History
The occultist organization later known as the Thule Society was an ancient order of sorcerer-scientists with no real name and outlived the cultures from which they sprang.[1]
They were totally dedicated to their cause, rising above death, hold the power of life and death and be as the gods. Among their plans, they searched for immortality[1] for about 6,000 years.[6]
Every aspect of history, politics, science, magic and faith has been influenced by them and their many "tentacles",[2] and the very art of alchemy was a by-product of their Infinitas agenda.[6]
Early History[]
Mesopotamia[]
In 2671 BC, in Mesopotamia, Lord Gidim and his "holy order" had Brother Nashtoth look for over a year for the bones of Gilgamesh, which the great king had wanted to preserve from them. They finally managed to retrieve it (after fourteen months and seventeen tombs), in the House of Dust.[1]
Ancient Greece[]
In 323 BC, after Alexander the Great's death, Lord Mormo of the Order of the Hydra went to the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis of Phaselis, Lycia, to retrieve the Spear of Achilles and his blood crusted into its blade, the key to immortality.[1]
China Qin Dynasty[]
In 209 BC, Qin Shi Huang sent his court sorcerer Xú Fú to the immortal Anqi Sheng for the Elixir of Life. Anqi Sheng sent him away, asking for a certain price, and so Xú Fú returned with the gift of the emperor, and tree thousand children, pure and from the very best families. Anqi Sheng was pleased by the gift and gave Xú Fú a component of the Elixir, enraging Xú Fú, and killed the offering.[7]
Medieval period[]
In 710 AD, in the Town of Ribe in Jutland, helped by Strybiorn and his men, Hydra sorcerer Draugr buried the bones of Eggther (a giant who had stolen the arrow of Hoder), in order to retrieve the arrow, a weapon capable of killing a god.[1]
Hydra was known at some period as the Cathari.[2]
15th Century[]
Torquemada was one of the tentacles of Hydra, as were the Medicis.[2]
16th Century[]
In 1522 AD, on the Banks of the Caloosahatchee River in Florida, Count Duende attacked his cousin Juan Ponce de León y Figueroa, slaughtering his men and asking him for the Fountain of Youth. As de León told mocked him, stating there was no such Fountain there, Duende stabbed him and set the place for people to thinks natives had caused the slaughter.[7]
Hydra managed to manipulate and use the Holy Office of the Inquisition.[6] In 1537 AD, in Spain, Hydra members of the Holy Office of the Inquisition tried Dr. Garibaldi for his researches on the eternal life. As Garibaldi refused to confess an heresy, the inquisitors revealed themselves as Hydra members and offered to recruit him.[7]
19th Century[]
Napoléon was one of the tentacles of Hydra.[2]
20th Century[]
The Order was known for some time as the Ariosophist (meddling esoteric content and Nazism), the Wotanists (racist worshipers of Wotan), the Black Order, the Sons of Anubis, the Seven Kings, the Green and the Red Societies, then the Thule Society.[2]
World War II[]
On their side, despite despising Hitler and his plans, Geist, Baron Strucker, and the Thule supported the Nazis, using them to access and pillage vaults and libraries in nearly every nation, including France, Italy, Russia, and Egypt, in order to collect the rarest and most obscure of forbidden knowledge (magic, alchemy, physics, etc.); as Hydra, Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini were nothing more than individual tentacles.[2]
1942[]
In February 1942, Red Skull and Baron Strucker belonged to the Thule Society. The Skull spent months tracking ancient myths, looking for an ancient, powerful weapon to destroy his enemies. Using the dead language of a Gypsy tribe the Skull exterminated and sacrificing numerous Atlanteans, the Thule priests performed a ritual to invoke the Hammer of Skadi, which landed in Antarctica. The Skull went on an expedition to find his prize, but the hammer could not be lifted. He told Strucker that what they found was on a crate destined for Hitler, but had secretly instructed the Thule agents to stay and guard the hammer.[3] They erected a stronghold around the hammer, guarding it and studying it for decades, kept from aging by Nazi superscience. The Skull kept this finding a secret from everyone, documenting his expedition in a sorcery book the Thule made out of Atlantean flesh and hiding the book in a secret lair in the Egyptian desert.[3][8]
The Thule Society later acquired the Kraken, a weapon of Lemurian origin and ungodly power that they pillaged from the Atlanteans. Their scientists created an abomination from Atlantean corpses, as only an Atlantean could wield the Kraken. They were planning to test their new creation on the Allied troops during a battle, but both the weapon and the wielder were destroyed by Prince Namor of Atlantis. The Kraken was latter repaired by the Covenant, a secret society dedicated to protecting the world from the occult who had informed Namor of Thule's activities. They also captured the scientist who created the abomination and forced him to abandon Thule and join them. As Namor refused to join their ranks, they needed him to created more abominations so they may wield the power of the Kraken for their own purposes.[4]
