[RPG Idea] The Atomic Foxhole of the White Brotherhood
Remember all those neat circa 1949-1950 science fiction fanzines called Spacewarp I’ve written about before? While going through them the other day, I noticed that First Fandom fanzine writer Dean Walter “Redd” Boggs wrote the following in the 13th issue of his File 13 column that was included in the science fiction fanzine Spacewarp issue #42 (September 1950) edited by Art Rapp.
TORCH-BEARERS IN THE ROCKIES
According to the newspapers, about the time the Korean war began, members of the "Brotherhood of the White Temple," a mystic cult whose "supreme voice" is Dr. M. Doreal, have received stand-by instructions for a move to their atom-proof haven in the Rockies. There, at "Shambala Ashrama," as the secret haven is known, the select group, numbering 800, plans to wait out World War III while "civilization perishes under a hail of atomic bombs." This atomic retreat is modeled after "the real Shamballa -- center of all occult lore of this planet," according to Doreal. He identifies the original Shamballa as "the great white temple of Tibet, 75 miles under the Himalayas."
Boggs went on to say, “Doreal looked like a fairly sensible guy when he attended the Cinvention, and perhaps the rest of his cult are reasonably sane, too. No one can say with certainty that such "atomic havens" aren't necessary -- FooFoo knows they probably are. But -- how would you like to give the future of fandom into the hands of the Shaver Club? In a rather absurd way, such a possibility is analogous in my mind to the possibility of placing humanity's future in the hands of a "mystic cult" that calls itself the Brotherhood of the White Temple! Is Atomigeddon the worst thing that could happen to mankind?”
Intrigued by reading these two bizarre paragraphs, I went to Google where I found quite a bit more about both the mysterious Dr. Doreal and his organization, The Brotherhood of the White Temple.
Dr. Maurice Doreal (image above) was born Claude Doggins in Sulphur Springs Oklahoma in 1898; nowhere is it mentioned why he changed his name or where he got his ‘doctor’ honorific. Apparently as youth Doreal/Doggins he became interested in ERB’s Tarzan, and then his tastes expanded into fantasy and science fiction literature as he became. His interests also expanded to the occult and the theosophical, the latter a philosophical and mystical system of beliefs that believes that there are hidden masters attempting to guide the evolution of mankind, and that many religions possess some kernel of this universal truth.
Inspired by such beliefs (else thinking this was a good way to make a buck) Dr. Doreal, after legally changing his name from Doggins, founded the Brotherhood of the White Temple (BWT) in to promote his own version of such beliefs. Doreal, claiming to be an initiate of the Great White Lodge (a secret society of enlightened mystics helped by supernatural powers), also claimed that during the 1920s he found a mysterious never-seen Emerald Tablets of Thoth The Atlantean that he had been tasked to find. After much unspecified (and likely highly ficticious) peril in Mayan jungles and ruins Doreal returned the tablets to their resting place inside the Great Pyramid, but not before copying and then translating the 12 Emerald Tablets to reveal some amazing if mysterious ‘truths’ about our world dating back some 40,000 years that involved everything from Atlantis, Lemuria, shape-shifting serpents from Venus, astral projection, flying saucers from Mount Shasta and more.
The tablets themselves are said to be created by Thoth (who hails from Atlantis) from a substance made from alchemical experimentation. Doreal writes: “His writings consist of twelve Tablets of Emerald Green formed from a substance created through alchemical transmutation. They are imperishable, resistant to all elements, corrosion and acids. In effect, the atomic and cellular structure is fixed, and no change can take place, thus violating the material law of ionization. Upon them are engraved characters in the Ancient Atlantean language; characters which respond to the attuned thought waves of the reader and which release much more wisdom and information than the characters do when merely deciphered. The Tablets are fastened together with hoops of a golden colored alloy suspended from a rod of the same material.”
You don’t have to rummage around any pyramids, Egyptian or Mayan, to read his “translation” of his Emerald Tablets; an unauthorized version can be read online here.
