The Red Masque

The Second Age brought many changes to southern Nalidin. After an epidemic of the destructive agalin spread through the region and the resulting popularity of the only entity capable of treating and protecting people from it, the ancient Cult of Bhasulud was left with only a few, zealous followers. The Red Masque remains one of their more infamous rituals.

The Red Masque is a night during which the followers of Bhasulud gather and surrender themselves to their deepest vices. Nothing is denied and every desire, no matter how vile or illegal, is encouraged. Under the safe anonymity offered by their red masks, the followers of Bhasulud are free to engage in every vice they can think of, from drinking wine to devouring blood and flesh of fellow man.

For some the night means a night of dance and pleasure, hot and heavy. For others it might mean inflicting pain and agony on the innocent before giving their throats a deep, crimson line and leaving them rotting on the streets. There are some corners of Nalidin where the Red Night leaves behind corpses in alleys painted red with the victims' blood.

The old practices of the Cult were, in comparison, mild. Before the Second Age Bhasulud's followers consisted of most of southern Nalidin, where Bhasulud ruled. Their numbers brought a measure of balance between the daily struggle and nights of passionate indulgence, reducing most nights of revelry to ones spent in taverns with good food and a stout drink. The Red Masque thus was more a night of revelry, with wine and ale and music and dance enjoyed throughout the night before a waking dawn called an end to the festivities and sent people home.

After the Second Age only the most zealous individuals remained. Others flocked to Juiwian temples, kneeling and praying at the feet of the Celestials whom they now saw as their saviors and denying the very existence of the vices they used to indulge in. The Cult, and by extension, the various practices of its followers, became shunned and pushed out of any decent company.

Soon after the Cult hid underground, leaving behind dancing on the streets or drinking in inns and taverns. Followers no longer wasted themselves in uncontained revelry under the black night sky. Instead they hid their very existence, and their festivities, behind obscure corners and dim basements beneath slums and forgotten corners of civilization.

The members hid themselves as well. During the day they masked themselves in normalcy, but during the Red Night they wore masks of deep, crimson red as they gathered in those dim corners and dungeons where they could practice the various arts of vice and excess without fear or end.

Alternative names: Red Night
Founding of Tradition: Second Age

Date of Celebration: during new moon
Duration: dusk to dawn
Frequency: monthly

Location: southern Nalidin
Religion: Juiwia