Men of Letters

## Overview

### Origins

The Baba Yaga member Gothel captured two children of her enemy Rapunzel. She kept Hansel as a prisoner and Gretel as her pupil. The pair were being kept for a solstice gathering of the Baba Yaga where Hansel would become the sacrificial offering and Gretel would be the sacrificial executioner — who would then have a chance to join the Baba Yaga by indulging in the feast of the slaughtered.

However, when the solstice gathering happened, as Gothel was putting the gag on Hansel's mouth, the boy chomped down on her finger and then shouted for Gretel to awaken from her trance. Much to the surprise of the Baba Yaga, Gretel's love for her brother did break the powerful trance, and she used that to channel a raw inferno of magic which sent the Baba Yaga scattering — giving Gretel and Hansel time to escape.

The two fled to Americana where they became founders of the Colonial Lodge of True Humanity. It was dedicated to ridding Americana of European magic as it viewed sorcery, witchcraft, and general magic as the cause for enabling or enticing the Sheeda to invade. Eventually the two came to Earth and started a similar organization but under a different ideology and name, now called the Men of Letters.

### World War II

In 1944 occult researcher and Men of Letters scholar Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm and an Allied special forces team known as Team Six recovered a young cambion summoned by Nazis in an effort to change the tide of the war in their favor. The United States and United Kingdom agreed that the best course of action for the young creature that Bruttenholm had named "Hellboy" was for him to be taken by the United States Armed Forces and kept on a remote Air Force base in New Mexico — far from the reaches of the Nazis. So, Hellboy is raised by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm in as normal a home environment as possible.

### Post-War

Following the war's end, the United States and United Kingdom agreed that neither nation should control the fate of Hellboy and opted instead to mutually found an independent organization known as the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense — ostensibly a militarized division of the clandestine Men of Letters which the two governments already were secretly funding.

Due to the success of Hellboy's first mission in 1962, at the age of eighteen, the United States government ask that the Men of Letters properly induct him into their order. The British Men of Letters disagree that this is merited, citing the age of the "creature." An internal conflict erupts between the American and British factions of the Men of Letters that raged for eight years until followers of Azazel storm all the known safe houses and bunkers of the Men of Letters, looking for Anung Un Rama — but do not find him.

The result is that the American Men of Letters are more or less wiped out, with the surviving members transferring to the BPRD. The British Men of Letters became more focused on preserving their human integrity and elitist superiority and disavowed their American branch, amputating themselves from them like they were a diseased limb. While the BPRD remained independent and continued to be funded by investors from American and British stock (with Canada, Italy, Spain, and other countries also investing over time), it remained firmly based on American soil and became more willing to recruit "extra-human" talent, similar to Team Six (or "Creature Commandos" as they had begun to be known in the circles they traveled in). However, following the purge of the American Men of Letters, the BPRD focused primarily on keeping Hellboy safe and so the project was more or less mothballed for nearly thirty years, only being utilized for the rare assignment.

### Members

* Hansel — Founder of the organization. Alive.
* Gretel — Founder of the organization. Alive.
* Trevor Bruttenholm — Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm is an occult researcher and Men of Letters scholar. He recovered a cambion and named him Hellboy. A long time leader of BPRD. Presumed dead.
* Eileen Leahy — Member though legacy of the Kiplings in the British Men of Letters, When Eileen was still a baby, her family was attacked by a clan of banshees seeking vengeance for the slaying of many of their clan by Eileen's grandfather, uncle, and aunt. Alive.
* Unknown Man of Letters — A brave Man of Letters was able to learn that the demons and witches planned to track Hellboy with a spell that had prepared to ping the psychic signal given off the cambion's horns. The man not only rushed to Station 3 to warn the BPRD to break Hellboy's horns off. Once the horns was snapped off, the Man of Letters loaded them in the trunk of his black car and drove them elsewhere before their signal faded, leading the demons and witches on a wild goose chase. That Man of Letter was never seen again, though the BPRD would find his car abandoned the next morning with the keys in the trunk fifty miles down the road from Station 3. A solemn ceremony was held for the Man of Letters and the rest of his fallen brethren. The car was to be destroyed but it was returned to its owner's family in Iowa as Hellboy insisted that the car was "too righteous" to be destroyed.

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Though the Colonial Lodge was considered to be extremists, they were quite popular for a time.

### Notes

* Men of Letters are an organization from the *Supernatural* TV show.
* In the show, the American branch was wiped out by Abaddon.

## Links and References

* Organization Gallery: Men of Letters

1. ↑ Network Files: Hansel and Gretel
2. ↑ Roy Reimagines... Hellboy
3. ↑ Network Files: Hellboy 2
4. ↑ Network Files: Ichabod Crane