Impersonator

People skilled at imitating another person's appearance and mannerisms, usually for criminal purposes.

Career

Qualifications

Impersonators are generally trained actors with exceptional control over their body language and voice. Furthermore, they are skilled crafters and technicians who create most of their disguises themselves.

Career Progression

Many people in this line of work start out in the entertainment industry, pursuing a legal career in portraying historical or fictional characters and creatures.
However, the skills they acquire in the process also attract the interest of criminals. There are many reasons why they choose to work outside the law. Some of them are lured by the promise of riches, others are blackmailed into cooperating or decide to "help out" a friend or relative. Finally, there are also those who enjoy the additional challenge and the thrill of breaking the rules.
Successful impersonators quickly build up a reputation in the criminal underground, for example through recommendations from past business partners. They are respected for their abilities and usually do not need to advertise themselves because the clients keep coming on their own.

Perception

Purpose

Impersonators are frequently employed to fool surveillance technology, gain access to confidential information or frame somebody for illegal activities.

Social Status

While they are well-respected in criminal circles, honest actors see them as a disgrace to their profession. The actions of the rokilnesruta are seen as immoral at best, and as downright evil at worst. Either way, the abuse of their skills for these purposes is considered to harm the reputation of the entertainment industry as a whole.
Appropriating someone else's identity without their consent is seen as a crass violation of their personal rights, especially if it is done with the intention of committing a crime. Consequently, this kind of imitation of real people is strictly outlawed in the Rilsu society. Perpetrators are subject to harsh penalties, such as high compensatory payments to the victim and long prison sentences.

Operations

Tools

In the early times impersonators relied on carefully chosen or tailor-made clothes and makeup. Later, hand-crafted rubber masks and prosthetics became common tools as well. Modern technology such as 3D printing, speech synthesizer software and holographic projectors provide them with a dangerous arsenal, allowing them to become virtually indistinguishable from the person they chose to impersonate.

Materials

Bontakruta generally have two options: Using a physical disguise or relying on technological aids.
The former requires high-quality cosmetics supplies, such as natural-looking feather transplants and mask materials that accurately represent the texture of Rul scales.
The latter demands a lot of technical expertise, as the commercially available technologies come with hardwired safety measures against this very form of abuse. For example, hologram projectors will overlay the image with an unnatural tint or pattern while voice synthesizers are required to have an electronic timbre.
That said, well-established bontakruta usually have the necessary connections for acquiring their preferred supplies, or sufficient experience to create them on their own.

Alternative Names

bontakruta (official), rokilnesruta

Type

Illicit

Demand

high

Legality

illegal all over Ranul