| This article is about the organized cult in Persona 2: Innocent Sin. For other uses, see Masquerade (disambiguation). |
The Masked Circle (仮面党, Kamen-tō in the Japanese version), also known as the Masquerade in Eternal Punishment, is an organized cult in Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Its members wear a distinctive circular mask. The Masked Circle was led by Joker, along with four executives based off four houses of the Zodiac.
Appearances[]
Profile[]
Innocent Sin[]
The Masked Circle is a cult based on the Zodiac which centers its activity in Sumaru City. Their general objective is to collect the "Ideal Energy" of those who possess dreams, using it to raise Xibalba and eventually bring humanity into a Utopian age. Members are recruited after they have their wishes granted by Joker.
In truth, the Masked Circle is a corrupted, grown-up version of a children's group consisting of Jun Kurosu, Tatsuya Suou, Eikichi Mishina and Lisa Silverman, who met at the Alaya Shrine donning their Phoenix Ranger Featherman R masks. They befriended Maya Amano, whom they regarded as their big sister, and Jun especially as a loving mother. All of the children would spend their time on the Alaya Shrine, either to escape from an unhappy family life, escape from family responsibilities, or simply had nowhere else to go and nobody left to rely on.
Good times did not last, as one day Maya announces that she would be leaving the group and moving out. Eikichi and Lisa innocently believed she would stay if she could not leave the shrine and locked Maya in. However, an insane arsonist known as Tatsuya Sudou shown up and burnt the building out of a fit of insanity with Maya trapped inside it. Tatsuya Suou, out of sheer rage he felt against Sudou for burning the shrine, awakened his persona Vulcanus and burnt his eye out with it. Maya also managed to safely leave the shrine thanks to awakening her persona Maia, though the incident scarred her for life and led her to develop pyrophobia. Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun all decided to hide their masks in Mt. Iwato after the incident, with Lisa and Eikichi forgetting what had happened.
On the other hand, Jun mistakenly believed that she was killed in the fire, and came to resent the rest of his childhood friends for this. This allowed Nyarlathotep (who was impersonating his father at that time) to manipulate him and driving him into madness, making him thinking that his childhood friend Tatsuya Suou killed Maya and tricking him into fulfilling the prophecies stated in In Lak'ech under the premise that once fulfilled, it would summon the thoughtforms of Maian aliens to destroy humanity and ascend the survivors into gods. Jun then rechristened himself as the Joker, who organized the new, corrupt Masked Circle and selected several members as his executives, of which included Sudou and his own mother.
The old Masked Circle would unknowingly cross paths with the transformed Jun again when Tatsuya Suou, Eikichi Mishina and Lisa Silverman executed the Joker summoning ritual and summoned the titular Joker. Much to the party's surprise, when Joker is summoned, he recognizes Tatsuya and bears a massive grudge against him, summoning demons to attack him right on the spot. However, after defeating the demons, Joker leaves Tatsuya alone after claiming a few other victims in the vicinity. Joker then proceeds to arrange plans to fulfill the Oracle of Maia and (in his delusions) bring humanity to a golden age.
First, Joker and Hanya reactivated the Seven Sisters High School clock tower, and set upon the curse on its students. Yasuo Inoe was then ordered by Lady Scorpio to stage a cultural festival in Kasugayama High School, which is actually a ruse to drain many students of their Ideal Energy during the festival, causing nearly every participant to become Shadowmen. Prince Taurus then roped Lisa Silverman to form Muses with her friends, and the three would recite a song that would trigger another line of the prophecy. Finally King Leo would set fire to the Aerospace Museum and use Ixquic as a hostage to take the party down with her, only to fail in killing a single person as everyone inside the museum, including Akari herself, is safely evacuated.
