Visage

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"This is the port of Visage, where faces may not be naked. Except one: a stone monument the size of a village church, serenely gazing upwards. Flourishing-of-Years."[1]

Visage is an island of masks, located in the southern Unterzee.


Everyone Plays A Part

"Hide your face! Hide all your faces."[1]

Everyone on the island of Visage wears a mask, typically representing an animal. Each mask corresponds to a certain societal role:[2] for instance, traders and thieves wear locust masks,[3] soldiers wear crocodile masks,[4] and spies wear bat masks.[5] New arrivals learn the specifics and expected behavior of their roles at the Library of Parts.[6][7] Once a mask is chosen, its wearer must play their assigned part.[8][2]

There is only one face left uncovered on Visage: an enormous stone face looking skyward, called Flourishing-of-Years.[9] This face is hollow, and can be entered through its ear; entry is typically allowed during festivals. In the complete darkness within,[10] the island's inhabitants remove their masks and trade secrets,[11] though nobody knows whose secrets are whose.[12]

Other notable landmarks hint at the origins of Visage's culture. The Flood Court is always flooded to a certain degree, in emulation of what was once a yearly cycle.[13] The Apis Temple is inhabited by a perpetually wounded bull,[14] and by priests who are constantly collecting its blood.[15]

The Masks of Visage

Which will you choose?

"Each mask declares a different intention towards the denizens of Visage, and must be accompanied by suitable behavior."[16]

For every part played in the ritual life of Visage, for every personality and caste within its society, there is a mask. Each person is expected to follow the nature of their mask, and play their part in the grand play that goes on here. Here are just a few:[17]

  • Frogs, normally newcomers to Visage, wear elaborate and noisy costumes[18] that prevent any attempts at stealth.[19] They are expected to be goofy, playful, and generally ditzy,[20] which doesn't make them very popular.[21]
  • Locusts are the masks of traders, thieves, and various other greedy folk.[3] With the assistance of their masks, which help them spot valuables more easily,[22] Locusts are expected to put money above all other thoughts.[23] It is not uncommon to see them swarming over the money pools of the Flood Court.[24]
  • Very few people play the part of the Bat, as these are always messengers or spies - and they always die.[5] They are to be killed on sight,[25] and as such stay hidden in the shadows.[26]
  • Moon Moths are at once customs agents and tour guides.[27] Most new members of Visage are often shadowed by a Moon Moth in order to make sure the newcomer knows how to play their role - and that they don't cause trouble. The Moon Moth is often a senior member who has spent years on the island.[28]
  • Cobras are respected members of society who hold more important tasks in Visage's society; the Chief Geometer is a Cobra who apportions land for each resident of Visage to forage for food.[29] To be invited into the home of a Cobra is considered an honor.[30]
  • Lions fulfill a similar role to Cobras, but a more ceremonial one, as they are primarily worshippers of Flourishing-of-Years.[31]
  • Crocodiles sail overzee to enforce the will of Visage.[32][33] At least some Crocodiles are performing their role as penance for violating the rules of the island.[34]
  • Jackals are enforcers who protect the ritual of entering the Flourishing-of-Years. They ensure that every member plays their part,[35] and mete out punishment upon those who do not.[36]

There are, of course, many other parts in the great play that is Visage. These are just the main players. But be warned: to not play one's part, or to remove one's mask, is a recipe for disaster.[37]

Origins

Visage was originally an outpost of the Second City. It was abandoned for unknown reasons, but repopulated by a different group.[38] It seems the colony's re-founding has to do with a man losing his lover and, for some reason, a jillyfish.[39][40]

The Flood Court is an interpretation of the way ancient Egyptians recorded the annual flooding of the Nile River.[13][41] While the Unterzee itself does not flood, the detailed records of the Egyptians allow the people of Visage to simulate the natural calendar flood cycles from when their ancestors lived on the Surface.[13]

Animal masks also had a significant role in Egyptian culture. Priests and higher members of society often wore such masks to represent the animals of the Nile. It is often thought that the mask would gift the wearer with the virtues and powers of the animal shown. Many festivals and religious celebrations often had such masks to hold reverence to the creatures who were thought to be messengers and eyes of the Gods. Even more convincingly, all the masks feature animals that were worshipped by Egyptians, save for the bat and the moon moth. The Moon Moths are clearly inspired by Jack Vance's "The Moon Moth," a short story about a diplomat trying to catch a criminal in a society where everyone wears masks. And the bats... well.

