League of Shadows (Nolanverse)

"To manipulate the fears of others, you must first master your own. Are you ready to begin?""

- Ra's al Ghul

The League of Shadows was an ancient and powerful secret society that restored balance to places where, in their minds, the environment was affected by human corruption. Some of their activities were the sacking of Rome, starting the Black Plague, and the great London fire. The men who have sworn allegiance to Ra's al Ghul and the League of Shadows come from many different backgrounds; former soldiers, mercenaries, assassins, petty criminals and ordinary men. However, all of them share a common similarity in which all desire to find justice and a hunger for vengeance to redress a crime inflicted upon him or his loved ones.

Every member of the League of Shadows are fanatically loyal to Ra's al Ghul and his cause. It is this fanatism in which every Shadow warrior knows that he is expendable, his life forfeit, if it means fulfillment of Ra's al Ghul's ultimate plans.

Thirty years before the events of The Dark Knight Rises, a foreign mercenary in an ancient part of the world was exiled by the warlord that he worked for because he married the warlord's daughter. The mercenary's pregnant wife was imprisoned as price for his exile. The mercenary became Ra's al Ghul, the leader of the League of Shadows, and years later the League stormed the ancient prison to exact revenge over the death of his wife in the prison. In the process they rescued an inmate, Bane, who aided in the protection and escape of Ra's young daughter, Talia, from the prison. Talia and Bane were then trained in the arts of the League, that of theatricality and deception, but Bane was excommunicated by Ra's al Ghul for reminding Ra's of the hell he left his wife to die in and for loving Talia. A rumor had said that Bane was expelled for being too extreme. Talia resented her father's decision. The League was then based on a mountain in the Himalayas (though other bases around the world may have existed).