The Masquers are a Romantic Society of Kithain among the Shadow Court.
Overview[]
The utter devotion of these Unseelie romantics makes them look a lot like their Seelie counterparts. Masquers enjoy the elaborate structure of courtly love, but take it a step further. They see in it a reenactment of the doomed, yet ultimately triumphant, love between Winter and Summer. Many such fae channel their emotions and structure their love affairs according to the seasonal rites, using the calendar as their guide for beginning a courtship (in spring), consummating a relationship (in summer), enjoying its slow decay (in autumn) and, finally, mourning its loss while celebrating its imminent return (in winter). For them, courtly love is one of the highest expressions of the Pageant, because it personalizes the yearly cycle of darkness and light.
Most Masquers, unfortunately, become so caught up in the pattern of their love that they fail to experience or take into account real emotions. Their display too often devolves into an empty ritual, full of exacting details but devoid of passion and divorced from the emotions that give courtly love meaning.
References[]
- CTD. The Shadow Court, p. 25.