"The first rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is, you do not talk about Fight Club!"
— Tyler Durden, Fight Club
"Masquerade! Paper faces on parade! Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you!''
"Yeah, it sucks having to hide from your food. Yeah, you could take any mortal out without thinking about it. When you can take out a few thousand of 'em, then come talk to me. Until then, keep your fucking head down."
— An NPC Nosferatu, Vampire: The Requiem.
Agent Kay: We do NOT discharge our weapons in view of the public!
Agent Jay: Hey, we ain't got time for this cover-up bullshit! Maybe you've forgotten, but there's an Arquillian battle cruiser...
Kay: There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they Do... Not... Know about it!
"Anonymity is Synonymous With Longevity."
—The Arc Words of the Vampires in Necroscope. When the final Big Bads break these words, things really start going downhill.
"You've just seen behind a curtain you weren't even supposed to know existed."
—Richardson, The Adjustment Bureau
"You...better wake up. The world you live in is just a sugar-coated topping. There is another world, beneath it. The real world. And if you wanna survive it, you better learn to pull the trigger!"
—Blade, Blade (1998)
"There's a war going on out there. Blade, myself, a few others, we've tried to keep it from spilling over onto the streets. Sometimes people like yourself get caught in the cross fire."
—Abraham Whistler, Blade (1998)
"Are you sure you want to see what's on the other side? Be sure. Say yes, and I'll show you the way to the people who've been hiding themselves from you all along. You'll get one moon, one month. But be sure. Swear it on your name that you won't tell anyone else, or you'll wish you'd never met me."
— Changeling: The Lost corebook, example of the Rose And Thorn oath.
James Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart, they can handle it.
Agent Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. 1500 years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and 15 minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow...
The passion of my clan, to be at one with them, and hidden from the world outside.
A promise that I keep-
I'll never share,
I'll never speak,
To my grave the secret goes...
A promise that I keep-
I'll never share,
I'll never speak,
To my grave the secret goes...
— "A Promise That I Keep", by Klause White
Yesterday, my life's like, "Uh oh, pop quiz!" Today it's "rain of toads".
— Xander, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
A world where creatures of ancient myth and gods long thought dead walk unnoticed along the crowded streets of Manhattan. Where ladies of Faerie dance lonely nights away, bathed in soft neon glare.
— The comic Aria (1979)'s blurb
We go hideaway in daylight
We go undercover, wait out the sun
Got a secret side in plain sight
Where the streets are empty
That's where we run...
We go undercover, wait out the sun
Got a secret side in plain sight
Where the streets are empty
That's where we run...
— Alesso, "Heroes"
"Werewolves can be dangerous if you get in their way, but they'll leave you alone if you are careful. They are very good at hiding their natures from the human population, but I'm not human. I know them when I meet them, and they know me, too..."
— Mercy Thompson, Moon Called'
"Humans were very stuck in their belief that there was nothing hiding in the darkness, even as those very things slipped up beside them and asked to borrow a cigarette."
—Fred, Undeath And Taxes
There is a world beyond the world, a place of magic and mysteries, evils and enchantments, marvels and wonders. And you are never more than a breath away from any of it. Open the right door, walk down the wrong street, and you can find waiting for you every dream you ever had- including all the bad ones. Secrets and mysteries will open themselves to you, if something more or less than human doesn't find you first. Magic is real, and so are gods and monsters.
There is a world beyond the world. But some things never change.
There is a world beyond the world. But some things never change.
— Drinking Midnight Wine, by Simon R. Green
Before we go any further, allow me to tell you that you're getting an unprecedented opportunity here. My kind doesn't talk about itself to you kind - not now and, for the most part, not ever. We've spent five centuries weaving a stage curtain that we call the Masquerade to hide the real show from you, but in the end, it comes down to one simple fact: we vampires don't want you mortals knowing we're out there. It's for the same reason the wolf doesn't want the sheep knowing he's around. It makes our work so much easier.
Nanase: People cannot possibly be better off kept in the dark.
Mr. Verres: You know that man in the ambulance right now? The man capable of, and having already done, absolutely horrible things? There is NOTHING special about him. He's just an average jerk who, when younger, stumbled on a way to gain use of magic that almost anyone on the planet could use. You want a real-life, non-hypothetical example of why there's so much secrecy? It's lying in the back of that ambulance.
