The Orbsmen

The Orbsmen (/‘ɒɹbsmɪn/; from the Middle English: Orbe Men, “Orb Men”) were a secret society and Gnostic movement who practiced Orbism between the 11th and 15th centuries and throve in South East England. Followers were described as Orbers, Orbsmen, or simply Orbs, and are now mainly remembered for producing remarkably perfect orbs, their socially alienating behavior and appearance, having apparently recorded or collected etchings depicting modern vehicles and the theory of special relativity, and being executed en masse following an individual Orbsman’s assault of Elizabeth of York in 1486.

Early medieval period

The first known reference to Orbsmen is contained in the writings of Rundicci the Third of Lombardy (556-600 CE). In volume 54 of his seminal work, Historia Hominum Alienorum, Rundicci described a group of celibate, orb-loving men who transported orbs from the Eastern Roman Empire to western Europe through treacherous mountain passes in the Swiss Alps. He noted that these men (known as "Orbi") took no wives, but "loved the round orbs in the manner that a man would love his wife."