The Unmasqued World: Difference between revisions
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The paranormal exists; it's just very good at hiding. The [[Masquerade]] has existed for centuries now, and the [[Things That Go Bump in the Night]] are just fine with that, thank you. They're not going to trouble with humanity, and hopefully, humanity won't trouble with them.
Then... something happens. Something so big, something so visible, that [[Weirdness Censor|plausible deniability]] [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore|just won't cut it anymore]]. Maybe some young vampire walked into the sunlight in full view of a camera crew.<ref>One of those new types, not the ones that can't show up on film</ref>
[[The Unmasqued World/Laconic|The Unmasqued World]] is a world where the supernatural has, after years of hiding, revealed itself to the world, intentionally or otherwise. In many cases, this will lead to the integration of the supernatural into society -- [[Mundane Fantastic|vampires on the police force, wizards in the hospital, werewolves in the park service]]. Expect much [[Fantastic Racism]] as not everyone's just going to accept that the [[Monster Mash|traditional horror movie monsters]] have decided to [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampires|move next door]] [[Monster Roommate|as roommates]].
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'''Spoiler warning''': while this trope is a basic premise for most of the examples, it is the dramatic ending of others, in which case the series name ''alone'' is a spoiler.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* A subplot in the [[Tournament Arc]] of the ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' manga quickly builds up into an outright attempted coup of the school in order to break the masquerade in a [[Reed Richards Is Useless]]-esque plot. And in the "[[Bad Future]]", they ''succeed''
** None of the characters seem sure which they did, either, including both Negi's team and the opposition. What is sure is that it goes bad for ''everyone the reader cares about'', with all the [[Baleful Polymorph|erminations]] and exiles to the [[Magic World]].
*** Akamatsu, it would seem, is not a Utilitarian.
** By the end of the series (five years later), {{spoiler|magic has been revealed to the general population, with the consent of Magical society. Things seem fairly peaceful, but it is implied there was some amount of conflict when the revelation was made.}}
* Most ''[[Digimon]]'' series end with a [[Mage in Manhattan]] scenario, which is a pretty good way to break the [[Masquerade]].
* In ''[[Darker than Black]]'', {{spoiler|the ending leads to a case of
* This trope seems to be in effect at first during the final arc of the ''[[
** Averted in its manga adaptation where Himes in this case are both commonplace (there are [[The Chosen One|twelve selected]] every several hundred years in the anime, while in the manga they are born by the hundreds) and known to the public.
* In ''[[Guyver]]'', the shapeshifting Zoanoids finally reveal themselves to normal humanity after millennia of hiding among us... on the day they conquer Earth.
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* The premise of ''[[Dance in the Vampire Bund]]'' revolves around vampire queen [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Mina Tepes]] building a vampire district on an island in Tokyo Bay and announcing the existence of vampires to the whole world during its grand opening.
* For much of ''[[Transformers Armada]]'', the character felt it necessary to conceal the Transformers from humans (for some reason). However, in the sequel series, ''[[Transformers Energon]]'', the Transformers' existence has been revealed to the people of Earth and the two races now live in harmony.
** And in ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]'' they're back to being urban legends again. This was due to some miscommunication between the American and Japanese
*** However, the [[All There in the Manual|fluff]] that ties Cybertron to the others in narrative is a Fan Club-exclusive tie-in comic, the explanation feels weak even by this brand's standards as well as forced (Aaron Archer didn't want to accept that it wouldn't fit), so American fans can consider it standalone too [[The Walrus Was Paul|if they wish]]. And Cybertron turns things into The Unmasqued World at the end anyway.
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* The comic series ''[[Bite Club]]'' features a world where vampires are just a variant of humanity who are exceptionally long-lived, incredibly resilient, and gain strength from blood. After centuries of hiding from stigma, they reveal themselves to the world sometime in the early 20th century, and by the time the story opens, they end up assuming positions in organized crime, business, even the priesthood.
* The Mirage-published ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mirage|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' comic featured a rare intentional unmasquing when the alien Utroms reveal their existence to Earth and offer to share their technology; within months, Earth's technology level has been increased tenfold, and the planet has been opened to alien travel and commerce. (This leads to a slightly ironic situation where the turtles themselves are free to walk the streets...as long as they tack on a few prosthetics and [[Mistaken for Aliens|claim to be alien visitors]].)
* In ''[[ROM
* ''[[Superman: Secret Identity]]'' ends with the society accepting the existence of superhumans like Clark, leading to scientific advancements.
