Storygame Setting

The City

Bonvidaeo is a city-state in some ways similar to Venice in the early renaissance (in that it is a maritime power and trading centre; it doesn’t have canals and is built on solid ground around a harbour).

Government

Bonvidaeo is nominally ruled by a king. The King of Bonvidaeo is always known as Emilion, and by the conventions of the city, all eight successors of the original Emilion are referred to as Emilion the First. At least one of these successors was in fact a woman, but was regarded as King Emilion nonetheless.

The original Emilion was the king who enacted the first Masking Laws, opening the way to the development of Bonvidaeo into the City of Masks. He was a drunkard and much enjoyed Carnival, so legislated that it should be extended. Since Emilion’s day, if not before, the king’s power has been gradually eroding and he is now a figurehead for the intrigues of the Royal Council, the Commissioners of Masks, the Priests of the Sun and the Priestesses of the Moon.

Royal Council

Your standard royal council - high-ranking nobles, close adult relatives of the king (including his designated successor if adult), the Archpriest of the Sun and Archpriestess of the Moon, high-ranking military men such as generals and admirals. In theory the council advises the king but in practice the king is a figurehead for the council.

Commissioners of Masks

The Commissioners of Masks were originally a purely administrative body which grew in power until they rival the Royal Council and the Temples and surpass the King. There is some overlap between the Commissioners and the Council, as the Commissioners are drawn from the nobility and upper merchant class, and the Archpriest and Archpriestess are members ex officio of both bodies. The existing Commissioners appoint new members, so it is a self-perpetuating body. The entry criterion is power and influence, not nobility, office, age or gender, but the City of Masks being the conservative late-medieval/early-renaissance city it is, most of the people with the highest degree of overt power and influence are the older male nobility.

The Keeper of the Book is a ceremonial post reporting to and advising (but not a member of) the Commissioners. The Keeper’s task is to administer the details of the Book of Masks in line with general policy created by the Commissioners. Any new masks created, and any existing masks brought “into play”, must be registered with the Keeper.

Commissioners of Masks may wear masks composed of small masks, which are otherwise the correct mask for the character they are currently portraying. They may wear these masks at any time but must wear them while acting specifically as Commissioners.

Temples

The Solars (worshippers of the God masked as the Sun) and Lunars (worshippers of the Goddess masked as the Moon) once had a close alliance, and the Sun and the Moon were even spoken of as masks of a single deity, but at this period of the City’s history this is breaking down and turning to rivalry and dissention. By the time of the novel (50 years after the time of the storygame), Moon worship has been forced underground and the values and understandings associated with the Moon temple have been lost to Bonvidaeoan society at large. [While this will be retained, perhaps in modified form, in the novel, I’m considering dropping it out of the storygame, as it has been a focus for disquiet from some reviewers. Having only two rival factions may also simplify the alliance mechanics. Or it may make them too simple. Perhaps only playtesting will resolve this.]

Levels

Bonvidaeo has three physical “levels”, not all of which extend to all parts of the city.

The Underways and the Back Ways are used by the city’s poor, and by small tradespeople for making deliveries. They are tunnels and alleys that extend under and behind the buildings. Most of them are damp and unpleasant, and it is not advisable to move around in them if you are not a member of these underclasses.
The main streets of the city are not given their own designation. The middle class mostly use them for moving around on foot or horse or in vehicles, including the delivery vehicles of prosperous tradespeople. They are broad and are carefully kept clean and in good repair.
The High Paths are reserved for use by the upper classes, and run over the roofs and across the main streets by means of bridges. People below conventionally do not see anyone moving on them, although people who are also on the High Paths may do so. They are narrow and in some parts dangerous. Often they are the only public access to the homes of the wealthy, which are built above less prestigious dwellings or shops, often belonging to their dependents and clients. Goods are delivered to these homes either by being hauled up on ropes from the streets below (in the case of furniture, etc.) or by means of back stairs, back entrances and dumbwaiters. The main paths parallel the main streets, and are broad, mostly level or with good stairs, and well-maintained. There is also a secondary network used by adventurous young nobles which is more precarious and risky, consisting of catwalks, ropes, rope ladders, narrow planks up steep roof ridges with primitive grips for the feet, etc.

Appearance

Appearance is extremely important in Bonvidaeo. Anything which is not publicly seen is extremely basic, in order to enable more money to be spent on “fronts”. For example, underclothing will be coarse in order to enable the upper clothing to be rich and fine, and the back rooms of houses will be sparse and ill-furnished to allow the facade and the public rooms to be lavishly decorated. Decoration is laid on thinly, though, over a cheaper base (even in the royal palace, which is brick with a thin veneer of marble).