The most obvious pointer toward Visage's Egyptian origin is Apis Temple, which preserves the traditions of the bull god Apis. A long series of ritually perfect bulls, who all bore specific markings that made them so, were identified by the god's priests and housed in temples for their entire lives. If they lived past a certain age, they were sacrificed. In keeping with this, the priests of Apis Temple note that if the bull dies, a new one with the same markings will be born somewhere around the Unterzee and brought to the temple.[42]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Visage, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea "Moon-Moth explains: each mask declares a different intention towards the denizens of Visage, and must be accompanied by suitable behavior."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea "The Locust is for those who seek profit in Visage and would carry away as many goods as possible. "
  4. ↑ Watch a Crocodile-Masked Visitor make an offering, Sunless Sea
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea ""Bat is an ill-omened visitor. Sent as a messenger or a spy. Bat always dies." "
  6. ↑ Ask about the purpose of this room, Sunless Sea "Moon-Moth explains. People think it means something like 'library of fragments', but this is wrong. The parts in question are like parts in a play. This is where the denizens of Visage come in order to learn how to perform their masks more accurately, more completely, with a truer spirit. "
  7. ↑ Visit the Library of Parts, Sunless Sea "The scroll niches, sorted to correspond to a variety of masks: the jackal and the lioness, the crocodile and dung beetle. A woman in the mask of a lotus blossom is standing at a lectern, reading in silence. "
  8. ↑ Ask to go about without any mask, Sunless Sea "Moon-Moth unfolds and folds its wings. "Not suitable," it says. "On Visage everyone is masked. To walk on the island with your own face would give scandal." "
  9. ↑ Visage, Sunless Sea ""This is the port of Visage, where faces may not be naked. Except one: a stone monument the size of a village church, serenely gazing upwards. Flourishing-of-Years.""
  10. ↑ Inside the Hollow of the Ear, Sunless Sea "The tunnel bends back on itself and all lights have now been extinguished. There is nothing to guide you but the hand of the person behind you on your back, and the movement of the person in front of you."
  11. ↑ Deep Within, Sunless Sea "A voice speaks in the darkness, a ritual preparation: "Here at the new year, we gather under the One Mask of Flourishing-of-Years. Her face is turned to the gods. Protected by her mask, we may remove our own. Protected by her script, we may speak outside our parts.""
  12. ↑ Receive the confidence of a stranger as holy, Sunless Sea "In the deep shadow you hear things that you will never repeat. ... You needn't guard your face while you listen, because no one can see you. You needn't scheme about how to use the information, because you do not know whose secret this is ..."
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Ask about the purpose of this room, Sunless Sea ""It used to be," says the Moth, "that the water rose and fell of its own accord, and the People Before wrote down what height it reached. Now the water is still, but thanks to their actions, we can replicate the rise and fall so as still to be pleasing to the God of Flood." "
  14. ↑ Visit the Temple of Apis, Sunless Sea "In the center of the temple is a black bull with a white diamond on its face. It is tied in place with heavy ropes, and it is wounded in the thigh. From this wound it bleeds copiously without dying."
  15. ↑ Apis Temple, Sunless Sea ""The priests gather around the bull, capturing its blood in cups.""
  16. ↑ Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea
  17. ↑ Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea
  18. ↑ Choose the frog mask, Sunless Sea "The eye holes are large and they are fitted with spectacles. These improve your view of the environment, though you must look bulb-eyed from the outside. There is also a mechanism attached to the mouth piece which magnifies any sounds you make, even your breathing. You start to thank the Moon-Moth and it comes out as a booming croak. "
  19. ↑ Steal the most valuable-looking scroll for later sale, Sunless Sea "The trouble about your costume is that it amplifies all of your movements; and since everyone is used to hearing you coming and going, even when you succeed in being stealthy, your silence is notable anyway. ...you manage to filch one of the scrolls ... and tuck it into the giant rubbery belly of your costume. "
  20. ↑ Ask the significance of the masks, Sunless Sea "The Frog is for visitors who, though perhaps clumsy and unfamiliar with local etiquette, have come in order to observe local ways and to make uncouth comments about them. "
  21. ↑ Show oafish enthusiasm for this wonderful indoor pool, Sunless Sea "You exclaim at how much you admire this room and its excellent pool. Your words are, as always, amplified into a croak. Other masks turn towards you (crocodile, lotus blossom, crescent moon) but no one speaks. You have garnered a suitable degree of disdain. "
  22. ↑ Choose the locust mask, Sunless Sea "The eyeholes are covered with a thin gold film through which valuable objects gleam more brightly. "
  23. ↑ Pick the pockets of the readers, Sunless Sea "Apparently it is the etiquette of the place not to prevent a Locust from stealing. Perhaps for the same reason, the coins are no more than tiny copper chips each stamped with an eye sigil. Practically worthless."
