Masks

A Mask is anything that hides an Ascender’s identity to a reasonable degree. It may be a Relic, or any other in-world effect that achieves the same outcome. A Mask is defined by what it accomplishes (concealment) rather than by its specific form.

What a Mask blocks (and what it doesn’t)

A Mask blocks the Proclamation of a Bounty. It does not block the registration of a Bounty.

Tower Crimes are still Attributed to the Ascender beneath the Mask. The Tower knows who committed the crime; the Bounty is registered against the true Ascender. What the Mask prevents is the public announcement that would activate other Inhabitants to pursue the Bounty.

Any Un-Masking — live or post-death — can make the Bounty Known and (if post-death) Claimed. The trigger requires at least one non-ally of the wearer or slain to be among the witnesses. In the presence of only allies, an Un-Masking is private: no Bounty becomes Known publicly, no Claim fires, no Tower announcement is made.

Live Un-Masking makes the Bounty Known when a non-ally witnesses it. This happens when the wearer is Un-Masked by or in front of non-allies on the same Tier:

• The Mask is removed by non-allies of the wearer, or
• The Mask is removed in front of non-allies — the wearer takes the Mask off, or it lapses, while non-allies are present to observe.

With only allies present, the wearer’s allies see the identity but no Bounty becomes Known publicly. The wearer can re-Mask or have allies cover; the secret stays internal. Once a Bounty is Known, the Target becomes publicly actionable — Inhabitants can pursue the Bounty knowing it exists.

Death Un-Masking with a non-ally witness present makes the Bounty Known and triggers the Claim in the same event. The Tower announces the Claim on the Tier — retroactively if the Bounty was not previously Known — and credits the Relevant Parties.

This produces the plausible “unknowingly claimed” scenario: a killer attacks a Masked target (whose Bounty is registered but not Known), the target dies still Masked, the killer Un-Masks the corpse — at which point the Tower retroactively credits the Relevant Parties with the Claim, including the killer who did not know a Bounty was on the table.

Death Un-Masking with only allies of the slain present does not trigger the Claim. A typical scenario: the slain’s friends discover the body in private, Un-Mask it, recognize them as Wanted — but no non-ally is there to witness. In this case, no Reward is given; the slain enters the Wanted indefinitely state.

The Wanted-indefinitely slain retains their Registered Bounty, but no Claim has fired. The corpse holds the Claim potential. The body can be transported or displayed to a non-ally observer at any later point — within a reasonable time-frame — at which point the Bounty is Awarded to the Relevant Parties for that Claim event.

The reasonable time-frame caveat applies to the entire Claim process. What counts as “reasonable” — in tick or in-world terms — is open canon. Beyond reasonable, the kill’s specific connection to the Bounty may lapse (also open).

See bounties.md for the full Claim-announcement mechanic, the Relevant-Parties definition, and how the witness rules interact with the Bounty lifecycle.

Both the Knowing and Claiming triggers apply uniformly to all Bounty types: Tower Bounties and the Mundane Bounties (Faction and Ascender), with Mundane-Bounty claim handling subject to the Issuer’s specific protocol.

Reasonable deniability

A Masked Ascender retains reasonable deniability about being Wanted — by the Tower or by any Mundane Bounty. Suspicions in the Inhabitants’ world are not the same as the announcements that activate enforcement. A Masked individual may be presumed by some to have something to hide, but no Inhabitant can act on a Bounty that has not been Proclaimed.

Masked individuals cannot claim Bounties

The other side of Mask-derived anonymity: a Masked Ascender cannot claim any Bounty. The Tower’s Claim announcement names the claimers (Name, Party, Faction where applicable; see bounties.md), and a Masked individual is by definition not identifiable to that level of detail. To claim a Bounty, an Ascender must be Un-Masked at the moment the Claim fires.