Characterist vs Personalist

The great religious/philosophical divide in the City of Masks is between advocates of the “Characterist” and “Personalist” viewpoints. This is not merely an academic debate but is deeply political, along the lines of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, or Catholics and Protestants during the Reformation. Currently the Characterist party is firmly in control and Personalists are a persecuted, underground group, the radical elements of which are beginning to resort to terrorist tactics. The Characterists are more or less isolationists, who emphasize the distinctive nature of Bonvidaeo. Their philosophical belief is that the character portrayed by a mask is the reality, that the “person” behind the mask is not real in the same sense. The Personalists, by contrast, believe in the reality of the person and the unreality of the mask, and wish to establish closer ties with other nations. Being a known Personalist is likely to result in rapid arrest and probably death (for heresy, officially, although Personalists are also seen as treasonous). Characterism is the official doctrine of the Temples.

Conventions

The City of Masks follows a number of conventions which make little sense to an outsider. These conventions stem originally from Carnival, but have been greatly expanded upon by civil and religious edict over the years.

Masking

The best-known and most obvious convention is that everyone must wear a mask anywhere within even theoretical sight of the City (native Bonvidaeoans also wear the mask if they travel, although few do apart from those whose living is as sailors and traders). However, they must not only wear a mask; they must stay “in character” with it (doing what is “proper” to that mask) or be arrested as Unmasked. Normally, their entire costume must be in accord with their mask unless there is some masking rationale to justify why it is not.

To be without a mask is worse than being naked. In fact, some characters wear costumes which leave them practically naked, and this is perfectly acceptable as long as they have the appropriate mask. To take off one’s mask with another is an act of extreme personal intimacy, and a proper married couple, for example, would not do so even with each other.

Proper is a key word in Bonvidaeoan society, which has not only its Victorian sense of uprightness and righteousness but also its earlier sense of “appropriately belonging to”. For example, it is proper to a Barman to exchange coin for beer, or to a Secretary to perceive what his master perceives.

Being Unmasked in Bonvidaeo is simultaneously a civil crime, an ecclesiastical sin and a social gaffe. It does not necessarily consist of literally being maskless (though this is the most serious form). Anyone who is not acting in accordance with his or her mask and costume is “Unmasked” and faces civil, ecclesiastical and social sanctions, varying in severity depending how egregious the transgression is considered to be. Ironically, some characters may be denounced as Unmasked, and punished, for behaving in ways that would normally be considered positive, but which do not fit their character.

This deadly serious game of masks is only played by the educated, since it has been deliberately made too complex for uneducated commoners to grasp. Commoners wear masks also, but these are simple indications of their occupation. As long as they “keep their place” and do what is “proper” to their position in society, they need not fear the Commissioners of Masks or the Temple police.

Characters

A Character is more or less an archetype represented by a specific mask. It can be an occupation (Barman, Carter) or position (Envoy); a “stock character” (the Innocent Man, the Gentle Knight); or a named person, historical or mythical. There are also a few “utility” Characters like the Uncast.

Being Uncast

An uncast character is someone who is not currently portraying a particular character and is “invisible” to most people, by convention. The costume of the Uncast is a simple black domino (a mask covering only the area around the eyes) and black robe. An Uncast must not speak to anyone who cannot see him or her, or do anything to draw attention, or he or she is Unmasked. Normally, visitors to the city who are not currently engaged in business mask as Uncast in order to protect themselves.

Seeing and Not Seeing

Some conventions define conditions under which a person (or rather, character) may be “seen” (that is, taken notice of) by other characters, except those characters who can see what is normally invisible.

An Uncast character may not be seen.
Someone who is on the High Paths may not be seen by someone who is not on them.
Any mask decorated with a peacock feather (or a feather dyed in a similar eye pattern) allows the wearer to see characters who would otherwise be invisible. All law enforcement and military personnel, the Keeper of the Book and a few other characters have this decoration.

Gender

Your gender, for the purpose of others’ responses to you, is the gender of the Character portrayed by your mask, except within the Personalist underground, and quite often even then.

By masking as the opposite gender you can take actions considered proper to that gender which would not be proper to your own gender. However, you must be fully convincing if you are portraying the opposite gender, or you are Unmasked.

What is considered proper to each gender in the City is somewhat stereotypical by modern standards. Thus:

Considered proper to men but not women: Swordfighting; roistering drunkenness; bawdy speech.

Considered proper to women but not men: Fabric crafts (even if a member of the nobility).

Considered proper to either gender: Owning property; running a business (if of the merchant/trades classes); living without a member of the other gender in the household; dancing.

Borderline cases: A woman performing physically daring acts (such as jumping across a wide gap between buildings) would be considered proper if those acts were “necessary” in the situation. If she deliberately put herself in situations where such acts were necessary, she would need to have a mask which justified it, such as Bold Adventurer (Female). Under similar circumstances, she could wear “men’s clothing” such as breeches, while being obviously female, and not be regarded as Unmasked.

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