  24. ↑ Gather coin from the Flood Court floor, Sunless Sea "You wade into the water and begin gathering coins. People watch you from behind their masks, but no one tries to stop you. After a moment, the other locust masks in the room swarm with you, four and five and six of you together, scraping up the coins from the bottom of the pool, working your way along until everything is gone. It is just how a locust ought to behave. "
  25. ↑ Shine a light on the bat-faced figure, Sunless Sea "You shine the light on your companion. A man [...] [with] scars about the neck as though he has been executed many times. [...] "Nothing to see here," he says. "And they'll be putting me to death again soon enough, so you needn't have bothered." Already the others are swarming on him. Before your light goes out, you catch a glimpse of a noose, ready in someone's hand."
  26. ↑ Steal what scrolls you may, Sunless Sea "It expects you to spy instead. Then it expects you to be taken to the place of execution and hung upside down. This is what happens to Bats in Visage."
  27. ↑ The Library of Parts, Sunless Sea "Moon Moth stands to one side, as your escort and tour guide."
  28. ↑ Trade masks with the Moon-Moth, Sunless Sea "Its face - no, now you see, her face - is aging but unlined. A lifetime of never needing to use a facial expression. "
  29. ↑ Visit the House of the Chief Geometer, Sunless Sea "Each morning the man in the cobra mask draws lines in the mud flat with a pointed steel rod. This apportions to each inhabitant a small trapezoidal area from which to harvest mushrooms and to scrape salt. No plot is ever preserved from one day to the next. This man is the Chief Geometer, the Keeper of Directions, Master of Land Measures and Sea Measures."
  30. ↑ Geometer's House, Sunless Sea ""Now you have been invited to his home, at the time customarily appointed for him to receive those who are not his equal in rank, yet not so far beneath him as to deserve to be ignored. What ceremonial gift will you bring?""
  31. ↑ Silently observe the attitude of the visiting Lion, Sunless Sea "You contemplate the Lion for some time. There is an arithmetic sequence to the count of bows that it performs to each feature: the eyes, the nose, each lip. It is hard to know whether Lion is meant to be her worshipper or her lover. Perhaps the two functions are not very distinct."
  32. ↑ Leave a respectful token of offering, Sunless Sea "As you go out, you pass by the more impressive gifts: drafting tools from the Chief Geometer, scales from Jackal, a heap of foreign coin brought home by Crocodile."
  33. ↑ Watch a Crocodile-Masked Visitor make an offering, Sunless Sea "A body lies on a bier in the centre of the chamber. The Crocodile-Masked Visitor moves around it, indicating wounds in its head, neck, chest; muttering. He's speaking of the nature of the wounds - their dramatic effects on the landscapes of the body. He sounds like he's boasting - but a single tear trickles down from beneath his mask."
  34. ↑ Trade with the Visage Ambassador, Sunless Sea "She earned her crocodile mask for sharing too many secrets. She has nothing to lose by selling one more. "
  35. ↑ Deface the stone with new markings, Sunless Sea "You ready your hand to write, but you don't get further than a few exclamatory glyphs before you're interrupted by a Jackal and led away for judgement."
  36. ↑ Ritual's End, Sunless Sea "At the end of the hour there comes a woman with a feather of shimmering silver, which she tucks into your hand. Symbol of the innocent heart that will not be eaten by the jackal. "
  37. ↑ Praise the literary traditions of Visage, Sunless Sea "Moon-Moth considers you. Perhaps it thinks you are acting too much like a Frog. Perhaps it thinks this is a Bat gambit to gain favour. Misplaying your role would be bad, and correctly playing the Bat would be worse. Either way, there are penalties. You end up scarred and maskless, back at the dock. "
  38. ↑ Look for books about the ritual in the Ear, Sunless Sea "There are references, oblique but suggestive, that the ritual began long after the Ear was built, 'when the new people came to Visage.' But why they came, and what happened to the old people, is not recorded. "
  39. ↑ Let it disperse, Sunless Sea "It looks very like Flourishing-of-Years - the grand shrine-face of Visage. Something about the eyes, the sternness of the mouth. Perhaps only that it stares at the roof, just as Flourishing-of-Years does. Now it dissolves. You could swear it's mouthing a word. "HOME"...? "
  40. ↑ Study ancient marks, Sunless Sea "The pictures tell a story: this is the face of a woman, Flourishing-of-Years, who once was loved by one of the nobles inhabiting this island. But then she - what's this pictogram? ascended? bloomed? flew away? And consumed with grief he assembled those-who-carve-great-things-from-stone and remade the whole surface of the island."
  41. ↑ Study the calendars drawn on the walls, Sunless Sea "The sigils are tiny pictures, and the tiny pictures yield a meaning if you stare long enough. The calendar remembers the heights and depths of an ancient river, one that flowed far away and long ago. It remembers cycles of farming time and flood time and drought time. It remembers a circular stasis, a way of being that repeated in just the same fashion for hundreds of generations."
  42. ↑ Ask whether the bull will be all right, Sunless Sea "How ill-omened, even to suggest that the bull might die! If it does die, of course (says one in an aside), there will be another born with the same markings, if not on Visage itself, then somewhere around the Unterzee. Apis is never gone, but sometimes his spirit goes astray. "
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