Ak'Dool Mask Plays
"I'm happy to lend you the scrolls you're looking for, but I feel obligated to let you know that I'm not quite sold on the theory they argue."
"It's just... If they were for mere performances, why not melt the metal down for another use when their theater 'career' is over? They must have had another purpose. But you're here for published words, not mine. Perhaps you'd be interested once I get around to writing down my own theory?"
Ornate masks of various distinct but forgotten characters were found buried in the Ak'Dool Hill-city. The leading theory is that they were used in performances that preserved the culture's history and taught the public moral lessons.
Legend and Dance
History
Because such masks have been found at every excavated layer so far in the inner tier, this tradition is understood to have been a long-standing one. Not all are as ornate as the ones on the upper layer, which were sculpted out of fine bronze. Some of the earlier pieces had, but were mostly adorned with semiprecious stones. One most recent finding consists of, but the base has rotten away so it most likely was made of wood.
For the most part, these characters were made consistently over time, with few being added or lost. It's estimated that around once every Dwarven generation, the set was remade. The old set would be buried with the rest of their supporting cast in an old, unused under chamber.
Execution
How exactly the masks were used is of course taken by time's shadow, but there are a few inferences that can be made.
The best clues are the a few surviving relief sculptures around the inner tier that depict the same characters of the masks interacting with each other. In many, the Wild Beard is confronted by the Eagle Woman or the Two-Headed Ram.
Because the center of the hill-city had enough seating around to likely accommodate every citizen, that indicates that performances there were for the public. While the permanent records of these stories were only carved into homes of the inner tier, they were stories that everyone was meant to know well.
Written for Mini Camp 2022
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