Back-Story Challenge – The Mask

Falcon

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Back-Story Challenge, steelblue
We all like to come up with back-stories for our characters, but keeping those back-stories short with only relevant information can sometimes be difficult. This challenge is designed to help cut out unneeded details, the details that should be saved to be revealed IC. :)

Take Cinderella for example. We don’t need to know every unkind word her stepsisters said to her, or exactly what her father’s death scene looked like. The important events of her back-story are the fact that her father married an unkind woman with two daughters of her own, and he then passed away leaving Cinderella to become a servant in their care.

The purpose of this challenge is to come up with a back-story for the image provided, one that contains important information without becoming a wall of text.

To participate: I will give you an image of a place, a person, or an object. You write up a back-story for that image using no more than three significant events that may have happened.

Here is your Image :)

Venetian-Masks-Shop_28285_image.jpg


What is the back-story for this mask?​
 
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Easy.

A child once performed at a circus. An accident which causes his face to become less human leads the other performers to think he's dead, leaving him behind. He haunts the venue wearing a mask to cover his disfigured face.
 
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@DaCageFighter - Except that I asked for the back-story for the image, in this case a mask not the person who wore it.
Thank you though :)
 
Ah, my bad. Let me try again.

The mask was created by a genius scientist as a tool for achieving omnipotence. However, he lacked a power source for the mask, and therefore was never able to use it. He passed away before the mask could be used for its original purpose.
 
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Mmmh or...

A young woman was invited to a masquerade ball, by a young suitor many many years ago. She searched all around the small town she resided in, for a craftsman who could achieve the splendor in detail she wanted. The problem was, she was poor, and had little money to spend on baubles to impress a rich suitor. Finally, she heard word of a magician who could make spectacular jeweled items for little to no charge... She was hesitant at first, but decided it was worth trying...

The young woman visited the magicians house, not far outside town, and told him what she needed, and asked his price... The creaky old man smiled, and said simply that he would charge nothing, for the honor of making the lovely young woman, even more beautiful...

That very afternoon he began his work. He selected jewels, and gold filigree, and other such high quality materials for use on the womans mask... Finally, after everything was laid out, he asked her to lay in a chair for him, so he could take a mold of her face. She hesitantly obliged, and he smeared on a hot white paste, all over her face...

The smelly white paste smelled bad, but she didn't complain. She lay still, and waited for him to finish... But as she lay, the paste started to cool at a rapid pace. It shrunk as it cooled, and it began to hurt her soft lips and cheeks... She shifted, a bit uncomfortable, but it continued to worsen. It hardened, and continued to freeze to her face, hurting like ice as it began to tear at her soft skin... She sat up and tried to pull the mask off as she heard the wizard start to laugh...

The mask was ice cold, and colder, and seemed to writhe beneath her hands as she struggled to tear it off, with no success... She tried to scream, but it wouldn't allow her mouth to open even an inch as it began to harden, finally... She collapsed with one final scream, and succumbed to the darkness beneath the mask.

The wizard watched, a mild expression of humor on his face, as he lifted the mask from the womans face. Her skin was untouched, and perfectly fine... But there was no life in her cheeks, or her still open eyes... The wizzard carried the exact copy of the womans face to another room and began fixing gold leaf, colored jewels, and polished silver to the porcelain face. He admired his work as he finished, and blew a little air across the face of the Mask...

The woman woke with a start, feeling air stroke her cheek. She imagined for a moment that the horror she had experienced had been all a dream. She opened her eyes and tried to look around, but couldn't... She took in her surroundings with dismay, to find she WAS in the wizards house, and this WAS really happening...

She saw the wizard, his back turned to her. She tried to move... Escape, while he wasn't looking, but she couldn't... She couldn't move at all! She tried to scream, and couldn't. She tried to touch her face, and couldn't... And she watched in horror as the wizard turned to face her, smiling... He walked a few steps towards her, holding something shiny in his hands... He said something, but she couldn't hear... She could only watch in horror as he lifted a... Mirror...

"I hope you enjoy the mask I made for you... Because you won't be taking it off any time soon..."


--- Years Later ---
The young woman watched as the old, creaky, man lifted up a lovely jeweled mask from the glass display. He showed her how delicate the porcelain was, and how finely crafted the jewels were... "This is a very... Special, piece..." he said...He laid it carefully on the counter top for the 'bride to be' to see... She squealed with delight, as she let her husband know she loved it, and wanted it... He nodded, and smiled, kissing her softly on the cheek before turning to the old man... He asked simply how much it would be...

The old man grinned, a little sparkle of silent laughter flashing across his old face...

"How could I charge anything, for the honor of making your lovely young bride even more beautiful?"
 
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Sorry! Once I start, I just can't stop xD

Added an edit to the original post...
 
A princess lost her love, and promised to hide her heart from all. For every tear she shed a new gem was born, and for every sadness she came to know a length of gold thread wove its self into existence until the wall over her heart took fiscal form of a mask she held over her face. The mask was passed down threw the royal family, and though no new jams where made the masks elegance grew with every sorrow. The mask was locked away shortly after the last thread was woven and the last of the princesses descendants had passed.
 
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The mask was created by the three spirits that were left to protect the valley from evil. The reason they created this mask was to stop the darkness of another who wore a mask that was black and had a red which put detail into it. They picked a hero worth of the mask and it's powers. Once the mask new owner put the mask on it was time to save the world. Once the evil was defeated the mask was not expected to be needed again until another evil just as bad came to be.
 
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Created to celebrate the 15th birthday of the Queen’s birthday this mask was to be gifted to her Majesty at exactly 12 noon when it was said to be the exact hour she was born this mask however was stolen just moments before it could be presented. It was a mystery for years as to who might have done it. Legend has since surfaced that the maker changed his mind and couldn’t part with it. It was just too beautiful. This was later confirmed for upon his death and his workshop cleaned and items sorted some 60 years later the mask was discovered in a glass case perfectly preserved.
 
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This is the mask that was worn by Hector Rodriguez, infamous leader of the terrorist group "El Futuro Luminosa". All of its members wore masks in public, but this was the mask of the leader, then known only as "Santo Blanco". It became a symbol of the group's political beliefs and ideologies, most of which were very bloody and, in the eyes of the media and public, very misguided, too. The group spoke of a future where people would be free to live without fear of the government. A world where people could trust each other and live in freedom, able to do as they wished, rather than as the government "brainwashed" them into doing.

The mask of their leader became the main symbol of the movement, with the group claiming that its bright white and gold patterns represented purity and innocence. Despite this, several high profile attacks and severe bloodshed meant that it became a symbol of a dangerous group of rebels that attacked without consideration for the after effects. Eventually, the group's leaders were caught, rounded up and summarily imprisoned for their crimes against humanity. One of the most iconic images of the campaign was of the mask, crushed under the boot of a soldier. To sympathisers, it showed a totalitarian government brutally crushing those that disagreed, whilst others saw it as the end of an era of fear and paranoia, living under the threat of a dangerous terrorist organisation.
 
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