* This is now well and truly the case for the [[Buffy Verse]] {{spoiler|what with LA being transported to hell and back and vampires having reality TV shows.}}
== Fan Works ==
* Happens in ''[[I Am What I Am (fanfic)|I Am What I Am]]'', a ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' fic by M. McGregor, starting around 2012 in a future timeline, when a worldwide demonic invasion begins; in order to prove that the New Watcher's Council weren't just a bunch of crazies, Willow provides an [[Info Dump]] of the world's true history and a lot more to the minds of ''the entire world's population at once.'' The whole period is referred to afterward as "Revelation".
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*** Considering they'd have massive witch hunts on their hands if everybody found out, they are rightly worried.
* The ultimate goal for the protagonists in the [[Deryni]] works. People know Deryni exist, but they're [[Shrouded in Myth|so feared]] (and consequently persecuted) that they must conceal themselves. Not that everyone agrees upon methods and timing. Gradually, (OK very, very gradually) through a combination of heroic examples and royal fiat, the masks come off.
* The ''[[Kitty Norville]]'' series stars a werewolf who hosts a late-night radio show. When she's attacked by a werewolf hunter on the air, she ends up revealing that she's a
** The [[Masquerade]] in this series was never very strong to begin with; government scientists were researching ''[[Our Werewolves Are Different|homo sapiens lupus]]'' and ''[[Our Vampires Are Different|homo sapiens sanguinis]]'' for years in shady, underfunded projects before most people acknowledged that werewolves and vampires actually existed. A common topic of speculation by Kitty is on [[All Myths Are True|which legends about animal-people are based on truth]], and whether any historical figures were weres of some kind. About five years or so have passed in-universe since the start of the first book, and by now most people accept that werewolves, vampires and many other supernatural creatures are real, but a few people here and there still think it's a hoax and prejudice is still pretty common.
* ''[[The Hollows]]'' series by Kim Harrison is set years after a virus from a genetically altered tomato [[Depopulation Bomb|wiped out most of the human race]] -- 'supernatural' people, like witches, vampires and weres, were immune or less affected, so ended up revealing themselves when they realized their combined numbers nearly outnumbered humans in an event called The Turn.
** At least it wasn't from an [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|unsanitized telephone]].
* The ''[[Mercy Thompson]]'' series features a world where [[The Fair Folk]] came out of the closest years ago, albeit intentionally and in a far more controlled method than the typical [[Broken Masquerade]]. It didn't end well, with [[Strawman Political|religious conservatives]] and bigots railing against the fae and eventually creating voluntary reservations for them. (Which is actually [[Xanatos Gambit|exactly what the fae leaders wanted in the first place]].) After the events of the first book, the universe's werewolves decide to reveal some of their population as well, with a bit more success. Stefan the vampire anticipates the day when his people will come out of the coffin. He's working on ways for vampires to cure blood-borne diseases in order to gain some public good will and hopefully smooth over the whole "feeding on humans" bump. So far no one else has come out publicly, but with first fairies and now werewolves unmasqued, people are starting to question what else is out there.
* Not paranormal, but definitely world-breaking: [[Isaac Asimov]]'s short story (later expanded into a novel with [[Robert Silverberg]] cowriting) ''Nightfall'' takes place on a world with six suns whose inhabitants, unused to lack of light, can be driven to madness with long term exposure to darkness. But a rare astronomical alignment every two thousand years is approaching which will bring true night (the eponymous "Nightfall") and the appearance of Stars. The world just happens to be inside a globular cluster (well, some kind of dense star cluster, anyway), so these are horizon-to-horizon, really bloody bright Stars. Cue [[Go Mad
* In [[Kim Newman]]'s ''[[Anno Dracula]]'' series, vampires have been hiding in the shadows for centuries. Then Dracula becomes ''Queen Victoria's consort'' and everything changes.
* [[Mike Carey]]'s ''[[Felix Castor]]'' novels depict a Britain where the existence of ghosts is becoming recognised as a fact with lobbying groups and parliamental debates weighing in on the issue.
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* In [[Devon Monk]]'s [[Allie Beckstrom]] novels, magic has been known to the general public for about thirty years before the story starts.
* While it doesn't happen in [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Night Watch|Watch]]'' series, Geser reveals that it was the strongest possibility for a world where Communism prevailed (it was originally conceived as a perfect social system). Of course, the humans would then quickly hunt down and kill all Others. Which is why he convinced a witch to sabotage the experiment.
* While the world of ''[[The Grimnoir Chronicles]]'' has long known had magic as an open fact of life, the Grimnoir secret society is exposed at the end of the second book {{spoiler|the epilogue to the third book reveals they survive this and still exist with some publicly known leadership}}. The third book ends with the world learning the true nature of magic, which came from a symbiotic parasite (using each host as a place to grow in exchange for giving them superpowers) fleeing a predator that ''would'' have cleansed Earth of life, and that magic is actually less [[One Person, One Power]] than previously thought.
