A semi-secret society that keeps Venturia's traditions of masks, identity, and performance — and stages the annual Autumn Masquerade. It holds no government recognition, which is exactly how it likes things.
What They Do
The Court organizes the Autumn Masquerade, maintains the guild of master maskmakers, sponsors theatrical productions, and acts as patron to artists working in the "veiled arts": performance, disguise, transformation, and revelation.
Leadership
Led by Valeria Tessere, a former celebrated actress who wears a different mask to every public appearance — and has seemed to do so for rather longer than her apparent years would allow. Charismatic, politically shrewd, and genuinely devoted to the city's mask-culture.
Membership
Members gain entry to exclusive theatrical spaces and private masked events, connections to artists across the region, training in the "Art of Faces" — disguise, social reading, identity theory — and access to the Hall of Reflected Faces, a gallery holding a mask from every Autumn Masquerade for nearly three hundred years.
Connections
- Valeria Tessere — The Court's masked leader.
- The Hall of Reflected Faces — A private gallery preserving three centuries of Masquerade masks.
- The Masquers' Sodality — Their maskmaking tradition is closely tied to the Court's cultural mission.
- The Amaranth Theater — The principal venue for Court-sponsored productions and the annual Tragedy of Vallombrosa.
- The Glamour Courts — Names this faction in its connections.
- The Subtle Fey-Touch — Names this faction in its connections.