Shadow Board

The **Shadow Board,** also known as **the Order of the Black Robes, Black Robes** or just **The Robes,** are the main antagonists of *Inside Job*. They are a group of mysterious individuals that has seemingly existed and secretly controlled the world since the dawn of time. They are the leaders of Cognito Inc., a company that was founded in order for them to keep their control over humanity.

## Appearance

### Attire

Members of the Shadow Board dress in a black fabric robe with gold trimming along the collar in the shape of a "w". The cuff and hem of the robe is lighter in coloration while the gold trim is present in the center of the cuff. The hood of the robe appears in either an upward or downward facing triangle. Members wear a gold eye mask covering only the upper part of the face in the shape of a crescent.

## Personality

The five individual robes have similar personalities, talk in the same tone as each other and make similar jokes. They hold some form of superiority over others by their secrecy and control, lying to J.R. and Rand about their plans. They have some form of fondness for humanity, stating to cause controlled chaos in order to protect people from other worse outcomes. However, they also will not stop to deceive people for their own personal gains. They have personal privacy, as slapping Reagan Ridley's hand away when she tries to lift a cloak's sleeve. They also are skeptical, one showing doubt for another's plan to conceal "Project X37" from Reagan. While interacting with Reagan, it is shown they at least have a good sense of humor.

## History

### Creation

At the dawn of time, the first human society arose, but the majority of it was not very smart and would engage in self-destructive behavior that could end their species. The smart few would try to intervene to protect them, arguing with them for the sake of the human race, but they were mocked for their intelligence and ignored, forcing the intelligent minority to use trickery, deception and engineered Acts of God as a way of dominance and control over other humans. Thus the Order of the Black Robes was born, acting in the shadows to protect humanity from both outside threats and, most importantly, from humanity itself.

Over the course of millennia, the Order acted from behind the governments to improve or protect the human race. In the 14th century, they unleashed the Black Death to stop the world's overpopulation, while leading Isaac Newton to discover gravity during quarantine. In 1912, they sank the RMS Titanic in order to stop an Atlantean invasion fleet. In the present they set rainforests on fire to stop a race of sentient trees from overthrowing humanity as the dominant force.

### Cognito Inc.

Eventually, human civilization became too complex for them to rule alone, so they created smaller organizations to do it on their behalf, such as the Illuminati. In the 70s, they kidnapped Rand Ridley and J.R. Scheimpough as they had invented a machine capable of altering realities and could potentially mess up their "100,000 years of planning" by destroying the Universe. The Robes, still wanting to dilute their control over humanity with the help of lesser institutions, offered the duo the chance to run a paragovernmental entity that rule the world on the Shadow Board behalf if they shut the machine off and get rid of it. While the two agreed, Rand hid the machine, intending to use it as a failsafe in the future. Thus, the Cognito Inc. was born.

For 90 years, the Robes ruled over America and the world through Cognito Inc, the Illuminati and probably other factions, such as the Reptoids, the Catholic Church and the Juggalos. In 2021, they chose J.R., the CEO of Cognito, to join their ranks and become one of the Robes. However, as J.R. screwed things up, they threw him in Shadow Prison X and elected Rand Ridley as the next CEO of the company. Some time later, they started the Project X37 and offered a seat in the Order to Reagan Ridley, daughter of Rand that saved the Universe from the time-altering machine.

## Tower

The Shadow Board HQ is a rectangular tower of unknown heights and made of a light dark stone. The base is located in a desert, rocky area where it seems to be always clouded or lightning. Inside there is a circle table with 5 green office lamps and a golden world globe on the center; the table is also a platform where the Robes can take someone to watch hieroglyphs in the walls to learn their story. Its walls are filled with drawings of people either pleading or praying, besides from stone channels where blood would flow in certain events, such as an announcement of a new member.

The Robes can order the elevator from the main Cognito Inc. building to go to their tower, reaching it within minutes of an underground elevator ride. It is unknown if the tower is located near Washington DC or if it uses a space manipulation property to transport its passengers.

## Trivia

* The gold mask worn by members of the Shadow Board is reminiscent of a Colombina mask, a half-mask traditionally used in masquerade balls.
* Blood seems to be important to their rituals, as seen in the announcement of a new member in "Mole Hunt", in which blood was running down the walls of their tower, and as seen in their first meeting at the dawn of time, where they cut their hands and let the blood run on the table in "Appleton".
* The truth about their nature, such as if they are human or something else, is left very ambiguous. On one side, the Order were founded by seemingly normal, ancient humans, and they let a normal human such as J.R. and Reagan join their ranks. On the other side, they seem to be the same "beings" from 100,000 years ago, implying some sort of immortality, have some kind of reality-warping capacities and, as say in their last line in "Appleton", Reagan is "only human", implying they are not (or at least aren't anymore).
* The true extent of their relationship with Atlantis is unknown. At first, it seems they are at war with the Atlanteans, such as seen in the opening where they bomb the island and, in "Appleton", they said that sank the Titanic because it was an invasion fleet. However, in the episode "How Reagan Got Her Grove Back", the Atlanteans are one of the six secret societies invited to the Bohemian Grove, implying that they are also subordinated to the Robes.
* According to the opening sequence, there is (or was) 10 members in total, but only 5 of them are shown in the series. Also, a member to the left is marked with a red line in their eyes, implying something else happened to them.
* Their claim that the Black Plague helped Sir Isaac Newton discover gravity is a historical inaccuracy, as Sir Isaac wouldn't be born for nearly three hundred years when the Black Plague ended.
	+ Though, the Black Plague did lead to Guttenberg inventing the printing press which led to the Age of Enlightenment, which should have been brought up instead of Newton.
* With their last lines in the finale, stating Reagan's "only human", there is an implication that the Shadow Board member might not be human (or perhaps not entirely human)

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