Strangely-Colored Secret Society

The “Strangely-Colored Secret Societies” were a large number of secret societies existing in, or stemming from, the Prime Universe, whose names followed the pattern of “the [Group Type] of the [Colour] [Creatures]”. The Societies' sizes, agenda and dangerousness varied, as did the relationships they maintained with others of their kind, but they were all ultimately descended from the First Horde, with the possible exception of the Secret League of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes.

History

The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies were formed as splinters of the First Horde, an organisation devoted to seeking out Atlantean technology to effect world domination. The Horde, in a certain sense the “first” Strangely-Colored Secret Society, kept itself supplied in new members via brainwashing of ordinary people; these Horde operatives dressed up in incongruously-coloured animal costumes to preserve their anonymity.

Eventually, the Horde was forced to lay off much of its standing forces due to lack of budget. Having little experience with running a brainwashing in that direction, the Horde imperfectly wiped the subjects' memories of their time with the Horde; as a result, many of the ex-Horde operatives, such as Archibald Fishflipper, retained an urge to look for Atlantis and dress up in weirdly-coloured animal costumes, though they were unable to ascertain why. Many went on to found organisations of their own, such as Fishflipper's harmless Faction of the Fooling Fish, to “scratch the itch”. In addition to the Faction, these included the Mélange of the Mauve Muskrat as well as the Society of the Rhyming Dove.

Also laid off was Professor Scarper, a mad geneticist who had been experimenting with mutagens to turn animals into docile, sentient foot-soldiers for the Horde. The herd of intelligent dromedaries he had already created for the Horde were fired as well, becoming the Drove of the Database-Compiling Dromedaries, while Scarper continued his experiments in secret. The creatures he created had no loyalty to him, but had similar buried instincts to those of formerly-brainwashed Horde agents. Among the additional Societies formed by the mutant animals were the Gang of the Green Gorilla, the Mob of the Maroon Magpie, the Horde of Mad Elephants and the infamous Collective of the Retconning Crocodiles.

Other known Strangely-Colored Secret Societies included:

• the Sect of the Silver-Shelled Snails;
• the Society of the Scarlet Crabs;
• the Trio of the Talking Turkeys;
• the Pack of the Patriotic Platypus;
• the Possé of the Azure-And-Emerald Panther;
• the Gaggle of the Golden Goats;
• the Legion of the Chartreuse Tortoise;
• the Ennead of the Eigengrau Easter Eggs.

The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids was named after the same pattern, although their Cupid Fact File on the Strangely-Colored Secret Societies (#828) did not elaborate on a reason why. The same File made note of the fact that the ever-mysterious Secret League of the Orange-Bearded Gnomes' name followed the same pattern, despite no clear way for them to fit into the First Horde's history. (PROSE: The Strangely-Colored Secret Societies (short story)