindromedary

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Re: "Alternate" Ideas for Freemasons?

 

Found a link that might spark an idea or two.

 

Been hooked on the "Pentagonal Forts as magical wards" long before Dan Brown got his grubby hands on the idea (For me, it started back in the 80's... during a Cthulhu campaign, in fact)

The setting I've been investing most of my time in lately has the Masons as the (mostly benevolent) heirs to the Knights Templar, being largely responsible for binding away quite a few multi-angular eldritch horrors, which went a long way to ending the Dark Ages.

Of course, various governments have since realized that these warded sites were in place before the Dresden Accords, and thus represent valuable Strategic Assets...

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