Hail, Sapience.

Those of you who were present for the first Asterian Festival of History may recall the Asterian Ball, a glittering conclusion to the year's festivities. Guests arrived draped in finery, sampled indulgent cuisine, and danced to the tunes of a talented string quartet in our Athenaeum.

For the second edition of the Festival, we will once again end with a ball as is our tradition. However, this time, we are blending elements from some of our most-loved endeavours to bring to you: the Asterian Masquerade.

In ages past, we explored this interest through the inaugural Asterian Adventure, an invite-only immersive event which required participants to assume the personality, dress and bearing of a Seleucarian historical figure to solve a murder mystery in character. For the Asterian Masquerade, we now open this exercise to all.

What little we know of historical figures is confined to the historical writings that survive the purge of time. Records abound for the renowned like Lucaine and Catarin, granting us some measure of insight; others, however, are mere footnotes in history. What would it be like, then, to walk in their shoes? How would you speak and act, or conduct yourself around allies and foes? What thoughts might you have that would guide response?

This is your chance, then, to answer that question by playing a historical persona of your interest. Will it be you that brings dashing, lovelorn Lucaine Pyramides to life? Perhaps you could revive the cunning of Ishka Blackthorne, of the Jaguars? Or will you slip into the tortured soul of Tenith'oru, once known as Parni deSangre?

Bring your character of choice to life upon the stage of our Masquerade. Any who wish to participate should take heed of the following:

1. Send an application to myself, Jurixe S. Nithilar, via letter detailing three (3) characters you wish to assume and a brief description of what you know about them.

- Your character of choice cannot be a Celani, Aldar, Demigod, Divine and otherwise. They also should not be city or organisation-specific characters that others would have no way of learning about.

- The character you are choosing to bring to life should be either dead or missing, presumed dead. The living may take offense to imitation.

- Your chosen character does not have to be Seleucarian. They simply need to be a character who has been mentioned in history. You must reference where this character is mentioned in your application.

- We especially welcome, and will give preference to, those who wish to play lesser-known characters. We are certain admirers of Lucaine and Catarin are unending, but we should like a reason to spotlight the unheralded. Examples might include Asra-din, of the Blades of Piety; Callibius, once-head of the Ivory Mark; Batlin Karrella, former Lord of Sangre Keep - and many more besides. An advantage is that having little to work with allows more creativity in interpretation on how these characters may have acted and looked like - with historical context.

- The Events posts and Seleucarian histories should more than suffice for inspiration for characters.

2. Include in your application why you wish to play these characters and why you believe you would do them justice. We do not want multiple Catarins or Lucaines in this Masquerade: as with the originals, there can only be one, so we will choose the applications that most stand out for the particularly coveted roles. We will send you a missive with your successful application. The Restoration reserves the right to reject any applications it finds unsuitable.

3. You will be expected to align everything from your appearance to your clothing to your mannerisms to slip into character. This does not mean, of course, that you transform into that person in a literal sense - but we will note creative use of dress and implements to bring your character to life.

4. At the Masquerade, you will be expected to interact as though your character would. So for instance, participants playing Nikolas and Severian would be expected to show a friendly rivalry, but those playing Trenton Deis and Lucaine Pyramides would be antagonistic, so on and so forth. Note, however, that this is not cause to incite true bloodshed.

5. It may be the case that we send you specific instructions for an action to take or things to say if we find your character of particular interest, and if the guest list aligns. You do not need to acquiesce if you do not wish to, but we will reward collaboration, with the goal of a more entertaining experience.

6. All who wish to attend this Masquerade must be willing to play a character, and dress and act appropriately. We reserve the right to refuse or remove those who do not comply, as this experience only succeeds by collective agreement to collaborate.

7. If your character is approved, you will need to deposit funds for a ticket to this Masquerade at the account of the Asterian Restoration in Delos, which will be 10,000 gold per person. These costs will be used to fund the setup for the Masquerade, and otherwise donated to the Restoration.

8. Over the course of the Masquerade, we will be observing your performance. Those with the most intriguing and compelling characters will be recognised during the event. 'Compelling' should not be confused with 'loudest', however.

Applications must reach myself by Mayan 977AF. The earlier you submit your application, the sooner it can be approved, and the more quickly you can begin preparations - which is why we are announcing this Masquerade this early, instead of later.

The Asterian Masquerade is currently slated to happen on the last Serenade of the Festival, which should happen around 22 Lupar 978AF. As usual, it will be held in the Asterian Athenaeum on Meropis.

Questions may be directed to myself. We hope to see you join us.

Regards,

Jurixe S. Nithilar
representing the Asterian Restoration

Penned by my hand on the 17th of Glacian, in the year 974 AF.