1943[]
When Hitler wanted Thule's leader Baron von Strucker dead after his several failures,[9] he escaped in Japan with the help of the Red Skull.[10] Here, Strucker joined the Skull's organization, renamed it Hydra,[11] killing its leader and becoming the new Supreme Hydra.[12][10]
Strucker later regained Hitler's favour and he returned in Germany,[13] operating as a loyal Nazi but secretly leading both Hydra[14] and Thule Society.[2]
1944[]
In 1944, Thule scientist Nikolaus Geist started his Infinitas Agenda, a program with the purpose of creating an army of superpowered soldiers. They were temporarily stopped by Captain America, his sidekick Bucky and German Freedom League agent Trude Lohn.[2]
1945[]
In January, 1945,[15] a branch[16] of the Thule summoned a Snow Wyrm of Jotunheim in the Ardennes, thinking they could control it. This ultimately caused the deaths of their units of German soldiers. They also summoned the Choosers of the Slain, including Brunnhilde, who found the corpses. Brunnhilde remained there, slew the Wyrm and set out to find the ones responsible.[15]
In March, Raizo Kodo raided a Thule lab outside Berlin, where they attempted to control vampires and turn them into weapons. He killed the scientists and agents, and briefly met with Brunnhilde, before detonating the lab.[17]
In April, Brunnhilde attacked a Thule base as they were delivered the Golden Apples of Idunn, and was opposed by Thule's creatures.[16]
Legacy[]
After World War II, The Thule agents spread over the world after, as the Thule Society was greatly diminished.[18] Thule's agents, possibly as part of Hydra,[19] infiltrated several espionage secret agencies, including Atlas Foundation.[20] Others joined Hydra's D.O.A., who was thought to have been destroyed by its own research.[18]
During the Cold War, Hydra kept on its activities, the Red Army Faction/Baader-Meinhof Gang, the German People's Union, Der Republikaners and Neo-Nazis being some of their new faces in Germany, pursuing the goal of obtaining eternal life through science. The German Freedom League who had opposed the Thules kept fighting them, smuggling scientists under duress from their organizations.[1]
Nikolaus Geist was absorbed into Hydra by Baron Strucker, where they continued Thule's Infinitas Agenda.[21]
Fear Itself[]
The Thule members placed by the Red Skull in 1942 to protect the Hammer of Skadi, in Fortress Null, tried to protect the Hammer when the Skull's daughter, Sin, arrived in Antarctica to reclaim it for herself. They were finally defeated by Sin's assault forces.[8]
After Sin had successfully taken the Hammer of Skadi, she found Thule Society's Security Drones in her father's Egyptian secret base. Sin then used Thule's Drones to help her in her attempt to control the world.[22]
Later, after Sin's defeat, an occult neo-Nazi group composed of Thule members' descendants, the Hammer of Thule, became operative in the United States, carrying on their predecessors' mission.[23]Paraphernalia
Weapons
See Also
- 33 appearance(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 3 minor appearance(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 10 mention(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 3 image(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 13 member(s) of Thule Society (Earth-616)
- 5 item(s) used/owned by Thule Society (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Captain America: Hail Hydra #2
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 Captain America: Hail Hydra #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Fear Itself: Book of the Skull #1
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Captain America and Namor #635.1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 King in Black: Namor #2
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Captain America: Hail Hydra #4
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Captain America: Hail Hydra #3
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Fear Itself #1
- ↑ Sgt. Fury #29
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Marvel Universe #1
- ↑ Marvel Atlas #1 ; Japan's entry
- ↑ Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #4
- ↑ Sgt. Fury #112–114
- ↑ Marvel Universe #1–3
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Fear Itself: The Fearless #1
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Fear Itself: The Fearless #3
- ↑ Fear Itself: The Fearless #2
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Fear Itself: The Fearless #8
- ↑ Captain America: Hail Hydra #1 's recap page
- ↑ Fear Itself: The Home Front #1
- ↑ Captain America: Hail Hydra #2–5
- ↑ Fear Itself #2
- ↑ Fear Itself: The Home Front #1–2