Nanase: I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Mr. Verres: Whatever good general knowledge of magic could do, the potential damage is more. Sometimes withholding information is the best thing you can do for people.
Mr. Verres: You know that man in the ambulance right now? The man capable of, and having already done, absolutely horrible things? There is NOTHING special about him. He's just an average jerk who, when younger, stumbled on a way to gain use of magic that almost anyone on the planet could use. You want a real-life, non-hypothetical example of why there's so much secrecy? It's lying in the back of that ambulance.
Nanase: I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Mr. Verres: Whatever good general knowledge of magic could do, the potential damage is more. Sometimes withholding information is the best thing you can do for people.
Mariana: You have this whole other layer of history.
Robo: There's an assumption, I think, that being an ageless super robot billionaire mad scientist on a remote island makes me feel alone. It doesn't. But sometimes? That layer does.
Robo: There's an assumption, I think, that being an ageless super robot billionaire mad scientist on a remote island makes me feel alone. It doesn't. But sometimes? That layer does.
One of the Council's primary duties is to keep the secret world and the mundane world discrete. Understand, we are not cover-up artists. We are not the enemies of enlightenment. Enlightenment is as vital to society as water is to life. But so too is water corrosive: too much, and it drowns life. Too much, and it rends the earth, destroys entire cities. We are the levy. We are the dam. We are the membrane. We hold back the tidal wave of enlightenment that would wash our world away.
—Arturo Castiglione, The Secret World
Buffy: Okay. All right. Let’s admit defeat. Let’s just go ahead, call in the troops, and let them raze Sunnydale. I have enough of a time keeping my own activities a secret, Kara. Do you honestly think we can keep the lid on things when the Justice League come to town?
Supergirl: Start making sense.
Buffy: I am! Do you know how strong most people’s sense of denial is? In some cases, it’s the only thing that keeps them going. Look. What do you think would be the effect when people all over the country learn that vampires really exist?
Supergirl: They already know a lot of evil things exist, Buffy. Super-villains, criminals, alien enemies from dozens of planets.
Buffy: True enough. But supposing they learn that there are really things out there in the night that want to kill them, suck their blood, and make them like a recruiting poster with Dracula pointing at ‘em and saying, ‘I Vant You’?
Supergirl: Start making sense.
Buffy: I am! Do you know how strong most people’s sense of denial is? In some cases, it’s the only thing that keeps them going. Look. What do you think would be the effect when people all over the country learn that vampires really exist?
Supergirl: They already know a lot of evil things exist, Buffy. Super-villains, criminals, alien enemies from dozens of planets.
Buffy: True enough. But supposing they learn that there are really things out there in the night that want to kill them, suck their blood, and make them like a recruiting poster with Dracula pointing at ‘em and saying, ‘I Vant You’?
George: Alan... Alan... Just how stupid do you think the average man is, boy?
Alan: (sighing) I don't know, Uncle George. You tell *me*. How stupid *do* I think the average man is?
George: Pretty damn stupid, Alan. For over five hundred years there's been a Superman. Since the Prime Superman of the Twentieth. Everyone knows that. Don't you imagine that the general populace might— just might, mind you!—have figured out that, by the simplest laws of genetics and mathematics, there *has* to be more than one of us?
Alan: Of course, they know, Uncle George. Most of them. When they think about it. Which isn't often. Uncle George, don't *do* this. Please. Listen to me. As long as we don't rub their faces in it ... as long they see only one of us, a hero, they aren't threatened. It's easy for them to ignore the fact that there have to be others. They can even accept the existence of a Superboy. Or a Supergirl. But ... Rao's flames! There are over two hundred of us here! They'd never accept that! Never! You have to think of the Family!
Alan: (sighing) I don't know, Uncle George. You tell *me*. How stupid *do* I think the average man is?
George: Pretty damn stupid, Alan. For over five hundred years there's been a Superman. Since the Prime Superman of the Twentieth. Everyone knows that. Don't you imagine that the general populace might— just might, mind you!—have figured out that, by the simplest laws of genetics and mathematics, there *has* to be more than one of us?
Alan: Of course, they know, Uncle George. Most of them. When they think about it. Which isn't often. Uncle George, don't *do* this. Please. Listen to me. As long as we don't rub their faces in it ... as long they see only one of us, a hero, they aren't threatened. It's easy for them to ignore the fact that there have to be others. They can even accept the existence of a Superboy. Or a Supergirl. But ... Rao's flames! There are over two hundred of us here! They'd never accept that! Never! You have to think of the Family!
