Ancient Tradition/Playing With

Basic Trope: An ancient, powerful secret group with a tradition of passive observation, or of helping destined heroes, or guarding some object of power.
 * Straight: The Assassins have been covertly aiding those who fight The Knights Templar, an Ancient Conspiracy which secretly manipulates the world for their own nefarious goals.
 * Exaggerated: The Assassins have been covertly aiding absolutely everyone who fights any sort of Ancient Conspiracy, from the foes of The Knights Templar to the foes of The Grey to the foes of Microsoft.
 * Justified: Both the Assassins and The Knights Templar possess powerful artifact from The Precursors, so only the Assassins can ever hope to challenge The Knights Templar.
 * Inverted: The Assassins are an Ancient Conspiracy secretly ruling the world.
 * Subverted: The Assassins seems to aid the heroes against an Ancient Conspiracy, but later the heroes find out that the Assassins only do it because they are also an Ancient Conspiracy.
 * Double Subverted: ... which prevents a more terrifying Ancient Conspiracy backed by the Elder Gods from ever becoming effective on Earth.
 * Parodied: Assassin Kebab, a secret fast-food chain which oppose the operations of Templar Tacos, another secret fast-food chain.
 * Deconstructed: many members of the Assassins are really jaded, what's with having to aid some of the worst villains ever in history to prevent a greater evil from befalling humankind.
 * Reconstructed: but that's what it takes to keep The Knights Templar and their Elder Gods masters from taking over the world.
 * Zig Zagged: one day The Assassins act as a Big Good, the other day they act as a Big Bad, for reasons only known to their top tier.
 * Averted: There is no conspiracy, good or evil. Guaranteed.
 * Enforced: "When you look at it closely, there is no way the heroes can win against the Big Bad and his shadow empire. Let's make it fair without making the heroes invincible."
 * Lampshaded: "so now we are fighting The Knights Templar huh? i sure hope some Middle-Eastern ninjas will pop out of nowhere to save our arses."
 * Invoked: the heroes appeal to the Assassin's ethics, hoping that the legendary group will come to his aid.
 * Exploited: A Magnificent Bastard, having found out about the important alliance between the heroes on the Assassins, decides to masquerades as one of the shadowy figures in order to lead the good guys into a trap. If it works: No more heroes. If it fails: The seed of paranoia and distrust will eventually destroy their alliance.
 * Defied: President Evil, aware and well informed about the Assassins' agenda, forms a specialized squad to counter them, The Reapers.
 * Discussed: ???
 * Conversed: ???
 * Played For Laughs: The Assassins protect the world from the secret of... the recipe for world's most delicious sushi. The World Is Not Ready.

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