Doreal, after preaching his beliefs about the Emerald Tablets etc. in the mid 1940s apparently gained many converts. These followers were attracted by his unusual mixture of science, science-fantasy and religious conviction, and all waiting for Armageddon to happen. Initially based out of a large mansion in Denver Colorado Doreal later settled his doom and gloom organization in a rocky canyon some 40 km SW of Denver (see below), and spent his last days both preparing for Armageddon and writing pamphlets about paranormal and other occult and New Age’sh subjects before he died in 1963.
So, where’s the science fiction connection?
Back in March 1945 the editor of the SF pulp “Amazing Stories” published “I Remember Lemuria," a notorious story of a sinister, ancient reptilian “Serpent Men” civilization that lived in caverns deep under and inside the hollow earth. Author Richard Shaver (and editor Ray Palmer) claimed that much of the content of the story was actually true, much to the disgust of most SF fans & the delight of all the thousands crazies who wrote letters clamouring for more. This controversial and long-running “Shaver Mystery’ theme ran in “Amazing Stories” and related Ziff-Davis publications for the next few years, only ending when Palmer left “Amazing Stories” to start his own magazine dealing with similar paranormal and occult themes named Fate.
At any rate, in the August issue 1946 Palmer published an article recommending Doreal's BWT pamphlets to "all students of the Shaver matter," and a month later printed a letter by Doreal himself confirming that high-tech wielding reptilian evil targeting humanity was indeed living underneath and underfoot in vast caverns deep beneath the earth.
Doreal wrote: “Like Mr. Shaver, I have had personal contact with the Dero and even visited their underground caverns. In the outer world they are represented by an organization known loosely as the 'Black Brotherhood,' whose purpose is the destruction of the good principle in man.... The underground cities are, in the most part, protected by space-warps, a science known to the ancients, but only touched on by modern science.... I note that many are wanting to enter these caves. For one who has not developed a protective screen this would be suicide and one who revealed their location would be a murderer.”
Years later full page ads advertising theosophical books that you could order from Doreal’s Brotherhood of the White Temple would appear inside of Fate Magazine, which is still being published today.
Digging around a bit more online, I found this September 1946 article from a writer for Time Magazine who wrote about Doreal’s plans to build an “atomic foxhole” south of Denver Colorado in a manner somewhat similar to the elaborate 1950s era vaults of the Fallout computer game franchise. At least 200 men, women and children were employed in the construction of this vast fallout shelter.
In February 1953 the Denver Post reported that. "'Doreal, who presides in heavy gold robes from his throne over meetings of the cult and is known to his followers as 'The Voice,' has issued orders that 'no outsiders are permitted to enter the valley except necessary workmen.' "...Doreal calls the retreat 'Western Shamballa, or Shangri- La-in-the-Rockies.' He said in a speech last week that the atomic refuge is now completely stocked and ready for "the end."'
There are several tantalizing items in connection with Doreal’s interest in science fiction. Apparently, Doreal (and his acolytes) was pretty busy during the auction of SF memorabilia at the 1949 Cinvention (nickname for the 7th Worldcon or World Science Fiction convention held in Cincinnati OH), the same event mentioned in Redd Bogg's Spacewarp entry. According to contemporary sources Doreal sought out and won at auction a number of Weird Tales cover art paintings, the Ray Palmer donated cover art for the first issue of Other Worlds Science Stories, see cover above), and some items once belonging to H. P. Lovecraft. It’s tantalizing to think that in large and extensive 5000+ SF library inside the BWT’s HQ is a vintage and pristine collection of pulp memorabilia.
Doreal, obviously familiar with pulp SF and fantasy magazines, may have also been familiar with the concept of Serpent Men because of their appearance in the pages of the pulp magazines. There is Robert E. Howard’s short story “The Shadow Kingdom” (Weird Tales August 1929), which features both Atlantis and Serpent People. In another Howard tale, “Worms of the Earth” there is mention both of a race of proto-humans who have become serpent like when their ancestors burrowed and buried themselves deep underground, a 1932 Weird Tales story that mentions both Cthulhu and R’yleh. Lovecraft himself wrote in “The Nameless City” (1921), the first Cthulhu Mythos story, about an Arabian city built by a race of pre-reptilians.
