Hidden Himalayas Headquarters: The Green Lantern Connection

Hidden within the near-inaccessible Himalayas are ancient secrets tied to one thousand years of history... a history involving a pair of Emerald Crusaders! In the universe of the Guardians of the Universe, this ancient alien organization first attempted to protect the cosmos with their green plasma armed android army known as the Manhunters. However, these synthetic agents of order grew unbalanced, and were those removed of the weaponry and left on various planets, whilst the Guardians created another intergalactic peace-keeping unit, the Green Lantern Corps! 

Eventually, the Manhunters reunited with one another and exerted their influence on the worlds they had inhabited, including Earth-One. The Grandmaster, who was the leader of that world's faction, journeyed to Earth-Two in order to track down and obtain the Green Flame of Life created by his former creators, the Guardians. In order to wrest control from its current wielder, Alan Scott, the Grandmaster employed agents such as Paul Kirk and Dan Richards as human Manhunters. However, before he could manipulate them versus Alan's Green Lantern alter ego, the pair joined the All-Star Squadron, teaming up on one occasion  to track down their world's Emerald Crusader. So the Grandmaster made one more attempt in 1946, employing Molly Maynne as the Harlequin using his race's illusion technology. She too would not capture the Lantern, and so the Grandmaster returned to Earth-One's Himalayas, abandoning his plans to secure the Guardian's disgarded Flame. He then set forth to orchestrate the Manhunters versus the Corps and their Guardian masters, including Hal Jordan whom they would frame alongside the Guardians to usurp the power and reputation of their creators!

This led to a conflict between the Manhunters and Justice League, which was paralleled by the battle decades earlier on Earth-Two between the Justice Society and the Diamond Men, whose drive towards conquest rivaled their android doppelgängers under the Grandmaster.

One human who initially curried the favor of the Diamond Men was amateur geologist Charles Crillon, who was the unorthodox geological patterns over the years and advertised these in his published works. The Diamond Men’s leader  Exmam transformed Crillon into a being like himself as a reward for impressively discerning the existence of his people. However, Charles betrayed his crystalline benefactor, provided him the needed intel to expose the Diamond Men’s invasion as he guided the Justice Society into their conflict with the alien entities.

His counterpart on Earth-One was school teacher Iris Jacobs, who became acquainted with a time displaced Val “Karat Kid” Armour whom she accompanied on some of his 20th century adventures. Seeking to become more noticeable to Val, she agreed to be a test subject of S.T.A.R. Labs secretly funded by the Lord of Time, which transformed her into the crystalline supervillain named Dimaondeth. Unlike Crillon’s Diamond Man, Diamondeth was spurred on by madness, until Karate Kid subdued her and brought her to his native 30th century where she was cured of her mutation.

Meanwhile on Earth-Two, there was also a war transpiring involving two sides of emerald energies, with the Green Dragon Tong led by an evil lamp-maker named Chang... and a group of peace-keeping lamas located in the Himalayas who obtain Chang's old lamp and the meteor containing the Green Flame's energy. While Chang had a portion of the meteor, a globe of which he gave later to the Psycho-Pirate to advance his schemes after his Tong couldn't secure the emerald energy in its original form for their long-lived master. This Tong had earlier accompanied Chang to North America where he grew his organization under his warped principals, with the goal of subjugating the world one day, before returning to his home continent when opportunity presented itself. Knowing of this danger on the horizon, the lamas presented Alan Scott with the reshaped lamp, wherein he became the Green Lantern of his world. The Guardian's counterpart race in this universe, the Buddak, tried to control Earth-Two themselves before these events had transpired... and were soundly defeated themselves. Years later, the millennium-old Grandmaster and millennium-old Chang led their forces against Hal and Alan on separate occasions, both proved successful despite exploiting situations that seemed to show both Green Lanterns as criminals. And so, the lamas and the Corps remained, aloof from the affairs of mankind.