There really are "things-man-was-not-meant-to-know." Ever read H.P. Lovecraft? Your job is to keep people from knowing about the things that could wreck humanity. You perpetrate this fiction not because you're cruel or because you're an enemy of truth, but because those things could hurt all society. Far better that the Masses believe your Truth (with a capital "T") instead. It's safer, it's simpler, and best of all, if enough people accept it, it might as well be real.
—Mage: The Ascension - Guide To The Technocracy
"Basically, the Earth is currently home to eleven alien species at the moment, and these are just the ones our clean-up crews are aware of."
— Nick Fury, The Ultimates
"Witches live among us in secret. Their magic passed down from an ancient race, diluted, half-forgotten, but dangerously powerful. After centuries of conflict, a truce was forged. Witches would be allowed to live and govern themselves if they followed one strict rule, that magic never be used against humans."
—Dolan Thirty-Six, The Last Witch Hunter
Erle Kenton: Humans are our prey. We should feed on them like we've always done. Screw all this "channel your energies" crap.
Dr. George Waggner: But the danger of exposure. We need this shelter to plan, to catch up with society. Times have changed, and we haven't. Not enough.
Dr. George Waggner: But the danger of exposure. We need this shelter to plan, to catch up with society. Times have changed, and we haven't. Not enough.
"Three or four days ago, I didn't know this world existed. But three or four days ago, I wasn't in the Rest In Peace Department."
—Nick Walker, R.I.P.D.
"If I told you the Tokyo you'd been living in this whole time was a lie...would you believe me?"
—Tao Isonokami, Shin Megami Tensei V
Big D: More than any other supernatural creature, Vampires DESPISE being unveiled. They relentlessly hunt any breach of their vaunted secrecy with organised and military precision. As such, though I know much, I speak little of it. And sadly, share even less.
Kitten: Of course, but surely you can trust your own family.
Big D: Trust has little to do with it! Say I share all that I know. Indeed, to truly destroy this foe, we must understand it! But if I do so carelessly... Notice how the conversation started. I carelessly said the word Tremere.
Kitten: Yes?
Big D: If we were in public, in a restaurant, or on the street, when I had said that... We would very well have to move.
Kitten: That's a tad extreme.
Big D: And it is necessary. The Masquerade they call it. To wear a mask of a human. To blend in with us. To convince us their existence is but a fairy tale. Any breach in this Masquerade is a threat to their very existence. For even though they are individually more powerful, they fear mankind more than anything else, for they are few and we are many. Should wider society discover their existence, man might well eradicate them. For while an especially mighty Vampire could slay a hundred mortals, there is a limit to their strength. Few break easily.- but all break. And that is not to speak of their most hated enemy, the sun. Its ancient rays scorch even the eldest of their kind to charcoaled bone. Vampires cannot be rid of their great adversaries, for the sun is beyond their reckoning and humanity vital to their survival. Thus most work to preserve their "Masquerade", hiding in the dark, carefully balanced upon webs of intrigue and murder. To further this end, vampires have many agents. Ghouls they call them — mortals grown addicted to the vampiric blood. These half-men gain whisper of their master's power in exchange for fanatical servitude. Unlike their masters, though, ghouls need not slumber by day. Their eyes are EVERYWHERE and they watch vigilantly for the slightest breach of undead omerta. This is why we Hunters are responsible for the Vampire threat. We learn as much of the Vampire as we can and spread it, safely, to ensure these parasites become the forgotten myths they pretend to be. Even this is a treacherous task, for we cannot know which parts of our collected vampiric lore are mistaken assumption, the earnest truth, or malignant propaganda.
Kitten: I see...
Big D: So rest assured! I will teach you what I know! But slowly. They might not blood hunt you for knowing a word or two... But they certainly will if you know their meaning.
Kitten: And what is a "blood hunt"?
Big D: They'll kill you for knowing what that is too. WHICH IS DUMB because it's kind of just what it sounds like! Every Vampire in the region hunting you, f-for your blood!
Kitten: Haaard to figure out.
Big D: BREACH NOT OUR VEIL OF SECRECY! [snort] Vampires are so silly!
