masquerade: horrer of the mask

[edised]

i was thinking of the horror of masks, storys they show up in. i was thinking a domain that has masks as a prominent cultural aspect.
a Vince/Greece sort of culture, the nobles ware masks to almost all social events, commoners have festivals in masks, a lot of politics and spying, art and secrets.

[ewancummins]

Sounds cool.

I'd suggest making it a single city-state, surrounded by farmlands.

The darklord could be a mask. I'd make it a psionic artifact, as per AD&D 2 rules. (Those have minds)

The Face of the Prince?

Or maybe you can draw on the Commedia del'Arte for ideas?

[The Lesser Evil]

There's a lot of potential here, especially if you use masks as metaphor for the masks people wear in their social lives. Some possible themes:
-We all wear masks, so therefore we cannot ever completely know other people. Can we even know ourselves? The people of the domain don different masks in different social situations, and these masks can alter their behavior in subtle but startling ways, or in some cases, even highly dramatic ways. Individuals sees other individuals primarily through the masks they wear and the behaviors attached to those masks.

-Anonymity lowers inhibition. By masking their identities, the people of the domain can show behavior uninhibited by social expectations or fear of consequence. Therefore, it's quite easy for people to commit depravity and abuse. Conversely, masks might allow in some cases for people to escape social expectations to help others, bridge class divides, and perform good deeds in ways unapproved by mainstream society.

-Masks as dissolution of the self Overlapping with the previous theme, masks aren't always expressions of individuality, but can represent group identity, whether it means belonging to something informal like a social club or something more official like a town guard. So perhaps the masks allow their wearers to downplay the individual conscience and dehumanize others to foster a frightening us vs. them groupthink.

-Masks as illusion, and the horror of revulsion at the real self: Masks could be used as distraction from the real world and real social problems. They could represent high fashion and the pomp and circumstance of courtly life and the bureaucracy. In addition to being an expression of the person's tastes, it is also an expression of their place in the social hierarchy. While the mask fashion system has codes dictating what's proper, these are so elaborate and conflicting so as to be highly chaotic, much like the screeds written by Drigor. When the masks are stripped away, the domain's denizens feel true horror and revulsion seeing each other and themselves for who they are.

Beyond human excess, likely thematically appropriate monsters for the domain would include a variety of shapechanging and illusion or enchantment using monsters, such as dread doppelgangers, rakshasa, impersonators, skin thieves, urban fey, wererat and similar lycanthropes, paka, and even the odd mimic or intellect devourer. Conversely, the domain may have an unusually exotic and vibrant feel to it, even fever dreamish, allowing for all sorts of unusual creatures like manticores, minotaurs, cockatrices, dire animals, (shadow) unicorns, medusa, fihyrs, cloakers, Nuckalavee, and so on. The excesses of the nobility and elite could also translate into all sorts of constructs (and dread constructs) made to entertain and stroke the egos of their creators or buyers.

[ewancummins]

There's a fun story by Jack Vance in which everybody wears masks, titled The Moon Moth.

[edised]

also drawing from the classic twilight zone ep. the masks, some people became the mask, showing their real face to the world.

[Manofevil]

We might also consider the heroism of the mask. Ravenloft may not be appropriate for a Lone Ranger or Zorro type character, but we already have a Robin Hood character in Nidala and and a Sherlock Holmes character in Dementlieu. I think another good heroic character to develop would be a Scarlet Pimpernel. Like Sherlock Holmes, the Pimpernel was a master of disguise and cultivated several personas to move through the crowds during the reign of terror. He had no single masked persona which his enemies could be on the look out for. The only calling card they had was a red flower drawn at the bottom of a letter. He's also the center of a network of a secret society dedicated to freeing people marked for execution. If this has already been done in one of the QTR or something, please show me where, but I don't remember seeing it anywhere and it seems perfect for us.

[Mistmaster]

We might also consider the heroism of the mask. Ravenloft may not be appropriate for a Lone Ranger or Zorro type character,

I beg to differ. Ravenloft is perfect for a Lone Ranger or Zorro character, anad even for a Batman or other. I'm filling Ravenloft with them.