From the Doreal’s Emerald Tablets: "In the form of man moved they amongst us, but only to sight, were they as are men. Serpent-headed when the glamour was lifted, but appearing to man as men among men. Crept they into the councils, taking form that were like unto men. Slaying by their arts the chiefs of the kingdoms, taking their form and ruling o'er man. Only by magic could they be discovered, only by sound could their faces be seen. Sought they from the kingdom of shadows, to destroy man and rule in his place."
The Brotherhood of the White Temple is still around today (!), the world fortunately not ending in 1953 as once predicted by Doreal. This theosophical organization (some would say cult) still apparently follows a doctrine mixes science fiction with occult and Christianity, one that blends together everything from UFOs to Hidden Masters. Another member of the BTW, a certain Dr. Trenton Tully, was apparently one of Doreal’s chosen torch bearers, continued the teachings of Doreal but in his own format after the latter's death. This spin off organization established in 1965 was called the Metaphysical Research Society (MRS), and apparently it was much less doom & gloom and rather focused on the teachings of esoteric masters from many realms, times & places. The Brotherhood continues to use Doreal’s many writings as their authoritative literature, and continue to sell on their web-site his little pamphlets about occult and paranormal activities ranging from UFOs to Atlantis.
The HQ for BWT is named Shamballa Ashrama, and is located on 1560 acres of land south of Denver Colorado near the town of Sedalia. The lands were purchased by the BWT in 1946 (see image at the very top of this article). The place was selected because of the lead-lined rock was supposed to protect against atomic radiation should World War III break out, where all members of TWB would survive in their prepared bomb shelters. Their grounds, where some 50 families still reside to this day, can be seen via Google Maps if you dig around a little.
BWT are on-line and have a web-site where you can purchase books and pamphlets and enquire how you can join their organization (minimum stay of 1 year). http://bwtinc.org/default.aspx
TWB and Role-playing?
Science-fictional and science-fantasy themed and inspired cults and religions are nothing new it seems. There is the example of Scientology founded by SF writer L. Ron Hubbard. And then there was the infamous Heavens Gate cult whose members committed mass suicide in 1997 to coincide with the arrival of Comet Halle-Bopp (whom they believed had a mysterious star-ship attached that their souls would ascend to).
Having obviously corresponded with the editor and readership of “Amazing Stories”, there is the possibility that Doreal/Doggins may have also recruited fellow science fiction fans to join his mystic brotherhood as acolytes and initiates. This wouldn’t have been the first time such SF themed communes would have occurred. There were, after all, several “Slan Shacks” stimulated by science fans of Van Vogt’s SF novel “Slan”, and a similar commune with a religious theme may have greater staying power.
A fictionalized version of the Brotherhood of the White Temple as outlined above could easily be used by an enterprising GM either as is, or with the serial numbers filed off for to fill a variety of different RPG scenarios. For example, one could simple create something named “The Brotherhood of the Luminous Light” and have how its leader Boreal ‘found’ a collection of “Sapphire Disks of Knowledge” from which he or she teaches from, and simply take it from there.
A benign variant of such a brotherhood could be used as a red-herring cult for a Call of Cthulhu set anywhere from the mid 1940s to the 1960s. Thinking that they are uncovering a nest of malevolence, the PCs could simply find a group of somewhat kooky but earnest initiates and acolytes led by either someone misguided else a deliberate fraud.
A more sinister version of a variant science-fictional brotherhood could include dark secrets best left undisturbed being disturbed by Brotherhood cult members, with the job of a motley band of PCs to infiltrate an underground labyrinth, which could include everything from a well stocked fallout shelter to a secret base of homicidal shape-shifting Serpent Men of Valusia, Deros, etc.
And then there was notoriously eccentric super science-fiction-fan Claude Degler, known by some as 'Cosmic Claude' (look him up on Google). Degler inflamed science fiction fandom in the 1940s by both his notorious couch surfing along with his grandiose plans of a fan-based community in the Ozarks, a community that would go on to breed super-fans aka Cosmen. After being hounded out of fandom despite several name changes, Claude Degler mysteriously dropped out of fandom in 1951. Did a rejected Degler join the BWT and end his days in seclusion with kindred science-fictional spirits? Again, an enterprising GM could solve this mystery and provide vast entertainment to a players who like a dollop of science-fictional history with their role-playing fun.
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