[insert dramatic song lyrics here] Lasea AU

[supershouldery]

The custom of masks worn by the nobility of Lasea is regarded by the rest of the world as backward eccentrics.

The tradition is three-centuries old.
There was a feast. A great one.
Attended by the head of each noble household to strike an accord. They and their families.
The feast itself was poisoned, an attempt by its neighboring country to wipe out the potential threat in its infancy.
In this they succeeded and failed.
The elders died in one fell swoop. Those left behind are said to be rendered horrifically scarred by the effects they survived. This bonded them more than any enemy could have hoped, and thus the 13 families dawned masks to hide their identities, their disfigurements and the deliberated between themselves to anoint the first True King of Lasea.

As often when ways are set...
They remain.