* In ''[[Monster Hunter International]]'' the government officials responsible for covering everything up (under a belief, never proven or disproven, that knowledge of the supernatural makes it stronger) are concerned this is becoming more and more likely every day. The first, second, and fourth books involve ''very'' public incidents of big supernatural events plainly visible (everyone on Earth experiencing a few minutes of time a second time, a giant monster in Australia, and a mass monster attack on Vegas during convention season respectively), and containment is slipping.
** The [[Prequel]] series ''Monster Hunter Memoirs'' reveals New Orleans was a case in the '80s. As a nexus for the supernatural {{spoiler|thanks to a [[Great Old One]] larva under the city}}, the city has a far greater than average level of supernatural events. Before the internet and cellphone cameras, it was relatively easy for the agency in charge to just allow New Orleans residents to know voodoo and zombies were real and get ''everyone else'' to dismiss these claims as the city being a high crime city full of crazies (aided by covering events in an intentionally badly formatted and unprofessional tabloid).
== Live Action TV ==
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** Sadly, ([[Your Mileage May Vary|sad for some fans, anyway]]) the show was cancelled right afterwards, and we never got to see [[The Unmasked World]].
* ''[[Dollhouse]]'' explores the unmasking of a technology that is originally thought to be an urban legend.
* [http://stargate.wikia.com/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken The Road Not Taken]: In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', a [[All the Myriad Ways|disposable alternate universe]] in which Anubis' attack on Earth caused [[The Reveal]] of aliens and the Stargate Program. The United States and the world became a rough place under plebiscite-powered President Landry. This alternate universe is
* Done very, very subtly in ''[[Power Rangers]]'' ever since the finale of ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]''. They never actually focus on the changes because of the lack of focus on continuity, but in ''[[Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue]]'' there was a government program that was quite open and public about being set up to combat a specific group of demons, ''[[Power Rangers Jungle Fury]]'' implies the ability to buy morphers on the black market ("I know a guy who knows a guy who has an uncle"), and ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]]'' casually refers to universities having courses on Galactic Myth And Legend. By the time of ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'' in 2025, Earth is a major intergalactic transit hub.
* Ultimately used in ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]''. While at first the police are willnig to cover up [[Monster of the Week|Grongi]] incidents, when the gravity and fatality of the situation is considered they decide to tell the truth.
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** The New World of Darkness [[Sourcebook]] "Mirrors" presents options for Unmasquing the world, such as a massive [[Mage: The Awakening|Awakening]], the [[Werewolf: The Forsaken|Gauntlet]] partially dissolving and allowing spirits free reign, or a [[Vampire: The Requiem|vampire]] [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|rock star]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|becoming famous enough to the point where people notice]] [[Glamour Failure|he doesn't show up on cameras.]]
*** The PDF-only "Infinite Macabre" assumes this has happened already, since the supernaturals decided that if you can literally put a star system between you and the [[Torches and Pitchforks]], there's really no point in hiding.
* The ''[[Shadowrun]]'' tabletop RPG is set in an
** It might be justified to say that Shadow Run had two unmaskings, after all nobody thought bug spirits were real {{spoiler|till they ate Chicago.}}
** {{spoiler|And the immortal elves are still in the closet, leaving room for yet another unmasqueing in the future.}}
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== Video Games ==
* In the 2008 [[Alone in
* The first two [[Shin Megami Tensei]] happen in this kind of world, since demons are running free, a demon summoner has canonically ruled Tokyo between SMT 1 and 2, and Angels and Demons acting like heavilly militarized ''political parties''
** The world of [[Persona 3]] also becomes de facto unmasqued as the game nears its conclusion. Officially, the governments admit to nothing beyond the existence of Apathy Syndrome (and likely really don't know anything), but unofficially, a cult devoted to an [[Eldritch Abomination]] and praising its impending arrival and [[The End of the World as We Know It]] quickly comes to dominate society and the media. Thankfully, {{spoiler|there's a [[Reset Button]] available for the [[Heroic Sacrifice|right price...]]}}
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* The ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series revolves around a [[Masquerade]] set up by the Reapers, a race of [[Eldritch Abominations]] that wipe out most sentient life in the galaxy every fifty millennia or so. Due to their preference for [[The Man Behind the Man|working behind the scenes,]] most people regard the Reapers as a myth. [[Mass Effect 3|The third game]] involves the Reapers openly attacking en masse, after [[Player Character|Shepard]] manages to stop their more subtle plans.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[
* ''[[Corner Alley 13]]'' has fantasy creatures suddenly appearing everywhere ''within a week'' as its basic premise.▼
▲* In ''[[Its Walky]]'', Head Alien uses a Martian warship to attack SEMME's homecity, forcing them to reveal their secret to the world.
