The tale of the seven masks.

A long time ago, a man wore a black mask, to hide himself in the shadows of those around him, to hide his lowly birth and station. He hid and waited, he lurked and wandered, he hoped to find himself in the shadows, and in the things of others. To leave the shadows he was born in, he hid and waited, lurking and taking, hoping he would find more.



The man in the black mask wandered and waited, stole and lied, juggled and danced, but always, always, hid. The shadows became a place he knew as well as a bird would know the sky and then he would find a place where he would begin to see lights and fire in the shadow. He danced on rooftops and drank in shadows, hearing stories of demons and wisps. listening to the very fabric of his own mask, breathing in the smoke and shadows as he hid behind the screens and lurked within the moonlight.


The mask he had worn, and taken, was that of a man who was behind the scenes, and behind the screens, wandering behind the stage to move every piece into place and every player into formation. And the mask, as it became his face, became his joy, and even his name. Ku-Ro-Ko, the Man of Black. Every theft, every lie, every machination, became something to play with, somethign to enliven and revive the audiences of the world. As he worked, and hid, and juggled, the city he called home began to hear his tale, and tell it, and exaggerate it. Soon, the quiet hand became the great thief, the thief became a ghost, and the ghost became a legend. The black mask became the man, and and the man was laughing and drinking as the city spoke of him in hushed whispers, not knowing that he could hear them. He laughed at the fear and the legends.



However, while he was quite good, the truth was that he was hungry for more. He had heard of a treasure so great, so grand, that even the emperors and warlords of the past coveted it for its beauty and its wealth. And thus, the man in the black mask sought after the great prize, taht had beset so many before.




"The man wore the mask to find substance, and yet became as empty as the shadows he sought to fill."