Name: Masquerade

From: The Traveler Chronicles

Role: Psychotic Shape-Shifting Bodyguard to the Demoness Mazahadri

Talk about a character that's fun to write.

Take one part Joker, one part Jim Carrey, with a dose of speed thrown in for good measure, and you'll get an idea of the pace that this guy runs. He is, quite possibly, the most demented character I've ever written, and remains one of my personal favorites. Masquerade is that bad guy that's just too funny not to like, along the lines of an earlier Deadpool. He's transformed into any and everything at some point or another, from werewolves to ogres, from large-breasted peasant girls to the dreaded fire-breathing chicken. He's the guy that walked into a gathering of Dark Dance members, Second Realm's most famous order of man-hating female terrorists, and loudly wondered which of these lucky ladies would be having sex with him that night, shortly before dancing on a nearby table. He's a rare breed- not many people can call Phantom a soul-sucking demon skank and get away with it.

Masquerade serves as one of the bodyguards of the Demoness Mazahadri, who happens to be the sister of one Lord Paradox, the main adversary in The Traveler Chronicles. When word reached Mazahadri that her older brother had begun a bid for power in Second Realm, she couldn't help but involve herself with the action. Showing up unexpectedly at Lord Paradox's supposedly secret stronghold, she added herself into the mix of things, but did not come empty-handed. One of the gifts she brought with her was the demented Masquerade, the self-proclaimed greatest shape-shifter alive. While he is a bit 'unstable of mind', as he likes to put it, he displays rare moments of brilliance that shock even him from time to time. 

His biggest flaw, however, is not his apparent insane nature, but rather his near-obscene fascination with a fellow shape-shifter by the name of Naomi, who happens to be one of the Travelers. Though he appeared fairly late in the story, Masquerade still ran a gauntlet of emotions in regards to the young lady during that brief time. He's gone from almost killing her in combat, from sneaking into the Travelers' home base just to watch her (he even caught her bathing at one point, resulting in one of the more hilarious scenes I've written). He's quite captivated with the young lady, someone whose skills at shape-shifting rival his own.

Random Sidenote: Masquerade came very close to coming to the NuRPG as an NPC to Mani, believe it or not. I decided against it, however, opting to let Eric Dulcimer shine as the sole sidekick figure.

Random, Random Sidenote: How did I decide on Masquerade being the CoTW this time around? Halloween, actually. I was invited to a party (but could not attend, alas), and was planning on coming dressed along the lines of a psychotic harlequin, complete with jester's cap, mask, and leather pants. For whatever reason, it brought back memories of this dude, and the sketch above soon followed.

The Future: Someone this fun to write will always have a place in my stuff. I think I'll write up some of his more classic scenes from Chronicles and stick those up here for all of you to see sometime. Will he pop up in Freelancers? We shall have to wait and see!