The Secret History (comics)



The Secret History is a French Comic Book written by Jean-Pierre Pécau and illustrated by a number of artists, but mostly Igor Kordey. It tells the story of four immortal siblings, two brothers and two sisters, who use their superhuman intellect and superpowered runestones to affect world events throughout history. The brothers are Erlin and Dyo, the sisters Reka and Aker. All four are known collectively as the Archons. Erlin is more or less always heroic, Dyo is always evil and has a particular hatred for Jews, Aker is usually heroic but sometimes not, and Reka does a few HeelFaceTurns, as if she's suffering from immortal PMS. The Fifth Archon, William de Lecce, appears later on in history after the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI castrated and blinded him in 1194. This somehow caused him to gain mystical powers, and also twisted his psyche into something monstrously evil. William also hates the Jewish People.

The narrative follows the Archons through history from receiving the runestones in 3000 BC all the way to the end of World War II in the most recent volume. The most time is spent on World War II, with the entire second volume set during that conflict.

So far two Omnibus editions have been released in English for the United States market, published by Archaia Entertainment.

The Secret History includes the following tropes:

 * Ancient Conspiracy: The Archons. Many real-world or suspected real conspiracies are revealed to be controlled by the Archons.
 * Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The natural result of the Archon's conspiracies -- a number of historical figures are aware of who and what the Archons are, and are able to assist them in their plots, sometimes using lesser forms of the runestones. Once tarot cards are developed as mini-runestones, they become known as "players." The players include Moses, Renaud de Chatillon, Nostradamus, Benvenuto Cellini, John Dee, William Sidney Smith, Napoleon Bonaparte, T.E. Lawrence, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, St. John Philby and his son Kim, just to name a few. Many real-life painters are employed to paint the tarot card sets, including Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso.
 * Dark Action Girl: Both Reka and Aker.
 * Ghostapo: The Nazis are secretly controlled by the Fifth Archon, William de Lecce, who oversees most of their occult projects.
 * Immortality: The Archons, of course.
 * The Knights Templar: Predictably featured throughout the first omnibus. Reka is the Grandmaster of the Templars.
 * Living Forever Is Awesome: The Archons may go through a lot of shit, but hey, they still more or less control world events. And Reka gets to bed famous men throughout history.
 * Made of Iron: The zombie-like Oculus creatures.
 * Not Quite Dead: Dyo always seems to just cling onto life one way or another.
 * Nuke'Em: The nuke dropped on Nagasaki was really just to kill
 * Really Gets Around: Reka is the only Archon who seems interested in sex with mortals. She's only seen bedding Curtis Hawk, Pablo Picasso and a random pretty boy on-page, but it can be assumed that they weren't her only partners the last few thousand years.
 * Senseless Sacrifice:
 * Shameless Fanservice Girl: Reka is frequently naked, and knows exactly what effect she has on men.
 * Significant Anagram: Possibly Reka and Aker's names. No reason for this has been shown in the book so far.
 * Tarot Motifs: Tarot cards are tools of immense power based on the immortal Archons' superpowered runestones. The Archons and those in the know -- referred to as "players" -- call tarot cards "blades."
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Aker. Sometimes she disguises herself as a White-Haired Pretty Boy.