Despite the party manages to thwart the individual operatives of the circle and prevent mass losses of life, they ultimately cannot stop the Masked Circle from fulfilling their goals as the prophecies themselves hinged on seemingly inconspicuous events that the party cannot respond to in time, and the events that would obviously cause mass loss of life or bodily harm are mere distractions to keep the party busy. Furthermore, by spreading word of the Circle's activities, the heroes allowed the cult to grow exponentially in size and power as the idea of a secretive, immense cult orchestrating the disasters spread.
After the Aerospace Museum incident, the Masked Circle launches a distraction by sending a doppelganger of Maya to infiltrate the party and remind them of their "sin"; supposedly killing Maya a decade ago (the real Maya was slow to act and the Masked Circle didn't do anything against her at that time). The Maya doppelganger is exposed and killed off, and the party slowly recollects their memories of the Alaya Shrine incident.
With most of the prophecy fulfilled, a group of Nazis with futuristic weaponry known as the Last Battalion appeared out of nowhere to try taking over Xibalba, which is resting under Mt. Katatsumuri. Joker ordered the Masked Circle to fight them, but to no avail as the Nazis were too overwhelming. Queen Aquarius took an attack intended to be towards Joker and died. The party however, manages to defeat the Nazis and confront Joker. Despite wielding Nyarlathotep as a persona and transforming into Angel Joker courtesy of the Crawling Chaos's corruption, he was no match for the party and instantly reverts back to Jun Kurosu. Nyarlathotep then took the form of Akinari Kashihara and tries to goad Jun back to his good side, but to no avail. He declares Jun to be removed from the Wheel of Fortune, and takes over the remnants of the Masked Circle to use as military alongside the Last Battalion.
At the end, the Masked Circle fulfilled the Oracle of Maia with the party failing completely to stop them, but the prophecy did not lead to the enlightenment of mankind as they believed it would, but rather the complete extinction of humanity as Nyarlathotep intended, proving to him that humanity were "guinea pigs" who will lead themselves to destruction through spreading incoherent nonsense if given the chance to.
Equipment[]
The four Houses of the Circle were each served by a special kind of zealot, wearing different-colored robes and carrying around a banner with the color of the House they served. They used special cards to create magic and their strengths and weaknesses were dictated by the same color of their robes.
Each of the Executives carried around a crystal skull, which could be used in conjunction with the masks of the cult to siphon the Ideal Energy of a person or a crowd. Some of their members wielded corrupt Personas based off the real Personas of the members of the original Masked Circle - King Leo, for instance, used the tainted Reverse Vulcanus, and Prince Taurus used Reverse Eros.
Members[]
- Nyarlathotep -- conductor, later took over Joker as the leader. Manipulated the formation of the organization to prove to Philemon that humanity desires self-destruction
- Joker, real name Jun Kurosu - leader of the organization
- King Leo, real name Tatsuya Sudou
- Queen Aquarius, real name Junko Kurosu
- Lady Scorpio, real name Anna Yoshizaka
- Prince Taurus, real name Ginji Sasaki
- Akari Hoshi (servant to King Leo who believes that she is the reincarnated Mayan warrior Ixquic)
- Youichi Makimura (servant to Queen Aquarius)
- Yasuo Inoe (servant to Queen Aquarius)
- Takashi Hanya, reactivated the Seven Sisters Clock Tower with Joker
- Hiroki Sugimoto
- Shadow Tatsuya
- Shadow Maya, manifested by Rumors and acted as a spy in place of Maya Amano
- Shadow Lisa
- Shadow Eikichi
- Shadow Yukino
- Lower-level servants (envoys of the Zodiac Houses)
- Various NPCs throughout the city who joined as a requirement for having their wish granted by Joker and gradually become affected by rumors about the Masked Circle being a terrorist group
List of Ground Troops[]
Innocent Sin[]
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Eternal Punishment[]
| Demon | Level |
|---|---|
| Green Mask | 73 |
| Yellow Mask | 75 |
| Blue Mask | 76 |
| Red Mask | 78 |
| Black Mask | 84 |
Gallery[]
