re: #77 Shiplord Kirel, Friend of Moose and Squirrel

The original Ku Klux Klan took some of its symbolism and nomenclature, as well as more than a few members, from the KGC. There are a great many legends and conspiracy theories about the organization, mostly having to do with buried treasure, but including claims that the organization continued to exist in secret, and even does so to this day.

A lot of the Knights of the Golden Circle were recipients of a Classical education. Nathan Bedford Forrest, to put it mildly, was not. I owe to George Macdonald Fraser the realization that “Ku Klux” was Forrest’s corruption of κυκλοϛ-“Circle”, which the pre-war organization frequently used to describe themselves.