The Monks
When the Doctor is summoned by the Pope to read the Veritas, an ancient text which has caused all of its readers to kill themselves, he knows something mysterious is afoot. Hiding in the shadows of the Vatican's Haereticum Library, and keeping watch in places of power and importance around the world, are disturbing, desiccated, corpse-like figures draped in red robes: The Monks.
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Unknown
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Unknown
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Super-intelligent creatures with immeasurable powers, they can move between countries and places using mysterious portals. Descending on the Doctor while he is attempting to read the Veritas, they tell him that "This is a game."
The Earth will be ours.
The Doctor discovers that the Monks are right: this world he inhabits is a game – a highly advanced, virtual reality video game – and he is one of the characters. Those taking their own lives have discovered the truth, and switched themselves off. The omnipotent Monks have created a simulation machine so powerful that they have perfectly modelled all places and people in human history, in order to assess the abilities of the population and calculate Earth's weaknesses to plan a seamless and sophisticated invasion. "We have killed you many times," a Monk tells the Doctor, "You suffer. Pain is information. Information will be gathered."
Luckily, the simulated Doctor plays the Monks at their own game, outwitting them by emailing a memory file of his experiences in the holographic world to the real Doctor. The real Doctor might have a warning of the terrible aliens who are planning their attack, but he's terrified about facing them in the dark.
When a 5,000 year old pyramid inexplicably appears in the middle of a military conflict in Turmezistan, the Doctor soon discovers that it contains the Monks: the invasion has begun.
The Monks tell the Doctor that they have modelled all events on Earth, and have arrived now because the planet is about to end. The Monks could help stop the chain of events that will destroy the world, but they must be invited in – "We must be loved", they tell the Doctor, because "To rule through fear is inefficient."
Requiring someone of power to give them "consent" to form a link with them and invite them in, the Monks demonstrate their terrifying strength when The UN Secretary General and the three colonels fail to provide them with "pure" consent, and they are brutally killed. Only Bill, who asks the Monks to help save the Doctor's life in a moment of desperation, offers them pure consent because she acts out of love. The Monks restore the Doctor's sight, but they take the world in return, and promise to rule forever.
