WriteOn!: Masquerades, Wainscot Societies, and Mouse Worlds

Your hero experiences, or accidentally triggers, or even hears of, an encounter with people or creatures alien to the world we inhabit. These usually seem to have special powers, formidable or relatively minor, but their common feature is that they are definitely Other: not fully a part of your world, perhaps not part of it at all. No one else seems to know that they exist, or if they do know, the knowledge is itself set apart in some way: legend, rumor, What We Do Not Talk About, or part of a past that is now distant and a world order that has irrevocably changed. And now you know about them, and you are drawn into their story, though sometimes only to be neutralized as a necessary precaution.If the group in question is a part of your world after all, a hidden part that for some reason has to remain hidden even though its members seem on the surface to be ordinary persons, you have found the Masquerade. The Masquerade is a group apart, but not a world apart. The members of a masquerade have a secret that is an essential part of their identity and which binds them together as a group. For some reason, almost always related to their safety, it must be kept concealed. The most familiar members of the Masquerade are vampires, who usually can circulate freely in society, at least until they get careless or someone notices their unnaturally long lifespans. Werewolves and other were-creatures are another example.Members of the Masquerade are often inconvenienced, and sometimes accidentally exposed, by some consequence of their condition. Captain Delphine Angua von Überwald, one of the most important members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in Terry Prachett’s Ringworld novels, is a werewolf who can control the timing of her transformations but has to keep her violent impulses in check by a vegetarian diet when human and chickens (for which she pays) when she is a werewolf. She is also annoyed by the fact that a werewolf transformation completely destroys whatever she is wearing, leaving her literally exposed. When she resumes human form, she is naked, and so she always carries a spare set of clothing in a bag around her neck.The Masquerade is sometimes extended beyond the human and near-human worlds. One old story that implies its existence tells of when an old peasant comes home in the evening after working and is talking about the day’s events with his wife, with their cat sleeping in front of the fire beside them. The peasant remarks casually that “Oh, Joseph’s old cat died finally,” upon which their cat jumps up, loudly exclaims “Then I’m the King of the Cats!” and disappears out the window, never to be seen again.The Wainscot Society, or Wainscot World, is not a hidden or disguised part of society but a world apart that has contact, often intermittent and problematic, with our world. Sometimes it is merely hidden from the rest of the world; sometimes accessing it demands magic or the assistance of its inhabitants. It gets its somewhat whimsical name from the meaning of “wainscot,” the wooden panels used to line walls in old-fashioned residences, reflecting that many of these stories used to be about tiny people living in the spare spaces of large old houses. A Wainscot Society that is scaled small enough to literally fit into such a space is sometimes referred to as a Mouse World; Prachett’s Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men, are such, though they do not live in the houses of others.The defining characteristic of a Wainscot Society is that it exists in and of itself, with a complete natural system and social order of its own. It may have links with our world, but if our world somehow vanished, it would remain. This is what lies at the end of the Third Road of the medieval verse of Thomas the Rhymer, where the Queen of Elfland herself comes to guide the poet.O see ye not yon narrow road, So thick beset wi’ thorns and briers? That is the Path of Righteousness, Though after it but few inquires.And see ye not yon braid, braid road That lies across that lily leven? That is the Path of Wickedness, Though some call it the Road to Heaven.And see ye not yon bonny road That winds about the fernie brae? That is the Road to fair Elfland, Where thou and I this night maun gae.She kept him there seven years, and then released him back unharmed to his own world. Not all visitors to Wainscot Worlds are so lucky. Their difficulty of access gives their inhabitants unusual power over visitors. The elven races in the Rivers of London series, and the elves of the Diskworld, visit our world to lure or steal its inhabitants, and they are by no means so friendly. Their flint weapons, and their terror of iron, seem to indicate that they embody a memory of the older races of the British Isles, overrun time and time again by invaders from the European continent.There is a good deal of overlap between these two types, and it is possible to combine them. For instance, the Men in Black of movie fame are a masquerade: they pass in society as ordinary federal agents, but are actually quite a bit more and are endowed with special powers, though these come from their equipment, not magic or any special natural endowment. Part of their mission is to ensure the safety and security of a Wainscot World, the various interactions between alien races and human beings, which they restrict severely in the interests of both parties.Masquerades and wainscot worlds are easy to write, but not easy to write well. Unfortunately, very few authors are as careful with the details as Prachett was when he realized that Angua’s clothing was not going to survive her expansion into a werewolf body. The most common problem, especially with masquerades, is that the author becomes too casual about odd happenings and unusual sights. This is a problem that has only worsened now that virtually everyone has a cell phone that is also able to take still photos and videos. The old solution of relying on vampiric fascination, for instance, to hide the doings of a vampire would not deceive a camera, and the results would end up on YouTube within hours. Masquerades that involve groups of magic users operating openly in modern society without evoking comment, such as that described in Kat Howard’s An Unkindness of Magicians, very quickly develop a credibility gap the size of the Grand Canyon. Wainscot societies are not quite as difficult since they can quickly glide over the details of how one gets from one reality to the other, from London Above to London Below in Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, for instance, but the way the protagonist becomes invisible the first time he returns to London Above is still puzzling, and how he got to London Below in the first place is not adequately covered by the throwaway phrase “fell through the cracks in reality.”Now, let us find a few cracks to fall through ourselves.Given the breadth of the possibilities, I’m not sure that specific suggestions would be of any use. Below are a few ideas. When dealing with the out-groups, you can have your assumed society take any attitude you want toward them: wonder at the unknown, surprise or shock at the discovery, fear, hostility, curiosity, casual indifference.... just remember that the group itself has to have a reason to feel it cannot become generally known, and a way to handle accidental revelations (pressure of various sorts, bribery, mental manipulations, or just plain eliminating the witness by murder, driving insane, exiling, or destroying credibility).You have just been told that the gem your party found a week ago can summon creatures from... somewhere... if exposed to a full moon and rubbed hard while a few incomprehensible incantations are chanted. The person who told you that, a stranger with an odd light in his eyes, was almost certain the creatures will be friendly, but this person can no longer be found. Discuss with your comrades, who may have information of their own....You are travelling in the mountains along narrow roads between crude shelters, on an important mission, with a companion you have not previously met but who has been very friendly and consistently reliable. The trip is not going badly so far. One evening, about half way through the journey, they confess to you that they are a vampire and ask very politely if they could “borrow” a little bit of your blood.....You are a minion of the Elf Queen and are discussing a problem with a human who has managed, with great effort, to reach your realm. The human has come to rescue a child whom the elves have taken to their land, and their return is requested; but you know for a fact that the child was being horribly abused and despite how the case must look to the human world, it would have a better fate with the elves. How do you defend not returning them?Your cat disappears every Thursday night and does not return home until mid-morning. One day, curious to know where the cat is going and what it is doing, you attach a tiny video camera to its collar that will transmit to your personal computer....Or, of course, anything else, with our stock figures or your own.