▲* [[Corner Alley 13]] has fantasy creatures suddenly appearing everywhere ''within a week'' as its basic premise.
* ''[[Last Res0rt]]'' plays with this: the Celeste, supernatural angels/demons capable of [[Compelling Voice|talking anyone into doing anything]], are out in the open. It's the [[Things That Go Bump in the Night|vampires, djinn, zombies, and other miscellaneous monsters]] that are still forced into hiding thanks to the Celeste, even though people are aware they can and do exist.
* The world of ''[[Sorcery 101]]'' at first appears to be a straight example of this trope. Then you find out that most people think that it's a stunt and that there are groups still trying to keep the masquerade going. But more of the supernatural people are being more open and things are changing. At one point a guy comes out as gay to his best friend and his best friend accidentally revealing that he's a werewolf. They're portrayed to be about as shocking to each of the friends.
* The first book of ''[[Fans]]'' slowly breaks the [[Masquerade]], as the main cast goes from thought insane to folk heroes. Later books take place more-or-less entirely in
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' after {{spoiler|Pandora appears on the evening news}}
** Arguably that only served to bring weirdness hunters to Moperville but {{spoiler|1=[http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2010-12-01 this] is broadcast on national television}} and that makes it very hard to press the [[Reset Button]] now. Besides, El Goonish Shive always averts [[Status Quo Is God]] in continuity for everything except most [[Gender Bending]].
* This occurred in the backstory of ''[[The Dragon Doctors]],'' when a magical society dedicated to saving victims of magic decided the best way to do it was to reveal to the public the existence of magic. There were many powerful puppet masters in charge at the time who abhorred this idea, and there was a civil war between them in every country of the world.
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20190118100705/http://www.applevalleycomic.com/ Apple Valley] some 10 years before the start of the comic the normal "human" world was merged with a "fantasy" world full of elves, goblins and magical humans. In the time since, the two worlds have successfully integrated {{spoiler|mainly due to the fact that they were originally one world, split into multiple parts by an ancient spell}}, and now Kentucky Fried Unicorn is a popular, if incredibly disturbing, fast food chain.
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Tech Infantry]]'', early in the backstory, a centuries-long Masquerade was broken by the Bug invasion of Brazil, and the existence of Mages, Vampires, and Werewolves was revealed to the masses in the ensuing War of Gehenna. For the rest of the story, magical and non-magical humans live alongside each other and jointly battle aliens, although only the magical ones are subject to compulsory military service.
* In the ''[[Paradise]]'' setting, humans are randomly, permanently Changed into [[Funny Animal
* The [[Whateley Universe]] is the post-unmasking world. Now that mutants are out in the open and their numbers are increasing, things are getting tense. The Mutant Commission Office is a Men-in-Black organization that deals with them. The Goodkinds are funding the Knights of Purity, power armor 'heroes' to take out rampaging mutants. Humanity First! is a worldwide group of mutant-haters who want to stop the mutant menace. The future is no longer clear.
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Gargoyles]]'' ends its second season with the revelation to the world that the Gargoyles exist. In the [[Expanded Universe]] comic book, this results in the creation of a NYPD task force for investigation into Gargoyle matters, as well as a hate group that targets anything supernatural.
** The storyline that introduces this was originally from the third season [[Retool]] ''The Goliath Chronicles''. While the rest of this series is widely considered [[Canon Discontinuity]], the first episode is seen as the last true episode.
* ''[[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]]: The Animated Series'' ends with a two-parter where an unmatched alien threat results in the MIB revealing the existence of aliens to Earth, so that everyone can rally behind them. Partially subverted in that the series ends with the MIB being honored in a ceremony that "everyone is watching"
** It'd be a [[Cassandra Truth]]. It doesn't matter if 1 in every 10,000 people knows that aliens are real, the key issue is that the remaining 9,999 people will think the first is crazy. It's the reason [[The Masquerade]] works so well in the first place. Someone's bound to find out the truth eventually, but if they aren't believed by the [[Muggles|general public]], it doesn't matter.
** The [[Men in Black (animation)|Men in Black]] already operate knowing that there are people not affiliated with them yet still know of their existence. They just bank on their advanced alien technology to make sure anyone with actual evidence won't have it for long.
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[[Category:Urban Fantasy Tropes]]
[[Category:The Unmasqued World]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Unmasqued World, The}}
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