It seems that every self-respecting group of intrepid heroes needs a villainous foe, a conniving adversary who must be repeatedly confronted in an ongoing battle of good and evil…

For the crew of the Aurora, the menace that continually pursues them across the 22 episodes of the first season is Count Gregory and his League of Darkness.

Count Gregory was a crusader in the 14th century who led the Christians against the Turks. He was bested by the Turks, and died a horrible death, drawn and quartered by four white horses in Constantinople.

However, his story does not end there, for he was tended to by a group of mysterious monks living in the catacombs beneath the city. These medieval monks somehow managed to find a way to restore life to his torn body using the technology of their time. Thus, Count Gregory has survived through the centuries, kept alive by attendants who constantly renew his piecemeal body by replacing rotting parts with fresh ones. On occasion, he uses a surge of concentrated electrical power to fuse his body whole, but these moments of "synthesis" last only a short time, for he cannot maintain a functioning body in a state of unity.

Count Gregory is the black-hearted mastermind behind The League of Darkness, a shadow organization dedicated to keeping the aristocracy in charge. Gregory and his minions wish to use Jules Verne's visions of the future to take control of the world and insure that power and authority remain in the hands of the elite.

Naturally, Verne, who advocates the ideals of democracy, refuses to cooperate, and The League resorts to torture and exploitation to try and extract what they want from the talented writer.

When Phileas Fogg and his cousin oppose the plans of Count Gregory, they make a powerful enemy who will stop at nothing to try and destroy them both and use Verne's mind to fulfill his desires for world domination.