The Nine Unknown is a 1923 novel by Talbot Mundy.Originally serialised in Adventure magazine, ^[1] it concerns the "Nine Unknown Men", a fictional secret society founded by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka around 270 BC^{[citation needed]} to preserve and develop knowledge that would be dangerous to humanity if it fell into the wrong hands. The nine unknown men were entrusted with guarding nine books of secret knowledge. In the novel the nine men are embodiment of good and face up against nine Kali worshippers, who sow confusion and masquerade as the true sages. The story surrounds a priest called Father Cyprian who is in possession of the books but who wants to destroy them out of Christian piety, and a number of other characters who are interested in learning their contents. The Nine Unknown Men also appear in Mundy's Caves of terror (1924), but are portrayed as evil in that book.^[2]

The nine books entrusted to the Nine Unknown contain information on

1. Propaganda and Psychological warfare,
2. Physiology, including secrets concerning the "touch of death",
3. Microbiology,
4. Alchemy,
5. Communication, including communication with extraterrestrials,
6. Gravity, and anti-gravity devices (Vimanas, the "ancient UFOs of India"),
7. Cosmology, including hyperspace and time-travel,
8. Light, and a technology capable of modifying the speed of light and
9. Sociology, including rules predicting the rise and fall of empires.^{[citation needed]}

In 1960, Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier wrote about the Nine Unknown Men in their Morning of the Magicians. Pauwels and Bergier (1960:36) attribute mention of the Nine Unknown to Louis Jacolliot (1837-1890), a French judge working in India and Tahiti in the 1860s. In their works, Pauwels and Bergier claimed that the society occasionally revealed itself to wise outsiders such as Pope Sylvester II who was said to have received, among other things, training in supernatural powers and a robotic talking head from the group.^{[citation needed]}

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I'll keep this discussion in her to try and stay organized on these topics. I know, it's hard to know where to put things sometimes and believe me we'd like like to add other subforums to keep the discussions more focused but the site needs updates we're afraid to implement lest we fuck something up. LOL.

Anyway, as we started to discuss in Spec thread part 2:

When Nan said they 'wouldn't be alone' in their insurrection against TA that right there tells us there is a faction just waiting for the opportunity to pounce. I wouldn't count on THEM being all that altruistic either, though. Knowing Eric, he went with the lesser of two evils–or maybe he bet on the wrong horse?— just to meet some sort of agenda of his own. One that doesn't involve 'factions' at all. I'd bet dollars to donuts his real affiliation will come down to some kind of religious order. Don't laugh, I'm serious.  I felt it when he prayed in the parking lot. I think it ties in with that book I linked to in the 'Nines' thread.

…..

So, what if Eric is a Father Cyprian character and his quest involves the knowledge and use of these 'strategies' to manipulate the masses?  All of which embedded themes we have discussed. His and Godric's enemies are those representing the 'alien' 'inhuman' intelligence of parasitic overlords who will stop at nothing until they've wrung every last drop from the cold dead corpses of the earth and it's inhabitants… The overlords are not  from another galaxy but are a combination of factions of demonic 'undead' vampires–representing the school of black Sorcery for mass social control– and elite human vampires, some of whom would literally drink your blood for the fun of it. 

I'm not saying Eric is a Christian, in fact I would be shocked if this were so. But I think his and Godric's secret Order may have nothing to do with their  Viking or Scandanavian roots either. Perhaps it's older than that.. Is this an order of Fae, a council, a Seeley Court?  Perhaps Eric and Godric are 'infiltrators' into the vampire world because they are both Fae turned vampire hybrids. I'm convinced Godric turned Eric to protect him from vampires doing to Eric what they had done to him. It's the only way a Fae is completely safe from vampires. Though not not all Fae would be willing to trade so much for a life out in the 'world' as a vampire hybrid. What about all the lovely food they couldn't eat? Anyway, as Fae-vampire hybrids their powers are powers of light, of healing, of the earth. Their blood is essentially earth magic, the red pill, while Bill's blood is the blood of death, the blue like death pill.

I think most but not all of these hybrids are natural daywalkers but I don't think they're all naturally immune to silver.  Hmm, I'm not sure about wood, an earth element as well..I think Eric just might be immune to staking, but I won't go to the mat over it. LOL. Although.. after the nest bombing, didn't he have holes in the chest of his shirt that weren't accounted for by any of the silver bullets?

How would a court or council like this operate? Will we ever see it? Who else besides Eric, Godric, and possibly Nora are involved?

Does this theory make sense to you guys or do you disagree with the premise?

Courtly_LoveMachine added these lyrics to the Spec thread and I think they're very appropriate in this discussion:

that Old Swedish song he was playing in the bath - Sancto Erico – "as Eric was dear to the chieftans and populace of the land, he was elected King and installed honourably on the royal throne in Uppsala. He travelled all over the country and neither personal attaachment nor gain, neither fear nor animosity, ever made him swerve from the path of justice."

Seelie and Unseelie

[edit] Etymology

The words "seely" (with other forms being seily, seelie and sealy) and "unseely" are Scots, Northern and Middle English terms meaning "happy", "lucky" or "blessed" and "unhappy", "misfortunate" and "unholy" respectively.

Seelie and Unseelie Courts

The Seelie court are known to seek help from humans, to warn those who had accidentally offended them, and to return human kindness with favors of their own. Still, a fairy belonging to this court will avenge insults and could be prone to mischief.^[4] The most common time of day to see them is twilight.^[5] The Unseelie Court consists of the malicious and evilly-inclined fairies. Unlike the Seelie Court, no offense is necessary to bring down their assaults.^[6] As a group (or "host"), they appear at night and assault travelers, often carrying them through the air, beating them, and forcing them to commit such acts as shooting elfshot at cattle.^[7][8] Like the beings of the Seely Court who are not always benevolent, neither are the fairies of the Unseelie Court always malevolent. However, when forced to choose, they will always prefer to harm—rather than to help—humans. Some of the most common characters in the Unseelie Court are Bogies, Bogles, Boggars, Abbylubbers and Buttery spirits.^[9] The division into "seely" and "unseely" spirits was roughly equivalent to the division of Elves in Norse mythology, into "light" and "dark" distinctions^[10].

In the French fairy tales of précieuses, fairies are likewise divided into good and evil, but the effect is clearly literary.^[11] Many of these literary fairies seem preoccupied with the character of the humans they encounter.^[12]

The Welsh fairies, Tylwyth Teg, and the Irish Sídhe are usually not classified as wholly good or wholly evil.

Bobsgran said:

Thanks for the Seeley/ie/y explanation.

 

Didn't Sookie tell FAE when he was in the cubby depressed that he was a happy vampire?  And to have survived to the age he has sure as hell makes him lucky.  Blessed, I guess we'll have to wait and see.  2 out 3 ain't bad so far.

Yep, he's a happy vampire and one of the luckiest dudes who ever lived. Blessed? Oh, he's blessed alright!