This produces a real trade-off. An Ascender wearing a Mask for anonymity — whether they have a Bounty themselves or simply prefer privacy — sacrifices their ability to collect any Bounty they would otherwise be eligible for. A high-value kill made while Masked may pass to other (Un-Masked) Relevant Parties or, if no eligible claimer is present, may leave the slain in the Wanted-indefinitely state.

Masking is normalized, not assumed criminal

Wearing a Mask is not exclusively a criminal posture. There are good reasons to be Masked even with no outstanding Bounty:

• Anonymity while outside safe Settlements, where unwanted attention from would-be attackers or opportunistic Bounty seekers carries real risk.
• Discretion among Trusted Peers — wearing a Mask in friendly company does not require an explanation; it is a normalized personal-security choice.

The cultural norm: a Masked individual is not assumed to be criminal by default.

Persona and Identifiability

A Mask is tied to its wearer’s Persona and Identifiability.

These are introduced here as canon concepts but their broader mechanics are open. Persona appears to be the in-world identity construct that a Mask alters or conceals. Identifiability appears to be the property that observers use to recognize an Ascender as a specific individual.

The relationship between Persona, Identifiability, and Mask is the next layer of canon to settle.

Party invite circumvents the Mask

A Party invite, once accepted, completely circumvents the Mask. Party members see the wearer’s true identity regardless of what Mask is being worn.

Bounty status is not shared automatically through Party membership. A Party member learns who their fellow member is, but not that they are Wanted, unless that information is independently surfaced — the wearer discloses, the Bounty is Proclaimed by some other route, or a Party member encounters the Bounty information elsewhere.

This separates Persona-reveal from Bounty-reveal at the Party boundary.

Parties are formalized in parties.md as a Tower/System hierarchy mechanic. The Mask interaction here is one of the few canon-confirmed Party effects.

Implications

A few consequences follow from the canon above:

The Tower’s Bounty registry is internally complete and accurate; what the world sees is a filtered view of that registry. A Bounty that is registered but not Proclaimed has no effect on Inhabitant behavior until something changes (Un-Masking, ally-defection, Party-disclosure).

Allies and non-allies become a load-bearing distinction. A Masked Ascender’s safety depends on whether the surrounding Inhabitants count as allies for the purpose of Un-Masking. The criteria for ally classification — Party-only, Faction-only, Sponsorship-graph-extended, or some broader social-trust measure — is open canon.

Hostile Inhabitants have a clear incentive to attempt Un-Masking when they suspect a Bounty-worth target. The Un-Masking attempt is itself a potentially observable action that may carry social consequences in communities where Masks are respected.

Open canonical questions

• Persona and Identifiability: are they single in-world identities, or can an Ascender maintain multiple Personas (alt-identities)? Is Identifiability a stat, a property, or a context-dependent quality?
• Ally and non-ally criteria: Party members are clearly allies. Are Faction members allies? Sponsorship-graph linked Ascenders? Past allies? Is the classification per-encounter or persistent?
• How is a Mask obtained as a Relic? Crafted by an Artificer (see relics.md), dropped as Loot, purchased from a vendor — or all of the above?
• Are there non-Relic Masks? A Spell, a Skill, an environmental effect, a class feature? The “anything that hides identity to a reasonable degree” definition leaves the door open; specifics are open canon.
• Cost of wearing a Mask: beyond the canon-ratified “cannot claim Bounties,” does Masking impose other costs — Currency upkeep, Combat penalty, prevention of building Reputation under the true Persona, exclusion from official roles or vendor accounts?
• Mask failure modes beyond Un-Masking by or in front of non-allies — time-limited durability, damage thresholds, triggered failures on specific actions?
• Can multiple Masks be layered? Can a Mask conceal that the wearer is Masked?
• ADR-020 currently claims Bounty-issuance pierces the Mask. Canon resolves this differently: issuance attributes the Bounty internally to the true Ascender, but Proclamation is gated by Mask state. The ADR-020 annotation needs updating to reflect this resolution.
• ADR-012 references a “Mask middle-path” that has not been audited. Resolution pending the ADR-012 audit pass.