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Worldbuilding Tip: If your world has a masquerade (i.e., a secret world that is kept hidden from the rest of the world, think: vampires are real, magic is real, etc.) there needs to be something enforcing the masquerade.
People are not universally just going to agree to not Use Magic / Be Elves / Eat People in public! Either internal pressure keeps them in line (the Volturi, the Mage Council, etc.) OR external pressure keeps them in line (Men In Black, hunters, etc.).
There should be, like, ONE guy who tried to break the masquerade anyway, like, 300 years ago and anytime someone brings him up, everyone gets real silent and uncomfortable, and the exact details are NEVER revealed to the reader, they just know it was BAD. https://twitter.com/R3dVelvetWaffl3/status/1391568616936595461
Occasionally a character will reference the incident like, "Jameson! What the fuck are you doing? Do you want to end up like old man McCreedilingus? Well, DO YOU?"
If you become big and great, you may be tempted to reveal what happened to old man McCreedilingus in Book 7, but DO NOT DO IT. Nothing you write will live up to the fans' imaginations.
Plus, if you ever run out of money, you can make a spin-off novelette about him.
Plus, if you ever run out of money, you can make a spin-off novelette about him.
God, that was SO well done. One of the best examples ever. https://twitter.com/cosmiclaurel/status/1391573274165874690?s=19
YES, this variation is also excellent. Especially if the characters sometimes bicker over which one is right. https://twitter.com/Trevel/status/1391574032550596615?s=19
Here is why I say your masquerade world requires an enforcing factor: it's necessary in order to explain WHY no one has come out before in 3,000+ years.
It's really damn hard to live a life closeting away yourself so that no one knows you're an Elf / a Vampire / a Wizard. That amount of effort requires some kind of driving *reason*.
Otherwise, by the time YOUR story starts, someone would've come out and lived as her true self because she wanted to run for president. Or he wanted to be an astronaut. And they didn't want Being An Elf / Vampire / Wizard to get in the way of their dreams.
If there's nothing enforcing the masquerade, there just... wouldn't... BE one. Humans and elves and vampires and werewolves would just live side by side. Your PC's/protagonist's gardener is a blue Sea Elf and their therapist is a red Tiefling.
Really the only other ways I can see to have a masquerade without an enforcement factor is two-fold:
1. Secrecy through obscurity.
The community of Wizards / Vampires / Elves is so damn small--maybe less than a hundred--that they'd have a hard time being seen by humans as a real, separate thing as opposed to a strange one-off anomaly. Then they're keeping secret out of fear--
The community of Wizards / Vampires / Elves is so damn small--maybe less than a hundred--that they'd have a hard time being seen by humans as a real, separate thing as opposed to a strange one-off anomaly. Then they're keeping secret out of fear--
--which, honestly, is another form of enforcement factor, just one that is feared to exist rather than one they're certain exists. The fear of "oh no, they'll put me in a cage and study me and I'll never see freedom again."
2. Secrecy through new-ness.
This is the "magic came back" trope, where whatever the thing is--Wizards / Vampires / Elves--they haven't been *around* for the past 3,000 years for someone to break the masquerade.
This is the "magic came back" trope, where whatever the thing is--Wizards / Vampires / Elves--they haven't been *around* for the past 3,000 years for someone to break the masquerade.
In this case, they're so new to the world that they're being secretive until they can figure out the best way to come out to the humans. Again: fear as an enforcement factor, if we really boil it down to the roots.
Otherwise, it's just really impossible to justify a relatively large community of Secret Magic Beings where no one in 3,000 years ever decided to reveal themselves, not even *maliciously* or in an act of confusion, mental illness, evil motivations, etc.
If you think people will all universally just keep quiet about their magical identities, let 5 PCs run around as elves in a humans-only setting and watch as 1/5 of the party (minimum) refuses to cover up their elf ears. (ASK ME HOW I KNOW.)
The Volturi in Twilight were great for a lot of jokes, but they were honestly genuinely necessary for the series to exist, because what else was going to keep a heartbroken vampire from streaking naked in front of a zillion humans as a Statement About His Broken Heart.
Edward was just going to Glitter Tragically in the sunlight, but I can 1000% imagine an emotional traditional vampire becoming a streaking human torch in front of, like, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade because his girlfriend left him.
